Link to the 7th chapter : https://www.tellyupdates.com/where-secrets-lie-chapter-7-few-steps-towards-truth/
*
Seher was shocked to know that even Yash and Neeti were equally involved in hiding all the matters from Riddhima.
Now it all made sense to her. How Yash was ready with Vansh’s death certificate within such a less stipulated time to disprove Riddhima’s claims about her recent meetings with Vansh. How he had at once taken her to Vansh’s grave, as if he knew about it from before itself.
“But why..,” asked Seher still reeling in confusion. “Did they do this?”
“They betrayed me. My own father, my own friends…” Riddhima mumbled painfully. She squared her shoulders and raised her head determinedly. “If they know to put on a drama, then even I’m no less. I’ll just keep pretending as if I don’t know anything yet until I get to the bottom of the entire matter.”
She turned towards her friend with hope brimming in her eyes. “But for that, I need your help. Can I rely upon you?”
Seher took her hand in hers and pressed it firmly. “Of course. I’ll stay by your side, come what may.”
_____________________________________
The girls realized that it was a tad too unsafe to check out the remaining videotapes in the hospital. So they decided that the best place to watch all the remaining videos would be in the privacy of Riddhima’s house.
After winding up everything at the hospital, they headed straight to her home. Once inside, they made sure to secure all the doors and windows. They also drew all the curtains in the fear that some curious ‘soul’ might peep inside.
Riddhima started playing the next three consecutive videos one by one…
Video Session – 2 (June 2020)
Riddhima smiled to see Vansh back in her cabin. Even though the previous session wasn’t a successful one, but Vansh returning to see her was proof enough that he wanted to take help.
And as usual, his head was bowed down as he refused to raise his eyes up.
“Is black your favourite colour? I’ve always seen you wearing black clothes,” she remarked trying to lighten the atmosphere.
He said with a faraway look in his eyes, “Yes. Black is my favourite colour because….my life is completely black, too.
Black signifies emptiness, loneliness and sadness, and all these three elements have become a permanent part of my life…”
Riddhima stared at him in wonder. For a person who was suffering from a psychiatric illness to utter so deep things, was quite unusual.
“But you must also know that after every impeccably dark night, comes a bright morning, bringing with it new whisperings of happiness.
Right now, you feel that you are in the darker phase of your life, but soon things will change for the better.”
Vansh looked up at her and for the first time, peered staight into her honey-coloured eyes.
“But I know that I’m trapped in this darkness forever. There is no way out for me to escape. You are saying all this just to reassure me, but I know the truth – that I’m doomed for the rest of my life.”
Riddhima was known to be a thorough professional always. Seeing him on the verge of breaking down, don’t know what came over her, but she gently placed her hand over his.
Vansh immediately retreated his hand with a wince. That’s when Riddhima noticed the slit marks over his hands.
She immediately recognized those cuts as self-inflicted wounds.
“Why are you hurting yourself?” Her tone was half worried and half angry.
Vansh remained silent, trying to draw his sleeves over his wounds. But it was of no use now since Riddhima had already seen them.
Riddhima’s patience with this man was wearing out, which was evident from her face. But she took a deep breath and spoke in a voice as soft as down.
“Why Vansh, why? Unless you don’t tell me, I wouldn’t be able to help you…”
“Because I HATE myself!” he screamed. And then, he buried his face in his hands and began sobbing.
“I feel like plunging a knife into my chest. I feel like putting a revolver to my head and emptying all the bullets right into my skull. I feel like jumping from a high cliff and falling to my death….”
His tears and his cries were doing something over Riddhima. She looked so lost in him, that she had even stopped taking down notes.
“I’ve no mirrors in my house because I don’t even want to see my God damned face! My hatred for me wants me to go ahead and kill myself. But I…cannot. Because I’ve a duty to fulfill.”
“Duty?” asked Riddhima.
He choked upon his tears, “Yes, it is only due to my sense of duty because of which I’ve come to you, Doctor. I just cannot afford to die. I need to live…not for myself, but for someone else…”
He folded his hands and his entire body was shaking. “Please Doctor, save me. Make me alright.
My Dadi used to say that whenever you pray to God with a clear heart, He’ll fulfill all your wishes. But she was so wrong! God never listened to me, absolutely never! I cried, I begged and literally went down on my knees before Him, but nothing worked.
And today, I’m here before you, Doctor. Believe it or not, but you are God for me…”
Riddhima wiped away the tears that had accumulated in her own eyes. She pulled out the drawer and took out the first aid box. She went and sat beside Vansh. Grasping his hand, she started applying the ointment over his wounds with utmost delicateness.
“Vansh, I am not God. I’m a mere human being like you. It’s just that I’ve been bestowed with the gift of understanding and feeling other people’s sorrows. Perhaps, in the process of healing others’ wounds, I seem to forget my own…”
She stopped herself in time when she found his beautiful grey eyes gazing at her in some surprise.
“I promise to do everything within my capacity to cure you,” she said meeting his gaze.
End of Video Session – 2
*
Video Session – 3 (July 2020)
“How are you feeling now?” Riddhima enquired in his third therapeutic session.
“To be honest, Doctor, much better than before,” said Vansh. “The medicines you prescribed are beginning to show it’s effect on me. I’m feeling much…lighter.”
“I’d rather you call me as Riddhima.”
He hesitated a bit but she signalled him with her eyes to go on.
“Riddhima,” he said after a while.
She passed him her much-wider-than-before smile. Also the improvement in his behaviour, in his expressions dod not go unnoticed by her.
“So Vansh, tell me when did all this start?”
He gulped and closed his eyes while remembering the past.
“I belonged to a loving, middle-class family. We weren’t very rich and did not have much money to boast about. But we had love between us and enormous happiness, too…
Riddhima’s expression changed as soon as the words ‘family’, ‘love’ and ‘happiness’ hit her ears. Unfortunately, she never had either of these assets in her life.
Vansh continued, “We were a family of seven which consisted of my parents, a brother, a sister-in-law, my nephew and my younger sister, Sia. We lived in a rented villa few kilometers away from this hospital. Everything was running smoothly until that fateful night, when my whole life was turned upside down.
“This took place two months back, that is in the month of May, when the summer was at it’s peakest.
It was 12AM in the night. Everyone was fast asleep. But not me. There was a certain kind of uneasiness, which I couldn’t explain. Blaming the hot weather and my addiction to smoking for it, I stepped out of the house to enjoy a puff of smoke. I remember squashing the cigarette under my shoe after having done with it.
“Since sleep was far from my eyes that night, I decided to take my bike and ride through the abandoned lanes. After a riding for half-an-hour, I returned to the house. But what I saw, literally froze me to the ground.
“Our entire house was burning in flames! The neighbours were screaming and throwing large buckets of water to put down the fire. But nothing seemed to work. If only, the fire began to get even wilder.
“Finally when I was out of my paralysis, I tried to run right into the flames in order to save my family. But the people around me, caught hold of me tightly preventing me to take even a step further.
I shouted, I cried, I struggled to get away from their clutches. I stood there, as helpless as a neonate with the image of the burning house being burnt in my eyes forever….”
Vansh was finding it difficult to speak with tears streaming down his face endlessly and his voice a quivering mess.
“The fire brigade arrived and extinguished the fire with a lot of difficulty. They brought out five completely charred bodies from inside. I screamed in agony looking at my dead family. In a moment, I had lost everyone, literally everyone.
I later realized that Sia’s body was missing. A flicker of hope began to rise in my heart that perhaps she had escaped the fire and was safe and sound somewhere. But the problem was that she was nowhere around the vicinity. That made me even more worried for her.
“Later the next day, the police arrived on the site to conduct their routine investigation. They found the half-burnt cigarette inside the house, and blamed that for the fire.
Within no time, I was held responsible for everything that happened. Because of my habit of smoking as well as my carelessness, the whole house had burned down taking my family’s lives along with it.”
Vansh stopped in between as crying completely took over him. Riddhima passed him a glass of water. Her own face was red with emotions.
“The guilt was too much for me to bear. And it didn’t help that even Sia was missing and there was no trace of her whatsoever.
It’s been two months, two freaking months. I’ve searched for Sia everywhere, at every little place but she is nowhere to be found. Finding her has become the sole motto of my life, and this is the only thing which is keeping me sane. Or else, I’d have killed myself long back…”
No sooner had those words come out from his mouth, Riddhima ran to him and placed her palm over his lips.
“No! You won’t ever talk about harming yourself or taking your own life again. Did you get that?”
Even when she was berating him, there was immense care and concern hidden beneath. Vansh sensed that and moved away, feeling uncomfortable with the sudden close proximity.
“I’d like to go home. Can we continue this later?” he asked in a faltering tone.
“Yes sure,” said Riddhima slowly. “We’ll meet next week then.”
Vansh was about to leave but stopped midway in his tracks.
“Thank you, Riddhima,” he said out of the blue, making her surprised. “For everything you are doing for me.”
End of Video Session – 3
*
Video Session – 4 (July 2020)
“Are you an enchanteress?” Vansh threw a sudden query towards her.
Riddhima who was busy jotting down some important points in her notebook immediately looked up, appearing absolutely bewildered.
“What?”
Vansh leaned back and folded his arms. He had worn yet another black shirt for the session, albeit of another shade.
“I think that’s what you are. Which explains why after my every meeting with you, I begin to feel happier and lighter, as if a heavy weight has been lifted off my chest.”
A bright hue of red rose up to Riddhima’s cheeks. She tried to divert the topic.
“You have no idea how elated it makes me feel to see this improvement in you. And not to forget, the light-hearted comments from your side is just like the icing on top of the cake.”
She picked up the mug kept right beside her and was about to sip the coffee, when Vansh stopped her from doing so.
“Don’t drink that. It has got extra sugar and I know you don’t like too much of sugar in your coffee.”
Riddhima had a question mark on her face and Vansh pointed towards his own mug. “Even my coffee had excess of sugar. The peon definitely messed it up big time today.”
“Not that,” she gestured with her hand. “But how do you know that I don’t like much of sugar in my coffee?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” he asked with a glint in his eye. “I’ve been drinking the same bland coffee for the past four sessions. I now know what kind of coffee is your stress-buster.”
“I’m impressed by your amount of observation towards me,” she said with a smile. “But it’s high time that we shift our focus from the coffee to something more important. Alright?”
Vansh nodded her to go on.
“Why have you cut yourself from the society? Why are you living in a desolated house in the middle of a jungle away from all the people?”
Vansh let out a sigh. “I don’t trust anyone after my house caught fire on that wretched night.”
“But that was an accidental fire, right?” she questioned.
“No, it wasn’t. It was all a well orchestrated plan.”
Riddhima almost fell off her chair when she heard this.
Vansh reiterated, “Yes, that’s right. When I was trying to collect what was left of that burnt house, I found that the some of the electric wires in the house were deliberately tampered with. However when I told this to the police, they refused to believe me and instead continued to blame me and my half-burnt cigarette for the mishap.”
Riddhima bent forward, the worry lines on her forehead becoming clearly evident.
“But why would anyone want to harm you and your family? Did you have any enemies?”
“No one I can think of,” he said. “But I can’t take any risks. I absolutely hate and distrust all the people around me. And I believe that staying in the heart of a jungle, saves me from such monstrous humans.
I need to stay alive at any cost. At least for Sia’s sake…” He grew emotional as he remembered his baby sister. “Don’t know in which state she is. Don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find her even…”
Riddhima walked up to him and rubbed his back. “We both will find your sister soon.”
“We both?” he echoed her words.
“Yes, we both.” She wiped off the moistness from his face. “From today onwards, you aren’t alone. You’ll find me beside you at every step. We will not only find your sister, but we will also manage to get hold of the culprit who destroyed your family and your life. Do you trust me?”
Vansh stared at her with fervour before throwing his hands around her and pulling her close to him.
“You are the only one I trust, Riddhima…”
Riddhima reciprocated the hug and they remained in the same position for a while.
End of Video Session – 4
*
The girls sat still on the sofa, reeling from the videos that they watched. Especially Riddhima. She had spent so much time with Vansh, but she did not remember anything about him. She had completely forgotten him, she had forgotten his love.
“Riddhima?” Seher nudged her. “Are you okay?”
“I think so…” she replied quietly. But her mind was still abuzz with thoughts about Vansh. He had faced so much pain in his life. He had lost his family, his house, his job, hos mental well-being, his happiness, and in the end, he had also lost his life. Just like that.
She wished she could bring him back to life. She wished she could give him back all his hapiness. She wished she could relive all those moments with him once again that she had totally forgotten. But perhaps, some wishes are meant to be unfulfilled.
“I really wish I was an enchanteress as you had said and could turn things alright with my magic,” she thought sadly.
The way she and Vansh had embraced at the end of the fourth video, proved that they both had something much more than a mere professional relationship between them. Maybe it was love…
Yes! It must have been that. Over the time, they would have gradually fallen in love with each other. But obviously, none of those moments were recorded.
Suddenly, Riddhima remembered what Mrs. Sanders, the psychic had told her. Every soul that remains stuck on this earth without passing over to the afterlife, actually has an incomplete want that is preventing him from doing so.
She recollected the ample number of times that she had encountered Vansh’s apparent ghost. After she had learnt the truth, she often wondered why he did that to her. But now, it all started making sense to her.
Perhaps, Vansh wanted her to complete his incomplete search for his sister, Sia. And maybe, he also wanted his perpetrators to be punished.
Riddhima had a bunch of questions floating in her mind. How did Vansh die? She had ruled out suicide because by the time she had reached the fourth video, it was evident that he had shown tremendous improvement. He wasn’t the same depressed Vansh whom she had seen in the very first video.
Moreover, his love for his sister and his determination to find her at any cost would not let him take as big a step as suicide.
So this left her with two options. His deatn could either be an accidental one or due to a murder. And if he was murdered, was it the same person who had killed off his family, too? Or was it someone else?
“Seher, we need to find answers. Tomorrow morning, we need to visit the old house where Vansh used to stay with his family before the fire tragedy took place,” she said resolutely.
*
Hello everyone! Last 2 chapters left for the story to end. Are you guys excited for the truth to unfold?
Do comment.
Peace out!