Fitoor

32 | History repeats

Shehnaaz

“You have to tell me the recipe of this chicken croissant, Brenda! This is just so good” I exclaim with satisfaction as my taste buds bursts savor the delicious flavor of seasoned chicken and sweet chili assorted spice.

The cook smiles at me with maternal love and I hear Sidharth chuckling beside me discreetly with amusement as he swipes his fingers across his IPad’s display to read the news. We were sitting outside Irisfield’s outdoor dining lounge that’s situated right behind the palace which was now a sight to behold.

Gone were the hideous brick walls and now it was replaced with shiny white cement exterior and don’t even get me started on the interior.

The great ball was after two days and we all decided to enjoy the last day of work by having a lavish brunch outside the venue. The stunning view of the lakeside was mesmerizing beyond words and I specifically instructed Neha to tell her team to open the backside French doors of the castle during the end of the event to flaunt the view.

Again I take another bite of my croissant and moan inwardly at its taste. There were twenty people seated at the table including me, Sahil, Sameer, Sidharth, Ahaan, Ayush, Neha, and a few other important business associates of the Shukla’s.

Ayush and Sameer were engaged in a heated conversation whilst glancing at me now and then which made me wonder what they were talking about. Sahil was talking over the phone and Neha was busy ignoring Ahaan who was trying his best to strike up a conversation with her over the last one hour.

I smirk inwardly with happiness for Neha at making him suffer like this. Nothing irks Ahaan Shukla other than getting ignored.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all my friends but the way Ahaan treated Neha and insulted her in front of everyone for someone as low as Anushka, I was glad that he was suffering. They are all very dear to me but when it comes to justice over someone’s behavior, I always treat them accordingly.

All of a sudden, I feel a familiar warm touch of a hand on my thighs under the table. Gasping at the contact, I peer sideways and find Sidharth smirking while reading something on his phone. I lift the table cloth a little bit and as I predicted, his hand was drawing small circles on the apex of my thigh where my skirt has ridden
As much as my body craved more of his touch, we were still in the public eye. So, I shoot him a death glare and scan my surrounding to thankfully see everyone occupied with themselves having so clue about what this Greek God sitting beside me was onto.

Neha looks up from her phone and focuses her attention on my now flushed face and throws a sly smile in my direction whilst wiggling her eyebrows. ‘Don’t you dare start’ I mouth my warning in her direction and she sniggers under her breath.

“Well, breakfast is over. You can all now roam around the place” Ahaan announces and one by one, everyone gets up from their seat and I use this opportunity to rise and Sidharth’s hand skims down my bare legs discreetly. I release a huge breath and avoid eye contact with him as I make my way past the others to the inside of the marvelous palace.

I ascend the white marble staircase and look behind me one more time to see everyone engaged in conversation amongst each other. I push past enormous high paneled French doors and enter the cool air-conditioned confines of the palace. The place was eerily quiet due to the absence of people save for a few workers who were putting their finishing touches inside the place. I reach the grand staircase and ascend it to go to the ballroom where I left my revised blueprints. It was not that important but being the responsible person that I am, I couldn’t set it aside.

Upon reaching the place, the hypnotic fresh smell of paint greets my nostrils and I try my best not to inhale it. No matter how pleasant the smell was; it was still toxic and poisonous.

The sound of my heels clicking against the floor gets muffled by the thick carpet laid on the surface and after reaching the small study table on the corner of the ride side, I pick up the laid out blueprints and roll them and gather them around my hand to carry them downstairs.

After reaching downstairs, suddenly I hear a desperate shrill cry of what seems to be the voice of a man. I swiftly turn around behind and look at the narrow hallway behind the grand staircase. The door at the farther end of the hallway was slightly ajar and the main source of the noise as it cried out again.

I glanced around my surroundings and saw no one in my line of sight and checked my wristwatch on my left hand to see that only ten minutes passed since I entered this place. I take one sweeping glance outside the vast windows and watch everyone outside talking with a glass of champagne or a cup of coffee in their hand.

I don’t know what beckoned my legs to move towards the voice and soon I find myself enveloped in the darkness of the narrow hall which was eerily dark despite the bright sunlight streaming outside.

Before pushing the door wide open, I take a fleeting look at the blueprint in my hand which was a 3D diagram of the palace, and try to find my location. According to the paper, I was standing right outside... nowhere?

This is so odd. The diagram on the blueprint represents a blank place right outside of where I was standing but I can swear that this door leads to some room. It looked like someone deliberately removed the existence of this part and handed me the altered version.

Taking one last breath of courage as the wailing grows louder with every passing second, I take a step inside the darkroom and a weird stench of rust hits my nose making me cover my nose with my free hand.

I walk inside the dimly lit cobbled passageway and switch on my phone to light up the built-in torchlight from system settings and point it in front of me. After coming a long way, I realize that this is a complete waste of time. I mean just a few days back I was calling fictional female protagonists dumb for passing forbidden territories and here I was, doing the same shit but a part of me was worried thinking, what if someone was stuck here?

Just when I was about to head back, a shrill high pitched scream resonates through the brick walls sending chills down my spine.

“Hello?” I call out to hear anyone respond to me but my eardrums are met with the sound of someone sobbing.

I shake my head and walk further into the hall from where the sound was coming from. After walking a few steps, I find myself inside a vast clearing that was illuminated from the sunlight that seeped through the open ceiling.

I scan the place and suddenly my eyes fall on a creature stumped on the center wall. My eyes widen as I take in the image exposed in front of me and bile threatens to spill out of my mouth as I take in the gruesome scene. It was like I was transported back 9 years to where it all started.

My mouth and mind both go numb and the papers from my hand fall in piles on my leg as my grip on them loosens and my gaze trails across the almost lifeless body in front of me.

Lying in front of me was a man or at least what was left of him. Bones jutted out from all parts of his body and his skin was pierced from what seemed like long red needles that left blood trailed all the way to where I was standing. It was like I was having a nightmare except I wasn’t the captive anymore.

The man’s haggard facelifted with the little force he had in himself and as soon as his sunken eyes land on me, a flicker of hope lights inside those glazed orbs but they disappear and get replaced with horror as he stares behind me.

On cue, I feel a presence behind me and try my best to not break down with panic. But before I can turn, the piercing pain of the needle of a syringe shoots from my arms all the way down my whole body.

My vision goes blurry and my knees buckle as my whole body gets cloaked with numbing sedative sensation. A pair of arms protectively wraps around my small waist and I cannot even protest. The sweet familiar scent of his aftershave sends jolts of shock throughout my system and before I can fully close my eyes, I tilt my head up and gasp with horror as I see the person I least expected to be doing this.

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