Treacherous Souls

X. "Where do we get the key from?"

Manasvi Rajput

I crept along the hallway of the second floor like a thief, cautiously looking around for any movements. Honestly, I felt like I was in a thriller movie, and I was enjoying every bit of the thrill this expedition was providing me.

Being a Chemical Engineer, I didn't have time to do anything for myself, and along the route to become good at my profession I forgot how good of a detective I was and how I loved to unravel different mysteries.

The only thing I remembered about my father was that he used to play treasure hunt with me when I was just a toddler, and I would cherish this memory until I die.

"Manasvi, you are late." Aastha bhabhi reprimanded, making me remember the reason why I was late.

"I know. I am sorry. My stupid husband held me back." I muttered, being embarrassed of being late when I myself set the time.

"It's okay. Come, sit. Aastha made a map of the palace." Mishka bhabhi patted a seat beside her and I gratefully sat down.

"Okay, so here is the room Manasvi was suspicious about, and after surfing through a hell lot of books in this old library, I found out that room was actually the Throne Room. There were some nasty rumours floating around in the mid-eighteenth century, and that led to the downfall of this palace. Since then, that room has been kept locked and nobody knows where the key is." Aastha whispered, making sure nobody heard her even though this part of the floor was completely secluded.

"Gosh! I am getting goosebumps." Aashika muttered, rubbing her arms.

"What were the rumours?" Mishka bhabhi asked.

"I don't know. The pages were torn by someone. They didn't want anyone to know what happened in the past, so it has to be something bad." Aastha bhabhi mumbled thoughtfully.

"Where do we get the key from?" I muttered a rhetorical question, hoping these shelves full of books would be able to answer my questions.

"There is another floor in this library, right? Did you check that?" Aashika whispered, her words causing a surge of hope to crawl into my chest and settle there. I had no idea why I was so hooked on digging out the truth, but I wanted to know every inch of this palace.

"No! Bhabhi, you check out the left side, Manasvi, you go to the right and Aashika, you surf through the center shelves. I will see these books I had picked out beforehand." Aastha bhabhi instructed, and we followed.

I surfed through the old books of this dusty library, shuffling a few pages of some books here and there, but I couldn't find anything important.

I was beginning to grow frustrated by the lack of knowledge this room was providing, when Mishka bhabhi's excited call made me look up to see her holding an ancient book.

The book had a hard cover, and was covered in dust so when we tried to dust it off, the particles of dirt remained in the air, making us cough and sneeze until the fresh breeze coming from the open window penetrated our lungs.

"Open it." I urged her, my voice laden with anticipation and nervousness.

Mishka bhabhi opened the book with newfound gentleness, cradling it like a child and shuffling through the pages until she saw something that made her hand freeze in the air.