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Gauri, a young village girl holding firm views about morals a...
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A month later
Ringing the temple bell, she joins her hands and bows her head in devotion. Her long hair dripped with water from the recent shower. The pink sari she wore clung to her body under the summer heat. Her once fair complexion shined ghostly under a thin layer of sweat. She wore no jewellery and looked fragile as she prayed to escape the catastrophic thoughts drumming in her head.
Her chin wobbled at times, and tears smeared into the dark circles surrounding her beautiful eyes.
It was a great deal to leave the bed today. For the first time in the month, the house help saw her face. She had imprisoned herself in a small room of Rajwada Palace, refusing to meet anyone. Yagya tried his best to coax her out of the shell, but she turned him away every time he knocked at her door. She returned the food sent by Vasundhara and pretended to sleep whenever her parents came to visit. They stayed for a week after the incident, but she never initiated any conversation.
When her grandmother came and tried to console her, she felt nothing. As if a major part of her soul got sucked into the other side of the veil, Gauri barely felt anything these days.
She awakened hollow and cold a month ago in a hospital bed with both her arms heavily bandaged. By the time she was rescued from the forest, she had lost a lot of blood.
Although her physique improved, the same cannot be said for her mental health.
She barely slept and the few times she dozed off, woke up with night terrors. The previous light in her eyes dimmed, no longer showcasing the passion in her heart and she forgot how to smile.
People around her felt her morose strongly. The drivers, the maids, the priests and the gardeners, everyone around the fort missed her. Her silence has turned the fort desolate.
It was as if the evil that haunted the Ranas for decades had finally won.
Everyone was in mourning at the demise of the old King Raghuveer.
His last rites were performed once the family recovered from the shock of a horrifying night. Alongside his, two more pyres were burned. One of Ambika and another of Mandakini.
Queen Vasundhara was adamant about letting any of the bodies disappear into thin air. History taught her a grave lesson. The day after the incident, when her daughter-in-law was safely hospitalized, she sent a search party into the Forbidden Chandra Mahal to collect every last remains of the witch.
The team found some suspicious articles in the basement along with the foreboding missing vestiges of Mandakini's body. Her heart, uterus and liver were all sealed into a wooden doll. Vasundhara felt sick to her core at the discovery and immediately asked Damodaran to prepare for the funeral. Ambika had wronged them on so many levels, but still, Vasundhara went ahead with her last rites. She forced her reluctant son to perform the rituals religiously.
