365 DAYS 365 TALES

The Yellow Flowers - Conclusion

Trembling the woman slowly came up to Reyansh.

"Thank you!" she said struggling to talk properly. "You just saved my life," Pita said in a hoarse whisper.

"He has been doing that a lot today." Shankar said dryly as Reyansh was again beginning to look horrified.

"Pita?" Reyansh asked as he was struggling to control himself. "Your name is Pita?" Reyansh was whispering.

"You are scaring her!" Shankar hissed angrily. "And me too!" Shankar added as an afterthought.

"I am Arpita," the girl looked worried. "People always call me Pita."

"Professor, let's get you home," Shankar said driving to get his mad friend back home, before he saved someone else's life or ended up in the mental asylum. The way things were going, Shankar was almost sure that the second thing was going to be a definite.

"I need to see your home," Reyansh said nearly pushing Shankar away as he walked towards the girl, stumbling.

"What?" Pita's uncle looked astonished.

Shankar swore angrily. "No! He doesn't!" Shankar said pushing Reyansh away. "He is in shock and has to get home." Shankar said wishing he could whack Reyansh on the head and render Reyansh unconscious. It would make things slightly easy or things were going straight for a disaster.

However Pita did not pay any attention to her uncle. She was staring at Reyansh for the long minute.

"Come," Pita said finally.

**********

Shankar was getting a headache. Arpita's house was a normal, boring house like all normal boring houses.

And Reyansh was acting like a perfect idiot as he looking into all the rooms studying all the places like he expected a bomb to go off.

"We have to go to the hospital!" Pita's uncle said looking more and more scared, as Reyansh was studying the window which had broken and fallen on Pita's head.

Reyansh hardly looked like he was paying attention to anything and that was when Shankar saw Reyansh enter into a room on the right which seemed a spare room of sorts. Reyansh was staring at the atropine medicine bottle which was kept on the window sill.

"HEY!" The uncle shouted as Reyansh just did not care.

Shankar sighed as he decided that he had had enough as he was about to walk way, when Reyansh pulled out a huge box from under the bed in the spare room.

Arpita for her part was shocked as she was staring at Reyansh.

"Whose box is this?" Reyansh said.

The box was covered by a tattered veil. It was torn but somehow even Shankar could not shake the feeling of menace coming from the box. And the worst part was that both the veil and the box had the same symbol as on Arpita's locket.

"I am calling the cops." Pita's uncle said pulling up the phone said looking beyond anger.

"Sir please...." Shankar said desperately coming towards the uncle. Shankar really did not want to spend the night in jail. Especially considering the only thing Shankar had done was to be the friend of a person who was on a sudden spree to save lives.

Reyansh for his part looked haunted or like he was in another planet....

Reyansh caught the hands of the girl tightly. "Whose box is this?" He repeated.

Shankar was really badly horrified as he saw a tiny tear in the eyes of the girl and the uncle swore angrily as he dropped the phone and tried to push Reyansh out of the house.

"Narayanan is my father's brother," Pita said slowly.

The uncle and Reyansh both stopped.

"Narayanan was a rich man," Pita said, "He owned the hotel. But he worked as a waiter there because he enjoyed that. The hotel in the next lane...Narayanan passed away three days back. This is his box." Pita said sadly. "He said it was a family secret and that I could open it after his death." Pita shook her head. "And a week back when Loran uncle came, Narayanan uncle moved to the spare room with the box."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Loran shouted at Pita. "Your father has had a heart attack. And you are wasting your time here, telling a complete stranger, things that don't concern him." The uncle shouted pushing the girl away.

This time it was Shankar who blinked.

"What?" Shankar asked turning to the uncle. "Who has a heart attack?" Shankar asked coming very close to the uncle. It seemed impossible, but Shankar was almost willing to bet that the man in the hotel was this girl Pita's father....

And that was when Reyansh again started becoming nutty again.

Reyansh was struggling to breathe as Reyansh saw Narayanan right in front of him and Reyansh was sure that the man was actually standing there.

Narayanan pointed at the box and look out of the window and then Narayanan spoke, "I don't have a lot time, Seer."

Reyansh groaned as the words resonated in his mind and he was hit by a massive headache as his vision blurred.

"Seer or not, you could see me because that was the time when the door between the two realms were open. The opening is about to close and I need to get back. If he is successful in destroying all of us, he cannot be stopped. He has no powers now and he has escaped to your realm trying to take out all of us. My brother is safe now. Let nothing happen to the girl. She is important."

Reyansh was clutching his head, tears streaming down his eyes, struggling to look at the veiled box. And that was when suddenly he realized what he was seeing.

"Go ahead," Reyansh told the uncle, ignoring the headache and his trembling hands, weakly pushing Shankar to a side as he hobbled towards Loran. "Call the cops!"

Shankar moaned. This was really not going well and that was when Reyansh went completely bonkers.

"That is atropine. That when used in right quantities can cause a heart attack and that window has been loosened by someone" Reyansh said studying the uncle.

Reyansh thought he saw something glow in the uncle's eyes as he heard the girl gasp and Shankar was looking completely and truly shocked.

"Their whole family! The waiter, her father and now..." Reyansh whispered, breathing slowly trying to control his nausea

Loran was looking murderously at Reyansh as Reyansh stared at the box.

"And what is in the box?" Reyansh asked.

It felt like some badly made horror movie as the lights of the apartment went out and the entire place was plunged into darkness.

Arpita was whimpering and that was when the box opened with a thud. Of its own accord.

And suddenly all around them there was bright lights. Reyansh was feeling an impossible headache as he heard things being whispered in his ears – shrieks... Reyansh groaned clutching his head and his headache suddenly impossibly increased.

And just when Reyansh thought he could take it no more, everything stopped.

And then it was suddenly still dark, when all the three of them heard it. Loud and Clear, "We have stopped the Shadow now curtailed him for now. But there will be others. The Seer will help you. Fight them all and keep both the realms safe."

The lights came on again.

And the apartment looked like someone had ransacked it. And there was no sign of Loran. None at all.

**********

"What started you to this?" Shankar demanded as he was walking back home, that night.

"Pita means yellow in Sanskrit," was all Reyansh said.