The Land of White Orchids.
It takes only five hours for the entire climate to change around them. The rainy atmosphere of Bangalore turns into one of those comfortable cold ones. The buildings, multi national companies, the busy streets are no where to be found. All that is visible are trees, endless, brave, fearless pines, oaks and what not. The more the car climbs up, the more clouds start surrounding them. The known roads welcome him, the known trees, the knows faces and the known environment engulfs him with their all too familiar fragrance. Three and a half years, three and a half long years have passed. He forgot how he used to feel, how he used to see the world anymore. He forgot to enjoy life the way 'Manik' used to. He isn't the same man anymore, he is Vulcan now and Vulcan feels nothing except pain. Yet, yet his heart flutters, yet he feels something, he feels....home.
But then the inevitable begins. The more their car moves the more he comes closer to that alleyway, the one he took before leaving, the one road that changed the definition of his life, the one road that cursed him forever. His heartbeat increases, goosebumps spring all over his body. Ritwik, who is driving the car, remains focused on the road. A tired Purnit sleeps with his mouth slightly parted and his head resting on Leo's shoulder. The only attentive member however doesn't fail to notice the sudden change in Vulcan's body language. The very moment he tightly grips the side of the seat Leo's head snaps towards him. Habitually, he stays still and observes his boss. He sees as the man looks at the right side of the road, towards a particular alleyway. His chest heaves up and down erratically, his entire body stiffens, but then he sees something else. He sees him fighting with himself, he sees his jaw clenching and forcefully turning his head towards the window of the passenger's seat that overlooks the other side. Yes he takes heavy breaths, his grip tightens further more, but he never looks back towards that road.
The car crosses that alleyway but Vulcan remains still, as if turning his head will cause him the biggest harm. Leaving behind a lot of bakeries, gift shops, food stalls, homestays and what not, they keep moving ahead. Kurseong is undoubtably one of the finest tourists places of West Bengal. Leo has done some research while they were climbing up and the informations didn't disappoint him. The mountains, tree, clouds and the local people.... yes, the place is indeed breathtaking.
By now, Purnit is drooling, that too on Leo's clothed shoulder. Leo looks grossed beyond imagination. Ritwik keeps looking forward as the car keeps moving upwards. He has his own share of trauma, his own share of guilt that kept him away from his home. But he also knows the urgency of the matter at hand. This is not the right time to reflect upon his own misdeeds. What's done is done, he cannot change it, but he can always remain alert about what's to come. Right now he senses more danger from his younger brother, bigger than the ones he caused. He can see a weird similarity between him and Vulcan. The same restlessness, same 'don't care' attitude and something even bigger, even darker, hidden deep within.
Around 1:30 p.m. the car comes to a stop near the three brothers' favorite place. A small smile tugs at Ritwik's lips when he sees the once nameless bakery has a beautiful name now : Flora. It also has a small dine-in area now. The bakery belongs to Teressa's aunt, who is yet to recover from her coma. Ritwik recalls Pratima ji telling him that Mrs. Bhutiya's neighbor, Teressa's beloved Julian aunty, is in charge of managing it along with Teressa herself. She accompanies her in the weekends. The bakery is settled at the ground floor of Mrs. Bhutiya's once happy abode. Now the old lady is fighting for her life and Teressa, with the weird turn of events, has become the most important part of the Nagpati household, but the house looks lonely.
True, all three of them had good memories here but the one who had the most of it, sits beside him, looking straight ahead, expressionless, unbothered, not even glancing at it. His nonchalance once again reminds Ritwik of the reason he decided to come back here at the first place. He needs to save his precious brother before everything goes out of hand, before he becomes another Ritwik Raj Nagpati. Shaking his head he drives away.
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The golden name plate is visible from afar, engraved in it are huge black alphabets that say : The Nagpati Mansion. Ritwik sees Vulcan visibly tensing, his entire body goes rigid. By now Purnit has woken up and his jaw has already dropped to the ground.
"This.. we are.... The Nagpati Mansion?" Purnit keeps mumbling to himself.
"Yes, we are." Ritwik answers.
"If I am not wrong sir, d-does Mr. Daivik Raj Nagpati live here? I can be totally wrong though." Purnit keeps blabbering.
"You're not wrong." Ritwik responds as the guards open the huge iron gate for him to enter. He nods to them and continues to converse.
"Have I not introduce myself yet? Okay let me begin with it then. Hi, Ritwik Raj Nagpati here, the useless, good for nothing brother." He adds smiling while glancing at the looking glass to see Purnit's reaction. Ritwik sees as Purnit's eyes widen.
"Oh my.... I mean, yeah, yes. I should've known why you looked so much like him, obviously apart from your eyes. You're twins right?" Purnit keeps questioning which for some weird reasons amuses Ritwik.
"Yes, twins we are." He says.
"Wow, you must be the best of friends. They say twins understand each other the most." Purnit shares his not so important knowledge.
"Oh, um, about that.. we've reached. I'll deal with your queries later on." Ritwik says, winking. Purnit nods and slowly looks beside him only to find a glaring Leo.
"What? I was just curious. And if you come to think about it, Daivik, Ritwik and the third brother is Manik. Do you understand what I mean? Vulcan must be.." His whispering gets interrupted.
"Have you forgotten what your job profile is? You are not allowed to peep into boss's personal life, neither am I. This won't be tolerated Purnit. So be careful." Leo hisses.
Parking the car they move towards the long multiple stairs that leads to the huge wooden main entrance. This isn't just a home, this is a palace. Looking around himself Leo furrows his eyebrows.
"Who chooses to stay in a penthouse if they have a home like this? If Vulcan chose not to come here at the first place, is this going to go all well now? Because there must a reason for why he never once mentioned about his family, about his house, about his already existing reputation." Leo thinks to himself as he worriedly glances at Vulcan.
There he is, standing infront of the door in a black dress shirt, black jeans, like a wooden statue. His face expressionless, his body rigid but his eyes are not the same. He is worried about the old woman, who they made the plan with. What was her name again? Yes, Pratima ji.
The door to the mansion is opened by a guard. As he sees Ritwik standing at the door he immediately smiles and bows down.
"Cut the formality Rajat. How many times do I need to tell you that? Do all this with Dev, he likes to be treated like the King that he is and I despise it." Saying so Ritwik enters. The very moment Rajat's eyes fall on the tall, tattooed, messy haired man behind him, his eyes widen in shock.
"Chhote Malik?!" He utters, but the man infront him doesn't even acknowledge his presence. With a straight face, he very hesitantly enters inside.
The very moment he enters whatever sound was taking place inside the mansion stops. Every maid, every staff stops to look at him, because they are failing to believe their own eyes. After all it has truly been that long. The discomfort Vulcan was feeling from the moment the car crossed the iron gate of his once 'home', increases all of a sudden. He decides to move straight towards Pratima ji's room. He needs to see how she is doing. She has been the only person who cared for him without betraying, without changing. The one person he used to treasure the most, even more than his two brothers and.... his childhood best friend. Right now for reasons unknown to him, he feels close to nothing about anyone around him. But the very moment he heard about the old woman who showered him with unconditional love for as long as he could remember, he felt sad, after a long time.
"Should I starts with apologising?" A weak, broken voice utters from the kitchen complex. Vulcan immediately turns his head to his right and his eyes fall on the aged woman. She is walking towards him. She is fine, she is okay, she is smiling. But she looks tired, older than the last time he saw her, weaker even. What.. and suddenly he menacingly snaps his head towards Ritwik. He lied, all of them lied. Ritwik immediately brings his hands up in surrender.
"Not his fault. I asked him to do this. What? You wanted me dead or something? Aren't you happy that I can still walk." Pratima ji complains wiping her tears. Vulcan keeps quiet, although his eyes tell he isn't happy with her words. The very moment Pratima ji comes even closer Leo swiftly moves between her and Vulcan and bows his head. A bewildered Pratima ji looks at Ritwik but Vulcan releases a breath of relief.
"Here is the condition I told you about, we cannot touch him Pratima ji. He will let you touch him once and when he feels like it. Are you okay with that?" Ritwik asks sincerely. The sincerity in the eyes of the naughtiest one surprises Pratima ji, even Rajat, the guard glances at him for once. Everyone in the Nagpati Mansion knows that Ritwik can be a handful but this time his tonality makes the difference. He isn't joking and that means he wasn't joking over phone as well, the youngest Nagpati truly doesn't want to be touched.
Before Pratima ji could say anything everyone looks at the huge stairs, apart from Ritwik and Vulcan. Descending are three figures, a curly haired woman, a spitting image of Ritwik with honey brown eyes and the tiniest member of the house.
"Manik bhaiya...." The small happy voice shouts out loud. Dev stands still at his spot, unable to move any further. The woman beside her loosens her grip around the kid, who happily runs down the stairs, aiming at Vulcan. Something flutters inside Vulcan at the pure, heartfelt laughter of the kid, a tiny almost unnoticeable flutter. He slowly looks at the kid who was just about to jump on him, but got caught by Ritwik before he could do so. If this was the old times Vulcan would've opened his arms for the kid, he loved Nilu, loved his innocence, but things have changed. He is not the same man, his mind doesn't work similarly, even if he wants, there is something that immediately pulls him back to his shelter.
"Hello there, little devil. You've grown up. Got yourself a girl yet?" Ritwik asks Nilu as he smartly picks him up. Nilu immediately shakes his head 'no' and looks at Ritwik furrowing his eyebrows.
While all this was going on they didn't notice Dev and Teressa. They have walked upto them and Ritwik who was playing with Nilu happily, suddenly stiffens. The guilt that kept him away from his home, his family for so long comes back with an impact tenfold stronger. The very moment he feels Teressa's presence close to him he turns his back on her and looks at the floor. His reaction doesn't go unnoticed by Pratima ji. But Dev and Teressa's eyes remain fixed at the one person standing behind Ritwik. His wavy shoulder level hair is disheveled, some hints of his tattoos are peaking out of his black dress shirt, his nose looks a little crooked and he looks bigger, more muscular, but what surprises them is his eyes. His cold grey eyes, he is here but he isn't, because his eyes look soulless, lifeless. Dev gulps down the guilt that pushes him from within. What has he done to his little brother?
Teressa walks a little closer, as her hazel eyes tear up. Her best friend, her soulmate has finally made it back home, after so many years. But he isn't the same, something is terribly wrong about him, something she fails to decipher. Because her Manik just doesn't stand somewhere without smiling, without looking at her for once, without pulling her into his embrace.
"Manik...." She utters, her voice breaks due to the sob she is fighting to control. Vulcan very slowly lifts his head as his grey eyes meet with his best friend's hazel ones.
"Teressa." He utters while giving a curt nod of acknowledgment. All the heads in the mansion, except for Leo and Purnit's, snap towards him. "Triss", that's what he calls her since the first day he met her and everyone knows that quite well. Even Nilu knows it because they were the only two people who were allowed to call her with that name. Teressa's eyes widen as the tears fall out of her eyes freely. Dev and Ritwik look at Vulcan, as if they are still trying to understand what just happened, but Vulcan doesn't give them enough time as he smoothly moves out of the crowd ascending towards his room, if they still kept it as his, that is.
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Love, Puja. 😊