Chapter 3: India

Third Person POV:

Two weeks had passed since Aisha was informed about her parents death, she was completely devastated, Aisha wanted to travel India just to take a last glimpse of her parents however she was not allowed by her grandparents, her grandmother was also discharged just 5 days back and was now on complete bed rest, her grandfather had arranged a personal nurse to take care of his wife  and also a maid to take care of their household chores, with every passing day Aisha was growing reckless to know reason for her parents death however her grandfather denied to inform her anything more about it, on 12^th day of his son and daughter in law death Aisha grandfather perform a ritual as per Hindu tradition near a small pond, Aisha had also accompanied him on that day, after completing ritual when Aisha was heading back with her grandfather she asked meaning of the ritual they performed to which he told her that ritual was done for letting her parents souls rest in peace in heaven however Aisha had double thought on it, that night Aisha determined to investigate her parents room which is always locked and the key for their door was with her grandmother, that night Aisha sneaked inside her grandmother room to find key for her parents room however failed miserable, yet she did not let it go her hopes, her parents room was on first floor beside her room, hence she went back to her room and got out of her window and stood on her balcony, cold wind blowing outside was sending a sting of shiver in her whole body, With clumsy legs Aisha somehow managed to get on her parents balcony, Aisha tried to open their window however her luck was against it, their window was locked from inside, standing on their balcony she thought for a minute of all her option to get it

when she finally decided to break their glass, Aisha came back to her bedroom and searched for object to broke their glass, when suddenly her eyes caught her hairdryer which was lying on her bed, Aisha hurriedly made her way back to her parents balcony and this time she used her hair dryer to broke their glass, it took multiple attempt for her to break it completely, noise of breaking glass was loud however she knew her grandparents were on medication and won’t be waking up any time soon, Aisha carefully made her way inside their room avoiding glass pieces on floor, as soon as she got inside she switched on all their light and what she saw was a normal couple room, there was nothing strange about it, Aisha hurriedly started searching their all drawers and cupboard, when her eyes fell on an family picture lying beside their bed, her eye welled up with tears upon seeing her parents smiley faces,  a soft sob escaped her mouth and she bend down on her knees to cry out her pain she immediately curled herself into a ball on their floor and started sobbing loudly, her vision had became burly because of tears but she caught a glimpse of something from corned of her eyes, she saw something shining under her parents bed and soon realized it was a box, Aisha quickly extended her hand to pulled out that box which was lying under their bed, it was small grey colored steel box which had a combination lock on it, she kept staring at that box for several minutes when started trying multiple random combination to unlock it, couple of hours passed when Aisha finally gave up and kept staring blankly at that box, when suddenly a thought crossed her mind and she hastily tried one more combination and the locked was opened, Aisha tried her birth date to open that lock and it worked, as soon as she opened her parents secret box she was somewhat stunned to see bundles of newspaper articled cut outs inside, one by one she started reading those article, every article was from India but the most strange

thing

about those articles was every article was related to one single person named… “RAVAN” Aisha whispered slowly, there were dozens of articled which had mentioned every single crime from murder to kidnapping to rape to trafficking which were labeled under Ravan name, however none of the article said that he was punished or penalized for his crime, neither there was any picture of Ravan in any of those articles, further digging into their box Aisha encountered one pen drive and a old smudgy letter, By the time Aisha completed reading those article it was already morning and she saw sun had started rising outside, Aisha quickly put everything back inside that metal box, and headed back to her bedroom but this time she took her parents grey steel box with her, once Aisha came back to her room she hurriedly hid that box inside her drawer and went straight to her bed, by now her mind and heart were completely reckless, she wasn’t able to understand what was going on with her life, suddenly every memory started flashing in front of her eyes, her parents and grandparents behavior, their stubbornness on not allowing her to travel to India, her parents work in Indian, Aisha was linking every dot and she knew something was not right and whatever it is, it was all linked to India and if she wanted to know more about it, she will have to travel India to investigate it all by herself, with that thought she closed her eyes and went deep into slumber.

Next morning Aisha called her best friend Jessica and asked her to meet up at café nearby her house, Aisha left her house early to meet Jessica and was eagerly waiting for her arrival “Hie babe!” Jessica came in an hugged Aisha “Hie jess..” Aisha replied hugging her back “I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother and your parents babe” Jessica sympathized Aisha and comforted her, since last two weeks Aisha did not bother to attend her college, her principal called her grandparents to inform about the same but came to know about the tragedy that had happened with Aisha lately “Jess …Listen to me carefully , the reason I called you here is because I need your help” Aisha spoke in serious tone, looking at Aisha expression Jessica was sure it was something terribly important as she and Aisha were childhood friend and know each other very well “What is it babe?” jess questioned “I want you to cover for me for one month, I am going somewhere and I’ll be informing my granny’s that I am going on college events trip which will be for four weeks straights, they will call you up to confirm the same from time to time, you just need to handle it for me, Got it?” Aisha replied with eagerness in her tone “Where are you going and that to for whole fucking month?” Jessica questioned with a raised eyebrow “I.. I can’t tell you that now!” Aisha shutter “What do you mean you can’t tell me, I am you best friend and you can’t tell me where you are going?” Jessica question with little hint of anger “See if you can’t tell me then I can’t help you.. Sorry” saying that Jessica intended to get up from her place but Aisha pulled her back on her seat “Jess I am desperately in need of you help, please!” Aisha pleaded with teary eyes “Then tell me where you are going?” Jessica questioned aging in hard tone, Aisha sighed on her question and replied “INDIA and that to Tomorrow….”.