The Pursuit: Part 6

 

…continued from Part 5. He thanked them and left. All was well but a simple fact that the kid was talking the local Marathi language while he refused it’s knowledge on that night. He let it go. He was really fantasizing too much. He continued his way up the mountain taking rest every one hour or so.

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He now headed to the lake. It was again full moon night when he was at the same place. He was panting as he reached the plain. The dry grass was making swishing sound as the wind played with it. The water was making the slight sounds as it rippled and shimmered in the moonlight. Every thing, every movement was so much same as the last time he was here, that he had that uneasy feeling like the one that deja vu gives you. Everything repeated as if it was the same night. Everything except the presence of the girl. He searched the water surface in the darkness with urgency to see her, with an anticipation but at the same time his heart filled with dreadful fear that he might never see her. She was not there. He sighed and sat down. He decided to spend the night there and continue with the original plan to trek to the top in the morning.

It was when he lied down and closed his eyes that he could feel the presence of another being around. He sat up and looked around frantically. Another look at the lake revealed what he was here for. The girl was sitting silently by the water. She turned to look at him. ‘How can she be a spirit? How can she be my imagination? No she was alive, in flesh and not his fantasy’. He went to her and sat beside her. He assumed she recognised him as she did not move. He felt the solemnity in her demeanour. ‘Was she sad?’ They sat like that for sometime. Then he tried to start conversation. He wanted to know about her. ‘Who was she? Where did she go that night?’

 

To start with he introduced himself. ‘Rahul’, he said pointing to self. He could hear her breathe. There were gasps. She had been weeping. ‘Your home’, he said making inverted V in air. She pointed at towards the valley, ‘down in the village’ she said in the Marathi. She was still sombre. Sensing her sombre mood he stayed calm but inside he was happy to know that she could talk marathi. She can now answer to his questions. Then quickly realising, he produced the photo from his bag and flashed light on it. The men too were from the same village, that may break the ice. But when she saw it, she snatched it from him. Her eyes went wide and fixed on him with questioning gaze. ‘Where did you find him?’ she asked. ‘Whom?” he wanted to ask but instead he said, ‘The shelter, where she took him that night’

 

She stood and started towards the ruins. He ran after her asking why she was running. But she was in her own spell. He followed. In few minutes they were at the ruin. She ran from one chamber to another searching for something. There was nothing to be found. He could not understand her frantic search. ‘What was she looking? Was it the men? What was it?’

 

She then began to run around the ruin. He followed and saw she was standing looking something at the ground. He looked down. A closer look revealed that it was a human body.

 

He was interrupted by someone, “Who was it? the tribal man?” Rishi nodded. “Yes, it was the young man”

“When the police investigated, the whole thing was brought to light. Rahul returned to the village after a few days and found what had happened from the girl”

…to be continued