CHAPTER
5
Abhi and I drove to Mumbai.
Fiddle’s house and the garden I had been to, to save the old lady, had one
thing in common. Mumbai. I made Abhi promise me that he wouldn’t ask me any
questions, and did everything, exactly like I said. I only told him his
need-to-know basis and that we were going to save Marsella. Abhi was pretty
much troubled by my behavior, but I knew I could depend on him. We had no idea
where to start. Abhi suggested we have a talk with Fiddle personally. We were
about to ring his doorbell when we heard gunshots from his house.
I rushed to enter through the
window but Abhi stopped me. Of course, he would never let me in danger. The
door suddenly opened and we hid behind Fiddle’s giant pots. A tall man was at
the door. We heard a threatening voice that said, “What did you suppose? You
could hide here forever? We found you again Fiddlesworth. This is my last
warning, tell me where your grandchildren are, or else you’ll meet your son
soon”. Holy crap, these seemed like Pikshtra’s men. They were threatening to
kill Fiddle. No, I couldn’t let this happen, strange or not, he was my
grandfather. Before Abhi could get hold of me, I ran towards the door.
I started punching and fighting the
moment I saw the men. Abhi did the same. He glared at me so fiercely; it scared
the hell out of me. The fight was in full swing, with punches and boxes and
kicks everywhere. One of the men turned to me and hit me on my head hard, with
his pistol. The next thing I knew was that everything around me turned dark and
I fell on the ground.
When I opened my eyes, I recalled
everything that happened. I tried to get up but I had no strength left. It was
dark. Midnight, may be. A small grilled window was on the back wall. It was a
small room. And suddenly I heard some movement. “Abhi, are you okay?” I asked,
not bothering to see who it was. “Abhi?” He didn’t answer. I went closer to the
person. It was a lady. Where had I seen her? Oh yes, she was the same old lady
I had gone to rescue. She looked at me pleadingly and said, “You’ve met my
husband. How is he? How is Fiddlesworth?” she said through her sobs.
It took a moment for me to realize
this. She was my grandmother. She was Fiona. “Grandma?” I called. The moon
shone brightly in the sky. It was a sign. I didn’t find this weird; instead
grandma’s presence somehow relaxed me. But this was not the time for crying
over long lost relations. We had serious matters to handle. “How did I end up
here?” I asked her. She told me that I was bought here by Peter. Peter, Nana
and Blaike were Pikshtra’s men. “I had a friend with me, do you have any idea
where he is?” I asked. “No, it was only you he bought.”
Her last sentence locked my breath.
Where was Abhi? Grandma started questioning me about Fiddle, and I told her
everything I knew. I shouldn’t have. She was getting more and more miserable. “I
hope Marsella comes back soon. She needs to know too” Marsella? She was here?
Of course. That night, the men saw her. My face was covered with my scarf. I
should’ve known. But what did grandma mean by ‘hope she comes back soon’?
“Where is she?” I asked her. She looked at me tenderly and said, “there, where
we dread to go”.
Marsella was in the experiment
room. Pikshtra’s men had continued his mission. If they succeeded in implanting
telepathy in human brains, they would earn billions of billions. That is the reason
this mission was kept a secret. But where was Fiddle? Why wasn’t he here? I had
no idea, nor did grandma. My cell phone was missing and so was my bag. I remembered
how I’d left home and hurt mom this morning. She must have been worried to
death. While I was in the midst of the storm in my brain, the door creaked
open. Marsella was pushed inside. She had blackish blue bruises all over her
face. She looked terrible. She barely looked at me and fainted.
Once she was up, we updated her
with all the information we had. With nothing to do and no plans that we could
think of, Marsella asked grandma “Is it true that you left me in an orphanage?”
“Yes” she said. “Pareena, my daughter in law had Lune and I had you. We were
separated when Pikshtra attacked us. I had no other option. To keep you safe,
we needed you to stay away from the truth of Prisma. Before Pikshtra could
reach both of you, we needed to hide you. I met your mother after a few days.
But Pikshtra followed her. We were unaware of him. He killed her since she was
of no use to him, and he had me prisoner. Last week I managed to escape, and
the connection miraculously worked after a long long time. I wanted to contact
Fiddle but the message reached you girls. And you’ll arrived to save me.”
So this was the story then. Grandma
managed to escape but we couldn’t save her and now we were here, with her. It
was still ridiculous to think of Marsella as my sister, but I couldn’t deny the
truth. “Marsella, how did you know Fiddle? And if you knew the truth, why
didn’t you tell me?” I knew the answer. But I wanted to hear it from her. “I
tried to, but you wouldn’t even see my face. You blocked my number and when I
personally came to meet you, you never came out of you room. So I suggested an
interview with Fiddle and played along. I had met Fiddle a few hours before the
incident last week. It was a co-incidence and the night helped. The day we
arrived here, I had a fake call of my dad being kidnapped so I got out of the
house and that’s when these men caught me. Lunette, I only lied to your parents
because what happened was supposed to be a secret. I thought that if they knew,
it would put them in danger too. But you didn’t let me explain.”
I had never felt so guilty in my
life. First I hurt my mother and now this. I couldn’t control my tears flowing
down continuously like an endless river. Grandma gently wiped my eyes and said,
“You know what I do when I’m upset, and it’s not night time? I dance.” She had
a very meaningful look on her face but I hoped she was kidding. Marsella had
the same expression like mine. Grandma only smiled and said, “It makes me feel
alive. A fresh mind yields new ideas to face the situation.” Both I and
Marsella couldn’t stop staring as she tapped her little feet as much as she could.
It seemed more like a penguin dance. We burst into laughter.
We had to find a way out. We
started singing our night anthem. We hoped that a combined prayer would have a
strong impact. The only way out was the door which was locked from outside. And
the window was grilled. We sang louder and louder. We heard a large thud
outside. The room caught fire. This was the least expected. We were praying for
help and here we were, facing another deadly situation. We didn’t know what to
do. The door had caught fire too. We looked at each other. The door had caught
fire! It would open up soon.
Just a few kicks and patience, and
it eventually happened. Our prayer was not unheard. The night had helped us
again with an asteroid on fire. We couldn’t believe we were so lucky. We ran
out of the door as fast as we could. But only to find out that Peter, Nana and Blaike
were ready for us, with Fiddle, Abhi and Yen on their gunpoints.
