Chapter 4 : RAVAN

Aisha POV:

As planned Jess helped me, I explained her my whole situation and she agreed to help me lying to my grandparents till I come back from India, Today was the most difficult day of my life, I was in my room packing all my stuff when my Dada (Grandfather) came in , I felt his presence behind me and turned my heads towards him, I saw pure sadness in him when our eyes meet “How you will be there on your own Aishu?” he spoke softly by standing at my door, I was taken aback by his question “Don’t worry dada, I’ll be fine and you know I am not alone, I do have many acquaintances from my batch right!” I lied forcing a weak smile and walked towards my door and gave him a warm and assuring hug, we both were in our own turmoil when I suddenly felt something wet on my shoulder, I turned my head left to see tears were flowing down from my dada’s eyes “Daduu…yo..your crying?” I asked with puzzle face, he quickly wiped his tears and said “Aisha you are only one left with us, please take good care of yourself because if anything happened to you, your Dadi and I…...” his sentence was left incomplete but I know what exactly he wanted to say, my grandparents had just lost their son and daughter in law and they were completely shattered by it , yet they tried to stay strong for me as I am their only grandchild, I know they look up to me “I know dadu, you don’t worry ill take good care of myself” I said in assuring tone, after my dada left I sat on my bed and questioned my decision of traveling alone to India, I was rethinking if I should spend my rest of life by accepting that parents died in an accident or shall I go and investigate it myself when suddenly my eyes fell on my drawer in which I had hidden my parents secret steel grey colored box, I immediate pulled it out and flashes from past started jumping in my mind, ‘RAVAN’ this name was like encrypted on my mind, I knew my parents death wasn’t an accident like my grandparents informed me, I had many questions related to them however traveling to India was my only way to get answer to all my rising questions, I was build up with new motivation, i quickly packed my suitcase and backpack also I decided on taking my parents secret grey box with me, after my packing was finished I went downstairs and bided my farewell to my grandparents, to avoid rise of guilt feeling I headed straight out where jess was eagerly waiting for me in her Cherry Red Ferrari, she dropped me at airport where I again revised her my whole plan and ways to handle my grannies also I handover detail of hotel in which ill be staying also list of few place I’ll be tracking on my own, giving her one last hug I made my way to get on my flight to India, boarding had already started and I was fortunate to make it just in time, when I got on flight I swiftly pushed my backpack in upper compartment and made myself comfortable in my seat, will I was waiting for flight to take off I pulled out my cell phone to put it on airplane mode when all of a sudden I remembered that it was long time since I had last spoken to Michael, also I was so occupied with my plan that I forgot to inform Michael about my trip to India, we had hardly spoken twice or thrice in these last two weeks after my parents death, I abruptly dialed Michael number but there was no response, I tried it again but nothing, I was about to try again but there was announcement to put our cell phones on airplane mode, I unhappily did so with thought of calling Michael first thing after my landing at Delhi airport in India.

After long 17 hours journey I finally reached at Delhi airport it was bright morning when I arrived at Delhi airport where I noticed that weather of Delhi was very clear and chilled yet I did not allowed myself to keep on enjoying the same, without wasting any more second I hastily went to convert my dollars into Indian currency at airport, it was almost noon till I got my USA currency converted into Indian currency, after placing cash safely in my backpack I made my way toward EXIT Door, as soon as i got out of airport I saw a long queue of Taxi drivers waiting for passenger, I was checking for cab on my phone when one of ‘Taxi driver’ walked towards me and asked me about my destination ‘Why they hell do he have to look so scary!’ I spoke in my mind, to be honest I was bit scared as the driver who approached me was tall , bulky and dark and dirty moustache and long beard, his hairs were messy and lightly highlighted in golden shades, he had red scarf around his neck also four of his shirts top buttons open giving me a disgusting view of his hairy chest, he was speaking to me in very broken English, I simply nodded ‘NO’ gesture to him and walked passed him but he was persistent, he chased me as I was walking towards one of the decent looking ‘Taxi Driver’ when I heard him shouting ‘Kutiya hai ye Sali Angreez’ (Meaning: This foreigner is a is female dog), hearing him say that burned something inside me and I halted in my track and turned back , I saw he was laughing on me

and I was surely not goanna let him go insulting me like that, that’s when my eyes fell on few cops who were standing nearby , I simply walked towards that driver and stood straight in front of him ‘Kya bola tune?’ I questioned him (Meaning: What did you say?) , he was taken back when I spoke to him in Hindi, but before he could reply I printed my all five fingers on his right cheek, he was stunt also my little act caught lots of attention even those cops whom I saw earlier walked towards me and confronted the situation, I explain them everything that happened and those cops scolded that taxi driver, they even warned him in local language, in between this drama I did not missed to see that driver was giving me a murderous look but I simply curled up corner of my lips and gave him a victorious smirk, after taking that driver right-left-center-back those cops help me get in to Taxi with decent driver and I began my journey to head towards my final destination “Lucknow” Uttar Pradesh, Yes! I was traveling to Uttar Pradesh where my parents were when I had last spoke to them, Delhi to lucknow

was a almost long 7- 8 hours of journey via road way as per my research. In between my journey I called my grandparents and informed of my well being, I kept my conversation short to avoid rise of guilt feeling in me, i even tried calling Michael but he still did not responded to any of my call’s, I was now sick worried about him yet I let it pass with thought that he might be busy with his football pratice. I was just half hour away from my hotel ‘Hilton garden Inn Lucknow’ and it was already dark outside, I was feeling home sick and was wondering about my grannies and Michael when all of a suddenly I was thrown harshly on front seat, since I was sitting at window side with no seat belt ON my whole body collide with back of driver seat when he pressed immediate break “Ooouchh….what the hell!” I winced in pain holding my forehead “Shhh….keep quite don’t say anything maam.. pleasee..!” he replied turning back to me, he had some sweats beads formed on his forehead, I was bit confused with his action but soon I followed his eyes ahead and what I saw turned my whole body ice cold, everything was happening in middle of the road, I saw two brutally injured men’s were surrounded by almost ten bulky men’s each with big traditional sharp sword, few of those ten men’s were laughing and spitting cursed words every now and then, which was clearly audible to me, all ten of them were looking nothing less than a maniac, everyone else including me and my taxi driver were simple watching what was happening in front of us, there was audible murmuring of crowd when suddenly it all stopped, everything stopped at an instant, every murmuring and even the laughing of those ten bulky men’s stopped, there was unexpected silence, I was fool not to notice that a tall figure had got down from a black Mercedes which was parked at not so far distance and was heading toward those ten maniac men’s, very soon that figure came and stood straight in front of those two injured men’s who were down on their knees, those two men’s threw their bodies on that tall figure, I could tell by their expression they were crying and pleading for some mercy but that figure did not seem to be affected by it, four of those ten bulky men’s walked toward those injured men’s and pulled them away from that tall figure, all four of them hold those two injured men’s from their both hands, it was dark outside but there were many street light which were giving me clear view of that tall figure who stood above them, he was around 6’feet tall, with broad and muscular shoulder, I can clearly tell that by looking at muscles that were popping out of his short sleeve black cotton fitted shirt, his caramel tanned skin was complimenting his shirt color, he had shoulder length dark brownish black hairs which were loosely gelled, from side I could see he had a very sharp jaw line with thick beard and moustache, he was wearing deep blue colored denim and a Mojdi beneath that (Traditional Indian foot wear) just when I was busy checking him out he took a traditional sword from one of his men and beheaded both of those injured men one by one who were held down in front of him, looking at those two butchered head covered in their own pool of blood down on road a sudden pile got build up in my stomach and without giving a second thought I threw up inside Taxi, I puked everything I had on flight and in between my journey, after getting it all out from my system I turned my head up to see my driver was not bothered by my action but he was still busy looking at that tall figure with frighten expression who had now left with his men’s leaving those two headless dead bodies on open road “Wh..Whoo was that?” I questioned my driver wiping liquids from my mouth, when my driver whispered in scared voice “RAVAN”.