Wednesday, October 25, 2023

The hidden room

It's such a beautiful dream , to own our home.  Not the house we are living in rent  but our very own dwelling, which we could decorate, furnish and plan the way we want. 

But, the high prices have made it difficult for me to even think of buying a new one. With my salary and responsibilities, it's difficult to manage budgets, so EMI is out of question. 

I, Amit have been working as a technical assistant in a college for last 6 years. Salary is not much, but enough for our family of 3, including my wife Shreya and daughter Preeti.

So, it came as a pleasant surprise when we received a call from a lawyer asking us to meet him about my uncle Rohit, who lives in the outskirts of our city.

" What does the lawyer said?" My wife Shreya asked with a frown forming on her face. We are simple people, so legal matters scares us.

" Oh, he told that our Uncle had died and had left something for us in his will." I replied, with a smile. 

We were not that close with the uncle, only meet them on some occasions or wishing them in festivals. He was retired army person, with pension, alone after his wife's death and his son settled in Canada. 

" He asked me to meet him tomorrow for some legal papers and other procedures." I informed her, while wondering what does he want us to have. 

He was old and going ill in last few days, even his son too visited him. He is a nice guy, very polite whenever we met. So, I just hoped that he doesn't have any issue with the will. We have met uncle few days back but the news of his death came much later.

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" Good morning Mr. Amit, glad you could make it." The lawyer said, " now that you two are here, let's read the will" 

" Hi, Nihar, it was really sad to hear about Rohit uncle, hope you are doing well." I greeted Uncle's son Nihar.

" I am okay Brother, it was too soon. I could be there more for him. Thanks for visiting him when I was not here. It meant a lot to him. " he replied. 


" So, I am reading his will. He has divided his properties into bank savings and house. The savings will go to his son Nihar and house will go to nephew Amit." Lawyer explained.

" Nihar, don't you want the house." I felt guilty.

" No, no its okay. I haven't lived there anyway. My father always said that he wished you to have this home as I will never come back to India."

" I will take care of it as uncle would have." I said with sincerity while feeling excited. 

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" Why have you brought us to uncle Rohit's house?"

I have brought my wife and daughter with me to the house to give them a surprise. I haven't still told them about it yet. 


" Come with me, you will know soon" I said hiding my joy. I opened the gates with my keys and then opened the door.

As she entered the empty house, my daughter started running around. 

" Preeti, you shouldn't run in someone else house like that." Shreya stopped her.

" Don't stop her, she will now run here everyday. It's our home now." I said delightfully.

" Shut up, seriously?" She stared at me with a shocking face.

" Yes, from now it's ours" I answered.

" Lets plan how we wanted our house to be" Shreya smiled and declared.

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It's been a month since we have settled in our new home. I still can't believe me luck, but I am enjoying every minute of it. We have left uncle's room as it is. But using other two rooms for ourselves. It was going alright, until today morning. My daughter went missing!

" Amit, where she has gone, she was only playing inside our house. " Shreya panicked. 

We have searched everywhere, even checked the doors and windows. The outside gate is also locked. 

" Lets check uncle room" I suggested.

" I had checked it, it was open so I thought she might have entered there but it was empty." Shreya replied.

" Still that is the only placed I haven't checked. You might have missed something." I said and went inside.

The room was big and had a door opening to our backyard. But it was locked and windows were sealed. The bathroom was empty, there was nothing in the house, except for a big wall mounted mirror. There was something odd about the mirror. 

" What are you doing?" Sreya asked with a puzzling expression. 

" This mirror, it has some kind of hook on its side, let me check it." I answered.

And the hook turned, the mirror slid and a passage appeared behind it. 

" This path, may be Preeti too? " Sherya questioned.

" Lets enter" I said.

We enter this small passage that open to a small room. It had a study table and chair, small boxes and wardrobe. 

We rushed to the wardrobe, and opened it. There was Preeti sleeping and a box in her hand. 

The box had special carvings, and mysterious aura around it. Shreya hold Preeti, brought her out as I took out the box. What was it?

When opened, it had a key, to the small door on the wall. There was a letter, written in sanskrit.

" What is it, what's written on the letter? Shreya took the letter from me to read. 

She could read Sanskrit, and read it aloud.

" Here lies the key to the dimension of time. You are warned to not touch it, or you will regret it forever."


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