Strangely Familiar

“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” - Tony Robbins

“Did you hear what happened last night?”

Naina whipped her head, wondering if her mother secretly knew about her strange encounter.

“All the nearby cities of the garden valley were destroyed, including our home.”

Her hand stopped mid-way, eyes on a spoon full of cereal, as she swallowed hard. No one spoke a word for several seconds. There was a pin-drop silence in the room.

“Everyone evacuated the place, right?”

She nodded gravely.

“But they are running out of places to camp. The continuous relocation, the tremors, and the loss of lives have caused panic to rage in the air. People are desperate to stay alive. The government appealed to citizens to provide food and shelter, whatever they can.” Mr. Patil voiced his concern, his wrinkled face gaining even more lines.

“They can come here, Ma!” Samraat exclaimed, gaining attention. “This place is huge. It can act as a perfect refugee center.”

Mrs. Patil feared her son would propose such an idea. She supposed she couldn’t blame him for his negligence. He does not know.

“I am afraid that cannot happen.”

Samraat frowned at his mother, having his idea rejected without any explanation.

“Why?”

Naina saw a look of contemplation on her father’s face. She assumed he was mentally debating with himself.

“This is the last place to find shelter. There’s..,” he stopped midway, eyes locking with his wife, seeking permission silently. When she nodded slightly, he continued. “There’s magic running inside the walls and around the house that is not particularly welcoming to outsiders.”

Her spoon fell from her grip as Naina gaped at Samraat, throwing an incredible look. Almost surreptitiously, her vision traveled to the portrait and then to her brother, their eyes recapping their morning conversation.

“Magic?” Naina couldn’t believe her parents would hide something so extraordinary and undeniably important piece of information from them, especially after the kind of childhood she had endured.

“How do you know?”

Samraat tried to stay neutral even though the information gushed through his brain like currents.

“There was a case of a disappearance a few years back.” There was a look of hesitation on his mothers' face, but she proceeded to answer anyway. "Do you recall your father mentioning a group of college students who stayed at the Mansion?”

Naina understood the lingering tension. She whispered, throwing her an unbelievable look. “You said they were telling tales, Ma! How could you?”

“To protect you, to save your lives.” Mr. Patil chimed in, answering in his wife's favor.

“What happened?” Samraat asked.

Mrs. Shreeparna Patil did not know how their respective conscious would conceive the naked truth about the place they currently stayed in. The same place that was once a haven and home to her predecessors.

“One of the students, Shaina Arani, was found missing when she and her nineteen other classmates stayed at the Mansion for one night. They were camping outside the west wing when, according to her friend, the victim heard a strange song, a piece of calm and soothing music, and she wanted to follow it. Here, read this.”

She quickly opened the website on her phone and flashed several uploaded newspaper clippings, followed by a small paragraph and a picture of the victim at the side of the article.

One clipping read.

1990 July 17th, a Tuesday

Breaking News! Sudden Disappearance from the Brickstone Mansion: Students claim it to be haunted.

Yesterday, July 17th, Tuesday, a college student, Miss Shaina Arani, went missing after she stepped inside the Brickstone Mansion.

According to her friend, Maya Goswami, she was entranced by some strange music.

Her friend says, “We were out on a college trip, and our bus ran out of fuel, so to spend the night, we camped in the garden of the Brickstone Mansion when, suddenly, my friend Shaina got up and said to have heard very calm and soothing music. None of us heard a thing. At first, we thought she was faking it since she has a reputation of being a drama queen, but then she started getting desperate and restless and got up to find its source.”

When asked about what happened later, her friend said, “It was mad. Like she was in some sort of trance, staring at nothing, not even listening to any of us. She was acting as if something possessed her. Despite several attempts, none of us could stop her. She couldn’t resist the temptation and went straight in the direction of the Mansion’s west wing.”

Another classmate added, “We went after her, of course, five guys, after she got inside the wing, but none of us could open the door. No matter how hard we tried, it just wouldn’t budge. We shouted and called for her, but there was no response. We waited until morning, but no voice was heard. She never stepped out.”

A student remarked, “All of us were so scared. We rushed out of that place first thing in the morning. Our friend, we don’t even know what happened to her.”

Allegedly, the police sealed the place for further investigation.

A surreal, supernatural intervention or foul play? We hope the investigation ends soon and the culprit is caught.

Naina’s palms went cold as she scanned the details.

The strange music. Calm and soothing.

She swallowed audibly, handing the phone back. She couldn’t decide if sharing the last night's encounter would be feasible. It would only raise their worry.

“What did the police find?” Samraat asked, his eyes sneakily glancing over to trace his sisters’ reaction.

“Nothing. Not a thing was out of place. All that was recorded was an unused, barren land with no trace or sign of killing or disappearance. The students were proved wrong. The police later confirmed that one of the students in the camp attacked Shaina Arani and killed her.”

“What. How?”

“Who?”

They asked simultaneously.

“His name was Raman Mohanty. He... well he confessed himself - said he strangled her and threw her body in the river. The police recorded his statement and closed the case. A few months later, word got out that the guy convicted of murder was also found dead in his cell due to a heart attack, and gradually the news that the Mansion is haunted easily dissolved.”

“But it wasn't the truth, was it Ma?” Smaraat rightly guessed after reading the conversation.

“Magic runs in these walls, far more powerful than one can imagine. It will protect itself at any cost. It is for this reason that this place is safest on Earth and at the same time,” She stopped all of a sudden, halting her words, frowning deeply.

“It’s not.” Naina completed her unsaid words. “You knew! You have known this whole time. Why haven't you said anything to us before?”

Her strained voice turned accusatory, consumed in anger like she was deliberately prodded in the wrong nerve.

“Ignorance is bliss, you know. The less you know, the better.” Her mother tried to convince her, but Naina suddenly got up, pushing the chair behind her. It screeched and fell, causing a loud thud.

“Better? Do you call this better? How is any of it better?” Anger devoured her senses completely as she furiously blamed her mother after the memory of last night resurfaced.

“Calm down, please!” Samraat squeezed her palms for comfort, though the slight tremble in his voice didn’t escape her notice.

“I can understand your concern, but trust me it’s for the best.” Mrs. Patil reassured her with a faint smile.

“How can you be so sure?” Naina grimaced, not bothering to conceal her feelings. “Wait, are you magic too?”

She wasn’t sure how she would deal with this information. It was all too much to digest.

“I come from a long line of ancestry of magic - with skilled sorcerers who have contributed a lot to society.” It would not be a lie to say that her mother appeared proud. She smiled softly at their lingering gazes. “But no, I can’t perform magic tricks if that’s what you are asking.”

“Why not?”

Mrs. Patil pondered over a bit. “I guess it disappeared gradually and eventually with time.”

“Then how can you protect any of us?” Samraat questioned, perplexed, his forehead creasing into the tiniest bit.

“I may not be able to do magic, but it still listens to me. It is indebted to my family. I am, after all, the sole heiress.”

Naina, unlike her usual self, doubted the authenticity of her mothers’ words. If magic, indeed, listened to her as she claimed, then why did it have such a profound effect on her last night? Moreover, the fact that the portrait of a certain dead-alive owner easily lures his victims into submission to kill them is not exactly a comforting thought.

Sensing her deep thoughts, Mrs. Patil nudged her daughter slightly, palms against her cheeks, and gaining her attention once again.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. But believe me, I’ve made the best choice.”

Samraat coughed slightly and excused himself. “You are right. This has been a lot indeed. I need some fresh air. Nans, come on, open space would do you good too.”

He looked at his sister meaningfully before turning his head towards the door. Naina did not waste a second. She quickly jumped on her legs to follow his footprints, leaving their parents behind in wonder.

“They are upset.” Mr. Patil found his voice in the silence of the room. “But you shouldn’t blame yourself. I know you made the right choice.”

“I’m glad you think so, but I fear the magic crawling around these walls has been tainted and may ignite something dark within them.” She got up and walked carefully, her buried fear and memory of the past surfacing against her will as she stared at the portrait.

Her husband followed her behind. “You still don’t go near him after all these years, even though you know he can no longer harm you.”

“No, he can’t. At least not at this time. My ancestor made sure of it years ago, but something about him is alarming. The entrance was sealed. Locked. I don’t understand how he operates.”

“You think he still has control?” Her husband asked and almost instantly added in a low voice, “Can he hear us?”

His wife shook her head in response. Sighing inaudibly, she continued. “Those disappearances, the attacks, how he lures his victim, he has more control than you, and I would like to believe. He may not be physically present, but he is making his presence known.”

Rajan Patil had always known that his wife was wise beyond years. He has always seen her happy, optimistic, and ready to deal with a situation, no matter how hard it turned out. This was the first time he had seen her vulnerable state. Seeing her helpless, he put his arms around her in a comforting embrace.

“I still don’t understand. He is your ancestor, and I know how fondly you speak of them. So, why is he hell-bent on destroying everything?”

He remembered how his wife spoke highly about her predecessors even before he knew she came from a witching family. Although the fact never bothered him for two reasons - one, she couldn’t perform magic, which encouraged them to live a normal happy life, and second, most importantly, she understood him like no other.

“He may have been the first rightful owner, but he is not my true ancestor. Not really.” She answered, shaking her head, her voice shaking slightly. “Something connects us. Him and my family.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.” She murmured, “I don’t know what happened ages ago or how it all started. My family never told me the story. Perhaps, the tale dissolved on its own with generations. All that passed on is that this man has the potential to become a person’s worst nightmare and that one has every reason to be scared of him. They were not wrong.”

“Must we destroy his portrait, or at least put it somewhere else?”

She chuckled despite the situation. “You think no one thought of that before? Go near his portrait, it will sense your thoughts, and you will start to feel like something is pulling you in. You won't be able to get close to his portrait, let alone touch it.”

Mr. Patil felt his wife wanted to say something else but decided against it as she sealed her lips and looked away.

“Perhaps we can create a perimeter around it. A boundary, so Naina and Samraat would know how to maintain distance.” Her husband mused, his mind juggling different ideas to contain the beast inside.

“He is far-far more powerful than that. If he wants something for whatever purpose, no power in this world can stop him. We can only hope he lets our family live in peace.” Mrs. Shreeparna Patil said dejectedly, her head resting against her husband's chest.

Rajan Patil glanced at the man in the portrait. Surprisingly, he did not feel anything out of the ordinary.

“If he is as powerful as you say, why can’t he make himself physically present?” His voice reached her ears as she pushed herself off of him.

“Because even the law of magic has certain defined principles that must be adhered to at all costs, bend them, and magic shall be extremely unforgiving.”

“So we pray?”

“We can always pray.” She smiled at him fondly, holding his hands in hers as she walked him towards the attic. “Enough with the heavy talk. Come! There is something you must see.”