Strangely Familiar

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Nelson Mandela

***

“In case you are wondering, I’m freaked out too.”

Naina heard the deliberate stressed voice of her brothers’ usually calm demeanor. She tilted her head slightly in his direction.

“Is that why you are grinning from ear to ear?” Purposely cocking an eyebrow, she eyed him meaningfully.

“Alright, alright! I feel excited. This is like an adventure - relocating, mysterious manor, magic.” His voice was full of eagerness in anticipation of what could happen. “I’ve got goosebumps.”

“This isn’t a movie.” Naina frowned, shoving his shoulder lightly. Sometimes she fails to understand her brothers’ sense of justice. He wouldn’t be so happy if it had been him, and not her, whom the portrait summoned last night.

Analyzing the magnitude of the moment, Samraat dropped his grin, pursuing his lips tightly like a child who had just been told off. Realizing his sister wasn’t going to speak any further after sharing last night’s experience, he took the lead.

“On a serious note, I have a theory.”

“Don’t you always?” Naina wanted to roll her eyes at his uncanny proclivity to disastrous and dangerous things.

He prodded the side of her cheek to earn a silent glare as she slapped his hand away.

He shrugged, raising his hands in surrender. “Just checking if you are still you. Alive, you know, and not some weird mirage that only projects a deceiving false image.”

“Are you serious right now?” his sister exclaimed in annoyance.

“Yes.” His voice was low and sincere. “The fact that he couldn’t kill you even after trying is not something to be taken lightly.”

“Your theory?” She tapped her legs impatiently.

“It may imply that you hold a certain degree of power, hypothetically, of course. It would make sense.”

Naina shook her head, rejecting it straight away. It was almost laughable. “I think I would be the first person to know if I have magical powers.”

“Then how are you still alive?”

“I don’t know, okay?” Her palms rested on her forehead as she pressed them to reduce the stinging pain.

“You should’ve asked him.” Her brother almost complained.

“Right, next time. That will be a lovely conversation over a cup of tea. I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to satisfy your curiosity and even happier, considering he’ll get to try to kill me again.” She was joyfully sarcastic.

Samraat ignored her and tried to think hard. There were several probabilities forming inside his head. Things would have been simple if they weren’t adopted. Naturally, their respective lines of ancestry are different, and just because their adoptive mother decided to raise them does not mean they have powers too.

Occupied in his thoughts, the duo failed to notice that they strolled right inside the porch of the west wing.

Naina halted her foot abruptly, her calf muscle feeling a sharp pull. Her mind recapped the last night’s scenario as she looked at the desolated lane.

Surprisingly clean, desolated lane.

“Must we check inside?” Samraat spoke confidently with no ounce of fear in his voice.

Her sister answered without looking at him. “We must, but I don’t think we’ll find anything.”

Sparing a glance at one another one last time, they nodded and walked towards the door. Their combined effort proved futile as they struggled to push it open. It was jammed, and no matter how hard they exerted pressure while constantly pushing their bodies against the door, it would not budge.

“Remember what those guys said. The six of them were unable to open the door.” Naina huffed heavily after pouring every bit of strength into pushing the door that hardly moved an inch.

Samraat shifted his back against the door and breathed heavily. “So it only opens to lure its victim inside. Damn, the door is moody. Still, that doesn’t explain how you got there.”

“I told you everything I remember.” She said in an irritated voice.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, brushing the crease off his shirt as they walked away from the wing. Naina, against her will, dared to look back in annoyance when she heard her brother admit. “I just want to solve the mystery.”

“Delve any deeper, and you will suffocate.” The words spurted out of her mouth on their own.

His steps halted as he looked at her curiously. “Come again?”

Naina couldn’t explain, her face twisting in confusion. “I - I just spoke without thinking. It just happened.”

She subconsciously moved her hands to her jaws, flexing and un-flexing them, glancing at her brother whose face was contorted into a strange expression.

“You sure you are alright, Nans?”

“Yes, I must have read it somewhere.” She tried to reason. “Forget it.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud horn of a red-colored minivan that stopped right outside the entrance of the Mansion. Not expecting any visitors, and with the history of the place, the duo marched towards the large gate to find a stranger heading their way.

“Excuse me! Can you help us? There is an injured man. He’s losing a lot of blood.”

A girl, appearing in her late teens, spoke urgently. She was accompanied by another man who remained inside the van tending to the injured. Naina and Samraat rushed outside to inspect the situation. They stopped dead in their tracks, eyes wide at the sight of a pool of blood around the wounded man.

“Oh no! We need to help him.” Naina spoke frantically.

“Get the medical supplies,” Samraat ordered her, leaving no room for argument. He stepped in the van to lift the injured’s upper body. “Press the wound. We need to take him inside.”

Naina rushed inside the house to find her parents were nowhere to be seen. Having no idea where the supplies were, she anxiously searched the boxes randomly, the magic of the Mansion momentarily forgotten. The wounded man needed to be properly aided.

Going through the drawers, one after the other, she found certain medicines and a first aid box. Relief washed over her face as she grabbed the box and turned to dash on her heels. Right on cue, the trio arrived, balancing the man as they laid him on the bench.

“Here.” She handed the box. “Does anyone know how to apply proper dressing?”

“Yes,” The girl answered as she got down to work.

Fifteen minutes later, all of them were sitting on the floor beside the bench where the patient lay. He coughed slightly and murmured in a low voice, “Thank y-you. Thank you for saving my life.”

“How did this happen?” Samraat, ever the curious, couldn’t contain his question.

“Same old,” The other man, who drove them, shrugged. “Tornado. Relocation. Accidents. Panic all around the coast.”

“Tornado?” The voices of residents overlapped synchronously.

The visitors looked at them like they lived under the rock, their stares half startled, half incredulous.

“You don’t know? The entire coast is in chaos because of it. People are dying, panicking to find shelter and reach somewhere safe.” The girl answered on her group’s behalf, her voice tired and lost. “Our families split up, and now we are all we have.”

“We’re sorry,” Naina spoke, knowing well the feeling of loss of loved ones.

“We don’t expect you to understand. You are safe living inside the Mansion.”

The other guy, who appeared in his early twenties, spoke, his voice laced with baseless anger like he was silently refusing the Mansion’s resident’s fake apology. They did not know a thing.

The wheels of her mind took a sharp break at the term ‘safe’. Naina whispered to her brother, ignoring the residual tension. “The Mansion is the safest place on Earth. No wonder we didn’t feel a thing.”

With a calculative look, weighing her current options, she decided holding a grudge against her parents wouldn’t be fair, supposing it wasn’t entirely their fault.

“What are you guys talking about?” The visitor girl frowned.

“Ah - nothing, sorry,” Samraat said, extending his hands to shake. “I’m Samraat, by the way. You can call me Sam if you like.”

His hands were taken into warm ones. “I’m Tia, this is my neighbor and friend Ayaan, and the one injured over here is Mr. Rahil Kazmi. We met him at the camp just yesterday. He’s the one who helped us escape in grand theft auto.”

Samraat gave the wounded man a thumbs-up sign while Naina looked at him in wary. She hoped he wasn’t a criminal.

As if sensing her thoughts and judging by her expression, he grunted in a low voice. “I’m - was a detective. Worked for the government, undercover for twenty years before hell broke loose.” He was breathing hard by the time he finished his statement.

“He’ll be fine,” Tia spoke softly, her voice angelic. “It was imperative to prevent blood loss. He might faint and feel disoriented for hours, but he’ll be fine.”

“How do you know so much?” Samraat asked, his eyebrows furrowed in half amazement, half curiousness.

“I’m a nineteen-year-old medical student.” She said with a faint hint of proudness shadowed by noticeable despair. “Before this.”

“I don’t understand. How do you guys not know? The tornado had destroyed our homes and our families.” Ayaan asked in a dull voice devoid of emotions, though it did crack a bit in between as his face revealed nothing. Perhaps he suffered too much or was just too tired to express himself.

Feeling a strange pull, Naina wanted to cheer him up. She supposed her over-caring nature compelling her to feel compassion towards strangers.

“We moved in yesterday. We just came to know this morning that our home was destroyed too in an earthquake.” Naina spoke in a small voice, her expression drowning in desperation at the thought of their lost home.

Ayaan’s eyes widened briefly like he didn’t expect them to understand what they were going through. It was so fast that one would think it did not happen, but Naina was observant.

“I think I was too quick to judge.” Having said that, he muttered a quick wordless apology.

Naina nodded briefly. “Where were you going anyway?”

“We started from Scant Valley and headed north.”

Samraat’s frown deepened. “You do realize you followed east, right?”

“Impossible,” Mr. Rahil Kazmi said in a rough voice as he managed to sit up a bit, his face cringing slightly at the sudden pain. “They wanted to go to the camp to get some resources. Besides, we were keeping track. We were recently stationed and camped near ‘Jumbo Falls’.”

“Jumbo Falls? That’s like,” Calculating quickly in his mind, he answered, “eighty kilo-meters north-west.”

The injured man could only stare in disbelief.

“Something messed with your GPS. Brickstone Mansion is straight east to Scant Valley.”

“The Brickstone?” The injured man whispered and whipped his head to look around, despite the obvious pain.

He muttered something under his breath that Naina would have heard if her mind wasn’t already occupied. She knew her brothers’ calculations were correct, mentally following the numbers herself. She was even more certain that either the Mansion's magic was misdirecting them by changing its position or letting them believe they were on the right track, only to lead them wrongly.

As if suddenly remembering the morning conversation, she bolted and jumped on her legs, startling everyone. She wore an incredible look, and her voice sounded a bit shaky. “I don’t suppose you guys have anywhere else to go, do you?”

When they shook their heads in return, the speaker found herself in deep thought. They never intended to come to this place. If there was some powerful magic slinking into those walls that didn’t allow outsiders in, then why - why did it allow them? Is he luring them for some reason? The mere thought was unsettling. Naina discreetly thought about the mysterious man she had an unpleasant encounter with.

“Does she dozes off regularly?” Tia asked Samraat, who only grinned at the obvious discomfort.

“Not regularly.” He answered, playing the innocent card. “She is just not used to visitors.”

Naina wanted to smack her brother.

“Then you are just like my friend Ayan,” Tia responded. “He likes to keep to himself too.”

Ayaan shook his head and let out a tired sigh.

It was then Naina realized they mustn’t have eaten anything for a long time. With that thought, she went in search of a quick meal. Her family has a habit of storing a lot of food for emergencies. At that moment, she was very thankful to Heaven that her parents refused to be myopic and kept additional stock.

Quickly, the guests devoured food like they hadn’t had a proper meal for days. Perhaps they have not. Being on the run means survival and survival means gathering enough energy sources to stay alive. Naina couldn’t help but wonder what would happen once their parents found out. She wasn’t sure if her mother would let the outsiders stay given her history with the mansion.

“What is going on?” As if on cue, Mrs. Patil stepped in. Her voice ranged between shock and anger as she stared at three strangers inside the wing. “Who are they?”

She eyed the outsiders suspiciously.

“That’s Tia, Ayaan and Mr. Kazmi.” Naina answered, pointing at them one by one. She retold the events that happened, her mothers’ expression growing tense with every passing moment. Nonetheless, she patiently waited for her daughter to finish the details and gasped inwardly when a childhood memory suddenly flashed.

... and they come in traces five...

Her mind wondered briefly. She never once believed the words her mother told her any more than a passing bedtime story. Shaking her head, she refused to believe such possibilities. Because that’s what they were - possibilities. Her vision covertly roamed back to the portrait of Shaurya Lomhani. Was it truly happening?

This could be purely coincidental. She thought. Though the rational part of her brain continued to disagree, causing a fracture of thoughts inside her head.

The guests never exchanged pleasantries. The trio looked at the resident occupants in unsolicited desperation. They wanted to speak, but no words escaped their mouths. They merely glanced at one another in confusion mixed with rising fear. They have, after all, nowhere else to go.

Mrs. Patil nodded gravely. It’s not like she has a choice. “You can stay here until...”

Until when? She feared to think.

“Until you can find a better shelter.”

Naina could sense the lingering disappointment and dread in her mother’s voice. Perhaps she was right. They don’t know the mortal danger they are putting themselves in by choosing to stay here. Then again, was the outside world safe? She did not know what was worse, but she had to warn them.

Her mother left after muttering something she did not hear. Naina cleared her throat to gain attention. “Just remember, don’t roam in the mansion at night.”

She mentally applauded herself despite being vague. In her defense, no one can come up with an acceptable answer to demonstrate something supernatural in a span of a few minutes, especially when they are having a hard time digesting it.

Feeling the confusion around, her brother immediately came to the rescue and stepped in. “What she means is that it’s a huge mansion, and you might get lost or find something unpleasant, so just beware.”

Tia appeared perplexed but nodded anyway. She was mildly relieved they would no longer have to run.

Ayaan scrunched up his face in perpetual annoyance. He wasn’t sure if he liked their atrocious warning as his voice loomed in the vacant space. “We have just lost our families and barely survived ourselves. Yet, here you are, trying to scare us into believing some freaky telltale. Is this the time or the place? Have you no sensitivity?”

Samraat wanted to say, ‘This is the time and the place.’ but stopped when the girl intervened.

“Ayaan,” Tia shook her head disapprovingly, resting a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

“They want us to leave, Tia. Can’t you tell?” His eyes narrowed at the two residents, who were too shocked to utter a word. He scoffed. “To come across something unpleasant like we haven’t already been through it. Let’s go.”

Naina couldn’t believe her ears, and she promptly refused as her anger started to boil. It’s not like they were having the time of their lives. “That’s not true. We have done nothing but help you and your friends.”

“Really? What’s the deal about not wandering at night?” Ayaan stood directly in front, towering over her with his arms crossed. The spark of their respective indignation hovered in the aura around them, clashing like sharp swords.

“That’s just a precaution,” she said evenly.

“What in the world could be worse than disaster stealing lives?” He yelled outrageously, stomping his foot hard. At that moment, Naina assumed, after taking in his current state, he would have given anything to get his old life back. The same old life that was sucked into oblivion by a destructive force.

“I’m waiting outside.” He informed his fellow partners before storming out.

Just then, the sky made a thunderous roar followed by heavy rain. The thunder was wrapped in powerful lighting that made its way down to the ground, effectively launching itself on the certain red minivan.