Siddharth's POV

I went on reading the diary.

As the next day arrived she forgot everything as it was her birthday and in fact the best birthday of her life. Her parents surprised her with a treehouse that they build on their own and a chest full of dolls. Her sister made a beautiful white dress for her and her brother gifted her a music box which played a very soulful yet melancholy tune but it was too beautiful. Even after all these, the fact that she was adopted made her depressed sometimes especially when she is alone. She just couldn't accept it so easily. She wondered who her actual parents were and why did they leave her and her brother.

On the other hand, her mother Mrs. Amanda Snow was suffering from a prolonged headache along with cough and cold as well as fever. This made Nidhi even sadder. The only people she had in her life, her family, she didn't want to lose them. She could feel that there was something seriously wrong with her mother.

After few days her mother started to cough blood. Several doctors treated her but none could help her much. The last doctor who treated her was Mr. Dhiraj Jain. With his medication, she was improving a bit but the improvement was too slow. There were dark circles underneath her mother's eyes. Once the cheerful bright women now become dull and pale. The happiness and cheerfulness of the Snow family had almost gone away.

One fine day a cheerful lady in her 30s just like her mother came to their house. She came as a nurse to treat their mother. Her name was Miss. Elizabeth Wood. As her mother's condition was improving they again started to laugh and have fun. But soon her mother's condition started to deteriorate yet again and much rapidly.

None of the doctor's medication worked anymore and after a month of suffering her mother died. On the last day of her life, she called her daughters and son and said in a very shaky voice "My love you know mamma loves you all! She can't live without you but she has to go now. Remember she will always be there with you no matters what! Watching over you. Be brave and kind!"

These were her last words, her trembling silvery voice still lingered in Nidhi's ears and she would break down every time she remembered her. Maybe she was not her birth mother but she loved her truly, she was her mother whom she loved dearly.

Her mother's death left the family devastated. Her father couldn't concentrate on his works neither did any of them. Her elder sister almost stopped talking with anyone, so was her father. He buried himself with work and alcohol. Her brother spent most of his time roaming in the woods. He used to say that coming back to this house makes him remember his mother more so he stays away trying to let her go. All this was too much for a 6 years old girl. She cried day and night all alone and locked herself in her room in the attic. She never anymore went to the treehouse that she used to spend most of her days once.

Every time she went there she remembered how her mother used to bring her milk and cookies and they used to play with the dolls, the woods around them were so comforting once, but now it felt so sinister.

She didn't even go to their backyard anymore. As days passed her sister and brother tried their best to help their little sister and to get her out and make her smile while coping with grief but she just stayed still like a doll. Her father's condition was also the same. He too locked himself up most of the time or went out on long trips for business purposes to different countries. He mostly stayed away from here just to avoid all his memories.

During this devastating time only Miss. Woods stayed with them and helped them. Or she pretended to. Nidhi never liked her. Some part of her heart said, Miss. Woods was the cause for the death of her mother. On the other hand, her sister and brother loved her. She always felt very uneasy around her, although Miss. Woods had very pretty facial features yet there was something very cold and evil in her eyes. As days went on Nidhi found herself more alone and depressed.

She started hearing voices. It was her mother's. Her mother's voice always told her it was Miss. Woods who killed her and so Nidhi must take her sister, brother, and father and run away as far as she could from her. She would kill them too. Nidhi tried to explain this to her sister and brother but none listened and rather took her to a psychiatrist suggested by Miss. Woods. The doctor suggested she was mentally very unstable and hearing voice and all was nothing but a coping mechanism for her.

He gave her several medications which made her feel sick. She protested about not taking the medicines but no one listened to her.

"This is only to help you!" Her sister told her. But Nidhi knew she was not sick or mentally unstable. She believed what she heard was true. With each passing day, she became frustrated with no one believing her. Once she even pushed Miss. Woods causing her to fall and hurt herself while she was trying to feed Nidhi the medicines.

"What's wrong with you Nidhi?" Rebecca exclaimed, her voice was rather disappointed and worried. The doctor declared her a lunatic.

She was kept on strict medication and was mostly locked in her room. Every day from her room she watched the sunrise and sunset in the distant mountains. The woods by their house grew denser as if engulfing the light around. The beautiful birds chirping and flying, but she was locked inside. She just wanted to be free. Days went on like this. Every passing day became more and more painful for her. As days went on, the soft voices she used to hear of her mother stopped, rather she started hearing some creepy voices in her head. The medication made her weak day by day and she was suffering from a prolonged headache.

One day suddenly as she woke up in the morning she found the windows in her room covered and painted black so that no light could enter. A bulb hanging from the ceiling was the only light source of the room. It was so gloomy, so suffocative. She protested and for that, she was beaten by Miss. Woods. As days went on in that gloomy faintly lighted room she couldn't keep track of whether it was day or night. For many weeks she hasn't heard from her family too. The chirping of birds that kept her company was no longer heard. There was a grave silence that surrounded her. Why were they behaving like this, was her biggest question. No one came to meet her, she lived all alone in the darkness. Her only recreation was watching nature from the windows, which was also taken away from her. Her diary was her only companion.

As days went on she realized her eyesight was becoming poor, her perceptions were getting weaker. Initially, Miss. woods used to bring her food three times a day, but slowly she only brought her food once every morning. She wrote in her diary how weaker she felt with each passing day, she became so skinny. Initially, she couldn't sleep all night due to hunger but now her weakness takes over and she lays on the shabby bed, dozing off to an eternal slumber. All of a sudden a creepy poem started playing in her head.

My pain echoed through the empty halls,

Devil lurking in the walls;

Darkness resides in my mind

My demons you will find.

She started scribbling that creepy poem on the walls, on the pages of her notebook.

Looking through the old and tattered pages, I realized how creepy and twisted her handwriting became. She had no idea what she was doing anymore. I could understand from the pages how disturbed she was. She was losing her mental stability, she was slowly turned lunatic. With each passing day, she was losing her sanity more and more. Her only hope was her brother or her sister or her father, if only they understood. But no one ever came.

Her last entry in her diary was 19th December 1949. On the last page of her entry, she wrote her only wish was to see her family one last time and to breathe out once in the open fields...

She just wanted the world to know that her mother didn't just die out of illness, she was killed rather murdered. She just wanted the guilty to be punished.

I couldn't understand when tears rolled down my cheeks. She must have died somedays after the 19th. It was so barbaric, inhuman, how can someone be so ruthless? Several questions flooded my mind when I heard a sudden knock on my door, startling me. Sighing I went over to open it revealing Pamela, Anirudh, and Ashis.

"Sid can we come in?" Ashis asked looking at my devastated condition. I nodded in positive and they walked in.

"Hey! Sid, how are you?" Pamela asked placing her hand on my shoulder. I just faked a smile. They knew very well I am not alright, I can't be when Ann is admitted to the ICU, and her condition hasn't improved even a bit. Ashish went and took a seat on my bean bag while Pamela and Anirudh came and sat beside me on the couch in my room.

"Look at you!" Pamela spoke almost with a scolding tone as she tried to fix my messy hair. "You are not eating properly, your brother told us!", she continued. I looked down, avoiding them

"Hey, Sid! Listen I know you are sad and devastated, we all are, but we just can't sit like this shedding tears! We got to be strong!" Anirudh spoke

"Yeah! Please Sid don't just survive, live this life. Listen, all this whatever is happening is not much logical in fact it's really creepy and unexplained. So, I was thinking let's solve this mystery, whatever it is that was buried down in the darkness many years ago. Might be it will help us to save our friends." Pamela said as she placed her hand on my shoulder, her voice so thoughtful and concerned, "I don't know, but I hate this feeling of helplessness, I can't see my friends broken like this; Ann, Pihu, I cant see them with all those machines attached to their bodies. I wanna do something, whatever it takes to help. There is nothing certain but I think it might help us." Pam spoke with sincerity. The others nodded in support of her statement anticipating my reply.

"...I think... You are right Pam!" I replied breaking the awkward silence among us. Honestly, I was thinking the same. Maybe there is something, something very dark which was once buried deep within that house wants to be heard.

"That's really so great Sid! Let's solve this and save our friends." Anirudh spoke exchanging a look with the others, "But you know Sam is still not much in all this. He believes if we try to dig old history it might turn out to be something very harrowing and it might put them in more danger. But I think we need to do something. We need to bring him in!"

"Hmm...Let's see!" Pam replied while her gaze was fixed on the diary on my table. She looked at me for some explanation and so I told my friends what I read.

"How horrible!" Ashish commented.

"Wait! You said Rebecca Snow right?" Pamela asked, her eyebrows knitted in a frown.

"Yeah, why what happened?" I asked her completely puzzled, and so were the others.

"Nidhi's sister was Rebecca Snow! You know that day when we found Pihu, she was found on the tombstone of Rebecca Snow. Do you think there is some kind of connection?" Pam said looking confused and so were we.

"Might be! I don't know!" I replied wondering what was going on.

"There is something you need to know guys!" I said gaining all of their attention, "Nidhi, the one who must be dead by 67 years now has been visiting Ann every day with some beautiful orchids!" I replied making all my friends gasp in fear.

"Are you serious man?" Ashis asked looking pale.

"I guess he can be right! Cause I think I saw Rebecca Snow too!" Pam said making both Ashis and Anirudh jump in their seat.

"What!" They exclaimed in unison, their voices utterly confused.

"When and how?" I asked her.

"Well, that day when we were trying to find Pihu in that house after you guys left, we saw a beautiful girl in the mirror, the one that is kept in their library. Although there was nobody in the house. It was really very creepy." She spoke, I could sense she was feeling a bit uneasy remembering what happened that day. "She had beautiful, yet very cold and spine-chilling, bright blue eyes. While we were running out of the house she caught hold of me and said 'save them, free us!' I don't know much what she really meant but I guess something was awfully wrong, something terrible must have happened within those walls, and whatever is trapped there is seeking help from us." Pam said her expression tensed yet thoughtful.

"I too think so! We need to know more of this mystery and for that, we need to talk to Nidhi directly!" I replied and Pam nodded in acceptance.

"Are you guys serious?" Both Ashis and Anirudh asked, fear prominent in their voice.

"Yes, we are!" Pam replied giving a 'stop being paranoid' look.

"I think we need to search the house too! We might get some more pieces to our puzzle, and the daunting Manan Forest, you don't know guys what I learned about that forest !" Pam said, her voice sounded a little distressed.

"What did you learn?" I asked her as I looked at her, my forehead puckered with confusion. She narrated her disquiet and perturbed experience in the forest while they were searching for Pihu. My eyes widen in shock.

"What? How horrible! Is it true? Why were those children killed?" I asked, my voice sounding completely miserable. Suddenly it struck me, that day, that boy, "Wait, guys! Is there any other orphanage in town presently which is in a working state?" I asked.

"No, we never had any other orphanage except for that one whose children drowned!" Ashis spoke as he looked at me with confusion evident in his eyes.

"What the-" I whispered in shock as I recalled the pale boy I saw that day who claimed to be from the orphanage in the town. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead.

"What happened Sid?" Anirudh asked anticipating something worse as he looked at my pale face.

"You guys remember the bracelets I brought that day!"

"Yeah?"

"I think the boy who came to my house that day, he was Dave, Nidhi's brother!" I spoke, all of us having the same confused and scared look on our faces.

Hello everyone! I hope you will like this chapter!! Let me know how is it going?

Keep voting, sharing, and please comment!