"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

"Open the door." A female voice yelled.

"Somebody, please open this door," she yelled before starting to bang the door again with whatever strength she had left in her. 

"I am not crazy, I saw him. Why won't anyone believe me? I saw him. He was there," she cried out.

The girl has been shouting out loud for hours, for someone to listen to her, to believe her. But no one did. And why would they? They have heard the same voice, repeating the same words, again and again, from the past two hours. She had called out almost all the names she knew of the household help, but no one dared to open the door.

"Can't we do something to help her out?" A voice whispered helplessly to Ramchand, the head of household.

"Don't worry, Janki betiya, I have called her friends, they are on their way," Ramchand assured the gentle girl who was relatively new to the doings of the mansion he has been working in ever since he was in his late twenties.

In the past four decades that Ramchand has worked in the almost deserted mansion, he had seen everything that has happened there. He has seen his Bade saheb marrying a very young girl and the birth of a child with the innocent smile and twinkling eyes.

As the time past, he has seen that child becoming aware of his surroundings and then he has seen those eyes hardening and that innocent smile disappearing. He has seen how that child was mistreated by his parents. But more than anything else he has seen how the only child of two parents grew up without one. 

The father who was supposed to hold the small hands of the child when he was learning to walk had started to push him away before he could stand on his small feet, so he had to learn it on his own, falling and hurting himself and crying but stand up again on his own. And then the child was completely abandoned by the father when he was barely a teen, he was left there is the deserted mansion with expensive toys but no one to play with. 

The mother who was supposed to nurture the child, to protect him from the evil world, was the biggest curse of his life. Ramchand had never once seen the mother hug the child even when he was a toddler but at the same time, she never left him alone in peace, like a dark shadow of pure evil, till the very last second of that dark night... 

That night which changed everything...

More than anyone else, it was Ramchand knew the past of the mansion, as he knew its present. The mansion was the envy of many who didn't know that it was just walls of cold stones, just like the hearts of its owners. He knew, and that's why he felt more guilty than anyone else for not responding to the calls of help from the girl locked in the room. 

And why would not he? After all, she was the reason why he has seen the glimpse of that innocent smile of the child on the face of a teenage boy. He had seen the hardening of those eyes, melting, till they looked nothing but a warm fusion of brown chocolate. She was the one, and the only who has saved not only the boy but also the child who still lived, somewhere, in the body of the teenage boy. And now she was the only one who was actually trying to find him, even though it has been four years since that night... 

Earlier today, when Raju, the watchman, has told Ramchand that she was here, he had been shocked because the last time she had stepped in the mansion was four years ago. He had run at once, leaving whatever he had been doing to her one call.

"I wanted to meet you. You are the only one who can help me. I wanted your Bade sahab's mobile number or a way to contact him." She had said to him as soon as he stepped in the living room where she was waiting for him.

"Oh, please wait here, let me go and get it for you." He told her and, despite his old age, almost run to servant quarters.

Ignoring the pain he was suffering, he took out his old dairy where he has written down his Bade sahab's number. Ramchand knew the number he was going to give the girl will get him punished. No one apart from him had it, Bade Sahab will know it was him. But he could never deny anything to the girl who was trying to find the child Ramchand saw growing up in an angry yet thoughtful teenage boy. She had been the only one who understood him, loved him, and for that only Ramchand felt as if owed her anything she asked...

"Here," Ramchand had given her the number, breathing hard. His old joints were trembling with fatigue with all the running around, but everything was worth the smile he got from her.

"Thank you so much," the girl had told him, smiling.

"And what are you doing here?"

And then both of them had heard someone say.

As they had turned, the woman in a red dress entered in the living room where they were standing.

"No.nothing, Malikin. She was going anyway," Ramchand had responded, stuttering, trying to save the situation. 

But when he had looked between the girl and the women in red, he knew anything said by him wasn't going to be effective now. The woman dressed in red now had her eyes on the girl, who was standing still, fists clenched tightly, staring back at the woman. 

And that's how it had started, the fight, as it had always happened in the past whenever one of them came across the other.

"I asked you something, what are you doing here? - Who the hell let her in?" The woman in red asked others when the girl didn't answer.

"You, out. Now. Get out of my house." The woman had yelled, scaring everyone but the girl.

"I was going anyway as I got what I wanted, but now that you want me out, I won't."The girl had said, moving to one of the sofas to sit with ease. Putting her bag on one side, she had leaned back and relaxed, as if she was sitting in her own home.

'Well, this would have been her home, one day, if that night didn't happen,' Ramchand had thought, saddened greatly.

"And by the way, you carry on, Nyonika. Order all you want, yell all you want. Do whatever you want till you are in time to do so, because soon he will come back and then you'll be the one going out." The girl had calmly told the woman in red, smiling in the end, but this smile was different from the one she gave others. This one was poisonous, full of hatred.

"He? Who he? Are you finally out of your mind? Do you want me to admit you to Psychiatric hospitals" Nyonika had answered back, there was no doubt, no one was more venomous than her.

"You know what? You lasted longer than I thought you will." she continued as started walking near to the sofa where the girl was sitting.

"You know, looking at you that day, in the court, I thought you will die from the pain of being separated from your oh-so-true love. But here you are, still alive." She had said smiling a dangerous. A smile which indicated that the next words coming out of her mouth were going to hurt the girl like nothing else she had said before had.

"Well, not really alive, are you? The pain of his death has finally driven you to madness, hasn't it?"

Ramchand had closed his eyes, like everyone present there had, in pain. Their hearts shaken with the credulity of the woman in red had missed several beats. Before knowing her, they never had thought a mother could pronounce those words for her own child. The only child.

"He is alive. I have seen him." The girl had confessed, angered. 

"He is in London, and I am going to make sure he comes back. And you are going to suffer, more than anyone else has in this world. You are going to pay for every misdeed you have committed, I promise you that." The girl had claimed, confidently, now standing near the sofa, just a few steps away from the woman in red.

"Shut up. Shut up, I am done with your madness. You don't want to go, right? I will make you beg for it."

Saying that the woman in red had almost flown like a Hawk, covering the distance left between them and had gripped the girl's hand and had dragged her to the room close by and had pushed her inside, locking the room with the key, and then she had turned to look at everyone present.

"Take a step closer to this room, and I will make sure that you or anyone from your family doesn't find a job to survive in this city." Nyonika had dared them, more like the threat.

Nyonika Ma'am, Malkin, or the she-devil, as they called her, was known to be cruel, so they knew whatever she said, she meant it. And from that moment, the girl had been trying to open the door, calling someone, anyone to help her out. 

At first, they all had ignored the calls of help, after some time when they just could not, one by one they had all turned to the only one who could help her -Ramchand. The only one who somehow knew the contact numbers of the friends and family of almost everyone, and only then, he had assured everyone that he has already called hers.

There was only one of them, Janki, who had asked him again and again if there was anything they could do to help the girl. Ramchand feared for her kindness and fragile heart. The rest of them were used to the she-devil, but she wasn't, yet...

'She has to learn the ways of this mansion or will have to go away, sooner than she would want to,' Ramchand thought.

All of them knew when the she-devil would get to know that someone had defied her and has helped the girl, hell will break loose. But by now due to brotherhood between all of them, when they will be asked who did it, they won't tell who it was. Not only because Ramchand was their senior but also the one who has saved them, time to time, from getting punished severely.

This time, most probably all of them were going to take the burn of Nyonika Ma'am's anger, but it will worth it. The brutal consequences of ignoring an order from her are going to be very heavy, but nothing compared to their love for the child they have seen growing up in an angry but kind teen. 

They had been missing his presence in their life ever since that night. And if the girl was right this time around - they hoped she was - he was going to come back in their life as the protector he has always been for them. If she was right, they were going to have him back to save them from the she-devil's wrath.

Please, let it be true. 

Their heart prayed...

* * * * 

A/N:- Here is the first chapter... I hope you liked it and please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! :)