After seven unbearably long days of waiting, the day finally came when the foursome gathered at the railway station, with their parents, to see them off.

The train sped off to Indore.

Every one of them was busy in their own work-Kartike was lost in his dream world with a couple bars of chocolate given to him by his father, Rohit was desperately trying to see through the window, although it wasn't very clean from the outside; Pooja was incessantly trying to stir up conversation with an uninterested fellow passenger, and Avantika was engrossed in a book.

As darkness fell, they extracted from their bags the tiffins their families had packed for them with food for the journey, and shared dinner. A short while later, all of them were sound asleep in their respective berths, while the train chugged along breaking the silence of the night.

Morning arrived. Once they reached their destination, the four got in Rohit's uncle's car. After a couple of hours, they finally drove into Barwaha. Rohit's grandparents, who, incidentally, lived in the same village, had invited all of them to her home for brunch. Upon arriving, they went to freshen themselves up and had a quick bath each.

"Finally, some delicious food to relish..." Kartike said between mouthfuls of Chhole-Bhatoore.

Rohit added, "Really, it was a tiring ride from Indore to Barwaha. But I'm getting mighty excited just by thinking what fun we'll be having here!"

"You shouldn't talk while eating, silly!" teased Avantika.

Pooja joined the conversation, "But, really, the food is mouth-watering, dadi. Well, does anybody know when'll Aisha join us? Didn't you say, Avi, that she'll reach here today?"

"Oh! Yes. Forgot to tell you all; her flight got delayed. She'll be joining us tomorrow at the tree house itself. I had given her the address I noted for my parents to contact if they wanted to. It's your aunt's, Pooja, isn't it?"

"Yes. She has a big house. It takes only 5 minutes to walk over to the tree house from there."

'Thank God we have a day more to spend with just the four of us together. If Aisha were here, fights would have already broken out between us. After all, she is a stark contrast to Avantika, who is ever the peace-maker; while she is a trouble maker.' thought Rohit.

"Come on children, I'm sure you'd like a walk around our village, and it would be good for your stomachs, too-It would help the food to digest fast!" Rohit's grandma interrupted his thoughts.

Twenty minutes later, the four friends were strolling down the village roads listening to the "interesting facts" about the village (which were, however, interesting only to Rohit's Grandma and Grandpa).

They explored the banks of the Narmada and planned to have a swim in the revered river the next day; they trudged along inside a small but dense forest patch outside the village, used by woodcutters and as a shortcut by villagers; they learnt about the schooling there by interacting with some rural students; and lastly, they visited a small-scale factory, to see how village products are manufactured in reality. They then took a less travelled path back into the village, along which they crossed an abandoned-looking, old and seemingly deserted mansion.

The elders told them that it had been earlier a hangout for a band of robbers, and that since they were caught, it had been completely avoided by all people. The owners could never really be traced, they said, although it was told that many decades before they were born the mansion was owned by a wealthy royal family.

Rohit's grandpa explained, with a mischievous smile playing on his lips, that people had seen the ghost of a victim of the robbers haunting it-which grandma described as a whole bunch of rubbish talk spread by some good-for-nothing fellows in the village. "Don't take it seriously beta, he loves to frighten children, tease and play tricks on them," Rohit's grandma referred to her husband, seeing the tense looks on the foursome's faces.

"Well, there may not be ghosts of the robbers' victims, but who can be sure that the ancient ghosts of the old royal family don't roam there?" His grandfather protested, enjoying frightening them a lot.

Pooja noticed that it was quite near her tree house, and felt a shiver run down her spine. What if what Rohit's grandfather was saying was really true? She was quite afraid of ghosts and didn't even read horror stories, but this? A haunted house so near to them? It was really indigestible for her! She made a mental note to ask her mausi (aunt) about it, she must know the truth, living so near to it.

Though Pooja was worrying because she was frightened, the other three children smelled a rat in the story. When the robbers had already been caught, then why did the villagers still fear the mansion? Of course, there were no such things as ghosts...or wait, did they really exist? No, obviously not!

It was a mystery they would definitely have wanted to investigate and solve, if they got a chance. But that didn't seem very likely, with Aisha arriving soon!