His bundled-up emotions burst out once they were back in their rooms.

"Why did you say that mother?!" mother turned around surprised at the sudden outburst," You know we can't stay here," he concluded and began pacing the living room like a caged lion.

"Calm down, son...why do you get so hyper...like your father," her words halted his step.

Sukhi and her children failed to smother their laugh. That seemed to embarrass him further, being scolded by his mother in front of the children, and grinned it away.

Moving to her bed, mother rested her aching feet on the bed, while sukhi retired to the inner room to change and put the children to bed.

"Maan, we must do at least that for him," she began to reason, "I want to stay here till my niece gets better and up on her feet and capable to look after her father. Then we can leave from here on some pretext or the other," she kept her thoughts in front of him.

"But mother, for how long?" he countered, "I have not yet properly established my business. Orders are coming in regularly and I have to put them off because I am here and uncertain about my return. Then the children's school also matters," he too had strong cards in hand.

"You are right in your place," she agreed, "but you had set a week for our outing here, didn't you?" to which he nodded, "Then we shall stay here at least a week. What do you say?" she returned the ball to his court now.

"Ok, a week then," it was a triumph for mother in this game of words.

"I would like to see Nayantara tomorrow," she put forth a request, "I just want to see her, that's all. She is also your cousin, don't you want to see her," she explained with a hurt look.

"Mother...you don't have to emotionally blackmail me. Like you, I too care for her and Raja Saheb and want to visit her" he eased her fears, "You don't think I am heartless because of what they did to you and father, do you?" he said, "Don't worry, if the doctor allows it, then we will go and visit her tomorrow. And mother fretting yourself will hurt your health," he said with a knowing smile. And sat down beside her and just the Sukhi entered the room.

"Ok, then I will take your leave. Take your medications and go to sleep," he saw Sukhi taking out medicines from the bag, "How is your pain in the knees?"

"Some pain never leaves you, it stays there as a reminder," she said, "it has lessened though," Sukhi came up with the medicines and a glass of water.

"Goodnight, mother,"

"Goodnight, sister,"

"Goodnight, Maan," both echoed together.

Once changed out of his dinner clothes, he lay down on the bed and took up his phone. He re-read Miss Sakhi's message she sends to intimate him of her safe arrival at her hotel. He wondered if it was too late for him to give her a call. He dialed her number and was surprised that it was received quickly after two rings.

"Hello, Bandu," he was greeted with an excited voice.

"Miss Sakhi, I hope you are well?" he was laid off track and didn't know what to say.

"Yes Bandu, I am fine. We met in the morning, didn't we?"

"Yes...yes," he felt embarrassed. There was a few moments of silence and then both of them spoke together.

"Did you meet..."

"I met the director,"

Both stopped and then Sakhi spoke first.

"Yes, I met him and was waiting to talk to you about it. He informed me that the team at Ghatti was facing some problems. A messenger had arrived with their letter,"

"Why, what happened?" he sat up on his bed, hearing that.

"It seems that the climatic conditions are not suiting them and have requested to abort the mission and return home,"

"Climatic conditions?!"

"Yes, the members had developed rashes on their skin all over the body; some have a fever and are hospitalized with burns. This happened after they entered the site area to evaluate the place, but soon after developed these symptoms. Everyone has left the place and has moved to the nearby town of Chalat,"

"That had to happen. Advise them to leave the research at this point. No one can enter that cursed place,"

"No, Bandu, only one person can enter that place," she said swiftly and paused midway as though rethinking about her hasty spoken words.

"Who?!" his grave stern voice met with silence from the other end.

"Who...Miss Sakhi?" he repeated the question in a rather mellowed tone this time.

"Bandu...only you can go there. You are the last living male member of the tribe that lived there once,"

"That's nonsense...it's not true. I just don't believe it,"

"It's true Bandu...I know it,"

"You know it...How can you? Who told you?"

"You know I came to Hattipur to retrieve the contents of my father's locker. There in the locker were the remains of the final papers of the research my father did on Ghatti,"

"But you did not mention it when you came to Ratanpur,"

"I was urgently summoned to Ratanpur and had no time to open and read the papers. It was only today that I was able to go through the entire documents and learned some strange and unbelievable secrets,"

"I would really like to know more of your findings, Miss Sakhi. I hope you don't mind sharing it with me"

"No, Bandu, I don't mind. You should know that there used to be a village there once, your ancestors to be precise,"

"Village...but I never saw any village there before,"

"You have been there!!" her shrill voice penetrated his ears and he held it at a distance, "You never once told me about it...why?" he could feel the heat.

"My trip there was as a child accompanied by my father. That place you call Ghatti is in my memory as flashes. I am not sure if you and I are talking about the same place. Maybe if you describe something more about it then perhaps I can be sure," his truthfulness calmed her down.

"I am really sorry Bandu at that sudden outburst..."

"It's no problem, Miss Sakhi,"

"As I was saying, the village was no ordinary one, there was a mine of precious stones under that land,"

"What?!" it was his time to be stupefied.

"Yes, Bandu, it's true. But the entrance to that mine was on top of a mountain, secretly hidden inside a temple. There is but one more catch here. Below the mountain there exist a dormant volcano. The villagers never entered the mine unless an emergency had cropped up," she paused when at the other end there was silence.

"Bandu are you listening?"

"Yes...yes" his voice came low.

"What happened are you alright?"

"Yes...just that these were triggering my memory. Please go on,"

"The villagers entered the mine only of dire needs and only a male member could enter it after certain rituals. These customs, I feel are superstitious though. And any attempt to enter it other than that would bring doom to the tribe, it was believed. Unfortunately, every tribe like this has a black sheep. The secret was leaked to an outsider who bribed that member, painting a wonderful future ahead. Until that fateful night, when that traitor entered the temple and retrieved the stones, beliefs the villagers followed as rules came alive. The whole village trembled like an earthquake and all the boulders went loose from the earth and tumbled down the mountain crushing the houses and crushing the sleeping people in them. The land sort of split up and swallowed everything as molten fire erupted from it. Then just as it rumbled and tumbled it calmed down too. Everything became silent, the air was hot and steam arouse from the ground. The molten balls of fire turned to stone, but there was still the heat in it coming out as fumes. There was no sign of any living being or even a green patch. Speckles of dust arouse like mist and filled the air there. There was no wind just hot steam over the village and mountain," Both of them pondered over the tale in silence.

"How did my father survive then?"

"You can say luck. A naughty boy that he was, had thieved himself out of the village to catch some fireflies that fateful night. The rumbling alerted him and he ran back only to witness the carnage with his eyes. His family and friends all went down and under in a matter of minutes. He spend the night weeping his heart out for his people and in the morning ran out into the village on his desperate feet hoping against hope for a glimpse of life. But all that his eyes saw were boulders, big and small all over the area where once stood his village. He searched, tried to move the boulders, and dig out the hardened earth with his bare hands. It was as though a was never an existence of a village there. He sat there the whole day wishing for a miracle to happen, but he could hear nothing other than the hungry growl of his stomach. He let himself walk until he reached another village and hearing his story they refused him any food and threw stones at him as though he was a curse. He escaped from that place and never repeated his story ever again other than to my father,"

"Bandu...hello...are you there?"

"Yes...I am here...Miss Sakhi," his voice seemed like he was awakened from a long sleep, "I just don't know what to say,"

"The mine, according to my father's estimate then was valued at billions,"

"But no one can mine it, right?"

"Right..."she hesitated.

"Is there anything else?"

"Other than our fathers, there was one more person on whom the secret was revealed when he overheard their conversation,"