The Curfew - Part 8

They ran for twenty minutes into deep woods without any idea where they were heading to. Finally Rohan stopped and bent down with his hands on his hips. He was breathing hard. He looked behind. Even girls had stopped to get some air. Their legs ached. "Let's go !", Rohan said. His wife questioned, "Where ?" "Do you know where are we going ? We don't know whether this road will take us home. We might be lost.", she continued.

Rohan thought deeply. "What should we do ?  We can't wait here for the monster to get hold of us.", he asked. " I told you we should have started early. You never listen.", she complained. "Yeah I should have. But I have always told your dad to shift to city with us. He never listens. You know how dangerous this place is. None of you girls try to persuade your family to shift.", he spoke his heart out. Diya wasn't surprised by his response but she didn't like her brother in law accusing her for no fault of hers. She had tried to persuade her dad. He never listens to anyone , forget about his own daughters.

Deepika was angry at his allegations. She wanted to slap him. Instead she ran. Rohan and Diya followed her after calling her name many times. Her speed wasn't too fast. Before Rohan could stop her, the demon arrived in front of her. She stopped. Her eyes were open wide and filled with fear. Her body was shivering. She wanted to scream but she felt her voice stuck inside. Diya and Rohan were stunned. 

The monster roared loudly with his eyes closed. Using this as opportunity, Rohan pulled his wife by her hand and started running left side. Diya followed them while momentarily watching out for the monster. The demon didn't seem to be bothered. He was still roaring. When they realized they were far away from the sight of monster, Rohan asked, "Do you know where a nearby temple is ?" The girls looked at him with confused glance.  

"The temple of Lord Narasimha ?", Diya asked. "I don't know. The injured man we had met on our way had said that we must run to a temple. He didn't say which one.", Rohan spoke remembering about the exact words the man had said. "Why didn't you tell us this before ?", Deepika asked disappointingly. "I.. well.. I thought the man was making up because he was in shock. I only realized that he was ghost after he vanished. I didn't know whether to believe him or not." , he said while scratching his hair in embarrassment.

His wife stared at him angrily. "How can you believe him now ? There are many ghosts and demons in this area. Who knows he is one of the pawns of the demons trying to trick us !", she said sarcastically. "What are you saying, Akka? Why would a ghost advise us to go to temple ?", Diya said unaware of sarcasm in her sister's words.  "I know that ! But your brother in law assumed many things without even sharing the words of the ghost. Now let's go.", Deepika said while guiding them to the temple. She knew the way of the temple. Her mom used to take them to the temple when she and her sister were children. She hardly visited the temple now. She wondered why it didn't struck her to come here first. Anyway, fear had numbed their intelligence.

(To be continued)