Now it was only two years for both of them to put up with each other, as after this, as per their mum, Sofia would be blessed (& Hannah disgusted cause of the higher competition) with education in medicine.

‘I wish she could go before two years’ thought Hannah angrily, though, as has been seen, it wasn’t a plus point at her behalf at all. Letting Sofia do something that she couldn’t do even after putting together the might of Sarah & Moon’s let alone only hers. After any such incident would happen, Sofia would have more chances for trying her sarcastic blows over them both.

Still Hannah thought, it would be a real mess handling Fahad all on her own. In fact, it was more unnerving then living with Sofia only. For he was sure to make so silly mistakes that no one in his right mind could make even naively. He would look distracted for most part of the day, (during night he would sleep) and to top it all off, his jumpy vagueness could easily create real chaos in the jobs he was assigned. Always banging around, bumping into things, bashing against stuff, tripping over objects, Fahad was the only accident-prone kid of the colony.

Many a times he had placed his specs in sink, trying to wear the glass of water & once, when her mum shouted at him when she saw him practicing it, all perplexed at the sudden scolding, he picked up a plate from sink, trying it instead. He even had once drunk a mouth full of oil instead of his soft drink when mum was oiling his hair. though he hadn’t realized it until he heard Sofia yelling from beside him & after that he fainted only because of fear as doctors said the oil hadn’t damaged any of his internal organs (‘The damaged part was already there with him by birth, doctor. It’s his brain’ Sofia replied.). & even it was no good when he tried using his brains, more precisely it would turn up even dangerous that time. Once, he slopped a glass of water on Sofia’s cell phone accidentally & telling her would be no less dangerous than going in for a bullfight so he thought of a remedy on his own. Stealthily placing it in the microwave oven, he waited on a chair for the timer to stop & expose phone in its former state. & alas, Sofia entered the kitchen that very moment when a noisy blast from microwave oven made Fahad collapse onto the floor with his chair. The cell phone had blasted, Thanks to the intellect of Fahad. Therefore, it really was terrible to keep in a good temper for passing just half an hour with him. & there, thus was no good choice for Hannah either she was left with Sofia or Fahad.

‘Dear me’! She heaved up a sigh, ‘wait & pray’. Murmured the poor girl dejectedly, staring at moon that has vanished again behind the clouds, skimming all over heavens with their forming & breaking, merging & segregating formation & the parting of this nocturnal fellow ultimately dragged Hannah into a sound slumber.

***

Not very long after that, the clouds seemed to have been puffed into nothingness to give way to the only celestial being overhead. The light though weak coming out of the spotty winter moon, was still enough to light the dark & deserted streets, still houses, murky doors & dim windows, a little. But still some windows of a house- that was at a good distance from the colony- at the foot of a high-rise mountain crammed with palm growth, weren’t dark; In fact that house would have looked more a part of wood if it had not been for the lights showing meekly out of some windows.

The house appeared rather ancient, still well maintained, in the wonky light. Built on a much old-fashioned English theme, it gave no lesser spooky view then a ‘ghost house’ with a full sallow moon silhouetting the lofty pine trees at its back to add to the admonitory looks of the environ.

Suddenly a buff illuminated the dark & deserted front path of the house, being sieved through the bay window of a room for a couple of seconds & then it went out as suddenly as it has appeared. The inside of that room was all dark and lifeless, but soon there was a movement behind the only bed lying in the room. There was a girl trying to gawp at the darkness warily. She had some clothes in her hands and her mechanic motion set them in a line with pillow on the bed, and then she covered the arrangement with a blanket.

‘I think ok’, she mumbled to herself looking appraisingly at the bed. Than opening the drawer of a side table, she got a torch out & again looked at the door suspiciously. & at that very instant a loud screech of a parrot & a childish grave voice emerged from the chest of drawer she was bent on, ‘intooder, intooder…’

‘Oh shut up….shhhh, it’s me Blabber, you duffer’. The girl snapped in a low voice.

‘No intooder…’? The parrot lisped innocently.

‘Course not’. The girl snapped again, ‘it’s only me& blabber, I want you to shut your mouth about it before Dani & Sherry, or you’ll be sorry’. She threatened the parrot as though it could understand each & every word of her.

‘No intooder, babber bill not say…no intooder’. Parrot continued.

‘Oh would you stop this babbling’. She scolded again.

Than she picked up a catcher from the side table and wore her dark curly long hair into a ponytail before wearing a wooly cap over them. Looking at the bed with mild acceptance, she strolled toward the door & peeped outside, opening the door slightly and than got out of it on her toes without making a noise, & shut the door quietly behind her, on which was written, ‘Dare devil, Sarah’. She looked at the paper bearing those words blurred in the dark, with smiling eyes. She loved dubbing herself new names & then writing them on her door, though these names changed as frequently, as her mum would say, "Like changing cellular ring tones". Smiling at the thought, she moved toward the left, with her head moving in all directions like radar.

There was light coming out of the door that was near the staircase, followed by a fortissimo fast music. She trod a bit fast toward the door, still careful, and peeped through the keyhole.

A tall boy was running on a treadmill very fast with fast background music. He had brown curly hair like Sarah had but his eyes were blue & that of Sarah were having a grayish shade to contradict, but the resemblance of freckled cheeks & thick red lips of them both sneaked upon a fast relation. The boy was in blue shorts & shirt without quiet caring about the whether the night outside the window was boosting.

‘Come now, it’s my turn’, Sarah noticed another figure lying on the bed beside tread mill, reading a book. It was a boy of almost same build but the only difference between them was this boy’s less mischievous feature & that too probably because he was looking cross. All the same, she heard heavy & quick footsteps upstairs. Hiding herself promptly under the side table lying beside her, Sarah saw a formidable looking woman tramping upstairs, looking furious. She tried to hide herself a bit more under table. The woman now almost near her leapt ahead to open the door sternly and snapped, ‘What time do you think is it?’

The racket of the tread mill came to an end & after a pause the boy on the mill exclaimed, ‘mum! don’t tell me you’ve just came upstairs for asking the time, any ways I don’t have a watch right now, why don’t you go & wake up Sarah & ask her. & why are you in a fury mum?’

‘Shut up’ she snapped again scampering toward the cassette player & switched the hullabaloo off. Sarah thought that earth had stopped quivering.

‘It’s 10 0’clock at night, Dani’ returned the woman, reproachfully.

‘Oh!!! Really’ Dani slumped down on a sofa near him, looking jadedly at mum ‘so it’s only half an hours toil, ah…big deal!’

‘Now it’s my turn, Aani’, the boy on the bed got up looking grouchily at the woman.

‘Stop being puerile, both of you’ she snapped. ‘God knows how much am I peeved of both of you & Sarah’.

Sarah murmured angrily under the table, she had not done anything wrong this time, even she was not present at the place of disturbance, and still her mum was trying to take her to the task in her absence.

‘Haroon hasn’t even troubled me the quarter of you both & look at Fasih!’

‘Ah! Maa, know what it shows?’ Dani said in a delighted tone, ‘it shows the capabilities, & I knew that they’re not even a quarter of us. It’s good that you’ve said it yourself’ Sarah smiled slightly at his nonstop defense, ‘you know they haven’t got the guts for_____’

‘& look at Ubaid, how much are you disturbing him, he’s STILL doing his homework’. Mum seemed not to have heard him.

‘And Aani, this shows his laziness, homework at this late hour…see, nothing to be proud of_____’

‘STOP IT’ mum yelled, ‘you’ll certainly drive me mad someday, see’ she spoke dangerously, ‘I don’t want any more disturbance coming out of this room. You have to wake early for prayers, mind it’!

‘Ok mum’ Dani spoke reluctantly, ‘but don’t waste whole temper of yours at me, won’t you go and check why Sarah’s so quiet tonight’ Sarah’s heart pounded furiously, ‘leave a bit of your sweet temper for her’.

‘But what about me’, the other boy protested again, ‘it was my turn’.

‘Sherry, don’t let me say what I have, again’, mum eyed him formidably.

‘But it’s cheating, its my___’

‘It’s not cheating, I’ve given you time before me as well’, Dani blurted.

‘Yes, but that was cause I didn’t get my turn last day’.

‘oh, hold your horses now’ mum’s voice seemed to be coming out of the room toward the corridor, ‘I want this light switched off in 10 minutes, got it? Night_’ she shut the door with a noise behind her.

Sarah tried to cling a bit more to the wall when her mum strolled passed the table to her room. Her heart had started beating violently. ‘Oh please make her come back, make her come back, please’ she prayed silently when her mum opened the door of her room, ‘oh no, oh no, oh no’ she continued hysterically, ‘what if she finds the bed empty & if blabber blabbed even a single word to her___’, her heart lurched severely when she saw her mum stepping in her room. Only her mum came out of the door straight away, peeped in again & than shut the door noiselessly to stroll downstairs.

She knew nothing better then that could’ve happened to her tonight so she heaved a sigh of relief & crawled out from beneath the table as soon as the footsteps of her mum vanished away. Her heartbeat was still very fast. She tiptoed downstairs now, in the lounge that was not lit to her luck. There at the very end of the lounge was a door bolted & opening it noiselessly to expose a staircase going down in a dark room, she slid her self in what was looking like a cellar.

*************************

She leapt in, shutting the door behind her hastily. Switching on the light from the board near her, she strolled down the stairs. It was all still & calm down there. Though, every thing was in a great topsy-turvy. Her mum would often say that they had more junk in that cellar then any owner of a departmental store would have in his store & a single look down there, confirmed the consciousness of her mum.

Sarah moved slowly between some pieces of old heavy furniture to some trunks placed on each other toward the wall. It seemed as though she was looking for something, arching her neck to every accessible place, in the trunks, beneath them & beside them. Suddenly she plunged her hand in between two old chairs & got it out with a worn out pair of white gloves dangling in her hands.

‘No, it can’t help’ she said anguish fully, scanning them closely. ‘It isn’t that scary as the pair I’ve seen last time, but where’ve those gone’? she threw the gloves sloppily and moved a bit further. ‘I wish I can find something on place in here’ muttered Sarah grouchily. But that was no good to accuse someone else for the mess, the causative agent of which was she, herself. Her mum would clear up all the mess, once in a week. In fact that was the only thing she has owed the help of a maid for –of all the household chores- Champa. Champa would visit them every Monday & it seemed that nothing in whole of the valley was happier then the ‘cellar’, that one day. But Sarah would soon get cellar back to the present status at every exploratory expedition. & than Daniel, he was even much better in messing around then her. He was some three years elder than her. Her elder brother Haroon would say that Daniel has the soul of a field rat in him, ever restless. He really could not even sit quietly for 2 consistent seconds; accept for when he was asleep, though with rare chances as he happened to be a sleepwalker also. But Sarah thought it was a con by him, because lying or sitting silently was the last thing he could ever go for.

Growing irate at the exploration that was confirming to be useless, she strolled toward a trunk down the cellar & opened it slowly. "c’mon, c’mon" she sang in an undertone. & while shutting it back, all of the sudden, she hurt a roar. A much muffled roar that startled her like anything. She moved around herself to see what thing has roared in the cellar, but every thing was as calm & still as she has seen when she entered there.

‘Must be a hallucination’! Was the only guess after drawing blank exploratory results. She jerked her head as though jerking the strange thoughts visiting her mind, out when she heard another roar, this time a bit clearer.

Her heart started pounding violently, ‘that can’t…be…be a hallucination’ she spluttered to herself. She looked around her again, suspiciously, ‘ann.…Dani, are you there’, uttered the girl shakily. ‘Hey, look you can’t scare me, fine…come out than’ she prayed though that nobody come out to this appeal. But it would be worse if no one comes out, she thought.

Moving suspiciously & gawking carefully, she verbalized again, ‘see Dani, Sherry, you’d both be sorry for this, come out’ she paused, waiting for an answer, still praying for no answer to come as well. A hush followed her query again.

She tried believing it all to be nothing but the product of the horror movies she loved to play to scare Fahad. Though, this time she was herself the target. Thinking this, she strolled toward the corner of the cellar when an even clearest roar, a bloodcurdling one, with a certain shrillness that made her hair stand at the end had scared the day lights out of her. It seemed to have come from just a meter or two from her. She goggled frightfully round her. The worst part was that the generator of the roar wasn’t on the place from where the voice was coming. Even more troublesome was that it could be, by no chance, Dani or Sherry.

‘It’s… it’s …nothing’ she tried to compose herself. She has never felt this frightened in whole of her life. All the same, she hated to be coward. All this was making her feel ashamed of her. She used to taunt her cousin -Moon- every time when she felt even a bit scared during their most daring adventures but it never occurred to her that she would have to face the same panic some day.

‘It’s alright…ok’ she told herself ‘it may be…a …ere…aaa…mouse’ she muttered uncertainly & than smiled weakly at her own suggestion. ‘Oh yeah…a roaring mouse’. & all at same she heard another roar. As clearer as if someone had roared just in front of her, behind the wall that she was facing. She was clearly feeling her heart sinking in her ribs. A fear of unseen had bound her like anything. It was much difficult for her to maintain her balance & she sat down near the wall trying to relieve herself & only then her eyes hit a hole at the very corner of the wall, very little conspicuous hole. Most part of it was covered with mud. But the weirdest part now was that she hasn’t ever noticed it before; as her visits to the cellar were more regular than she brushed her teeth. Hasn’t ever mum or Champa seen the hole with mud while clearing the mess here?

She sat down with a little hesitation & moved her head closer to the floor to see behind the hole. It was all dark there, but she was now more curious about this unusual hole than scared. She switched on her torch & brought it closer to the hole & peeped inside; hesitatingly. Something was shinning there. It was, she thought some sort of metal. She heaved her head again trying to digest it all. ‘May be…. May be, but no’. She was unable to make any guess & suddenly another roar staggered her out of her thought. but the part she liked the more, this time was that it wasn’t that scary as the last one, perhaps because it was again too distant & low, or because her mind was all numb, unable to even think of anything synonymous to fear, or perhaps she was getting conditioned to it. She was feeling so queasy now that she wanted to lye down on this ancient floor. She was even scared of thinking about anything now & her head was so heavy, she thought it might be because of overloaded thoughts. ‘stop it’, she told her self sickly, ‘stop thinking’, but a thought there tugged so hard in her brain to free itself out of the tangling tentacles of apprehension to race to the relay center of her brain to be dispatched to her senses & the next moment it was there before her, "go through it & see". A wave of cold crept passed her spine. The daunting moment has approached but her senses were locked.

& just then it seemed as someone in her mind or perhaps somewhere deep inside her body was sneering at her. "So these are all the guts you were so proud of, your nickname suits you just fine"! Many people had joined the sneering chorus as through daring her. Moon & Hannah & Dani &Sherry & even Natasha, the arch enemy of hers at school & many people to whom she never wanted to expose her fears.

‘I’ll see… what’s in there’. She swallowed, composing herself. & every thing fell silent again, no laughter, no mocking, no stupid hiss, just silence. ‘After all it’s my home, what can be dangerous in here’ she uttered with an effort as though doubting the credulity of her own statement. & with much courage, she stuck a trembling hand out toward the hole & then inside it. Something cold & round like a metal knob touched her trembling hand. She tweaked it with much effort & the next moment she was all frozen.

The wall before her, the earth beneath her had all started rattling like the cellar has become the epic center of a seismic disturbance. She tried to get up hurriedly as the wall seemed it was going to fall at her. But she had hardly stepped back once, supported by her quavering footings, when some thing so incredible happened that could never be dreamt of, let alone happen.

The wall before her had started sliding over the upper section of it. Eyes popped out & mouth open to the fullest extend, she felt her nothing short of deadened. Nothing in her wildest dream could be this astounding but as it happened, it took some 20 or 25 seconds for the wall to slide on about a meter & a half of its height. And now the thing before her was even more confounding. She was totally unable to feel or think because of the series of shocks she has come across.

There, before her was a wall half slid up, exposing a dilapidated wooden door. Looking at its last legs with its knob altogether touching the floor (The same knob she had twisted to slide open the wall), the door presented itself nothing short of an about to pounce beast. she stood there for a couple of minutes without betraying any sign of life when suddenly another, muffled, weak still wild a roar shocked her again. All red with fear, she thought there must be something behind the door, some monster or some real roaring rat. There was something in her though, telling her to move back quickly, to leave the cellar, to run upstairs to her room, to get in her bed, inside soft & warm blanket of hers, & to sleep it all off. But the former daring & sneering & hissing voices took over her mind again, repeating the very words she would use to peeve Moon, "frightened, you chicken"!

The brain storming, fear & apprehension all had made her sick like she had never felt before. Heaving up a sigh, she looked around herself apprehensively. What Hannah & Moon would say if they get a word about her baffled state, & how heartily they would make fun of her recent nick, "Dare devil, SARAH", she looked frightfully at the door again.

‘I shall see what’s behind it’ she told herself firmly. ‘Am not scared, am I?’ Than she draped her arm round her in a cuddle, swallowed & crouched down to the floor.

‘It’ll be alright’ she told herself, ‘nothing is in there’. Though she doubted it more then she could doubt a sun shinning at night.

Than, pitching out her shacking hand toward the knob & even before she could stop herself of thinking what will be behind the door, she twisted the knob, though with much effort & pulled the door toward her slowly but there wasn’t anything staggering there, this time. It was only a veil. She stood up, perplexed, looking at the dark blue, shabby, veil but on close scanning she gave a hysteric laughter, ‘isn’t over, is it’? She was feeling dizzy at what her eyes had put across her mind. There was written on the veil in bold

She flopped down on the floor.

***

Sarah’s favorite place at her century old ancestral home was the cellar. The grand pa of her grand pa had made this house. She was amongst the 5th generation of this family in this house. She loved to pass her time searching aimlessly in this cellar as on every trip here; she would find some ancient but exciting item to add to her magpie collection. She could very well remember the time when she would toddle down to the cellar & hide behind some trunk & get her parents in a serious problem of finding a 2 year old baby in a place where you couldn’t find anything once you have dropped it. Her mum had told her that she would crawl behind her to the cellar in her 10th month when she had newly gained her legs.

She never could comprehend what was so enchanting in the cellar that would tempt her to step in that useless place. If she had the authority, she would get her bed in that cellar to sleep there as well. But there was only a little problem with all that. It was prohibited for all kids to step here at night. Sneaking however wasn’t prohibited for Sarah.

Even with all that magnetism of cellar, she could never have tagged the cellar for some mystery room, a room that was a gate, a secret one to the cemetery. & now that she had found it, she couldn’t tell the reason for it. It was all like a dream to her. She stood up weakly; as a decision flicked before her eyes, ‘Look inside’! & she knew she’d have to solve the mystery even if there is some wild creature standing there to ambush upon the door opener.

But before she could take a single step toward it, she heard heavy steps on the ceiling of the cellar. Someone was coming down; she could clearly listen to her heart throbs. Promptly moving to the door she shut it & crouched down, twisting the knob, praying for the wall to come back to its original position & to her utter bewilderment, the wall was crouching back in no time & after another 20 seconds; wall reposed where & as it used to be, with the quivering of earth coming to an end.

She bounced toward the trunk beside her to seek hide there, but unfortunately, before she could even turn back, she heard a shocked voice.

‘Sarahhh…’!

‘Oh’, she turned back to see her shocked mum, ‘hi mum’ she smiled weakly looking at her stern expressions.

‘What on earth are you doing down here at this time of night?’ asked her mum through gritted teeth.

‘Who…?’ Sarah blinked, ‘oh me…!’ but she stopped again looking at her mum, thinking it surely was her end.

‘Don’t you know it’s not allowed…don’t you’? She snapped.

‘Er…mum…erm…I…I…was’ spluttered the girl, frightfully. She thought, even looking in eyes of that roaring thing there would not even be that bad as was looking at her angry mum.

‘Not a word’ her mum came hurtling down the stairs with a heavy rucksack dangling lopsidedly from one of her sides & she threw it on the chair.

‘Quickly move to your bed…NOW’.

& Sarah thought it better to run than to walk upstairs to steer clear of her fuming mum & she scurried up, the frightened body only breathed when she thought herself well out of the danger way. Nevertheless, it was no good to get her out of the stupor of what she had experienced just before her mum had broken in on her, inopportunely.

She sat on the little space her bed could offer at the corner because of the camouflage she had built, fixing the hearthrug with her glare; very hot & red in face.

***

Feeling more reckless then when she was there before the veil, she wanted nothing but to go & see behind it. & the apprehension that perhaps her mum had seen every thing was doing no good to her either. Her heart was throbbing heatedly with her mind trapped in perturbed thoughts. & suddenly the door burst open, exposing her mum as red in face as her but it was the color of her fury. Sarah stood up awkwardly.

‘What were you doing there’? Mum demanded in a calm voice even before she’s entered in.

‘Er&