Page 1 of Wicked Trap

PROLOGUE

“Arjun, wake up.”

Arjun was having a nightmare when he heard his mother’s sweet voice calling him while gently shaking him. Opening his eyes, he saw the faint outline of his mother. It was still dark outside the windows.

He was a little embarrassed. As an eight-year-old boy, he wasn’t supposed to be having nightmares. But after the last two shocking days, he couldn’t sleep without having them.

“Ma. I was dreaming that P-papa was hanging and they burned him—”

His mother hugged him tightly. “Shh,” she said with a slightly trembling voice. “It’s okay, baby.”

Slowly, his shaking body relaxed a little.

“You have to keep very quiet, Arjun,” his mother instructed. “We are going out.”

Even though he was still a bit shaken by the nightmare, he could sense the urgency in his mother’s voice. He nodded. He also noticed that his two older brothers were already awake and standing by their beds.

“Let’s go,” Arjun’s mother gently instructed before she held his hand and walked them out of the bedroom.

But instead of going out through the mansion corridors, his mother led him and his brothers through the door at the back of their bedroom suite. It led into the garden area at the back of the mansion. The beautiful, vivid-colored garden was dark during the nighttime. It was windy and lightning flashed in the sky.

“Don’t turn on the flashlight until I tell you,” his mother softly instructed.

Arjun’s brothers nodded. Arjun was a bit scared of the storms, but when he clutched his mother’s hand tightly, he felt slightly better.

His mother led them outside to the gardens.

“Turn on the flashlight now,” she instructed.

The lights from the small flashlights lit the path outside. Everything looked strange and scary at night, especially when it was windy and lightning flashed above. The tall trees his father had planted using Arjun’s and his brothers’ help were now swaying with the wind.

They continued walking hurriedly somewhere. The estate was big. He had heard people mentioning that it was five hundred acres. Even though he didn’t know what that measurement meant, he knew it must be really big.

They passed through the river, walking beneath the surrounding tall trees. And then, they walked through the vast paddy fields before reaching a narrow road. Arjun noticed a car was parked there.

All their cars had been sold a while ago, and this was their only car left. It was small and old-looking unlike their other big, shiny cars, which he and his brothers had enjoyed riding in the backseat.

“We need to hurry, Mrs. Vardhaman,” a familiar man’s voice said.

Arjun knew it was their longtime driver. But instead of the usual happy, laughing tone, Mr. Rao’s voice sounded grim and urgent.

“Arjun, get in, baby,” Arjun’s mother instructed.

Arjun did as told and sat in the back seat. His mother sat next to him and then his brother, Bharat. His oldest brother Yashwanth sat in the front seat next to the driver.

Soon, the car began to move. It was very dark, and it had begun raining. Arjun didn’t know why the car’s lights were turned off. It was only much later when the car drove out of the estate and passed the nearby villages that the car lights were turned on.

There was lighting from the streets that lit the car dimly inside. He could see his mother’s face. His mother’s beautiful eyes were swollen and puffy like they had been the previous day.

He knew his mother had been crying. His father had died a day ago, and earlier that morning, his oldest brother had lit fire to their father’s body. Arjun did not want to believe that his father was dead even though he saw the body burning. But he heard the loud whispers during the funeral.

“So sad that Vardhaman chose a coward’s way out.”

“Couldn’t he think of his wife and young sons?”

“After cheating hundreds of families, maybe he felt he deserved to die.”

Arjun hadn’t understood what the people were saying. But he understood the word ‘coward’. It was the opposite of being brave. He didn’t know why they were calling his father as a coward. His father was the bravest man he knew.

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