Amidst A Thousand Suns

~true fallacies~

before you start reading the chapter, I have something to say:- starting from tomorrow, I will be releasing two chapters daily, one in the morning and another in the evening.
So, please take your to read. It's not like y'all have to read it and complete it the moment I publish (I know that it isn't like that and I am not THAT big of an author lmao but still)

It's just that I have a deadline before which, I need to publish the whole story.
So, yeah!
That was it!

Now, on with the chapter!
(✿^‿^)

...

Aaghyaa's P.O.V.

~~~

"You have never met my parents, have you?", she asked.
Was it a rhetorical question?
I think it was, because the answer was very obvious.

"Never even heard of them from you or dad.", I said.

"That's because I never let you. You see, Aaghyaa, it all started because of them."

"Them? But...but they are in Mussoorie right now, haina? In your hometown?", I asked.
I didn't know much about the family history of my mother.
Correction:- I barely know anything beside the fact that she is originally from Mussoorie.

"Yeah, and now that you are so curious to know about me, after almost seventeen years of me being your mom, you will finally get to know. That's what you want, no? So, now, that's what you will get."
She said with such spite in her voice that it was my fault that she suffered all those things in the past; that it was my fault that I, her daughter, was curious to know about my own mother's mysterious past.
But I let it pass.
She is already in pain.
I don't want to create a feud between us right now, when I m finally getting to know her truth.

She took a deep breath, leaned back on the sofa and looked at me dejectedly.

"I was always the angry, impulsive child, Aaghyaa; justifies that why you are so like me. And just like you, I was my parent's only child. Being a girl, was a shame in itself, especially when you are from a small town set in the 80's. The patriarchy and misogyny was never shoved down our throats forcefully because Mussoorie was always the safe, happy little town for it's simple, happy-go-lucky folk. But instead the differences between me and my male cousins was pretty evident, and being the impulsive, rebel child that I was, I defied each and every role that I was compelled to believe in. I hated my life. When I came of age, roughly around fifteen, I realised that I hated myself. I hated myself because I wasn't even able to defend myself when anyone would shun me down, and I despised that about myself. What was I if I wasn't even able to defend my own self in a whole crowd? As time went, I knew that I did not wanted to stay in Mussoorie for my whole lifetime. I couldn't! I just couldn't! Aaghyaa, you have no idea how I was treated there, both for being a girl and for having the courage to speak what I wanted to, in subtle yet embarrassing ways. I felt suffocated there. I felt suffocated to such a point that one night, I didn't even hesitate to go to my roof and stand on the edge-"

She broke down; completely.
I wanted to reach out to her.
But when I got up from my side of the sofa, sensing my movement, she stopped me and wiped the tears off her face in a quick motion.
When she looked right back up, her face was red with both types of tears; shedded and un-shedded.
She sniffed, took a huge breath, that was more like a gasp and continued, "But I survived; or at least I tried to. I don't know, but I got down that night from the roof and quitely sobbed away to sleep. I am not sure how but I was able to carry on for a few days without breaking down completely. It was as if my heart told me to hold on; to hold on just a little while longer. And to hope; to have a little bit of hope that this might get better, and that I might find the happy ending to my own story. And I did."