The tainted rose

chapter 5

Olivia was still hallucinated. This is not a silly prank or something as she had expected, It's deadly serious. It was a warm  Sunday. Prayers were heard from the distant church. Olivia and Joel went to the church to attend a special prayer in  remembering the dead souls of Olivia's  parents. After the prayers they both stepped out from the church. Joel could notice a vast difference in Olivia. she didn't talk much and was always observing hither and thither in a watchful eye as if she had been frightened over something.

"Olivia you act strange now? You are always in a huge concern about something. What's up with you?" Olivia kept silent for a moment and shook her head.
"No there's nothing punchi." Olivia knew that hiding these facts from her aunt is not possible.

"If you have any problem just tell me without keeping it to yourself" Olivia smiled in order to subdue her aunt's suspicion.
"No no don't worry. I am alright."

Olivia wanted to tell her aunt but it was a risk. She intended to solve this problem all by herself. She disliked reading that book but she had to. Again she went on reading from the place where she had stopped.

Continued..........
He feared the whole society. In his eyes everyone seems to distract him. He saw how other children received love from their parents. Now this little boy grew into a tainted and a corrupted youth. The abuse that he underwent grew more and more rapid. He adhered himself but still he searched for love. He saw the young couples in the park. They were loving each other but it was really affectionate. He envied them for he had never ever experienced it. In a dark world 
where he could only see and feel the gross clasps of people he yearned to have an experience of love But he couldn't understand that feeling........

Olivia closed the book and kept it aside and scratched her brow.

"When looking at the writing style it looks as if it's a narration. Why does that person persuade me to read this? What's his motive?" She thought.

Next morning she went to school early in the morning. Olivia saw Ashvin at the shrine with some other few students. They were cleaning and offering flowers to Lord Buddha. He came near her with a pleasnt smile. She also smiled back.

"Good morning Olivia" he said.
"Good morning Ashvin"she said and went into the shrine and gave the girls who were preparing the puja some flowers which she had brought with her.

"Olivia are you staying afterschool today?" Ashvin wanted to create a topic to have a conversation with her so he forwarded the question.

"Ah yes Ashvin. What about you?" She asked. He actively nodded. "Yes" For some reason Olivia felt a bit awkward when he was talking to her. Even he felt the same but still they just wanted to interact.

Mrs Gloria came as usual and started to call out the names.

"Nimanthra" there was no reply. She repeated "Nimanthra are you present?"

"No miss, he is absent" said Nithin. Mrs Gloria lifted her head up. She was amazed because this student never gets absent eventhough he used to hang around with Nithin's gang.

"Oh! He is the only student who never got absent but today he is absent. Didn't he tell you that he's getting absent today?"  Mrs Gloria asked from Nithin. "No miss. He didn't tell me" Mrs Gloria looked with a concern.

"I'll call his parents and see. You all turn page number 233 till I come" Mrs Gloria went outside the classroom to give a call to Nimanthra's parents. It's true that he was also very arrogant and selfish just like Nithin but he was keen in his studies so Mrs Gloria used to favour him.

Nithin's friend nudged him. "Eh he normally doesn't get absent.He didn't even tell us"Nithin nodded in agreement.
"Yeah let's see"

After a few seconds Mrs Gloria came inside in confusion. All the students were looking at her.