A Mother's Embrace

CHAPTER 15

The rest of the story was more shocking than what I heard till now. I was shivering. Only if I knew all this in the beginning, I wouldn't have made this decision.

Amanda continued with tears in her eyes,

"Daron was heartbroken. He wouldn't even carry the kid. David would just cry helplessly. There was a limit to the comfort I could offer a crying child who lost his mother. Daron spent the following weeks drinking. He sat cooped up in his room going through Alysa's diary.

One night I heard David crying uncontrollably for hours. At first I thought it was just one of his tantrums but the crying just grew louder and louder. I wondered where Daron went. I just assumed Daron passed out after drinking continuously. When I went up to the room and knocked on the door, there was no response. I waited for a few more seconds to see if Daron would wake up. When David's crying started getting louder, I called Mrs.Ben and pushed the door open. David was lying on the floor on a wet towel as he had wetted himself sometime earlier. Next to him was a big easel with a canvas propped up on it. When we went to the other side of the canvas, the scene was terrifying.

On the canvas was the painting you saw on the stair landing. Daron reaching out for a glass of wine from a woman and on the chair in front of the canvas was Daron, unconscious blood dripping from his mouth and a glass of wine overturned by his feet. A letter lay by his feet. It said how Alysa came to him and told him how bad a father he has been these days and as redemption he should take his own life. I just thought that Daron had gotten mad after all the drinking and coping up in his room. I pitied David who lost both his parents within such a short span of time. He didn't even get to know them.

After Daron's funeral, we all decided to leave this cursed place. I promised to look after David as there were no other living relatives. On the day we all got ready to leave, we came to know that this house was slowly eating us from inside."

"What?" I asked in shock.

"This place is not an ordinary bungalow. It is a place haunted by memories of a woman who couldn't live her life to the fullest. It is a place that carries a mother's curse."

"What do you mean?"

"The night following Daron's funeral, I was in my room putting David to sleep. It was very hard to put him to sleep as he missed his mother's warmth. At some point I got tired and frustrated that David was not sleeping. I was also exhausted from all the events happening around. I just put David in his crib and walked out of the room for some fresh air. Just when I stepped on the threshold of the door, the door closed hard on my face stopping me. Then all the white curtains in the room slowly changed color to blue ombre. The same pattern of dress which Alysa wore when she drowned. I froze in shock. I tried opening the door but it was shut tight. I called for Mrs.Ben and Richard. Hearing my cries, they came running fearing for the worst. We were on the opposite sides of the door calling at each other for help.

Then suddenly, a piece of the curtain which had changed color slowly wrapped around David and rocked him slightly. He slowly stopped crying and drifted to sleep. After David slept, the curtains changed back to white and the door opened. I ran out and hugged Mrs.Ben crying in her arms. It was then we realized that Daron did not write the suicide note drunk but what he said was the truth. Alysa was still here, looking over her son. Making sure David was never alone."

My body gave way and I fell to the floor listening to Amanda.

"The next day we all decided to leave this wretched house and go back to our own homes. We all packed up our things. It was arranged that David was going to come with me. The moment we opened the door to step out, the doors shut hard and the curtains started to flutter heavily just like the night before. The color of the curtains slowly started shifting to the blue ombre. We froze in shock, hugging each other terrified of making even a step. Cold air blew inside the house and the curtains started stretching longer, finally reaching around us and wrapping us all in one tight hug. The grip of the curtains grew stronger as we struggled to be let free of it. Finally after we gave up it slowly retreated back leaving us. Since that day, everytime we tried to move out of the house, the same thing happened. Many priests came trying to find a solution. But nothing worked. It was a mother's embrace that wanted everyone to stay so that her son will not be left alone. Every night, the curtains wrap around David embracing him and rocking him to sleep. David says he can see her. But none of us did. We feel her presence everyday around us, watching us like a dark shadow."

"So, you mean even I cannot leave the house?" I asked in shock.

"Yes. David likes you and you look a lot like Alysa. She had the same eyes and nose as yours. Maybe that is why David got attached to you so soon. That is the reason Mrs.Ben was distant to you in the beginning. Seeping your face everyday was like reliving the curse we are all stuck in. But now, you are also one of us."

"What do you mean I am one of you?"

"Just like we are trapped in the belly of this house, you are too now. No matter where you run, she will pull you back in and lock you."

"What the-?"

"There is no use in cursing or shouting. The moment you crossed the threshold of this house, your fate was written. I am sorry that I dragged you into this but I was also left with no choice."

"What do you mean you had no choice? You had the choice of not inviting more people into this mess! But you decided that having a live-in tutor would be perfect. Why ruin others' lives too?"

"I am sorry. There is a limit to which I can help David. I desperately needed someone's help. I am really sorry."

"No amount of sorry is going to fix the mess you have created Amanda. You have stripped me of my entire life. You are more evil than Alysa!" I screamed and left. I went up to my room and locked the doors. I broke down as I sat on the bed. I was stripped of my life, just like that. The whole night I cried and cried. Sometime later, I fell asleep. I was woken up by someone knocking on the door. I could barely open my eyes as I found my way to the door. As I opened the door, I saw David standing in front of the door with a parcel in his hand.

"What is this?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"Mom asked me to give this to you," he said, placing the parcel in my hand. "I will see you later"

Inside the brown package was the blue ombre dress Alysa wore, with a note written in blood on a paper soaking wet. It read,

"Stay with my son. You are his mother now."

There was nothing more to be said. No way to run. This fate had chosen me and just like the rest of the people in this house, I was trapped inside A MOTHER'S EMBRACE.