CRIMSON TIES

Prologue

It felt cold and strange as he stood at a distance, his expression blank. He hadn't shed a single tear in the 48 hours since he had received the most painful news of his life. The shock had shaken him to the core, yet all he could do was stand there in silence, following the priest's instructions to complete the last rites for his father and twin sister, with his uncle by his side, offering his assistance.

The sound of cries and weeping grew louder as soon as the two funeral pyres were lit with the holy fire, on which the two most important people of his life were laid to rest, in the hopes that they would be at peace.

The young boy stood there, staring blankly at the fire till the last waves flickered higher, as if carrying the 2 pure souls to the heavens, leaving behind huge heaps of ashes. He stood there till the very end, he walked up to the heaps and started filling them in the copper pots and tying the open top with the holy red cloth and carrying them back home.

Everyone tried to make him cry or feel the pain but failed miserably. His mother slapped him in the hope that the physical pain would make him cry but all in vain. No one knew what was going on in the mind of the kid.

As the days passed, life slowly returned to a semblance of normalcy for everyone, even his mother, because life doesn't wait for anyone. Though his mother struggled with the weight of her own grief, she managed to pull herself together for her little boy. But for him, it was different. He appeared almost alarmingly calm and composed. He was pretending to be fine for her sake, for his only remaining family. His mother, exhausted from the constant attempts of trying to get him to open up, had finally given up.

He was back to his original self after the final rites, the same silly smile, laughing at dumb jokes, his carefree attitude, full of life. But beneath the surface, everything had changed. It was all a facade and disguise to hide his real self. The pretension of being fine, of acting like he wasn't absolutely devastated and shattered, was his only armor. His heart, broken and bruised, hid behind the mask of normalcy.

Life was coming back to normal but something had changed. Everything seemed normal but nothing was. The boy was too young to realize that the emotions he was piling in, that his adult self were used to, would blow-up in a way, that would destroy everything he was trying to protect and cherish.

......................

In the other corner of the world,

There laid a little girl locked in a dark corner of a palace, screaming and yelling for help which eventually stopped after she realised that no one was coming. The darkness of the evil had finally consumed the little girl. All she did was ask to see her mother who left her all alone, to suffer in the hands of these brutal demons. She didn't know what her mistake was, for which she was tormented.

The silence around her was eating her, the voices in her head were making the situation verse. The allegations her grandmother put on her, the hatred filled eyes of her father and the helplessness of her step-mother, who wanted nothing more than to save the innocent soul. The pale white turned brown walls of the small room also seemed to blame and mock her. She wrapped her hands around herself as if trying to protect herself from the darkness and the increasing cold of the winter night.

She desperately wished for her father, her hero, to come and save her but after she saw another sunset she knew, no one was coming. She was all alone in this world. She was tortured physically, mentally and emotionally but no one came to her rescue. The innocent little girl, full of life and pure joy, had finally lost herself to the brutality and cruelty of the unforgiving world. The last thing she saw was the door of the room opening as the bright light hit her eyes, they were forced close and the dark engulfed her.

When she was brought out of the room she had fainted, medically because of dehydration and starvation but the real reason was, she had given up, she had seen the last ray of hope fading away as she closed her eyes. She had lost the battle against the brutality of the world to protect her innocence. She fought it till the last moment but the fact that she had no one by her side to even offer a drop of water or kindness, made her feel defeated.

She was always open and vocal about her feelings to her new found family at the age of 7, but they only treated her well, when she behaved and did things according to them. If she went against them, she was severely punished. All the love and care they showed towards her, was only for the display to the world. No one knew, the heartlessness that was shown towards the little girl. She loved her father immensely because she had found him after 7 years but for him, she was nothing more than an illegitimate child born of his past lover.

After that day, she never spoke to anyone other than her younger twin step siblings, did everything she was asked to without questioning. Her father tried talking to her but she chose not to let anyone in. She no longer looked up to her father as her hero, the man about whom her mother told her all the good things. She masked it with ignorance and unbothered expressions. What she didn't realise was that her act of being cold and unbothered had turned into her reality and that she had actually stopped caring about anyone including herself.

All she did was survive, for the sake of it. She had changed but not for the good, she had become the twisted and ruthless shadow of her innocent self, born in the most evil corners of despair. Her pure heart, that once knew to give love and the language of kindness, was now, merely an organ pumping blood to keep her alive. Her soul was consumed in bitterness. She made herself so strong and vicious that no one would even dare to think of hurting her. Only a foolish person would want to cross paths with her.

She had become a nightmare, who despised the weak, walked over them, crushing them to the ruins.

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