𝙍𝙪𝙣𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝘽𝙍𝙄𝘿𝙀

56. F I F T Y - S I X

" The last option of all , it's just mere weakness and we don't need to go ." Amma just kept doing her work while that man kept clinging on her like her child .

" Amma..." Kartik called out Amma with serious tone .

His sudden change quietly astonished yet she didn't care . " Please keep your bag ready . We are going tomorrow ." She knew she can't go more further .

"Amma..." Kartik called out again, his voice low but firm, cutting through the thick silence that had settled over the room like an invisible fog. She didn't turn around this time. Her hands, wrinkled yet steady, continued folding the faded sarees into her worn, brown trunk — the same trunk she'd kept since her marriage, its brass lock glinting faintly under the single ceiling bulb. 

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" I hoped to die once quickly than dying everyday remembering how hard it is to get perished by her memories even though she is here on the same world and not dead ."

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KARTIK POV 

"I said... get your bag ready. We are going tomorrow." My voice seemed rude . But I would care less .

The finality in my voice made Amma pause, her hands hovering above the soft cotton folds, but only for a moment. She resumed, as though I had said nothing.                                                              "We are not going anywhere," she murmured, half to herself. Me who was standing rigidly near the door, clenched his fists. The worn-out conversation between us , with their cracks spidering across like veins, seemed to press in on me . He couldn't take this anymore.  

"We can't stay here another day without your check up . And you know why ." I pressed on, stepping closer. My tall frame cast a long shadow across the floor, nearly reaching Amma's stooped form. "It's not safe to let you have this kind of life with illness . After what happened last night..." Amma stopped again, this time more deliberately, her shoulders tensing.            

"What happened last night was... nothing." 

 "Nothing?" My voice rose, a sharp contrast to the humming ceiling fan that ticked on with an uneven rhythm. "Amma, you saw him. You saw the things that hard to imagine for any normal human . That illness could kill you from inside . All the illusions , all the scenarios you see.... or you saw ..... last night . I know you did." Her back remained to me , but I could see her knuckles whiten as she gripped the edge of the trunk. 

"People wander in their dreams at night in hope to-- Leave it . And there's no reason to—" 

"No reason?" I cut her off, his voice now tinged with frustration.                                                                    " I was standing there for hours! Watching you ! I know you heard the footsteps on the terrace , around you  or in your room too . I know you felt the fear , that pressure , that illness in the air . And now..." I paused, my throat tightening. The memories of the previous night gnawed at me, vivid and unsettling. The figures in the dark, the rhythmic tapping on the glass, the faint smell of burnt wood , her timid steps to save her ... and Amma's unwavering refusal to acknowledge any of it . As like I felt the illusions with her , as like I was there to feel her sickness .

I wished on every god that please let me have this instead of her , for the sins I did .

 "Amma, please," I whispered, stepping closer, the desperation in my voice raw now.                     "We have to leave." She finally turned around, her face a mask of forced calm, though her eyes betrayed something deeper — something ancient and guarded.                                                                    "I cannot leave this house," she said quietly. "Not yet." "Why?" I demanded.                                "What is keeping you here? What aren't you telling me?" Amma's gaze drifted past me , to the narrow hallway beyond, its shadowed recesses leading to the room at the end , the dim yellowish light coming   — a room I had never been allowed to enter then her eyes moved to Pihu's room .                                                                                                                                                                        "I have my reasons, for that child ." she said, her voice low but resolute. "That's not good enough! We can handle her . Right now you are important . Can't lose another one in my life .... " My frustration boiled over, my voice filling the small room.