Bekaraan [Limitless]

12 Fear

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

— Emily Brontë

A scowl was set on her forehead as she skimmed through the document she had made ages ago. As expected, her good-for-nothing group partner hadn't added a single word to it. Why universities required you to work in a group for FYPs was beyond her. Apparently it is supposed to speed up the process and teach you teamwork, but if anything it was only lagging her down and making her averse towards working in teams. She huffed loudly.

Due to the things at her end she hadn't been able to open the document for over a month and now she was regretting it deeply. Although the document duty she had assigned to her group mate while she was supposed to take care of the actual work which is building the application, her group partner very conveniently had failed at that too. Now the deadline was just around the corner and she didn't know what to do.

Along with her life being an utter chaos, her FYP looming over her head like a sword, and her looking for any freelance project she could get her hands on so she could pay Maaz back, she was finding it extremely hard to manage and sort things out. Suddenly everything had become a conundrum and she didn't know which one to solve first.

She huffed again in exasperation.

"What happened, MahruMaa." Anastasia pouted with worrisome creases on her forehead from where she was snuggled into Mahrukh while both shared the same shawl.

The sun was taking its last breaths for the day, alreadying sinking into the horizon, but providing enough light for Anastasia to read her book. Mahrukh had gifted this one to her last year but now got to know she never actually read it. Anastasia wasn't a reader and Mahrukh had now taken it upon herself to turn her into one. So now both were sprawled on the sofa-swing in the terrace with Mahrukh working on her project and Anastasia reading her story book.

"Nothing, jaan." Mahrukh rubbed Anastasia's arm lightly.

"You look worried. I want to help." She was determined.

Mahrukh chuckled lightly. "I appreciate the offer. How are you liking the story?"

Anastasia glanced back at the book tightly clutched in her tiny hands and scowled. "I don't like Scar."

"Ah huh?" Mahrukh had shifted her entire attention to her. Talking to kids while looking elsewhere makes them feel devalued and she didn't want her to feel like that.

She nodded vehemently. "Yes. But I like Simba and Mufasa."

"Then why did you mention your dislike towards Scar first if you liked these two? You could've mentioned this first as well."

Anastasia frowned with confusion marking her face, not understanding the point.

"I asked you how you liked the story but you chose to focus on the bad aspect of it first rather than the good one." She turned towards her, completely aware of her tendency to do the same but Anastasia was just a kid and her brain was still developing. She wanted to train her right from here to focus on the good things in life rather than the bad ones because in the end not doing so only affects oneself.

"I don't understand. Scar is bad." She reasoned.

"Yes, he is indeed. But when you focus your attention on bad things you eventually end up overlooking the good things which only makes you unhappy." She said as she smoothened the frown on Anastasia's forehead with her thumb.

Anastasia pondered over her statement and nodded after a while.

"Good." Mahrukh dropped a kiss on top of her head. "Now continue."