The Darker Side

Chapter 1

Love! Being always a mysterious chapter in her life . It was very complicated for her to understand because every time her friends got into relation their outcomes were different like some of them had to go through painful breakups, sometimes they had horrible fights and sometimes they cheated on one another, some were loyal some were not; but apart from all these stuff she was always positive about love because of her ideal couple "her mum and dad". According to her the synonym of love was her mum and dad.

Her mum and dad were perfect for her. Whenever she thought about them it would always give her a hope that someday somewhere she would also come across a person who would love her the way her dad did to her mum. Every Friday was marked by her dad's favorite day, he  would always bring something for her mum, be it a rose or chocolate or anything but he will not miss any Friday. She doesn't know the reason but it always made her happy.

2017, it was her winter break she was doing her PG Program in Interior Design and Styling  from Mussoorie. So she thought of giving them a surprise, she didn't inform them and she directly boarded the bus to Dehradun. It takes around 1 and a half hour to reach Mussoorie by bus.

It was 9:30pm, she took a cab and headed towards Ganesh Nagar, after 20 minutes she reached her place.  Ashkira climbed out of the car and headed towards the boot of the car to take out her luggage along with the driver. She handed over the money to the cab driver took her bag pack and one two-wheeler duffle bag, slowly entered into her boundary and started walking slowly so that no one can hear her footsteps. 

And as she was about to ring the doorbell she heard something strange, something which she never heard before. Her mum was yelling at her dad,"Why can't you leave me alone, I need my space" but in her return she couldn't listen anything and all of a sudden heard some sounds which usually come in times of hitting someone. 

 And she started questioning herself, " What's wrong! What is that sound? Is he beat.. beating... NO! NO! how can it be? Pa can't do this"  When she hears a painful agonizing voice for the second time which brought all our senses back, "Ashwin! Stop! You're hurting me" it was her mum. 

She couldn't wait any longer, took a deep breath, halted it and she hurriedly rang the bell and after that started banging the door with all her force, "Maa! Pa! Open the door! Jaldi Fast!" For a second she had forgotten to breath, started biting her knuckles, waited for few seconds and she thought of ringing the doorbell again when she hears someone opening the door. It was her Dad.

"Ashu!" Her dad murmurs, looks back at something and again his eyes shift to Ashkira.

She asks her dad with a little hesitation on her face,"Dad! Where's mum" with a long deep enunciation on the word Dad, as if she wants to make sure she's fine.
(Her mum ran towards the main door to see her).

 Ashkira could see bruises all over her hands, messed up hair and her mom trying to fix herself so that everything seems fine. Her mum was wearing violet color cotton nighty, some bangles which were making clinking sound as she was trying to fix her messy look her eyes were puffed up, ears were red. Ashkira understood the whole scenario in that small glimpse.

"Maaa! What the fuck! " She screamed out with pain and anger held her mum's hand looked at it with teary eyes. Dad! Fuck! What's wrong with you? How can you even do this to her? Shit! All these time I was so fucking wrong! I was in delusion"

"Ashu! Beta Come inside" her mum trying hard to bring words from her larynx.

"No! I will go to Rheya's home. Mum come with me, let's leave" 

"Please Shona(baby) come, tomorrow will talk. Come now!" As if she was requesting her, she had no energy left, without giving anytime to let Ashkira speak, pulled her and hugged her tightly as if she was relieved to see her and let out a long sigh of despair, hopelessness yet a little bit of spark left when she saw Ashkira.

 Ashkira calls her mom to her room but she denied.

"Not now beta(child), have to make dinner for you"

"To hell with your dinner Maa, please come I need to talk to you!"

"Ashu! Stop swearing so much. Tomorrow we shall have a talk, for now you go to your room and get freshen-up. And You're not going to talk anything to your dad regarding this matter." Her mum's look made it clear that she doesn't want to talk on whatever she had seen.

Ashkira was about to take her luggage when her father, "Baccha! I'll take these"

"No need! It's better to be a gentleman than being a coolie: Dad. Don't you think so" with that she gave him a look of sheer pain and disgust and she went off. It was hard for her to say those words but she couldn't keep it to her.