The Darker Side

Chapter 2

"Dad? Why did you wear such tacky red color Kurta, it looks so funny on you!" Ashkira mocked at her dad but her dad didn't respond and everything blurs out, she took a 360 degree turn to find out the place where she was standing, but could not find anything except she could hear her mum crying out in pain and pleading, "Ashwin stop! Stop! You're hurting me, Ashwin! No! No! Stop! Leave her; don't take her away from me" Ashkira was sweating, she was getting restless, she wanted them to stop but she couldn't utter a single word, she's shouting, "You two; please stop!" but her words remained unheard. Ashkira ran towards them to stop them, hears a loud horn of train and frantically opens her eyes with her mouth wide open, trying to help her lungs to get enough oxygen.

She was looking straight at the ceiling fan for a few seconds, started consoling herself, "Nightmare! Just a nightmare! Weird train!" jerks her feet unconsciously, trying to understand what just happened with that she realized that her T-shirt was soaked with her own sweat, her face, neck and palms were sticky, she felt some hot giant volcano exploded on her face, her heels were sore and calf muscles were paining badly, she got up, sat stiffly, moved her head from right to left and then left to right, moistened her lips with her tongue and saw a lady came inside her room with a broomstick, bucket and a mop stick. She kept all those things aside and heads directly to the window, pull the curtains at the corner and open the window knob and pushed the window with little force and as she turns back to open one more window she saw Ashkira, observing her from head to toe with a confused yet sleepy face.

"I hope I didn't wake you up?" passed Ashkira a welcome smile and moved towards the window which was located above her bed.

Ashkira cleared her throat to make sure she doesn't sound sleepy, "it's okay, I'll do that." passed her a forced and tight smile "When did you join? And Where's aunt Kalpa?"

"I'm Priya, her niece, don't worry she'll rejoin soon. She went to her native; her mother-in-law was not feeling well" Priya said and stared at her white face which became red, her hair were messy and some strands of hair glued on her forehead and cheeks, neck, maybe because of sweat. "Are you fine? You're face is red? Wait I'll on the fan."

Ashkira pulled her black rubber band with her front four teeth from her wrist, grabbed all her hair with both the hands and made a tiny little bun. "Where's mum? They were making breakfast for you" Priya said while mopping the floor with the mop stick.

Ashkira climbed down her bed and headed straight towards bathroom. She took a quick bath, wrapped a towel around her came out of the bathroom, took a grey top and regular printed navy blue shorts. And after few minutes she was ready and headed down to the kitchen, she was hungry and since it was Sunday she knew both her mum and dad will be at home.

As she reached kitchen she could see her mum and dad were making breakfast together, they were laughing, teasing one another and that made her happy. But she didn't react, "What's there in breakfast? She asked.

Her mum gave her some poha(fried flattened rice) and tea. Her favorite! She took the plate and cup, kept it on the table, sat on the chair and started eating. While she was eating she thought of all the weird dreams she dreamt few hours back and was trying hard to connect the dots when she saw her deary people who are smiling, talking now but yesterday they were fighting, growling like wild animals, She smirked and again repeated "wild animals" in her mind. Even though she wanted to smile but she didn't. She just wanted to simmer down and see things calmly.

She was done with her food, she got up slowly and as she was about to move towards her room, she turned back and looked at them, who too were looking at her, with some hope, took a deep breath and said, "Please don't fight it really scares me. I don't want to lose you guys." And went off.

She spent her entire day sleeping. She wasn't feeling good so didn't come out of her room. Ashwin and Mary went to her room.
"Ashu what's wrong?" Her dad asked Ashkira
"Nothing dad."
"Let's go for shopping!" Her mum asked her.
"No, Not today, my legs are paining! Please bring my lunch here only, I won't be able to go down" Ashkira said to her mum with a paleness on her face.
Her mum came, "Where is it paining exactly? Show me"

I'm fine mum, I need to sleep. It's alright, I'll apply some ointment, just hand me over my bag before you go."

 Ashkira was busy doing her projects, whole day she used to draw some designs, locked herself in her room and only used to come out to eat. Everything was casual,until Wednesday, when she woke up around 3:00 a.m.