Shadows

Credits: This

He was with me like shadow under the Moonlit skies since I was a baby who’d been in this world for not more than a week. I was certain then, that walls of my room were blue and Lucy, the white cat hated me. And I knew that I shouldn’t cry when my Mom was already crying because she’d not pick me up.

When Mom’d hold me in her folded arms to feed me in the morning, I’d gaze at blue scars beneath her starlit eyes. Those scars’d change their colors and places daily and when I’d try to reach them she’d hold my tiny fingers in her soft hand and tears’d fall on my forehead. She’d whisper in my ear that we’d leave this place soon.

My dad’d smell like medicine when he’d hold me while he’d cut my Mom down with his words. He never left his habits and mom never left this place.

He’d sit beside me with a wooden face, covering my ears with his hands to block the shouts; blades with tiny bayonet pointed firmly at my heart.

I’d laugh when he’d tease me that I broke my head when I was thrown from the sky into the world. Mom never liked him and whenever I’d tell her about him she’d not answer. I’d start talking to him and Mom’d start crying.

We celebrated my 18 birthdays together and he was with me that day when dad brought some quaint people in our house. I heard shouts, dad’s cries were a pitcher of bitterness and mom’s quivering voice tasted of sacrifice.

Dad clamped his hand onto my wrist and pulled me through the lounge where Mom sat squeezed in a corner, mouth covered with hands and tears brimming through her opaque eyes.

Pain paralyzes my mind when doctors pierce needles in my arm and I see his shadow fading into the light of nothingness.

We all have to fade, as we all are shadows on the wall of time.

————————————————————————————-

This is my 333 words response to Trifecta Challenge. This weeks word was Quaint and we have to use its third definition ( unusual or different in character or appearance : ODD ) in our response. Feedback is always appreciated. Click on the badge to see other entries.

The Red Letter

“No-way, this is not possible !” She screamed…..

Her soft breaths gradually converted to heavy fast storms. Her heart beats were drumming in her ears as if they’ll tear apart her ribs. She could feel uncountable needles stabbing in her head. She fell down……

“Not again, No” She was crying and shrieking hysterically.

“What happened Mama?” Her 7 years old son, Ali, came running towards her.

She looked at his face, she couldn’t. Grabbing his hand she pulled him towards herself and embraced him in her arms.

“Nothing My Love, I won’t let anything happen to you” Gazing at the red letter in her hand, she sighed.

————————————————–

Rachael was drowned in the valley of thoughts while Ali was sleeping right beside her. Windows were closed and the room was dark and silent. Sometimes a gust of frosted wind would scatter the silence with its whispers.

They were a happily-ever-after family 7 years ago. Ali wasn’t born by that time. Her two sons and beloved husband shared the same house where today, silence regulates.

When Rachael received this red letter for the first time, she was unknown of the consequences. She came to know when the very next day, her husband met an accident and he passed away.

She was scattered. She would never have related the death to that letter if one by one, both her sons wouldn’t have passed away in the same mysterious manner.

She was sure there was ‘something’ behind all this. Something esoteric, something inexplicable.

And now she had received that red letter again. Her baffled mind started freezing with the weather.

——————————————————–

A sound woke her up. She felt like she had heard a whisper. She checked Ali, he was sleeping. She checked the time, it was 2 o’ clock at night.

A sudden sharp cracking sound outside the window startled her. Her heart beat and pulse rate were at a race. She slipped towards the window slowly and peeked through the glass. She couldn’t see anything. It was dark and calm.

She took a long sigh.

She turned back. A panic-stricken scream welled up and burst out of her mouth. Her eyes bulged out with shock and dark condensed clouds blocked her mind.

The bed was vacant, Ali was gone.

A furiously loud knock at the door drummed in her ears……

To Be Continued……….

Story Of A One-Eared Theif

There was a loud crash in the hallway. My thumping heart missed a beat. By the time I had collected enough gold jewelry while they were still snoring.

My name is Jim and I am a renowned thief. I have earned quite a fame by the name of one-eared man. This is the story of how I lost my ear.

With the idea of taking a break from stealing, I once decided to tuck away in some place afar. I took my belongings and hid in a truck that was leaving for an unknown location. I dozed off and when opened my eyes, I was laying at a place that was alien to me but very beautiful, with greenery all around. Beautiful flowers were smiling and the sun embraced me with its light. Chilled wind tickled me and I started roaming.

Wandering in this beautiful valley, I saw a small house. My thief-nerves gave me an alarm and I headed towards it. I broke in from the rear door and cloaked myself behind the curtains in one of the rooms. The moment I decided to come out, a bulky woman entered the room.

She was wearing a white shining silk dress with white gloves on her hands. Big gold ear-rings were hanging down from her ears and a gold pendant was caressing her neck. The thing that terrified me wasn’t the dress, but the voices she was making. She sat on the bed and started crying hysterically. She was swinging her arms in wide arcs and stretching out her own hair with her hands. The dry skin on her hands was tanned like leather. She was speaking loudly in a language that I wasn’t able to comprehend.

My legs started trembling and I was covered in sweat from head to toe. I was cursing the time when I decided to take a break, when a girl entered the room. She sat beside the woman and put a pot filled with smoke in front of her. Within seconds, the woman’s voices started lowering down gradually. She was calm now.

“We should prepare the lunch” The girl spoke in a creamy voice and the woman nodded her head.

I caught a glimpse of the girl. She was young, wearing a red velvet long dress and her black hair were tied in a pin. She was wearing gold bangles and ear-rings too. I was charmed by her beauty.

The circumstances convinced me that the woman was under a magic spell. After some time my fear was conquered by greed. The luster of gold jewelry they were wearing blind folded me and I decided to leave this house at night along with  jewelry.

“Stealing from two bare handed women can’t be that difficult”, I thought to myself.

I peeked into the hallway. It was dark. The woman’s snores were piercing the silence. I entered the room after making sure that they both are under the influence of deep sleep. I started removing slowly, the gold pendant and then both the gold ear-rings from the woman’s ears. Her ears were thin and brown as coffee beans. After putting them in my bag, I went closer to the girl, an innocent beauty. My hands shivered while removing her bangles and other jewelry.

As I finished, A loud crash in the hallway destroyed the peaceful silence. I ran towards the hallway to stop the sound. My eyes bulged out and a scream was stuck in my throat, as the vision became clear. A gigantic man with black long mustache like tail of an elephant was standing right in front of me.

He came closer and the bag of jewelry fell down from my hand. He grabbed my neck in one hand and my ear in the other. I smelled the scent of death. He pulled out my ear forcefully and with in a moment my ear was in his hand. A burning sensation filled my head. My screams woke up the women. They stood in the doorway with expressions of shock on their faces.

“RETURN THIS” he growled pointing his finger towards the bag. I grabbed the bag, handed it to the girl and ran out of their front door.

That was my last theft, the first unsuccessful one.

That giant man was the women’s son. That woman was sick. And that beautiful girl is my wife now….

Sometimes weirdest things in life turns out to be the best ones and weird people, the best mates !

Truth That Consumed Her -A Short Story

Who am I ? Where am I ? Many questions bubbled onto the surface her mind as she opened her eyes. At first she couldn’t see anything, her vision was blurred with a thin white sheet of mist.

She was laying in a small room. A dim yellow light was trying to make her vision clear but it couldn’t. She tried to move her arms and after struggling for a while, they were in a position to let her sit with her back resting along the headboard.

A bouquet of withered old flowers was resting on the side table along with a tray of tablets. A fan was running slowly on the ceiling which could produce no air but only an unpleasant noise. Her bed was white colored, made of steel. Soon she figured out that she was in a hospital. But why ? What happened to her ? She searched for wounds on her body but couldn’t find any. She tried to move her body off the bed but she wasn’t able to move it. She tried to call out, words stuck in her throat.

———————————————————————

“Yes my darling I will take you both to the zoo in the evening” She spoke in her soft voice wrapped in love while driving the car.

“But we want to go now Mama” Both her twin kids who were the world to her were insisting.

“Today is your first day at school my Love, you can’t skip it. Mama promises you that she’ll take you to the zoo”

“Okay pinky promise?” They both forwarded their tiny hands with cute smiles on their faces.

She smiled and touched their fingers with her’s and kissed them both on their foreheads. She had tears in her eyes while watching them enter the school gate….Tears that are precious like white pearls in the ocean….like a mother’s love….like the first rain…..pure !

She turned back and was crossing the road when suddenly she felt herself in the air….the ground beneath her feet was gone and her mind blacked out.

——————————————————————–

“How the hell am I supposed to let her live in my home?”

“She is still my wife, why can’t you understand that? Doctors said there are 1% chances of her coming out of the coma and that 1% chance saved her like a miracle.Where the hell is she supposed to go now?”

“I don’t know anything. I have given my 15 years to this home. I have been taking care of her kids for 15 years and now she is here to take control of my home? I can’t let this happen ever”

“She is not in a position of taking control of your house. She is on the wheel chair for God’s sake!! Let her live in a corner of our house. She won’t interfere in your matters, I guarantee that ! I know her……”

She heard a loud sound like someone has thrown a plate on the ground…..And she heard the rest of that too.

———————————————————————

“Ali?“

“Yes my love“

“Can we be more happier and satisfied than we are now? Can life be better than this?” She was staring at the countless stars on the dark black sky, glittering and glowing like her eyes.

“I don’t think so” He kissed her hand while looking at her and smiled.

“But it can be if you make me a cup of coffee right now?” she stared at his face where a naughty smile and pure love was gleaming.

“Okay but this is the last time”

“My darling wife I love you” He cried and She giggled.

——————————————————————–

“Why is she here brother I don’t like her. You know mom told me that she was bad and she was never there for us when we needed her. I hate her”

“She was in a coma for 15 years ! She need us now”

She didn’t listen to her brother.

While leaving the room she saw her pulling the wheelchair towards her room holding a plate with two burgers in her hands.

She recalled, they loved burgers when they were kids.

———————————————————————

He is standing on a freshly made grave covered with red roses. He is crying hard with his hands stretched in the air. Why Allah? Why did you do that to my mother? No one needed her but I did. Why did you snatch the only happiness I had after 15 years? Why? Tears were flowing down his cheeks and collecting on his neck as he continued……

Here lies a wife and a mother who was best of both at one time. She returned to the world to have a second chance but cold truth and cruel realities didn’t let her avail it. Here lies a girl consumed by nothing but truth…Truth that can be like roses at one time and like thorns for the other. As they say,”Truth is rarely pure and never simple”.

———————————————————————-

Related:

The Daily Prompt: TRUTH.

Friday Fictioneers – The World Out There Is Cruel.

She was playing with doggy when he climbed up the tree.

“What can you sh-ee doggy ?” She asked in her soft voice.

“I can see a fairy land” The dog replied.

“Tell me more” She giggled.

“There are houses made of candies and a river of your favorite chocolate milk! Everyone is so happy” He continued.

“Wow can you take me up with you? I want to sh-ee the world” She insisted.

“You are too little to handle the reality of this cruel world my friend” Come play with me.

And she ran after doggy to play again.