Chapter 11 : The unknown summer part 2

The loud bang of something being broken in the huge house made Akshi jerk in her bed. The night was still young, yet the voices that were coming from downstairs made her shiver. All she wanted was for this night to come to an end.

“And I wish I would have never got married in this house!!” Purina screamed as another plate was banged on the ground. The huge voice of Rupinder snapping at his voice made her shiver.

It only made her worried, was being married that of an omen? The thoughts were again crawling up towards her - Increasing her fears to an octave.

The loud voices increased, even more, every time she tried to close her eyes. Akshi sat up On her bed and was about to let the darkness engulf her, the pain to take over senses; for the first time in such a long time, she wanted to pity herself when she saw the slight movement in the door, as luv kush, Trisha, Yash and Kartik walked into her room.

Their faces grim, the innocence that had once married their face was nowhere to be seen. The night was just another night when the secrets that were hidden in these huge walls of the bungalow would slowly unmask themselves.

Akshi smiled at them and went up towards the balcony to set up a small bed like structure for them to sleep on. The balcony was the only place which only made them part of the house without actually being a part of the house.

No noise, no arguments, no cruel truths could be heard from here.

Peace was what it gave, a place to hide was what it meant to them.

“Kartik!” she heard luv’s terrified voice and quickly adjusted the cushions and finally went back inside the room; the silence that had married them around was killing. One could really slice it with the help of a knife.

She went to her bed and picked up the blankets that each one of them had got and once again they all moved towards a place, a place though for only a while did provide them peace.

“Akshi, tell us one of the stories that you read,” Kartik asked.

If any person outside this room would have seen him like this, they would have thought who the hell that person was? Never had any of the people other than these kids had seen his, this vulnerable sight.

It was his secret, their secret that was to be taken along with them to the grave. Their weak points were not to be showcased to anyone. The coin has two sides, and so did they.

Akshi smiled at them and then once again began narrating them the story, this time the story, as usual, included a billionaire, a weak girl, but then there was a loving family, one who would love them a lot, one who never hid anything from them, one who was always happy.

An image which she had once seen, a family of who’s once she was a part of.

“that is not true, see how they all are fighting, every night the same story… Akshi you and mom both of you lie to us, there could never be a family where there are no fights.” Kush said and folded his small hands on his chest.

For an 8-year-old he was very cute and understanding, he should have never been a witness to these things.

But time was never the same when Akshi was 8 all she had seen in her family were smiles, but now; just one mistake and the whole world had just turned around.

“it is, it is true kush; it's just that some circumstances are not in our favour right now, but there will be a time when everything would be different, there would be someone out there who would change this for us.” Akshi smiled at the little bundles of joy and once again made them sleep beside her.

Never once did she let her eyes wander off to her brother. The same person who had always been their pillar, at this moment she knew would be worse than a broken glass.

The sound that had now become distant slowly started to fade as her thoughts let her through the stories; stories that she would always tell her friends, the stories of her perfect family, the one which would never fight, the one would do anything for each one of them.

Though at some time these things were true, they seemed like a distant memory; like the memories of her childhood, which she knew did occur yet their image was so old that the poor brain could never register them once again.

The cold air wrapped them around it, trying to absorb as much of their pain as possible.

The silence now that had engulfed them, made her wonder what could be today’s reason.

Even though it had been the same for the last 3 years, The memory of Sidharth's happy wedding now feels as if it has started to fade as well.

So happy were they, when he had got married, when he had happily got his bride home, and then as if someone had their bad eye on the happy couple, just within a blink snatched all the purity of their life, made the happy universe in which they lived upside down.

The incidents, those happenings, things so cruel, so heart-wrenching; that it took away their life from them.

It made Akshi who she was today, a soul running from reality, her brother's someone who could never look in the eyes of their parents, her grandparents a 100 years old in just a month and her siblings, it forced them to be an understanding child just at a mere age.

Life shouldn’t be this cruel. She thought, her eyes lying on the brightly light sky, her eyes blank, they couldn’t depict what they would express, the tears tired of showing the turmoil that would keep on running within her.

A cracked breath was let out of her mouth, as she tried to stop the tearless cries of hers.

But would it ever be heard by anyone?

The answer was a no, no one had ever heard till now, no one had ever come to till now, it would have been so beautiful to feel it in this darkness, where no one could see it, feel it, acknowledge it, but more than anything she wondered what would it be to feel the end pain

To feel the pain towards death! She smiled to herself, maybe somewhere that would answer all her answered questions. It would end everything for good.

She smiled, she tried to imagine the ways, maybe a jump from the train would do, or maybe the poison that would be easily available in the store, or maybe an accident would be best, no one would even know about it.

She laughed a painful and uneventful laugh. She laughed at her stupidity, she laughed while she pitied herself, she laughed thinking who had she become.

She laughed yet she cried for herself, thinking who it would really be to take her away from this pain, the pain that was so eating her up that she wanted to end the same life that she once liked a lot.

Akshi closed her eyes and let the sleep take over her, yet somehow she knew the next morning was again going t be a hide and seek, each and every person in her family trying to hide the pain, the frustrations and the somehow only trying to focus on smiling, trying to built-in already broken pieces of their home.

As the on the wee hours of the day, Akshi finally felt the sleep overtaking her mind, she felt a pair of lips on her forehead, caressing her hair lovingly, promising her something which sounded so much like what she wanted; meanwhile letting her now that those words would even if haunt her life, she would never be brave enough to let them take over her.

“Everything would be fine Akshi, just let someone in you, someone who would be your prince, your that bubble of happiness which would take you far away from this darkness.”

The words did ease her turmoil, but never had she thought that once again her summers would end up like this… a check with reality was never what she wanted to have, especially not during her long-awaited summer vacations.

The next day when Akshi woke up, her arms and legs were frozen, the sun was blazing on their heads, and a sweet aroma of coffee lingered in her balcony.

With the groggy sight in front of her, with her siblings sprawled around her, her brother holding up a tray of coffee and breakfast in his hand, with a huge smile on his face, Akshi tried to get up. Expecting whatever they wanted to feed her – be that fake smile or the unwanted pohas that rested on the trey.

“and here I thought you would get something interesting for me,” Akshi said as she quickly got up and sat up straight, her one eyebrow raised up teasingly at Kartik.

“I could only get what was prepared, though we can always ditch this go for breakfast.”

“Alright then just pick this up, I have got to get ready,” Akshi said and started to walk inside her room, but suddenly started running when she felt Kartik running towards her from the opposite side of the balcony.

“Akshi gets back here and helps me in placing it back in its place, you brat come here.” Kartik kept on screaming, while Akshi just like a pro dodged all the threats and curses that landed in her way and walked into the washroom, did her morning business and once she was sure that the swollen eyes would not be seen by any of her family members she walked back towards the balcony to see it completely cleaned.

Not wanting to spoil the coffee, she took the coffee mug and walked downstairs where like every other day the whole leaving room was in a chaos as if the thunder of last night had never occurred.

Though all her being wanted to scream at their ignorance, she was glad none of them talked about it, nor did they make an effort to apologize, because all their apologies would hurt her even more.

She went and sat in the huge couch, waiting eagerly for Kartik to come, once she saw him walking down the stairs she called out for her mom, told her about their plan and the two walked out of the house, calling each of their cousins who were ready to spend the next holidays with them in a somewhat similar manner.

It was amazing how the bright sun had a power to fade away the dark demons of their life.

Nothing that happened this morning or the night, or that happens every Friday was a lie, every single thing was the truth, a bit of truth of a story that she herself didn’t know.

Akshi closed her eyes and welcomed the morning breeze as they derived from the morning traffic towards the coffee shop, somehow the vacations wouldn’t be as bad as she had thought they would be.