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From darkness to dawn

Gauri Sachan
CRIME
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Submitted to Contest #5 in response to the prompt: 'You overhear something you weren’t meant to. What happens next?'

"Hey kid...", Karthikey said ruffling my hair as he went to the kitchen, it had been 5 years since we had lost our mother and as for papa....well he came once or twice a month .....I once tried asking Karthikey about it but he avoided my question ....later that night I heard him crying in his bedroom, since then I tended to avoid talking about our parents in front of him , I loved my brother more than the need to know about our absent father no matter how much it hurt.
It hadn't been always like this before what happened to our mother ,our father used to be the best father in the world ,he would always play with me, help me study, I remember when a few months before death of our mother our father caught drugs and some rice wine bottles in bhaiya's room instead of scolding him he sat him down and they talked about something, I don't know exactly what cause I was sent to my room but I remember bhaiya cried that night hugging papa as he buried every single thing in our aangan ,
after that bhaiya stopped sulking so often and he had started playing with me more, the way he used to when I was a kid .
I loved papa more than anything he always used to smile whenever I was near him , when I was a kid he wouldn't let bhaiya pick me up for even five minutes, "meri gudiya thak jaegi", and bhaiya used to complain,"haan aapne to uspe poora adhikar hi jama liya h , is shaitaan p mera koi hak nhi h kya?" and papa would scold him,"shaitaan kisko bola? betiyan devi ka roop hoti hain" but don't get confused Karthikey wasn't all that kind of a brother he used to beat me up all the time and I would always run to papa,
"PAPA!", I would cry and he would pick me up as bhaiya would come running, "Papa jhooth bol rhi h maine to bas-" "Chup! meri beti ko kaise chua!" "arey but papa-" he would try to convince that I was the one at fault there,"iski bholi surat par mat jao" "chup!" then papa would ask me "beta what did bhaiya do?" , and I the queen of drama would muster up my fake tears as I would say,"bhaiya haar ra tha to usne meri choti kheenchi" then papa with a twinkle in his eyes, as if he saw through my perfect little act, would say,"achcha esa kya? tum ek kaam karo tum b bhaiya k baal nocho" and at once my face would brighten up as I would pull on his hair, "ahhh don't pull that hard psycho!" as papa would leave both of us alone.
Today also papa came home, he always came on the 11th of every month ...with a bottle of beer...the first time I tried to talk to him he ignored me as he flipped through tv channels on remote I had started crying and was about to shake his arm when bhaiya pulled me away and as he took me to my room he said while hugging me,"leave him alone , right now he won't be able to hear us", I cried as I asked him," but why, our maa is gone so have we lost our father too?!" he said nothing while shushing me through his own tears, since then whenever papa would come bhaiya would immediately lock me in my room saying,"main papa ko manane ki koshish karta hun vo hamse roothe hue hain na", this time was no different as soon as Karthikey heard papa's familiar grunt he immediately dragged me to my room, "kitni baar kaha h jab vo aen tab apne aap andar aa jaya karo", I said nothing then he sighed and looked me in the eye,"See I-" I completed his sentence,"-would try to talk to papa , hain na?" he said nothing just nodded as he closed the door , I waited for that click clock sound of the key turning but nothing... curious I tried turning the handle and turns out he forgot to lock the door this time, it was an opportunity to hear what they both talk about I wanted to hear what was happening after fighting about thirty seconds of moral dilemma of breaking my brothers trust I decided to open the door just enough to be able to hear them and when I opened the door I saw that bhaiya said nothing as papa was watching some cricket match while drinking beer after what seemed like an eternity of staring bhaiya started speaking,"papa" papa didn't look at him and my heart broke again but this time for my brother , but he didn't back down as he continued. "papa, ab b naaraz ho" tears in his voice still nothing,"papa, I didn't do that deliberately" he said almost crying as he sat on the floor beside him while he continued," papa, I loved maa and appu so much", I froze this was the first time after our mothers death that he had called me appu, the last time was just after our mothers cremation he had said sorry appu crying as he had handed me some maggie to eat I had slept into a deep sleep after that and when I woke up papa was not the same anymore nor was my brother, I listened in as my brother continued, "I know I messed up ....no, I fucked up real bad I don't know what happened to me at that time, I was lost ....I was tired ,I just thought ki.....par maine ye nhi socha tha....SHIT!", I was shocked that he was swearing in front of papa like this and moreover papa was still drinking his beer I wanted to comfort him so bad but I restrained myself as I wanted to listen more, he let out a frustated sigh before calming himself,"what should I even sa because of me everyone's life got ruined...maa is no more but I love Appu so much that I can't even tell her that I was the one who killed her" CREEAAK said the old wooden door of my room as I stood there frozen , alarmed Karthikey looked up with bloodshot eyes as he saw me there were a mix of expressions on his face, anxiety, fear, regret, anger, betrayal, but he just asked in a steady voice,"you heard ?" , I didn't have it in me to say anything I just nodded, as he carefully took a step towards me hands out I stumbled backward towards the door, he stopped right then and there looking like he felt hurt by my reaction,"bachche, ese mujhse mat daro" he said with a breaking voice,"you killed me! you killed me! you--mmmmph"I stuggled to speak as he clamped his hand over my mouth and grabbed my hands with other , I kicked and squirmed but to no avail, who was this man? how can my own bhaiya kill me? destroy our family? I don't know him anymore h-how can someone do such a thing....at that I stopped struggling as uncontrollable tears started flowing and he ,though didn't release his hold, started trying to comfort me,"shaant bachche , I am here tumhare bhaiya yahin hain" and I don't know why but out of an old habit I hugged him as I after a long time started bawling like a baby and he kept comforting me as eventually I fell asleep.
The next day I woke up on my bed with sun shining in through my window, I remembered the last nights events in detail, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get myself to get angry at my big brother ,maybe cause he was the only one I had now I walked to the kitchen directly ,figured that since I am a ghost I didn't need to brush my teeth now, there he was sitting on the same sofa dad sat on yesterday, I said nothing as I sat beside him in the same place he sat yesterday, we kept sitting there in silence , it all made sense now everything that happened since mammas death ,dead or alive we had always depended on each other but now we needed each other more only because of my brother's deeds we were stuck in this limbo and maybe I was also to blame for my brothers condition I had done some things when I was alive that my brother still doesn't know about like the time I outed him as a drug addict to our father and my brother who took the blame not knowing that father had caught my drugs along with his wine, well we both are sinners now I smiled to myself in my mind while keeping a glum face I finally said,"Bhaiya ,I forgive you" he said nothing, perhaps he too knew but he said nothing as he just nodded,"Appu, dekh....suraj ug aya hai".

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Beautifully written! I really enjoyed the depth and emotion in your story β€” I have given full 50 points to your well deserved story! Would love your thoughts on my story tooβ€”Overheard at the Edge of Goodbye: https://notionpress.com/write_contest/details/6116/overheard-at-the-edge-of-goodbye

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A story so well-penned, it felt like the words had a rhythm of their own.

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Loved it

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Great story!, kept me at the edge of the seat throughout!

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Cheering for you to win ????

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