Anastasia

’Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!’

Hide and go seek was the routine of the evening. The extreme monsoon weather with two days of heavy rain meant mud, mud and just mud! Anastasia would have the idea where her siblings were hiding. They always hid together in the same spot. Possibly the twins are under the dining table or behind the curtains.

Sun sank lower in the sky, light of day draining away, giving way to the velvety dark of night, crickets chirping, dusky, colors subdued in the fading light, first buzz of mosquitoes, day winding down, first star in the night sky, short darkness, air became cooler, evening landscape, twilight had fallen, only the faintest of light shone through the leaves, soon it grew dark, darkening sky, a close silence in the dim evening light.

‘Where they could be?’ she said convincingly as they giggled somewhere in the house. She tiptoed down the hall and peeked into their rooms.

‘Err...Guess not!’ she murmured searching in the empty space under the bed. ‘How about here!’ she exclaimed again but this time an empty closet. They are really making me work for this time, she thought. ‘Hmm...Nothing in the bath, no one in the kitchen’

She knew they were too scared to venture into the cellar but at last, decided to check when she got worn out from all other options.

‘Hello?’

She opened the door with a creaking pitch. All she can see was black gloom.

‘Okay! I know you are here; you win’ she yelled while stepping down stairs, biting her lip.

‘I said I give up; it’s nineteen already. Time to dinner!’

‘Tyler? Amelia?’ she called merrily.

‘Tyler? Amelia?’ this time with more urgency but ultimately silences was all there. She turned back but paused when heard a chilling chuckle right behind her. She stood with darting eyes, her palms got clammy.

‘It’s enough!’ she shouted.

Yet her blood went cold and eyes left wide open when she saw all her three siblings standing at the door.

‘Anastasia! We thought we’re playing hide n seek’

………………..

‘I have always warned you not to go in the cellar honey’

‘I know! But I thought…’

‘shhhh!’ her mother interrupted pouring the syrup in the spoon.

‘Take it dearly, you will feel better; no doubt the weather has given you this temperature. And don’t forget to drink the milk’

A glass placed on the side.

‘I love you mum’

‘I love you too dear’ uttered mother caressing her forehead ‘… should I unlit the candles? You might be sleepy!’

‘Yay! Sure’.

Her emotions were not easily hidden on her innocent face. Her pain was evident in the crease of her lovely brow and the down-curve of her full lips. But her eyes, her eyes showed her soul. They were a deep pool of restless gold, an ocean of hopeless grief.

Long, Wavy, untied hairs, cascades on her shoulders. It was the color of blood, but not the vivid red of the freshly spilled, but more the browning red of old blood.

‘Don’t worry about any noises you may hear. There are always owls and foxes outside; and I know it is quite weird’ said mother with a comfortable grin on her face ‘… and it’s raining too the windows might rattle and the house will moan but still it means no harm’

Her mother moved her fingers on the scalp of the young lady making her comfy and plush.

She stopped speaking and a worried look came over her face.

‘It’d be best that you stay in the room’

The lady put out few candles and stepped back closing the wooden door behind. Anastasia waited until the sound of her mother’s footsteps going down the stairs could be heard no more.

Two large beds took up one half of the room leaving little space to walk. A large rug covered the wooden floor and a fire burned brightly in the small fireplace.

Anastasia laid down again on her bed. She blenched when a rumbling and crashing sound of a thunderstorm came across her ears.

I just don’t know what’s going on in this house. It was real, it was all real. I know it was not only a semblance. Something is not right

She veered to the opposite side of the bed and looked at a frame of a picture standing on the side table. She picked it up and embraced it to her chest.

‘I miss you dad!’ a heavy tear crawled on her freckled face and fell on the picture. She moved her fingertips on the portrait gazing on a young man with a red face and black whiskers and an exceedingly wide friendly smile. He was dressed in a fashionable pair of breeches, a red hunting coat, and black riding boots. She saw herself standing by his side. Her mum, her brother, and twin sisters.

This is perhaps a happy family. She smiled and put the frame back on its place.

She fell back on to the mattress and wallowed in the delight of the softness of the feathers. Soon the young lady had left this world and was dreaming, whimpering and twitching her limbs like a worn-out spaniel.