Tragic Melody

Chapter - 1

(4 years later)

MELODY'S POV

Music makes the time pass fast. It opens a new world of peaceful harmony for the listener to escape reality and fade into it. It accord to their needs and feelings. Nobody has the power to destroy it because it can only be destroyed by the one who created it.

Reading books—fiction or nonfiction both—is also an effective way to skip the time happily and escape the boring usual. There is nothing better than indulging in a universe that does not even exist and falling in love with their characters.

But right now, both ways were seemingly failing in making my day pass in a blur. For the last 5 minutes, I have been looking at the clock, waiting for it to strike 6 as soon as possible. My anxiety for the upcoming discussion was killing me but if I didn't do it now then it will be too late.

At some point, all the fears need to be faced for living.

There was no pressure on me to do what I have decided. These confined walls had been my safe haven for the last 4 years. I didn't think much of leaving them.

And that's the real root of all problems.

That behavioural change created many issues which I was realising only now. And that's why I have decided to break this comfortable monotony of life and take a step to repair the damages I have caused.

Suddenly, the tinkling of keys from the other side of the door brought me out of my thoughts to my current situation. The white big clock on the wall was still signalling that it was early for anybody to be home. But before I could do anything to hide or grab anything to attack, the door opened and she came in.

It's only her, Mel. Calm down.

Relief rushed through my veins at her sight. She must have noticed my emotions all over my face because her face contorted in a guilty look instantly.

"Sorry, honey. I didn't think you'd be downstairs," Mom apologized.

This right here was one of the other reasons for my decision. I was tired of getting treated like a porcelain doll who would break at any moment. It's not their fault to react the way they do—I might have done the same if to put in their shoes—but I wanted them to believe that yes, I was no more that person who couldn't stand up to her fears. I was strong and ready to face the world. Even if it was a total lie and a pretence, I needed them to believe it.

I noticed Mom looking at me warily so I dismissed her apology with a smile and leaned back on the couch. "It's okay, sweet thing. You're home early today?"

She walked where I was, copied my position on the couch beside me and closed her eyes. I could sense the heaviness under them because she had been working very hard these days.

"Work wrapped soon and your father was too busy flirting with other women to talk about the prenup and division of assets. So, I had the luxury to spend the evening with you," she said, her lips tugged in a small smile.

One of the many repercussions of that night 4 years ago was soured relationship of my Mom and Dad. it became so bad that he started living seperately 6 months ago.

It was not that Dad had changed or something. No. We still saw each other daily and spent time together. He was present in my life just the same way he had always been, but now he lived somewhere else, not with us. His and mom's relationship was falling apart. Initially, it was supposed to be a little break, but now they were on the point of separation. It pained me seeing them like that, like strangers and hurting each other.

"Don't worry I will talk to him tomorrow." I turned to her and put my hand on her cheek. "You have been working very hard for the last few days. Go and take some rest for a while. I will wake you up for dinner."

She smiled, cupping my hand with hers and kissing my palm. "No. You cooked yesterday too and have been doing it for the last few weeks. It's my responsibility to take care of you, so I will do what I should do as your mother."

I shook my head, leaning my head on her shoulders. She wrapped her one arm around me protectively. "You do more than you should for us, mom. Work already takes its toll on you and this situation with dad—"

"Shhhh. Don't take tension of me and your dad. It's a rough patch but we both are adults and we will deal with it. I believe he will come around soon but how much this soon is going to take, that we will see only in time," she said softly and put her head over mine. "But you are not the one responsible for our actions. Stop blaming yourself for it. We both are old enough to decide where to go with our relationship. If it breaks, that would be because I wanted it to, not because of you or Max. So please, don't blame yourself."

Leave it on my Mom to know what I feel without even me saying a word. "I love you so much."

"I love you more." She kissed my forehead and held me tighter. "Where are the boys?"

I laughed, thinking how normal them staying till very late with us had become. They both mostly went to their home to sleep and sometimes even sleep here, if they were too tired to drive back. "Shubham and Dylan are recharging their souls with power to again conquer the world."

"Okay, they are napping in your room." She laughed and stood up to pull off her coat. "What about Brooke?"

"Left for a date with her father and his new girlfriend."

Her lips curled in a smile. "Good to see Ted finally moving on from Ashley's sudden demise. That man will need someone to accompany him when Brooke will be left for university."

I nodded but my insides churned, partly because of remembering how broken my best friend was after losing her mother and partly because I knew this was the time to tell her about my decision.

Hopefully, she would believe everything I will tell her.

It's now or never, Mel. Just do it.

"Mom, I wanted to talk to you about something."

She stood rooted in her place with a gaze speculating reasons for my sudden nervousness. "Okay, about what ?"

I sighed. "Would you please sit down for this? It's kinda long and important."

She did as I asked and sat beside me. I took a deep breath and held her hands for some strength and looked into her blue eyes—a gesture of showing confidence that I have learnt from her.

Put on your best show and make it convincing, Mel. You can do it. It was nothing compared to what they have done for you. Now it's your time to do something for them.

"I think I am ready, ready to join school again," I said, making it as believable as possible. "It's about time I slay my dragons."

It took her some time to process this and she stared at me for a minute. I wasn't the person to joke much anymore, specially not about this topic. So she knew I meant what I said. "Are you sure, honey? There is no pressure on you to do that."

One thing I couldn't do was to lie to my parents but that needed to be done now. I felt bad doing it but reasoned myself with the motive behind it. Telling her the truth and collapsing in her arms wouldn't help the situation, didn't matter how much I wanted to do just that.

So I continued my act. "I know, sweet thing. But at some point, I need to face them. So why not now? I have already missed an important chunk of my high-school life, but now I am ready to have a normal senior year. And more than that I realized my fear is getting stronger. I can't let it win over me forever."

A sob escaped her throat when she pulled me in a hug. I accepted her much needed warmth and rubbed her back. "I am so sorry, honey, for all that happened to you. No one deserves it. That all happened because of me—"

"Mom, shhh. Don't cry please."

Images of that night flashed in my head and I almost broke down in her arms. But I saved myself from that stumble because Mom needed me with her. Seeing me hurting will only make her blame herself more. What happened that night was not her or any of us fault, still, we were blaming ourselves and repenting for it. But I had decided that it needed to end here. I refuse to let that one unfortunate incident ruin the few good things I have. They were done being my collateral damages.

"It was my fault—"

"No," I sternly told her and pulled away. "It was not. Get this straight through your mind. None of that was your fault. NONE. You get me."

She only nodded in reply and I wiped the tears off her cheek.

"I am so proud of you honey. I don't know what else to say. I am just so so proud of you. What you have survived was horrible. But I am happy that you are trying to move on. I promise to be there with you in each step, in need or happiness. Your Mom will always have your back," she said and kissed my forehead.

"You had it since forever and never let it go. I only made out of that dark pitfall because of you."

That was the truth. If I was sitting and talking, somewhat normally, only because of the love and support they all provided. Darkness has consumed my heart—I don't think it will ever go—but I will be damned if I let it prey on the people and relationships that I valued the most. My soul may have been shattered but I won't let the shards of it sabotage something which once used to be my happy, safe universe.

There are only so many broken relationships I could handle and one with my own self was enough. Rest needed to go back to the way they used to be before.

And I will make sure they do.

"Have you told Max and your dad about it?" She asked.

I shook my head in reply. "Not yet, but I will talk to them tomorrow."

Her phone chimed in and she saw the notification before putting it down. "Max is done with his interview and they are on their way home. I am going to take a quick shower before cooking. Maybe you can talk to him after dinner."

I stood up along with her, deciding to wake up those two rascals sleeping in my room. "Wait. What do you mean by they?"

"He and Skylar."

"Oh! How did I forget about Max's beau."

Mom only snickered in reply and went inside her room. I started climbing the stairs to my room.

She smiled all the time in front of us, pulling up her strong persona, but most of them didn't quite reach her eyes. It was obvious that she missed dad but she respected herself enough for not crawling back to him until he realizes the mistakes of his share.

Never in my life, I had ever imagined my parents would even think of separation. They were—and I believe still are—just so much in love. That didn't mean their relationship was perfect or they never fought, because god knows they did, loud and messy, but they always resolved it soon and made out of it even stronger than before. They had the perfect ratio of communication to balance and negate all the miscommunications. Their love was deep and real to survive those challenges.

But this time, it has been way too long and many things have changed, like the way they have given up on themselves and weren't even trying to save their almost 30 years old relationship. They started arguing often after that ungodly night, soon those arguments turned into big fights, and at some point became too toxic for them to handle. Their last fight, 6 months ago, turned ugly. It was clear from the resignation on their faces, so they decided to take a break. Dad volunteered to move out until they find some common grounds.

Now they have found it and it was Divorce.

The Relationship that I admired the most, which once thrived with understanding and pure, intense love and passion, was now straining and withering to the complexities of life and a part of me knew the root cause of all of this was what happened to me.

After that day, life changed for the worst. Everything started crumbling. Be it relationships, love, strength, confidence or anything else, and the worst part was I was not able to save them because my demons kept me locked in their cage. I watched them all getting destroyed and did nothing. I wasn't able to even feel anything that time and that drowned many beautiful people and relationships with me.

But now it will change and I will change them.

When I opened the door of my room, Dylan's and Shubham's sleepy faces made me smile to myself. I was almost about to let them sleep but they needed to have dinner.

"Get up you morons. It's 6 already." I shook them. They stirred slightly but nothing more than that.

Dead sleepers.

"Guys! Get up."

Still nothing.

With a huff, I climbed on the tiny space between them, pushed both the giants out of the bed and they fell on the floor with a loud thump. Soon their whining broke the serene silence and I started laughing at it.

"Owww. That hurts, Mel," Shubham whined, getting up from the floor.

"Yeah. You broke my dream of kissing Ariana Grande," Dylan complained.

I gave them both a deadpan look after composing my laughter. "You both have been sleeping for the last 2 hours."

"Only 2 hours!?" Shubham asked. "I need more of my beauty sleep. Scoot over, cousin."

Sometimes I wonder why aunt Jade married his father. It was already too much to handle him in the school and now he practically lived here with me, all the damn day.

"Get your ass to the washroom and wake yourself up from sleep, sleeping beauty, or else I will call aunt Jade."

"Hey, you can not always use Mom as leverage."

"Oh, I can. Watch me do it." I smiled too sweetly and picked up my phone, pretended to dial her number.

He stomped his foot like a little kid and huffed annoyingly before making his way to the attached bathroom. "You're a big bully," he yelled from there.

I chuckled, shaking my head. "Idiot."

On my other side, Dylan sneakily made his way back on the bed when I was talking to Shubham. He thought I didn't notice but actually, I just ignored him because he was easier than Shubham to wake up.

"And you, my boy," I said and turned to him. "Your brother is joining us for dinner so I advise you to wake up as well or else he will finish all the cookie dough that you saved with all the sweat and hard work."

And it did the trick. In seconds he sat back straight, looking wide awake. "Sky is coming here?"

"Yup. You better hide those ice cream tubs somewhere else."

"Thank you for saving them, Mel. You are the best." He kissed my cheek before jumping out and running away.

I wonder how I got stuck with these nincompoops.

But they were part of those people who played a big part in me being somewhat normal. They never left, never complained and always supported me in any way they could.

When I woke up after that horrible night, I found myself in hospital and apparently was asleep for 48 hours to recuperate. But that didn't heal even a small inch of my broken soul. Only reassuring thing was that nobody was dangerously injured. Max had a broken arm and a leg with a concussion, but him being alive was the biggest relief. Mom too had lost a lot of blood but was on her feet after taking a rest for a couple of weeks.

The fear latched me when I didn't see dad for some time after waking up but he showed up in the room after 15 minutes. I never felt so relieved in my life.

He told me about how that fake couple chloroformed him and left him in a silent neighbourhood of Hillford, where nobody noticed his car or him before 6 in the morning when it was already too late. He cried while holding me because he felt guilty for whatever happened.

The truth was, it was no one's fault other than that monster Alejandro. There was nothing that could have stopped him that night. I clearly saw that savage hunger on his face.

Life became too hard to live since then. I was afraid of humans, human touch, darkness, loneliness, communication, in short everything. Panic attacks and nightmares accompanied my misery and made it hell for me. The sight of anyone other than a few people started triggering me. I didn't talk to anyone for months other than Mom, Dad and Max. I felt completely drained, tired and scared all the time. Even a fleeting touch of anybody used to burn me because all my body could think was about those torturous manhandling, and a small brush of other skin made me suspect it for that.

So I did what I thought was best and cut every tie which required me to leave my house. I wasn't ready to face people, even though they didn't know about anything that happened. The concept of what humans were capable of doing scared me. I quitted everything that included seeing and interacting with them. I left school, opted for homeschooling, stopped going out of my home.

With time I healed just a tiny bit and started talking to Aunt Jade, Uncle Vikram, Shubham, Brooke, Dylan, Skylar and their Mom Paige. Since they knew what happened, they did everything to help me stabilize. Skylar and I share a very different bond and he was the only person who has somewhat of insights of.my thoughts.

I wouldn't talk more than a few sentences to them but it was a progress. After a while, I became a little comfortable with going out. Comfortable means, I stopped having panic attacks by seeing strangers. So they all made sure that I go out with them at least once in a few months.

We never filed a complaint against Alejandro in the police. It was the most immoral thing I feel I had done in my life but it was necessary for our protection. His previous actions were a reaction to mom's action and he warned us about the consequences. So, I didn't speak about it. Didn't matter how that decision made me loath myself and made me felt like a coward, I didn't speak up, I couldn't. He had already done a great damage to us and we were still suffering from it, so I couldn't risk it. Couldn't bear to lose anyone else whom I love after losing myself.

Love does many things to humans. Making them scared and selfish is one of them.