I chose a path,

Messed up the aftermath,

Was mocked sometimes..

Thoughts and feelings were confined,

Countless nights were spent in silent cries.

Desolate thoughts plague the distant, deserted mind.

There is no one to blame,

All the deeds done were mine.

No one knows how my garden is thriving and is filled with beauty within a short span of time...

Dismally scared of the disparities it may find.

Nothing weighs more than emptiness,

That's why I learnt to live in darkness..

"I could have finally killed her, Seshu, "I sighed, petting my 5-foot-long Tarahumara Boa Constrictor who was resting on my lap as I closed my eyes, leaning back in the rocking chair placed beside the aquarium.

Soft flute music was playing in the background, calming my mind. My mother was the one who introduced me to Indian classical music and Indian food when I was a toddler.

Music and art have always been my escape from the world, the toxic reality of humans.

Opening my eyes, I glanced at the sketch hanging on the front wall and I sighed again, remembering the old memories that were still intact deeply in my brain, so deep that they even haunted me, the old days when everyone was happy, everyone was carefree, everyone was cheerful, or do they?

From the very beginning, I felt excluded from the term 'everyone', 'not normal'. Ever thought about how funny it may have sounded when I was called "a sinner" by my own father, who was a mafia boss himself?

I chuckled at remembering the old golden, bloody, dark days, the days which I wanted to cherish for the entire life, the days which I wanted to be conserved, the days for which I wanted time to be stopped, the days I wanted to just kill myself.

Sometimes I feel trapped in the isolation, the emptiness, the darkness has the hunger that have engulfed each and every light that was left in my life.

When I was a child, I was young and afraid. Of afraid of what some may ask...my father. He was the leader of the cobra empire and was used to working late at night. When he returned home, I used to hide from him. He hated me for not being able to be a boy which he wanted, not being strong enough to kill people with my bare hands, and not being the ideal son he wanted from my mother. Ever since his marriage, he hated me for not being like my cousin brother, Jake De Luca.

He used to love no-no adore my mother, but only when he was sobered up. When he got drunk, he used to do things with her, err... Cruel things. She used to hide from him in that state too, but if he caught her, he would beat and beat her, not satisfied until she was sobbed up and snotty and begged him to stop.

About the time he would be heading home, I started to watch him, I'd climb up the terrace, lock the door behind me along with Seshu, my snake, and wait for his arrival. I knew his walk or stagger. I knew he would be drinking. If he was sobered, I would go to him and greet him, and if not, then this trick provided me enough time to jump on the other terrace where she lived.

I once very quietly asked my mother why she never made any noise when the cruel side of my father took over. She looked up and gave me a bitter smile, saying-

"I would never give him satisfaction of knowing that he had hurt me."

Just a single sentence, only thirteen words. That's all she said, and the words had so much hate and rage in them. I was surprised that it didn't curse the whole bloodline and make the mansion collapse right then and there. But something more terrifying happened, my father heard.

I don't really remember many details after that. All I remember are the cries, the sound of slaps, and then I ran. I just ran out of the room like the coward I was.

I locked myself in my room and took out my sketching pad and just sketched and sketched. I poured everything onto the pages. It was the time I understood the power of art, the emotions behind every stroke, the depth of every art work, I drew figures of people torturing my father. I filled page after page with all my plans and all the plots. Days by days, years after years, I would just hide them in my closet until there was no place left for me to hide them, then I would hide them below my bed.

I should have thought of another place. Stupid! Stupid! Me ... One day, I got caught. When I returned from my shooting training, all my secrets and hard work were now piled up in the middle of my room. I never risked taking them out together.

I was even impressed by the papers containing my precious imaginations, I was astounded by the hundreds of papers in front of me.

Then my mother came in, with such a look of fury on her face, I knew I was going to be abandoned for this.

"You are a selfish, vicious, horrible human being, I'm not even sure about you being my daughter anymore," she accused me, tears starting to grow in her eyes, by the mere site of her face I felt myself on the verge of death, her each and every word directly hit me into the heart, slaughtering the life inside me.

"M-a- I-I-" I tried to lie, but nothing came out of my mouth instead of some grumbled shutters, remembering that the face of my father was distinct on the pages, I just stood on my spot lowered my head, looking down at my shoes.

"Y-You monstrous human, I just wish you had never been born if I knew you would grow up this way! " She teared up and started sniffing up her clogged nose.

"Ma- I-I-." I shuttered, and made my way towards her to stop her crying. I tried to touch her cheek to wipe away the tears, but she smacked my hand away.

Furthermore, I don't know when the tears started flowing out of my eyes either but now I was nothing more than a pathetic cry-baby.

"What's the difference between you and your father? I tried my best to protect you, but you grew up to be a more wicked monster than he is." She cried and cried, throwing fits of insults at me and reminding me I should not have even been born. I just stood there, listening to her and silently thinking about them.

After approximately fifteen minutes she stopped crying and wiped up her tears and then-

*Slap*

"You deserve this, and now we need to burn all these monstrous creations of your before the devil finds them." She commanded and Not really able to say anything, I just nodded. I knew there was nothing I could say to her that would persuade her to let me keep my treasures. And I also knew that it was approaching the time that my father would be coming back from the headquarters and that my situation would be a lot worse if he picked up any of my revenge ideas.

She made her way towards the lampshade and then opened the drawer. She took out the lighter and some liquid that seemed like kerosene oil, which she must have prepared beforehand.

She walked in the direction of my works, and then she poured the kerosene on my precious works, and then she looked at me.

"Come take this," she commanded, raising her hand in which the lighter was in the air.

"I-I can't do that." I said in a low voice, and she showed me her widened scary eyes.

"You can and you will." She stated, and I flinched at her tone. Taking the lighter from her hand, I looked at my darling piece of art in which my father was being tortured by being tied up in the ropes and the arrows filled his mouth. Ahh! What an amazing piece of artwork it was... dark blood was gushing out of his eyes, his manhood was torn apart and eaten by the snake... I remember I drew it on the day when he tried to choke my mother.

"Do it now-" Ma ordered, and I had no choice but to light the flame-

"Step aside child," she said, dragging me away from my gems.

One moment, I was looking at the pages onto which I had poured all the anger and cruelty I had cooked up inside me. The next moment, those same pages were being consumed, as the fire ate through the paper.

I quickly wiped my tears from my face as the fire grew more wild. Thanks to the chimney in my room, the smoke was not accumulating, or we would have fainted.

I Just stayed where I was, watching the fire do its work. It had a systematic way of unmasking each of the notebooks page by page, burning away one to expose the one beneath, which was then quickly consumed in its turn, giving me glimpses of the tortures and revenge I had sketched on them. Staring into the fire, my heart hammered in my chest because I was so close to the heat; my head was feeling strangely light.

And then-

"Sandra!" The devil, my father, arrived, and I swear my breathing stopped. He was confused and looked at me and my mother.

"What you two are doing with-" He stopped in mid-sentence, and then glanced at the burning pages. Half of the pages were burned, but they indeed showed the amazing artwork, and he looked back at me and my mother.

"Baby, what's this-" He said, and his eyes were now tearing up and my mother immediately rushed in his direction and cupped his face.

"S-Saumya w-what is this-" he shuttered, and then my mom hugged him tightly.

"Andrew, everything is a-alright Love" She started whispering soothing words in his ears and he started screaming and crying.

"I-I am S-o Sorry Papa!" I shuttered, and started crying after seeing the hurt and betrayal in his eyes. Immediately, he stopped.

Oh, shit-

"Well, what do we have 'ere?" his tone changed, and he was now wearing his psychopathic smirk, and mother withdrew immediately from the embrace.

The tears were gone, the hurt was gone, the betrayal was gone... My father was gone.

I have been breathing short, shallow breaths for several minutes now, while my heart was beating like a drum.

Adrenaline was rushing into my blood stream. I knew I had to run away, but surprisingly, the urge to run away was not as strong as before. I was not feeling like running away anymore.

"You little bitch had the audacity to draw something like this." He said this with a devilish smirk, taking a few steps towards me, and I gulped.

"Well, I would have been really impressed if the techniques were not demonstrated on me." He commented taking few more steps towards me.

"But now what's done is done, and you have to face the punishment." He took his dagger out of his pocket and rushed in my direction. I just stood there and closed my eyes, waiting for the impact-

*Bam*

I opened my eyes to find my father was on his knees in front of me, placing a hand on his chest and groaning in pain.

I looked above and found my mother was holding a gun pointed towards my dear father.

He looked above and then he smiled.

"S-Saumya I-it's gone, they are finally silent-" With these last words, my father's body dropped on the ground, and then my mother fell to the ground.

I immediately rushed towards her and engulfed her in a hug.

"I didn't kill Andrew, I killed his demons-" My mother whispered, and I hugged her even tighter.

For hours and hours, we just cried for a loving husband, a hardworking leader, a cheerful person, and the best papa in the world.

I opened my eyes and wiped my tears from my face, remembering the darkest yet brightest day of my life.

From that day, my mother took over the leadership and continued my studies.

"Sheshu Baby...now...now take some rest." I picked my baby up from my lap and stood up from my chair, making my way towards his cage. I dropped him inside after kissing his head, and he slithered around the tree branch placed inside his enormous cage.

Yawning, I made my way towards my bed and closed all the lights. Lying down on the bed, I closed my eyes.

{"W-Wait - D-Don't leave me-"

"You are pathetic-"

"No- I-I- A-Am S-Sorry for w-whatever I did, but please don't leave me-"

"I hate you-"}

My body started to shake, and then I opened my eyes and stood up from the gasping for air, my mind felt numb, my body was devastated and I was curled in a foetal position.

I slowly controlled my breathing by taking long deep breaths and sat up from my position to take the bottle resting on the lamp stool, and took two tablets out of it and took them with water.

"You just wait, Krystal Blake-"

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