7. Midnight Gathering

“Nonsense, Stop your blabbering and tell me what you want to eat, Karen” – Akshara pushed him away from her to maintain a distance.

“I mean it, Axe” – Karen replied in a serious tone.

“You are an idiot, Karen… I know about you. Was your full-time job in Ukada is to flirt girls? Don’t you have any job to do? Don’t you have any girlfriends?” – Akshara rolled her eyes to divert him from his thoughts and she quicker her legs to the kitchen.

Karen followed her mockingly, “Oh my God, Axe. I never thought you would readily agree to be my girlfriend.”

“Who wants to be your girlfriend, don’t waste your time on me, Karen”, Akshara warned him.

By the time Akshara reached the kitchen and informed Wintergreens to serve Karen of his likes. “Deny, where Azile is. She is nowhere to be seen” inquired Akshara to Deniza while munching some carrots on her mouth.

“She was informed to clean backyard”, Deniza pointer her finger in the direction of the backyard and looked at Akshara, “Axe, Wash before you eat… I have told you nth time.”

Akshara smiled with a grin and replied, “I will do it next time, Deny.”

Akshara flees from the kitchen and Karen who was vertical against the wall with arms crossed enjoyed her little mischievous and smiled at her.

Akshara was annoyed by the reaction of Karen and asked him, “What’s so funny?”

Karen smiled again at her and replied, “You are just like the younger you.”

Akshara gave him a childish fierce look to Karen and leaving the kitchen made her way towards her friend. As expected, Karen too followed Akshara to the backyard to look for Azile.

Azile looks charmed and beautiful with a large broomstick in her hands. Akshara and Azile were grown up together; they both looked like twin sisters. They are of equal height and shape, the only identification - their face and voice. Akshara spends most of her lifetime with Azile; they both knew each other very well, like soulmates.

Azile had cleaned almost the large area of the backyard, she saw Akshara was talking with a man in the kitchen and wondered who he might be. Sun and Shine, the little birds chirped in joy to saw Akshara in the backyard.

Azile was excited to have a glimpse of the man but lowered her eyes when she saw Akshara was coming in her direction. She pretended that she doesn’t know about the entry of a man into the palace.

“Azu, why did you….” Akshara was interrupted by Karen, “It’s such a pity to watch beauty in a broomstick, who is she?”

Azile was shocked initially and excited inwardly to be noticed by the man while Akshara was turned her neck slowly towards Karen to reply.

“She is aunt Deniza’s daughter, Azile" – the words escaped hardly through the tightly sealed teeth of Akshara.

"Oh. What a beautiful name on earth. Azile, tell me are you single?" Karen asked Azile with eager ears to hear her reply only to induce the jealousy of Akshara.

"Huh... What?" Both Akshara and Azile asked the same question, Karen.

Karen’s eyes were fixed on Akshara to view her reaction when he was addressing some other girl. ‘Every girl in this world would be jealous if a man of them talked to other girls,’ thought Karen in his mind.

But what happened was rather different to make Karen fall in the wonder of Akshara, “Ignore him, Azu. Why are you…”- Akshara asked.

Azile looked at Karen with much expectation of grabbing his attention, but Karen fixed his eyes only on Akshara, not even a little movement made in his eyes towards the direction of Azile.

Azile thought to herself, ‘Did I even exist in his world. It’s like I am invisible to his eyes.’ 

“Mrs. Blackfire said she is expecting guests soon and asked to clean all places. (Azile replied Akshara and she added her words to grab the attention of Karen) …Look Axe, your Sunshine is throwing dried leaves in the place I have cleaned already”

Karen looked at the top of the tree to saw the naughty birds failed to look at Azile. So she little annoyed by his reaction, ‘Am I not least worthy than those little birds?’

Akshara broke the silence, “They are just birds Azu, why do you bother them…”

*****

The clock ticks half-past midnight.

The mild dim light was occupied every corner of the room of Akshara. Akshara had quixotic eyes of fascinating and good at painting. The walls of her room were covered with many portraits of her piece of mind. Her paintings echoed the nightmares of hers.

Some paintings portrayed the inner feeling of longing for her parent’s love. Some portrayed the imaginary silhouette of her parents. Some about nature and some had surreal images.

It was thundershower with lighting and Akshara was cuddled with the thick blanket and shivering due to outside weather and her face was covered with sweat pearls as the electricity went out. 

She moaned and murmured something in her dreams. In her nightmare, she was chased and run for her life somewhere. A woman who was killed by someone of unknown origin fell to the ground in a stream of blood and turned the neck with oozing blood towards Akshara. 

Akshara was panicked to saw the bloody evil live murder and closed her mouth with her hands not to leave any sound which would draw attention to her. She doesn't know what she could do when a corpse looked at her with bloody tears. All she could do is to run… Run… the scene of the nightmare faded. A blasting thunder brought Akshara from the dream world to the real world. 

When she opened her eyes, the bird looks like a scary parrot with large wings which was always with her Mrs Blackfire, flapped its wings before her and watching her closely with its evil eyes. She scared a little and said, “Go away, Eggy. You almost scared me?” The bird did not obey her rather stay and still watching her silently. She got up from her bed, turned on the lights, and looked for her scratch note to sketch her nightmares. A usual Habit. 

"I must not read scary fiction at night. I even get my dreams of scary things” said to her and asked Eggy, “Why do watch over me?” 

Akshara coughs out a lot and moved to the table to get water in a glass that was kept beside her bed. When she found that the glass was empty, she could not help to break the rule of stepping out of her room. Mrs. Blackfire warned Akshara from her childhood that she was not allowed to come out of her room until its dawn once she entered her room. Mrs Blackfire gave an in-built room with all the facilities for Akshara. She rushed to the door with a sore throat and she was stopped by Eggy. 

“Eggy, m…o…v…e. I need - to - quench - my - thirst. It’s raining heavily, Nic could not able to spot me”, saying these words, she pushed away Eggy, which had bitten her index finger to stop her from breaking the rules.

“Ouch”- she cried and pushed Eggy away from her, which was hit against the wall and had a little scratch in its wings. Eggy too cried in pain. Meanwhile, Akshara opened the door to go out while ragged Eggy flown towards her and Akshara shut the door hurriedly leaving Eggy to stay in her room. She could hear the crying sound of Eggy. 

Akshara took her care of every single step of hers not to make any noise; she covered her mouth with her hands to hide the coughing. The murmuring sound of people was heard when she was about to reach the kitchen. She wondered who could wake up in the middle of the night just to chat. 

The puzzled Akshara wanted to explore but before such adventure, she needed to quench her thirst so entered the kitchen. Akshara drank some water and filled her empty bottle with water for later use throughout the night.

After quenching her throat, she slowly moved to the living room hiding her in the shadows of pillars and objects kept in the living room. The murmuring sound was getting louder and louder as she moved further and further. She tight holds the water bottle close to her chest as if her life depended on the plastic bottle. 

Near the large size window of the living room, there kept the large banquet dining table. The large table was decorated with candles since the electricity went out due to rain. Akshara looked at the banquet table keenly to watch who those persons were; she could identify some with their voices, some voices seem unfamiliar to her. 

The curiosity of Akshara induced her to move forward and found Mrs Blackfire, seems like she organized this instant conclave. When Akshara was about to explore the secret meeting, a manly hand grabbed her sideways, made her panic, and freaked out in shock.