Spiralling Down an Abandoned Castle of Memories

Dawn was just breaking, different hues of orange illuminating the horizon, spilling warmth on the world asleep. Except Tanya. Sipping her coffee and rocking in her chair by the window, her hazel eyes into which sunlight trickled, shifted from that lone mango tree drooping low bearing the burden of those lusciously yellow mangoes, to far along the field where the sun just emerged. The water in the lake to the right sparkled as if glitter had been strewn across it, while the grassy fields swayed magically to a distant melody of birds chirping. It was a morning ritual she grasped on to dearly, when all of a sudden the pleasant fragrance of morning dew mingled with the odour of a dark memory sending a shiver down her spine. Her mind wandered to a realm almost forgotten, atrocious yet she took a deep breath and tugged at it mercilessly.

Many summers ago, amidst a gloomy cavernous part of nowhere were bundled up two twin sisters: Tanya and Shireen. A car hurled to a stop outside, a door banged, engine revved up and off it went, like everyday. They clasped their perspiring hands even more tightly, bracing themselves for what’s coming next. Every night when their mother arrived with a giant bearded man, the bickering would start gradually transforming into screams and then cracks of slap would be audible through the door slightly left ajar for exactly this purpose. Dreadful anticipation crept up their backs when the screams continued for two good hours and the prophesied smack still wasn’t heard. 

Glancing into each other’s concerned eyes which were ridiculously full of misery, a silent agreement preceded and with lifeless feet, they decided to go downstairs at last with thundering hearts. The floorboard outside their bedroom creaked but their parents hollers were far more higher. As soon as they reached the bottom stair, the scene in front of them paralysed them to the core, their minds went numb and they stood there stock still, mouths hanging open. 

Their father loomed threateningly over their mother with hands clasped around her throat while their mother was wriggling under his sheer strength, horrified eyes bulging out of her almost blue face. Their father growled,

 “You know what? You don’t deserve to live-“ 

when he caught sight of the ghostly white faces of his children. Horror took hold of him and his unconscious gaze shifted to his hand as if he realised just at that moment, the magnanimity of what he was about to do. Moving backward, he muttered, “I’m so done with this.” His shoulders sagged and aged lines appeared on his face which surprisingly, the girls had never noticed before. Slowly, his dead eyes raised up and his steady gaze landed on his wife who was still shivering and struggling to breathe and said quietly, “I, Ali Yaseen, in all my consciousness, divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you, Sarah!” And just like that, how their culture defined it to be, their knots were untied and they became complete strangers.

A stunned silence prevailed. It took a few moments for everyone to absorb the 

reality of the situation when suddenly they heard a cackle coming from his wife. It was not shocking. Everyone knew that was what she had yearned for; to go away with the unknown bearded man. However, as soon as her eyes landed on petrified Tanya and shireen, she opened her mouth to speak when her husband announced, “Its their choice.” 

The girls understood what they referred to. Tanya glanced at shireen who returned the glance. A single eye contact was all it took every time for them to mutually agree upon a hard decision. This time, a slightly longer moment passed when a spark of unnerving doubt shot through Tanyas eyes, however they agreed. 

“We will live with you dad,” Tanya muttered, voice wavering dangerously.

Tears filled up in her eyes while the soothing warmth of her sisters hand increased as she tightened her grip. Suddenly, overwhelming emotions in the form of streams of tears cascaded down their faces, ensuing in a fit of sobs. The fifteen year olds saw their world theatrically falling apart, love being merely a dream they could imagine to feel. Standing in the ruins of their hopes, dreams and expectations, the havoc wreaked by their parents only, they eyed them accusingly with an untamed rage and rushed back to their room. Having loved their mother even more than their father, it was agonising for them to take this decision but they were not ready to live with “The Bearded Man”. Sooner or later, they’d realise how fallacious their decision would prove to be. And they did. 

Their life was precisely suffocating. Returning home late at night, drunk, their father would beat the pulp out of both of them until he fell unconscious. They would start apprehending the beating just when they’d hear the scream of their father, “SARAH!” It indicated their father had taken a trip to the bar.

Now Tanya, 40, took a gulp of the steaming mug of coffee while she was seated by the window. The memory of the dark alleys, starving nights of when the twins had finally escaped to be devoured by darkness and the bare footed running with bleeding feet from the street thugs transformed her eyes into a misty fog. She and Tanya built their life from scratch, now being reknown businesswomen with properties worth millions. The shattered child inside of her who had always yearned for love was now a piece of rock carved into a palace of deserted dreams and forgotten promises. She shuddered and moved forward to take a sniff of the morning dew to overpower the darkness threatening to surround her. Shireen had decided to move with her fiancé but Tanya absolutely loathed the idea of marriage. Maybe she would change with time, but right at that moment, the clouds parted and the sun rose with all its might, spilling out its light over the world and Tanya got lost in other fantasies, far better than marriage at-least.