Into the light!

I still remember the day. In fact, the memory from that unfortunate day is so vivid, it has become one of my deepest and darkest scars. How I wish I could turn back time. If only I had one more chance, I'd like to live that day all over again. And this time, I'll make sure to do things right. I won't let them die once again!

" Do you have to be like that all the time!? Why can't you just try and be nice for at least one day? Do you really want us, your 'bothersome' parents to die early? " These were the last words that I heard from my mom. Doesn't this very sentence give you some kind of an idea of what type of a person I am?

Well, that aside, when my mom yelled at me from over the phone, I found it really annoying and so I immediately hung up. She had dialed my number for so many times even when I repeatedly kept ignoring her calls. I already knew what she was calling me for. Another freakin' lecture! I really hated them. Why should I care about what others thought about me anyway? That was my mentality back then. But if only I knew that the phone call, the bitter lecture that I desperately wanted to avoid, would end up becoming the last words I hear from her.

" Accident caused due to heavy downpour, two dead " were the News Headlines the very next day. The two people who died that night, one was my mom and the other my dad.

I was a single child from the very beginning, no real siblings or cousins. It was just me, mom and dad. Now that I look back into the past, I guess we were really happy. But now that I've lost both of the most important people in my life, I feel like I should've done better. Instead of always acting like a spoiled brat, maybe I should've done something to make my parents proud of me. But I didn't.

And now it was all coming back to me. All the times I refused to help her with laundry and all the times I insulted my dad for being the worst father of all times since he never had time for me. I now regret it all. And trust me, this regret is the most painful type of feeling that one can fell.

" Mom look, I know you're out with dad but like I said, our tour plan got cancelled and now I am standing in a freakin' bus stop. I don't have any money and I doubt I'm gonna find any buses at this hour. My phone's about to die and I hate those dumpy cabs. So you gotta pick me up! " I was so harsh with my words that day.

It was Alex's idea to plan a two to three day tour to some historical site. Alex, my best friend, was a nice guy with a fine personality. And the trips he organized were simply the best. So despite my parents' frequent disapproval, I decided to go on that trip. The flight was at 9pm and that's exactly why I left for Alex's place. But due to some urgency, Alex had to go out of town immediately, so he left. He had already rescheduled the flight ticket to the next night and had left. His house was locked and I ended up in the nearest bus stop.

It started raining heavily, all of a sudden and the temperature went down. Now we lived in a secluded area so buses didn't run this late at night. So at the moment, I had two options. Call my mom and ask her to pick me up or get a cab. But I just had to be my arrogant self and refuse to get the cab.

Without a second thought, I called my mom and asked her to pick me up. My mom had went out with my dad for dinner and were probably going to return late. But I just had to call them, not only to ruin their time together but also ask them to come pick me up.

The rain had already gotten a lot stronger and since the place was secluded, the roads weren't in their best conditions. I guess you can already put together the pieces now, eh?

Because of me, because of my selfish ego and spoilt ways, my mom and dad ended their date and were coming here to get me, even in this heavy rain and that too through a slippery and also very risky road because I couldn't have freakin' called for a cab. Or I couldn't have just stayed at home and not insisted on going to the stupid trip.

The car flipped over.

I kept waiting for them to arrive, cursing and blaming them for being no good at all. And worse, it was their turn to not pick any calls from me. Were they taking some kind of revenge on me? Or was this one of their stupid ideas to make me change my personality? I wondered.

After waiting for over an hour, I felt so fed up that I saw no other choice. I had to call for a cab. I was really angry at the time and had already come up with a thousand taunts for my parents who couldn't even pick up their son. But I didn't know, it wasn't that they were refusing to do that, it was that they had become unable to.

But it finally hit me when I was on my way home, inside the cab. The cab driver had suddenly brought the car to halt. I was mad enough already and so I barked " Why d'ya stop the freakin' car, damn it..!? "

" I'm sorry sir, it looks likes there has been an accident ahead. The road's slippery and a lot of people had gathered. It's not possible to drive past without skidding, at the moment. We'll have to wait for a bit "

"Tch! Whatever.." I still didn't know who was involved in the mishap and I didn't care.

That's when a civilian was passing by our car, the driver asked him about the accident. I wasn't interested by I kept an ear open.

"A man and woman, looks like a couple, were spot dead. The car had flipped over. Gosh, what a horrible scene. Blood everywhere. Their cloths were also soaked in blood. They looked expensive and even the car that flipped was a BMW. Really rare in these areas, sire"

Something clicked. A BMW? My parents drove a BMW. Hah! As if it was them! But something shifted in my chest. Why would I even have a thought like that. Mom's an experienced driver, no way she'd cause an accident. But the uneasiness....

" And sire, the woman's condition was worse than the husband, since she was driving. " the man continued.

I froze. I knew it couldn't have been them but why did I feel so uneasy? I immediately jumped out of the car and rushed ahead to provide judgement to my speculations. It was on a reflex.

" No no no no no no please.....no....mom...dad....? Please....."

" Sorry, young boy but you can't be here? We're the police. Listen to us "

" That's my parents you assholes! You can't just tell me to leave!! Mom....wake up.....it's me....dad....? Please.....just....say something.....anything...… "

" This is a slippery road and since the condition of the bodies are not that good, we'll need to remove them from here and plus it's blocking the only road here. So please let us do our work. "

" They're dead....I'm sorry for your loss but you have to do as the police say "

...

It's been exactly a year since that day. Ever since that incident happened, I had shut myself in completely, cutting off all connections from the outside world. I canceled the trip that was supposed to take place the next day. Hardly talked with anyone at the funeral, stopped going out at parties. Stopped talking to anyone more than necessary. I became worse.

I kept wondering how I never told her that I loved her. I never told him that I was so proud of him for always working so hard for us. And I'll never get another chance. I started regretting every single decision I had made till then. And it hurt like hell.

I imagined of different possible scenarios that could have happened. I desperately hoped that all of it was just a nightmare and soon my mom would wake me up from it. I waited in front of the main door for days, just hoping that my parents would return home smiling that their little outing went well. But deep down I knew, I was just deluding myself with stupid fantasies.

A few days back I received an offer from my dad's company. They said that almost 65% of my dad's shares were in my name and according to him as soon as I turned 20, I were to take over the business. And so they were letting me know a few days prior to my birthday.

At first I didn't believe what they were even saying. Shares? On my name? But dad had always called me a 'brat with no business skills' for like forever, they why would he? But after seeing the legal papers and company insurance, I started taking in the facts.

Even if he never showed he cares, he had actually entrusted his business on my name. He believed in me. He cared. It's funny really, that I don't even remember for how long I cried that day.

Today, it's June 21st, 2021. My 20th birthday. And I had already made my decision. I was going to give my best from now on. Enough of sulking! Enough feeling guilty! Enough of crying and self-pitying! Enough of blaming the consequences and the past! I had to move on.

I had decided to take the company, my dad worked so hard to maintain, even further to make it one of the top companies of all time. I was done just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs. I knew that doing nothing wasn't going to change anything. I had to set foot into the new light. I had to make something out of my life. I had to move on. I had to take a step.

And so I dressed myself up and polished my shoes neat. Taking one last look in the mirror, I set foot out of the house I had locked myself in for over a year, and stepped into the brightness. The sunlight that was glistening with new hope and beginnings lightened up everything around me.

Every voice around me became prominent. This was it. The first step to get back on my feet.

I may not be able to forget. I may never be able to let go of the twisted past but I'll definitely try to work harder than ever so that the past can never haunt me again. Probably then I'll make my parents truly proud. Although they won't be able to express their joy or happiness but maybe, just maybe they'll actually be proud.

'I'll be home late, since now I've got a company to handle. So don't wait for me, mom' I thought before embarking onto the newest journey.