Trust The Traitor

◇12.PAST FEARS◇

See Rose ...I know you don't believe me , but this time you have to believe me ." Said Uncle Thomas in a serious tone.

I sat on the couch . My mom patted on my back and motioned Uncle Thomas to continue .

"We have been searching for your Father's murderer from a very long time." He started .

"I know that , please get to the point." I said getting nervous .

"We have found something ... umm, your father's murderer lives in this town only . And I just wanted to make sure that you are safe because if that killer has any bad intentions then he can harm you too." He completed the sentence in one breath .

My eyes widened to the information he had got . It took me some seconds to sink in the information.

I stood up suddenly and said what I said everytime he spoke to me about this "I don't believe you."

"Rose ...please. " started my mom .

"No mom he has gone mad ...no one has killed my father , he just died in an accident ." I said furiously.

"Face the truth child." Said Uncle calmly.

But I was in no mood to talk further, the anger in me was rising up. I clenched my fists.

"You are just making up a story because you couldn't bear your brother's death. That's it. Don't continue this further. You are going to get nothing." I said in a really loud voice.

" Lower your voice Rose." Mom said with stern expression but her expressions became softer suddenly and she said " Baby , he is your Uncle and we have to find the truth right ?" Now tears welled up in her eyes.

"The truth is that father died in an accident , why can't you believe this and stop here . Why are you making it worse for me ? I asked as I tried to be as calm as possible.

But God knows what was inside me I shot up suddenly "And you Uncle Thomas , let us live peacefully. And yes I DON'T BELIEVE YOU. "

"Okay , DON'T BELIEVE ME but I will continue with my work." He shouted so loudly that his voice sent a chill down my spine.

I quickly ran to my bedroom and stuffed my face in the pillow .
I didn't want to cry my eyes out again.
The feeling that my father was murdered was making me weak.

I never thought that a man like my father would have an enemy who would get to such a point that he would kill my father.

My Uncle was on that task to find out the killer from the day my father died.
I don't know what thing made him think that it was not an accident.

I started thinking ,
it was clear that night my father was driving while he was drunk and the car crashed into a tree. This thing was what cops told us and we believed them because we saw the whole scene.

There was smoke surrounding the car .
My fingers were crossed when I reached the place. I prayed to God, please be it a mistake , a misunderstanding by the cops but as I approached the car I saw my teddy bear staring out of the broken glass from the back of the car. It was always placed in the car so that when I am not with my father , the teddy bear is there to give him company. So this indicated that it was our car.

But still my mind thought of some other possibilities, may be father lent his car to someone else for this night , may be his car was stolen .

I kept walking towards the car , but suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder .
The hand belonged to none other than uncle Thomas.
"You can't go there child , you can't see the ah ...the state your father's in ." He said as he wiped his tears.

" w..what ? N..nn...no he is fine right ? " I asked as my voice broke.

I could hear my mother's wail from the distance . I freed myself from uncle and ran with full speed towards her .

But I was not fast enough . Uncle grabbed my waist and stopped me with the power he was left with.
More people came and held my hands .
My uncle slumped down on the ground.

My vision got blurred with tears , I had no idea what was happening and why was I crying for the person whom I didn't even know . Ofcourse it can't be my father . Why should it be him?

Before knowing the answers to all my questions , I blacked out. My brain was not working . I was lying on something. I was able to hear loud cries but I was not able to see anything.
Slowly the voices faded . It was all silent .I was sleeping . I went deeper and deeper in the sleep.

When my eyes opened I was on my bed . This was just a dream . I thought to myself .I took a deep breath and went to the living room . And realised ....this was not a dream and today was his funeral.

" Rose ? ..are you okay ? " I snapped back to reality as mom's voice came.

" y..yeah .. I am Good ." I said as I got out of the bed and wiped my tears.

I heard the door in the living room getting opened and understood that uncle was leaving.

_________________________________________

Next day I sat in the class. Scribbling doodles on the last page of the notebook.

Suddenly a paper ball hit my head.
I picked it up and moved my eyes in the direction from where it came.

There sat Aspen watching me amused. Wait it was Ashton . Wearing his signature black earring.

Ashton motioned me to open the crumpled paper .

I opened it and saw something written in red ink.

I sat there in confusion, and wondered why had Ashton given this to me?