Spark Off ✔

6|One End

"Pihu, relax..." Aditya tried consoling her. The girl had a long note on something or the other that was interrupting him and Shagun. He was not frustrated but he surely did not want everything to be easy for his father who has created this huge mess which has been clearing without an ounce effect from him.

"Oh for God's sake stop crying, Pihu!" Shagun pulled her hair thwarting at the scene unfolding.

"No! No! No!" She shouted back.

"Stop shouting! You're irritating me!" Shagun screamed.

"NOOOO! I want my mamma back! I want her back, that's it!" She wriggled out of Aditya's arms, running across the hallway, aiming her mother's house. "All liars." She clenched as she jumped to press the calling bell. "Mammmaaaa!" She could not control but cry; cry vigorously if it was even after the shouting match her lair mamma that turned her throat sore. Everything is going out of control; she is not tall enough adding to the agony!

"Pihu?!" Ishita let out a sigh, shocked to see her weeping; the part where she heard her calling mamma might be an illusion. "Are you alright, beta?" She knelt down, wiping her tears, trying to calm her down. Her tiny hands thrown around her neck as she cuddled up, she made sure she would be secured in her mother's embrace when she would get up. "Don't cry, baba... Tell me, what happened?" Kissing her temple she tried gauging the reason behind all this.

"Pihu, I told you not to meet her, but no! You wouldn't listen. Now, come with me!" Shagun shrieked, pulling her out of Ishita's clasp. There was that sense of loss again. The feeling she endured when Ruhi was dragged away from her hold, into Nidhi's, into death. About this little girl, she has already decided not to let his weakness rule her but still, it hurt when a woman like Shagun yanked her away. "Can't you understand, she's not your mamma! I'm your mamma. Do you get that, Pihu?"

"What's happening, Shagun?" Ishita could hardly understand anything when Shagun shot her a glare. That was not an explanation. This woman is no one to treat her like this, she grated furiously.

"Don't tell me, you don't know!" She heard the witch shouting. "She's lost her mind like everyone around you! First it was Adi! Then Raman! Now Pihu! Are you hell bent on snatching my family once again, Isheeta!" Shagun screamed, as she tried pulling Pihu back but could hardly do it as she clung in her arms tighter in reflex. "Pihu, what's wrong with you! I'm your mamma! This woman is no one. No one, means no one to you!"

"But I'm like her, not like you! She's my mamma!" Pihu cried straining best to prove her point.

"You won't understand like this!" Shagun forcefully picked her up and walked away without heeding to her struggles. There was a part of her wanted to run behind, keep her daughter safe but then, she could not gather that courage. Simply, she did not want something other than Aditya to wane her. Raman could not use that weakness but Pihu was out of the question. She did not know the extent to which he would go to get her back; she would not budge; she does not want him anymore.

"Shagun mamma..., leave me!" Pihu cried breathlessly when she was thrown on the bed harshly. She watched her going to the wardrobe, shuffling through things and coming back with a frame of hers. "Let me goooo!" She wriggled when her elbow was being held callously.

"Look at this, Pihu! This is your sister. Your elder sister; Ruhi! My own daughter!" Shagun showed; blood rushing when she felt the need to explain things and keep what has been hers from past seven years. "Now tell me you're not my daughter!" That challenge! Pihu could barely collect herself to talk. It was too much for her to confront in a day; she has a sister. "You know Ruhi died, because of that Isheeta! She's not a nice woman, baby. You're just confused. You're like me, Pihu. You're my baby!"