CHAPTER 2: They are not Dead

That was it. The girl ran towards the lifeless looking bodies of a middle aged couple lying on the floor. She shook their ice cold bodies and called out their names like crazy, but there was no response. The began crying with deep breaths, her hands were wet with blood of her parents which was flowing like stream from their bodies. To her shock, the bodies were having gunshot injuries. Followed by this came another thunderclap which was much louder than the previous ones. This made her close her ears with her hands as hard as possible. Riya`s mind went completely blank.

She could not believe it was going on in front of her eyes. She said to herself ''O, what is that I am seeing? I can't believe it and even if I do, I am not ready to accept it. O, god please, I can no longer see this. Please wake me up from this nightmare, please. All of this, its too much for me to handle, please wake me up, please''. Saying this, Riya fell unconscious on the floor.

******

It was ten in the morning and in a well interior room was a white bed with a thick fluffy and soft mattress . Lying on it was a little girl who did not seem to get disturbed with the noises of people loudly talking from outside of the room. She was soundly sleeping on the bed with a thick blanket covering her lower body. Her hands were out of the blanket and injected to one of her hands was a saline bag which was hung down from an iron stand.

Riya slowly started coming into consciousness. All that she had seen yesterday night flashed into her brain at once which made her open her eyes suddenly. Riya looked around her huge room and then closed her eyes again. She took a sigh and gave out a soft smile.''It was a nightmare indeed'' she said in a low voice. Riya`s eyes then fell on the saline which made her surprised. She now heard the sounds from outside, and just when she was about to sit up by removing the blanket upon her did she see the red stains on her winter white hands. All of a sudden a set of questions popped up in her brain. Why were her hands stained red? What was all about the sound coming from outside? and the hardest one of all was ... What she saw previously was not a dream?. She was scared to answer them by herself so she tried to move from the bed in rush, by pulling the saline in her in one go.

Riya took fast, steady steps towards her parent`s bedroom. There she saw a group of people doing some job. All the people were in the police uniform. The girl now hurried down the staircase and saw the hall was filled with people whom she was familiar with. Few of the people were discussing something seriously whereas few of them were crying silently. Riya`s eyes met with something in the center of the spacious hall. These were the bodies of her dead parents. She moved the people aside and went towards them and sat down almost in disbelief. The people`s eyes were now glued to Riya. They looked at her with sympathy and many tried consoling her and caressing her hair, but all they got was a push from her fatigue hands.

A strong hand now had a firm grip on her shoulders. She looked up and saw it was her paternal uncle. Riya`s family was the most close to them so she knew them quite well.She stood up and told to him with a grave expression on her face''Uncle, what is happening here?''

Her uncle now looked straight into her eyes and told her''Riya''. After taking a pause he said again''Riya, your parents have been murdered''. Followed by this was ''Oh dear, its time for us to take away your parents for their 'death after right'.

Even though she hear it all, Riya couldn't take it. She took a look at her parents and said to her uncle ''You are not going to take them anywhere.They are not dead, they can't leave me alone like this''.

Riya fell on her knees and started weeping hard. Her uncle had nothing to say, he just signalled a few men. The men started picking up the bodies on the stand and started to take them out of the house. As people made way for them to move, Riya stood up and blocked their way, only to be stopped by other relatives of hers. They didn't let go of the girl who was trying her level best to make herself free. Finally they loosened their grip from her, but it was too late. The other men had already taken her parents away from her.

Riya made her way towards her room and slammed the door. She leaned against it and sat down, her back taking the support of the door. What followed next was continuous sobbing of a young girl which made her white skin turn completely red.