“Cat! Dinner’s ready! I have made some pasta for you, I know you love it!” called out Mrs. Mosby from the kitchen.Indeed, Catherine was hungry, not for food but for answers. She while lying on her bed with her arms folded as she stared at the blank wall was thinking about what she saw in the basement. The letters, the manuscripts, the map and most importantly the engravings saying ‘Ashley and Tony’ Many questions arose in her mind, like- Who Tony was, how her mother can read and write Sumerian when there is no one in the world who can teach it to her, why her mother hid the rusty box in the basement. But the thing that made her more suspicious was that map, it was the map of the nearby hill station named ‘The dragon hill’ which was the only part of the town her mother never ever let her go to. It was a segment of her memories that once she went to the dragon hill with Tom, when her mother somehow got to know about it she became furiously angry and scolded her to never go there ever again.“Catherine, it has been almost an hour since I told you to come down and have your dinner, now if you are not hungry, at least let me know!” yelled Mrs. Mosby and she continued- “Ok Catherine! I will be counting till ten, and if you do not open the door or answer me, I will make sure you regret it!” ordered Mrs. Mosby, while Catherine on the other hand did not pay any attention to what her mother was saying, the only thing she kept her brain busy at was thinking about that Map and about the mysterious name ‘Tony’.“Ok Catherine Mosby, as I said I have counted till ten and you for rest of your suspension will do all the chores, do you understand?” said Mrs. Mosby with a strict voice. “Again Catherine, mum can never be the answer, either you say sorry before sleeping or I will increase your punishment duration…DO YOU UNDERSTAND!” ordered Mrs. Mosby.“You kids just get arrogant as you grow don’t you?” continued Mrs. Mosby with an angry voice and went back to the ground floor.But Catherine did not pay any attention to her mother’s words, she rather started hating her, the poison of hatred consumed the love she had for her mother.“How could she do this to me? She kept secrets from me, her own daughter?” whispered Catherine biting her lips and trying not to cry.“All these years I thought she was trying to protect me…but rather she was hiding something from me!” she continued.Her eyes went moist; she had tears rolling down her cheeks. She had lost faith in her own mother!She then got up from the bed and punched one of the walls, making her feel the physical pain, the pain which she rather chose instead of this emotional pain.Then breathing heavily she shoved her head down to a pillow and screamed out “Why! Why Mom!” then she lifted her head up and stared at her bag pack for a while as her head rested on the bed and her tears wetting the it.After thinking for some time she got up and ragingly went towards her school bag and started pouring out everything she had inside of it on her bed, still breathing heavily her eyes were searching for something…something that would end all of this at once…something sharp! Her eyes went on something she was trying to find, a geometrical compass! She picked it and held it in her right hand while the pointy end facing towards her, she exactly knew what she was trying to do, because her own perspective thought that would be necessary for her own good, it had to anxiety which filled her with these thoughts.An unfinished, unquenched curiosity leads to anxiety and anxiety leads to the destruction of a peaceful mind.She picked her rubber hair band, placing it between her teeth she bit it hard, probably because she knew this was going to hurt…a lot.She started to breath more heavily, her heart was racing, she could hear her pulse and her hands were shaking, she then took a deep breath in, probably thinking it was her last, she held her right hand with her left and pulled her hands back to thrush the compass forward BUT, something changed her mind, her eyes went towards something!Giving a frustrated moan she thought- “Aggh, I can’t do this!” as she sat on her bed facing down as her hands supported her head.The reason why she gave off was she saw her family picture on her desk, and that’s what gave her a reason to exist! A picture changed her perspective and a picture that saved her life!“I hate you mom, I hate you so much, but I love you dad, and that’s why I will find out the thing Mom is hiding from us” she said looking at her family photo, as she kissed her father in it.She took her mobile phone and set an alarm for 5:00 AM.She started to pack her bag, she shoved all the essentials she could fit it in the bag, from a water bottle to packets of baked chips, and when she knew that everything was packed, she still felt something was not.It is the basic principle of life that ego blurs gratitude and anger blurs apologies.For Catherine, anger did blur her apology to her mother. She did not know what lied ahead of her, probably if she knew, and she might have apologized to her mother.Catherine then lied on her bed and closed her eyes for some rest…which she ultimately could not, the rage in her didn’t let her! As she was nearly asleep she heard a loud thunder which woke her up, it was raining. It might have been her unconscious self that made the decision, the ultimate decision that changed her life.Her willpower and determination made her make that decision to go to the dragon hills just then to find out the hidden secret…it was basically like the hills were calling her towards them!She then got up from her bed, picked her bag, took some cash, her mobile, and absolutely anything she thought she might need.Then she pulled that map out and spread it across her bed, she saw markings made in Sumerian which was harder for her to understand, but there was one specific symbol that made sense to her…a cave!She then without waking her mother up tiptoed and went down stairs.She then took her bicycle and began her journey towards the dragon hills, it was dark and raining. The lightning and loud thunder could scare anyone, but not Catherine; she was determined to do this.Before she started she gave a look back at her home, but she didn’t change her mind, she started peddling.After some time she was at the foot of the hills, breathing heavily with her clothes wet she started walking forwards.She nodded her head and said to herself “Ok Catherine, let’s do this” and pulled out the map out of her bag, she saw a peculiar symbol of a cave and started walking towards it.“Ok! if there is the big rock drawn on this map which is supposed to be this and there is supposed to be a tree over here, but there isn’t, probably because this map is too old which may indicate something may have happen to the tree, then I am sure, that I am standing right ON the mark! But WHERE IS THE CAVE?!” Catherine said it to herself with regretful expression.She then sat on the wet ground, until then the rain stopped pouring. She then started thinking about this, after a while of brainstorming she started gigging and said-“Aggh! probably I was over thinking this, maybe Tony is just mom’s old childhood friend, and they both drew this map while playing some game as kids!” said Catherine continuing “I was so stupid to doubt my own mother, sigh, god I should probably head back to my home” said Catherine with a satisfactory sigh.As she started to head back, she heard a series thunder, and it started to rain again, in no time it started raining heavily, the high winds scared her more, then she kept her bag on top on her head, and ran towards the big rock for some roof.As she reached behind the rock she sat down to be safe from the high winds. She then took out her towel she bought from her bag and started to dry her hairs with the it, she then heard a crackling sound below her, it was like something was coming out of the very earth she was standing on, she got scared.. “What if it is an earthquake” she thought to herself.If it were, the enormous rock she was sitting below probably would fall right on her and crush her!She needed to act quickly, so she tried stepping aside, as slow as possible, one step at a time.Her hands were shaking; the same intensity as when she handled that compass, but the difference was that she feared the death this time.It is said truly, fear of losing something really important does increase its value.In this case for Catherine, it was her life!The earth below her started to tremble more, and the water from the rains were making the soil looser.She put her shaky feet on the ground, slowly moving forward, her heart was trembling.Because of the darkness she could not see anything properly, but a continuous series of lightning flashes guided her way.As she was slowly keeping her foot on the ground, she heard a really loud thunder and because of it she got scared and lost control on herself and tripped.But something really suspicious was happening about this fall, her back did not hit the ground, neither did she feel anything below her! She was falling into a chasm!It is famously said that you see the flashes of your memories of the lifetime when you think your time has come, to say goodbye to everything. The perspective for the one is that everything starts going really slow. It is said that the time is relative, the whole world was moving by the same pace as it did, Catherine’s Mom getting up, the birds chirping, people getting ready for their job, but relative to Catherine, everything went really slow, especially her fall.She got a sudden hit on her back, probably the walls of the chasm she was falling into, she felt a really hard hit on her spine, everything was rotating for her, at the end she fell on her shoulder, she had no chance to get up from those brutal hits, she could barely breath! She was gasping loudly and started to cry in pain, she felt something wet on her head…no, it was not water, it was her own blood! She cried more loudly and gasping out looking at her hand wet with her own blood and cried out “anybody? Please help me!” she could barely move and talk, she still could not breathe properly, gasping and crying.She knew that whatever she did was wrong, doubting her own unconditionally loving mother?All she could do was cry, and all she wanted was to apologize to her mother and see her, her dad and Tom for one last time.“I …I AM SORRY MOM, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!” she said out loud, as she started to see everything blurry, and then she closed her eyes.She was all alone in that cave, lying down and bleeding.The light coming above the tunnel was falling on her face and the water dripping from above was slowly filling the cave with water.All of this was happening with her and there was no one around to help her.
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