Paint Me Red

Chapter 1 - Paris August

It was the brightest day of the year and the supposedly longest. The summer sun blazed through the tinted windows of the Black Mercedes that sped past the empty roads of the less populated area of the town of Florida, Maldeor.

The burning rays barely withered Paris August. Instead, she was grateful for the blazing ball in the sky for providing the essential vitamins that she missed for the past two months. Her natural fair complexion looked a shade paler than usual, making Paris self-conscious about her health.

She stopped staring at her reflection in the rear-view mirror of the car and averted her attention to her family.

Retro music filled up the devastated moods of the people in the car, and her brother, Christopher, tried to proper his knowledge about the lyrics while driving like a maniac. She didn't protest against his mad driving skills and enjoyed the smooth movement of the speedy vehicle.

Paris glanced at her mother, Suzzan, from the backseat and was surprised by her virago mother's silence the whole ride. She didn't question anyone as she avoided interacting with her mother as much as physically possible. Suzzan was as shaken as everyone else. The blow of the realization of losing her daughter shook her to the core. But something more was bothering her that Paris estimated without asking anything or anyone.

Rolling down her side of the window, Paris welcomed the hot, blowing wind. The sun rays directly hit her face and mopped a few of her chin-length brown hair on her face. She did not bother with them as there was not much left with them anyway. The operation almost took away her breath, as well as her hair, but ironically, the emergency operation saved her from losing hope. Despite such a tragic incident, she survived.

She felt old and weak despite her blooming age. And that bothered her. Paris has never suffered this kind of physical pain before in her entire life. It is always emotional agony that she has suffered and so far has conquered against them. She learned at a young age that humans tend to remain silent even when their heart is aching. But the body cannot lie. It cries when it is in pain, making the person vulnerable till they crave the exemption from the tormenting suffering. And Paris mourned a ton as soon as she saw the hospital room.

The running engine halted in front of their two-story. Suzzan inherited the dainty house from her parents as a reward for being a lone child to them, and after her divorce, she took up residence with the kids even when her parents were alive. The exterior after the renovation looked more flourishing with the stone wall tiles with an even more promising interior.

Though, she spent the maximum on the house after her parent's death.

The silent house once again heard the shuffling of people that entered inside. Paris instantly was hit by the nostalgic scent of the rose water that her incorrigible mother sprays every day. She looked around after full five years and deduced that nothing much changed in the decor.

"It looks the same," Paris commented after wandering around for a few seconds, observing every corner of the floor thoroughly. She recognized the irrelevant pounding of her heart as the scanty emotions flooded down to her as the memories overwhelmed her, leaving her in shivers. Her past came alive as she watched the familiar walls: the beginning of her every trauma, yet she had spent the most beautiful days of her life in the same four walls.

"Once you see your room, you would realize nothing has changed." Paris looked into her mother's eyes, trying to understand the ambiguity of her statement. Suzzan was an obscure, hard-headed person: something that proved that Paris was related to her.

Christopher carried all four bags with ease and tossed them in Paris's room upstairs without giving a tinker's damn about the delicate stuff that his sister has nurtured all her life resting in there. He was tired and hungry. The news of his elder sister waking up after two months from the coma steal his sleep for two days. He had to do all the preparations.