BEYOND THE REALMS #wattys2018

Chapter 2

This morning was no different than any other morning since the past two years. It was gloomy and provided with no hope of a better day to come. Alisa just got up from the bed like a mechanical doll whose sole purpose was to fulfill the deeds of every day and bury herself in work till each and every cell of her body screamed for rest. Only then she used to come home from work, talk to her parents in law for some time, and then before going to bed, do her ritualistic staring at the pictures of the lost gems and then she used to retire. Strangely there had not been a single night in two years when she experienced a peaceful slumber. Despite being so tired throughout the day, one would expect to have a very sound sleep, but Alisa had not been able to sleep properly in these two years. Sometimes she would wake up after some nightmare, like last night...and sometimes she could not sleep at all. Lack of sleep affected her a lot and occasionally she had had to take pills to calm herself down and make her fall asleep. But no medicine or any amount of counseling could wipe off the memories of her past.

The incidents of her tragic past had left her barren and hopeless. And her life had changed so much after that un-fateful day that she had shunned all hopes for future as well. Alisa remembered the tragedies of her life and like always, she felt the presence of a gaping black hole which had sucked all the happiness from her life...and what a happy life it was one once upon a time.....

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Alisa Hyder was a very charming, very ambitious and a very full of life kind of girl. She was an achiever, a person who used to stand out amongst all her peers in all fields, be it academics, sports, or extracurricular activities.

She was her parents' only child and to say that they lived for her, would be an understatement. They literally worshipped her. She was a very pampered child but that did not make her irresponsible and spoilt when she grew up. She had a very keen sense of responsibility towards her parents and people who used to be around her. She could not even dream of harming anyone. She used to live her life by the rule "Live happily and let others live happily too".

Dr.Hyder used to be really proud of his daughter. He was an Endocrinologist and worked at a reputable hospital in New York. His family was originally from India, but he had been living in USA since past thirty years. He wanted Alisa to take up medicine too. But he did not impose his wishes on her when she told him that she wanted to study Business Management. His wife used to tease him that he is responsible for spoiling Alisa. And he used to smile and quip,

"Alisa is my life. I want to lay the world at her feet".

His wife used to laugh at such display of sentimentality from her otherwise scrupulous and very principled husband...but even she could not hold back her love for their daughter.

Alisa was like that. She was born to them after eight years of marriage and loads of prayers. They were more than happy to be blessed with such a beautiful bundle of joy and they had lavished all their love and attention on her. Mrs.Bina Hyder who was a banker, had quit her job to be a full-time stay-at-home mom for Alisa.

She was really cute when she was a kid...but she had grown up into a ravishing girl. Her eyes were a unique color. They were a mixture of green, gray and blue. She had fair skin with dark brown hair. Bina was especially particular about her hair. She used to oil them regularly and take very good care of them and it was the result of her efforts that Alisa's hair had grown very thick and very long too. She was a very pretty girl but the feature that attracted people towards her was her eyes. They always had a very different kind of softness in them. And those beautifully expressive eyes were a reflection of her sweet soul. Nobody who met her could dislike her. She had such a beautiful personality that people could not stop themselves from loving her.