The mysterious key...

Bella's eyes were pouring out heavily as she ran away from the party towards her Aunt's house.. Luckily, there were no one at the entrance to question her why she came early..

This was the first time she regretted so much for being so useless, she felt helpless for not even able to apologize, for becoming a burden wherever she went..

She changed onto her clothes and washed the uniform and was determined to return it to Mrs Mathew as soon as possible and apologise for spoiling her function..

She needed some fresh air, so she went out for a walk.. It was showering outside and she gathered her broken self by crying out in rain, drenching in it, letting out her long beautiful hair..

A car swiftly passed by her splashing out dirt all over her.. She lost her balance and fell onto the road, her knees bleeding.. The physical pain she felt was nothing... In fact she felt much better for getting punished for being useless and bothersome.. She walked back to her Aunt's house dragging her leg behind.

Next day Bella woke up to see her uncle rushing up to go somewhere. She saw him telling Annie something serious, so she watched him intently,

"You know Mr Thompson who lives on the next street? He was quite famous in his industry till recently when he fell greatly with debts and ill fate. Yesterday, he met with an accident and passed away. Poor man is left out with his wife alone since they do not have any children. I am going to the funeral and may get late today.. "

Bella saw her uncle's sad murmers continued.. She couldn't catch the rest of his words.. She was already off her balance. So his name was Mr Thompson.. She had only met him yesterday.. Now she had lost her complete hopes of earning some money from her writings.. She already could feel god has left nothing good for her future..

She did not cry, nor did she repent herself anymore.. She decided to flow with wind.. determined to take up all shares of her misery in one go.. She went to the kitchen and started preparing for the breakfast. It was no use blaming herself since she knew she was always a bad omen...

Meanwhile Mrs Thompson was in a sober state. Police had handed her over Mr Thompson's clothing and his other belongings he possessed at the time he met with the accident.. She was surprised to find a hefty amount of money in his pocket... He had never described about it anytime, but she remembered now that her husband was really happy and excited the last time he called, a few hours before his accident.. so it maybe this money.. but he had even mentioned that he was hoping their good times were not far away.. Was he meaning something bigger than this..?..there was no good at thinking about all this anyway.. She suddenly felt something hard clattering onto the ground.. It had fell from the money.. She checked the notes in her hand.. A particular note was torn and folded in a strange manner to accommodate just that tiny key... The note looked very wrinkled as if the key had stood there for a long time, it was not like Tom had kept it the day before and appeared as if it hadnt been disturbed from its place for quite a long time.. Mrs Thompson was not in a mood to think about any of this.. She had decided to go to her mother's place for a few days.. She did not even wish to come back.. This place reminded him of her Tom.. She missed him badly.. She stuffed those money and key back onto his pocket and let it hang in their closet.. They had already payed all of their debts and she was in no need of this money... This money was not a good luck to them.. It had killed her Tom,.. so she dare not touch it... She packed her things and left their room where memories were haunting her and making her crazy...

It was late night and Bella couldnt sleep.. She got up and gazed at her toy.. It was the only companion she had since her birth.. She thought this little Panda was too like her, it couldnt speak too.. Annie once said it was something that her father left her, he wanted to give it to her.. There was not much things of her parents that was taken back during shifting from their old house.. It was only this Panda and a few bags that contained some memories of her parents.. She was always strangely frightened to open those, even though she saw them everyday.. The storeroom was really small and she could barely avoid those things from her eyes..

Even the photo of her parents that was hung before her made her feel unease.. They were staring at her too hard and sometimes she imagined them complaining her bad luck, blaming her for her dark omen..

She got up and looked out of the window.. It was Mrs Mathew's garden.. This garden always gave her a strange sense of happiness.. She felt it close to her heart, willing to communicate with her freely...

She saw the old gardener walking aimlessly in the garden.. he looked tensed.. She wondered why this man was not sleeping and where he lived.. He might have got a family and wont they be worried?.. She remembered the heavy bundle of money he had given her, it might have been his entire savings.. She had not even opened it to count before giving it to the editor, and now its all a waste..

Bella just remembered something else.. there was something else too that the old man gave her,.. there was a photograph.. She barely looked at it that time before tucking it into her pocket, she was too busy to run to the editor and she had completely forgotten about that photograph..

It struck her only after an hour of random searching that she had left her clothes at Mrs Mathew's place.. She decided to get it tomorrow and take a good look at the photo.. She also wished to talk to the old gardener, she wished to hear about her parents..

Just now, Bella had a strange feeling that the gardener was looking at her windows..

'I might be too tired to imagine things', she wondered.. and cuddled up to to sleep..