Chapter - 16

"Where have you been staying all this time, dear?" - Mom said after calming down a bit. I knew she'd ask me this sooner or later, but I haven't come up with anything to cover up where I've spent the last three weeks. If I say I stayed with a friend she'd ask which friend, If I say I don't know where I was she'd think I don't want to tell her and still haven't forgiven her. Guess I'll just have to go with the first one...

"Stayed with a friend..." - I said, thinking all the counter thoughts I should prepare. Mom smiled a little, relieved smile before taking my hand in hers.

"Thank god. We were so worried about you, but It's okay as long as you look healthy and fine... Ah, I should call your father, he's still out with the cops. I'll make a quick call. Oh, aren't you hungry? Let me make you something first. You take some rest." - She said, before going to the kitchen.

I laid down on the couch where I was sitting and a lot of thoughts came running through my mind. When I was having that dream, I thought it'd be great if I could just disappear one day, nobody would care anyway. But, they do care about me after all, and somehow I regret my disappearance. What if I could've never returned... this thought is enough to make me scared...

Still, I want to know everything, everything about that place and that dream... Something in me is sure about that dream and that house being related. If I want to find something, I have to enter that house again. Now's not the right time to go back to that place, though, I'll wait a few days.

Soon my father came back from the police station with a crying face just like mom's. He hugged me and continuously apologized to me for the hard times he gave me all these years, and it only took a few minutes for me to accept their apologies... after all they do care for me, and I'm happy just with that.

We talked about a lot of stuff, ate nice and warm food, mom and dad opened up about their annoying jobs, how they were to work for more than 17 hours without getting many wages. Sometimes they couldn't even come home because of their workload. Now, I finally get why they were so cranky and abusive. Well, I can never forget those traumatic stresses I've received from them, but I'll try my best to cope with it.

Surprisingly, my father never asked me where I stayed, probably mom told him not to. Everything's going so smoothly, I can finally have some peace and I never want it to end. Now there's only one thing left to be stressed on... The mystery of my disappearance...