Memories

Aastha came home to find her mom crying in her parent's room while her father was sitting beside her trying to calm her down.

"Aama, what happened?" She asked, slightly running towards her, and her mom started to sob. She pulled her into a hug.

"Buwa," she said, looking at her father for answers, but her father was confused about where he should start, and then her mom started to speak.

(Buwa = Father)

"He....he...wants to end his....li...life," Muna said between the sobs.

Aastha was confused about who her mother was talking about.

"Pra...prayas," Muna said again, and then Aastha understood what she was trying to say.

"But we are immortal,"

Aastha was confused.

"Yes, we are," This time her father said. "But there are witches turned vampires who can give death to the vampires who willingly want to end their lives."

"Turned? We can turn someone into a vampire?" She was shocked.

It was brand new information for her. She had never heard that humans could be turned.

Pratik shook his head "We can, but we are not allowed. Only queens can do that."

"Queens? You said witches, before?" She was so confused.

She had never heard about Queens or anything about witches.

"There are two Queens, White and Red. Way back, they had a fight, and the White witch cursed the Red one and turned her into a vampire using her magic so she could suffer for eternity. After years of revenge, the Red cursed the White too. They later became friends and created vampires using both of their magics. From that, our ancestors were born, and here we are. They are our creators, our Queens," Pratik told her about the history that Aastha knew nothing about.

"So, where is mama?" She asked her mother.

Muna was sitting with her head down.

"He came here to tell me about his decision. I begged him not to, but... he just left." Tears rolled down Muna's cheeks.

"I know where he is," Aastha whispered, and then left.

Aastha went to the park, and she knew he was there, standing near a tree, leaning on it, and watching Sati. Sati was sitting on the grass, watching the sky. This was their everyday routine. One would look at the sky, and one would look at his love.

Aastha watched him for a while, and her mom's face came in front of her. She couldn't control her anger, so she furiously went in front of him.

"How... How could you?" She almost yelled, and Prayas looked at her with confused eyes.

"How could you be so heartless? Not...not even once you thought about your sister? You never cared about anyone besides yourself. You are so mean," she blurted out without thinking and left.

Prayas closed his eyes because the word heartless pinched him a little.

"She is right; all I ever thought about was myself and my mistakes. All I ever gave everyone was pain, so now it's time I end this all," he thought.

After some time, Aastha came back and stood beside him.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just that I couldn't control myself when I saw Aama crying," she apologized, to which Prayas gave a slight nod.

"She loves you more than anything." She looked at him, but he didn't respond.

His eyes were fixed on Sati, as if every single breath depended on her. Aastha saw emotions in his eyes that she had never seen before. Whenever he came home or they met, his eyes used to have no emotions, but here around her, it was different.

"We can never completely wipe out love, can we?" She asked, starting at Sati.

Prayas looked at his niece. He then turned his eyes back to Sati.

"Wish we could," he almost said in a whisper.

Aastha couldn't believe he said that. She looked at her mama, and then the thought of continuing the conversation came to her mind.

"How... How did it all... start? I mean, how did you....fell for her?" She asked.

She was slightly afraid he wouldn't reply, but suddenly she saw tears glimmering in the back of his eyes and a smile on his lips at the same time. Yeah, that was the power of Love. It could bring tears and a smile at the same time.

"I.. don't know, It just happened," he replied, thinking back to the time when he realized he had fallen for her. Before that, unknowingly, he used to notice every little thing about her. He didn't realize that until he was already in love with her. In his life, love came slowly, without his knowing.

It was already evening, and Aastha knew she had some more time to talk with him until he decided to leave.

"So... How did it all..... how did you two separate?" she asked in a low voice, hoping he would answer her.

Prayas was quiet for a while. It was painful for him to even think about it.

"We were never together," he replied with no emotion, as if it didn't hurt him.

Aastha couldn't understand what he meant by that. If they were never together, why was he here waiting for her?

"Never together? If they weren't together, then how come he was in love with her?" she thought. She had so many questions, but he was not answering them properly.

Prayas knew Aastha had many questions in her mind. He was never good at sharing, so he thought of staying quiet, but his niece's questions brought back all the memories at once.

Prayas had just graduated from high school and was very excited to join the college. He was excited because he was going to the Immortal Academy. There, he would get a chance to learn some new tricks. He had even heard that they taught the students some witchcraft too.

The Academy was in the middle of the forest, and it was big.

On his first day in college, he stood near the gate and watched the Academy. It was a round building made of red mud with hay on the roof. It looked like a traditional Nepali house, but inside it was different. Queens had used magic, and the interior was unbelievable.

Once they stepped inside, it would feel like they were actually in a vampire's world. The building just seemed like a way to another world. No one would imagine that there was an academy inside the building. One of the reasons the building was made of red mud was that they didn't want any humans to get suspicious if they found it.

After a few days in college, Sati caught his eye. They were in the same class. There were many rumors he had heard of her. Few knew about her being human. Some thought it was just a rumor so they ignored it.

One day, when he got a chance to learn a few tricks with his teacher, he finally saw Sati face-to-face. She came in front of him, and every single detail he had in the back of his mind about her came in front of him. That's when he realized he had unknowingly saved her memories in the back of his mind. Even though she was human, she was beautiful. A human couldn't stand a chance in front of an immortal for beauty and charms, but he saw something more in her. It was one of the reasons no one believed she was a human.

"How did you meet her?" Aastha brought him back.

"At college," he replied.

"You went to the same college?"

He nodded.

"Yes, in Immortal Academy,"

Aastha looked at him in shock.

"You went to the Immortal Academy?" Her jaw dropped.

She always wanted to go there, but only vampires were allowed. Other creatures were forbidden in the academy, and she didn't want to go there without Wolfie.

He nodded and lost himself in the memories, but this time while telling his niece about it.

They were in the same class but never once talked, even though she was in the back of his mind. Both of them were unaware that one day they were going to be really good friends.

One time, it happened that all the chairs in the class were almost full. It was the day the Red Witch was going to take class. In the far corner of the class, there were two empty chairs, and they both got to sit there. That's when they got a chance to talk and introduce each other. After that, they started to hang out in the cafe a little far from the academy. It was a cafe owned by a wolf. The son of the wolf was her friend.

While he was telling the story, Aastha wondered if that wolf was the same guy in the picture she saw and her mother told about.

"But a human in the vampire academy?" She questioned.

"Because if wolves were not allowed to be there, then how come humans were allowed? she thought.

"Her father worked as a guard in the palace and somehow knew about the vampires. He threatened the queens to tell the king all about them if they didn't make a deal with him," he said.

"A deal?"

"The deal was to turn him into a vampire and let his daughter go to the same academy as vampires. Queens couldn't kill him because he had all the proof ready to be sent to the king. The queens were forced to accept it, not that they were afraid of the king, but it would have been a risk to let humans know about vampires."

"How did no one know in the academy if she was human?"

"Queens had used magic on her so no one would know about her. Few who heard about it didn't care because they thought humans in the vampire academy were impossible." He explained.

Aastha was really happy to be there. Who would have thought that one day she would sit with Prayas and hear him talk about his past?

"So... How did it all... end?" She couldn't stop herself from asking him about the end.

His heart fell a little. He went quiet.

There was a war going on inside him about whether he should tell her or not. More than that, the question was, would he be able to explain his crime to her?

Aastha stared at him, waiting for him to speak. She was scared that he wouldn't say anything.

In the meantime, Sati got up, went towards a tree in her garden, and sat under it. She then leaned on the tree and closed her eyes as if she were trying to sleep.

Prayas had loved her for four years—their whole college years—without letting her know. He had loved her secretly and silently, waiting for the right time. Then the day came when he was about to tell her how he felt, but life had other plans. Not only wasn't he able to tell her his feelings, but their friendship was also ended.

Prayas took a deep breath and blew it. He closed his eyes for some time, trying to calm his heart, which was beating violently, and then he opened his eyes to tell all about it to his niece.