━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

March 21, 2023.

The weather was calmly warm, embracing the land with grace and love. It was the last day of my final examinations in the 10th standard. Mathematics wasn't practically that tough of a subject, and I was pretty confident about it. I had already lost four marks in my mind out of eighty, but still, it was fine.

I was just happy that I could finally go home and rest for at least a month and a half.

On the way home, I felt restless for some reason. I just wanted to see my mom. I even bought some chocolates so we could eat them together while discussing my exam paper. I was excited. She had always worked hard for me as a single mom, and because she overworked herself, she was often ill. Lately, her condition had worsened. We had shifted to my maternal grandpa's residence after he and granny passed away, so only my maternal aunt and uncle's family remained there. They didn't outrightly reject us, but our troubles never ceased to stop, whether financially or emotionally. But my mother tried to love me at her best, and I always appreciated her efforts.

From my perspective, everything felt different than a normal person. Or maybe I was just trying to stand out too much by becoming unique. Although I had done many rebellious breakouts in my teenage years and was always regretful about them, I never apologized to her. And she never asked me to. It was like she had already forgiven me with a dry smile.

I finally reached home, but my uneasiness was increasing now. My maternal uncle and the other people of the house had gone out to a function. Since my mother was told to rest, she was alone in the house with the maid who cooked for us on a monthly wage.

I rang the bell thrice, but there was no response. After ten minutes, the maid finally opened the gate. I greeted her briefly and ran straight to my mother's room.

There she was, lying on the bed, fiddling with a cup of soup with her feeble, rough hands. I stood at the doorway, smiling and looking at her. Her face was ever beautiful, though aging quite a bit lately. She was looking at the distant sky out of the window, not noticing me. I slowly treaded my steps calmly, reached her bed, and covered her eyes.

She said with her serene voice, like a lullaby, "Viransh?"

I rejoiced and said, "Incorrect. I am Viransh Raj."

She chuckled and told me to sit on the bed. I hugged her and kissed her cheek, then took out my question paper and recited whatever surgical operation I had done with it in the examination hall. She was talking to me, but I could feel her mind was somewhere else.

Later that night, the other family members informed us that they would return tomorrow around 8:00 AM. We finally had dinner and then went to sleep.

I was lying down in my room, but I couldn't sleep despite changing positions multiple times. I was having that same restlessness again. I decided to intrude into my mother's room and hug her. We didn't lock the doors there due to a weird tradition, so I directly entered and got into her bed.

She noticed me after waking up and asked, "Can't sleep, beta?"

I shook my head while laughing. "I just wanted to have a chat with you. Last week, I argued with you a lot over..."

She shrugged it off and said, "It is fine. As long as you grow up fine, everything's alright."

She grabbed my hand and tucked me into bed, rubbing my forehead with her frail hands for a long time. Her face was continuously smiling at me, but with a deep sorrow. I tried to talk again, but she shut me up by putting her warm hand on my face, scolding me to just sleep like a good child and let her rest.

And then she turned to the other side, facing the wall. I grabbed her from behind and slept, not knowing what was going to unfold in front of me tomorrow.

In the early morning, I woke up. I had a weird dream about losing something, but I didn't know what it was because the dream felt half-empty. I finally got up and rubbed my eyes. The clock was ticking at 4:00 AM.

I looked at my mother lying beside me. I looked at her face. It was still. Too calm.

I smiled at first, but then I looked at her belly. It wasn’t moving.

I checked her breathing, then her heartbeat, and finally her pulse, because I couldn't believe what was happening. I shouted to wake her up, kissing her cheeks, hugging her—she wasn't responding at all. I grabbed her phone and called my maternal uncle. He wasn't that shocked. His voice had a bit of sadness, but only a little bit. He told me to wait, but I hurriedly called the ambulance instead. For those last few minutes, I still tried to wake her up, refusing to believe reality, until the ambulance finally arrived.

They didn't immediately take her to the hospital. After checking her, they tried providing immediate assistance, but it was to no avail. Finally, they shifted her to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

From the doctor's words to my maternal uncle, she had already passed away eight hours ago.

By the time we were in the hall room, the clock read 9:00 AM. Nobody was crying for her there. It was like they all knew something like this was going to happen soon. They even refused to take my mother's body back home. My maternal uncle walked up to me and handed me some documents, saying it was my mother's insurance and that it would sustain me for a while. While doing all this, nobody looked me in the eye, as if they were trying not to burden themselves.

I didn't say anything either, because deep down, I also knew this could have happened sooner or later. But gathering all my courage and suppressing my anger, I asked, "What will happen to my mother's rites?"

My uncle said briefly, his tone laced with a forced sadness, "We have decided to donate her body."

Clutching the documents tightly, I said, "Yeah. It was her last wish."

He rubbed my head and said, "Sorry."

"It is fine," I replied. "You guys were also having a hard time trying to look after a pathetic pair of mother and son."

And just like that, they were gone. The hospital was filled with people, but it was still entirely lonely. The sharp, clinical smell of antiseptics only fueled my sadness. I closed my eyes, a hollow smile appearing on my face as tears just rained from my eyes.

She had promised me that we would talk again later. My mother had promised me.

I looked down at the documents— her parting gift to me .They had her photo on them , I was going through the documents with my blurry eyes . I softly spoke in the empty air. I really am an ugrateful son, just thinking about how soundly I slept while holding her dead body, completely unable to help her. Now, I couldn't hold it back anymore. For me, this day was a silent nightmare. Everything I had tried not to think about in my past had just happened right in front of me all at once.

I could still feel her presence. To my body, it felt like she was still sitting right next to me on the bench. Even if it was just empty air, I didn't feel alone.

Mumma... I'm sorry.

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

This is the first chapter— I have written for my story , REIGN OF ELITES . I actually have zero knowledge about medical procedures during emergency even tho I am NEET aspirant , but still I tried my best .

I had to change the main character name to Viransh as the earlier one was my real name— unable to find a better alternative— I decided to use my real name. But, while writing I just couldn't handle it anymore. I almost had an emotional breakdowns twice or thrice during the 2hr.

Am really looking other authors who write this genre in a new light as this is not something that can be easily done .

Thanks to that girly who suggested me a plot about family thing , otherwise I would have had sent this guy to Blackmont college already.

https://preview.redd.it/fd32osos32bh1.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=f58e93fbe85a7e8817112bd110bc1d3026d24761