I found myself panting with exhaustion as I climbed the uphill, clenching tightly to my self-printed map.

The backpack felt heavier with each step that I took.

But this wasn't the time to look back, I was close enough...I just had to look sufficiently...I reminded myself of everything that I had been through, my ordeals flashed back... Surprisingly they gave me strength enough to climb...mom was awaiting...I chanted to myself...

I looked around, as I paused on my anti-anxiety pills...

The location was breathtaking... Dreamy mist, clouds that felt like snow, hills covered with greenery and misses, and a lake that looked surreal...

People might be on a tour for excursion purposes to this place often, I thought sipping on my water bottle, but my purpose was greater, I reminded myself.

I felt like a soldier, like my dad, as I reached the point of red as per the map...

The place of those flowers did exist...

It was a reality...just like I had seen them with the blood marks...

As I was gazing at the purple-hued Lovely flowers, I was reminded of my childhood ancestral house...

My mom always wore flowers in her long hair, white mogra... Always fresh, fragrant, and chanted lullabies to me at night, which I had long forgotten the wordings of... Her death had broken me, as it had the nest of our house.

Dad's demise left her inconsolable and grief ate her from the inside... she spent her last days lying on the bed, often asking for those flowers....

A tear rolled down my cheeks...

I saw a child singing and running happily amongst the flowers, as I looked at my distraction.

I smiled at the sight... "X marks the spot, circle, and dot...." That was all I could catch in his phrases...

Wait, it was something I knew....an inscription.... somewhere....I remembered not...

I hastily opened the backpack and examined the photo album clue. Tired I gazed at the map again....yes, yes!!!

There was a place that looked something like X and O..... I tried to call the child to know more, but he was nowhere in sight.....vanished

By now I had become accustomed to the occult...the mystifying and reasonless incidents which joined together to lead me closer to the spirit world...

I looked around at the flowers and examined the area before heading towards the X and O place...

Was I in pursuit of something endless and mindless????

But I had to do this, for my own sanity... Peace... I looked around at the flowers, picked a few for the sake of memory, and headed towards the new destination which wasn't far off...

About an hour later, I was lying down at the exact stop of Xs and Os...

It was probably the highest altitude place in the region...

Before I examined the area around me, I took out the cold sandwiches from my bag and hastily hogged them...

As I looked around, I could even have a view to my ancestral house....it was long sold, before mom's death...I could not have any access to it... thinking about all the rushing thoughts, that might lead me somewhere, I saw stones, lying on the ground...they had symbols...

The scribblings which I often saw floating around me... mindlessly I started to fill my bag with them...

Before long, I heard a loud, dominating voice, "Hey, it's private property!!! What are you doing!"

I quickly got up, zipped my bag, and chose to run..the weight of pebbles slowed me down, and confrontation was out of the question... I didn't even have a good look at the man who had been warning me... I was in a hush to run away with my bounty...

Many minutes later, I was down the hill, and probably out of the private property zone....the lake was near...

I decided to make a quick relaxation tour of it...also I could safely check out my stones and the inscribed words there...

The cold water of the lake was worth dipping my feet into...I lay down and closed my eyes, knowing not, when medication, exhaustion, and overrunning had all Soared me to sleep...

It was late evening when I woke up...

I looked around, my feet felt frozen, dipping too long wasn't a good idea for sure.

Remembering my purpose, I opened my backpack.

Stones had crushed the flowers I had picked...

They dropped colour, much akin to the blood drops on a graveyard.... But I couldn't say the exact colour, for the light was dim, the sun was setting...I couldn't read the stones...

I had to find a place for the night...

I looked around, The breeze blew the flower petals from away in the south direction...

Clueless, I instinctively followed the path...

Soon I reached a familiar road...

Unfamiliar paths had taken me to the familiar, my childhood house... melancholy gripped me...

I looked around and decided to knock...

An old lady opened the door... pretending to be a traveler, I asked if there was a lodge or motel nearby...

Denying the fact, she offered me to spend the night there, just what I had hoped for....

I entered the warm house, and felt thankful...it appeared unchanged....

She directed me towards a room....it used to be our guest room...

I looked around, mom and Dad's room was locked... I dared not ask the reason as of yet...

She served me tea and biscuits... thankful I ate them hungrily, reminding myself constantly not to sleep the night away.... this was my only chance to have a look around...

I even ensured I skipped my medication, for I couldn't be drowsy now...

Later that night, as I ventured out of the room, I looked around for the old woman, but she was nowhere in sight....

I had the opportunity to look around the whole house now...

I rushed towards Mom and Dad's room.., I tried the lock, but one thud and the old rusty thing gave way...

As I entered the room, panic seized me... Lying on the floor was the body of the old woman...

I checked, no pulse... like all other things, I wished this would disappear too...

I hadn't murdered the owner to get my house back!!!

I felt trapped... Realising none had seen me, I thought that I could run away...it was dark.

But something told me it was not the path to take... The door was locked, no blood stains around, I didn't even know for sure that if she was the owner...

I looked around for any suspicious signs, webs, dirt, dust, old photos of Mom and Dad...

Maybe she knew them... I had lost my chance to ask her all...

I opened my mom's trunk to find a strange box, it was full of old letters from Dad...I put it in my bag... I examined the courtyard, petals had reached the inside of the house strangely, they were making new markings and symbols...

I clicked a few pictures of marks and went back inside...

The body had disappeared....

Shaking as I already was, I took my pills out of the medicine box and gulped them without water...

No one else around...

Deciding I had found enough, I decided to move out of the house, it didn't feel right...

Maybe there was no ghost, but someone trying to commit a crime and could easily turn from victim to criminal...

The old woman...I looked around, no pictures of her...

The dining room had pictures of three children smiling and hugging... One I recognised as the graveyard man, probably in the younger version, rest two, I wasn't sure about...

I picked up the photo as well and decided to walk out...

Maybe the old woman was his wife or relative...

My intervention was causing more harm to memories and things than joining the dots!

At least the body shouldn't have disappeared, I mumbled aloud, frustrated...I heard footsteps...

No one was in sight...

It was now or never...I had to rush out of the place...

I walked down the lane with a bag full of memories, some known, some unraveled, but purposelessly as I walked, I realised I didn't know what good my encounters were doing... I still had scriptures floating around in the air... Anxiety attacks and more load of puzzles to solve...

Somethings, howsoever luring, are better forgotten...

Thinking this, dejectedly I headed back home...

Continued in the next chapter...

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