Mummy~fied

Shreya lit the lamp and tried to sleep; darkness was always unsettling. For the past few weeks, she had severe insomnia. Inexplicable thudding from the attic, doors swinging shut, and somebody tugging on her duvet were now common affairs.

She had always been a courageous girl, sometimes stupidly so. Her father was constantly anxious because of her Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder and her typical teen behaviour- reckless, angsty, and temperamental. 

Shreya often complained to her father about the occurrences that led to her insomnia, but her father brushed it off as her syndrome. She, too, started believing so.

One night, however, infuriated and disturbed, Shreya decided to stomp up to the attic to console herself and perhaps stop her hallucinations. Just as she climbed the first rung of the wobbly ladder, her father, wasted, came up to her and bellowed, "Why are you up so late? Don't even think about going up there. Get yo'ass down instantly or else you know the consequences. I want you down, this very moment."

 Shreya was unfazed. Something seemed odd to even her father, but he couldn't quite point it out. In an attempt to pull her down, Shreya's father yanked harshly on the sleeve of her lace gown as the seams shrieked in defiance. 

"Shreya, love, get down here. I am sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. You want to go up there, I'll take you to the attic myself tomorrow. Just come down sweetheart, come to daddy," her father sweetly consoled her. 

Shreya, as if caught in a trance, continued climbing up the rungs while muttering something incomprehensible. 

"What, what was that honey? Speak louder, daddy can't hear you. I'll get you to ice cream tomorrow, and even take you to your favorite toy store, so let's go back to sleep, shall we?" bribed her father, evidently desperate.

Shreya whimpered, in a hushed voice, "Mom is missing me. I must go." Her father instantly froze at his place as his knees turned to jelly. Terror cemented his feet and thorns of fear weighed down his body, making him immediately collapse on the floor  

Saying this, she headed up the ladder and opened the attic door. Blankets of cobwebs tucked her in as the iron grip of dust made her cough. An ethereal, honey-coated voice sweetly coaxed her, who still stood before the attic door, "I missed you, sweet pea. Do you want to come with me? It's a faraway land, a land endowed with joy and beauty. Come, you'll love it there. Come on, head up. Here, take my hand."A phantom hand, not visible to Shreya's father, helped her up.

 Her father, still uncannily immobile, wanted to warn Shreya that he mother was not on a business trip but died a week ago, that her mother's murdered body was rotting away up in the attic and that he was the culprit, but an overwhelming pressure a shut his mouth close and all he could do was desperately see his daughter walk away.