Cassandra couldn't help as her breathing got slow and she started panicking. She quickly locked her room and started to dial Audrey's number only to realise that Audrey's phone was switched off.
Freaked out she even thought about dialling 911 but she realise that by the time the police will actually get here the intruder if a killer would have already killed her and if he was a robber then worst case scenario he would take all the money Audrey has been saving in the kitchen for her husband. Apart of her also thought about how disheartened Audrey will feel when she realises that Cassandra didn't do anything but remained quietly locked inside her room as the intruder robbed her savings or if she would even believe that it was the intruder there who robbed her of her savings and not Cassandra herself for her selfish needs of the luxurious life.
She looked all around her room trying to find out anything to fight the intruder but there was none so she picked up the broom stick kept at the corner and started descending slowly towards the kitchen avoiding all the broken floorboards just so that they wouldn't Creek and alarm the intruder about her there. Some part of her mind was also mentally cursing her for being this stupid and brave at the same time because she did not even know how armed the intruder was and what if the intruder had a gun, her broomstick would be no match which meant only sneaking up with surprise was going to be her saviour or she will end up exactly where her parents have gone.
By the time Cassandra has actually reached the kitchen her heart was in her mouth and the anxiety was killing her as she slowly approached the figure standing in the kitchen doing exactly what she had anticipated that is trying to rob Audrey's savings hastily.
It was hard to determine if it was a guy or a girl due to the darkness but just as Cassandra was about to hit the intruder in the head with a broomstick so she could then try him or her up and call the police who would then inform Audrey, the intruder turned around and those brown eyes stared at her with shock Cassandra quickly dropped her broomstick before stepping a couple of steps back in panic as the relief at the same time as she kept her hand on her chest and breathed heavily.
"Audrey" she groaned.
"Cass?" She asked confused.
"What are you doing here in the dark? I thought you were some intruder trying to rob us" Cassandra freaked.
"I was here because I am in a need of some of my savings but what are you doing here so early I thought you worked till 8?" Audrey asked.
"I do but the cafe was pretty idle today so I decided to shut it off an hour ago so that I can come back home and continue my preparation for the scholarship test" Cassandra explained.
"What on the Earth gave you the expression that I was some intruder?" Audrey asked.
"I don't know maybe the fact that somebody stepped on the creak board of the kitchen that we both are well aware of to not step on in order to avoid this annoying voice" Cassandra pointed out now deliberately stepping on the creak board which gave an ugly Creek and made the two of them close their eyes and chew their teeth in your annoyance.
"I was in a hurry and I did not even realise that you would be home early so I didn't even switch on the light" Audrey remarked before the two ladies dissolved into fit of giggles.
When the two of them could finally stop laughing Audrey looked at Cassandra with an serious expression.
"Look Cass! Firstly I don't think there is any intruder visiting our home any time soon considering the fact how it looks from the outside but if that ever happens I expect you to reach out to the police or just hide in your closet but do not show this bravery and come out trying to do what ever you were trying to do today.
what in the heavens sake were you even thinking when you decided to pick a broom stick to fight an intruder. this is not Springfield and things can get pretty ugly with intruders in California!" Audrey remarked.
Cassandra just looked at Audrey with a helpless expression, But Audrey was not letting her off the hook so she finally answered honestly.
"You have done a lot for me Audrey! you made me realise how much I needed this change and how toxic staying in Springfield was going to be for me. you are the reason I have a roof on my head.
I couldn't help but come here. How could I let someone take away all the money you have worked so hard to earn especially when I am so indebted to you for my living right now?" Cassandra remarked.
"Cass! I need you to stop feeling so grateful and putting your life at stake for something like that. I am not doing you a favour, your father had helped me out a lot when I was a need for his help, he paid for my education, gave me a stable life and even when nobody supported my decision of marrying my husband, it was your father who stood by my side. I owe him a great deal of my existence and whatever I am doing for you right now is not even the bare minimum of what he had done for me, if I were to repay his debt back, I am supposed to treat you like a princess And provide you with everything that you want but I am not even capable enough of sponsoring your education and looking after you the way you deserved to be looked after by your parents or your guardians. You have lost your parents less than a month ago in the most drastic way and yet you are here, working to earn your education and living when you should be mourning and I should be acting like your parent" Audrey remarked.
"I need a promise from you Cass" Audrey finished.
*******
"I need a promise from you Cass" Audrey finished.
"What is it Audrey?" Cassandra asked suddenly uncomfortable with the mention of her appearance and now their lack of existence.
"I need you to promise me that if you ever face a situation where your life is at stake, you will not think about anyone but yourself, not even me, not even about the money I have worked hard for. if there is anything you want to do for me then just promise me that if you ever find yourself standing in front of a situation where you can lose your life you will fight back and try your very best to save yourself" Audrey asked.
"I promise Audrey" Cassandra promised.
"By the way what are you doing here? weren't you supposed to be at work?" Cassandra asked.
"Oh I was but then the doctor called apparently they have noticed Roman slightly shifting his fingers and there is a chance that he might wake up so I need to go there and pay for some routine checks" Audrey answered but by the time she finally finished the sentence her smile was a wide enough and for the first time Cassandra found herself smiling in last one month.
"That's such a great news Audrey! I am so happy for you" Cassandra remarked.
"I know right! I just hope this is not some false alarm and he actually wakes up, I have waited years for this day and believe me when I say this, you would absolutely love roman and roman would absolutely adore you. I know there is nothing that can replace the place of parents in a child's heart but we all can try to be one happy family. Roman and I always talked about wanting a little girl before everything collapsed. we cannot assure you a life of luxury like my brother provided you with but we will try our very best to give you be happiness you deserve and the family you have always had" Audrey remarked.
Cassandra highly doubted that she could ever look up to Audrey the way she looked at her mother and she could not comment about Roman because she had barely seen him once and that one time he was lying in the bed, not even shifting a bit. she was not even sure if Roman was going to wake up because she had heard of enough of cases related to coma only to realise that one out of lakhs of people actually woke up. Obviously she was not going to say anything like that to ordering but she did not even have the courage to tell address that whatever Audrey was dreaming of what is possible they would never be her parents and that was likely a good thing considering the fact that she despised her parents as much as she loved them.
Audrey was way too happy by the fact that her husband was finally showing some signs of waking up to realise that Cassandra was just smiling at her to avoid answering the situation she had put forward.
"Do you want me to come with you" Cassandra asked even though she did not really want to Visit Roman nor did she have the energy to do anything except for falling asleep.
"No no Cass! I will be absolutely fine on my own and you anyway look way too exhausted so you better take some rest I just hope that the next time you see roman, he will be able to see You too" Audrey remarked before sprinting off the kitchen happily as she accidentally stepped on a couple of creaking floorboards making Cass give out a grunt but Audrey did not spare moment to the creaking noise as she skipped outside the house banging the front door in the process.
Cassandra was really happy for Audrey but on the other side she felt like Audrey was putting her heart way too much into the expectation of roman waking up, Which meant that if he did not wake up it would totally break Audrey's heart.
On some grounds Cassandra found herself feeling bad for Audrey because at least she could mourn her parents realising the fact that they were permanently gone and that they were never coming back but Audrey did not even have that choice with her considering the fact that her husband wasn't exactly death as he was alive and she could not help but hold on to that string of hope that he might wake up. From what Cassandra believed Hope was a beautiful and yet a deadly thing just the way love was beautiful and yet capable of killing you in the most cruel way.
Cassandra had been always sheltered from grief in the presence of her parents, they never made her realise how much grief the world consisted of. the only thing Cassandra had ever seen in her life was happiness and it felt like suddenly all the grief in the universe came down crashing upon her and the only people who have been sheltering her and protecting her from all the bad Demons out there were actually the ones who bought it upon her.
She found herself wondering in one of those nights after waking up the nightmares of her parents torturing her, the people who actually protected her. What worst could have happened if they did not leave her, she might have been a little pissed at them realising the fact that they were left penniless, they might still be indebted to the bank, her father would need to get a new job and her mother too so that they can pay all the debt.
Cassandra probably would have to shift into a one story cheap apartment with her parents and work part-time as she was doing right now to afford her daily needs and education. There was a chance that she might even fight with them a couple of times complaining that whatever a bad decision they had made was now costing them a life of misery but whenever she found herself wondering and going through all these impossible scenarios she still found herself better then what she was now. in those times she might be sad and angry but right now she was devoid of any emotions, like she wasn't human anymore just a machine trying to get through everything.
she might not have a meal on her plates on multiple days but at least When she did, she would be having it with someone and not just looking into the distance of the wall forcefully showing the food down her throat because she knew that she could not skip a meal if she wanted to get through everything that was currently happening in her life.
Cassandra mechanically picked up a plate dropping some pasta into it and forcefully eating the food without even getting a taste of what she was eating, When she was done making her stomach feel like it was fulfilled she washed her hands and walked inside her room only to change into a pair of night clothes and crash into the bed waiting for the nightmares to engulf her entire existence.
******
Cassandra woke up today with another sort of nightmare but by now she was used to them and they did not affect her as much as they did when they first started.
Another thing about her nightmares was that they would never consistent which meant there was always a different place, different scenario, just a few things remained same. it was her and her parents and her parents would be the monsters who were trying to harm her and she always found herself in the dilemma whether to run to them and try to fix them or to just run away from them. either of the possibilities were too hard on her and she would wake herself up thrashing on the bed sweating like a pig realising the fact that she was not going to sleep anytime soon.
It had been two weeks since the false alarm of Roman waking up, just like Cassandra had predicted it after running a couple of tests and making sure that Audrey was devoid of whatever saving she had, the doctors told her that it was just his body reacting to some unknown conditions and it was not the stimuli as it was supposed to be which meant that he was still pretty much in coma and his condition hadn't changed a bit just the way it was 5 weeks ago, when she first shifted to California.
Audrey was disheartened but nevertheless kept a brave face and told Cassandra that he was indeed going to wake up one fine day Cassandra found herself wondering on what sort of believe Audrey had and how she could be so positive about Roman waking up when he hadn't woken up in years.
Today's day was special for Cassandra she had her scholarship test today, the one that she was preparing for since last five weeks and after that the school was starting in a week so the only thing Cassandra could think of right now was the scholarship test.
She knew that getting admission into midland high was not the end of her problems but just the beginning of it. She had never been to any competitive schools in big cities but she was in the most expensive and reputed school in Springfield which means she knew everything that happened there including how the scholarship students were treated.
Although Springfield high and midland high were worlds apart and Springfield high even though a highly reputed school could not even touch close to Midland high.
She knew that she was no longer going to be in the golden girl of the school, she was not going to be popular and treated like she was a goddess. there were chances that she would have to go through the sort of bullying she saw scholarship students suffer in her old school. the only thing she knew that she could do was work hard to score good so that she can get into some great university and the only way she thought she could do that was by keeping her head down unfortunately what Cassandra didn't knew was that this was going harder than she had anticipated.
Like what she had faced earlier things rarely happen the way they were supposed to happen, In the same way she was supposed to keep her head down and get through the year but she did not even anticipated how tough it would be when some mysterious bad boy gets some sort of interest into her for a reason fairly unknown to both of them.
Audrey had wished her luck when she left early in the morning for her work. She had been kind enough not to mention the consequences if Cassandra failed this test but that was not the same case with Cassandra's mind, the nagging voice in her head kept hitting her brain that her entire life will be more messed than it already was if she failed to perform well in this test especially after she had put hard work of weeks to achieve this.
Cassandra was confident because she had managed to cover all the topics and revise it a couple of times but she was partially nervous to because she had never been the extremely genius person in the classroom she had been a moderate student keeping her grades high but not brilliantly high.
In grossed in her thoughts she found herself standing in front of the receptionist who was going to guide her to her destination the school was mostly empty considering the fact that it was starting in a week but it was humongous and beautiful every single corner of the school screamed expensive and Springfield High actually felt like a joke in front of the school.
Cassandra soon found herself sitting in front of the principal nervously looking up and smiling she mentally reminded herself again not to fidget with her fingers because that was the nervous habit she carried which the principle did not need to know.
"I am so sorry to hear about your parents Miss Smith they were great Trustees to the school but apart from that they were great humans and one of my oldest friends" The woman in her late 50s exclaimed pushing her glasses on properly.
"Thank you for your condolences" Cassandra exclaimed.
"I really hope that you make through this test Cassandra. your father has always been really proud of you and I have always heard great stories about his beautiful, kind and intelligent daughter whenever he visited and I really wish to see you in this school" The principal smiled Cassandra couldn't help herself as she felt her eyes watering at the mention of her father but she quickly sucked in a breath calm down herself and looked at the principal with a strong look.
The receptionist then came inside again ready to guide her towards her examination room and just when she was about to walk out the principal exclaimed something.
"I know that you are going to make it through this test Cassandra, not because I know you personally or how much you have prepared for it but because I see that spark of your father in you. the one that keeps you strong even when you're breaking inside and I have known him enough to know that he never failed and neither will you" and those were the exact words Cassandra needed to make it through this.
she was her father's daughter and she was capable of making it to hell and back, if only her father had believed in himself as well things would have been a lot different.