The wind blew and then the wind chime let out a lovely sound. The sounds were lovely enough to heal and that was something that Tanya seemed to desire, not only at the moment but for a long time.
The chimes tickled her soul as she sat on the rocking chair in her backyard, gazing silently into space while her mind worked overtime with her thoughts and her hands with her knitting.
It had been a week since she had regressed and things felt surreal still. She had been able to prove to herself that these were real. The moments, the breaths, the warmth, the minutes, hours, night and day; they were all real. It was a bit hard to accept but she was slowly adapting and learning to adjust.
She thought back to a week ago, after her outburst. She had fainted and soon a familiar medical staff came and examined her. She was also a military personnel who was extremely close to her parents.
The doctor had her checked and said that she had a fever due to her outburst. He said something along the lines of having her rest for a couple of days and refrain from any activity that could bring her emotions to the fore or that could cause her stress. Although Tanya had a feeling that everyone had mutually, but silently agreed that they were the ones who may need rest from her stress.
Well, after all that, Tanya proceeded to clear her thoughts and come to terms with her current reality with a little recreational activity.
"I see that you're knitting again." A smile graced her lips and her heart felt full.
With her eyes still trained unto her occupied and busy hands which were knitting, Tanya hummed in response and said nothing, probably waiting for the woman to come to the point.
"You look better than you did a week ago." The woman in question scoffed and trained her gaze on the girl who was sitting on the rocking chair before her. "I'm almost beginning to think that it was all a facade."
Tanya finally looked up at the woman in question with remorse and guilt clouding her face. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't a bit disappointed that her sister didn't believe in her. But then, even if she wouldn't believe in her someone like her suddenly became silent and recluse all of a sudden.
Tanya smiled ruefully at her knitting but she schooled her expression before raising her head again to meet Bertha's condemnatory gaze. "Sister..."
"Is that all you have to say?" With a sigh and a hand brushing through her hair, she managed to reign in the turbulent emotions that were threatening to spill at the sight of her sister's expression.
'What sort of an expression was that?' Bertha thought as she remembered the face she had seen on Tanya when she had made her remarks. Her head hurt and she moved the thought to the back of her mind. It was sure to be a trick anyway.
The Tanya that she knew was a manipulative and selfish minx who only cared about what she could gain and not what was beneficial to others. She hated her.
A memory popped up in her head and her expression darkened. Even Tanya, who had seen a lot worse, had a chill run up her spine at the sight.
"We're going to have you write an apology letter for your stunt last month." Bertha began with a bit of an eased-up expression.
'Stunt?' Tanya thought. Her mind raced with possibilities and she tried to backtrack using the dates and time. Death had given her the gift of recollection. It was more of a curse than a gift to her who had nothing more than bad memories and a horrible death.
The remembrance of her death triggered a reflex action, and her hand went towards her throat, but she stopped herself before it was too late. Thankfully, her sister was too into her emotions to take notice.
As Tanya went back in to dig through her memories for this stunt, Bertha broke her chin of thought and helped her remember a very crucial and rather bothersome memory.
"Don't think too hard, little Tanny." Bertha started as she saw Tanya's brows furrow, concluding that she was trying to pull another trick to avoid apologizing.
"I won't let you run away from apologizing to the principal for trying to steal test papers from his office. Not in my life, Tanny."
At that statement, Tanya's eyes widened in an awful realization that she hadn't had the time to grasp. She had regressed. Back to the very beginning of her destruction path.
With a shaky and unstable mind, Tanya asked her sister: "When will I do it? The apology, I mean. Which day?"
"What? Are you chickening at the thought of apologizing? Well, it's too late." Bertha spoke in a condescending and condemnatory manner.
"We're in the weekend, so it's too late. You would have been able to do it on Wednesday if you didn't pull this emotional drama. So first thing on Monday, you'll go and apologize to the principal and to the girl who you had taken her name and accused falsely."
Saying this, Bertha turned to walk back to the house but paused to add a little something. "And please don't pull any tricks. We've had enough of them through this previous month."
Saying that Bertha left Tanya with an odd sense of incompatibility and fear. A fear that she might not be able to fulfill her purpose and change the future which had spelled her death and that of her family.