Chapter 1

Eriantha

"...antha"

"Eriantha..."

"Eri..."

I heard my name loud enough this time, not that I wasn't hearing it in bits and pieces, but, I am usually a heavy sleeper, so they felt like far off sounds rather than my name.

I jolted up on my bed, in front of me was my brother who was now shaking me as if I were a rattle.

His usual somberness is gone, my handsome older brother right now appears as someone who had lost his senses or his rational thoughts. He looked pale and scared, his usually neatly brushed hair was touseled.

I had noticed that he had been drinking every night after his usual "discussions" with father after our painstakingly silent dinners. I am sure they never quite ended in discussions, for my father of all people was someone not civic enough to discuss stuff across a table, without raising his voice or his hand, or blaming his family for all his 'misfortunes',  which were in real the blunders he had committed.

I am also confident that the source of my brother's recently growing  drinking habit is because he is tired of my father's stir-crazy behaviour.

My brother held me in a steel like grip. I felt his cold clammy hands, a sheer reaction whenever he turned nervous. He looked at me with wide eyes, shocked from heaven knows what!

A nightmare?

That’s impossible, he is Twenty seven, that's not even a plausible option. I blinked at him a couple of times, he had never acted this way in front of me, or in front of anyone for that matter.

He was seven years ahead of me, so he has always behaved like a protective older brother, ever since I was born, more likely because my father never really cared. So, my brother was always there for me, we weren't playmates to be exact, but he always took care of me and adored me in his very own way. But there was always a healthy boundary between us which I had learnt to respect. In fact this is the first time he had entered my room ever since I turned fourteen.

My brother was old school, maybe girls of my age and time might give him adjectives like 'reserved', 'boring', 'traditional', 'conservative'. But, in a home like mine where our father considered that women were only useful for popping out babies and adding a soft touch to the rough men's world. In a home where I was the only female left after my mother eloped with another man when I was just ten years. My brother had been the best person in my life.

At least I am able to still call this place, home, because he had been around. May be he didn't have the best personality, not that I could blame him, he had to shoulder burdens beyond his age, which perhaps had turned him into an old soul. But my brother was a gentleman, and I could do anything for him, the only reason why I still believed in family, was him.

"Anders"

I called him in the hope of stopping his frenzy. He paused and blinked a couple of times, finally realising that he had been hurting me, and shaking me to the point of making me nauseous. I wanted to  throw stuffs off my gut.

Before I could ask him what's wrong, he closed his eyes momentarily, and, after taking a deep breath, he finally said what had riled him up.

"Father" he paused for a moment, "Father is gone..."

"Gone? Gone as in to where?"

The question isn't as lame as it may sound, our father usually never stayed at home, after dinner he would either hit the casinos on weekdays or he would go to some high end clubs to drink and fuck a few women. Lately he had been staying at home a lot more than he had been over the years. Not that it didn't raise my suspicion that he must have caused another one of his blunders. But, Anders assured me that he had been lying low because we are going through some financial crunch.

However, I always dreaded the idea of spending longer hours around that man. After all, who loves to walk on eggshells in their own home?

Anders frowned at me with confusion assimilated with his rising panic, as if I am speaking in some secret code language.

He paused for a moment, holding me with his steel grip perhaps in the hope of knocking some sense back to me.

"Dad is gone Eri, GONE as in Dead." He emphasised.

"What! No..." I finally realised what he had been trying to convey. No wonder he was in a state of shock.

Anders nodded heavily, as if to convince me.

"I... I... found him in his study, he...he...has hung himself. He is no more..." His voice trailed off in what I think were suppressed tears.

I went morbid, frozen, stunned by what I heard all so sudden. But. was there any pain? Any sadness in my state of shock?

God! No.

Instead a strange sense of relief spread across my chest, like a cool evening breeze after a sultry afternoon. I hated our father, though I didn't expect him to be gone, but I hated him to this point that now when he is no more, my mind is trying to figure out what unspeakable gaffe he had committed that he had no choice but to call quits.

How much of his litter do we have to clear?

I hope he hasn't done anything which might put us siblings behind the bars.

I was caught up with panic before anything else, others might think that I am one selfish bitch. But then, I was tired of putting up with his greed and pretense.

The cops came and took away his cold body for autopsy, wrapped in plastic covers, our father's body appeared like a log.

What an inglorious end!

Our family has been very old residents of this area and we had what he called "Reputation".The officer In-charge Jackson was my father's friend. He assured us that this was an open and shut case, and he would make sure things wrap up smoothly and we would get to hold father's funeral at the earliest.

However, proving my ominous thoughts he gave us a piece of information, I don't know if it was out of good will Or mere pity, Jackson looked at me, and then at my brother.

"Do you know Fredrick, I mean, Mr.Reux had taken huge loans from the loan sharks?"

"Holy fuck!" My brother cursed, his knuckles turned white as he clenched his fist.

I remained silent while swallowing the curses.

"Women in the family should never jump into men's conversation." Let alone curse!

  My father's words were etched in my mind, maybe this is what people call conditioning.

I could understand my brother's reaction, loan sharks were associated with the underworld. They would lend you money on high interest rates, and it would mean death if you failed to return the debt. They are part of organised crime and had close nexus with the government and the administration.

"I know it's not a good time to talk about this Anders" Jackson said before leaving, "But as I can understand, you had no idea about this,  since you have to take up the business, I thought giving a heads up was necessarry, because now they will come after you..." He whispered, as if  he wasafraid of being heard. "They are lethal, and there's little that I can do about it. The very fact I am telling you about this, has my neck hanging on the line." He left after giving us an apologetic smile, while we were standing on the edge of a black hole.