Whispers Beneath the Backwaters - First Mother - Part 10

 The photograph slipped from Arjun’s shaking hands.

“No…”

The woman in white stood beside his father with unnatural calm, holding baby Arjun close to her chest.

Not Madhavi Menon.

Not his real mother.

The same face from the mirror.

The same drowned woman from the backwaters.

Yakshi.

Devika stepped backward slowly.

“What does she mean… first mother?”

Meenu stared at the skeleton quietly.

“She took care of him when he was little.”

Kuttappan suddenly shouted.

“Stop listening to the child!”

His voice echoed violently inside the underground chamber.

The lantern flame flickered harder.

Then the crying started again.

Not one child this time.

Many.

Soft whimpers rising from the mud walls themselves.

Arjun felt dizzy.

Fragments of memory flashed inside his mind.

A woman combing long hair near a lamp.

Jasmine smell.

Soft singing.

Cold fingers touching his forehead.

Then—

His mother screaming.

A locked door.

Someone dragging him away.

Arjun collapsed to his knees.

“I remember her…”

The room became silent instantly.

Even the whispers stopped.

Devika looked terrified now.

“What are you saying?”

Arjun pressed both hands against his head.

“When I was very small… there was another woman in this house…”

His breathing grew heavier.

“She used to sing to me.”

Kuttappan closed his eyes painfully.

“We thought those memories died.”

Arjun turned toward him slowly.

“Tell me everything.”

The old servant’s face looked broken.

Years of fear finally spilling out.

“During the great floods, your father found a woman floating unconscious near the backwaters.”

“She was alive… but strange.”

“She never told anyone her real name.”

“Children liked her immediately.”

“Animals feared her.”

Lightning shook the house above them.

Kuttappan continued.

“Your father became obsessed with her.”

“Madhavi Amma begged him to send the woman away.”

“But he refused.”

The whispers inside the walls slowly returned.

“She called herself Ammini.”

The name itself made the underground room colder.

Kuttappan’s voice trembled.

“At night villagers saw her near the water speaking to unseen things.”

“Then children started disappearing.”

Devika whispered, “And Narayanan knew?”

The old servant nodded weakly.

“He believed Ammini was not a curse…”

“He believed she was a goddess.”

Meenu suddenly smiled toward the darkness.

“She still loves him.”

Arjun felt sick.

“Me?”

Meenu nodded.

“You were the only child she never hurt.”

The lantern dimmed suddenly.

A shadow moved behind them.

Tall.

Woman-shaped.

Watching silently from the passage.

Devika noticed it first.

Her scream echoed underground.

The shadow vanished instantly.

But a soft voice floated through the darkness—

“I protected my son.”

Then came another voice.

Angrier.

Female.

Crying.

Madhavi’s voice.

“You stole my child!”

The underground walls began shaking violently.

Mud rained from the ceiling.

The skeleton in the corner suddenly collapsed into dust.

And from somewhere above the house—

A door slammed shut.

Hard.

Meenu looked upward fearfully for the first time.

“She locked someone inside again…”