Under Arrest

Chapter 26: The After Party

Peace of mind – something Sharee was yet to taste since Dante came back to her world. Trouble has become her shadow that followed her wherever she went, even inside her car as she drove towards the windmill.

      What goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back arou-

      Sharee didn’t let Justin Timberlake finish the chorus of his song as her finger pushed the radio’s power button. Not only did she want some quiet time to sort things out in her mind, she also hated the message of the song. It reminded her how things are completely fucked up.

      Lowering the windows, she felt the wind on her face. She needed to feel that it was real, willing to do anything to wake up if it’s all a nightmare. It wasn’t.Rather than enjoying the festival, she’s been given an invitation which she couldn’t refuse. 

      What was he thinking showing up in public?

                At the festival, Dante proved something. She didn’t act on her promise to arrest him the next time they met. The idea of telling him about the anonymous caller skipped her mind for he totally caught her by surprise. Now he knew that her words weren’t something carved on stone, and that she didn’t have it in her to place him under arrest.

      Dante’s in the party and he’s up to something. Clearly.

      The sun was at its peak as the giant wind vanes casted a shadow while in motion. The mill needed some repair, especially with its roofing. In the middle of an enormous meadow field, Sharee stopped her car outside the structure.

      Locking the car up, her phone moved inside her pocket as she was about to take her first step towards the windmill.

      “Get inside,” it said.

      Grabbing her gun from the compartment, she took it with her before getting out of the car. Willing to spend a whole clip on the caller, her hand tightly held the pistol as she walked further.

      This ends today. Sharee thought. It has to.

      Before her were two giant doors that looked like a pair of lips which hid a set of fangs, ready to devour her the moment she attempted to pry them open. Setting fear aside, she slid her fingers under the handle and gave effort to push the massive wooden entrance.

      Rusty from neglect, the gears moved in slow motion as Sharee set foot on the hay sprinkled floor. Dots of sunlight are scattered around as she looked up to witness holes on the sun baked roof. The earthen walls made a person inside live the life in an incubator, given testimony by the droplets of sweat forming on Sharee’s forehead due to the heat.

      “That dress suits you,” said a phantom’s voice inside the room.

      Pointing her gun outwards, Sharee aimed at nobody as she examined the room, “Who are you? Show yourself!” she demanded.

      “This is my first time to see you angry, haha,” the man cackled, provoking her to search the room, which she did.

      Sharee’s certain to have heard his voice from somewhere, not very often though, which was why she couldn’t identify him. The manner in which he spoke was so familiar that she had second thoughts of shooting him upon coming face to face with her prank caller.

      “There’s a first time for everything. What do you want?” Sharee asked.

      No answer.

      “Look, I don’t know you, and I have no clue as to why you’re doing this. What I know is that you’re a sick psycho coward who’d rather hide behind prank calls than show me his face,” Sharee replied without waiting for him to say something at all.

      Alone with a dangerous unknown familiar person inside a windmill, she felt her balance falter as the man stepped out of the shadows in response to what she said. “Coward?” Leon doubted, “Missed me?”

      It all became clear.

      “Last time we met, was at the station wasn’t it?” Leon’s grin was that of the devil. He knows of her secret and would jeopardize her whole life if he spills the beans.

It took a while before Sharee knew what to say. Leon was the last person she thought would be the owner of the voice on the phone. “Look, if this is about how I was so uninterested around you, I’m not sorry. You need to grow up,” Sharee remorselessly explained, “You need to stop. I don’t like you. Get over it!”

      “I’m not doing this because you bitch out on me all the time. You must understand that you insulted me with what you did. You didn’t need to be so harsh, didn’t you? Leon stepped closer now, Sharee placing one foot behind as he stepped one of his forward.

      “Stay where you are,” Sharee aimed towards him, ready to fire if the situation called.

      “I wouldn’t if I were you. Smell that?” Leon chuckled, aggravating her.

      Letting her senses decipher what he just said, her nostrils caught a familiar scent. She noticed the funny smell right after she got in, but she didn’t think it would have anything to do with the scenario. A common liquid drenched the whole place.

      Gas.

      “You wouldn’t risk it, would you?” he was confident. Like a kid, Leon flipped the cover of his lighter as he flaunted an even more malicious grin.

      “Are you insane? You’re gonna grill us both.”

      “Not necessarily,” Leon swiped his hand across his phone, and then rubbed it in Sharee’s face as a video played on it.

      Not hearing a sound, Sharee concentrated on the footage being shown. The video was filtered in greenish gray, a video that seemed to have been caught by a surveillance camera.

      A surveillance camera.

      Sharee’s eyes widened in shock. Her heart’s pump became similar to the chugging of a train. It wanted to tear its way out of her chest as she saw herself walking in between shelves at the evidence room. Leon’s face was that of an overjoyed high school student sighting his crush. He enjoyed every moment of her misery.

      Looking up, she thought of what could be done. It looked like there really were certain situations where one does not simply get out after going in. A one way ticket to a certain place where return wasn’t guaranteed. Leon stopped the video and returned his phone inside his pocket. This time, he took a disc out of his shirt pocket and threw it towards her, “Catch,” he released the encased disc like a saucer in the beach, “Take it. I have hundreds of it,” he said, full of air.

      “Perhaps we can make a financial arrangement,” Sharee tried to buy her way out of the mess.

      “What I want is priceless,” he countered, giving her disturbing thoughts as he approached.

      “…What do you want?” she asked, trying to feel unaware of such obvious an intention.

      Leon’s hand brushed her cheek and held her face up by the chin, his eyes gazing at hers as he breathed manly before he gave his answer, “I think you know.”