The Picture Frame

Part 3

Days and weeks passed, Peter never talked to me anymore. If he had some reports to pass to me, he let his assistant do. There came a time that we were in the same elevator but it seemed that we were both strangers as if we didn't know each other and what's alarming was, as if we were not best of friends. I tried to talk to him but he just ignored me.

"Pete, hey! What's wrong with you bro? you never replied to my text, you never answered my call and you never talked to me. What's the matter with you?"

He didn't answer or even look at me. He went out of the elevator and glanced at me while the door was about to close.

"There's nothing wrong me, ask yourself"

The same night, Tasha and I were scheduled on a dinner date at Silver Crest Café, exactly 7:00 PM I arrived in the café. I texted and called Tasha but no response came from her. 7:30 PM, I called Peter to ask if Tasha had already left their house, but no response as well. The moment the clock hit at 8:00 PM, I hurriedly went out of the SCC and decided to go to Tasha's house. While I was driving, I was still contacting her, still no sign of Tasha's presence.

Nearly 8:45 PM I reached her house. I pushed the doorbell and tried to call for Tasha's name and even Peter's. No single words were heard coming from the house; it's very intriguing that no one, even the maids, were there to open the gate for me. I opened the gate, and I was not sure if the door was left intentionally open or someone had gone away and he/she forgot to lock it.

"Tasha... Hello..Peter... Is anybody home?"

Kring...Kring...Kring..

Since no one was there to answer the phone, I picked up the phone.

"Hello, Ma'am Tasha, Hello Ma'am, this is Karina, I just wanna say that my family was so happy to see me. Thank you for giving us a break."

"Hello Karina, Nico here, I was waiting for Tasha but she didn't go to where we supposed to meet"

"Ahh Sir Nico, before I left the house, I heard that Ma'am Tasha and Sir Peter were having an argument, I wasn't sure what it is all about"

"KaaBlaaagg!!"

A loud noise was heard at the 2nd floor. It was just like a broken glass or something, so I hanged up the phone and ran upstairs to check the noise. I saw Tasha's room and its door was open. My heart was pumping so fast. My sweat spilled all over my face and my neck. When I entered the room, my world trembled in fear.

"Noooo! Tasha... What happened to you? Who did this to you? Babe, babe look at me, just look at me....No please No! Oh God!"

I ran immediately on the floor where Tasha was lying and beside her was a broken lampshade. She was still alive at that moment but she was covered by blood. When she saw me she was crying and as if she wanted to say something but she couldn't.

"Ni...co... I was .. so.. happy, and... blessed... to have you, Baaa..be... th..there.." She said while she was fighting for her life, she was pointing out something behind me.

I looked back and I saw a bloody gun beside a wrecked picture frame of Tasha and Peter. I didn't know why I didn't notice that the gun filled with blood was already in my shaky hands. I didn't know what to do, my hands now were stained by blood too, I threw the gun away and got closer again to Tasha. I lifted her up and leaned on my lap.

"Babe, just hold on, you'll be okay I know help will come... help! Help! Please help us!"

Then suddenly loud and hard footsteps were heard going upstairs toward us.

"Hold on! Raise your both hands and surrender yourself"

A troop of police invaded the house and I didn't really get it why they were pointing their guns to me and telling me to surrender.

"Please help her, let's bring her to the hospital, hurry up, let's help her"

"We will bring her to the hospital, men, arrest him, move!"

They took away Tasha from me, and I was just crying in pain, so many tears I shed. They also took me away. They put handcuffs around my hands. I couldn't object and complain. I was so drained and frail. All I knew was I was kinda high in ecstasy; I heard voices in deeply unusual way. My eyes were blurry in tears I couldn't see. My body was so numb, I couldn't feel the pain, emotionally and physically.