Publish Or Perish

@creator_by_heart

ANECDOTES

~creator_by_heart

Detective Narayan knew his job well.

And he knew that it will all end today.

He was still writing his analysis on the case, a twisted one. Seven dead bodies found in the Balbory Street. All were slaughtered by a machete. Who killed them? A common question.

Mr. Narayan was the best available detective in Shimla.

He dropped onto his seat, frantically opened the desk and rushed out a diary. With an air of confidence, he turned the pages with his index fingers, he stopped at a page, squinted, and scrawled a footnote.

Something eerie, like a bad luck had been following Shimla since last two months.

From the last two months, unusual became a new normal for the town. A lightning fell on the farm. Casualties, farmer with his family, if you don't count the cattles. This was stashed under closed cases file.

The BB, as the people call it, - Burning Bungalow set ablaze accidentally by some misfit children goofing around (At least that's what the police could gather). No other public disclosure was posed.

Or take the deaths at Balbory Street, on which the Detective was assigned, seven deaths in one night.

And another newborn legend of an entity, lurking around - sorry - springing around. Some say, "It was a man," some say, "It was skeleton, a, a, spineless one. According to other locals, and the rumours, the entity is legless.

But were all these connected?

But Narayan, the Detective, was close to solving the case. And today was the day to end all of this.

Detective left the pen capless on the chair and the diary where it earlier belonged. His phone buzzed, a SMS it was.

Got him.

~R

He reached for the door.

* * *

"A truck, seriously?" Narayan asked with bafflement.

"Yes, the man we've been looking for this entire time blows his cover for a gigantic truck," Officer Rastogi replied, clutching the steering wheel. "That bastard's been running around the outskirts of the Shimla and we didn't know."

"It's all messed up," spoke Narayan, seemingly lost in thought.

"Tell me about it."

Narayan glanced over the dark running forest on loop outside in the window.

Rastogi felt annoyed talking to himself with Narayan adding only few words.

"How are you doing with sleep?" Rastogi asked as he turned on the headlights. It was really getting dark. "I mean how much you sleep at night?"

Narayan turned to him, "Speaking of the last two nights, I don't."

"At all?" Rastogi asked, with surprise. "Are you still scared of that freelance writer?"