Song of the chapter is
Maybe by Joe Layne
-42-
-Himanshu Arora-
-Present-
___________
Malhotra Mansion
1 December, 2030
4:00 pm
As I stood in front of the once ominously entrancing Malhotra Mansion, a shaky breath left my lips.
The lack lusture of the place had a gluttoned vibe to itself. The white potted plants that were placed neatly near the doorstep were in stark contrast to the overall obsidian undertone of the place.
As I was busy noticing the nitty-gritty of the building, suddenly the door opened wide and she stepped out and paused.
In the warm glow of the winter sun, her skin flushed a shade of crimson. The golden hour had casted it's effervescent shadow upon her face as she had stepped out. Her hair was tied in a bun, a pair of black reading glasses perched atop the bridge of her nose. There was slight flour on her hair strands and face. An apron hung loose from her shoulder around her long full-sleeved flannel shirt.
And despite her tousled state, my heart still skipped several beats as my eyes met her.
Almost like I had never grown up.
We stood there for what felt like an eternity before she let out a cough, indicating the same, breaking us out of that trance. I ran my hands through my hair awkwardly as I struggled to speak words, coherent ones.
I hated that she had this effect on me.
"Uhm...." I opened my mouth. "I... didn't know....you wore glasses." To speak utter nonsense.
Small talk? Seriously?
She touched the hinge of her glasses consciously and gave me a tight lipped smile.
"Yeah, new habit, I guess."
I wondered what else was new with her? Had she changed in all of these years? Or was she the same the raven haired girl that I had lost my heart to in the fierce battle of love?
She felt familiar to me. But that could also easily be a big hoax that my mind had decided to play with me, making me believe in a fable.
After all, in all these years, if I had learnt one thing, it was that I was almost always wrong about things, when it came to her.
"Uhm..come in." She opened the door wide and moved aside.
As I stepped into the house, the air changed its pace. It was no longer cold and unwelcoming. Instead, the aroma of freshly baked food filled my senses to it's brim. I almost smiled in response.
"Is someone baking?"
"Himanshuuuuuuuu!!!! Come taste these!" Zoya shouted atop her voice from the kitchen.
"Zoya, those aren't done yet." Veronica yelled as she half ran-half walked her way to the kitchen. I followed suit a second later.
As I entered the kitchen, I was met with a pleasant scene. There were two batches of what seemed like cookie batter on two different trays on the island, while a third, freshly taken out of the oven, was now safely tucked in the hands of Ms. Zoya Afreen. There was flour everywhere my eyes could possibly go. Zoya's hands had a bunch as she excitedly chewed on one of the freshly taken out cookies. She then proceeded to extend the tray towards me.
"Take your pick."
With amusement in my face, I picked one of the chocolate chip ones that looked less deformed than the rest and took a bite.
To say I was tasting heaven would be an understatement indeed.
I closed my eyes, relinquishing every bit of the morsel that had just entered my mouth. As I opened them, I found Zoya flashing a big grin at me.
"How is it?" She asked excitedly.
"It tastes like heaven."
She flashed an even wider grin. "I knew it!"
I chuckled as I finished the last bit of my cookie. "Did you make these?"
"Ugh! I wish I was this talented. I would've probably made cookies for myself for every meal." She deadpanned, getting off the kitchen counter.
"That could give you diabetes." Saina commented from afar as she entered the kitchen.
"I'd happily die from eating these!" Zoya exclaimed dramatically, making the rest of us laugh.
"No, but seriously, who made these?"
She gave me a sheepish look before saying, "Who do you think?"
I narrowed my brow for a moment before I realised what she was hinting at. My eyes instantly travelled to her, as she stood at the end of the kitchen island, her gaze already on me.
I was at a loss for words.
"You made these?" I somehow asked.
She simply shrugged. "I learnt a thing or two while running my cafe."
"She gives herself so less credit." Zoya intervened in her defense and then turning to her, said, "Seriously, V, if I knew how to make little pieces of heaven like these, I would've never shut up about it."
"You never shut up anyway." Kartik commented, stealing one of the cookies from the tray. Zoya threw the apple next to her on the fruit basket at him as a response.
"Mmh! This taste so good." Kartik spoke, his words muffling as a result of the mouthful of food in his mouth. "Wow, Veronica!"
She simply smiled shyly. "Thanks."
It was at times like these that I wish I didn't have a heart.
Because it leapt at every minute thing, every little smile, every little look of hers.
"Come on, let's get the last two batches in the oven and we'll be done." She said as she fixed her apron and carried the two trays in her hands and put them in the oven.
"We should do this every week." Zoya suggested as she finished the last of her cookie.
"Yeah, so you can finish half the batches yourself." Kartik mocked. That earned him a smack from her on his arm.
"Okay kids, let's not fight now." Veronica said, chuckling softly. "Remember we also have to clean the kitchen or Siya would probably kill us all."
"Oh god, right." Kartik sighed. "She'll flip out if she sees the mess we've made."
"Where is she?" I asked.
"She's gone out for a run. She'll be back in a while." Kartik answered.
Before I could have a chance of responding back, the doorbell rang.
"Shit."
"Shit."
"Shit."
"I think that's Siya." Saina said slowly, eating one of the leftover cookies.
"Yeah no shit, Saina!" Zoya lamented. "Hurry and help me clean the counter."
"Oh so you make a mess and I'm the one who needs to clean up?" Saina asked, while simultaneously helping Zoya clean the counter.
"My wife's actually gonna murder me! Quick! Quick!" Kartik exclaimed dramatically as he dashed towards the front door to open it. The rest of us stayed back and tried to clean up as much as we could.
Seconds later, their faint voices made their way into the kitchen.
"Kartik move!"
"I told you babe. They're just cutting up some fruits." He responded as he desperately tried to shield her from discovering the disaster that was the kitchen.
"What's going on? Guys?" Siya dashed to the side, in an attempt to look at what Kartik was so desperately trying to hide. And as soon as she caught sight of the mess, her eyes widened.
Kartik slowly moved out of the way, his face a disarray like a kid who had just been caught stealing chocolates from the fridge.
The oven's ding was heard at that very moment, as a saving grace.
Moments later, Zoya flashed anothe wide grin.
"Fancy a cookie?"
_____________
Our laughter ricocheted and bounced off the tall cream walls of the mansion as we all sat in the living room, devouring the final bits of the last two batches of Veronica's cookies.
I guess food really was the answer to every problem in the world.
"Where did the idea even originate?" Siya asked chuckling as she took a bite out of one.
"Well, I saw how gloomy and sad everyone was in the house and I just couldn't take it. So I decided to ask V to bake us something, considering she's the professional one here." Zoya answered, dusting the remains of the cookie from the side of her mouth.
"I had no idea she was going to make this absolute marvelous thing. Otherwise I would've never shared it with the rest of you."
We laughed.
"No but seriously though, Veronica, the cookies were absolutely delicious! Thank you for the treat." Kartik exclaimed as he looked at her.
Giving him a tight lipped smile, she responded, "It's the least I can do for you guys."
As I stared at her, I found myself wondering. What had gone wrong in all these past years? Had I done something to deserve what I had gotten? Was it my fault somehow?
She seemed perfectly okay. Happy even. It felt like she was more lighter, more free than before. Like all of her past burdens had been washed away by just being with us.
Then why couldn't she have sought that with me and me alone?
That was all I had ever wanted. For her to be mine.
For us to belong together.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, I instantly loathed myself. How selfish was I to ever want something that was not mine to have?
And to destroy something that was already ready to be mine?
Our phones all rang at the same time, startling us, throwing me out of the trance. We exchanged glances as we all took out our phones together and checked the new notification.
There was one unread message.
From Unknown.
“Saints, Sinners and Sufferers, oh my! It's open season and I'm hunting! See you there ;) ”
With the text, an attachment stared at us from our screens. As I clicked on it, pictures of the annual St. Nicholas Day Parade that took place in Delmore every year came up. As I scrolled through them, Saina chimed up,
"What is this?"
"It's a parade that happens in the more catholic part of Delmore on 6th December every year." Veronica answered.
"You mean East Coast?" Zoya asked and she nodded.
"What does that have to do with us?" Siya asked to no one in particular.
"Nothing." I sighed. "It's just a way for him to.....kill more people."
There was a collective silence following that.
"Oh my god." She whispered and her eyes met mine for a second, worry evident in them. "There are gonna be kids in that parade."
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I held her gaze for a moment.
"Guys," Zoya began. "I think we should tell the police."
"And what would that do?" Kartik asked.
"Look, I know what you guys are thinking okay?" Zoya began. "But let's face it, we're not capable of handling a crowd and certainly not capable of stopping this bastard from doing whatever he's about to do. He's gonna do a lot of damage if we don't stop him. Like V said, there are gonna be kids in this place. We can't just let him terrorise them."
"So you suggest we go to the police and say what exactly?" Saina asked. "That we're being threatened by some anonymous doucebag. They probably won't even consider this a threat."
"I disagree." I spoke. "With the amount of lives that have been lost in the past month, I highly doubt they'll take anything frivolously."
"Yeah, exactly." Zoya agreed. "Plus, we don't have to tell everyone. We can just tell Officer Ravi and maybe he'll be able to help."
"Yeah." I nodded and looked at the others. "Guys, we don't have much time left. The parade's in a week. We need to figure something out before that."
A solid moment later, Kartik said, "Something tells me he's doing this on purpose. Why would he just tell us where he's gonna strike next?"
"He likes games, Kartik. That's his thrill." Veronica answered and a silent agreement was shared.
Somehow we always seemed to find our way into his sick game.
"Fine. Let's go to Officer Ravi." Siya nodded, drawing in a shaky breath. "Maybe he'll be able to help."
"Good. Let me go take the car out of the driveway." I said and fished for my car keys in my pocket and walked towards the front door when suddenly, the bell rang again.
I looked back at the others before opening it.
In the front porch, stood Officer Ravi and a few of his subordinates whom I recognised from my previous visits to the station.
"Officer Ravi, it's nice to see you here." I spelled out my surprise. "We were just coming to meet you."
Zoya ran to my side to greet him as well. "What are you doing here?"
Officer Ravi stayed silent. His eyes had a look of guilt in them. As if whatever he was here for, it was with thorough unwillingness.
"What's going on?" I asked, confused.
He looked at me once before looking over my shoulder. I followed his line of sight and found him looking at her.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid... I'm gonna have to ask Ms. Rosario to come down to the station with us." He spoke.
For a moment, I was dumbfounded.
"What? Why?" Zoya spelled out my concern.
"I'm afraid I can't discuss that, Ms.Afreen." He exchanged a glance with Zoya before pulling out a proper warrant.
"Detective Gomez has issued a warrant against Ms. D'Rosaio in the case of the recent Delmore murders."
"What?"
"Wait, Detective Gomez?" Saina asked. "Where did he come from?"
"He's incharge of the case now." Zoya responded in a low almost dejected voice without deigning her a look.
"Why did he issue a warrant against Veronica?" I asked.
Officer Ravi looked at me for a solid moment before answering, "Detective Gomez has some irrefutable evidence which might be connecting Ms. D'Rosario to the recent murders."
My eyes widened.
"What nonsense!" Kartik exclaimed from behind.
"Ravi, I'm sure you're mistaken. How is that even possible?" Zoya asked.
"I'm afraid I can't reveal anything else. If you have anymore questions, you can come down to the station." Officer Ravi responded back. "Right now I just need Ms. D'Rosaio to come with me."
We all exchanged glances and looked back at her. As she stood at the very end of the living room, a similiar sort of solemn sadness washed over her features. She looked more disappointed, than scared.
And as her next words spilled out of her mouth, I questioned myself just one thing ; What was going on inside her head?
"I'll go."
Slowly and gracefully, she walked out the front door, past me and towards Officer Ravi. As they escorted her to the cop car, something in me snapped. I ran after her.
"Don't go!" I called from behind and for a small moment, she looked back at me with her melancholic eyes.
"It's gonna be okay, Moose."
She was the one getting inside a cop car and I was the one who needed that assurance?
Turning her back towards me, she slowly got inside the cop car and a moment later, they drove off into the drowning horizon. As I watched the car disappear from my vision, the only thing that came to my mind was her.
And in that moment, I promised myself that even if the heavens were to fall and the ground was to break apart, there would be no lengths I wouldn't go, no heights I wouldn't reach, to save her.
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man! someone get me
a love like these two!
like damn! at times, i look at himanshu and i realise that holy shit, i wrote him! kaha se aata hai itna talent?
lol just kidding ;)
anyways, stay tuned for the
next chapter as some really
big truth bombs are gonna drop!
and don't forget to vote and comment and share the book!
love,
Bosedisha