The leaves scrunched beneath his leather boots as he walked through wet woods and adjusted his black surgical mask that threatened to slip down. He looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him and reached a abandoned house whose paint had been peeled off the walls and fell like big pale flakes of snow. He stood under the shed of the house and unlocked the door, looking around the deserted neighborhood and entered inside the house closing it behind him. He removed his mask inhaling deeply through his nose and pulled out his glasses from his pocket putting them on his blue eyes. He marched inside the kitchenette and grabbed the tin bin from the corner. He unzipped his jacket and reached for his inner pocket to retrieve a folder file. He opened it and pulled out the paper documents of birth certificate, school admission forums, legal documents of children record with photos attached at the right corner and custody papers from Rosalind Orphanage. The folder which dictated his life and death was in his own hands.
"You have almost got me David which you shouldn't have."
He muttered and lit the lighter holding it close to the documents and watch them burn before his eyes. He dumped the papers in the bin till they burnt to ashes and he stalked outside of the kitchen.He passed the closed rooms on the both sides of corridor and opened a door to the backyard of the house walking on the dried trampled grass and came to stop in the middle of the yard. He knelt on the ground and rotated the wheel to disengage the mechanism of lock and lifted the rustic iron lid which opened with a squeaking sound. The figure sitting in the corner lifted its head up, shielding eyes with back of hand from the bright light and he smirked in satisfaction speaking to that person.
"You're going to have a partner down here."
-
Annie sat in front row in a mourning dress beside Sam and her mother who flew overnight from Italy the soon she received news of her son's death. There were distant sounds of sirens; police cars, ambulance, flashes of cameras and then too much color of blood that painted her memory. She didn't remember shouting at the paramedics who put David's body on the stretcher carrying him inside the ambulance. Neither she remembered passing out at the place of accident after receiving a trauma to her mind and waking up in a hospital room asking nurses for her brother. Sam hadn't left her side since the accident and held her hand speaking soothing words to her deaf ears that she couldn't comprehend. She faintly remembered the sobs and cries of her mother but she's too enclosed in her own mind to register for whom and why she had been crying only to realize later that it's for David.
She didn't get why they were crying for David.
'He is no more.'
The official statement from the doctors declared 28 years old David, respected detective in the police department dead. He died in a road accident and his immediate death happened on the spot at the impact because of head injury. But she knew that it couldn't have been a mere accident.
'You would do fine.'
Why did he say it unless he was implying something? David died half an hour after her meeting with that person whom she shouldn't have met. She had managed to clean herself and dressed herself in black mourning short collar gown for the funeral. She looked herself in the mirror and a shell of girl stared back at her in her reflection. It's because of her that her brother had died.
'I can't reach Rohan.'
Sam had told her and she didn't make a reply but nodded in silence. He simply wasn't there when she had needed him most. Sam drove Annie and her mother to the graveyard where the burial ceremony was to be held. David had been placed in a dark blue lead casket dressed in a black formal suit, wearing a silk grey tie and holding a white rose on his breast. He was supposed to wear this suit at her graduation ceremony next week. Close relatives and friends came to attend his funeral; the entire department was present in their uniform to pay him respect as a police officer. Even her mother's to- be husband had managed to take a flight from Italy to support them in their time of grief.
But Rohan didn't come and she didn't ask for him again.
The Minister started the funeral ceremony reciting verses from bible to bless his soul and they silently joined in the prayer.
'The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.'
Her mother had been crying throughout the prayers but she sat still without shedding any tear at the loss of her brother. Sam noticed her distant look on her face and left his to make an immediate phone call to Rohan but he returned with a solemn, tight- lipped grimacing face and sat next to her.
'Rohan is not answering his phone.'
He wasn't there when she needed him.
Sam slipped his hand in hers giving it a gentle squeeze and she pressed back unconsciously as if her hand had a mind of its own seeking refuge in his warmth of palm. Her mother made a funeral speech about David's childhood memories and how he's a naughty child to deal with. Her voice broke between the sentences that he's young to die but he's found place in the heaven with God and they should make peace with his death. David's Captain and his entire department praised him for his devotion and sense of responsibility towards the department. He's an honest officer, devoted to his work and a good friend who will always be remembered in their hearts and no one could refill his place in the department. But his death hadn't been of proud to her. He didn't die performing his duty but in an accident which was too shallow and shameful for her unless it's a murder. She checked her phone again staring at the screen as if any second Rohan would call her back but her hope remained a hopeless hope of her and he never called. Sam made a brief formal speech and told a joke that how David had threatened him once for hitting on his sister. It made her mouth twitch in a sad smile being nostalgic upon remembering the times when he'd scare the boys away at the school and gym and the memories hit her with a disturbing nausea of the present reality which she forced back into her unconscious. Sam finished with his speech and it's her turn. She stood up walking towards the podium to offer her brother a final goodbye. Her eyes continuously searched around for Rohan hoping he might have come to support her at that hour of need.
'He didn't come'
"He was my first friend." She spoke, "My best friend and partner in crime whenever we both had to sneak out of the house past our bed time. He had been my strength for years; my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, my guardian and my teacher. He was everything all I could ever ask for. His death came as a shock to us but it's his time. All we can do is to hold onto his dear memories and remember that he's out there watching us."
Annie paused collecting her thoughts and met Captain's eyes speaking after a pregnant silence, "And I believe his death isn't a mere accident." Her words stirred confusion among the guests and police department.
"He wasn't of those who could die in a mere accident but his death has deep link to the profile he had been recently working. And I believe that department would consider it as homicide and work on David's profile. His soul will only rest in heaven if we can complete the task he's left unfinished. May he be in peace!"
'Amen'
They placed roses on his casket and she put red rose on the coffin, promising herself at his body to find his murderer. The coffin was buried and guests started dispersing after offering their condolences to Annie. Sam had disappeared somewhere, maybe talking to Captain about David and left her alone at his grave for a private moment to herself.
David
1989-2017
Here lies a beloved son, brother and a friend.
But not a husband and father. His first priority was his baby sister and his duty towards police department. He never put his personal life before them.
A stray tear escaped her eye and she broke down into tears, crying for the first time since his death. She was the one who had killed her brother. He would've been alive if she had listened to Sam. She took her time in mourning and dried her tears when out of periphery she noticed him standing among the trees at the outer side of the cemetery. He's in black suit, same as her brother but holding a red rose in his right hand.
'You would do fine.'
His words churned her stomach and bile rose to her mouth in a morbid fear. He smiled at her when he caught her panicked gaze and retreated back from there into the trees. A beat skipped by and without realizing, she was running after him and entered the woods where she had seen him standing a minute ago.
"Stop!"
She shouted out for him running through the narrow path between the tall trees to catch up with him. He must have had a reason to show up at the funeral dressed exactly like David. He wanted to make himself noticed to her. He wanted her to chase him and come after him like he had done before.
'It could be a bait for you.'
She heard Sam's voice in her memory and a rational part of her screamed for her to go back and find Sam. But her wounded part, that had witnessed her brother's death and burial urged her to catch that man. She lowered down the slope and barely caught herself from falling. She halted in her tracks when she lost sight of him and frantically look around for him before she identified him walking behind the trees. She skidded down the steep and shouted out for him again.
"I said stop!"
He stopped in his tracks and she stood behind him panting out of breath.
"What are you doing here?"
She questioned hissing through her gritted teeth. He turned to face her and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and chuckled at her startled form.
"I came here to offer you my condolences for your deep loss." He took a step forward and she instinctively stepped back in fear making him to stop his advancing steps towards her and he smirked at her in an odd manner. It unnerved something inside her and she couldn't name it anything except fear.
"You didn't come here to offer your condolences." She stated shaking her head in denial and balled her hands at her sides which were trembling in her attempt to control her rage towards the person standing before her.
"No, I didn't." He admitted walking towards her.
"Why did you come here then?" She's back treading to put a safe distance between herself and him as he slowly moved closer to her.
"I thought I had made myself obvious." He dropped the rose on the dusty path and trampled it beneath his shoe. She stared at his wide eyed as e looked up at her with his dark eyes, a sly grin plastered on his perfect mouth.
"What did you do?" She screamed at the top of her lungs in rage and charged herself at him grabbing him by lapels of his coat. He closed his hands around her fists and pulled her closer smirking down at her. His face was suddenly too close to hers merely an inch away from her face which made for her hard to breathe in a growing terror of what had actually happened.
"I didn't do anything you can't figure it out." He turned her around locking his arm around her throat and choked her by applying pressure on her windpipe.
"What..."
She coughed, trying to claw at his arm which asphyxiated her. She lifted her elbow to hit him square on the nose but he dodged the blow and locked his arm around the crook of her elbow. A loud snapping sound of bone echoed the in the air and she screamed in the excruciating pain which shot up her shoulder. He tightened his grip on her which shortened her breath and hooked his legs around knees sending them both on the ground with him on the top of her back to make her stop struggling against him.
"I wanted you to feel the pain of deep loss like me." He growled in her ear putting his legs on either side of her hips to keep her grounded.
"You and your brother had a nasty habit of following me."
He held her thrashing form in place and reached for his pocket to pull out an injection and shot the needle in her neck to render her unconscious. It took few seconds for the anesthesia to work on her till she went limp in his arms. He slackened his arm around her throat and checked on her breath before getting off her back. He threw her up on his shoulder like a rag doll and walked towards the car. He tied her hands behind her back and legs together. He dumped her inside the trunk slamming it close and started the engine of car driving towards the old mansion. The deserted neighborhood of the street and fading evening gave him less trouble of carrying her inside the house and taking her to the backyard. He set her down on the ground, checking her pulse and opened the lid, flashing the torch inside the dark room at the person.
"You're awake." He laughed looking down at the person and supported the weight of the girl to wind rope around her waist. He couldn't risk throwing her down the height of 15 feet without breaking her spine or cracking her skull which he least wanted. He needed to keep her alive for the thing he had planned for them.
"I have got you a company to keep."
He threw Annie down, uncurling her body like a thread roll and her body landed on the ground with a loud thud. The figure squinted at the girl before scrambling on its knees and rushing towards the girl to gather her up in its arms.
"Annie!"
He smiled down at them both and pulled out the rope.
"You had better keep her alive." The person spoke before tossing the torch light inside and closed the lid.
"Annie?" He patted her cheek and checked her if she's breathing. He untied her hands and legs, and picked her up carefully carrying her to the futon in the corner. He settled down and snuggled her body closer to his chest.
"I am sorry."