Chapter Three
|Officer|

Elizabeth climbed on the bus. She walked over to an old lady, smiling at her as she decided to take the seat. Before she could've sat down, a folded piece of paper lying on the seat caught her attention. 

She picked it up. 

She unfolded it slowly, cautiously reading the note. She read it again, and again, until the words were drilled in her memory.

“I am coming for you, love.”

Elizabeth couldn’t think straight. Her life had become a toy to this killer. A nightmare she could never escape from. She felt an attack lingering around the corner, but she managed to keep it at bay.

In a state of deep fear, she scanned the bus with her eyes. Her eyes landed on a familiar figure, one that she had seen too many times. He was really famous for his work. 

Elizabeth went straight to him.

Detective Ricosta was startled by the sudden pull on his hand. He looked behind to see a young girl holding her wrist. He wondered how a little girl could have such a strong grip. 

"I need your help," she said while looking at him straight in the eye. Alex wondered how daring she was, to keep looking at him straight in the eye. He eyed her fingers, millimeters away from clawing through his skin. Realizing she had been holding his wrist, Elizabeth let it go. She pulled her hand back.

"And what might such a young girl needs help with, except for asking about the latest fashion of the clothes? If that is what you are here about, I am sorry but I can't help you," he said, trying to get rid of the girl. 

He was way too tired and agitated from the case he had been dealing with. He didn't have time for girls who sought people's attention. There were more than so many reasons to deny the girl.

He had his fair share of young girls trying to hit on him. He was tired of it and this beautiful girl with those curious blue eyes was no exception. 

The girl glared at Alex as he had just insulted her, indirectly calling her a slut. Alex scrutinized the girl for a second before sighing deeply.

"What do you want?" he asked, meeting the gaze of her pale blue eyes. The girl took a deep breath.

"I think someone is stalking me. I am getting these letters everywhere I go. First, I got this message on my floor written with blood and now on the seat where I was going to sit in. I’m just, scared. I- I don't know what to do!" she said breathlessly as she handed him the folded piece of paper she held so carefully in her hands. 

Elizabeth felt a sudden wave of suffocation. She placed her hand on her chest, talking slow breaths to calm down.

He took it from her and read it. It didn't surprise him. The girl standing in front of him was so beautiful that anyone could have decided to stalk her.

"You should inform about this to your parents," he said.

"My mother won't believe me..."

Detective Ricosta knew that he had touched the wrong string. He quickly changed the subject. 

"Well then, you could report a complaint. The cops might be able to help you. He might be a lover messing with you," he said.

"You don't understand. It isn't a man that’s behind this, it’s a woman. And she wants to kill me!" she yelled, suddenly getting all hyped up. Her palms started sweating, her breaths now laboured as she tried to stand her ground. She was having an attack. Again. 

Elizabeth bit her tongue. Her luck had always been rotten to the core.

Elizabeth felt her knees buckling. Her vision had begun to fail her, slowly starting to whirl all over the place. Sounds came to her in echoes, rippling through the atmosphere as if they had been shot through a cone. Elizabeth held onto a pole in an attempt to keep her composure. The girl tried to cover it up with a smile, taking care not to let the detective know. 

Her hand began to tremble. This was not going well. 

Elizabeth took a deep breath as casually as she could, trying to keep her fits of suffocation at bay. 

What brought it to an end, however, was the ignorance of the man in front of her. She felt as though he wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to her problem. Panic had given way to a fair amount of anger. He was no different than the rest. 

Alex thought that the girl had gone mad. He shook his head at her behavior. It was really unusual for someone sending her such notes, but what was more unusual was that the girl knew who it was and what the person wanted. That just couldn't have been possible. It could have been an attempt to grab his attention for all he knew.  

"I can't help you, I'm really sorry," he said as he turned around. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl cursing under her breath as she went to sit on her seat. 

Without getting noticed by anyone, he took out his cellphone and clicked a picture of the girl. As immoral as it may be, he could not ignore his intuition. He sent it to his partner, Detective Mary, to do a background check on her, just in case. He didn't believe the girl completely though. She had to be lying. 

It rained that day. Elizabeth didn’t have an umbrella, but it wasn’t like she cared anyway. She walked silently in the patter of rain drops, not even trying to keep herself warm. She wanted to feel the deadening cold bite at skin. She wanted to feel each and every ounce of the pain it offered. Such was the burden of one who’d been branded a liar.

She shoved the key into its hole, nearly breaking the lock in her anger. With a shallow click, Elizabeth unlocked the door to her old house, tears falling from her face. Her carpets had become a soggy mess as the girl stood there silently. She clenched her fists. Being helpless had become routine these days.

Elizabeth was scared. She tried to tell Detective Ricosta, but he shrugged her off as if she was lying. 

It hurt her. It wasn’t a surprise though.

No one ever believed her. She had always been the bad girl in people’s eyes. She was always neglected because of her anger issues. Teachers, classmates, sometimes even her friends. They’d all stay away from her using one reason or the other. By the time she changed herself, the visions began to kick in. 

It had become the seed of a whole new reason for people to avoid her. And thus she was branded a liar.

Elizabeth knew that telling her mother was not a good idea. She was only going to get blamed. 

There were times like these when she wished her father to be there for her. How good would it have felt if her father was still alive! Her mother would have loved her. Her father would've comforted her when she was in trouble. Fathers do that, don't they?

But life had a different plan for Elizabeth, it wanted to make her suffer. It didn't want her to be happy. Whenever she earned a little happiness, it was taken away from her. 

At that moment, Elizabeth realized that being happy was the worst feeling ever. 

Because happiness is something that can be snatched away from you in seconds...

Elizabeth went inside her room and locked the door. She laid on her bed, the day's events resurfacing in her mind. The note, Detective Alex's rejection, her upcoming death. It was all too much. She let out a muffled sob as she held cried into her soft pillow. She would have done anything to get out of there, to be normal. But there was nothing she could do. She was helpless. 

Elizabeth’s eyes were filled to the rim with tears, her psyche at the edge of a breakdown. 

It was then that her phone rang. She sat up on her bed. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, she picked up the phone to check who was calling her. 

It was an unknown number. Before Elizabeth could have picked the phone, the call ended. Her phone dinged, notifying her that a message was sent to her.

She opened the message. It was the same unknown number. It had an attachment with it. Her eyes widened as she read the words flashing on her screen. She threw her phone away from herself, horrified. 

It was a picture of her lying in her bed crying. The words “You look good, Love” were written on the picture. 

Elizabeth ran out of her room, flinging her phone onto the bed.

No matter how bad her mother was, Elizabeth needed her.

1506 words

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Question Time

Q.1 What do you think about Detective Alex Ricosta?

Q.2 What is happening to Elizabeth?

Q.3 Is Elizabeth going to die?

Q.4 Do you think Elizabeth misses her father?