Annie's P.O.V

The sleek car, adorned by drops of water and the crescent touch of the peering light through the dark clouds, howled against the gusting wind. The window rolled down and those black curls of jet hair flew across his forehead. I advanced towards the window and leaned forward as he opened his mouth to say something amidst the roaring blow. As soon as his pair of eyes caught me, he acted like a reticent and simply spoke, piercing his deep vision through mine. "Stay safe, Annie. Meet you soon."

Soon, he kicked the accelerator with his left foot and the car sped off and I glanced at it for one more time before shutting the door behind me. The day was more than tiring as it had already been; rather it was a spine chilling tale worth to be inscribed within the walls of my brain.

I pushed my indolent body forward while strolling past the kitchen and taking the stairs for the wild and frantic call from my slumbering bed. Foremost, I craved for nothing but a quick nap to drain out the the exertion of the day.

The last few steps seemed like another mile to traverse as my eyes started to dose off from the daunted desperation to dip the bed by two and a half inches. The fact, that I wasn't engulfed with a lethal pain through my back or legs after that unnerving leap from the window with a well built man, was pretty surreal yet it gave birth to a self-pleasure and merth.

All of a sudden, I felt a foreign breeze captivate the room as the doors flung opened far and wide as mom crossed the doorstep with water dripping off her braided bun that failed to grasp her thick strands of hairs. She was completely drenched and her attire manifested it. On locking the door, she asked me with a nasal voice "Have they gone?"

"Yeah. You are early today, aren't you?"

"The library is recruiting new librarians." She said, rubbing her nose and revealing her intricately braided coiffure. Her brunette strands looked satined as she shook her head vigorously." So I'm assigned to a new shift. Glad that the management has thought about it. It was indeed difficult for me to work at all shifts." She opened the fridge and tugged out a box of fruit salad and turned towards me to find me yawning with my cheekbones stretched at its greatest extent."Go and get some rest, if needed."

I made an effort to blink my eyes frequently to get a clear purview of my vision. Mom had always looked gorgeous in every outfit she could count on. Her hair was not exactly brunette or blonde but it was somewhat an intermediate texture between them. I had inherited quite a few number of traits from her but her beauty was ineffable in nature unlike mine. Moreover, I was never in match with her selflessness and endurance. At times, I felt immensely grateful for dad had asked my mom's hand in marriage fifteen years back. Though I had never been a witness to a moment where they reciprocated an intimate attraction towards each other, I knew their love for each other was irrevocable and irresistible.

But reality had always been a slayer of those moments and I could do nothing but turn the pain sustainable with advancement of time.

"How's Edwin? I hope the pain didn't worsen?" Mom asked me, dragging my mind to the present as I was about to terminating the last step.

"Much better, I hope. SA--" I was just a letter away to dismantle everything within a nick of time. She gave me a quirky look as those words escaped."I think I might need a good sleep. Today was indeed tiresome."

Switching on my agility mode, I took few steps forward and finally it was the prussian blue realm that blinded my vision. None but it was the tiny bed, that longed for my presence, attracted me and I willingly answered its call by lending my worn out body to the mushy matress of my slumber.

It felt like I was entrapped in the abbys of hell as I could feel perspiration searing my templates. It was too dark for infinity and too painful for death. It wasn't just hard to see but it was impossible to breathe and claustrophobia squashed my heart and grinded my lungs. Trying to thomp my feet against the wall, my right hand got stuck to a pointed and narrow object. An insufferable pain crawled from each and every corner of my tightened body and made my chest heavy with every second. Inspite of that, there was not a single drop of blood but it felt like someone was peeling off my skin with a razor, trying to slowly doze me to death.

Gritting my teeth against each other, I shouted at the top of my lungs but there was no one to respond to it; it was just the menacing dark's endgame pouncing upon me and jeopardizing me with the pain that had almost crumpled me; the jaws of death was approaching me with its sinister plan.

"Annie?"

The deep and longing voice couldn't be denied. I knew who it was, so resisting the poison that spread throughout my body, a slight curve crept through my lips.

"Ed-win."

"I'm here. I know who has done this to you." He whispered with his breath hitting my ear. But he was abstract, I couldn't touch him. Groping with my hands laid out, it were always the stony walls that came to my reach.

"Who is it?" My palm started to bleed this time.

"The murderer."The voice began to fade further away. "But I'll save you." It was the last thing he said until that very moment.

Edwin growled loudly as I heard a gun shot. The bullet, after penetrating his chest rolled down the stony floor and then it stopped after sometime.

"No!" My breathing intervals shortened. "You can't do this."

Quiet and steady footsteps progressed towards me in the dark. I shrieked with hot tears flowing down my cheeks. The footsteps gradually became very distinct with each drop of blood on the floor from my palm.

Before I could blink for the last time, the trigger was pulled and then it all went black once again.

"No!" I quaked, leaping out of my sleep. Visualising my surrounding, I realised that it was nothing but a nightmare. My worn out body was now accompanied by a clammy and sore forehead. The fringes of the bedsheet was tattered as it was under the strong grip of my fist. Glancing at the clock, I was ascertain that I had slept for more than four hours. The lampost was the only source of light that lit the window pane as the moon was bethroned by the mobile clouds. This was too true to be a nightmare.

As soon as my feet touched the icy floor, I shuddered a bit whilst withdrawing it by few inches from the ground. The evening downpour stood as the sole reason for this. The slender and long hand of the clock was just a few millimetres away from hitting the midnight frame.

Walking towards the north east corner of my room, I pulled out the red and blue strapped bag from underneath the table. The absence of the laptop had made it extremely lightweight as it was now under an expertise prudence of Julie. Since she was almost conversant with our Summer quest, I didn't approve of my denial when she asked for it in order to crack the password and look for some crucial data regarding Margaret Aurez. Being exceptionally a prodigy in computing, she was irreplaceable when it was the time for her to showcase her prowess.

Having slipped into an abbys pool of thoughts, I wondered if Edwin was still wide awake in front of the computer with his plastered foot, resting on a chair. Or maybe if he was trying to sharpen his graphology skills with a hawk eye or he might be just drowned in a deep sleep, with his burried secrets. Two weeks weren't just enough to predict a person's secrets or scooping out the miseries of life but it was surely enough for etching a place in one's mind as an acquaintance.

A sudden tune helped me to detach myself from those thoughts. I put my glasses on and expressed an ardent denial to answer the call until the name flashed across the screen.

"Yeah"

"Sorry Ann. Were you asleep?" Julie's voice sounded like a victorious commander in chief of the army. Little did she know, I woke up from my slumber just a while ago.

"No.What's the matter?"

"I am finally able to make my ethical hacking come into force." She reported with a serious tone. " Found a series of documents that were enlisted in a drive that were tripple password protected."

I sat down on the bed, hunching my shoulders.

"Okay. So what's the content of the documents?" I asked with excitement.

"No idea. Have been repeatedly trying to get access to it buy maybe the contents have been already deleted. Inspite of that.." She spoke with coherence.

"Inspite of what?"

No reply.

"Julie what is it?" I almost snarled at her and regretted it immediately.

"Oh! I was caught up with this. I'm just trying to figure out the reason behind the contradiction over here." That she was still wide awake with the her eyes glued to the screen, was definite from her words."Someone won't preserve a document with zero content, that too by giving it an ultra protection of twelve characters each."

I eyed at the ground sceptically, trying to summarise her words.

"Then--" I was interrupted by Julie from the other end."A combination of random letters and numbers have been used to name each file. And interestingly, I have tried out ways to decipher the encrypted code but it isn't even encrypted."

"It's already decrypted?" I asked with hesitation. I really had to think twice before pronouncing a computing term in front of her.

"Might be but most probably it's the original version. It hasn't undergone any encryption or decryption process." She reported. "The way each file has been named sequentially, looks very similar to the way medicines of same type gets named in a medical shop."

I squinted my vision to restrict it to my bitten nails.

"Like a batch number?"

"Exactly. Like for the first one, it's A-MJ/ITZ/128/90." She paused after each and every letter.

"Cool!Send a photo of it as soon as possible."

"Yeah, night." As soon as the call went dead at her end, a message from Julie popped in.

It had a series of atleast twenty of those combinations. And interestingly, on descending, the right most number would increase by one, wherein the left most letter would proceed further in the alphabetical order. Inspite of giving a detailed description of this, Julie either overlooked a significant detail or it was intentionally not spoken. At the left most corner of the photo, an extremely tiny resemblance of Multi Creations' Enterprise in italics was etched.

Turning off the phone, I peeped through the window to get drenched by the faraway light of the lamp post. Maybe, I was still a hundred miles away from the goal but there might be a possibility where I had to excavate through some specific episodes of the time when dad was alive and was the CEO of his creation.

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I woke up to the monotonous sweltering heat that almost cracked the glass. Rolling down my eyes, the wall clock was the first object that caught my attention. It was eight in the morning. I could already sense hunger rummaging my stomach for last night it was the sleep that bethroned the dinner.

Wearing the pair of spectacle, I ran down the stairs to find mom preparing breakfast. A cheesy aroma of fried egg roamed about the entire dinning space. "Morning" I chirped, pouring water to the glass.

"Morning, dear. You are ten minutes early today." She tried to taunt me by curling up her lips and lifting an eyebrow.

"C'mom! That's too trivial." I cried, giving a haughty laugh.

The aroma turned out be more fragrant when two plates of omelette, adorned by irresistible cheese were placed on the table. Soon, both of us were digging into our respective breakfast.

"Do you have any plan for the morning?" Mom asked, after gulping a chunk.

"Um.. not certain but I was wondering if I can just give a quick visit to Edwin perhaps." I wasn't chewing the food now; simply glanced at mom for her expression.

She remained quiet for a moment with her fork, grasping a slice of the tattered food."Sure, why not? He is a nice boy with so much respect and manners." Grinding the omelette with her canines, she stated," And moreover, you definitely have to make sure if he is well."

Though the words were accurate, I felt a bit uneasy with my smouldering cheeks. "Yeah right." I gave her a slight smile.

After having finished breakfast, I headed for the door. The glaring rays had totally blinded my vision. And to me,vacation was absolutely tarnished by this weather. Speaking about the reasons behind visiting Edwin were three instead of one. First, it was surely to get acquainted with his health condition. Secondly, it was the nightmare. Though I wasn't superstitious in any way, it almost made me faint in my sleep. And finally, I had to inform and we had to analyze the crucial hacked information, lended by Julie's hardwork.

Thinking of Julie, I was still under the paws of fear for her life. It had been exactly nineteen hours since she made her appearance in our case, having known a brief history of the each homicide.

It was Saturday and the main street was thronged with plying vehicles, hurrying pedestrians and elderly people just ambling across the street to either taking a fork from the heart of the street or simply reading the circulated daily by leaning towards the wall. Even,a few school goers while chatting among themselves cycled on the lane. That it was one of the weekend days, was evident from this portrait.

After another fifteen minutes walk, I was at the doorstep of a house, painted in a lighter shade of maroon. At first, I hesitated to ring the bell for no apparent reason. Betraying my stupidity and inhaling a quantum amount of air, I pressed the bell and immediately a sonorous beep echoed through the entire house. Within a few moments, a young girl with blonde hair, that was laid back to get parted towards her shoulders and deep brown eyes, just like Edwin examined me thoroughly. Her nose looked slightly flattened towards the end. But the grey t-shirt and shorts, that wrapped her slim figure, looked exotic.

"Yes, how may I help you?" Her voice cracked a bit, so it was difficult to rectify her tonal quality.

"Oh! I'm Edwin's friend. Am I allowed to meet him?"

She scanned me for the third time.

"Sure but may I know your name at foremost ?" She asked with the same voice.

"Annie. Annie Grayson."

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Long chapter, huh?

Well, this is the last time I update until we meet on 31st August again. My pre test is just a call away😧😧

The batch number that I have used in this chapter has no resemblance with a real one. It's absolutely imaginary😄

If you like the chapter, don't forget to leave a like and comment.

Any thoughts??