Song of the chapter is
Supernatural by Deep Vally

-32-
-Veronica D'Rosario-
-Present-

____________

Delmore Police Station
24 November, 2030
8:34 pm

In his embrace the world stopped still on its axis. There was no time, no wind, no rain. My mind was at peace. Pure. Unselfish. Undemanding. Free. That was what that hug felt like. I felt his body press in, soft and warm.

In his embrace I felt my worries loose, their keen sting and my optimism raise its head from the dirt. Perhaps the hope had been there all along, but without some love it was trapped, like crystals in a stone.

For the first time in forever, I was glad and I felt safe.

And even if the world was to burn to the ground at that very moment, I'd die a happy woman.

Seconds later, he moved back, his warmth hesitantly leaving my cold embrace and looked at me. There was panic but also a shred of relief in his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

I blinked, nodding softly.

"Where's Zoya?"

"She went to grab some coffee." I answered. "How did you know we'd be here?"

"Officer Ravi informed me about what happened at the church." He responded, his hand still on my arm. I didn't want to bring attention to it, for that will result in him taking it off. And I couldn't help, but want that moment to last a little longer.

"How'd you find the body?"

I explained what had happened at the church and the state that we had found the girl in. His eyes furrowed, disturbed as I told him about the horrible thing that the monster had done to that poor girl.

He sighed as I finished. "This is getting out of hand."

"I just don't understand.....why would someone do this? Even if they wanted to kill her, why....do it in such a brutal way?" I asked, tensed. "What did that poor girl do to deserve such a death?"

"We'll have to find that soon enough." He said. I nodded.

"Come on, let's get Zoya and get out of here." He said, squeezing my arm slightly. I suppressed a shiver as I nodded again, before calling Zoya. After three rings, she picked up.

"Zoya, where are you?"

"Right here." The voice came from behind me and I looked back to find Zoya holding up her phone to her ear. I disconnected the call and asked, "Did you get some coffee for yourself?"

"Yeah...it was shit." She answered and looked at Himanshu, who stood beside me. "When did you get here?"

"Just right now. Officer Ravi asked me to pick you guys up." He answered. "How are you holding up?"

"Well," she began, "considering, I just found the fully gutted body of a woman hanging from a church, I'd say I'm doing pretty well!"

A thin lipped smile graced his features as he rubbed her back.

"Although I might need alcohol very soon." She then added.

I gave her a weak smile. "You don't have to be strong in front of us, Zoya. I saw you at the church. You looked pale as a ghost. It's okay to feel scared about this, you know."

"I know, V. And I am scared. Shitless. But if I show it, that sicko will just think he won. And I really don't wanna give him that pleasure." She answered, putting her arm around my neck.

I sighed.

"Come on, let's get you guys out of here. Then we can talk about it." Himanshu said, escorting us out the station.

"Have you contacted the others?" I asked him.

"No, didn't get the chance. I'll call Kartik on the way." He answered, looking at me.

"Don't bother, I already have." Zoya butted in her head between the both of us. "Kartik and Siya will meet us at Paper Lantern in fifteen minutes."

My brows rose up and down. "Okay, good. What about Saina?"

"I tried calling her but she didn't pick up." Zoya replied.

"Let me try once,...wait..." Himanshu said, dialling on his phone. Moments elapsed before he said, "She isn't picking up."

I exchanged a worried glance with him.

"Well, maybe she's busy with her husband." Zoya said and we both looked at her questioningly. "What? Kartik told me her husband apparantly arrived today at the house."

"Gautam?" Himanshu asked to which Zoya merely nodded.

"Didn't she say she didn't want him to come to Delmore?" I asked.

Zoya nodded. "Maybe he surprised her."

As we got inside his car, Zoya asked, "Himanshu, how did you convince your fiance to let you come?"

He paused between adjusting his seatbelt and I saw a small flicker in his eyelids. A shiver passed down me when his gaze slowly moved and stopped on mine.

"Uh.... well....we sort of had an argument."

"Obvi." Zoya chimed from behind. "Did you finally tell her to fuck off?"

I instinctively looked away as he proceeded to respond, ".... I'd rather not answer that."

I bit the inside of my cheeks and buckled my seat belt. "We should go. It's getting late."

I watched as his gaze flickered and looked me up and down before looking forward. Starting the engine, he moved the vehicle out of the parallel parking and drove off.

The rest of the drive was quiet, thankfully.

But we were met with a not-so-pleasant surprise when we got to the Paper Lantern. As we neared the parking lot of the diner, several flashing lights and vehicles came into view, along with the herd of people flocking at the gates.

"What the hell-" Zoya muttered, as she sat up in her seat.

"What's happening?" Himanshu asked to no one in particular.

I furrowed my brows as I watched the crowd of what seemed like reporters, caught sight of our vehicle and flocked around it, even as it was moving. Some banged on the windows, while some others kept muttering incomprehensible questions. The cameras kept going click and flash, click and flash, click and flash...

"What are these reporters doing here?" Himanshu asked, as he struggled to keep the car moving due to the crowd.

"Someone must've given them a tip off about us being here." I responded, blocking my sight with my hand to avoid the flickering flashes of the cameras.

"Should we go out?" Himanshu asked as he parked the car somehow.

"Well we have to. We can't sit here all night." Zoya replied, pulling on the door handle, before getting out.

"Zoya-"

Before I could say any further, Zoya was already on her way to the diner, the reporters flocking around her, clicking pictures as they followed her like aimless dogs.

Having no other choice, Himanshu and I got out of the car as well. Some of the reporters ran back towards us, after realising that Zoya wasn't going to give them any content. I stumbled slightly on my feet as I walked towards the diner, my head straight and my hand raised above my eye. Himanshu walked close to me, one of hands softly resting on my back, providing me some sort of a reassurance.

'Miss D'Rosario, is it true that there has been another murder in town?'

'Is it true that you were one of the witnesses, Ms. D'Rosario?'

'Ms. D'Rosario, what do you have to say about the murder spree that has started in Delmore?'

'Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence that the murders only started ever since you came to town for your reunion?'

'Ms. D'Rosario, can we have a statement about the recent murders?'

'Ms. D'Rosario!'

'Ms. D'Rosario!'

'Ms. D'Rosario!'

For several crucifying minutes, I was transported back in time. To when I was nine years old. After my life altering event in the small suburb of Kerela, I had spent days and months in the custody of the police, until they had been able to contact Jennifer and verify her as a distant relative. And for the first few weeks after the incident, reporters had been flocking the station everyday, just to get a statement from me, something that could add to the juicy gossip that they were already brewing in town. They needed me to slip up so that they could crucify me and nail me to the ground, declaring me a sociopath.

A sociopath at nine,
who killed her own mother.

What a great headline for town gossip.

One of those days, they had cornered me as I was walking to a nearby shop to buy a chocolate with a female constable. They had asked me questions, half of which nine year old me didn't understand at all. They had asked me whether the police was protecting me from going to juvenile detention. They had asked me if I had really killed my own mother. And that's when I had started to cry.

As a kid, wasn't everything that easy?

If you didn't like something, you could just openly cry. Out loud. No one would tell you to stop, to compose yourself, to be a fucking adult. You could just scream, howl, cry out loud without having any second thoughts in mind.

But then you grew up and everything changed.

You could no longer cry out loud and not have people tell you to fucking compose yourself or not create a scene. All those tears had thus, dried up and now, there was nothing left to let out.

Swallowing the bile rising in my throat, I simply kept walking, keeping my composure. I couldn't slip up. I couldn't be vulnerable in front of these people. Because then they'd judge my actions and make assumptions, and only I knew how cruel those assumptions could be.

'Ms. D'Rosario, are you hiding something from the police? Is that why they've still kept on the top of their suspect list?' One of the reporters asked while another mumbled, 'Despite being victims to the same crime, how can you let others be subjected to that, Ms. D'Rosario?'

I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep the tears forming in the back of my eye in their place. I guess Himanshu could sense my state as I felt his hand squeeze my shoulder slightly.

I looked back at him. He gave me a simple nod.

As we reached the entrance of the diner, I almost breathed a sigh of relief when I heard someone say from behind,

'Are you being targeted by someone, Veronica?'

My brows knitted in their place as I slowly moved my head to look back. All the reporters as well as Himanshu did the same.

A lone guy, stood at the very end of the line of the reporters, round glasses perched on top of the brim of his nose. He had a brown jacket on with khaki cargo pants and he looked around his early twenties.

It took me a few minutes before I realised that I was looking at a familiar face.

He gave a short sighted smile. I blinked.

"Zayn?"

_____________

new character, who dis?

do we suspect or do we love?
guess we'll find out soon!

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