FF Murder Mystery Ch 3: Pg 14 Jan 29 - Page 11

Chapter 3

As soon as she had gotten out of the crowded office, she had run. She wanted to run from those voices crowding her head, those voices causing tears to blur up her vision. But no matter how hard she ran, or how fast, they wouldn't leave her. She dropped to the floor when she felt her legs go numb in pain.

"Rubina get out, now!" the voice yelled. "Don't touch that, you piece of shit!" another voice yelled, crowding over the other. She felt a surge of pain run through her body. The memories, they were coming back, one after another, the second worse then the first. Each voice yelling at her, showing her how helpless she was.

Her sobs broke through the silent night. She held her head and cried her heart out. The voices, the memories, they made no sense to her, but she could feel them… and they hurt. A long time ago, she had vowed herself to never let anyone make her feel weak again, but today she felt weak. She didn't blame Preet for yelling at her, but the anger in his voice had reminded of her something, of someone. She didn't know who it was, but whoever it was made her feel powerless in front of them.

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I stared at the plushy of a cat hanging around her doorknob in amusement and tried squeezing it. An adorable "Meow" came out of the digital thing. I smiled and proceeded to knock on the door. I didn't hear anything from the inside, so I tried knocking again. Hearing nothing again, I felt tense, and knocked one last time. I was feeling worried know, what if she wasn't at home? She had left early from the party, she had to be home.

I looked at the plushy again, and noticed the zipper on the side of it. I took the plush in my hands and opened the zipper. Just as I suspected, there was an extra key in it. I put the key through the hole and tried opening the door. But to my surprise, it was already open. I slowly pushed open the door, looking around the dark room for a trace of Rinki. "Rinki…" I called out. She wasn't here… I ran my hands through my head, where could she have gone?

Stepping out of the apartment room, I closed the door and locked it for her. I had a weird feeling tugging at my heart, telling me that she was here. My feet were moving, but I could swear I didn't remember my brain telling them to move. I was climbing the stairs towards the terrace, half in-control of my body.

The terrace was damp, and looked worn out. I could see the shadow of a figure sitting down at a broken spot of the terrace holding on to one of the stone railings. I knew it was Rinki; it was the same long hair, whining in the moonlight. I took slow steps towards her, unsure of what to say. She turned her head; I guess she heard my footsteps. Her eyes locked with mine for a while, and I suddenly felt a pang of guilt. She turned her head away from me, to look back down at the city. I sat down next to her, holding the edge of the broken floor. This wasn't the safest place to sit, but for some reason, it felt like it was meant for us.

I looked at her solemn face "Hey…" my weak voice said. She didn't reply, but I knew she was listening. "…I'm sorry," I sighed.

"For what?" she asked, her voice was emotionless as she kept her gaze fixed on the city.

"…for yelling at you." I replied.

"You really think I would cry over that?" her voice broke out with a hint of parody. "Don't flatter yourself." She was able to make fun of me even when her mood was off, I thought frowning. But I didn't let her words anger me I knew there was still something bothering her.

"Then why do I feel your pain?" I asked, scooting closer to her. She turned her head to face me, tears welling up in her eyes. I felt another pang in my heart. "I want to know what's causing you so much pain," I whimpered.

I gazed into her eyes intently, seeing if I could read it in them. She let out a small sigh before breaking her gaze from me. I clenched my jaw, angry that she wouldn't tell me. But I didn't want to push her, so I got up from the spot. "Fine," I said wiping the dirt off my clothes. "You don't have to tell me." Looking at her one last time, I sighed and proceeded to leave with a heavy heart, but her cold hands held on to my wrist.

"Wait..." she cried out. I took hold of her small hand as she pulled me back to sit down. She looked at me, with unsure eyes. "I'm adopted." I wondered what that had to do with anything, but she continued. "When I was 5 years old, my foster parents found me lying on the street unconscious. I was pretty torn up." She was looking back at the street now; I think she was replaying the scene in her head.

"I don't know who I am; the 5 years before that incident are unknown to me." I squeezed her hand, sympathizing with her. "And I'm really scared, Preet… These voices, yelling at me, they keep coming in my head. I don't know why… I want them to go away." Her voice was starting to break again, she was about to cry. I took her in my arms, as she started to sob again. I tried soothing her by kissing her head, rubbing her back and whispering "It's okay" to her. I still felt guilty; I was the one that triggered those unknown, harsh memories. It really hurt me to see her cry like that.

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I felt refreshed the next morning, as if a burden had been lifted from my chest. Last night, I had left Rinki in her apartment after making her a chipotle, my style. I was glad she was smiling again, and could go home myself happily. There was a new understanding between us, which put a smile on my face.

I walked past out office towards the forensic laboratory. Dr. Keerti had beeped out team to give more information on the bodies. She had told us to be there at exactly 8 am, and it was only 7:50 right now. The automatic sliding doors opened as I walked into the lab. Rinki, Sukriti, and Shabd were already here. They were always early to all out meetings, so they could have some 'fun' before they would have to be serious. Rinki and Sukriti were arm-wrestling, with Shabd rooting for Rinki. This always happened, and I was supposed to be on Sukriti's side. I rushed to her side and started rooting for her.

Rinki was looking at me, with a thanking smile on her face. I nodded my head at her gesture before rooting for Sukriti again. "Go Sukhi! You can beat this Vixen any day," I said. She was smirking at me, as if challenging my words. Suddenly Sukriti yelped in pain, while Rinki slammed her hand on the table, winning the arm-wrestling match. I was confused. Rinki crossed her arms and lay back in her chair with a victory grin over her face, and Sukriti had pulled her chair back and was massaging her foot.

"You cheater!" Sukhi yelled.

"Everything's fair in love and war," Rinki replied while giving a high-five to Shabd.

Sukriti huffed and continued to rub her foot. Rinki must've stomped pretty hard on I thought while trying to keep myself from giggling.

Prem and Heer walked into the lab together, while smiling and talking to each other. They seemed pretty surprised to see us already here, or it was to see Sukriti rubbing her foot and Rinki giggling at her misery. "What did you do to her now, Rinki?" Heer asked her.

"What! Why would you think I would do something?" Rinki asked, pretending to feel offended. "But since you want to know so badly, I just beat her in arm-wrestling."

"Yea… and somehow the pain went to her foot, instead of her arm," Shabd added, shrugging, as if he really didn't know what happened.

"Sure…" Heer sarcastically said. There was a weird silence after that. Sukriti put her foot back in her shoe, while Rinki and Shabd exchanged mischievous looks. When I saw that they were distracted, I whispered into Sukhi's ear "We'll get them back." She nodded back at me with a grin. It was always like this, Sukhi and me versus Rinki and Shabd.

Dr. Keerti walked into the lab, with a dazed expression. "You're all early today." She was mocking us, I could tell. When she thought that she had our attention, she continued. "Sukriti, go get me the perfume bottle." Sukhi was Dr. Keerti's assistant, but she was like a part of our team.

"Yes ma'am," she replied walking into another room.

"Well, you guys were right about the poison, it was in the perfume bottle. They both died from the same poison. It's a rare poison though, whoever your killer is, has to be rich." She stopped talking as she heard Sukhi come in with the perfume bottle. "That's the bottle that had the poison in it. There were no fingerprints on it, only of the girl. The killer must've injected the poison before hand, and then simply placed it on her dresser, because the poison has been mixed in quite well."

She dismissed us with the information we had, which was just more detail of the case. This case was going to be hard.

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kimz