Error

Chapter 1

With a glass of neat whiskey in my hand, I was standing in my balcony staring aimlessly at the lonely pavement in front of my two-storeyed house. The eerie silence on a moonless night was calming my mind after a hectic day at work. My humble abode was situated at the dead end of my lane. The pavement in front of my house was faintly lit with the halogen streetlight.

I was extremely frustrated since the previous week. The profession of a detective is challenging and adventurous but it becomes equally frustrating when one has strange cases in kitty, just like I had at that moment. I was the most sought-after detective of Delhi at that moment but that case had blown up the minds of me and my team.

It had been a week, Ansh Awasthy went missing and I along with the whole police department was clueless. We had immense pressure on us, after all, Ansh Awasthy was the youngest son of Mr. Randhir Awasthy, the owner of Awasthy Enterprises, a leading textile giant.

With immense political pressure on us, we were trying our best to find Ansh, a twenty five year old spoilt brat but we were at the dead end. While investigating the case, we had enquired all of his friends and ex-girlfriends but we could not find anything about his whereabouts.

I had personally searched all the bars that wasted boy usually went but I was puzzled not to find a single clue. He had not visited any club, on the day he went missing. In the name of facts, I just knew the things his father had told to the police.

“Ansh went for a walk on a Thursday evening never to come back”

I remembered the exact words of his mother, Mrs. Meera Awasthy who was genuinely lamenting all the while. Randhir Awasthy was also equally worried for the well-being of his son.

Ansh’s elder brother Atharv, the COO of Awasthy Enterprises had informed that Ansh had left his phone at home just like any other day. Apparently, it was a daily routine of Ansh to go out every evening without his phone. The spoilt brat preferred to relish the calm breeze of evenings before he went to pubs.

Tracking Ansh’s lifestyle was easy. Eat, sleep, drink and repeat was all he did. The only good part was his friends were not into drugs and he had no connections with the then drug mafias. He had few number of friends who had not met him since Thursday evening. He had not visited his favorite pub too.

We had tracked the activities of everyone from friends to family but unfortunately we had no clue.
I was pondering over the different angles of the case  as I sipped the last drop of my whiskey. As soon as the clock struck at twelve in midnight, I saw that again.

A silhouette was coming in the direction of my house, which was at the end of the lane. I sighed and gulped in fear when I saw the same young lad walking on the lonely road on a moonless sky. Wearing a black kimono, he had two hands and two legs just like all of us. All he lacked was a head. I was horrified. I shrieked in fear gripping inside me waking up my wife, Anvita from her beauty sleep.

Anvita woke up groggily and came running to me when that silhouette disappeared. “Sleep, Ved”, my beloved wife pulled me away from the balcony while I was sweating profusely.

Rubbing my back, she cooed me, “I have told you thousands of time to sleep on time”.

“I saw it again”, I mumbled gulping the fear building up inside me as I sat on my bed. I had something building up inside me, which was perhaps, a mix of confusion and fear. I was terrified to the core and I want to cry but my tears seemed to be stuck in my eyes.

“You are being delusional”, she bellowed rather angrily irritating me more.

“It is since last week and I am damn sure there is actually someone or something”, I protested as I laid on the left side of my bed. I huffed and wiped out the fresh sweat beads from my forehead turning my back towards her.

Murmuring sweet-nothings, Anvita cuddled to me gradually calming my frightened body. I was still shaking in fear as the image of that beheaded silhouette flashed in front of my eyes whenever I closed them.

“We will visit a doctor after I come back from Mumbai”, Anvita whispered when I turned my face towards her. Before I could deny, she mumbled, “I am going tomorrow”.

“And you did not bother to inform me”, I taunted back. In other circumstances, it would have been completely normal for her going on business trips but this time I was scared. I was afraid of that headless silhouette that visited my lane every day since past six days. I wanted to stay close to my wife after all, she was the one who always helped me to come out of that horrific experience.

Anvita was sleepy. She just whispered, “Don’t pester much on these cases. Don’t strain yourself. Sleep"

Hugging me closer, she slept but I was wide awake. The silhouette was terrifying me. I was also worried about Ansh Awasthy.

“Is he even alive?”

This question was bothering me since the first day. I had studied this case from every angle. I had met the business rivals of Randhir Awasthy too but unfortunately I could not find a single suspect. As of now, I was suspecting Atharv Awasthy, his sibling after all, he was someone who could be benefitted by Ansh’s death.

Atharv would get all the fortune in case Ansh was not anymore. Despite, I knew greed for money could force a human to commit the deadliest crimes and irredeemable mistakes but still there was something in Atharv's persona which was compelling me to disregard this theory.

I was desperately searching for some clue, some evidence but we had no ray of sunshine in this dark case. My instincts were telling me that I was missing something but pinpointing at that particular thing was just impossible.

I did not realize when I drifted to sleep while pondering over Ansh’s case.

😎😎😎

Word count : 1064

Hi everyone

I wanted to write this since long, I am glad to present this story to all my readers.

Ved is missing something, stay tuned to find out that 😉

Do share your views 😍

Don't forget to hit the ⭐ if you liked this. It motivates me 😊

With immense love
♥️