MELINOE

Nightmare

Chapter-24

I kept wandering around in the mirrors of this home alone, waiting to avenge for the injustice we received. I didn’t get tired of waiting, to gift them the consequences they truly deserved, for tearing and crushing down a family that dreamt of a better and harmonious life, for forcing a man who have always hoped high, have taught to find joy out of little things in life, to kill himself..’ That is all what Rayan has told me about his story Noah. And it is the truth,” said Nadiya.

Sun had already started to come up, there were birds chirping and clock ticking. Nadiya had fallen asleep. It was a cold morning. I called up Nikki and told her all that I’ve got to know and all that happened the previous night. I didn’t expect she would believe in my words so easily but she did. She then told me she’ll take me to a place where we’ll get to know whereabouts of Jenny. After having breakfast, I left home with my phone. I didn’t wake Nadiya up as she badly needed rest. Mom & dad was out of town and were supposed to arrive by evening. On the way, I gave Nikki a call and she arrived. It was around 10am by my watch. World seemed to have risen up to a busy day. She took me to the “Jenny’s”. We stepped in the studio. There were 3guys sitting there, all of them wore a black Tshirt having written “JENNY’S” on it in white. I have already been there multiple times on my way to and back from college. But this time the mood and purpose were entirely different. “But how do we get to know? What to ask and to whom?” I asked Nikki, to which she didn’t respond. “Nikki..” I turned at her to see her staring at the girl who just stepped inside the studio, and walked towards the counter. Rage was burning out from Nikki’s heavy breaths. Nikki went near her from behind. I followed.

“Jenny! How are you? Where have you been? What about Father Andrew? Got to know where he is??” the shorter guy among the three stood up to ask. So it was Miss. Jennifer. She’s here already! Since it was a small town, the incident that Father had been missing since previous evening had already become a news. “I have no idea..” Jennifer sat down on the chair with a sigh, and hands covering her face. “Hey!” Nikki placed her hand on Jenny’s shoulder. Jenny turned back and looked shocked on seeing Nikki there.  She stood up and asked Nikki, “You? Here!??” “Yeah. How are you? When did you come back?” Nikki replied softly faking a sweet smile. “Just this morning,” Jenny said. “Oh. Meet my friend Noah. He’s a regular customer here.” Nikki continued. “I see. Nice to meet you, Noah,” Jenny said. “Same here,” I smiled. “By the way, you’ll be surprised to know that Noah is new to this place. And he lives where Rayan used to,” Nikki said. After few seconds of switching her eyes from mine to Nikki’s and back to mine, and with a nervous and confused smile that made it clear that she did not expect this coming, Jenny replied, “Okayy..I see.. Uhh.. We’ll meet again soon. Have to leave now guys. Bye.” She left.

Jenny reached home and kept thinking about me, the home I’m staying in, about Rayan, and about Father Andrew missing. As she entered her room, her eyes fell on something small and black on her bed. She went close and realized that it was a crow-feather. She took it in hand with the thoughts crashing through her mind and lay down on bed. Soon, she fell asleep. Deep in sleep, she’ll start shivering in cold and feeling breathless. She felt her body ache simultaneously. A stinging pain. Her sleep got disrupted in all this and her eyes popped open. She saw a black figure with white eyes staring straight at her, sitting just next to her on the bed. With sweat drops all over forehead, when she looked at her hands, she found them chopped into pieces! She squealed with tears flooding but she couldn’t do anything except for watching the figure cutting her down to pieces. After minutes of this fierce and fictitious exhaustion, Jenny passed out, not getting over those white eyes that were still-fixed on hers! She will wake up suddenly panting heavily touching and trying to feel her body, to believe that it was fine and unharmed. She gave a sigh of relief wiping off her face that was completely wet with sweat and tears. She took the glass of water that was at the drawer beside her bed. And as she lifted the glass higher while drinking, she found pink bruises on her entire right hand. She kept the glass and found the other hand, her legs, all her body pink with bruise-marks all over!