Amore Corrotto

CHAPTER VIII

Curiosity killed a cat but satisfaction brought it back to life...

I was currently sitting in the library waiting for my next lecture and finishing an assignment that was due tomorrow on Friday. My week has been so tiring with having to keep up with school, work and my pretend relationship and lets not forget the sleepless nights from Elena and Ares' activities. I need to really talk to her about sound proofing her room for real. I was so busy I couldn't even find the time to go see detective Russo about my findings so I decided I'd pass by the station before my 3pm shift today, I still needed to figure out if that story had any connection to the current events to put my mind at ease. The last thing I wanted was to be haunted by some dangerous witch lady's ghost or chased by her descendant or something. I checked the time and quickly grabbed my laptop and bag , I was running late for my Principles of crime prevention lecture, this was about to be long af.

I walked out of my last lecture sleepy as hell. This lady was boring and conveniently her lectures were always the longest. Her class felt more like a punishment than a lecture. I quickly made my way out of school for the station. I had about 40 minutes before my shift started.

I arrived by the station's reception approximately 10 min after and when I got there, there was a new lady that occupied Mrs Gazzona's seat. I approached her and she looked at me, she seemed to be in her mid thirties

"Hello, came posso aiutarti oggi signora" she said to me in Italian. "um...Hie, I'm sorry I don't speak Italian but I'm looking for detective Russo" I said to her and she passed and apologetic glare my way and picked up her landline

"Alonzo, una ragazza é qui per te, dovrei lasciarla passare?" she spoke to detective Russo or Alonzo as she called him through the phone and after a minute of her being on the phone she finally hanged up and she told me I can proceed to his office. I walked further and I found him already waiting for me in his office

"Imani, come in...take a seat" he said as he pulled the chair in front of his desk for me. "what can I do for you today, you know it's not safe for you to be seen here" he continued looking worried

"yeah I know that but I needed to know something urgently plus I changed phones so im not getting tracked or bugged no more " I said waving the new phone in front of him "see, there's nothing to worry about"

"Just because you switched phones doesn't mean you're safe Imani, you didn't even know how your other phone got bugged. whose to say this one isn't bugged already too, plus you're still getting followed" I immediately he was right, I was so caught up in getting to know about the witch shit I completely forgot I was being followed and panic suddenly kicked in.

"but since you're already here, what is it that you wanted to know brought you all the way here" reading the energy in the room he quickly changed the topic and shifted my attention.

"Well I..." I hesitated, my mind was already in panic and I was failing to calm down, I don't know how I missed that not only as Imani but as a criminology student. I mean that's rule number one, never let your guard down and stay focused!!!. The detective looked at me still waiting for me to speak and I finally remembered why I came here, I needed to do this fast too since I had work soon.

"so I found this when I was going through the file David gave me" I said handing him the picture where I saw the symbol which now had a circle around it and handed it to the detective "after researching I found an article about the Witch and 'the ghosts' gang that terrorized your town many years ago and I was hoping you'd shed light to it since you know, you're from there" he looked at me stunned but he didn't seem shocked by the fact that I knew where he was from

"La Strega is simply a bedtime story our parents used to scare us to sleep with, although I am really proud that you caught the symbol because I had completely missed, there can not be any connection from the two because the with and the ghosts is nothing but a myth" he said, as if he read my thoughts he continued "I'm sure you have questions about the branded men huh" he giggled "lets just say they owed a very deranged man money and he kidnapped all of them and branded them with belief that he was giving them to 'the witch' since they had failed to pay him but he was arrested and later put in a psychiatric hospital because he was mentally ill and the bedtime story had fascinated him since he was young that he slowly started believing he was called by this 'witch' "he finished leaving me stunned, and I thought we had crazy people in America "so where is he now" I asked

"he committed suicide 3 months after being put in the hospital, the only accurate thing in that article is the fact that this symbol does mean 'ghost'" he said holding the picture "I don't know if it has any connection to the man I just told you about because he did not have any family left, no friends nothing and he is dead so forget about the article, but I promise you to get to the bottom of this, I will definitely look into this" he said giving me a reassuring look . I smiled at him getting ready to leave, I knew he would because he had not let me down so far.

"well that's a lot to take in detective but I gotta get going" I said as I made my way towards his door with him following behind me "stay safe Imani" he said and I nodded as I walked out .I left for work feeling relieved that I wasn't haunted by some evil lady or anything like that but that symbol still bothered me a bit...where had I seen it from....