𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓶 𝓶𝓮𝓽 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓸𝓼

CHAPTER - 1

11:03

He glanced at his watch and released a deep sigh, it was going to be another sleepless night. Leaning against the car , allowing his tense muscles to relax, he lazily watched the grey clouds moving in the starless sky and contemplating why did he agree to this .

While he really didn't need long hours of sleep to function but right now he could really do with a good ten hours of sleep. All the long and sleepless nights from past week was catching upto him, but it was an important case, one that could serve as the last step to his long awaited promotion and he was  pleased with himself this time, which is a rare occurrence as he is never pleased with himself ,never satisfied, always striving to be perfect and at this point he isn't quite sure as to what perfect means in his vocabulary.

It all started , his desire for perfection , to be best ,to be the no.1 ,as a short marathon between him and his brother, competing to be better than one another. Although this competition was quite one sided ,his brother never cared about these petty things, he was above the so called ideals set by the pathetic institution of society , always on his own, never caring about these things.

But he cared .A lot. He always tried his hardest, gave his best, always wanting to surpass his brother in the marathon of perfection he himself created, his father standing at the end of finishing line holding the prize of love and attention for the perfect son. He saw his brother finishing off, getting the prize he never cared about. But he continued to run with a hope that one day he will also be able to reach the finish line, able to claim whats left of the prize.

 The day never came and he is still running .

But this time the finish line is so far off , hazy mosaic of colours. The short marathon has now become a long incessant race of perfection, with no tangible finish line, fuelled by his own unrequited desires.

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The weather was getting chiller, he watched as a brisk wind blew up the dead and crusty  leaves, that were earlier lying near the browning tree, unmoving, dead. He remembered the law of inertia , 'if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force ' , in this case the wind acted as a force to give the dead and unmoving leaf some life. The leaves gyrated on the ground before lying motionless once again as the wind stopped , some life for a while .

Now he is not the philosophical type, far from it , apparently sleep deprivation can do this to a person , makes a logical and practical man compare his life to dead leaves. Tch. Pathetic .He's just passing time so he would be done with this favour, he doesn't like to owe favours , Nick better be grateful that even after getting promoted to sergeant he's doing the night patrol in his place, if someone gets a whiff about it in the headquarters , they both could get in serious trouble and himself more with his much awaited promotion in line .

Stuffing his free hand in his uniform's pocket , he sipped the remaining watery coffee from the styrofoam cup, this is his 3rd cup for the night and he really detest this cheap pathetic excuse for a coffee, but without it he might not be able to keep his eyes open for long, slacking in front of his juniors is something which is highly unacceptable to him .

A bruise to the ego of 'agile, vigilant and always cognizant of his surrounding sergeant Baudelaire' is not welcomed, no matter how much he despise night patrol. Even during his initial years as police officer ,before climbing the high ranks of sergeant ,he wasn't fond of night patrol. It lacks action, excitement and is plainly dull.

He could hear the distant sound of vehicles, and muffled whispers, but it doesn't affect him ,he has long ago mastered to tune them out. The wind blew again ,messing up his already disheveled  hair ,he took out his hand from the pocket fixing his hair and turn around to throw away the crumpled cup in the nearby dustbin. Walking leisurely to where the two officers were whispering ,hearing his footsteps they straightened and said a collective "sir! "

"Any complaints or disturbance in the area ? " He inquired, towering over the two. 

"No sir, its been completely uneventful except a group of teenagers driving past the speed limit." Responded the shorter one out of the two. Victor. Younger than him by two years , a cheerful and light-hearted man, full of life, who always manages to make a serious situation light- hearted , unlike himself .

"ya know these teenagers , rowdy and rebellious fools , always giving us the trouble , dont understand what they think of themselves ." scoffed the other one whose name he didn't bothered to remember , muttering an inaudible "shitheads ". 

"heyy! dont be a sour-puss Ben, these are there years and everyone goes through this stage of rebel and its not like they are committing some serious crimes . Lighten up , will ya ? " Nagged a smiling victor , patting.......Ben? on his back . 

"Don't cha agree, sir? "

He merely grunted in response, stuffing his both hand in his pocket . " I'm going over there ,if anything happens call me. "

"SIR!"

He nodded and walked past them, towards a spot under  the streetlight. The faint orange glow illuminating his raven hair . He took out his smartphone from his pocket , catching a glimpse of himself  on the side mirror of the car parked near the light. He could make out the faint shadows under his eyes contrasting his pale skin, now more pronounced because of the light overhea. Clear sign of his worn out physical state .

Quickly replying a curt 'okay , good night '  to a

'I'm sleeping , the keys are under the jade plant '. 

He stared  at the nut brown eyes full  of mirth, tired from all the burden and glinting with experience, staring back at him from the screen of his smartphone . He could faintly makeout the light wrinkles around her eyes ,testament to how much she worries and overwork herself and for the first time that night he allowed himself  to smile, if a small , barely there , light upward stretch of lips count. 

 He Lowered his phone ,as he heard the rustling sound behind him, regaining his cold and indifferent composure.

"sir"

He wordlessly tilted his head to right , urging the officer to continue.

"There is a complaint from Springfield area, a group of girls are blasting music at high volume, partying and drinking in open area and there are also complaints of indecent exposure and disrespectful conduct " informed the Bent? Ben? guy.

"And the screeching old lady demanded to especially arrest that 'insolent brat' who asked

'Mrs. old hag to remove the stick from her ass, and take a chill pill 'cause she is totally un-fab' " Victor recited barely hiding his amused smile.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed. He was already exhausted and really didn't wanted to deal with rich, dumb and drunk girls.

For the second time he looked up at the sky, watching the murky clouds gathering together , he could smell the storm coming.

He gave a last glance to his phone 

11:11    P.M 

I really wanna go home .......

"Lets go "

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