Two Souls ✔ [Completed]

Two Souls : Chapter 04

A/N: The warning I added at the beginning of the story? This is one of the chapters with darker parts, even though it's not the darkest chapter of the story.

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I listened to your screams of pleasure,

and I watched the bed sheets turn blood red.

~ Ashtray Heart, Placebo

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They drove out to the crime scene together. The sun was just beginning to rise when Riddhima steered the car through bumpy side roads with grassy slopes and rampant hedges that skimmed over the car windows. After a while, Vansh stopped teasing Riddhima about her "snail pace" and remained uncharacteristically silent until the car stopped in front of a small, outlying residence on the edge of a housing complex.

Vansh stared at the dark windows. According to the phone call Riddhima had received, the dead body of a woman was waiting for them. Riddhima reached for the door handle. For an instant he considered hiding his personal connection to the case.

"I've been here before." Vansh stated calmly, his eyes still fixed on the house.

He felt Riddhima's scrutinizing gaze on him before she finally spoke. "Define 'been here before'."

Vansh couldn't stand looking at her when he told her about his nightly excursion to a bar and the woman he met there. He had nothing to feel guilty about, but he still couldn't help it.

Riddhima looked at the pad in her hand and bit her lower lip, an unmistakable sign that she tried to stifle any emotion.

"Ahana?"

Vansh nodded. The women hadn't given him a last name, but her first one was definitely Ahana.

He saw Riddhima doing the maths, linking the evening he refused her invitation with the night he slept with another woman. Now he just hoped that Ahana didn't die in the same night or Riddhima would never let him live this down.

"Can you handle this case?" She finally asked and got out of the car.

He assured her that he was alright, even though he was not entirely sure that this was the truth.

Vansh's first impression when they entered the house was that there were way too many people in the small kitchen. The last time he was here, the room had a nice and cozy atmosphere, but now it was stuffy and noisy. Riddhima went over to Angre and Kabir who were talking to the sheriff and the coroner.

"Her daughter found her. She's been dead for less than sixteen hours." Vansh heard and felt relieved. Now he could pretend that this was just a case like all the others before.

He became bored, but didn't want to join the conversation of the others. Police small talk just wasn't his cup of tea. Instead he looked at the shelves to get a clearer image of the victim's personality. One night with her surely wasn't enough to really get to know her. Vansh spotted a cow-shaped cookie jar and opened the lid to appease his sudden hunger with the result that five pairs of eyes stared at him when the jar mooed.

Vansh smiled apologetically and decided to leave the kitchen. In the small corridor he studied the pictures on the wall. Ahana riding a horse. The daughter and the deceased husband in various stages of their life. Ahana and her daughter dressed up for prom night. Vansh was sure that becoming an orphan didn't hurt less just because the girl was already grown up. He felt a familiar sting when he recalled that the daughter had discovered her mother's body.