Shadowed Wings: The Tale of the Silver Raven

Shattered Justice: The Fear, Regret, and a Battle for Redemption

"It was not just you who lost a close comrade that night, Detective Paul Koner."

Ray's words had already raised many questions in Paul's mind.

"How were you related to Senior Kam ?" he asked hastily , impatient for answers. Kam Park was Paul's senior officer who died while attempting to catch the Silver Raven. After his death, his family had suddenly gone missing, no trace of a single person related to him. Paul desperately waited for Ray to answer, but she silently vanished into the rain.

This was it, no last words , no reasons. The hope of justice broken, a shatter louder than the rain, yet silenced by fear. Nothing can ever conquer a fear; fear of losing someone, fear of failing , fear of living with the regret of committing a sin , it stops one from doing what needs to be done. The pain of fear is bearable because it is easy to rationalize with emotions. However it was not the Pain of Fear rather an excruciating Pain of Regrets, which had began to slowly eat them up. This pain is very difficult to cope with, since it is the suffering from regrets of past deeds. Fear might leave one's mind some day , but regrets stay forever. Neither do they die, nor do they weaken, they get stronger with every second they live. This is why the suffering from regrets are always unbearable.
Detective Paul regretted losing his idol which gave birth to a fear. This fear made him choose the easy path which was to simply give up. Ray too regretted losing someone close although she did not let it turn into a new fear. She was ready to go all in, to fight for justice . Yet her hopes were crushed by someone's fear. They were both a similar pain from sufferings and regrets perhaps in different ways of their own.

Ray reached home drenched in defeat of not finding her sister's killers. She threw herself at the couch trying to control her anger and she fell asleep tangled in her thoughts fighting to know .
"Get up eat something" she hears a faded voice , she looks up and finds Fanny arranging plates for the dinner . She gathers herself and silently sits at the table. "I would kill you if you had denied this food , because 'I' got this food and also it is delicious." Fanny tries to lighten up the mood with his warm smile and lame jokes. Ray chuckles and eats her food in silence. She was very good at hiding her emotions, but Fanny knew her too well. He tried to ask her what had happened, but she chose not to answer him. The dinner table had never been so quiet. As they finish their dinner , Ray instructs Fanny before entering her room "Your room is empty now, also the window is fixed." pointing at the room where Vennisa used to live. Fanny had been living with Ray ever since he started to follow her footsteps. She took care of him just like her little brother, he was 10 when she first met him . Fanny smiles at Ray after finally hearing some words from her mouth .He could not stop himself from asking
"What if I too get shot?" , Ray looks in disappointment
"Then die , but don't disturb me ." enters the room, she peeks from door and adds "also the glass is bulletproof". Fanny smiles in embarrassment and murmurs
"You Do care if I get shot?!"
"I do care, about my apartment." Ray brushes him off , and mutters to herself
"I would tear the world apart if you get a single scratch"
though Fanny is disappointed in the answers he speaks loudly ,
"I know you would tear the world apart if I ever got a single scratch." And smiles at Ray as she enters her room and bolts the door. "Did he learn to read mind or something ?" she chuckles to herself and lays on her bed.

Next day , Ray wakes up to see breakfast ready on table right on time , Fanny is very punctual. She sits at the table and takes a deep breath to inhale as much aroma as she could. "Hey , leave some for me too" Fanny shouts from the kitchen. He comes holding a tray with one glass of water, a glass of juice and a sealed envelope, which she would get only if she finished her breakfast was Fanny's deal. Ray reaches for the envelope after finishing her breakfast and comments jokingly
"What ? you want the whole café in return for one day's breakfast?"
"I wish , but this came in the mail today." Fanny replies.
Sudden flashback hits Ray, her memories from last night start fogging her mind. Fanny snaps his fingers, bringing her back from her flashback. He points at the envelope and asks what is in it ?
"They are closing the investigation on Vennisa's case." Ray broke the news to him.
"But, you were so close to catching them " Fanny added in distress.
Ray nods as she takes out the papers. "Detective does not want to continue. He is afraid of losing someone close." She adds as she reaches for the pen to sign the papers.
Fanny immediately stops her from signing them
"You wanted to catch them so badly, how can you sign it away so easily?" he tries to confirm her intentions.
"He is of no use. I will have to do it myself." Ray declares .
Fanny understands her plan, and steps back as she signs the papers.

Ray takes the papers to return them. She reaches Paul's cabin but does not find him there. She leaves the papers on his desk, with a note on it. She continues on her way back when she bumps into someone
"Excuse me" the voice sounded familiar to her. She turned to see who the person was but he had already vanished. He seemed to be in a hurry. It was normal for everyone at the investigation department to be in some kind of hurry. She brushes it off and exits the station. She spends rest of the day at the café , trying to get her head out of the whole situation. Fanny tries his best to help Ray feel better. He bakes her favorites' blueberry pastries and later hosts a dinner. He insists that she should take a good rest , and sends her off to bed early.
She dozes off to sleep and finds herself under an open skylit up by stars. She felt like someone was watching her, she looked around to spot someone standing at a distance. It seemed like a masculine figure , wearing a long coat and fog covering his face. She tries to approach him but he maintains his distance. And suddenly she could blinded, unable to see anything, as if someone had covered her eyes from behind. She instantly sat up , breaking her dream. She looked out of the window and to calm down realizing it was just a dream.

Her sense of danger was washed off by sweet smell of waffles which Fanny had prepared for breakfast. She quickly freshened up and joined Fanny for breakfast.
"Everything okay?" Fanny asked with concern.
"Yeah, Why?" Ray answered as she starts to dig in the breakfast.
"You were talking in your sleep" He added and continued to eat
"Was I? I just had a bad dream." She clarified.
"Be careful, I have a bad gut feeling since morning." Fanny added in concern.
Ray smiles at Fanny being concerned about her, yet she was curious to know if he had actually heard what she said while sleeping. So she asked Fanny about it
"You were not clear." Fanny brushed the question off, his statement was hasty, as if he was trying to hide something. Just as she was about to dig deeper, the doorbell rang. Fanny got up to see who it was, but Ray insisted on going and checking.

Her face instantly turned into a ball of furry as she opened the door. She was ready to burn Detective Paul ,standing at her door, with two of his men alive.
"What is it detective? I have already signed the papers and sent them. I think this was our deal, to never meet again." She asked in an annoyed tone with a forced smile.
"Indeed, But there is a problem with the papers" Paul calmly adds as he pulls out another new envelope and continues. "You see, your signatures are invalid." Ray looks at him in doubt
"Why so?"
"Because, this agreement cannot be signed by the accused itself. Miss Ray OR should I call you The Silver Raven?"
Ray was stunned for a moment, then she laughed out loud. She stepped closer leaned and added
"You finally found me. I would love to hear you call me Silver Raven." She smirks and was about to add "Only if I were 'The Silver Raven'. But, It's not me". when she was interrupted by Paul, he raised his eyebrow and added with a smirk "We would appreciate a similar confession at the courtroom". He aggressively pulls Ray's hands out and handcuffs her. She was trying to understand what had happened when Paul's words echoed through her ear
"Coward's Luck?" he taunted with rage in his words. It was a reply to the note left on the signed agreement which said 'COWARDS only live off luck.'. He forcefully tried to pull Ray out.

His strong grip on her hands was shaken off aggressively by someone.
"Behave yourself Detective" Fanny commanded in menacing voice. He pulled Ray behind him standing at Paul's face. He was completely flipped by Paul's behavior, pumped enough to tear him apart any moment. Paul stepped back and shoved an arrest warrant at Fanny's face.
"Please do not interrupt our operations" He added as he pulled Ray out of the house.
Fanny stood there helpless as Paul took Ray with him. Ray calmly nodded at Fanny , telling him not to worry. Before the elevator closed, Ray's eyes met Fanny's . His helplessness had started to tear up in his eyes. Ray smiled softly as if she was telling him
"Don't worry , I will handle this. Till then, take care of yourself. Little Fan." The elevator door closes between them. He turns and punches the wall behind him, he could not just let this happen "The Warrant!" he remembers, and rushes to find the warrant . He hastily opens the envelope reads the first line "Emergency Arrest Warrant" issued in Ray Nicholas's name. The warrant mentioned a trial at 1:00 pm where all the evidence shall be produced.
Fanny looks at the clock it was 12:18 am already. He rushed to find a lawyer for Ray. He could not let her go just like that.

A sudden thought filled him with deep passion to help Ray get out of this situation.

"It is my turn to save her this time. I shall repay my debt." ...