blood and love

Chapter 1

I can hear the choked sobs of someone as I open the door. I find a still, cold human lying in front of me. A brunette woman is bawling beside him and as I approach her, she holds me into a tight embrace. As I pull back from her, I take a clearer look on the man. He’s a brunette man with a tanned skin and bulbous nose. His back is against the ground and his head is facing his left. He is wearing a brown pant and an azure t-shirt. Well, not azure anymore. His whole body is smeared with blood. I take a view of him and apparently he was stabbed around his chest.
“Three times”
A voice creeps into my ears and I turn around to see the source of it. A man in a khaki uniform approaches us. Another man in scrubs is with him.
“I reckon he was stabbed three times” the man in scrubs says as he narrows his eyes while examining his wounds. “Not only this, his left hand was cut sharply.”
“Oh God! That must have been so painful for my poor son” the woman says as she weeps breathlessly.
“Why would anyone do that to my Eric?” I say as tears stream down from my eyes.
“Tell me the details.” The man in khaki says.
The woman begins. “Last night, at 12:00 a.m. I got to bed. I was so tired that I dozed off to sleep as soon as I lied down. I woke up in the morning at 7, as usual. I went to open my door, but it was locked from the outside. I called out “Eric? Who has locked the door?” The next moment I heard a loud shriek, followed by a loud thud and the noise of a breaking vase. I was horror-struck. “WHAT’S WRONG?! SOMEONE OPEN THE DOOR!” I threw myself aggressively against the door to break it. I tried five times, and in the sixth, the door flung. And what I-I saw Eric lying down, his face towards me, his eyes closed. His azure shirt was red. There was a large wound on his chest. And blood was flowing out from it everywhere. I was frozen. I breathed so heavily that it was hard to find oxygen. I fell on the floor. My head started zooming in and out. My brain stopped working. Tears flowing down from my eyes. I was shaking very aggressively. I was shouting, “ERIC! ERIC! ERIC!” “O MY GOD!” “HELP! PLEASE SOMEONE!” I was about to faint, but then I saw someone break the front door open. They were our neighbors. They helped me get to my senses. Thirty minutes later, I called Hazel and the police. One hour later, here you all are.”
She was about to faint as soon as she said those words. But I caught her. The neighbors are still here, supporting Aunt and I for the next ten minutes.

Three men rush in and I watch them lift Eric, place him on the stretcher and rush out in the same speed as they came in. Aunt Garima blubbers as her son takes his departure.

Two hours passed away since they took him for post-mortem.
“It is a trauma for Rhea.” The woman speaks, finally, as she rests her shoulder on my head and I rest my head on her head.
“I know right. She’s just sixteen, and seeing her twenty-two old year elder brother’s corpse in its worst state will haunt her for the rest of her life.” I say.
“Oh Hazel! That shriek was of Rhea. She came out of the room in the morning and saw her brother’s d-dead body. *hic* She fainted and hit her hand on the vase. My poor girl. Hazel, we’ll find the murderer and.. *hic* make sure they *hic* get to pay for what *hic* they did to my *hic* son *hic*.”
“Yes. Yes. We will. Now please be quiet. I’ll bring you some water. “
I stand up and walk to my left. I grab a glass and fill it with water and give it to her. I take her to the bedroom to rest.

Two minutes later, I’m in the room beside Aunt’s, approaching Rhea. She’s a beautiful girl with dark skin, black hair and black eyes which are filled with tears. Her cheeks and ears are red and she’s looking at the family pictures on the opposite wall. I feel like stabbed in my chest as I watch her crying, shaking, broken. I approach her and give her a big, tight hug. She holds onto me as if one of us is about to die the next moment. I feel pity for her. Just a sixteen year old girl, whose father abandoned her when she was six, lost her brother ten years later.

“Why did God do this?”
These words send shivers down my spine.
“God has his own reasons.” I say.
“This is unfair. Very unfair.”
I hug her even more tightly.

About an hour later, I’m successful in making her fall asleep. I kiss her forehead, switch the lights off, and close the door. I walk towards the kitchen and grab one of the plain sticky notes stuck on the refrigerator, a pen, and start writing on it.
“Aunt. I’m really sorry to inform you like this. I don’t want to wake you up. I’ve got a really urgent message from my office and I have to go. I hope you know it’s something very urgent, otherwise I would’ve avoided it. I tried to. But failed. Take care of yourself and Rhea. Eat your medicines on time. I love you.”
I walk out of the kitchen and enter Aunt’s room. I place this note on the small table beside her bed and start moving back towards the door.
I pause. I turn around and look at her.
“I’m sorry.”

I get out of the house and climb onto my Volvo standing beside the footpath.
An hour later, I board a train. Another hour later, I get off it.
I ride in an e-rickshaw for about thirty minutes and reach a building.
I get to the fifth floor by lift. I pass through the corridor and open the lock on the seventh gate of the floor. I push it open and see two people sitting on the sofa at the left of the entrance hall. I lock the door from inside and approach them.
“Well done." One of them says, as I keep my bag down and take out a large blood-smeared dagger out of it.