HUES OF A MURDER

Chapter 6: The color of the blood is black

Cyan stared at the figure before her. In the moonlight, he saw it was Rose. What shocked him was her tear-stained face, quivering lips and pleading eyes. She began whimpering. "Hey are you Ok?", he whispered. "What's wrong?", he sat next to her. She didn't respond. Her soft whimpers became sobs. He started to worry. "Rose, please say something", Cyan pleaded with her.

"Rose! Rose where are you?", a voice rang into the night. "Here", Cyan stood up and waved Scarlett over. Scarlett came running towards them. "Oh! My God! Rose are you Ok? What happened?", she turned towards Cyan. "I... I don't know. She came running towards me and hit me. She fell. I don't know why she's crying", Cyan's face was etched with worry. Scarlett stared at him before answering, "Oh! I know what happened!". She grinded her teeth at the memory and put her arm around Rose.

"Well, what happened?", Cyan prodded.

"Didn't you know?" Scarlett didn't believe him.

"No, I was in the gazebo near the pond", Cyan pointed to the distant.

"What were you doing there?", Scarlett narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Well, I am not exactly a party person. I kind of got bored. So...", Cyan ran a hand through his hair.

"Then why did you come to the party?"

"My brothers and grandma are worried about me. After my parents died... you know? So, to relieve them from their worries, I agreed to go to this party. I didn't know anyone. Rusty told me to look for Rose. But I didn't find you guys when I reached here. So, I wandered around and wound up in the gazebo", Cyan told them.

Scarlett didn't say anything. She tried to get Rose up, "Come on Rose, let's go home". Rose got up and staggered. Cyan got hold of her other hand and together they moved towards the house.

"No, I don't want to go back to that house", Rose shuddered.

"We can go around the house through the garden to the front", Cyan pointed to the path that wounded through the garden.

"OK, let's go", Scarlett agreed.

An owl hooted somewhere in the garden. The throbbing music started again followed by a loud cheer. But the three were surrounded by an ethereal silence of the garden. Cyan and Scarlett felt eerily nervous. The marble statues looked at them with melancholy in their eyes as if they concurred with Rose's misery.

They managed to reach the car without bumping on anyone else from the party. Two guys, sitting under a statue with no head, was smoking something and was oblivious to the world. Rose and Scarlett got into the front seats with Scarlett in the driving seat. Rose sat cross legged in the seat after removing her shoes. She stared out of the window into the darkness. Cyan got into the back.

"You are coming with us?", Scarlett raised her eyebrows at him.

"Yeah, Rusty said I could", Cyan felt unsure.

"OK", Scarlett started the car.

"So... I am Cyan", Cyan extended his hand over to Scarlett.

"I know who you are. I am Scarlett, Rose's best friend", Scarlett ignored his hand.

"Are you guys going to tell me what happened?", Cyan enquired again.

"Well, your buddy, Ruby pulled a cruel prank on Rose", Scarlett looked at him through the mirror.

"Please... Please don't talk about it. Please...", Rose didn't look at anyone.

Cyan squeezed her shoulder, "We won't. By the way I am not Ruby's buddy", he told Scarlett.

"That's what I heard. That you were hanging out with her and her minions", Scarlett increased the speed.

"She came and talked to me and introduced me to a few people. She told me she organized the party. That's all. I don't even like her", he looked out of the window.