Rod - The Weapon

Chapter 19: Heal

I walk towards the woods, in hope that Valerie is right behind me. I turn around to see her coming behind. When she catches up to me I tell her, "Look for like small yet reasonably big sticks. Those are the best for small fires, and easier to carry."

She nods her head and then we both continue on with our walk inside the forest, losing sight of the people behind us. She says, "I hope you remember the way out, because I certainly don't" I think for a moment and say, "We'll figure it out, its still right out here so we won't probably have any problem."

We stick together and look around to see if there are any sticks of the description I gave. I also brought quite a big bag to carry all the sticks back. I then ask her subtly, "Uh, I have been meaning to ask you, the last time when I saw your parents and sister, you weren't there. I mean, you look like you're 17 or 18, yet the incident took place only 10 years ago."

She sighs and then says, "I was a sick child back then. My parents were lawyers, and obviously you would have thought that they had money. Instead they lived in that run down street. This was all because of me and I still blame myself for the situation that they lived in. I was around five or six years when I came down with a terrible disease caused by a virus, which wiped out my immune system. So I was prone to all kind of infections. Kind of similar to AIDS I guess, maybe the father had it.

For my safety I was always kept in the hospital. By that time my parents wanted to take out a health insurance for me, to cover up the expenses but they were scammed. So technically, we lost our home and all money which we had, I had to move to a hospital in our locality to cut down on costs. So it all was a really difficult time for us. That is why my parents probably seemed a little arrogant at that time.

They were always stressed, so yeah that is what happened. That is probably why you didn't see me back then. And my parents weren't big on keeping photos, it just reminded them of their sick daughter. Kind of sad if you think about it but now we are all healthy."

I just looked at her, not knowing what to say. I finally speak, "I'm so sorry, I probably can't relate to what you went through but i definitely can relate to your parents, except their financial situation was worse." She just nodded and continued looking for wood. About half the bag was filled, we just needed a little more. She then asks, "Uhm, Aiden, I hope I don't come off as a weird person, but do you mind telling me more about Rachel?"

I look at her and then say, "It is totally normal for you to know about your biological mother. So, what would you like to hear about her?" By this time we had already filled the bag and were returning back to where everyone was there.

She then says, "How did she look like?" I look at her and think for a moment before answering, "She had dark red mid length hair, and small freckles on her face. She absolutely loved red and yellow colours and was near your height. She looked really similar to you, even though you're a brunette."

She looks at me with a slight pain in her face and says, "Seeing me after the death of your wife must have taken a toll right? I'm sorry if I came off as rude, but I was just genuinely curious. Who knew that a trip like this could reveal who my biological mom was? Who knew that I would get a new relation, like you Aiden?"

I look at her with hope and say, "I think that we can definitely build a relationship between us, you seem so much like Rach but at the same time you don't. You're a unique kid." She smiles and says, "I have never really had a father like figure in my life, always surrounded by women. It would be nice if you payed a visit."

I just nod at her with a smile across my face. I just feel like ever since these two boys came into my life, I have been able to make amends with my broken past. I mean, the fact that I was the reason to why Rachel could never have children made me feel worthless as a husband. Rachel was always positive about it though, she never once blamed me and always said something like 'Well, then more time for us to travel across the world.'

Even though she said these things to cheer me up, I knew behind her smile, she was sad. We didn't consider adopting because she felt that maybe it was a sign that we shouldn't have children at all and just focus on our careers. 

By the time I overthink, I don't realise that we have reached the lake. I wave at them and say, "I have a lot of wood for you guys, Valerie helped out a lot too!" Guy then says, "Hurry up you both, we don't have all day." I just roll my eyes at his rude comment and give the bafg of wood to Guy, who arranges them and lights the fire.

He already had the fish pierced with a stick and just kept it above the fire with some wood stands. We all sit down around the table and unwrap our sandwiches. I asked Henry, "What do these sandwiches have?" to which he replies, "I got everyone chicken sandwiches except for you since I never see you eat meat. I got you a mushroom sandwich." I am thankful to Henry as he really did observe his surroundings and got me something that I would be comfortable with.

Then Guy says, "We can continue recording if ya'll don't mind." I look at him and say, "Why not, it'll be boring to eat lunch in silence." They shrug and then nod in agreement to what I just said. Then Guy says, "You finished Raquel's interrogation."

I look at him with puppy eyes and mouth 'Thank you' to him. Then I say, "Well, yeah after Interrogating Raquel, she left. Now, there was only one person who we didn't question at all. Cally, she was a resident of Whitestreet. I'm pretty sure that she was a tailor. She was best friends with Raquel and John. They were like the trio no one asked for, always together. So the next day, Rachel and I went up to her house. She wasn't nice or hostile, just a normal lady who wanted to be left alone.

We asked her the same questions, and got a boring reply. She just said that she was busy delivering Halloween costumes during the day, and at night due to fatigue, she just lay down and slept. She was pretty convincing, so we asked her if she was awoke by the noise from the party, to which she asked, 'Which party?'

That kind of answered our questions, but Rachel didn't let go. She asked her about any bird costumes, you know, if she did deliver them then we could get the address. Cally thought for a moment and said that there were two bird costumes, one peacock and a penguin.

Obviously, peacock wasn't what we were looking for at all because it didn't resemble what we saw on the camera footage, penguin seemed more identical.

Rachel still had her doubts, she asked whether there were any orders similar to the structure of birds, as in aero plane. She was particularly interested about that. When we did get out I asked her why she asked about an aeroplane to which she shrugged and said, 'A lot of people like aeroplane costumes and tend to buy those, plus they look similar to birds, what if we misjudged the outfit the killer was wearing?'

She went on with her questions and asked if she had maybe gotten any orders after halloween, you know, the next day or something. Cally looked straight into her eyes, with more hostility and just said 'No.'

That was all she said."

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