Cursed

Missing

Pihu' POV

"Do you have any idea dear where they can be?" A cop asked me placing his hand on my shoulder with assurance in his voice. I had no idea when tears rolled down my cheeks. 

"I don't know..." I whispered back, my voice breaking, I tried hard not to let my sobs escape my lips.

After a while, all went to the cremation ground to cremate Rita's body. The cops found her cold dead body today morning in the Manan forest, hung from a tall tree by the Black Waters. They suspect she has committed suicide. But why? 

There were scratches and cuts on her skin which were suspicious too. No one could understand her reasons. She tried to kill us once and there was no rational explanation as to why she would do such a thing. She was marked wanted and as a killer on loose, so with her death our case was closed. 

The police reported that the reason behind her actions could be greed. She was having a financial crisis and even though we provided her with a job and shelter, she wanted more. Moreover, keeping her daughter in a private boarding school must have been really costly. So she must have wanted to take our money and run. But because we saw her, she got scared and hurt us to escape.  She must have been on the run all this time and when she realized she had no place to escape, she committed suicide.    

But we knew it was not it, she didn't take anything from the house, rather that night I believe it was not even her. It was definitely something else, it was as if she was possessed. I have no idea why she hung herself but I believe something sinister was behind it. Something very evil was hunting us, slowly one after another. An ominous sensation washed over me as I sat on the edge of the staircase. 

A letter was sent to Rita's daughter, informing her about the sudden demise of her mother. I really don't know what she will do when she will find her mother and her only companion was no more. I can't even begin to imagine the pain. Rita informed us once that they had no one else except for each other. Arundhati has promised that she will pay for that little girl's education. She will take care of her and we will too. Her name was Lilly, I believe we are the only ones she has now and I promised myself, I would try to be an older sister to her and protect her. 

Rita's death really left us shattered. In this short period of time, we were together, we all became so close, we were a family. Losing someone so close leaves us with so much grief. Her soft smile and pleading eyes lingered in my memories, and every time I recalled her, sorrow engulfed me. Sighing I walked out to the backyard. There was no one except me and Ann in the house. All have gone for the cremation. I saw shallow sleeping in his kennel. After that night Shallow became really quiet. Like he was scared of something. He doesn't play with us anymore. I looked up, the sky was a bit cloudy, the tall trees swayed lightly with the wind. The gentle sound of the rustling of leaves surrounded me. I slid my hand inside the pocket of my jacket to find that key which the blue-eyed girl gave me yesterday night.

Suddenly it struck me. Rita was wearing a necklace with a locked heart-shaped pendent. She never used to wear any necklace before in fact she didn't have one like the one she was wearing and no one has any idea where she got that necklace from. Maybe this key was meant for the lock of the necklace. But how did Rita find that necklace? I have to find out. I mentally decided and ran inside the house to find the necklace. It was kept inside a trunk in the attic with the other belongings of Rita.

I took out the pendant. It was a beautiful metallic heart-shaped pendant attached to a chain. While examining it I realized it was a bit tarnished and it was made of silver. There was a butterfly engraving and a bright blue stone was attached in its center.