The known stranger

5(b)

When I turned towards my house's lane I half expected to see police vehicles but the street was peacefully empty, I was parking my car when Emily stormed out of the house, literally flung opened the car door, pulled me out and engulfed me in a bear hug.

"Awww Mel" I gently rubbed her back while in my mind I was just glad and pleasantly surprised that she hadn't had the FBI involved yet.

"You fucker" she said in between sobs, I pulled her back and wiped tears off her face, "im sorry there was no network in the area, I couldn't inform you" she hit my arm "you know what? fuck you sis, I kept on trying your and Ethan's no. the whole night!! You wouldn't pick up while his would go on voicemail, I was freaked out when he finally called back at about 1:30 in the morning to inform that you were with him, safe and that he'll make sure you reach home safely the first thing in the morning" she continued after a pause "it would have been nicer to hear that from you!" She shouted angrily and pushed me against the car, there was no network in the woods and I'm sure that he wasn't lying because you rarely get network in areas like that.

"I'm sorry babe I tried to contact you, I-he said there was no network" she just stood there rubbing her eyes, so I hugged her again, you may be thinking that she was overreacting, but she wasn't, it had something to do with our dad.

I sighed as I recalled the horrible memory, He went missing on a random day while coming back from office, a man found his body in a dumpster three days later and called the police, our life hasn't been same ever since. He was very intelligent and it showed in everything he did, he was my hero, my role model, my everything, I couldn't go on a day without him, he would even take me to his business trips at times, but when he was murdered by his own colleague due to mere professional jealousy I realised that sometimes even your greatness costs you a great deal of misery and an undeserved doom.

Emily and I were 10 and 12, respectively when he died but we already matured a few years the day we saw his body, lying in the mortuary eaten by pests. The three of us rarely talked about his death now but it always haunted us in everything we ever did.

"You didn't tell mom right ?" I asked her as we entered our house, she fell silent for a second "no, but I was going to any minute" I sighed a breathe of relief, sometimes I really missed her, after dad was taken away from us she took over and worked really hard as a result she was mostly travelling for new projects and meetings, that was partly the reason that Emily and I were so close because in a way all that we really had was each other.

I took a really long shower and after briefing everything to Emily I went to sleep, when I woke up I was already thinking about Ethan, I probably should have asked what was bothering him in the morning, I silently prayed everything to be okay and decided to watch a movie, Emily wanted to watch despicable me whereas I wanted to watch the hangover series but we finally settled on the smurfs, I was cuddled up in my blanket and multiple cushions, eating popcorn when my gaze fell on a photograph in the newspaper lying on the table in front of me, I picked it up silently.

Three men, including
the cashier found dead in St. Regis gas station under mysterious circumstances.
Three men, including the cashier were found dead in early morning hours in St Regis gas station, the cops also detained drugs from the spot, notably all the three men were killed in the same fashion in which their necks were snapped, the victims suffered cervical fracture and spinal collapse. The crime isn't suspected of burglary as no items were taken from the store. Police is still looking for lead.

I looked at the faces of the three men and recognised each one of them, I didn't know what to think of it. I stared at the tv blankly, several images played on the screen in front of me but I saw nothing, I just kept hoping that it wasn't because of me, I'm sure people like that would have enemies right? Probably a drug dealer they were yet to pay, But I couldn't even convince my self.