HER ...DEATH AFTER DEATH

Chapter 1 : The Night

       It was an ordinary night … except for the raindrops dripping down from the roof above balcony. Arnold stood at the window, facing almost whole town from 20th floor, the topmost one of the apartment where he resided. The cool breeze striking onto his face, drops of water with symmetrical faces and the weather made him want more. He wanted to enjoy them all. 

       He opened the door leading to the balcony. A glass vase at the table dropped, just to shock him for a second. He didn’t care as long as he could get a chance to touch the drops of rain falling, while gazing at the moon which shone like it never had before. He let his hands get wet that night. He was studying the life of those tiny droplets when suddenly the drops changed their colour into RED!

       Petrified, he let them fall off his hands deep down to the ground below. The red droplets, as they fell down mingled with the clear and transparent water-drops and formed a dilute solution with a lighter colour. Maybe, it was only him who saw the difference between the droplets. It was not his eyes that deceived him and made him see a different colour. It was something else………..

 . .......                                                                        

. .......

. .......

He looked up and got the shock of his life! The eyes of a girl stared at him, bleeding at her heart. The red drops he thought to be water was actually blood dripping down her body. The red liquid still came down in drops, and splashed on the path below, building a feeling of terror within him.

With his heartbeat beating like a runner in a marathon, he went straight to the telephone and rang the police.

He muttered with a fit of courage “Police headquarter?!”

And before the receiver could reply, Arnold tried to mumble out everything he could notify them about.

Arnold : “There’s blood - “red” blood …..”

Inspector : “Blood is naturally red. There aren’t blue…..”

Arnold cut him off “There’s blood dripping from the apartment roof. Come QUICK!! ”

Inspector : “Location please!!”

Arnold : ____________________________!

Inspector : “We’ll be there an………………”

Arnold put the receiver back before the inspector could complete his statement. He ran to the balcony; he could see people forming small crowds converging to form a larger one, all eyes staring at the corner of the roof and the balcony just beneath it. The crowd stared at the bloodstained part of the apartment and the girl who had smeared the place with her blood of death. The dead girl stalked at Arnold with her visionless eyes and Arnold unwillingly gazed at the crowd below trying to reduce the fear within him. But it was only worse looking at the scurrying people and grief-stricken faces. He stood up, turned around, clutched the handle of the door open and descended down the flight of stairs to the elevator.

The place was abandoned. Policemen ordered people to stay away from there. Even the local residents were deprived to have a closer look at the place; some of them stayed a mile away whereas some of them didn’t even dare to sleep for the rest of the night. The incident led to miseries in the lives of many people, including even those who had no connection with the incident.  The families residing there had to bear a great loss searching for a perfect place to live in, away from such unwanted happenings. Mr. J. Byron, the owner experienced a greater loss, when most of the resident families tried to shift away to another place farther away from the building due to the unfortunate event. The greatest loss was for the girl herself, who had lost her most precious asset, her life!

“Well, I think I’ve got to shift to Mr.Sparks’s for a week or two.” Arnold packed his luggage and bags to leave the place; and he bade farewell to his beloved room. Shedding a drop of tear at the motionless unknown figure of the girl  above, he left the apartment with a heavy heart.

The policemen were on their duty. The girl’s body was taken away for further investigation within an hour. The place where she was laid some time before had a white lining on it. The total chaotic situation turned peaceful within a few seconds. People returned back to their places. Lights turned out. Almost all of the awakened people were in their beds, who swam in their ocean of dreams. Meanwhile, there were some who had nightmares. Many saw her in their dreams, but no one knew she was going to be forgotten very soon. Or maybe remembered again and forever….

.

.

.

The case made many hearts to throb at the thought of the place being no more a secure area to live in. Untimely demise of resident in the apartment was recorded for the second time.  According to the investigation team, her blood-painted face resembled Ms.Wilton, one of the residents of the apartment who died almost a year ago. No more information of the ‘dead’ was found out for a couple of days.

                                                ***********