Up in the Clouds

8. A Distorted Truth

* The following chapters are woke of pure fiction and in no way support any form of crime, violence or abuse. Though the chapters may seem biased but are written from the view of the characters and only the characters. No personal opinions are being projected through these chapters and I do not encourage any form of crime. Please be a cautious reader and a member of society. *

Asher

He took deep breath in and looked around him. He was surrounded by men in uniforms and it was making him more uneasy than he had thought it would. The dirty chair didn't make things anymore easier than the dull grey desk did. Most desks in that room had dull grey colour, the ones that didn't have, had something even more disgusting stuck to them. He didn't understand what it was but he was sure it was dried blood and food. They all were overloaded with files and computers, while some had few family pictures; others had varied types of stationaries and few snacks. Most of the drawers were overflowing with paper and were refusing to close, so they were left unclosed.

He looked at the desk he was sitting at; a gold plate was kept with that said Det. Polo, the investigating officer for the death of Detective Carter Miller. There was a newspaper lying on the table. He picked up to read the front page headline,

Detective fell of the balcony from his house on 47th floor, wife suspected in murder.

The column reported about the death of the detective and how his wife has now become the lead suspect in the investigation. They also reported about the wife, Mrs Isla Miller, who was currently in the hospital and hasn't spoken a word since the incident. There were no witnesses to the case and the only evidence police found in the house points towards domestic violence, but not murder, yet the police are suspecting it to be a case of murder than an accident which was how it was reported at first and which is why Asher has come to the precinct.

While the police thought they were no witnesses to the case, Asher was there to give his testimony as the only witness of the incident.

He was a witness; witness of the detective's fall from the balcony, witness of the detective's brutality and the violence that prevailed in that house, for that house was on else's but Red's.

Today, after so many months, he finally got a name for the woman he called Red but the circumstances were so much more horrifying than he had ever imagined. Red was Isla, a woman whose husband was beating her last night, a woman who is currently in no state to talk and is hospitalized while her husband has died from falling off the balcony of their house, a woman who is now the suspect in her own husband's death.

He read the column further. The friends of the couple and their neighbors call them extremely in love and were horrified to learn about Det. Carter's death. Asher scoffed at that line. In love, they were not even in the vicinity of that word for the kind of horrors that lived there were beyond the imagination of most people and from what he had witnessed last night, he could only imagine the kind of pain Red suffered while living in that house.

A shiver ran down his spine as the images fromthe night's incident came back in front of his eyes. He remembered when woke onthe balcony because of the rain, his first thought had been of her and only her. He wanted to help her out and so he tried to get up as fast ashe could to call the police. When he looked towards her balcony again, heremembered closing his eyes involuntarily because the scene looked sodisturbing. He had seen the belt flying and hitting her on her back but hecould look at the second blow. His eyes refused to stay open. He struggled to stand the wet balcony of his apartment with a pounding headache and looking at scene that was nothing short of nightmare. When he forced his eyes open to look for Red, he saw her propped against the railing of her balcony while the monster she lived with was stomping towards her. And after that, things happened so quickly that he could even get his phone to call up the police for help.

He had seen it all. How Red had pushed her husband down, how she had fallen on the balcony, letting out a scream that pierced through the neighborhood. How the police had to break inside her house and had found her paralyzed with shock on the balcony. He has seen it all and now he wanted to make it right.

He wanted to make it right for her. He finally understood why she couldn't escape that house and she did do what she had to, to be free. He couldn't let Red go through any more miseries. He didn't want her to be punished for killing a monster that her husband was. He understood everything now and that is why he was in the precinct, he was there to get her out of this case and help her lead a life away from the nightmare she was stuck in.

He was there to tell the police that death of Detective Carter Miller was an accident and he had accidently slipped in the rain and fallen to his death.

He was there to free Red.

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Hello there,

I am back and I am back with a nice little chapter.

Now Asher has decided to protect Isla and not tell the police the truth. Do you all agree with his decision? What does it make feel?

I have also finally mentioned Isla's husband's name, Carter Miller. I didn't do so before when I had first introduced the character because I wanted this character to have as less importance. During the whole book we see that Isla has been giving him great deal of significance in her life, putting him before herself, blaming herself for his faults and in turn encouraging him to become what he had became.
And in the last chapter we see that Isla finally understood what she had been doing wrong all along and so the only person who was worth the importance was her, because it was her story.

Her husband was just like any other man who thinks they are important but when we see Asher sitting in the precinct, he doesn't even see Carter's desk there, eventually coming back to the whole idea of him being unimportant.

We also see Asher still refering Isla as Red because that is what he knew her as, a mysterious yet fascinating woman with red hair and not a lady trapped in a house.

Let me know what you think about the chapter. The book is finally coming to an end and only one more chapter is left.

I hope you all have enjoyed till here and will support my works like you all have till date.

Until next time,

Cheerio.

Love,
Alice.

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