Enigmatic Past

Chapter-1 The Text...........

I woke up in the morning and rushed towards my phone to see if I had any notifications. Every day I used to wake up, go to school and attend my lectures and spent my time listening to music which made me happy and healed my deepest scars. Life was going a bit rough but I was all ok with that. But in the afternoon I got a text.......

It said, "Hey man if you don't want me to kill you, you gotta pay me 20000 bucks".
I wasn't able to think for a while. I was feeling too insecure as I lived alone as a paying guest with my dad's closest friend, Nikki. She is a fine good-looking lady and had a kind heart. She helped me a lot after my father's death. She was helping me to get my life back to normal. I was 16 and hadn't even searched for a job yet.

I quickly rushed to Nikki and narrated all the scenario to her.
She was shocked. She immediately called the police. Within an hour a knock was on the door. He was a tall, dark and well-built guy with a very deep voice. He asked me several questions like when are you getting this type of texts, was I or any of my family members were having any connections with the guy who was texting me?
I replied, this was the first time I got this text and told him that I didn't have family, all I had was just Nikki who was my father's friend. The policeman further asked, "why, what happened to your family"? Nikki interrupted the officer and yelled at him that he shouldn't have asked me that. Nikki took him to her room to tell me what had happened to my family. But it was too late. I had a sudden flashback of my dark past from which I was trying to recover.

I still remember the day, it was Christmas and I was sitting with my parents near the chimney and we were laughing talking about beautiful memories we made that year.

The phone started ringing and...
I headed towards the phone. It was Ellie who was calling me.
I picked up the phone, she said that she needed my help to complete our school project. I informed my parents that I was visiting Ellie. I helped her and was returning home. While returning I could see something burning, it was our house!!
I was in tears finding my mom and dad. I could hear ambulances and firefighting trucks. The firefighters rushed into the house to save my parents but it was too late.

The house had been fully burned down. I wasn't able to control my emotions and started crying. That's the day when I met Nikki. She held me and calmed me. She said I could live with her in her house and she'd take care of me.