Twisted Shadows

Chapter 5: Night of Reckoning

The clock was approaching ten o'clock at night when the doorbell of the house rang with successive, terrified knocks. I moved with my full cautious calm and usual emotional stability, opening the door to find Houssam standing under the heavy rain without an umbrella. His clothes were completely soaked, and his wandering eyes were overflowing with psychological terror and a pure madness that exploded behind the crowds.

He entered the hallway, breathing with difficulty as if a ghost were pursuing him, and slammed the door behind him with a force that almost uprooted the wood from its place. He turned to me, his red eyes from lack of sleep staring into my features with a kind of mystery and killing suspicion:

- "Kinda!.. Where were you at noon? Did you never leave the pharmacy?" he asked, his trembling voice shaking violently, exposing his fracture behind the crowds.

- "Houssam! What's wrong with you? I never left my place behind the glass counter all day, and the assistant was with me and you can ask him. Why are you asking? Did something terrifying happen at your office?" I answered with a thoroughly feigned, innocent tone and wide eyes overflowing with innocent concern, while smiling secretly in my soul.

He stepped back two paces and leaned his forehead against the hallway wall, holding his head with both hands as he whispered in madness:

- "I saw her, Kinda.. I saw Raghad! She was standing in the street opposite my office, wearing her exact olive-green coat and sunglasses.. She looked directly at me and bypassed me like a shadow emerging from the hell of darkness! I no longer know if I am losing my mind and sight or if the dead are returning to reclaim their lost ink!"

I approached him slowly, placing my warm hand over his trembling shoulder, trying to pour more oil on his burning fires with a programmed intelligence:

- "Houssam, my love, you are extremely exhausted and living under psychological pressure because of her disappearance. Raghad is gone and the police are searching for her, and what you see is nothing but shadows made by your guilt and extreme fatigue.. go and rest."

He shook his head in terrified refusal, moving with faltering steps toward his office door and locking it tightly. I stood alone in the dark hallway, took out my secret phone, and sent him the final, crushing message for tonight: (Shadows do not die, Houssam, and the next shipment in the Ghouta warehouses will be the graveyard of your secrets cash cash.. Raghad is watching you from behind the mirror). I put the phone in my pocket and looked up with a cold smile of victory, standing tall.