The Irresistible Love

A Walk To Him

JANE POV:

“Mike are you home?” I yelled while walking up to his room. Our house was lifeless and I got the vibes that no one was here. Despite that, I decided to check in his room. I asked again while opening his door “Are you asleep?” He wasn’t there. The room was all cleaned and organized, unlike mine. He liked to keep things tidy and I was the biggest procrastinator you could meet. I dialed his number again but still no answer. I strolled off to my room and sprawled on my bed. I wondered where he could be or why was he not taking my call. I could not realize when sleep took me in its wing and I began to drop off. I was hovering on the edge of sleep when I heard my phone’s ringtone jerking me back to consciousness. I looked at the number hoping it to be my brother but this one was unknown. I stood up and took the call. 

“Am I speaking with Jane?” A heavy and deep voice of a man came from the other end of the phone.I said yes reflexively. What the man said next blew me away. “I am Fred Geller speaking from the Police station. We got your number from Mike Henderson’s phone. Ummm we found him half an hour ago lying on the edge of the forest..badly injured.” His last word worked like a knife that ran through my heart. My legs started shaking and suddenly I felt my weight too much to bear for me. I dropped off on the floor with the phone still glued to my ear. “Hello, are you there, Jane? 

He took my name a few times but I was too lost to answer him. How can this happen? I had called Mike a day ago only and he was perfectly fine. How could he be dead now? I did not realize when my cheeks and lips got soaked with my tears. I wished it to be a nightmare. I pinched myself and pinched again but the nightmare didn’t end. It was all happening for real. He took my name once again and this time I responded. “Is someone pulling a prank on me?,” I asked which sounded more like a plea than a question. “I am sorry for your loss. you can take his body from the local hospital,” with that he hung up the phone. I tried Mike’s phone again and this time it was switched off. I struggled to stand up. My knees refused to co-operate and I fell again. I clasped at the edge of my bed and stood up. I had to go to see my brot… the body. 

A lady took me to the room where the body was kept. She must be in her early 40s. I was standing behind her when she opened the door and waited for me to step inside. I entered the room that was all consumed by the cold dark. It smelled of emptiness and sorrow. She turned on the lights revealing four sets of bed placed in a row. The three of them were empty but the fourth had a body laid on it. It was covered with a white sheath. I strained my eyes to see through the sheath. "You can check now, " the lady said in a monotone. 

My legs felt like steel when I tried to move them forward. They were betraying me again. They were refusing to step any further. The pound of my heart was echoing through the room. All my senses rebelled against me. I was bathed in sweat by the time I reached that bed. The body had taken the entire place on the bed. I mustered up all the courage I had and lifted the sheath. There he was. Mike was taking his last sleep. A shriek escaped my mouth as I saw him lying lifeless on the cold bed. His face had deep cuts and bruises. One of his ears was missing and the neck had many deep paw scratches. I brushed her hand on it. He was torn and bitten like an object. Tears rolled down my eyes as I kept staring at my brother in disbelief. 

I had never felt so broken before not even when my parents died because I knew I had my brother by my side. But now he was gone too. A lot of emotions had taken possession of me. I was sad, shocked, and enraged. Mike must have pleaded for his life to his cold-blooded murderer, not for himself but for me. He must have asked for mercy till his last breath but they killed him. The thought of his sufferings tore my heart apart. I buried my face into Mike's bruised and dead chest and the river of tears flowed down my eyes. This was it. Mike was gone.

Mike was my strength and only family. I buried him at the same cemetery where our parents were resting. The home did not feel like a home without Mike. Three days had passed by and I was still struggling to come to the terms with his death. Shirley stayed by me through these days. She missed her classes too. Had she not been around, I would have died too. Today she insisted on going for an evening walk as she assumed that would make me feel better. “I don’t want to go, Shirley. Please don’t force me,” I refused. “For how long are you going to hole up in your house? Jane, you got to move on. I know it is difficult for you but, hey, we gotta try sweety. Come on now, get up ” She convinced me. 

I still didn’t want to face the people so we waited for the dark to take over the town and then we went out for the walk. The town people avoided staying out after the dark, making streets quiet and deserted. For the first time, I was enjoying this silence. We had been walking for the last twenty minutes and I still did not want to stop. I was trying to walk away from the agony and loneliness I was feeling since Mike’s death. I missed him. Shirley made us stop across an ice cream bar. She asked me if I want to wait outside or go inside with her. I stayed out whereas she strolled inside to fetch our favorite icecream. The roads were silent as the grave. I sauntered further towards the forest. The mere sight of the jungle suffused my heart with terror. But the fear in me soon got surmounted by the fire of revenge that was brewing inside me for the last few days. I took a step further and then I kept walking till I reached the endpoint of the Town’s road and the beginning of the forest.

I looked back at the town and then looked ahead towards the forest. I was dying to know who killed Mike but what if that thing kills me too. I clenched my fist, took a deep sigh, and finally entered the forest. Beads of sweat begin to form all over my forehead. The sound of my heartbeat was reaching my ear.  With every step away from the town, I was nearing death. The lofty trees stood unbent as if they did not like my arrival. The moonlight toppling down through the leaves made the view even scarier. I ignored all the nature's signs and kept moving on my path until I heard a sound. It was the sound of the rustling of bushes. My ears twitched at the sound and my legs stayed rooted to the spot. I felt fear rising up from the pit of my stomach. I turned around as the sound was coming from behind. I tried to locate the source but there was no one. I turned back and wiped the sweat off my forehead. I had just started walking when another sound pierced through my ears. I closed my eyes in fear and when I opened them up I saw three pairs of red eyes flashing right before me. I was caught !!!