A dash of hope, a hint of fear

1850 Words
Mercy couldn't believe her eyes that such a vital piece of information was hidden in her bag all this time? But when did she put the letter in her bag? Then she remembered their last encounter when she met with Amy and sat with her on the park bench, she must have sneaked the letter then. But what is she supposed to do now? The stalker? The secret boyfriend? Are they same person? But why would the boyfriend disappear only to reappear and haunt her? Was she murdered because she faced her stalker? All these questions made her adrenaline rush. She jumped out of her bed and began to walk up and down her room trying to put the pieces of the mystery together. She looked at her table clock- it was almost 3 in the morning - "the devil's hour"- as they say. Mercy felt like she was possessed by the devil itself- she couldn't sleep anymore. Amy had trusted her as her only reliable friend and here she was thinking that she never thought of as her friend. She felt sorry for her and at th same time - she knew that she had to do something for her- but what could she do? "Yes! The party! Amy said that she met the guy at some after party- I need to start looking for some names of the people who came to the party….yes… but which party? Probably the one that the boys from the university celebrated after they won the amateur Chess competition…but that would mean that loads of people were invited, it would be like looking for a needle in a bucket of needles! No… I just need to find about a french guy- who's a professional Chef. But what was a french chef doing at a party in our university? He said he was invited? I need to know more about this party….and I think I know exactly whom to ask.", Mercy thought as she sat on her bed. It was almost morning and Mercy still didn't feel like sleeping. She went to her kitchen and prepared some tea. She then took out her diary and copied down the key words and phrases from Amy's letter and circled those words. Words like - Chef,Party,French,Stalker,guy disappears,stalker appears…etc made her list. Then she thought about contacting the police and handing the evidence over to them but then they would arouse more suspicions if they started investigating in the boys hostel. She thought it would be best that she'd better find all the evidences on her own and then invite the police to help her. She looked at her clock again- almost 6 a.m. She thought it would be better for her to take a cold shower. She had her classes at 9 but she thought of skipping class and investigating the case on her own. An hour later, she got ready to go out and do some investigating. She opened the door of her room and stepped out. As soon as she did , she stepped on something. She looked down and saw a flower- a single hydrangea flower sitting right on her doorstep. Mercy gasped. It was the same type of flower that she saw on Amy's bed. She immediately looked around to see if there was anyone else. But all she saw was an empty hall way and all she heard was the relentless gossiping and laughing coming from the rooms of the other girls in the hostel. Mercy kneeled down and picked up the flower. What was a flower doing at her doorstep? Does this means that the killer had spotted her? But how? She stood up and looked at the flower- there was nothing special about it - they were very common and easy to find, nevertheless she put it in her bag and began to walk down the stairs. As she descended downstairs - she began to wonder whether it was a co-incidence that she found a flower on her door step or was it the killer's way of letting her know that he has found her and he knows that she has the letter. Mercy knew that this would mean that the letter holds the key to the killer's identity. She walked out into the morning sun- she felt warm and cozy. The grad students were rushing towards their classes and a few of the professors were slowly walking behind them. Mercy walked towards the cafeteria- she knew it was the best place to start her investigation and also she was starving. The cafeteria was in a rush that morning - some of the grad students had their semester exams in a few hours and they gathered there to grab a cuppa joe and to discuss about their exam strategies. Mercy never liked coffee- she prefered tea. She stepped upto the counter and ordered a simple breakfast of an omelette and bread. She took her meal and sat at the corner table. She looked around- she was surrounded by noisy, nervous kids- some going over their notes in silence- others arguing over football. She started having her breakfast in silence but her eyes were fixated on the door- she was waiting for her junior- Rudy. She knew Rudy came here every morning at the exact same time and sat there in silence while she had her morning coffee. Everyone kept their distance from Rudy- she was known to be weird and it was also rumoured that she practiced Black Magic! She stayed with her aunt in a remote neighbourhood who dabbled in the black arts and voodoo. Mercy never believed in all these rumours and actually thought that Rudy was a shy but brilliant kid but lacked social skills. She never talked much and kept to herself but she had a keen sense of observation - she somehow knew things that no one else knew- she kept her eyes and ears opened and always had information on anything going on in the university. She was like a spy in disguise except everyone knew about it and people would approach her and ask for some information for a small fee. Mercy nervously kept looking at the door and her watch. It was almost 8 a.m. Rudy would come any minute. She began to shake her legs in nervous anticipation. "Niemand weiß, wo ich bin... wo ich lebe" It had just stopped raining and the street was slowly getting busy again. Henry looked at the wall clock, it was half past twelve in the afternoon and he was tired. He has spent the entire morning scouring through old newspapers papers, reading obscure letters and trying to find clues that could shed some light on this peculiar case. The papers reported of a painting by the great post impressionist painter, that was stolen from the auction house in London last night. But it was how the crime was committed in particular that drew a lot of attention from the public. Apparently "flying men" all wrapped in black came crashing down from the rooftop, knocked out the guards and took the painting away. "Their eyes glowed red! Like the devil.. ", said one of the guards when Henry interviewed him in the hope of getting some fresh perspective on this peculiar crime."Not an exciting piece of evidence...", thought Henry and decided to check out the crime scene for himself after all inspector Gerard of the scotland yard was a close friend... The hall was filled with scattered glass pieces, broken sticks and chairs while the constables were carefully noting down everything in their diaries. Henry greeted the inspector who allowed him to take a look around... The painting was held in a square glass case, which now lay half shattered, and was supposedly to be put out for auction this morning."Which room is that?", Henry asked pointing towards a dimly lit room. "That's the storage room Sir...", said the curator. "I hope you don't mind if I take a look inside",said Henry and walked towards the room. Strange and ancient artifacts were arranged and labelled inside that candle lit room... old weapons, termite ridden old books, carefully covered valuable paintings, etc. "But what's this?", he noticed a small piece of paper on the floor. He picked it up and held it up against the candle light. It was possibly torn off from a page and written in german. It read-"nobody knows where I am or where I live.." Henry was puzzled and started to carefully observe the paper... Suddenly there was a lot of commotion coming from the outer hall, the policemen shouted and whistled. Henry put the piece of paper in his diary and hurried towards the hall, but by the time he reached it, the entire hall was empty, not a soul was to be seen, as if everyone disappeared into thin air! The sun was setting and a 10 yr old Billy was walking home from his friend's place.He was supposed to be back home an hour ago and was half scared that he would be grounded when he reached home.His father was a strict disciplined man who hardly ever smiled and Billy knew he had to face his wrath today. "If only James hadn't taken me to chase those rabbits on the hill...Now Pops will be so angry! ",thought Billy as he walked fast towards his house. It was getting dark and the sun was almost settling down beneath the mountains.Billy started to run now as the growing darkness was beginning to scare him. Suddenly there came a low humming sound from across the corn fields to his left.The tall grass around the field began to sway from a strong draft of wind which came out of nowhere.Billy's heart started pumping ,he ran faster.A shining bright light caught the side of his eye.Billy paused for a while and looked to his left.There was something in the middle of the corn field a few yards from him.The crops swayed from left to right as if a hurricane was forming in the middle of the field.He saw lights , that slowly started to illuminate the entire field.He could feel the hair on his arm rising ,a cold drop of sweat ran down his back,dry leaves on the ground were slowly rising up in the air...the earth began to shake... Billy simply turned around and ran and didn't look back.He ran as fast as he could until he could see his house in the distance.As he began to approach his house,the sounds died down but he could still see those strange lights. He opened the gate, ran towards the door and began to knock furiously. His mom opened the door and saw Billy breathing hard,exhausted, and shaken."Good lord Billy!", cried his mother"What happened to you?Where have you been?" Billy was in tears now,"Mom I will never be late again!.." said Billy as he hugged his mother.
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