The Outcast 2

Wincing as the shrilling college - bell echoed down the ancient corridors and toyed with my heart, I quickly drank the last sip of my coffee and put my cell phone in my brown bag.  It was time to deal with people, again.

The dark ‘Clouds’ were colliding with fury, and the subtle cold wind had a hint of excitement twirling in their sway.  It felt like the weather was extra exciting, today …extra mysterious.  Using my rough register to shield me from the little drizzle, I had just stepped outside my college boundaries and was about to walk back home when I noticed a rather mysterious woman standing near the entrance of my college.

She had her head and face covered by a green scarf and was using sunglasses to hide her eyes.  I felt curious…

‘Miss Sarah’, the woman immediately called out as I slowly walk past her.  My soul trembled.

‘Y-yes,’  I turned around.  I couldn’t help but keep the quiver out of my voice.  Who was this woman?  And what did she want with me?

‘I am detective Jolene.’  She brought one hand forward to shake, taking off her goggles and showing me her badge.  ‘I am here to take you to the police station.’

‘Police station?’  I blanched. ‘What? Why?’  I had no reason to be taken to a police station.  I was a good girl…always had been a good civilian.  Breaking rules actually gave me too much anxiety and fear.  There had to be some kind of misunderstanding.  Was everything okay?  Did something happen while I was in college?

Noticing my panicked expressions, she grabbed my shoulder and squeezed it in a comforting manner. ‘Relax, you have done nothing wrong,’ she assured. ‘It’s just that we think that there might be someone following you, and we want you to see if you can identify that person.’

‘ME?’ I was still in shock.  Who could be following plain, old, invisible me?  Was in danger?

‘Yes, Now, come on.  We don’t have much time…’

Quickly leading me to a nearby parked police car, she opened the backseat door for me and went to sit in the driver’s seat.  I was feeling panicked, extremely confused, scared and vulnerable, as we zoomed down the vacant streets of our town and finally made it to the country police station.

This was turning out to be one heck of a day.

‘Ma’am, please sit here while we get our detective team to come and meet you.  There are certain questions they wish to ask.’  An elderly woman sweetly smiled as she gestured me towards a stiff wooden chair, placed right in front of her desk.

I meekly nodded and stumbled to take a seat.

After leading me into the police station, the detective lady had pushed me inside an investigation room and assured that she would return back with the rest of her team.  Her baffling behaviour, along with the added suspense, was really doing wonders for my anxiety, yet I had to stay strong.  My emotions were running high, but I had to be patient enough to explore the reasons being brought to this place.

Looking around at the pale white walls surrounding me, bright white ceiling-light irritating my soul, and piles of files piled up on couches, I didn’t know whether I was supposed to start bawling out loud in stress or scream to have anyone tell me what exactly was going on.  The tension was just too much.

Soon, fidgeting with my fingers and controlling tears from leaking down my eyes, my heart trembled as the investigation room’s door was pushed wide open and in stepped two women holding some brown boxes in their hands.  Detective Jolene was following behind them.

‘Apologies for stressing you out like this,’  she apologized, eyeing my distorted expression.  ‘We just needed to gather some content before filling you on everything .’

‘Of course,’  I gave her a shaky nod, wincing as one of the women slammed the room’s door shut.  Everything seemed too intense.

‘Sofia’ She then turned towards the elderly woman. ‘Why don’t you take a break?  We will take it from here.’

Sofia gave her a grateful nod, ‘Of course, thank you,Ma’am. ‘She rejoiced, quickly getting up and leaving with a skip in her stance.

I frowned at her exit.

So, this was it.

Turning to face my prosecutors again, I tried hiding my panic by keeping my palms squeezed together and let out a shaky plea. ‘Can you now tell me why I being kept hhhh-here?’ My voice cracked a little.

‘Of course,’ Jolene gave me a sympathetic smile, settling down on Sofia’s seat, while her partners walked to stand next to her.  They were taking too much time.

‘First of all, Miss Sarah,’  She the leaned forward and folded her hands on the desk. ‘I want you to feel relaxed and calm.  There is nothing truly to worry about.  Really.  This is just an added precaution - something minor to help us solve one of our cases.  In fact, would you like a glass of water before we..’

‘Please, can you just tell me what’s wrong?’  I quickly interjected, wanting the suspense to end already.  I needed to know if I was in danger or not.

‘Okay’.  She squeezed the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath.

‘Look’, Her expressions turned serious and stern. ‘We have been hunting for a ..ummm…criminal named ‘Carmen’ for several years, a decade to be exact.  He is on the most wanted list.  We aren’t actually sure about his identity, but he has left behind different clues, hints, voice tapes to assure us that he is a man, probably in his late twenties or early thirties.  And just recently, he has left behind some papers at one of the crime scenes with loads of information about ..you.’

‘Me?’ I turned paler.  ‘What does he want with me? Are you sure that the information is about me?  I am just a college student.  I haven’t---’

‘Miss Sarah,’  She raised one hand up while shaking her head. ‘ We aren’t entirely sure about what he wants, but we have the information given to us by him.  Why don’t you check it out and see if it makes sense to you.’  And with that, she gestured one of her partners to take out a file from her brown box and placed it before me.

‘Open it,’  she encouraged.

Shakily opening the file, I noticed a picture (a beautiful picture of my brother’s house) pasted against its front page.  What on earth?  Quickly turning to the next page, I noticed there were more pictures of my brother’s house, the houses of our neighbourhood, my college…some other colleges and houses.  And, at the end of the file, there was a small note attached which had my full name, age, favourite colour, favourite hobby, and the name of the high - school I attended and previous bullies printed on it.  I felt extremely creeped out.

‘Who is this guy?’  I quivered, looking up while holding the file tightly in my hands.  I felt so vulnerable and scared.  What did this guy want with me?  What was he going to do?  Was I his next target?

‘We don’t know.’  Jolene pitifully shook her head.  ‘We have been trying to track him down for decades, but he just seems to getaway.  Albeit, he has left some taunting voice-tapes, but that just isn’t enough for us.  So, we were thinking if you could, perhaps, listen to those voice-tapes and help us identify him… decipher that exact message hidden in his tapes. I mean this guy has been following you, so, perhaps, he knows you, and you do, toooo..’

‘Ummm, III-I ccc-could try.’  My voice turned extra timid and shaky.  There wasn’t a possibility that I could know of such a creepy man.  Even the thought of knowing someone like him gave me shivers.  I couldn’t.  But what if I did? Could listening to those tapes stab me with both disbelief and a high sense of betrayal?  I had no ideas.

Holding on to my breath, I had one of the partners take out a tape recorder from her brown box and placed it before me.  Jolene moved to press the play button.

‘This is the  tape we got recently, along with the in formation given about you.’  She sombrely informed.  I shakily nodded.

‘I am bored.’

‘You wearing your blue top,’

‘If you want my attention, just get her to say no,’

‘I will listen,’

‘I am willing to be ruined,’

‘So, just Spare yourself the torture and get her,’

The tape stopped rolling after that.  Yet, I didn’t have the strength to move.  The person, whose voice had been recorded, sounded so deranged, psychotic and mysterious, having decent voice hiding a vicious beast in it, but that was how psychopaths were, they had a command on their communications skills.

‘So, do you think you can recognize the voice?’ Jolene spoke, interrupting the echo of roaring thoughts in my mind.  I shook my head, apologetically.

‘NNN NO..he seems so insane. IIII I- don’t know him.’

EDITOR'S NOTE -"THIS IS A THRILLER - GIVE SOME HINTS AND TINTS TO ADD TO THE STORY AS WE GO ALONG...MAKE IT MORE ENJOYABLE."