|13| The wrong side of the right side

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❝ It moves quickly in
a blink of an eye, keep staring—
otherwise you're gonna miss the chance. ❞

. . .

The sun is weathering out with its uttermost blessings today; which helps to give a light to enlighten the darkness — today it's been a burn on the back side.

"Right, forth the back— Hi! I'm new here," a tanky tanned skin girl chimes.

"Oh!" the other girl adds.

"Will you like to go with me to the lakeside?"

*

It's been a day full of exhaustion. Natalie couldn't pinpoint when the daylight was turning off & dusky night had come into the form. In her defence, her work is like that— demands every attention. A cup of ice tea would be nice but for now all she wants is sleep. Sauntering towards her bedroom, she put all the lights of her house off.

Just when a blissful slumber was making its way, Natalie's phone perked up. She lazily took her phone from the bedside table. Flashing on a black screen, "Xavier," is daunting with bold letters. What on the earth, he is calling now— Natalie thought. If he's calling right at this hour, there must be some emergency.

"Hello," she picked up the phone & said. Before she can ask about his unlikely call on damn hour— Xavier's voice started up.

"Natalie, it's an emergency. Come to the office basement urgently. There's another case," he cut the line without giving her much explanation.

Psst— he could've said more specifically. But typical Xavier, Natalie muses. She grabs her cardigan, hits off on the road. The fall is weathering now, chilling air is engulfing the whole city in the early morning.

She pulled her car to the sidewalk, and there's a rustic farmhouse. Anyone looking outside will deduce it as an old house like those ancient mariner. But this is kind of the place they actually need. She enters, quickly alluding her way in the corner wall. With the touch of her fingertips, the wall is spinning & leads through a dark room.

Natalie would have freaked out if it were her first time but ironically she was numb at her first time. She flashed her phone's dim light; there's a staircase. And she starts to descend.

And the bright room is there in the end. "Cool," she thought. Xavier is already there. He's fumbling with some pictures on the wooden desk. There's a green flipping table. Circling many articles, some rough handwritten notes, and some pictures of younger girls are patched there. They would be hardly 6 or 7 years old.

It's not hard to come to the conclusion that Xavier is working on another case but what's so urgent that he compelled her to come at this hour.

"Earth to Xavier," Natalie waves at him— and this has definitely put him on track now, "What couldn't wait til' the morning?" She asked.

"There's another murder case, this time a girl named Danielle got missing from the central park two days ago, she was found dead on the roadside today around 11 pm," he replied again focusing hard on the pictures.

Natalie nodded, absorbing the details, this is a similar case now. It's been happening the same for the past month. Younger girls are missing, and found dead after two days. More like the cases are interlinked.

"You reckon, this is the same person doing all murder," Natalie asks— at the same time trying to look on the pictures. "I'm hundred percent sure, it's the same person. They have an odd link, they're attacking the kids, from the public place. I would say; quite a sly move," he conjured.

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