The Tranquil Predator ✔️

Chapter 6

Patricia's pov

I was cold. I was hungry. I was tired. But most importantly, I was scared. It had been roughly seven minutes since I had called him.

Was he going to come? Was he going to find me? Or do I have to stay like this the entire night?

These thoughts kept rushing through my brain over and over again until finally, I heard a faint voice somewhere in a distance. I sat up straight, trying to concentrate where the voice was coming from.

"Patricia!"

There it was again, this time it was more clear. It was coming somewhere from the west. Faraway at a distance, I could see a tiny, black figure wandering around in the woods. The figure wasn't headed anywhere, it was just randomly facing any direction and maybe that figure was the one calling out my name.

"Patricia! Where are you! It's me!", the voice yelled again. It was Praveen. A smile made its way across my face. I was finally safe. How happy I was to see him.

"Here! On this tree!", I yelled back choking on my tears. He finally saw me and ran over to the tree I was on and helped me down.

The first thing I did when my feet touched the soft, muddy ground was hug him tightly. I was shivering with fear.

"It's ok, Its alright, I am here", he whispered into my ears as he soothingly caressed my hair. That calmed me down a lot. And when I was strong enough to utter coherent words I asked him to take me home which he did.

Author's pov

Things weren't normal for Patricia the next day. Praveen was by her side almost all night. He had taken her home, cooked her dinner, and when she fell asleep on the sofa, he even carried her upstairs and tucked her in bed. When he was sure that she was asleep and fine, he left the house.

She was grateful for his gentleman's behaviour. However, she was still shaken by the events of the previous night.

Praveen showed up at her doorstep sharp at 10 am. They were going to the local police station to report this incident. He had come to accompany her. He knew Patricia was disturbed after what happened the previous nights.

"You ok?", he asked in a feather-light voice as he held her hand to assure her everything is fine.

"Yes, thank you", she replied, her eyes not meeting his gaze as her head was still down.

The journey to the station was pretty quiet. When they reached there the first thing that Patricia noticed was the awful atmosphere. There were lockups with black bars and a few locals inside. Few locals were sitting on the benches that were placed in one corner of the room. Few policemen were busy chatting and conversing amongst themselves, few were going through different files, the police station seemed extremely busy.

"How can I help you two?", a voice spoke from behind. Turning around Patricia saw an elderly police officer in front of her. He was probably in his fifties. Had rimless round specks that rested on his nose the way you see in fiction books. And a big white mustache.

"We came here to file a complaint sir, attempted assault", Praveen replied. The officer looked at Patricia with pity in her eyes and said "come here ma'am, I promise you we will find him."

Patricia didn't say anything. She just followed the officer to his desk with Praveen by his side.

"Please fill in your details in this form", the officer said, pulling out the FIR sheet. Patricia looked up for the first time and saw the name tag the police officer had pinned on him.