"I haven't even left but I've started to miss you already"
Alvin kissed Jennifer on the forehead while they both stood outside the airport.
"You haven't even left for your business meeting yet and I've started to feel lonely already. Come back as soon as possible" they both hugged for a good minute and then Jennifer bid Alvin goodbye.
Jennifer and Alvin had been married since 5 years and lived in Philadelphia. Jennifer ran a home business of crochet tops while Alvin worked as a consultant in a big company.
________________________________
It was a lazy Sunday morning. It was half past ten, and Jennifer was still in her pajamas, scrunching her face as the sun shone bright after a soft shower. As she walked towards her mailbox to grab some letters and newspapers, she saw a yellow coloured sticky note stuck to the top most newspaper. Just as she withdrew the bundle of letters and newspapers from the mailbox, the sticky note lost its grip and fell onto some grass, which was moist due to the previous night's mild shower. Jennifer twitches her tongue as she fiercly bends down to get hold of the the piece of paper and goes inside her house.
While sitting on the couch, she flattens the crushed up paper, and begins to read the smudged letters:
"Fire consumes all by itself, not a single hand to help, eyes admiring the show, while the heat flares up and turns everything into ashes."
While she was examining this piece of paper, she flipped it and saw an address written at the back of the sticky note:
'C4, Mable road, Street 101.'
"Now what is this suppose to mean?" Jennifer thinks to herself while she moves to and fro in her living room.
"Maybe someone is trying to pull a stupid little prank on me as all hallows eve is near. They surely think that I'll be tricked easily and get scared by their 'spine-chilling' poetry." She giggles to herself as she crushes the note and tosses it away.
Two days later, while Jennifer was going through the local daily, trying to find her bestfriend's first ever published article, inaverdently she noticed a headline that read:
'YOUNG LADY FOUND BURNT AND DEAD NEAR MABLE ROAD'
Swiftly she began to read the entire article with wrinkled eyebrows and a scarlet face.
A dead body has been discovered near C4 , Mable Road by the police and K-9, earlier this morning. This incident is suspected to be a crime, as the body has been brutally burned and it is difficult for the investigators to identify the body. However, after some investigation from the residents of that area, the body is likely to be of the owner of the house, Ms. Rosie Lancaster.
Ms. Rosie's neighbour, an old and feeble lady of 82 named Mrs. Cilly stated that she had witnessed this nerve-wrecking incident and huge flames erupting from Ms. Rosie's house, the previous evening.
"At first I thought the wooden floor had caught fire, so I called Rosie to check if everything was alright, but she didn't answer. But after some time, the fire had completely vanished, so then I eased a bit. However earlier this morning, as I was taking my dog for a little walk, I almost fainted by the rotting smell that came from Rosie's house when I passed by."
"How is this possible? This has to be coincidence." She rushes down the staircase to find the sticky note she had tossed earlier, assuming it to be a prank. But was it?
She rereads the phrase. But this time, with a grave expression.
Jennifer could not figure out why this piece of information was sent to her. Obviously there had to be a motive behind this. So, to get to know more about this incident, she decided to visit the person who knew the answers to most of her questions, Mrs. Cilly.
The very next day, she was standing in street 101, staring at Rosie's house all wrapped up with crime scene barrigade tape. As she approached Mrs. Cilly's house, she settled her hair, took a long breath, and rang the doorbell. There was a long pause before the door opened.
"Yes, who's this? She interrogated in a strong British accent, adjusting her spectacles up her nose.
"Hello, Mrs. Cilly, I'm Jennifer from Times Now, and I needed your few minutes as I had some questions regarding Mrs. Rosie.
Her lie seemed to work as the old lady seemed convinced and directed her to the inside of her house. Jennifer silently followed.
They both sat down on the sofa near the mantelpiece which looked even older than Mrs. Cilly herself.
"Would you like some tea?" Mrs. Cilly asked, but Jennifer politely refused, as she saw the poor old lady struggling to adjust herself on the sofa.
"Mrs. Cilly, I don't want to waste much of your time, so let's just get straight to the point, how well did you know Rosie?"
"Well, we had been neighbours since a year and a half and Rosie worked as a teacher in a primary school."
"Did she live alone?"
"Oh yes. She had no family and once she even told me that her parents were dead. Although she used to have boyfriends visiting her house every now and then."
"Mrs. Cilly, on the day when the incident took place, did you see someone enter or leave from Rosie's house?
"Well, let me think." The feeble lady wrinkled her forehead.
"As far as I remember, I saw a man leaving the house ten minutes before it caught fire, but at that moment I didn't pay much attention. I just thought that Rosie had a new boyfriend. Although, I think that things were not going great between them since a few days as I heard quarrels and voices being raised from Rosie's house."
"Maybe her boyfriend is the one who did it. But there is no possible way I can find him all by myself in such a big city." Jennifer thought to herself. After getting no strong evidences and clues on who the person was who did all this, Jennifer decided to leave. She sighed with disappointment and took out her cellphone from her bag, to call the cab. After booking the cab, she casually placed her mobile onto the table in front of her, and that's when Mrs. Cilly laid her eyes on the polaroid picture of Alvin and Jennifer that stuck to the back of her phone. After looking at the picture for a while, she muttered, "He was the one."
Jennifer passed an awkward smile to Mrs. Cilly, not quite understanding what the old lady was trying to convey.
Mrs. Cilly repeated, "He was the man that I saw leaving Rosie's house before the fire started. Now I vividly remember his face."
"What are you even talking about? He's my husband!" Jennifer raised her voice.
"Oh I see?..infidelity can be heart wretching-
Before Mrs. Cilly could complete her sentence, Jennifer stood up to leave and slammed the door shut on the lady's face as she could not bear to listen to the bitter words that spilled out of Mrs. Cilly's mouth.
"That old lady is completely out of her mind. She is accusing my husband for cheating on me and maybe thinking that he's the criminal in this case. I should not have gone there to ask her questions, she's too old to remember things anyway." She thought while sitting in the cab.
As Jennifer got of the cab and stood out of her house, her heart skipped a beat as she saw yet another sticky note, stuck to the door.
"Yesterday, I saw you in my dream, struggling to walk by yourself, struggling to catch your breath. The poison running down your veins, making you pale and blue. And then I heard your screams from not too far, while I sat and played the guitar."
Already terrified from what was written on the piece of paper, she flipped it to see another horrific surprise, that made her gasp for breath, because this time, it was her address written on it. She swiftly ran inside her house and locked herself in her bedroom. She was swinging to and fro, clenching her knees tightly when suddenly, the doorbell rang. Her heartbeat sprang up as she jumped out of fear, shutting her eyes tightly. After a few more rings and bangs at the door, she heard a voice call out:
"What's taking you so long Jenns? Are you fine?" It was none other than Alvin. As soon as she heard her husband's voice, she ran down the stairs and was too overwhelmed to react when she saw Alvin standing outside.
Alvin, after seeing Jennifer in a terrible condition, gave her a concerning look while he cupped her face in his hands, "Are you okay Jennifer? Did something happen?"
"I am so happy you're back. I was scared to death!" Jennifer exclaimed as she felt a sense of immense relief and comfort now that Alvin was back. They spent all evening talking to each other, Alvin telling Jennifer about his experience at the business meet while Jennifer told him about all the happenings of the past few days.
"You must be so terrified! But I'm pretty sure that it's just a way to scare people after the mishappening at Mable Road. And anyways, there is no need to worry anymore, I'm always by your side." Alvin assured.
Later that evening Alvin was baking brownies in the kitchen while Jennifer was completing some crochet tops upstairs.
"Come downstairs Jenns, the brownies are ready!" Alvin called out. Jennifer and Alvin sat together and enjoyed the delicious treat. After eating and chatting for a while, Jennifer said, "Now let's quickly tidy up and go to sleep, as I don't feel so well. I think I ate too much."
"As discussed earlier, I was supposed to prepare the brownies and you were supposed to tidy up the kitchen. Now things will proceed as promised, no silly excuses Jenns!" Alvin said playfully while Jennifer made a dizzy face. Finally after a lot of playfull quarrelling, Jennifer agreed to the plan. While Jennifer was cleaning the Kitchen, Alvin sat on the couch and was playing Jenifer's favourite song on the guitar and Jennifer was singing along, however just after a second Jennifer made a bewildered expression as she gawks at some peanut shells wrapped in an old newspaper.
"Did you eat peanuts, Alv?" Jennifer asked.
"Yes darling, and so did you." Alvin stated in a dead serious tone.
"What? You know I cannot eat peanuts because of my allergy. You know that I almost choked myself after accidently eating some peanut protein bars when I was 16, and you know that I have banned peanuts in the house since then." Jennifer giggled, but after getting no response from Alvin, Jennifer started to get concerned. After a while, Alvin began to speak, "If you ate the brownies, you ate the peanuts as well."
"What are you saying Alvin. I'm not up for silly jokes at this time. I'm already feeling dizzy and you're scaring me even more." Jennifer said, now breathing heavily.
"Jennifer, you loved me so much. But after this, you will know this forever, that I loved you more."
Jennifer remained expressionless, her face turning pale and her lips turning blue.
"But don't panic. I promise your death won't be as painful as Rosie's. It would be quick and easy."
Jennifer's eyes widened. It seemed as if she was trying to speak, but was too shocked to produce a sound. Suddenly Jennifer fell to the ground, unable to balance herself.
"Mrs. Cilly wasn't wrong afterall." It took all of Jennifer's energy to blabber out these words with a tremble in her voice. She started to sob and was struggling to catch a breath.
"Now hear me out honey, I'm doing all this because I'm obsessed with you so very much and I own you. We are meant for each other. But you are only meant for me. You see, it's not really my fault that human flesh tastes so good and the blood just smells heavenly. It just tempts me so much that I lose control over my senses. Now you might call me a sadist, but that's not true in your case. My dearest wife, I cannot leave you alone and run away like that. I'll consider it as a privilege to taste your holy blood as I know, that your blood will be the most delicious of all the other people whose blood I've tasted before." Alvin laughs deviously.
"Monster??..monster??.monster?" Jennifer kept mumbling this word over and over again, as she was struggling on the floor just like an aching restless fish out of water.
"Don't worry honey, I'll not destroy or beautiful body ruthlessly. Instead I'll preserve it and bury you in our garden, where red roses would bloom. Roses are your favourite, right? Our garden was lacking some flowers anyway."
Ultimately Jennifer lay lifeless, cold and blue on the floor.
'PHILADELPHIA BECOMING THE MYSTERIOUS CRIME CITY'
Yet another tragedy has occurred in the city of Philadelphia. A young women, Jennifer Brown has gone missing from her house since Friday evening. The missing complaint was filed by Jennifer's husband, the next day after Jennifer was nowhere to be seen.
"I had gone out of the city for 3 days to attend a business meeting. However, when I reached home, the door was half open and Jennifer was not in the house. I even called up my parents, our relatives and some of her friends to check if she was with them or not. But nobody had a clue as to where she might have gone. She has never gone anywhere without informing me, and her disappearance has given left me speechless. I don't want to believe that all of this it true. I just wish that it is a nightmare and everything will be the same when I wake up from this terrible dream."
"Death lies on her like an untimely frost, upon the sweetest flower of all the field" Mrs. Cilly sighs as she sits on the sofa sipping hot tea and reading the article from the newspaper.
"Poor thing. May her soul rest in peace." She whispers.
