Speeding up her car with her heart rushing with nervousness, she reached the old and abandoned orphanage.
What once was like a bright and warm nest of her memories now just stood there as a broken structure. She still was thinking that she could talk things out casually. There were things that her mind knew weren't as casual but still, she wanted to take a step forward towards Noah.
It was pouring heavily. It was already dark. She didn't bring an umbrella so she just quickly rushed from the gate inside.
"It started pouring. I can see how unprepared I am." She mumbled as she took out her mobile from her jacket pockets.
"7.45 pm …" she quickly glanced at the time and also on the network bars. "No connection? Did expect that to happen." she sighed.
She stood there quietly on the ground floor of the orphanage. The sound of rain echoed since the walls of the building were quite summers old. "I have to go to the terrace. But what should I do?"
She was getting more and more anxious. She did go there instinctively without much thought but now the veils of fear were creeping in her heartbeat. She started climbing the stairs.
One by one she climbed the stairs. Her heartbeat increasing with every step she was taking. The floors and lobbies were all dark with the rooms that were long abandoned and left without any human touch.
"It's been years since I left this place, but now I feel that I never once came here." She thought. And suddenly she heard a loud gun bang on the terrace. Without thinking much she immediately rushed to the top and saw shadows of three people.
The heavy rain made it hard for her to look at who they were. She saw a silhouette of a weak woman approaching her. "You came." A delighted voice welcomed her.
"Aunty?" she was shocked to see the person who was now standing in front of her.
"What do you mean by that questioned expression?" asked the lady in a teasing voice. Even though she did look like Linda from her memory, she was shocked at the fact that she didn't age one bit in all these years Janice didn't see her. Not even a single wrinkle, nothing at all. On the contrary, she seemed so young that someone might say she was a witch, preserving herself.
The woman approached her slickly with a calm and dominating smile on her face. Janice, who knew that there were two more people far behind but she was helpless and unarmed. Her legs going numb due to the cold rain and the woman coming towards her while blabbering something, Janice wasn't prepared for this at all and suddenly as the woman stood at an arm's length from her, she declared, "You aren't Aunt Linda."
Though the rain was making loud noise enough to became deaf and be unable to listen at all , she heard a rustle nearby.
"I am Aunt Linda sweety, I am Linda Robbins." Said the woman as she went ahead to hug Janice.
Janice was trembling in fear, lips felt as though they were slowly getting sealed by wax because of the cold. "Hey you at the back, help." She yelled and the woman who had a calm smile on her face till now suddenly turned into a psychopathic laugh. Her laughter burst.
No one was coming from the back. "Maybe they are accomplices as well. I made a mistake." Janice analyzed quickly.
"Honey, You are right. I am not Linda Robbins rather I am someone who you know very well." Said the lady as she turned back.
She was blabbering when Janice interrupted in the middle and asked- "Where is Noah?"
"Hmm?" The woman turned back with a slight smirk on her face.
"I guess, you are quite desperate to look at Noah." She smirked. "But he isn't here." She added.
"What?" Janice was totally caught off guard. "So, whom did those two shadows belong to?" a quick question popped up in her mind.
"Come with me." That woman said in a dominating voice. By now Janice knew that she was the foolish one in this entire game. And she was the clown since the entire game began. Without many struggles, she followed that woman."
That woman had an umbrella and wore an elegant and vibrant red dress. Every move of hers was enough to blind people and make them believe that she was Linda Robbins. The smartest and most cunning woman in the business world.
"But aunt Linda would never call herself Linda Robbins, after what CEO Robbins did to her." She thought to herself and thus knew that she wasn't Linda that she knew.
They walked to the far end of the terrace. The two people that Janice thought stood there, weren't anywhere to be seen. Both didn't talk much and the woman with the umbrella seemed creepier and creepier. Janice was still getting soaked in the rain without an umbrella.
She suddenly felt the urge to question something and immediately said, "Why did you send me a note like that then? Also why the knife and the gun?"
Although she was scared with her bravery she dared to ask her. Linda sighed and turned back.
"Dear Janice, Noah is in danger. I can't stop my mom, please come to the old orphanage quickly. My mom dragged Noah here. Please come quick." She narrated. "I'm sure you thought Noah's elder brother, Daniel wrote it. But how can a cunning woman like you fall for a trap like this." She was laughing hilariously.
"She is fucked up in her head." Janice thought to herself. "I have to play a different card to keep myself safe." She took a deep breath and looked in Linda's eyes. Linda stopped laughing and suddenly her expression turned cold.
"Thinking of playing a different card?" she asked.
Janice flinched. "How does she know?" thought Janice.
"I don't think darling you have time to think that now." Said Linda as she threw her umbrella away and walked towards Janice again. Janice decided to not even show any signs of fear and controlled her trembling heart.
"Because Noah is almost here." She came very close to her and taking Janice's hand stabbed herself in the stomach with a sharp dagger. It happened very quickly. In a jiffy, where Janice didn't even know what happened. She was shocked at the blood that stained her hand like a scarlet stain. Even the rains couldn't wash away the blood that was there on her knife and hand.
"Meet you later. Heh." Linda stabbed herself again and flopped down on the wet ground.
"Janice?" came a voice from behind her. "Is that you?" this voice was enough to break Janice entirely from inside.
That innocent voice belonged to someone whom Janice wanted to meet at least once in all these years.
"Noah?" she turned around quickly.
Noah was shocked at what he saw in front of him. His mother lay on the terrace floor and Janice had a sharp dagger in her hand and blood on her clothes.
He threw his umbrella and quickly went to his mother who was lying there, soaking in the rain.
"What did you do?" he asked with a trembling and angry voice.
"I…I didn't…" she was stammering. At the worst possible time.
She always used to think that she would meet Noah one day again and tell him her feelings. The warm and sweet voice that made her heart flutter was now cursing her.
"Why did you do this to my mother? Why?" he was on the verge of crying. She knew that what he saw in front of him was nothing but a reversed reflection of what actually happened.
"Why would you do this Janice?" asked another voice. Much calmer than that of Noah's.
She turned her head and there he was Daniel Robbins. He wore thick glasses and crisp ironed suit. A smirk was all Janice could see in the dim light on that terrace.
Daniel quickly made a call to the police and soon as Janice was explaining Noah, the noise of sirens filled the entire atmosphere.
Janice got caught in the moment, unable to explain the moment she just stood there mumbling, "I didn't do it. She is not Aunt Linda." Noah was in no place to listen to her. The rain made it hard to guess the flowing tears but he was crying. He was crying to the point where with every passing second the hate and malice in his heart for Janice was growing.
He wasn't in the mind to understand anything. All he could see was his lifeless mother and a criminal with a dagger, blood stained clothes. She knelt down and starting yelling- "I did not this Noah. Believe I would never do this. She wasn't Aunt Linda." She repeated this again and again as she was crying with desperation.
"I hate you." , Noah mumbled.
"What?" she suddenly stopped.
"I hate you, Janice. I will hate you forever." He shouted at the top of his voice.
The police quickly came up and handcuffed Janice. "Hey listen to me. I am not the one who did this. It was she who did this to herself." She wanted one more chance to explain the complexity of what was happened.
But the police only saw the evidence and dragged her. The paramedics arrived as well to take Linda's body.
"Tsk, tsk Janice. I thought you were the ace player. Guess you are just a clown after all. Louisa didn't lie." Whispered Daniel in Janice's ear.
"Who are you?" she asked with anger in her eyes as she was gritting her teeth.
"I'm Eugene." He said with a beaming smile.
"Who?" she asked with confusion.
Daniel's face suddenly became upset," You don't remember me?" he asked in disbelief.
"Now even more reason to help Louisa." He suddenly said with an evil smile. The police took her away.
The jail was her only place. And thinking about her current situation all she could imagine was she was the victim. But one thought that was hovering over her mind the entire time that night in the prison was –
"Who was that woman? And who are Eugene and Louisa?" she mumbled with a long and cold night ahead of her in the prison.