Diviya could not seem to move from where she was, her heart rate speeds up drastically in an instant. Fighting to escape her chest as it thunders on.
She stayed rooted to her spot.
Is it mom and dad? No, it is not. Stop being ridiculous, you were with them maybe two to three hours ago. It can't be them. It's not. She chided herself for even thinking it. Trying to bring some comfort to her aching heart.
"Ms. Mason? The Officer calls after her once he realizes she was not trailing behind or beside him.
Diviya blinks a few times looking at him and she saw something there, like empathy in his eyes and she just knew. Diviya looks from the Officer to the road ahead of her and she visibly paled.
All color leaving her at once.
In the next instant, Diviya dashes off into a full run with her hand bag flailing against her side. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her, as it was shaky, wobbly and her skin pricks with fear as she pushes forward.
Suddenly firm arms wrap around her and she heard "Miss Mason, I am taking you to the lead detective but you cannot go pass the yellow tape". He reasons, the Officer did not want her to see that scene, no one should have to view their parents like that, even if she was a young adult and could probably handle it he would still advise against it.
He gently set her down. Diviya's knees buckle and she grabs at the Officer's arm to steady herself at the same time he reaches to steady her by her shoulders.
But in the end her knees fails again and this time he holds her up, close to his side tucked under his arms as he tries to take as much of her weight off of her.
Diviya was battling an onslaught of emotions all the while fighting to stand and push forward. However she was grateful for the assist, she knows she needed it. She was distraught.
Her world was ripped away from her in one fell swoop. Just like that.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she needed to gather herself, but right now she can't think straight.
Her world stopped, it was just suddenly too much. She saw the bright blue lights of the siren flashing, she no longer heard what the Officer was saying but she knew he was saying something because she felt the vibration of his chest.
She no longer heard chattering, there was a dull constant noise in her ear and it felt clogged.
Diviya was approaching closer to her home and there were a lot of people outside, the road cordoned off with yellow tapes, lots of Police Officers as well standing by questioning all who they can.
These faces were familiar to her, the ones being questioned. They were after all living a stone throw away but at the time Diviya didn't seem to notice any of them. Each one of them that her eyes landed on wore expressions, either sorrowful, worried, curiosity, pity, outraged..
She continues to glance around absently, eyes darting this way, then over there to the left, then that way to the right. Still she was looking at them but not really looking at them as she was just completely lost to the world. And just like that Diviya slowly slips away and got lost further in her mind.
Not long they were upon her home, a lovely three bedroom house stood there looking back at her all doom and gloom. The grass on the front lawn was not as green as they once were, the trees just stood lifeless and dull, the small beautiful flower garden that her mom loves so dearly looks like its dying already.
The life looks like it was sucked out of the vibrant colors of each flower that decorated the garden, this whole picture is wrong. Just, wrong.
Diviya doesn't recognize it one bit.
The front door wide open, Officers still walking in and out the door, two ambulances still parked outside. More Officers were scattered about questioning those much closer to her home.
Then she saw a man in a suit starts making his way towards her from the lawn, and Diviya's eyes strays just past him and her heart stop beating for a quick second or three and for a moment she was not breathing.
There on the lawn were two gurneys, a body laid on top each. Unmoving.
In the next second Diviya was moving, not even realizing she was. She had shoved away from the Officer and took off again, upon seeing her the man in a suit stood and slightly bent his knee, tilting his body just the slightest, arms angled out wide open like he is about to tackle her if she tries to rush past him.
He was not about to let Diviya get past him.
It was like time slowed even more as Diviya ran with what must be a rush of adrenaline. She saw the man in the suit and his positioning and she was not having it. Her eyes narrowed looking for a way through.
She try her hardest to dodge pass the man but he caught her by her hand and gripped on firmly. She jerks back toward him and he quickly steadies her.
Diviya fights the detective. "Let me go," she screams, her voice breaking and sounding so hoarse, heavy with emotion.
She trash against him hitting him with her hands.
But the man in the suit was stronger and he won't budge, instead he tries to calm her. "Miss please calm down, you will be given the opportunity to view and identify them, but right now we need to clear the bodies from the crime scene."
Diviya was still thrashing against the man in the suit's chest and yelling for him to let her go and by now her voice was a harsh hoarse. The man in the suit simply continues to keep her firmly against his chest keeping her in place and tries to calm her with a slight urgency in his voice, "I know this is not easy…I would not wish this on anyone, but we need to get you out of here safely."
The man in the suit knew the danger they were in simply by still being here, with no doubt in his mind he knew they were going to be followed.
Maybe it was the urgency in his voice when he said the last part or maybe it was just what he said but she stops and looks at him suddenly questions shining bright in her eyes along with a hint of confusion.
The man in the suit whispers "not here."
Diviya slowly tries to catch her breath, to calm herself down. She took long breaths in and then she lets it out, in and then out.
Eventually she was breathing regularly, her body numb as tears sprung from her eyes uncontrollably and ran down her face as she shook like the leaves during a winter storm.
She felt so lost, moments ago she was happy. She had the best adoptive parents anyone could ever ask for. They loved her as if she were their very own daughter by flesh and blood. They were more of a parent to her than her own parents…..
Diviya's biological parents left her at the entrance of a church when she was not more than a day old. She was blessed to be found by the Masons, they picked her up that warm summer night and held her tightly never letting her go nor abandoning her not once.
Till this moment when they were taken away from her in the most gruesome way she can only imagine.
Her heart ached, who would do such a thing, the Masons were an old couple, Mrs. Vicky Mason late fifties and Mr. John Mason early sixties. What could they have even done, they didn't have to die and those bastards didn't have to kill them.
Abruptly her stomach felt upset, she leans forward and gags. She vomits out her lunch. Her stomach was really doing the most ever since she got out of that taxi.
The man in the suit gave her the small bottle water he got from the Officer who was hovering close by, the same Officer that brought her over here.
Diviya took the water and quickly opens it, then she takes some into her mouth, shakes it around and then spit, she repeats that action about four times and then washes her finger tips with the dregs that remained. She was gripping onto the arms of the man in the suit for dear life as she pause hoping her stomach starts to settle.
"We must get going, my name his James Ward, I am an FBI Special Agent and I am going to take you to the Police Station where we can talk safely for now" he looks around, then calls the same Officer who was still hovering close by and told him to get three more Officers and have them trail us in two separate cars….