Vikshar was inhaling a cigarette outside the station, standing against his car. Vikshar didn't have much of a habit for cigarettes, only when his stress became too high that he had to take it. The experience had left him with a deep trauma inside him. He could see the body even now, the ghastly cuts, the crushed bones, the stitched body. His hands trembled as he took another drag of it.
The cigarette reached its end. Vikshar threw it on the ground and crushed it. There were many cigarette butts on the ground. It was his fourth one and he didn't know how many it would take to get away from this nightmare of the thing that won't leave his vision. He couldn't even imagine it happening to his son. He prayed to god for his safety. Nothing bad should happen to him.
"Can I have one too," Vikshar was reaching for another cigarette when he heard the voice of Officer Malkolm.
"Officer!" Vikshar looked at the police officer with a complicated expression. How many such cases officer must have to deal with on a daily basis. He couldn't help but have deep respect for the police officer.
He took out a cigarette from the packet and passed it to Malkolm, and took out one for himself. He lit his cigarette and passed the lighter to Officer Malkolm who took a drag immediately. He sighed as he exhaled the smoke.
"That was such a dreadful case. To do this to a body, I can't even think, who can do such an inhuman thing." Vikshar shook his head as he said that.
"Sigh, the parents. It wasn't easy for them. I had to ask my fellow officer to take care of them. They must have been going through a bad shock." Officer Malkolm said.
"It won't be easy for any of us." Vikshar said with a grim smile.
"This case. It has changed my worldview. I couldn't possibly stop until I find, who or what was responsible for it." Officer Malkolm crushed the cigarette with half of it left.
"Officer Malkolm, I suppose my son hasn't been the only one that has gone missing." Vikshar said. He had seen those parents, their son must have gone missing like Miguel.
"It's true Mr. Vikshar, that your son hasn't been the only one who has gone missing. In fact, the body you saw in the morgue isn't the only one. There have been many missing cases such as your son. But we had been able to keep it under the cover for a file. It won't be long before it would be brought to light among the public. You could just guess what might happen by then." Officer Malkolm said he had to ponder if it was right to tell Vikshar about it.
Vikshar could only look at Malkolm in shock. It was too great of a news. He had thought that the other kid in the morgue might be the only one. But what the officer had told him was too much to digest.
Vikshar had no idea what to say, when Officer Malkolm continued, "These cases of ruthlessness, the missing ones, I think they might just be a start of something bigger."
"I must return to the station. The parents, they must be fine by now." Officer Malkolm said, taking a look toward the police station.
"Officer, then I will meet you later." Vikshar bid his byes to the police officer. He was contemplating if he should ask him about his son. But Officer Malkolm let go of his worries.
"I will see you soon. And don't worry, we will find your son by any means possible." Officer Malkolm's eyes narrowed as he said. There was a conviction on his face that made Vikshar let go of his tension. Vikshar had an intuition that if someone was capable of finding his missing son, it was only Officer Malkolm and no one else.
Sharla was cleaning stuff. She had to clean the games and things in the game shop that her brother hadn't bothered to clean in a while. She was frustrated by him, why couldn't he take good care of the shop. The shop had been left untouched for 15 days, during which dust had started to gather over the objects. Sharla had to wipe the front desk, while her mom was responsible for cleaning the inside room of the shop.
She cleaned another of the games that had gathered dust. And looking at the condition of these games, she could be sure that they were gathering dust for more than 15 days. Maybe months. Her holiday was sacrificed for it, but she was good enough to do it. Looking at her family, she looked very sad with her brother's absence. She didn't want them to suffer more due to her, and so she had decided to come with her mother. As a good kid who listened to their parents.
"Excuse me," Sharla heard a lady's voice from the other side of the front desk. She had been kneeling down on the counter, to get out all the games that had gathered dust. She had to get up to see who it was.
There was a young lady standing near her. She looked beautiful in her clothes. Sharla could see that the lady was wearing expensive clothes, by only looking at the quality of it. Sharla couldn't help but drag her eyes from the dress, almost grudgingly to look at her face. She had brown hair, she looked as if she had straight come out of a beauty parlor. She was gorgeous.
"Yes." Sharla said, almost uncertain what to say next and then followed it with, "What do you want?"
The customer must have come to purchase games. She always imagined it during leisure, that she would be in the game shop, selling her favorite games to the customers. Now that she was in the situation it excited her.
"Um.. Do you have this puzzle game?" The lady took out a piece of something that looked like the cover of the puzzle game and handed it over to Sharla on the counter.
Sharla looked at it, and followed with an enthusiastic smile. "This one. I will get it for you."
She started rummaging through boxes of games. What looked like junk of stuff, that didn't go together. Miguel hadn't been specific in keeping the games in order, and as such she had to search around a lot. She had definitely seen many puzzle type games, so she was almost certain she could find it. Almost.
Even after rummaging around the shop, where she hopped between the counter side and the customer side, where some of the games were kept. She couldn't find the puzzle. She had been pretty tired from the search and when she was certain that she couldn't find it, she had to call her mom.
"Mom," She called out loud. Her mother was cleaning stuff in the storage room, where there was a lot more junk than what was present here. When Sharla had first entered the shop she was pretty sure that she could clean the shop after looking at only the front area of the shop. The back area though, as soon as her eyes traveled past to the storage room. She could see piles and piles of things, there were not only games but also comics.
They looked like old comics, whole piles of them. Only a few of the racks looked clean, even then they had dust gathered on them.
The other stuff, they looked like they had been just left in the storage room for the single task to gather dust. So she had been pretty thankful when her mom had decided to clean the storage room herself leaving the front to her.
"What happened," Her mom's voice came from the storage room. It didn't take long for her to come out. She was fully covered from head to toe, her hands too were gloved. She looked like a superwoman, only that she was incharge of cleaning dust rather than criminals. She looked pretty tired.
"Mom, there is a customer here, she wants a puzzle game. Can you please look for it?" Sharla had a twinkle in her eyes as she pleaded to her mom.
Her mother looked relieved coming out from the storage room. The whole room was packed, it was extremely humid inside. She looked at the customer removing the mask from her face.
"Hello aunty, can you please take a look if you have this puzzle?" The young lady said with a smile. Flaura took the puzzle game cover, and immediately a look of recognition came on her.
"It is inside. I will bring it." Flaura said with a smile. It didn't take her long to go in and out from the storage room with a packaged item in her hand. It was a puzzle game.
"Here it is." Flaura passed the game to the young lady. Sharla couldn't help but be sad inside. After all she had spent so much time finding the game, only to be found by her mom in a few minutes.