In a
A place so sterile and silent,
Is where we find the key,
To all the clues that be.
A series of crimes, both cruel and violent.
A pain in my heart, a betrayal, like a stab.
For in the White Lab lies,
The reasons to our broken ties.
Yet, there too, my only hope is found,
A promise, forever bound.
A bargain with the devil,
A deal in which they revel.
I seek to save one,
Save all.
Again and again.
Forever.
Until the end,
Where you walked in,
Like the fire and the rain,
And my broken pieces,
You began to mend.
The White Lab (The poem)
- by Vedikha Lakshman-Singh
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"Hello Celine. I see you sent me a little present. That was indeed, very sweet of you, however, as you would know, it is not my birthday." He growled into the microphone, his irritation causing him to press down on the accelerator, speeding along the highway.
Celine was dressed rather provocatively in a red silk dress with a low neckline. She was lying sprawled across a large beige leather sofa infront of a tinted bay window overlooking the ocean. Her blonde hair had been professionally curled and arranged to fall around her jawline, accentuating her beautiful, but cunning face and had also successfully framed her fake cleavage, which was mainly propped up thanks to a black, lace, push-up bra, just visible under the dress's low neckline. In her left hand she held a glass of red wine and sipped slowly, for dramatic effect.
Adorning her ears was a beautifully crafted pair of gold earrings that Yash had once gifted the love of his life.
Celine had intentionally dressed up like this to provoke Yash, knowing that his wife used to wear red all the time. She had even worn his wife's earrings, which infuriated him even more.
After Urmi's death, a lot of her jewellery that he, Yashvardhan Singhania, had bought for his wife to wear during and after their wedding, had mysteriously gone missing. When he'd mentioned this suspicious fact to their upper management, as was customary whenever anything strange occurred at their homes, Celine, who was by then, part of the board, had dismissed it as grief and Yash was sent off to face months of counselling.
"It's just a small token from me." She grinned menacingly, shrugging purposely so that the thin straps on her dress fell off her fair, slender shoulders.
"You know, I just thought, 'Ag shame, poor Yash ne, he's all alone without his precious puppeteer Robert. Let me call him and check up on him. After all, your precious little wife isn't around either! Hoe sal jy nou werk Yash? Jou baas het gisteraand gersterf." She laughed sarcastically, her piercing green eyes staring into his soul through the video call. Celine had continued to giddily giggle at him maliciously. Then, she battered her fake eyelashes at Yash, successfully causing him to feel nauseated.
"I'll function just fine without him Celine. Hy's nie die enigste bestuurder van SASS nie, en jy van almal in hierdie wêreld moet daai weet." He retorted accordingly.
"Still got it in you, I see Yash. What a man." She simpered seductively, bending forwards slightly so that her cleavage was on full display.
"Why don't we just call this a little misunderstanding between us and meet for coffee later?"
"When will you understand that I'm a married man Celine? Besides... You're not my type." He said to her politely, as he indicated and took the off-ramp to Umhlanga Ridge.
The sunrise tgis morning was beautiful. It lit the entire skyline across the ocean at the Ridgeside. Yash had taken the highway that ran along the beach, which led to the residential parts of Umhlanga. He picked the scenic route to gather his thoughts before he faced her. Almost there.
He almost had her.
Celine, who was uninterested in Yash's search for her headquarters, had continued with her string of tourments.
"Always playing hard to get Yash. You know, I did this all for you. Just so you'd take me seriously." She whispered, sitting up to face her laptop's camera head on.
"My wife's dead thanks to you. I highly doubt you'll ever understand what love is Ceine. But I do hope, for your sake, that someday you get to experience it, just so you can understand the pain of losing the love of your life." He snapped at her, then cut the call, not waiting to hear the sick retort she'd surely have for him.
...
An hour later.
They had perused through the streets of Umhlanga Ridge and the greater Umhlanga area, but to no avail. Celine was nowhere to be found. The address provided on the USB didn't match the actual physical coordinates.
The information Yash received stated that at 10 Park Lane, he'd find a spa which Celine used as her headquarters.
However, there were only call centres in the vicinity, with the odd tattoo parlour and attorneys office.
Sensing his desperation, Alexa asked:
"Master Yash, are you alright?" Alexa inquired curiously.
"Yes Alexa. I'm fine. There's just some memories that hurt more than others." He shrugged. Shutting his mind off so that Alexa wouldn't read into his past. It was painful. Too painful to relive.
All his memories of Urmi were now laced with a dash of pain. Yash had packed away their wedding photographs, everything from their engagement ceremony, the pre-wedding celebrations (their Mendhi night and Huldi night, the Sungeet night...) and the wedding day. Yash thought back to the wedding photos that were taken on stage - the moments where they were laughing at something funny that he'd done while the procession was underway.
Urmi had dressed up in colours that matched him on each of those significant days. She had worn a lime green lengha (tradition skirt, blouse and scarf) to match his shirt for her Mendhi (henna) night. For their Huldi (tumeric) night, Urmi had dressed in a stunning yellow sari, the yellow of the tuneric paste applied causing her face to glow.
Yash remembered how happy she was that night.
"I'm so happy tonight Yash. I wish that we can be like this forever. Just married and alone together." She told him as she touched her forehead to his, he too returned the gesture, holding her close in his arms.
...
But now these were all just reminders of what he once had.
They were reminders of what Celine had taken away from him... Yash now had enough of the tourments and finger pointing from friends and family alike, it was now all packed away into a box that was labelled 'never to be opened again'.
His mother attempted to find the box, hoping that one day Yash would come round and embrace the happy moments that he and Urmi had shared.
She even tried setting Yash up with other women, in the hope of him getting married again.
But Yash wouldn't budge.
After all, a man would be bitter if his wife was killed while she was expecting his first baby. Urmi was six months with child when he'd had to leave her with her parents as he needed to go to Zurich on a 'business trip'. Only Urmi knew where he was really headed and what he was truly up to. She was proud of him.
But things didn't go as planned. Her parents wanted to take her out for lunch, a terrible flaw on their part, though they would never know.
Celine, who was still part of Yash's team at the time, had ceased the opportunity to manipulate the restaurant's chefs and poisoned Urmi's meals. Only hers.
Making it look like innocent food poisoning, until Yash ran his own investigation on the incident.
The truth had ripped all emotion from his being forever.
To him, no woman in their right mind would harm another woman, especially one with child.
It was then, once the trial was run against Celine, that she'd been thrown out of the academy. The South African Secret Services board had banned her from setting foot on any of their premises. Her credentials were destroyed and her memory was wiped. Or so they believed.
Unfortunately the drug that wiped one's memory was completely useless if one was under the influence of cannibas. And Celine often smoked it for medical purposes - having survived breast cancer while serving at the academy.
Tears shone at the corners of Yash's eyes and he swiftly wiped them away. Alexa, being an AI, knew not to question him.
Picking up on the sombre mood in the car, instead, the AI ran a scan for imminent threats above and below them.
"On the bright side, I've located Celine's hide out." Alexa informed Yash, her tone level, as if attempting a human's tone when trying to hiding emotion. Oblivious to the AI's attempt and respecting his emotions, Yash responded sarcastically.
"Let me guess, she's on a yacht along the coast?" He asked Alexa sarcastically, looking away from the road for a second to view what the AI had displayed on the dashboard. His jaw dropped at what he saw on the screen.
"No master Yash. She's on a specially designed private military aircraft, directly above us."
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