11 Part 10

[Present-Lara]

Lara explained the best she could about him. She gave them the vaguest details possible and Parker seemed to believe her every word. Ria noted things down occasionally and often would ask one or two small questions like how old he was when he died or if he had any friends besides her.

"Why did you ask me about him?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"We asked you once if you have any history with stalkers and you denied. We dug a little and found out you had actually lodged a complaint about someone stalking and harassing you about five years back."

Fuck, she cursed in her mind. She did take back the complaint but of course it was still in the records.

"We want to know the entire thing so do enlighten us," Parker said firmly.

Lara knew she had no choice but to explain. She could worry about the consequences later.

"It was during the Christmas vacations. I had come back to my aunt's house to stay. She usually had work from eight a.m. to nine p.m. so I was left alone for most of the time. I usually took a walk around the nearby park in the evenings…"

Was when he first reached his hand out from the shadows and grabbed me, she thought.

"That was the first time I saw someone trailing along behind me," she changed up the story. "He was wearing a long dark coat and a hat which hid most of his face. I quickly went home and…"

Found a bouquet on my doorstep, she thought but said nothing.

"For the next week I received anonymous gifts. There were no cards or return addresses written so I never knew who sent them. It was a little weird but harmless so I didn't tell anyone."

Then it began to get weirder. She started receiving creepy poems written in blood. Letters written to her explaining how much the sender was in love with her and how much he wished to make her his. He was not right in the head, she had figured. She knew it was blood was why she first went to the police. She was scared out of her mind.

But the moment she placed foot inside her house after going to the police her eyes almost bulged out of her skull. There was another letter inside the box outside and this one had some more chilling, terrifying letters written on it.

I will kill Destiny.

Destiny was her aunt's name. Lara knew whoever it was, wasn't playing. She knew why the sender threatened to kill her aunt. It was all because she had gone to the police.

"What do you want from me?" she screamed. "Leave me alone, please."

How naïve was she?

That night gunshots woke her up. The shards of glasses flew in front of her eyes and landed on the floor. And on the window sill sat the silhouette of a person who wore a hat. "Hello love," he said.

"I think you know the rest of it. It was deemed a cold case but I stopped getting them after a while so I took the complaint back," Lara said.

"But we do know it was Lucien Lethar who was writing you those creepy letters," Parker said. "We heard about it from your aunt herself, Destiny – wasn't that her name?"

"Yes," Ria answered.

"Those were written by his own blood, he did confess, didn't he?"

Lies.

He had lied. Those were not written with his blood. There was no way that sadistic son of a bitch would ever hurt himself on purpose.

"Yes, he was not right in the head at that moment. He had recently lost his mother and then he also wanted to drop out of the school…"

But how did it matter? He was dead anyway.

"But if he's dead then this information isn't going to do us much good," Parker leaned back in his seat and ran a finger through his hair. "But this proves you lie to us, Lara. And I'm not really thrilled about it."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't understand whoever is doing this could seriously hurt you. It could be you he is after and we want to help you. Your classmates are all in danger so if you know anything I see no reason as to why you won't help us."

"I didn't tell you because he is dead. It wouldn't have done you much good anyway."

"I understand but something about you tells me you know more. Do you have any suspects of your own?"

Yes, she thought.

"No," she said.

"Okay, okay," he muttered to himself. "Suppose if Lucien was alive, would you suspect him?"

Lara smiled. It was the first time Parker was seeing Lara smile since they met and he felt a chill run down his back at the terrifying expression the girl in front of her made. Smiles were supposed to be warm, comforting not cold and terrifying. Something about this beautiful young girl was unsettling and everytime they met he felt weirded out.

"Yes, Officer. He would be my suspect number one."

*

She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and when she came back to the living room the lights abruptly went off.

"That's odd," she thought. Where she lived there was a constant supply of electricity and even if it did go out the generator would start working so not one moment was spent in the dark. She had specifically looked into it because she was terrified of the darkness. She was too scared to even reach for her phone and turn on the flashlight so she held her breath as she waited for the lights to come back on.

After one painful minute and a half the lights finally turned on. She sighed in relief and sat down on the couch and picked up her laptop to finish off the assignment she was working on.

She tried to concentrate on the assignment at hand but her mind kept wandering back to the incident and she closed her eyes.

She didn't want to think about Nora or the interrogation anymore. Her old fears were resurfacing. Everytime she goes into an interrogation room her past resurfaces and she feels herself being sucked into the pit of memories which never actually left her.

She instead diverted her mind to the questions Parker had asked her. She had suspects but the only name which resurfaced again and again was…

He is dead, she told herself. He's dead.

Tears rolled down her cheek and she started sobbing. She realized she wouldn't be able to get any work done so she shut down her laptop and put her knees to her chest. Once she stopped crying she decided it was time to sleep. She was about to stand up and go to the bed when once again the power went out. She heard the sound of a lock turning and her blood ran cold.

She looked behind her at the balcony and saw the silhouette of a man facing her.

"You're still so scared of the dark, Lara." The voice was too familiar and as soon as she registered the voice into her head she felt her heart start to beat faster.

"It can't be," she whispered in a voice that was barely audible. "You should be dead."

His voice chuckled. "Come on, you know it's me. Come here."

"NO!" she suddenly screamed and with the last corresponding muscle of her body she compelled her legs to move and within seconds ran out of her apartment.

"Chill Lara." She felt two large hands engulf her small frame as soon as she entered the lift. Her body froze once again and she knew it was useless to struggle so she went limp. "I will never hurt you, you know that. Come with me."

"I can't, you're dead." Tears ran down her face as she said the same sentence over and over as if repeating it will make her words come true. "You're dead, Lucien. You're dead."

As her vision began to darken the last thing she heard him whispering into her ear was four words she never wanted to hear, "I will be back."

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