Chapter 33

31st December 2019

Cathy's POV:

I was gazing at the sky with my fingers playing with the bunch of flowers that I held in my hands. I was thinking about how awful the past fifteen days had run. I was admitted to the hospital for three days and my abdomen and the cuts all over my body are slowly healing now. 

I now remember what happened on the night of my abduction. When I saw Noel approach me and offer to drop me at the hostel, I couldn't help but agree to it. I in fact felt lucky to be back into his good books. But the least did I know that it wasn't Noel Wilson but Victor Anand!

We always have this gut instinct which warns us about something bad that's going to happen to us. That day I strongly felt it. In the mall, I felt an intense pair of eyes staring at me, and deep down my stomach, I sensed danger. Maybe I should have taken it seriously and stayed safe. It would have saved many lives today!

When the police reached the house on the night of my rescue, the basement door had been their first interest. They had shot the lock open and jogged down the stairs to find Mishelle and Nicole who were tied and profusely bleeding. In front of them was lying Imran's corpse which was in the starting stage of its decay.

One more disturbing discovery that they had made was there were eighteen more rotting corpses found dumped around them which were all later found to be the people who were reported missing. The oldest corpse found down there was killed two years back.

Officer Paul had mentioned that recovering the bodies from the basement was the most difficult job than all. I smelled corpses when I woke up twice in the basement but it was not intense enough like for a two-year-old corpse to produce. Maybe my smelling sense would have been numbed by the drugs he gave me. But Mishelle and Nicole weren't even drugged when they were found.

I couldn't imagine how it was for them to stay down there for a whole day. Now they both were admitted to the hospital and their conditions were far worse than mine. I wondered how Imran's mother reacted after she learned about her only son's death.

After rescuing them both, Mishelle had shown the police the way to my room after which the police had shot Victor twice, one in his leg and the other one on the lower waist.

The police have found so many other things that belonged to Victor's family from the basement, especially an enormous picture of his mother framed in antique. They had also found two big photo albums with hundreds of my pictures on the roads, hotels, and malls which were clicked when he stalked me. A plastic box was also found along with it which had few strands of hair, chewed bubble gum, empty juice packets with straws, and many more things that I had thrown away.

Officer Paul told me what he confessed when they got a final statement from him.

He was naturally Victor Anand, the son of Vijay and Lisa Anand. He was brought up by an abusive dad who had killed his mom when Victor was too young. After that, they had moved to various places to escape whenever people around them grew suspicious. Victor's dad has always abused him sexually, Victor had no other go but to cooperate in order to live luxuriantly under his dad's wings.

When he turned fifteen, he couldn't stand his dad's torture anymore and decided to kill him one night in Chennai. The neighbors who had witnessed the murder reported to the police before he got arrested. The police had got hold of the last tape that was recorded by his father of him raping his son, which proved to be evidence for his dad's abuse.

Victor was kept in an asylum in Chennai for a couple of years which was meant for the under eighteen accused after which he moved far away from Chennai to Coimbatore into an orphanage where he had stayed another two years. This is where he officially created a false identity named Noel Wilson.

During further investigation, the police have found that his academic records told him that he was an outstanding student during his school days. There was no negative remark on him at all and also that he had been topping in all the grades. He had worked partime and paid his own academic fees. He has worked very hard until he finally got an impressive job in our college with a decent salary. And everywhere right from the school, he went by the name, Noel Wilson. If he was that sincere and hardworking, where did he go wrong?

Due to the immense number of depressions that had got imprinted in his mind, the two most influential characters became a part of him to escape the depression and desperation that killed him internally. One was his deceased neighbor and also his close friend, Noel. Victor had always longed for a father's love that he saw the other kids around him receive. His father didn't love him at all and pointed to Noel to dump Victor all the time.

The other character was Lily. Lily was the first lady his mom caught his dad with. Victor had most often seen his dad with Lily rather than with his mom. His father always pressured him for sexual relationships and in order to satisfy his dad's needs he often disguised himself as a lady, fitting artificial big breasts to his chest and calling himself Lily. This kept on continuing as at some point it became a part of him itself that he had failed to notice and stop.

He had three personalities within him: Victor, Noel, and Lily. The most dominant one was Noel and the least dominant was Lily. That's why he was capable of different styles, behaviors and voices.

It was also found that Victor had a pair of contact lenses in his pocket twenty-four by seven to change his eye colors according to the character he played. And the police had also found an extra number plate in his car's trunk which was registered as Victor Anand. He switched the number plates too when he switched the characters. If only the police had found this earlier when Noel was reported missing, two lives would have been spared by now.

I let out a heavy sigh as I looked down at the flowers in my hands. My gaze moved from the flowers to the plate nailed on the coffin over which I was sitting. The plate read,

.

'RENITA HART

31-12-1998 to 27-12-2019'

A drop of tear escaped my eye. "Thanks for keeping up your promise, Ren. I should have always listened to you. I can't believe that I just let you go in front of my eyes. Maybe we shouldn't have opened the door at all when he asked us to. You shouldn't have left this early. I am going to miss you like shit!", I wept into the palm of my hands before sniffling and looking up at her plate again,

"Living in that hostel room without you with all those things that we bought together with so many dreams will definitely be impossible. So I am leaving this place once and for all. I am going to Dubai to continue my studies with my parents. So I thought of visiting you once before leaving"

I kissed and placed the bunch of flowers over her coffin gently. I stared at her name for few more minutes before wiping my eyes dry and standing up on my feet.

"A very happy birthday, advance happy new year, and a big goodbye Ren. Please rest in peace. Thanks for always being for me until your very last breath and leaving me with beautiful memories for me to cherish forever"

As I walked away from her coffin, I made a silent promise to her that I will stay safe and will always speak positive words here on just like how she always wanted me to be.

-- THE END --

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