~Chapter 43~

TW:- Sensitive content ahead. Reader discretion advised.

Red and green are the colors that are associated with Christmas. Most people decorate their houses and Christmas tree based on these colors. There hasn't been any who felt uncomfortable with these colors. However exceptions exist, who at present is feeling utterly uneasy at the color of red that is splashed all over her shoes, her hands and even few droplets on her cheeks on the Christmas day. A pool of red has been spreading all over the floor. The red pool kept on increasing its area all over the paper cluttered office floor and the person who had loved the color red, wore accessories and stuffs of red color tried to avoid this red color from reaching her. Two pairs of lifeless eyes stared back at her, accusing her of leading a sinful life till now and taking their innocent lives without any reason.

At first comes fear, then panic and after that arrives denial.

"No no no no no no no no! I-I didn't do this." She scoffs and then smiles. "There's…..there's no way I'd do something like this! I-I wouldn't!" she started to take steps back till she reached the heavy wooden office door. Her back touched at the cold office door that was adjacent to the glass windows which were completely shut down from the inside obscuring the inside image from the outside. She caught her reflection on the mirror.

She was hideous!

A monster!

With her red flesh exposed from underneath the skin of her face that is half hanging down from one side, the other half being tightly secured in the hands of the old psychiatrist, she almost muffled a scream of despair.

How did this happen?

She only wanted take away one person!

How did she end up killing so many?

Salty tears brought a burning sensation on her exposed red flesh of the face that made her start thinking 'logically' once again.

She needed to get closer to her beloved little cub, which is why she had to sacrifice many.

Great deeds can be achieved only through sacrifices.

Those dead people—the school nurse and her fiancé, the old pretentiously all-knowing psychiatrist and her stupid bimbo secretary should count themselves lucky that their useless simply money earning selves are contributing to the re-union of a fated couple once again who were separated by the cruel methods of destiny.

What was it that this stupid old lady had said again after she discovered her face-less secretary's dead body from the office closet?

She said a lot of things. Rather than asking her 'What does she want', her name was asked.

"What is your name?"

"W-what do you mean—?"

"Quit the acting, Callie because you're terrible at it, or shall I call you something else?"

The professional smile that she had mustered started to slip away slowly as an inexpiable rage started to take the main seat inside her head. No matter how skillfully she had sewed the dumb secretary's face on hers, for some reason, the old psychiatrist had looked right through her act.

So close...she was so freaking close to him!

He was supposed to visit here on 25th December but no! These fucking insects had to pose as a threat to her way of claiming him once again.

"I am not doing anything bad!" It was then she started to crack up. "There's no harm in pursuing my amor! Is there?"

"Not at all."

"But not at the cost of someone else's life like this." The psychiatrist pointed at the naked dead body of the real Callie that had tumbled down from the cupboard of the office, her face skin gone.

"Please Callie, listen to me—"

"Neena. It's Neena. My name." the said woman stared fixedly at the other living woman of the room.

"Okay. Neena. Please stop whatever you're doing. This is not good. If you wish to pursue somebody this is not the right way."

"Are you telling me that I should not pursue him?" she started to get agitated.

"No! All I was saying that killing people is not necessary to pursue someone like this. Do you think your beloved will be happy if he discovers that you have killed so many innocent people?"

"Innocent? Maybe. But they were tools to me to reach him." Neena started to rock on her heels murmuring; "All these months were spent on nothing! I couldn't reach him. It's all her fault! I'll kill her! I'll kill that blonde shit!"

"Neena! Please stop. Take my hand Neena. Right now, what you could really use is of help. You need help Neena." She looked at the extended hand that was probably welcoming her to a 'safe' side. "The one whom you speak of too won't be happy to see you as a killer, that is why please take my hand. We will overcome this together"

The old psychiatrist made a small mistake in her verbal skills here unknowingly and that acted as a catalyst to her death. The old psychiatrist felt a burn on her throat, she furrowed her eyebrows at Neena who smiled at her devilishly as the former noticed the bloody knife in her hand too late, then she felt something liquid pouring out of her neck, when she touched her neck, her palms turned red, it was her own blood!

Soon the room spun 360 degree and the last memory of her consciousness served was that of being lying down on her cheek on the rug of her office. Her vision slowly blurred and became dark at once.

Callie's disfigured dead body and Mrs. Roberts' wide eyed dead body were both discovered by Rio Sanders when he visited the Roberts household for his appointment at 10:30 AM sharp due to the message he had received from Mrs. Roberts' side of him being scheduled on that time.

He had come for his psychiatric session with Mrs. Roberts but he didn't know that he'd be facing such a psychotic situation itself! At first he found it quite odd to have the front door open because neither the secretary Callie nor the old woman does this. He entered the house that remained eerily quiet even when he called out those two people's name that inhabited in there, only to find their dead bodies on the office floor.

Rio felt a shock pass through him as the deadly still pupils of both Callie and Mrs. Roberts stared at him without blinking, hauntingly. After that everything was a blur. He didn't know how he had called up the police, how he sounded over the phone, what he exactly said, how he was escorted out of the house from the spot where the police found him standing rooted.

Rio gained his senses again, despite being wide awake when the police officer who had opened the former's case files after all these years informed to him that another death has been reported not too far from here.

The dead people were Miss Inlon and her fiancé.