"We are about to reach in a minute. Any survivors? Over."- inquired detective Rachel. Another female voice on the radio crackled- "A little boy of about 6 years. Neighbours first called 911 hearing the noise and then there were shots fired. I heard them over the call myself. By the time a response unit was dispatched, the entire house was on fire. First responders took the boy out safely but the parents were found dead with bullet wounds. Nobody else was seen going in or coming out of the building meanwhile, we checked the surveillance footage around the street. You two now go in, forensics is on their..." "Dear lord..."- Rachel's jaw dropped as they arrived next to two fire trucks struggling to bring the raging fire under control. "Roger that. We will handle from here. Over."- Jackson snatched the radio from her and replied.
Detective Bob Jackson and Rachel Wyatt had been partners on the force for 8 years now. But even they had never come across such a burning sight and such a random hate crime till date in this sleepy highway town of Lousiana. So often they joked that barring the occasional petty thefts their job was quite uneventful. As more fire trucks arrived at the spot, the flame were nearly squeezed out. Officer Rachel and Jackson stepped inside the hot crime scene and immediately saw two human bodies reeking of charred flesh. One of them, the petite one laid on the floor, while the bigger one was laying on what must have been a couch earlier. Rachel's biggest worry now was to safely contain and reconstruct the vastly damaged crime scene. Her trained eyes hovered about and rested on a molten clunky piece of metal adjacent to the body in the couch. "This must be the murder weapon."- Jackson joined in pointing to the disfigured metal- "an open and shut case of suicide it seems." "Don't be too hasty Bob. Anything is possible, unless we have all the dots connected."- Rachel treaded with habitual caution. "Oh come on, how can you miss the obvious? The wife is on the floor with a gun wound in chest. This husband lies sitting on the sofa with a seemingly self inflicted shot on the right side of his head. The melted gun lays next to his right hand. Suicide it is, I tell you. So let's wrap it up fast here."- hurried officer Jackson- "Besides, I am kinda getting some creepy vibes from this whole place." "Roger that."- she too had felt the same cold chill running down her spine the moment they had entered the house, despite the subdued fire. As if the house had eyes and it was watching over them. Both came out convinced of a prima facie theory. Jackson started helping out the forensics securing a safety parimeter around the crime scene. Rachel looked around for the survivor. There he was. Wrapped in a thick blanket and breathing through an oxygen mask. 'Poor child. What a tragedy.'- being a childless woman herself, Rachel's heart cried for this boy. She stroked the boy's head with a kindness most women are naturally gifted with. "Control to team 6. Over."- radio's crackle broke her reverie. "Team 6 here. Over."- Rachel responded. "Got the BG check on victims. Sarah and Edward Croft, stockbroker and housewife. Adopted a 5 years old boy Max from an orphanage about 3 months back. We are yet to dig up on the financials of family. But seems like a regular couple. No past records of mental illness or criminal behaviour. Oh by the way, Edward had a licensed firearm... Rachel, how bad is the scene?"- operator's voice revealed a personal concern in the last sentence, which she was well trained to mask otherwise. Rachel wrapped off the remaining formalities and waited for the child services to close the custodial procedures. She was left shaken and lost in her own thoughts. This whole episode was quite extra ordinary. How messed up someone must be to snatch two lives, murder or suicide, and leave a young child behind to be burnt alive! What could she possibly do to fight such disheartening darkness? As she sat pondering, an idea striked her mind in that instant. She realised she could actually right this one wrong at least. Max enters the house. Rachel's house. Phil, her husband made his inhibitions noted earlier. But Rachel was determined enough. They had been contemplating for an adoption for long anyway. So they brought Max home adopting him within a week of that tragedy. It took Max some time to finally start speaking, but he still remained within his shell. Phil was patient enough though. Both of them were happy that their little family was complete now. Months passed. Three months to be precise. Rachel was on her way back home when she got the call. "Rachel Wyatt speaking." "Jackson this side. You asked me to find about the boy. I went digging. It's not good. He was left outside an orphanage in Michigan after birth. 3 years ago, the orphanage burnt down with 30 others inside. Remaining children were shifted to another one 100 miles up. From there he was adopted by Croft family. You remember what darkness we witnessed there." Rachel wasat a loss of words. But she felt even more for the child now. Jackson wanted to say a few words of caution or sympathy perhaps, but she cut him off midway and hung up the phone. It was the very darkness she was fighting off, taking Max under her wings. As she entered the driveway, she heard some commotion coming from inside the house. Panicked, she rushed inside. She thought she must have gone crazy. Because here was Phil standing in hall with a kitchen knife, while little Max was crying with fear. Rachel ran to Max and covered him behind her. "I must kill him, Rachel. Step out of the way." - the softspoken Phil thundered. His compassionate eyes were violently red andneatly combed hair in a disarray. He looked the menifestation of darkness himself- "I said get out. Or I will kill you too." "Phil, you need help. Oh Phil, you aren't yourself."- Rachel tried to speak as calmly as possible, trained to be in this situation many times before. But no amount of training had prepared her for this moment. Phil kept advancing, and she kept shouting with no effect. Till she pulled out her gun and took aim. With crying eyes she warned- "Please Phil, listen to me. Look at me sweetheart." Phil didn't stop walking. She shot at the ground near his feet. Phil started running to attack with the steel blade in hand. With no choice ta hand, Rachel closed her eyes and three shots rang out following a silence of death. Rachel opened her eyes to find Phil lying in the hall dead. She went closer to him,took his hand and began sobbing. A flurry of grief and regrets poped up in her head. "I just wanted to help an innocent kid have a future. To survive this disheartening darkness in life. Is this the cost of fighting this darkness?"- she said in her mind sobbing incessantly. Suddenly she felt ice cold. She froze with fear for a moment and then turned. She got shocked to see Max standing behind her with a manacing smirk on his earlier cute face. His eyes were burning like coal and the same creepy vibes made a chill run across her spine. The one she had experienced three months back at that house, only a thousand times more potent. Max moved his eyes, and a sudden compulsion emgulfed her. She felt her right hand going beyond control as it picked her service pistol and raised it on her temple slowly. With one flick of his wrist, Max conjured fire in the windows and curtains. Amidst her house turning on fire, with questioning eyes, Rachel stared at the evil incarnate himself. He stared right back at her. Her body was slowly losing its grip, and she found it hard to move even a muscle. She looked despairingly at Phil with tears swelling up. With the last of her failing courage, she conjured up all her strength and screamed- "Why? Why? I just wanted to help YOU. I just wanted to fight this darkness." "You didn't fight the darkness. YOU BROUGHT IT HOME."- an invisible stranger voice echoed. A gun shot rang out. A deafening silence drowned every noise afterward. ****************** Two months later
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Max was shifted to his new foster parents today.
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