Lurking shadows- 9

Read part 8 - here

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If she had appeared gaunt the last time then today Mita looked almost skeletal. 

The two policemen stared at the ghostly caricature of the woman they had met only a couple weeks ago and it seemed like her health has steadily deteriorated in that time.

The front of her shirt was caked in thick dirt. Almost like she had been dragged through the filth. The bruise on her neck that was a plum coloured thing was now a faded yellow as the taller policeman noted. The injury on her finger had still not healed and looked to have gotten worse if the filthy bandages had to be believed and the stench pouring out of the house near made the shorter policeman gag.

Awkwardly the two men took a step back.

The rot that filled the house mingled with decaying humidity, steadfastly clinging to the woman, almost entrenched within her existence and she seemed to have made her peace with the debilitating state of her ruin.

Mita’s bony arms held the door open and she stared at the two men whom she’d seen before. Where did she see them? 

She wanted to remember. Did they live with her some time ago, maybe she saw them in the long corridors of the old building she had once frequented while holding Anek’s hand.

‘Yes?’ Mita smiled and it was a painful little gesture.

‘Uh...We were here earlier.’ the shorter of the two men seemed to look unsure about something. Mita tried to understand why he looked to be pulling himself back.

He now waved a piece of paper in front of her face. It looked like an identity card. 

‘Ah, it’s the police’ Mita beamed.

‘Are you alright miss?’ the soft-spoken taller man was looking straight at her, the way sometimes Anek would when he said 'good morning' to her each morning.

The woman looked like she was having a seizure. Her face was frozen with shock but a moment later it relaxed. 

‘You’re here to arrest him?’ Mita asked morosely. Her mood suddenly changed.

‘Excuse me’ the taller man looked at her surprised.

‘yes, I know’ she sighed. ‘he has done it. He killed her.’ she said slowly shifting her weight and pointing inside her house. ‘Liyah is here. She is dead of course, but mother thinks she is haunting me. I think so too. Anek is trying to kill me as well. And..’ she suddenly paused and motioned for the two men to wait.

Mita ran back inside the house.

The two policemen now at an absolute loss for words looked at each other.

‘What do we do?’ the taller one asked. 

‘Let's go inside and check.’ his partner replied and the two men stepped inside the house, taking care to not lock the door behind because the malodor infesting the house needed to escape.

They couldn’t believe the living quarters they had stepped into.

The floor was sticky with mud and wet. A steady stream of water poured through the rotten woodwork on the window panels. 

An entire wall was moulded and looked to be a festering wound within the house. Someone had been throwing water all over the couch and walls of the house, in all likelihood it was the woman who’d been doing it. An empty bucket lay on its side.

Glass shards and broken pieces of china lay scattered on the floor along with torn pieces of dirty cloth that had holes in some places and looked to have been intentionally ripped apart.

Each spot in the house had a stench of its own.

The walls gave off a dank mouldy fume but it was the kitchen which added to the grave like redolence. 

The sink was stacked with broken bowls, plates and empty wrappers along with decomposing food that was steadily getting wet under the thin stream of a running faucet.

The shorter policeman trying to breathe through his mouth turned it off and stared at the floor which in some places appeared to have thin streaks of dried blood. 

The woman of this house had been barefoot and there was glass all around. What was going on? what was she talking about?

His reverie was broken by his partner who was pointing at the floor. There were long drag marks through the dust and perhaps that explained why the woman's shirt front was so dirty. Was she crawling on the floor?

‘wasn’t she wearing the same clothes when we met her last?’ the policeman asked to a shrug from his taller friend trying to look nonchalant as they both noted Mita approaching with a crumpled photograph in her hand.

‘Here’ she said handing it out to the shorter man.

‘This is Liyah in this picture, the one on the right with my boyfriend Anek. They used to be together and now she has disappeared. He has been trying to kill me too, you know. He wants me dead.’ she extended her bandaged finger in front of the policemen. ‘Look what he did. And he chokes me every night’ Mita’s voice trembled with anger and agony as she demonstrated how. She held her neck with both her hands and squeezed hard until her eyeballs nearly popped out. 

Someone was screaming for her to stop and pulling her away. The beautiful white place had clean bedsheets, Mita remembered. Mother always told her to stay there, but she loved walking along the long corridors.

The two policemen were trying to pry her fingers open and suddenly she began coughing. Mita was rasping, her breath came out in spurts and she knew Anek was at it again.

The yellowing bruises were darkening again. 

The two men looked confused. Mita didn’t know what they were doing in her house.

They were holding a photograph.

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cont..