Alice jumped on Soyi before wrapping her fingers around Soyi's throat, Started to strangle her.
Alice's both knees were above Soyi's both forearms. Soyi was completely caged. She was trying to catch the air as much as she could but was facing too much difficulty as Alice blocked her airway.
Soyi couldn't believe that into Alice's eyes, she was seeing a mixture of rage and extreme fear's consequences. At that time, she was able to see not Alice in front of her but the fiend behind those mixed emotions of Alice. Alice was looking extremely scary to Soyi along with, extreme hatred was developing in Soyi's heart for that criminal due to whose fear, Alice went to the extent of killing Soyi.
◃───────────▹
The sound of Soyi's scream and his sister's yelling along with the noise of the things falling rapidly made Elvis turn his head up to the balcony to see. And the next thing he saw made his heartbeat skip for a second. He saw his sister strangling his wife. He was shocked at what kind of scenario he was looking at. Seeing his wife in pain, his heart started to ache unbearably.
Apart from this, he instantly realised that as his sister was here then she must have managed to escape with her life from the person who might have tried to kill her. At the same time, he also guessed that as his sister had come here, then the person who tried to kidnap his sister would also be near this mansion.
But at that time, the thing for which he was caring most was his wife's life. He could not even believe seeing his sister's unbelievable personality, in his mind, he was repeatedly denying the true fact instead he was repeating that she could not be his own sister whom he loved the most.
Wasting no second, he speedily ran towards the entering direction to reach the balcony and stop his sister.
On the other hand, at the same time as Elvis, seeing the scene Zane was too shocked. His heart clenched, watching his Hazel struggling to breath, his mind was not working out what to do to save his sister. He was feeling very helpless at the time when he needed his mind the most, his mind had gone blank. He could also see Elvis going to stop his sister. He was trapped in the thought that if he tried to enter the mansion to save his sister, it would be of no use because he would be late in reaching the balcony. And even if he reaches there, he will reach there only after Hazel's husband reaches the balcony. He couldn't understand what to do, but repeatedly a part of him was hoping that his sister's husband would quickly reach the balcony and save Hazel.
◃───────────▹
Soyi was trying her best to free her throat from Alice's grip. She couldn't understand from where Alice got this much strength. Although Soyi knew how to fight, but in her eyes even her fighting skills seemed useless because Alice had blocked her strongest body parts, like there was a heavy single seater swing chair lying right above her knees due to which she was not able to move her legs and Alice had also placed her knees on top of Soyi's forearms, making it difficult for Soyi to move her hands as well. Infact, Alice herself was completely on top of Soyi's body.
There was only one part of her body that she was able to move well, that was the whole part below her elbow, it was her arms and hands.
Note: Arm not forearm.
But still it was very weak to stop Alice with only hands.
Soyi was struggling to breath, she couldn't help but feel her soul draining out of her body. But no! She couldn't die like this, how could she give up like this without much fighting to save herself after having a strict reason to live. She just got married today and she wanted to spend her whole life with Elvis, she didn't want to die.
Courageously, by frantically flapping her hands on the floor, she started to search for something with which she could hit Alice so that Alice would stop strangling her. She was having so much difficulty doing anything that she found her eyes closed but she wasn't dead yet, she was still alive, her hands were still searching for something.
Soon, her hands found something, something sharp, and that was the knife, which was kept on the standing single seater swing chair along with the small basket of fruits some times ago, but just as Alice threw the chair at Soyi's legs, so along with the fruits and the basket, the knife also fell far from the chair to the floor, which was now at the hands of Soyi.
Without looking and thinking too much about what her hand ultimately got, she gathered all the strength she had left to save her life and in one fell swoop, she stabbed that knife straight through the windpipe of Alice's throat.
And within a second of her doing so, she felt her throat free from being gripped, and at the same second her ears heard a muffled groan coming from Alice's mouth. The part of her body which was feeling heavy because of Alice's presence, now felt extremely light. She was inhaling as much air as she could because now the airway in her throat was open for full breathing. She could feel that the life which was about to leave her body had now come back. She could still hear her heart beating faster due to lack of breathing a few seconds ago.
Finally, she slowly opened her eyes, and the first vision that came in front of her was "Elvis", who was standing shocked at the door of the balcony, looking at the direction next to the Soyi. Seeing Elvis in front of her eyes, she felt a little relaxed at first, but immediately by following his gaze, she turned her head to her left side to see what he was looking at.
And the next thing she saw made her completely reach the peak of shock. She instantly realised what she did unknowingly and unwillingly. She stabbed Alice right on her windpipe, who was now counting her last breath. Blood was continuously coming out of her throat at a very fast rate.
The scene made Soyi's heart wrenched, she was on the edge of crying. She couldn't believe it, she just stabbed someone. Soyi's whole body started to tremble, she was feeling dizzy. At that very moment, Elvis ran towards his sister and quickly took her body in his arms.
Soyi was just watching all this in shockness but she immediately controlled her senses and got up, and with all her strength, removed the heavy chair from above her legs. She could feel swelling in her legs, even though there was no bleeding, but there was definitely internal injury to her legs. Besides, she was also feeling swelling in her throat too and she knew very well what had caused that swelling. She quickly turned her head in the direction of Elvis and Alice.
Soyi's soul was shaking after seeing Elvis trembling for his sister in such a helpless situation, and seeing Alice struggling between her death and life.
Within a few seconds, flashbacks of her entire life were playing out in front of Alice's slightly opened eyes. Alice couldn't help but remember her entire life in her last few seconds. She wasn't able to hear anything as if her surroundings were kept silent, although it wasn't true. But there was a strange thing she was able to hear, the narration of her entire life in her own voice.
჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻
'This life wasn't at all easy for me to live, the only happiness that stayed with me in my entire life till the end was my brother "Jeon Elvis", but apart from that, I only felt a lot of emotions related to the sorrow of betrayal.
The deception in my life started from my own mother, who left me and my brother alone with my father in our childhood to spend her life with another man. I cried for my mother everyday but she never came back. And because of this reason, everyone used to tease me till my high school. And to vent this frustration, unwillingly, I started bullying students weaker than me and Soyi was one of them. But I underestimated Soyi, she was not like other weak students, she had the courage to stand up for herself and because of this, I didn't like her at all.
I always faced difficulty bullying her. And the biggest thing that hurted me a lot was that when I used to bully Soyi, my own brother used to come for Soyi's rescue and always supported her. As time passed, I came to know that Soyi started liking my brother and had even proposed to him, which unbelievably my brother accepted. I tried every possible way to keep Soyi away from my brother, but my brother was the one who wouldn't let her go away from him. I always felt that she was deliberately snatching my brother away from me.
And as time passed, I started to feel very lonely even in the crowd of people. I felt worthless. I couldn't understand what the purpose of my life was, my life was meaningless. Everyone considered me as a bad person and perhaps they were right to believe so, because I had never shown my true form to anyone, I was always being rude with everyone. But I realised that the reason for me feeling lonely was my surroundings but I couldn't do anything about it, cause the truth is we can't change the world according to us, instead we have to adjust.
My life had become increasingly bitter but amidst all this that made me happy were my brother and father, both of them always tried to make me happy.
When I turned 19, I fell deeply in love with a boy and he said that he also loved me very much, we spent many beautiful days together, because of him, I started feeling my life worthy. At that era, I only wanted to live, I wanted to spend my whole life with him in love. But my wish could never be fulfilled. My hopes were brutally broken by him. He was just using me, he used my body, he used my mind, he used my love, and in the end, he cheated on me with my own best friend. And then, he did what he probably always wanted, he abandoned me in a miserable state.
I started hating my best friend because I never expected her to betray me by getting together with my boyfriend. I expressed my extreme anger at both of them but it was of no use because everything was already ruined. I had been broken in such a poor way that instead of recovering from that pain, I decided to live my life with the same pain.
I became a marathon racer and at a young age, I was also a renowned fashion designer and in order to further my career, I decided to live in Busan away from my family. But my past always overshadowed my present. I found it very difficult to live with the memories of my past. And my career was somehow affected by myself being a bully in the past. But despite all these difficulties, I became a successful independent woman.
Initially, I had decided that I would spend the rest of my life with the same pain that my closed ones gave me, but maybe a part of me always wanted me to stay too busy to stay away from my sorrows and that was what happened, I became too busy in my career. But there was no use in me being busy because I was still able to feel my pain. During that time, I felt more sad because there was no one who could understand me and well, anyway, how could they understand when I myself didn't share any of my internal struggles with anyone. Perhaps, I wanted someone to understand my grief without me telling it.
When I turned 23, something happened which forced my mind to think that something good was written in my destiny or not. After all, why was what I wanted wasn't happening and what I never imagined was happening? And among those things, there were mostly bad things. I got the news that my father died in an accident, and when he was taking his last breath, I wasn't able to reach him at the exact time. I was feeling more helpless and depressed than ever before. I went crazy, my mind couldn't believe that my dad was gone, I just wanted my dad back.
They say that time heals our wounds, but in my case, the pain of my father's death and the pain of betrayal in my entire life was not healed by time. I was struggling badly to live with time, for me, living every second was a suffocation.
I didn't want to live nor did I want to die. The reason for me not wanting to live was because I wasn't capable of bearing the sorrows of life but somewhere I was suffering all those sorrows, and I didn't want to die because I didn't want to face God nor I wanted to go into heaven or hell. And this was the very time when I had only one 'Aspiration', that was to disappear from this universe as if I never existed.
I was just surviving my life instead of living it. Soon many months passed like this.
I was well aware that my brother was still in a relationship with Soyi, I could never digest the fact that Soyi was so close to my brother. I had always thought since high school time that Soyi was trying to snatch my brother away from me. And now, when so much had happened in my life, I didn't like Soyi even more than before to be close to my brother. I only had one happiness left and that was my brother and I didn't want that too to be taken away from me, I didn't want anyone, especially Soyi to take my brother away from me.
I don't know why I didn't like Soyi at all, maybe she seemed capable of everything than me, I thought she had all the things she wanted in her life that I didn't have. Was what I thought about Soyi's life true? I used to think that if my brother and Soyi would get married, my brother would become very distant from me and I would lose my brother. And that was why I never wanted my brother to marry Soyi, even if he wanted he could marry anyone else but not Soyi.
But what is the use of running after desires and wishes in life when in the end, we have to get destroyed from this world. I was completely absorbed in this false world, I had forgotten that the world is nothing but a beautiful lie.
I kept commiting sins, he kept hiding them, he gave me many chances, but I kept rejecting them. He kept opening the doors of his forgiveness for me everyday, I never even thought about those doors. God loves me so much but I don't deserve his love.
It's already too late, I'm dying now, I'm taking the last breath of my life, will the doors of God's forgiveness still open? I want to ask for forgiveness, will he forgive me?'
჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻
Her eyes had completely closed, her body loosened automatically on Elvis's arms, her rapid heartbeats stopped, she wasn't breathing anymore. She finally got rid of her life, she was dead at last.
Realising that his sister died in his arms in front of his eyes and that he had lost his younger sister, Elvis felt completely numb. He was too stunned to even call his sister's name.
Soyi and he both were just watching Alice's dead face in unbearable shockness.
At that moment, even Elvis's tears were not coming out, as if he had forgotten how to cry, as if his tears couldn't find a way to come out. He was torn between whether to believe that his sister was dead or not.
Soyi was too shocked to believe that she just killed someone, and that someone was her own husband's sister.
Both of them were being eaten by their guilts at that time, Soyi was feeling guilty that she had killed her sister-in-law, and Elvis was feeling guilty that he couldn't save his sister. She died before he could take her to the hospital, he was too late.
Soyi's throat was aching, she wanted to cry. The air filled with anxiety.
Dragging herself on the floor closer to Alice's body, she was about to touch Alice while softly calling her name with her trembling lips. But before she could touch Alice, Elvis's dangerous low voice halted her in the mid air.
"Keep your heinous hands away from my sister,.....and also keep in mind that these hands should never touch me as well." His voice was low but his tone was screaming his exorbitant rage.
She turned her eyes up on him only to find his bloodshot eyes already on her. She could see disgust and hatred developing in his eyes for her.
"Elvis, I didn't kill Alice intentionally,…..it was just self-defense." She explained in a cracky voice, besides, finally tears gathered in her eyes.
Self-defense? Yeah, he was totally aware of it. He knew it was Soyi's self-defense. But still he was not able to digest the fact that she killed his sister in the name of self-defense. She knew how to fight, if she wanted, she could have used her all might to use her fighting skills to only to save herself instead of killing his sister. Yeah, it was self-defense, he knew it, but the one who died was no one else but his own sister, so how could he leave his sister's murderer without getting angry and without punishing her, no matter who the murderer was and what was the reason behind killing.
He knew that by showing solid evidence through the CCTV footage to the law that Soyi had just killed in self-defense, Soyi couldn't be prisoned nor did he want her to get an easy punishment like prison. Just in a few minutes, his hatred for her was growing so rapidly in his mind that he wanted to punish her for her mistake by imprisoning her in his hell. He knew her weak point through which she could be hurt and he wanted to use that weak point to punish her in his own way.
He loved his sister the most in this world and he had lost her, he was in great pain and he wanted Soyi to feel the same pain as he was feeling because of her.
Her biggest weak point was he himself and he knew it, that was why he wanted to become the one who wanted to torture her mentally and emotionally to the same extent.
"But you can't deny the fact that you killed Alice whether it was intentionally or unintentionally." He uttered, eye contacting with her without blinking. Hatred and pain were clearly visible in his bloodshot eyes and voice.
Hearing his words, automatically she started crying profusely in front of him, thinking that he might be feeling that she killed his sister on purpose.
He was feeling it difficult to see her crying miserably in front of him, her tears flowing like this, adding to his pain even more. But in the situation he was in, he wasn't allowing any other emotion to emerge from within him except hatred for her.
"I really didn't do it deliberately,.....I was saving myself." She uttered between her sobs, her head was low, eyes were closed, she was crying bitterly.
Where a bride should be laughing in her bridal dress on her wedding day, Soyi was crying hysterically.
Ofcourse, she didn't do it deliberately but now what will happen from this? She already killed his sister, after all his sister died, now could his sister come back? Could she come back alive? Absolutely not, nothing can be fixed now, everything is ruined.
It was unacceptable and unimaginable for both of them that their wedding day had become their worst day.
◃───────────▹
Zane was very relieved that Hazel was saved. He didn't care that she had killed someone, what he cared about was that his sister was saved. Although he couldn't hear what they talked about in the balcony from the beginning, but he was able to watch everything from the beginning. And now he was feeling very bad, seeing his sister crying. It seemed to him that his sister had taken someone's life that was why she was crying. And seeing Hazel crying, he was wondering what was the point in crying after killing someone when the dead person can't come back. And anyway, if she hadn't killed that woman, she would have died herself.
He was also relieved by the fact that Hazel wouldn't be prisoned because she had taken someone's life in self-defense, but still if he ever found her in trouble related to this matter, he would leak the actual CCTV footage of her scene in which, it would be clearly visible that hazel really took someone's life in self-defense.
Seeing his sister in reality after 15 years and not in a photo, he wanted to hug her, wipe all her tears. But he was sad that he couldn't do that because he had to get out of here quickly, and first of all, he had to erase all the scenes from the CCTV footage by hacking them in which he could be seen chasing that woman.
Eventually, he decided to get down from the tree and leave but for the last time, his eyes fell on his sister's husband and once again, he started wondering who he was after all? However, he had understood that his sister loved that man, that was why she married him. And the way she was comfortably using her phone on the balcony in the beginning when he saw her, he thought Hazel's husband must be keeping her happy. But now that Hazel had killed her husband's sister, how will their relationship be in the future?
But there was a question in his mind that the way that woman had tried to kill Hazel, her brother too wouldn't turn out like her, and if even that happened then he would kill that man.
Apart from this, there was a psychotic thinking in his mind that he wanted to kill that woman but could not. He was feeling uneasy not killing that woman with his own hands. He scoffed, thinking that his own sister snatched his prey.
And that's how a hungry lion feels when his meal is taken away from him, a little bit delighted and a little bit disbelieving.
┈━ ◇ ━┈
Back to the present
Zane held that GPS tracker in his fist and kept it in his pocket, thinking that he would use this tracker to mislead Elvis about himself.
He didn't even know that he had not only carried a GPS tracker in his pocket but it was also a touch sensor. Despite being a hacker, he couldn't identify the presence of a touch sensor with this tracker because this device was the latest. What he didn't realise was that there was no point in thinking about misleading Elvis by carrying this tracker with him, because he was already trapped by Elvis.
He roamed his dark eyes filled with venom to the whole area only to check if there were any humans or not. The noise of heavy raining, wet, fast wind and a strange silence apart from rain was audible in that deserted road. With long steps, he made his way to get inside his car to leave that place immediately.
┈━ ◇ ━┈
The windows of houses were shut, pole light was giving its white light to the empty alley. The natural shower had completely wetted the alley as well as all the houses adjacent to the alley. It was quite relaxing to hear the heavy rainfall and the sound of the wind blowing with them. Apart from this, there was no sound of any kind of vehicles. It was very late at night, around 10 o'clock and in this rainy season, everyone would be enjoying themselves in their homes. The alley was completely empty except for her.
Holding an umbrella over her head with her one hand and with another one holding her handbag tightly on her shoulder, taking long steps, she was walking fastly more like running. She was a little bit scared by this empty alley on her way, she was cursing herself for staying so long at her cousin's death ceremony. Due to staying for so long at that ceremony, she could not even get a taxi nor did she have enough cash to book a cab. And that was the reason for her walking on foot to reach her home as soon as possible. She felt this day was her bad day.
But what was adding to her fear more was an unknown man in his early forties in a yellow raincoat, walking behind her at a distance. She roamed her eyes a little around the alley to see if anyone else was there or not, but unfortunately the alley was empty except for her and the man. And all she wanted was to reach her home safely as soon as possible. She was praying silently repeatedly that she would reach home safely. With the hope that she would reach her home within just 5 minutes, she started walking faster than before.
While walking at a fast pace, she was counting the man's steps along with her increasing heartbeat. He reached so close to her, which made her start running immediately. But perhaps that day was destined to be a worse and last day for her, because the man who was walking behind her, caught hold of her after getting a good opportunity, and without giving her chance to protest, he first thrust a sharp knife into her throat in a blink of an eye so that she couldn't scream.
How could someone's luck be so bad that they don't even get a chance to fight to save their lives.
Her umbrella slipped off her hands and her handbag slipped off her shoulder and fell to the ground too, spilling out some of its contents. While he yanked the sharp knife out of her throat with a jolt and stabbed it straight into her belly button two-three times. Due to the knife attack on her throat, she couldn't scream out loud, she was only able to let out an unbearable painful muffled scream. And in the end, unable to bear the pain of the deep physical injury inflicted by that man, she died. Her body fell on the wet ground.
Before leaving the body completely, only one question came to her mind: why was she killed, what was her fault after all?
He killed her, eventually she died. A satisfied groan escaped from his mouth, he was wickedly chuckling in victory. For the last time, he took out the knife from her stomach muscles and then started to sniff the blood on it, as if it was some kind of perfume for him. After sniffing the blood on the knife for a while, making himself completely satisfied, he wiped the knife carefully on her clothes, and then without looking, he threw it on the ground somewhere on his right side.
But it landed right in front of someone's rain boots.
The owner of those rain boots was standing there completely covered in black raincoat. Even that anonymous person's face wasn't visible a little bit, that person was covered totally from head to toe. And that was the moment when only heavy rain and wind noise were strangely audible.
Feeling someone else's presence, that man turned his head to his right side with a jolt only to see that anonymous person standing there dangerously. Although that person's eyes weren't visible, the man was feeling like that anonymous person was digging a hole in his soul with his gaze.
"Who are you?" What a baseless question but standing straight, the man asked with a deep and annoyed voice.
The man was thinking that, that anonymous person saw him killing this lady so he had to kill that unidentified person as well, but he didn't get any reply from that unidentified person. He was getting a strange dangerous authoritative vibe from that anonymous person.
The person was perilously standing there, silent, like he was some kind of ghost or something. But in a second, that person finally moved from his posture, which made the man alert and bewildered at the same time. That anonymous person picked up the knife which was lying right in front of his boots. The person's hands were also covered with black gloves. After picking up the knife, he stood straight again, and the invisible hazardous look the person delivered to the man, feeling it, the fear arose in the man's mind.
Without giving a little bit of hint, the unidentified person ran towards the man at a fast pace.
Widening his eyes in aghast, the man first flinched, then he started taking faltering steps backwards, looking at the person holding the knife in appalled. And in the end, he started running away from that unidentified ghost-like person.
While running, he was wondering who that anonymous person was and why the person wanted to kill him. The man was running with all his might but he was too late to run away and a painful groan escaped from the man's mouth when that anonymous person stabbed him right on his head from behind. The man fell on his knees with a thud sound. He was feeling like his head was going to blast anytime soon. The blood started oozing from his head rapidly and got mixed with raindrops.
Again a groan escaped from his mouth when the person jerked the knife out of his head. The man's vision started to shake. Within a short time, darkness was about to appear before his eyes, and he fell completely backward on the wet ground right in front of that person's feet who was standing there with the knife, looking down at the man's upside down face just inches away from his boots.
The half dead man was watching the person's movements through his slightly open wet eyelashes with painful writhing. The raindrops were preventing him from keeping his eyes open even slightly.
The person slowly squatted before without mercy, stabbing the man right on his left chest where the man's heart was beating unsteadily, making him let out his last groan. And with the knife retracted from inside his chest, the man was finally completely dead.
That unidentified person didn't stop there, immediately after the death of that man, he started making something on the man's forehead with the tip of the knife. The person looked at his art for a while after completing it on the man's forehead. He had written two letters on the man's forehead and what he wrote was 'XO'.
And that was the moment, when the infamous name given by the people to that unidentified ghost-like person was revealed.
'Killer',
He was the same Killer who was selectively killing the most wanted criminals and leaving XO marks on their foreheads in order to find XO. And now after killing that man, another kill had been added to his count of killing criminals.
Suddenly the Killer stood straight after throwing the knife. He made his way towards the innocent lady's dead body, whom that man killed just for his own satisfaction. The Killer picked up a Madonna lily flower, half of which was inside the lady's handbag and the other petal part was getting wet in the rain on the ground.
After looking at the Madonna lily for a while, Killer placed the lily on the chest of that innocent lady before loosely straightening his hands and placing one hand on the other one below his belly, he stood there staring at her dead body. A sad sigh could be heard from the Killer, indicating that the Killer wasn't happy with that lady's death.
After a few seconds of staring, the Killer moved from his place to leave that place immediately, and somewhere in the heavy rain and deep darkness of the night, the Killer disappeared.
┈━ ◇ ━┈
It was already 11:30 at night and while taking the night fresh wet air on the terrace after the rain stopped pouring, Soyi saw Elvis came back to the mansion and on seeing, she ran towards the ground floor.
With soft slow steps, while holding the railing attached to the stairs, descending the stairs, she roamed her eyes to the whole area, looking for Elvis but couldn't find him inside her view frame. Standing straight on the last stair, she was trying to guess where he could be but suddenly at that very moment, from the direction of the kitchen, she heard the constant noise of running water.
Without thinking anything else except that Elvis would be there, she immediately made her way towards the kitchen. As her step was getting closer to the kitchen, the noise of the water was gradually getting louder. And completely reaching the kitchen entrance, the first thing that caught her eye was Elvis washing his hands in the sink. But the thing that mildly shocked her and bewildered at the same time was the water disappearing passing through the strainer attached to the sink after turning totally red like blood, while Elvis was washing his hands.
She kept standing there stunned, thinking, was that real blood? Was Elvis's hands injured?
Or….Or Elvis killed someone!
─═──═──═──═──═──═─