Chapter 2. Connection

It was the man in black again!

Amara woke from her bed, clutching her head as it continued to throb in endless pain. This wasn’t the first time she had seen the man in black in her dreams. Every time she did, he would always be in the darkness and she never saw his face, waking up each time to the most heartbreaking of headaches.

Sluggishly getting up from bed, she took her phone to check the time. Her phone was dead. She hit her head in confusion, but it only worsened the current ache she had. Even worse, her charger was nowhere to be found. Angrily, ignoring her throbbing head, she sprinted out of the room because the missing charger could only be found on one person.

“Sarah! Give it back right now!”

Amara chased her younger sister, Sarah around the house as they both struggle for Amara’s phone charger. “Mum!” Amara called as she saw that Sarah was not going to give up anytime soon.

“Aren’t you too old to call Mum for help?” Sarah laughed.

“Come on Sarah, I have to go to the office in thirty minutes and my phone is down, you have all day to charge yours,” Amara explained while stamping her feet, but Sarah laughed.

“Frank will drag the charger away from me as soon as you leave,” Sarah complained.

“Then I will tell him not to.”

“He won’t listen to you.”

“He will.”

“No he won’t.”

Amara sighed seeing that Sarah wasn’t ready to give up the charger, she decided to back out because of the aches, “You and Frank are both in college why can’t you just get a new charger for goodness sake, why bother me,” Amara said throwing a book at Sarah, but Sarah dodged and started to laugh hysterically.

“Eat the charger anyways, I have the money to buy another one, unlike your broke ass,” Amara spat before running back upstairs. She bumped into her mother, Mrs. Morgan on the way. A young looking middle-aged woman with a decent smile, long hair as dark as the night sky, marvelous hazel eyes that was always filled with compassion and a beautiful shape. All these she gave her daughters. Amara clutched her head in pain.

“Sarah stole your phone charger again?” Mrs. Morgan asked, giving her some medicine. Her smile warm and sweet making Amara forget all the stress Sarah had just given her and carved a smile on her face as well.

“It is cold outside, you should not forget your jacket. I don’t want you to catch a cold again,” Mrs. Morgan said as she warmly placed her hands on Amara’s cheeks.

“Yes Mum, I won’t forget my jacket,” Amara nodded, “Breakfast is ready downstairs. I’ll call Frank out.”

Mrs. Morgan nodded. Her smile always widen every time she hears her daughter mention work. Mrs. Morgan was so proud of Amara’s achievement, not just by being the best detectives in the whole of Silverwood, but for also earning the title of ‘The Beauty of Silverwood’. Not only was she a successful detective, but also a model and brand influencer, sometimes keeping her detective work secret. Mr. Morgan died when Amara was entering college. Amara was so devastated at the time, but Mrs. Morgan never left her daughter’s side and took every next step with her. Their relationship was strong as that of a glue on paper. Amara completely adored her mother and often spoiled her with gift bags and jewelry.

Amara entered her room to pick up her bag, when suddenly she saw a scene flash before her eyes. It was quick and painful, causing her to grunt out loud and clutch her head in severe pain. If she wasn’t mistaken, what she saw was a place filled with corpses. She shook her head taking it as nothing but hallucinations. Amara took her bag from her room and rushed downstairs to see that her mother, Frank and Sarah were already seated and eating, but they seemed to be talking about something serious.

“What is wrong, you all look like someone died?” Amara asked as she slowly sat with them.

“Because someone did die,” Sarah answered.

Frank gave Sarah a little nudge on her shoulders, “You mean dozens of people died.”

“What do you mean?” Amara asked looking unbothered. No matter the news, she was used to cases like that, “Let me see,” she stretched out her hand across the table and Sarah put her phone in Amara’s stretched hands. She was used to a lot of cases, but this one was indeed unexpected.

Amara’s eyes widen as she saw the number of people that had died. What was even more terrifying was that it was the same scene she had seen minutes ago. Hundreds of bodies laid on the ground inside the famous club on Farrow Street, and also pictures of bodies that laid outside the club. All eyes of the victims were bulging out and their body was completely dry and horrifying. Amara was used to mass murder cases that included draining of blood and organ stealing, but something about this one was different. It made every hair at the back of her head stand that she threw the phone back to Sarah, but it landed on the pudding instead.

“Amara!” Sarah screamed and carefully took her phone out of the pudding.

“So what do you think? Satanic ritual stuff right?” Frank asked.

“You see too much horror movies Frank, it must be some sort of poison or chemical,” Amara answered.

“Thank God I did not allow you to go for that party,” Mrs. Morgan said, her voice trembling. A lot of the victims from last night were from Frank and Sarah’s college, University of Silverwood. Frank was Sarah’s twin, they were both just entered their final year and Frank was saved last night by not going to Farrow Street to party.

Mrs. Morgan was deeply troubled with the fact that her son would have been among the horrible looking corpses, she began to tear up, but Amara rushed and placed her arms around Mrs. Morgan, “We should be happy that Francophone did not go, not sad, Mum,” Amara said with a reassuring smile.

“You are right,” Mrs. Morgan agreed, while Amara wiped away her mother’s tears.

“Most of the victims are from Silverwood University. I fear that some people we know are part of the bodies there,” Sarah pointed out after she had finish licking the pudding from her phone.

“From now on, no parties for the two of you,” Mrs. Morgan called, but Frank and Sarah nodded immediately. The horrific scene and the terrifying bodies of the victims was already enough to scare them away.

Amara laughed, “Mum, after seeing this, I doubt these two will even want to go out for a stroll.”

“You are restricted from partying too,” Sarah called, but Amara shrugged, “I don’t have time for partying. I have bigger things to attend to,” she said.

“No wonder you don’t have a lover, as old as you are, you obsessed workaholic,” Sarah called.

“I am 25 years old, there is still plenty of time,” Amara replied proudly.

“Time is short, the victims yesterday also thought they also had long lives ahead of them,” Sarah sighed and put a spoon of pudding into her mouth.

“Sarah, let Amara be. She’ll choose a good man that will take good care of her and good care of us, no need to rush her,” Mrs. Morgan spoke and Amara smirked at Sarah’s defeat.

Sarah folded her arms and pouted, “You always defend her,” she mumbled to herself.

“Our resumption was shifted to further notice, it seems like the number of college students last night were too much,” Frank read the messages on his phone out loud with a worry etched on his face, “Let me check on my friends.” He immediately stood up and rushed upstairs, so did Sarah.

“I’ll be off, Mum,” Amara grabbed her bag and stood up from her seat getting ready to leave, but her mother called her back, her face still drenched with worry.

“This case is dangerous and you might be part of the people working on the case. Farrow Street is a few miles from here. Something feels off, I can tell.”

Amara approached her mother, placing her hands tenderly against her mother’s. “I will be fine, Mum, even if they give me this case to work on, I cannot turn it down. I will make sure to be extra careful. Remember what I used to say? You cannot act recklessly when you have people that will also face your consequences with you.”

Mrs. Morgan gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead before letting go of her hands. “Good luck then,” she said.

Amara waved her mother goodbye before exiting the house.

Amara lived with her family in Lavender Street, a very peaceful street northside of Silverwood. As she came out of the house, the street was awfully quiet at 7am that morning. Amara decided to brush it away, because schools had recently just gone for the Christmas holidays and they were probably still on their beds with their phones. Amara didn’t bother to think about it, so she got into her car and drove off.

Her office was inside the large organization in Northside Silverwood, an organization known for producing the best detectives in Silverwood.

As she got out of the parking lot, she could see the front of the organization was parked with journalists and reporters, all questioning every member of the agency about last night’s incident in Westside Silverwood.

Amara could walk past them, she had had her experience with both reporters and paparazzi, but the crowd in front of the building was awfully noisy and troublesome. Amara did not want to see any of them or to even answer any questions. So she went into the building through the back door.

Immediately she entered the building, Rohan and Samantha, her interns, ran up to her, breathing and panting like fishes desperate for water.

“What is wrong?” Amara asked.

“You haven’t heard?” Rohan looked at Amara as if he could not believe that she just asked what was wrong. They were both used to Amara always being focused on her work, and only her work. She was hardly on social media. It was her modelling agency that was in control of her social media events. Amara knew nothing about latest news. She was indeed a hardworking an independent woman, but for her not to hear this particular news was too shocking and made Rohan think she was too much of a workaholic.

“Over three thousand people died in Farrow Street westside of Silverwood last night,” Samantha explained.

Amara’s eyes widened, “Three thousand?” she called and the two nodded.

“And counting,” Samantha added and Amara mouthed the words ‘and counting?’ in total shock.

“I heard and saw photos of the scene, but I did not think it would be that many people,” she said with a tone of disbelief.

“The president seeks your presence, he would like you to be on the case,” Rohan informed.

As expected.