After finishing her lunch in the cafeteria Varsha heads back to the classroom,with a few minutes remaining before break time ends. She took her seat in the second row, at the last bench. The classroom was empty, but she could hear footsteps in the hallways. Nothing else to occupy her mind, she glanced to her left, where an empty bench stood.
Just a few days ago, a new transfer student had occupied that spot—a boy.
As Varsha pondered , she remembered how the boy had a cheerful demeanor. Since his seat was next to hers, the first person he spoke to after introducing himself to the class was her. He repeated his name and offered his hand for a handshake, maybe at that time if she told her name in reply and accepted his handshake, she would've become his first friend in school …maybe, but she ignored him thinking that he is the same as other jerks in class.
But why ? Why is she thinking about this boy now? Who only attended school for only one day, his first day, came from Erelis he had told when introducing himself, and same day after going home he suddenly gotten killed and there's no evidence who killed him, how he gotten there and more than anything else, it was the first time in her life she saw him, they never saw each other before, and also she isn't the type of person who felt pity for every other individual who dies, "why am i thinking this all of sudden" ,she thought but she knew the reason.
Last night her father called out to her on the phone. Varsha and her father don't have a good relationship, they barely talk to each-other only through phone-call and meeting in person is likely impossible, her dad always tries to talk in person but she refuses all the time.
She doesn't like her father because her father worked with something like a criminal organization or underworld type of people, she doesn't clearly know all the things. All she knew about her father was from her mother and her brother, but she only believed in her mother's words, because her brother lives with her father.
She thought maybe her brother does this type of work too, though her brother visited her place once or twice in a month to check on her but he hadn't visited her in almost the past two months.
Also she doesn't have any troubles with her brother. Sometimes when he visits her place she has thought of asking, "you also work with those types of people ?" but of course she doesn't have courage to ask him, maybe she is afraid of knowing or already knows the truth.
When her father called her last night and told her to be safe and not be out late at night, come home before dark, don't talk with unknown people. The conversation was very brief and one-sided, but through the sound of voice she could clearly understand that her father really meant that. She herself also thought that, maybe her father was telling her because of what happened to the transfer student , she wanted to ask, "is this because of what happened to that transfer student?" But she couldn't speak a single word at that time, and now ? She was thinking about this stuff….. and suddenly her eyes caught sight of a student who was coming over to his seat , the farthest corner besides the window.
He is the most unusual or maybe weird? She made a random speculation. She only knows his name, Paul , that's all she knew about him. where he lives or what's on his mind, only sitting on the corner either looking outside the window or observing the students, and most important of all she feels some strange aura around him whenever her gaze lands on him.
'Well that's nothing to do with me, as long as..."
And Paul's and varsha's eyes met with each-other, varsha averted her eyes quickly shrugging her elbows focusing on next class, Paul to without any interest shifted his eyes outside the window.
Last class ended at 3 PM but Paul as always waited a few minutes in his seat for students to leave first, and now he is outside the school campus walking towards his apartment.
As he was walking for 2-3 minutes he sense that someone was following him, "probably not, maybe it's some other students" he thought because he isn't the only one who've waited for other students to leave first, maybe there are some who left after him, but just for his satisfaction he looked behind but didn't see anyone. The roads empty only the black car he could see which was very far off but couldn't see if someone was inside the car, and then again brushed the thought aside, thinking it was only just his imagination.
But he quickly picked up the pace, almost sprinting. Just a few meters ahead was a right turn, but his apartment was straight ahead. As he approached the turn, he dashed to the right like an animal, just a meter away from a pole. He spotted it earlier, he quickly hid behind it, waiting patiently. A minute went by and he could hear footsteps approaching, but his face showed no sign of nervousness; like he was used to this.
The footsteps got closer and closer to Paul, and he could hear them clearly. When he sensed the person was within reach, he stepped out from behind the pole, clenching his fist. But just as he was about to confront them, he stopped, facing the person following him. Why did he stop?
Because he knows the person's identity, it's Mia, the girl from before, he talked to when he was having his lunch. Mia's face had an expression of shock and fear, her both hands raised upwards slightly, she didn't expect that the person in-front of her would react like this. Her voice Tripped-
"I.. I can explain."
"Didn't I tell you before to never show your face again?" Said Paul, his gaze fixed on her trembling eyes as he waited for a reasonable answer.
Mia gulped her salvia in nervousness and explained - "It.. It's not my fault if my home is in the same direction as yours, what can I do about this? Huh.. and when I saw you walking alone, i.. i thought if I walked closer to you, you.. you would probably yell again like you are doing right now, so I was walking behind you… far behind ,slowly.., without your noticing, to... not disturb you again.. tha... that's all.
"And I'm not lying," she hurriedly added.
Paul of course doesn't believe her, but then again he doesn't want to argue with her either, so he just walked past her and started walking towards his apartment. He noticed that Mia was also walking behind him in the same direction, a meter of distance from him, but he ignored her.
Twenty minutes later he reached in front of a four story building, on the fourth floor it was his apartment. He checked again looking behind if Mia was still following him, but she had disappeared without leaving any trace and Paul didn't sense when she disappeared. Paul thought she was troublesome.
Soon the darkness covered the city, but Paul's room was filled with light. He was sitting in the sofa inside living room, watching something in his phone or maybe waiting for something, at a glance living room looks all milky white, walls, sofa, floor all white,the wooden dining table which was few meters away, is in mix of dark brown, brown, and light brown color, there's also four wooden chairs with same color as dining table, it is covered with white clothes and Cabbage laying there ready to cut, a knife and also dish to place the cutting vegetables but it was currently empty. Paul may be about to cook his dinner after he is done with his smartphone ?
Soon enough his smartphone started buzzing. He instantly tapped the receive button without looking at the owner 's name, but actually there's no name saved, it was only numbers but he knew who the owner was, and he was waiting for this call, half a second later there's a response -
"Paul?"
It's Simon.
Paul answered calmly with - "Yes"
"You were right, there was someone following you from the morning when you left the apartment for school, and later from school to apartment. "
Paul didn't speak and waited for info to come in .
"I'm monitoring him but why was that man following you ?" Simon asked, his voice clear and steady.