1 M
Nalda had no clue what it was supposed to mean. Or more correctly, she had an idea but she refused to accept it.
Until of course the other officer suddenly stepped into the conversation. "One month…" She muttered under her breath.
Nalda almost glared at the woman. How dare she crush Nalda's hopes like that?
Of course she didn't actually get angry, she felt more like she was drowning in despair than angry. In fact, she was holding back tears, not a glare.
"What- what do you mean?" Nalda asked because what else could one do in such a situation?
The female officer looked at Nalda with pity and spoke. "It looks like the murderer set you up as one of his targets. He'll most likely target you in a month's time."
Nalda felt nauseous at the explanation, her eyes unconsciously looking back at the dead body in the alleyway. She could already imagine herself laying there in a month's time.
Before she could spiral any further the male officer blocked her line of sight and gave her a weak smile. "Hey, it's okay, we know that you're in trouble so we'll keep an eye on you." He said, clearly trying to distract Nalda from the thought of dying at the murder's hand.
The female officer nodded. "Yes, it'll help us catch the killer too." She didn't sound very confident despite looking very confident on the outside. "On that topic, did you see anyone or anything strange in this area?"
'Anything strange? Yeah, those damned latters are still asking me to switch positions but I have a strange feeling that even if I told you, you'd chalk it up as nonsense.'
Nalda looked above the male officer's head again and saw that the letters had changed.
'Only you can see this. Please consider switching positions as soon as possible. The longer you delay the more complicated things will become. Do you want to switch positions?'
Nalda almost spit on it then and there. Why was it so insistent on switching positions? She didn't even know with what!
"No." Nalda answered before she could get too angry but then she paused for a moment.
Come to think of it, wasn't her fall a little too harsh? Especially the second one. While it was true that her legs had felt weak, at first it wasn't to the point that she was cemented to the ground but back then she had felt so much pressure that subconsciously she hadn't even considered standing up. Considering that she found a dead person and what she saw afterwards, it wasn't strange that she didn't notice the pressure earlier.
There was one issue with this logic though, she hadn't seen anyone. Even though she was spiraling, she was confident in her ability to tell when someone was standing near her or not even if she couldn't make out their face or anything really. Still, she decided to give it a try anyways because she was seeing some strange letters telling her some random stuff and because these officers seemed to be hiding something big.
"Uh… I think someone pushed me… and well, didn't let me run away…?" Nalda sounded less confident than a peacock without feathers.
The female officer latched onto those words. "Really? Then what did they look like?" She sounded very enthusiastic all of a sudden. It almost overwhelmed Nalda. Almost.
Nalda looked away, feeling guilty that she had no clue on how that person looked like. "Uhh… here's the crazy part, I didn't see anyone…" Nalda felt like her confidence was dropping faster than the balls that flew during dodgeball.
The two officers went quiet after hearing that. They looked at each other with complicated expressions.
After a few moments of silence, the female officer spoke again. "You're coming with us and you're going to stay in the police bureau tonight." She didn't sound angry or disappointed. She said that in a tone that left no room for arguments.
'Huh? Are my official documents going to get dirtied? Who would hire someone when their official documents said that they were held back in a cell as a teenager? No wait, I won't need to worry about a job if I die in a month.'
The male officer quickly added before Nalda could say anything. "Don't worry, this won't show up on any official documentation. We just need to…" He side eyed the female officer before continuing. "... Keep an eye on you for today. In case the murderer decides to go for it today." He sounded both nervous and frustrated.
Nalda frowned because something was not quite right here. Who said that the murderer wouldn't change their mind in a week or two?
Just then letters formed in front of Nalda's face, in the similar fashion as the previous two times.
'They know the pattern of the murderer. If you accept this request you'll receive a more detailed explanation. Do you want to switch positions?'
…
This again? Why did these letters pop up every time she was contemplating something? It wasn't really helping her answer her questions, instead it gave her more questions.
Nalda rubbed her wet eyes and sighed tiredly. "Can I at least call my family? They're expecting me home."
She was really missing home. If she was going to die soon then she'd want to spend every moment with her family.
Not that she has accepted her death already. It's not like she could say with complete certainty that she would die. That's just a possibility. The chances of her living were just as high, technically. So she didn't need to get worked up over those letters that she's most likely hallucinating from shock.
The officers exchanged a glance before the female officer nodded. "But you can't tell them exactly what happened. We'll give you a narrative to follow once we get to the police station, understood?" She sounded very stern and like she would beat up anyone who didn't listen to her.
Nalda raised an eyebrow and decided to ask in a very innocent tone. "Why?" It was a very simple question but Nalda could swear that the female officer's left eye twitched.
'Is that a win? No that was a genuine question, why is she so annoyed? Does she have anger management issues? Just like Mave…'
At those thoughts she looked at the male officer with pity. His answer was confused blinking.
Fair enough.
The female officer caught everyone's attention back by clearing her throat loudly. "It's to prevent too many people from getting involved in this. You wouldn't want your family getting caught up in this, now do you?"
Nalda nodded but something wasn't right about this whole situation. First there was the whole thing about it not going to be officially documented in her official files and now there was the part about not telling family members that she was involved in a crime scene.
She was once again reminded of the question she asked herself a little while ago.
Are these people really police officers?
As she was mulling these thoughts over, the male officer helped her up once again. While getting up she cast one more glance at the dead body and suddenly frowned because that face seemed somewhat familiar.
Despite the nausea building up she stared at the dead person, trying to jog her memory. That's when she finally recognised who it was and she almost fell back again.
"Is… isn't that… Winter Treewell…?" Nalda said as she paled again.
All the security that she had felt just a few moments ago disappeared at that moment because if one of the most protected artists in the world can die in a stinky alleyway then what protection could protect Nalda, a teen whose parents weren't even in the city?
'Oh, I think I'm going to throw up… I'm actually going to die…'
She didn't need confirmation to know she was right. Anyone can recognise Winter Treewell.
Winter Treewell was well known for her amazing music. Not only for that but also for being incredibly tall, especially for a woman. She also had ridiculously long hair that was as black as possible.
Though Nalda herself wasn't a hardcore fan, she had heard a song or two more often than not while shopping.
That Winter Treewell that was recently caught in a drug dealing scandal. Though nothing was confirmed yet so the security around her shouldn't have been any less than on any other normal day.
'You still have a chance. Do you want to switch positions?'
Those damned letters again. It was almost like they only appeared when she was deeply confused or having an emotional turmoil.
She almost agreed to those letters then and there because why would she reject a chance like that? But she quickly managed to stop herself.
'Give me some time damn it! Why are you using such underhanded tricks to get me to agree!? Can't you see that I have a lot on my mind already!?'
The letters faded away, almost as if sensing that Nalda would most definitely say no if it kept bothering her.
Both officers were quiet since Nalda had asked the question about the identity of the dead person. It further confirmed Nalda's fears.
"Maybe we should head back now? One of our colleagues is just around the corner and will take over the scene." The male officer offered kindly.
The female officer raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything. Instead she started walking ahead.
The male officer smiled at Nalda and stayed in arm's reach in case Nalda would need his help staying up right. She appreciated that a lot because her legs were trembling like crazy.
Only once she got into the police car and got a little further away from the crime scene did she finally start to process everything step by step.
After a few minutes she finally calmed down a little.
At that moment those suspicious letters appeared again. This time instead of appearing in a gory way or as gas, the letters appeared in the back of the seat in front of her. The material the seat was made out of twisted and shaped the letters once more.
'Now that you have calmed down and looked everything over again, are you ready to make a decision? Do you want to switch positions?'
Nalda hesitated before answering in her head, hoping that it would reach the letters somehow.
'I'm puzzled by something. No, actually, I'm puzzled by everything but let's just ignore that and get to the point. You said I'm going to die in a month, do I die at the murderer's hand or not?'
Because if she looked everything over properly, it seemed that Winter Treewell didn't have any security when she got attacked. No matter how hard she thought about it there were no signs of security or bodyguards.
So in conclusion, Winter Treewell wasn't murdered because the murderer had breached the security but because Winter Treewell herself decided to move on her own for unknown reasons. (The only reason Nalda could think of was the drug dealing controversy but that was never proven to be true and the person was dead and deserved some respect.)
That meant that Nalda's chances at surviving also increased significantly, adding the fact that these 'police officers' would most likely keep an eye on her, her safety was pretty much guaranteed.
Another reason why she suspected that her death, which is supposed to happen in a month, wasn't actually because of the murderer was because of those letters. It only said that she would die in a month, it never said that the murderer would actually hunt her down in a month.
She just couldn't overlook how it was worded in such a way. 'You will die in a month', that's oddly vague for a situation where her future murder had just passed by her. It looked like it was trying to warn her too so why was it so vague when everything was already clear?
The letters didn't appear immediately. It was the human equivalent of going quiet when you get caught red handed.
Eventually the letters appeared again but slowly.
'Your guess is correct however you will die in a month. How you die isn't set in stone but when is. Do you want to switch positions?'
Nalda's face hardened and she sighed.
It was basically telling her that she couldn't escape her death. It was telling her that her death had been confirmed and that escaping from it is impossible.
'I'll… I'll decide once I arrive at the police station.'
She promised herself that she would stop pushing the decision back with useless thoughts and contemplate whether she should or shouldn't take the risk the entire car ride.