Like the wind blows...

Knock knock… thumppp… crrreak… thud!!!
He entered the house and the door closed behind him. No one was there; everything was still as lying deserted for ages. Inside, everything was bathed in vivid cloudy light. Moths danced silently around the dim light. Dust covered everything and the whole room appeared like clay molded creeping chamber. It seemed like time frame had stagnated itself. He moved towards the kitchen. Dust danced with his steps like hands coming out of dust and trying to stop him. The window showed the silent thundering outside. It was pouring outside. He reached the kitchen; turned on the light… the room gleamed, only darkening the shadows. He crossed the kitchen and entered another room which only showed light in the corner door. Probably it was the wash-room. Slowly and steadily he reached the door bathed in the dim streak of light. When he reached the door, something thundered in his head… lightening… and then the light became intense… white… and everything went blank…
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Knock knock… … … clunk… creak…
‘Who’s this?’, a husky female voice asked from half open door.
‘Hello, my name is Jonathon J. Craft, I am homicide investigator… can I come in and ask you a few questions?’
‘Sorry, I have many things to work on; I have no time for work out of business. Go away!’ the voice answered with an air of haste and closed the door.
Knock knock… … knock knock… … …
‘I told you to go away’, this time the voice snarled without opening the door, ‘I have no time for this crap, get yourself out of here!’
‘err… sorry marm, but yester night we found Mr. Fredrickson lying dead outside 34-Parkville!’ he uttered everything in a jiff.
The door opened with a creak revealing an elderly lady with big beady eyes, ‘come inside!’
He entered and followed her to the sitting room. The inside of the house seemed like house of a nun; a large cross was dangling on the front wall, a sculpture of crucifixion of Jesus stood on the table in the left corner and when he entered the wide room, it was swept in rich aroma of camphor. Bible was placed neatly on a table adjacent to a rocking chair in the room. She slowly reached the chair and settled there calmly. Her behavior had changed abruptly on the mention of Mr. Fredrickson.
‘Bring that chair and sit here.’ She said calmly and placed the bible on her lap.
He took the seat obediently.
‘Now tell me, why did you come here?’
‘Marm today in the morning we found a man lying in the front yard of 34-Parkville with his head buried inside earth and whole body scratched ruthlessly. You know that the house has been abandoned for many years. When we were collecting the evidence we found this in his pocket,’ he showed her a black visiting card with a logo of pentacle on left side, ‘Europhericia… like the wind blows… isn’t it you Marm?’
‘Yes this is my card; I used to tell the fortunes and guide the folks with the will of God,’ she answered with an air of pride, ‘but I have long ago left this practice and now what I do is my meditation enclosed inside these walls.’
He eyed her suspiciously, ‘So, is this death related to you… and who else the part of your company was… and how do you know Mr. Fredrickson?’
‘Yes, he is an old friend of mine. We met in the church seven years ago. From then on we used to visit New Orleans regularly for Mardi gras. But what can be done; God wanted to call him, so He called him…’ her toned changed to sadness, ‘but who can do it?’ she asked thoughtfully.
‘Marm we are also at a loss of any evidence. You are our only hope; and probably you can help us in finding the source of all this mystery.’ He said as calmly as ever.
‘Actually he was just a friend of mine, I know nothing about him except we only met in church and we had Mardi gras parade visiting in common, nothing else. But I will always remember him that he was such a kind man.’ And she broke into tears.
‘Yes, I understand everything… but I was wondering if you could do me a favor… that you accompany us to the inside of 34-Parkville…’ he asked her in the same calm tone but she budged on hearing the Parkville like receiving a great electric shock, ‘…because that house belongs to you!’
‘No way, God… even his Son shows His anger on such words… don’t go there or He will conjure the storm upon you… I have abandoned the house long ago’ She changed her state quickly, ‘now it’s the time for meditation, you can go from here… and never come back…’
He stood up and before leaving he said, ‘Marm, neither do God presage to kill a human being… pray that I find the culprit…’ for a moment he watched into her eyes and then left.
Someone was observing him from the window of the next house…
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Knock knock… (thunder)… knock knock…
It was raining heavily in unusually dark night… a silhouette stood in front of the 34-Parkville.
Knock knock… thumppp… creak… thud!!!
He entered the house and the door closed behind him. No one was there; everything was still as lying deserted for ages. Inside, everything was bathed in vivid cloudy light. Moths danced silently around the dim light. Dust covered everything and the whole room appeared like clay molded creeping chamber. It seemed like time frame had stagnated itself. He moved towards the kitchen. Dust danced with his steps like hands coming out of dust and trying to stop him. The window showed the silent thundering outside. It was pouring outside. He reached the kitchen; turned on the light… the room gleamed, only darkening the shadows. He crossed the kitchen and entered another room which only showed light in the corner door. Probably it was the wash-room. Slowly and steadily he reached the door bathed in the dim streak of light. When he reached the door, something thundered in his head… lightening… and then the light became intense… white… a hollow voice started to dissolve in his head… pain… a hooded silhouette standing in bath-tub… scythe… pound pound… and everything went blank…
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Knock knock… … … clunk… creak…
‘Who’s this?’ a husky female voice asked from half open door.
‘Hello, this is Jon, I came to visit you yesterday, there is another death similar to the previous one, and the evidence shows the same card of yours….’
‘Go away… I warn you… please go away… you will be killed. Forget it. I plead you to go away.’ she shouted from the closed door.
‘Marm, I just wanted to ask you… I had left my watch on the table…’
‘I said get the hell outta here, you rogue… I had stopped publishing and giving those cards long ago’ she shouted again on top of her voice.
‘Okay okay I will come later.’ While leaving he caught the sight of eyes behind the window of the next house move, and the eyes shone white in his head… becoming intense… but he somewhat succeeded in leaving.
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Knock knock… thumppp… creak… thud!!!
He entered the house and the door closed behind him. No one was there; everything was still as lying deserted for ages. Inside, everything was bathed in vivid cloudy light. Moths danced silently around the dim light. Dust covered everything and the whole room appeared like clay molded creeping chamber. It seemed like time frame had stagnated itself. He moved towards the kitchen. Dust danced with his steps like hands coming out of dust and trying to stop him. The window showed the silent thundering outside. It was pouring outside. He reached the kitchen; turned on the light… the room gleamed, only darkening the shadows. He crossed the kitchen and entered another room which only showed light in the corner door. Probably it was the wash-room. Slowly and steadily he reached the door bathed in the dim streak of light. When he reached the door, something thundered in his head… lightening… and then the light became intense… white… a hollow voice started to dissolve in his head… pain… a hooded silhouette standing in bath-tub with only white slits instead of eyes… holding a scythe… pound pound… screams… and everything went blank…
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Knock knock… … knock knock… But the door was locked.
He immediately threw his sight on the next house but there was a white curtain behind the window. The same house was again locked.
He immediately called his office, ‘Hello this is Jon, we have a situation in 84-Burkson, I am breaking in… call for the reinforcements silently… I repeat call for the reinforcements silently…’
Then he immediately went to the front window, shattered the glass with a blow and jumped in. At the same time the white curtain in the adjacent house moved and the white eyes behind the window caught sight of Jon entering the house…
Inside, everything was scattered, all the crosses and statues had been thrown here and there… and there was no sign of that elderly lady. He had forgotten to ask her name, he searched his pocket for the card. Same “Europhericia… like the wind blows” was written there, nothing else. He immediately moved towards the front window, and when he reached there, a blow stunned him… and everything went blank…
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Knock knock… thumppp… creak… thud!!!
He heard knocking from far away… white light… intense light… he knew nothing… couldn’t remember anything… damped footsteps approaching from far… bath-tub… tiles… eyes narrowed and got accustomed to the bright light… extreme headache, a hump in the head… footsteps approaching… Jon… Jonathon J… Craft… yes he was Jon… lying almost blank in the bath-tub… 34-park… parking??? Car parking… thirty…four… three plus four… seven… seven… seventh Wednesday from Easter… Ash Wednesday… Mardi gras… MARDI GRAS… oh dammit… Mardi gras… he remembered everything in a flash… he tried to move but he was fastened tightly in ropes. In the other corner, the same elderly lady was lying unconscious. The footsteps approached and approached. He could figure out the dark room from the door of the illuminated wash room. And the footsteps stopped!
With half consciousness he saw an unknown man standing confused in front of him. When the man saw him, he rushed forward and in a split-second, the door shut behind him and a hooded figure with white eyes tripped that unknown man, produced his scythe and started ripping his head off… Jon had regained his senses on sight of such a scene! He kicked the lady so check if she was alive, but shed didn’t move. When the writhing of the murdered one stopped, the hooded figure removed his hood. He was also an elderly man with a bald head and brown beard.
‘Ha ha I knew that you will try to approach me… but you know I approached you. Now no one can find the unknown murderer.’ He spoke with a thin voice, not at all matching his chubby bulky body.
‘Who are you?’ Jon could only come up with these words.
‘You know me, I am the guy whom you thought to be dead… both of you!’ he pointed to the unconscious lady.
‘Fred… Fredrickson? No, I myself attended his funeral; he was not bald as you are!’
‘Ha ha, what did you find… an identity card… huh… you yourself know that IDs can be changed easily. Simply I killed him, buried his head in the mud and replaced my identity. And thumbs up for my wife, she still believed that I was dead… ha ha ha you blockhead!’
‘Is she your wife? How come! And why did she keep on hiding you?’ Jon got more confused.
‘I’ll kill your confusion before killing you,’ he cleared his throat, ‘Yes she was a pretty woman; she used to visit New Orleans for Mardi Gras parades. And I lived in New Orleans. We met there and in a matter of days we were married. She was a religious woman and didn’t know about my traits; I was a punk, had no home no rules, but I loved her. So I approached her and you know she got my first impression as a catholic rather than alcoholic. She gave me her hand and we moved here. But when she detected that I was alcoholic she did her full effory to quit my drinking. But I was an addict. So she started hating me. One night when I returned home fully drunk, she hit me in the head with this club,’ he showed a club which usually cops have, ‘I wonder, from where she got this. I hit you with the same club. Anyway she thought that she had killed me, she buried me in the backyard of this house and moved to 84-Burkson…’
At the same time the body the lady started coming to life, she sat down without any effort and when she caught sight of Fred, she started screaming, ‘Oh in the name of God, go away… for heaven’s sake, for Christ’s sake… leave this city… our death is worth nothing… I plead you to go away!’
‘Hushhh… honey are you worried… haven’t you buried me without any funeral and with the grace of your god, I was resurrected! Yes, I am now the archangel, and I take their live… ha ha ha!’
‘You blasphemous devil, you’d be burnt in hell! I know that I will never be forsaken for my sin, but you will be burnt in the hell, you are cursed!’ she shouted on the top of her lungs.
‘Your god… he will burn me? Huh!’ he started kicking her! Jon couldn’t do anything to save her.
He loosened her ropes, threw the club on floor and held the scythe tightly in both hands. In the meantime Jon stretched himself with tightened rope and succeeded in falling out of the bath-tub.
Thuddd…
On hearing the thud, he left the lady ‘Oh… why not kill the one trying to be smart… eh?’ and moved to kill Jon. He held the scythe in air and…
Strike one…
Jon bellowed with pain, blood started gushing out of his arm. He again raised his arms and…
Strike two…
This time Jon’s other arm was struck! He again writhed and cried with blood spilling out of him. Jon started fainting…
Strike three…
Jon cried again… life slipping out of his body, but this time the striker fell and revealed her holding the club… and everything went blank…
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Knock knock… knock knock…
…you are given life…
…like the wind blows…
…wander here and there…
…like the wind blows…
Slowly he opened his eyes and white ceiling came into his view…
Knock knock…
‘Yes!’
Officer came in!
‘Jon, how are you feeling?’
‘I’m fine… what happened?’ he asked weakly.
‘We came there just in time, the murderer lady was trying to kill you after killing two other guys, and we saved you just in time! Your arms are badly injured and call it a miracle that you are alive.’
‘Oh she’s not Mardi Gras… she’s Christ… don’t arrest Mardi Gras…’ Jon murmured without gathering up the words.
‘What!’ the officer exclaimed, ‘Jon you are not in your senses. But you did a great job, when you called for help, nothing was there in 84-Burkson. So our first guess came to 34 Parkville… and we saved you just in time. Now you take rest.’
‘err… what is ‘like the wind blows’?’ Jon murmured more weakly.
‘I don’t know… you take rest… oh one other thing; the lady says that you’ve got some explanation about her before any sentence… hope you give her a great blow in court.’
‘Yes I will…’ Jon smiled, ‘like the wind blows…’
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