"ELLIE!" I hear Damian's voice from behind me as I dive deep into the garden, but I 't turn.
I keep walking trembling, looking around for the person who called my name. I don't the dimmed lights. I keep walking, my breathing being the only sound echoing this huge, scary garden.
“Is anyone there?” I ask through my fears, tears almost falling as I rummage through garden further. Why did the voice stop? “Hello? Anyone there?” I ask again, but I the same unnerving response—a screaming lull.
I am almost past the center of it, but nothing still. I haven't seen a thing, and that voice no more. The garden is dead quiet! I halt in my tracks, opting to howl at whoever is , but something stops me. The lights of the garden flicker on, the sharpness of almost blinding me, but I dare not close my eyes. I can't.
The sudden burst of light illuminates the garden, casting long shadows that seem to menacingly around me. I feel exposed and vulnerable, as if every corner of the hides a lurking danger. My heart hammers in my chest, a relentless drumbeat fear.
I strain my ears, listening for any sign of movement, any clue as to who—or what— be watching me from the darkness. But all I hear is the eerie silence, broken by the sound of my own ragged breaths.
I force myself to take a step forward, then another, my legs feeling like lead. Each echoes through the empty garden, a stark reminder of my isolation. The fear in my stomach, threatening to overwhelm me, but I push it down, forcing myself keep moving.
As I reach the edge of the garden, I can't help but glance back one last time, searching any sign of the mysterious voice that called my name. But the garden remains , its secrets locked away in the darkness.
"Ellie!?" Damian freaks me to the core as he appears right in front of me, looking like has seen a ghost.
Wait, if he is here, then who put on the lights? "Yeah, you didn't switch on the ?" I stammer; I feel it almost bringing me to my knees.
He shakes his head, but his eyes are not on me, and I don't think he is even responding my question. I start following the direction of his eyes behind me.
"No! Ellie, don't!" He was too late to stop me from witnessing the most horrifying that my eyes have ever laid on.
A lifeless swimmer swimming in a pool of blood! "N..n.. any? Nanny Aisha," I cry as
I start wobbling towards the horrible scene while Damian tries to pull me away from the scene before me. But I need to confirm that what I am seeing is not the of the situation, so I keep going despite Damian’s attempt to stop me.
"Nanny Aisha?" I sob again, my eyes unbelieving of what is before me.
She lay flat on the green grass, soaked in blood. If only I hadn't known her for years, I have had an arduous time recognizing her. The brutal red bruises on her face— looks like they are marks of a baseball. The broken wrists and hips evidently denote much torture she went through before meeting her horrifying death. Some of her has been ripped off her head, and it seems like the assassin failed to ingouging eyes out but had made a good attempt—and this sight and her state right now me of someone, making my heart bleed even more—my mother. My sweet !
Is there a connection?
The world around me seems to blur as I stare at her lifeless form, my mind reeling shock and disbelief. How could this have happened? Who could have done such thing to her? Why my poor nanny? She was such a pure soul that she made no of anyone she encountered.
I kneel beside her, my hands trembling as I reach out to touch her cold, lifeless skin.
Memories of happier times flood my mind—her laughter, her warmth, her love. How could someone so kind and gentle meet such a violent end?
For what reason? Who is this cruel monster that could do this? And right in this ?
And given the situation of the guards and her true servants, was she the only target of monster? I mean, she is the only one dead while the rest lay half alive? Why someone break into this compound just to assassinate her? And how did even monster manage to pass through the gate? All the securities.
Tears blur my vision as I struggle to make sense of it all. Was she targeted? Was this random act of violence? Or is there something more sinister at play? And this of death...
And then it hits me—the similarities between her injuries and those inflicted upon my all those years ago. The same brutality, the same senseless violence. Could be a connection? The only difference is the place where the murders occurred that there was a cover-up sort of thing in the case of my mother. Could my 's death somehow be linked to this? But how? Just how?
I thought it was all in my head when I saw the bruises on my mother back then, but I cannot shake them, nor can I shake the resemblances of these two situations.
But they are not related in any way, so how could this happen? How could this all be ? How?
So, this means I was right back them? My mother’s death was not a genuine accident?
She was murdered? And if I connect the dots right, her murderer has managed to into my compound and claim the life of a nanny. And in this way, as if to send message?
The thought sends a chill down my spine, filling me with a sense of dread unlike I have ever known.