Patricia's pov
I was cold. I was hungry. I was tired. But most importantly, I was scared. It had been roughly seven minutes since I had called him.
Was he going to come? Was he going to find me? Or do I have to stay like this the entire night?
These thoughts kept rushing through my brain over and over again until finally, I heard a faint voice somewhere in a distance. I sat up straight, trying to concentrate where the voice was coming from.
"Patricia!"
There it was again, this time it was more clear. It was coming somewhere from the west. Faraway at a distance, I could see a tiny, black figure wandering around in the woods. The figure wasn't headed anywhere, it was just randomly facing any direction and maybe that figure was the one calling out my name.
"Patricia! Where are you! It's me!", the voice yelled again. It was Praveen. A smile made its way across my face. I was finally safe. How happy I was to see him.
"Here! On this tree!", I yelled back choking on my tears. He finally saw me and ran over to the tree I was on and helped me down.
The first thing I did when my feet touched the soft, muddy ground was hug him tightly. I was shivering with fear.
"It's ok, Its alright, I am here", he whispered into my ears as he soothingly caressed my hair. That calmed me down a lot. And when I was strong enough to utter coherent words I asked him to take me home which he did.
Author's pov
Things weren't normal for Patricia the next day. Praveen was by her side almost all night. He had taken her home, cooked her dinner, and when she fell asleep on the sofa, he even carried her upstairs and tucked her in bed. When he was sure that she was asleep and fine, he left the house.
She was grateful for his gentleman's behaviour. However, she was still shaken by the events of the previous night.
Praveen showed up at her doorstep sharp at 10 am. They were going to the local police station to report this incident. He had come to accompany her. He knew Patricia was disturbed after what happened the previous nights.
"You ok?", he asked in a feather-light voice as he held her hand to assure her everything is fine.
"Yes, thank you", she replied, her eyes not meeting his gaze as her head was still down.
The journey to the station was pretty quiet. When they reached there the first thing that Patricia noticed was the awful atmosphere. There were lockups with black bars and a few locals inside. Few locals were sitting on the benches that were placed in one corner of the room. Few policemen were busy chatting and conversing amongst themselves, few were going through different files, the police station seemed extremely busy.
"How can I help you two?", a voice spoke from behind. Turning around Patricia saw an elderly police officer in front of her. He was probably in his fifties. Had rimless round specks that rested on his nose the way you see in fiction books. And a big white mustache.
"We came here to file a complaint sir, attempted assault", Praveen replied. The officer looked at Patricia with pity in her eyes and said "come here ma'am, I promise you we will find him."
Patricia didn't say anything. She just followed the officer to his desk with Praveen by his side.
"Please fill in your details in this form", the officer said, pulling out the FIR sheet. Patricia looked up for the first time and saw the name tag the police officer had pinned on him.
Officer Prakash Menon.
"Ma'am now I will ask you to describe the person who tried to assault you, we need a proper description so that the police can find him", said officer Menon after he took the FIR sheet from her.
Patricia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once she was ready, she started narrating the entire story right from the start, from the time she left Raghu's store to the time she noticed how she was being followed. She gave a vivid description of the man. Pointed out how his height was around 5 feet 6. He was bald, middle-aged, had a dirty smile that gave her chills. She also mentioned how he chased her into the woods. It was just luck that he didn't have much stamina to compete with her else he would have caught her.
After hearing the entire story officer Menon called in a few other policemen and gave them the description.
"Find this man immediately, he must be our guy", he said sternly. "And inform Detective Malhotra that we have a survivor, it won't be that difficult to catch him now".
Survivor
"I am a survivor? Wait, so he has targeted other women before?" these thoughts kept running through Patricia's mind. She looked at Praveen and saw that he had a serious face just like the officer.
He knew something. What?
"Praveen, what's going on? What aren't you telling me?", Patricia asked with a curious look on her face.
"Patricia I didn't want you to worry or panic so I didn't tell you", Praveen replied not meeting her gaze.
"Tell me what?", Patricia said in a more stern voice now. A big secret was being kept from her and she knew. She felt it.
"Ma'am, we will tell you everything. Please calm down.", says officer Menon in a very calm tone.
Adrenaline was rushing through her body. Patricia felt scared. As if she knew she was going to hear something awful but she didn't have the guts to hear it. She could feel a hollow feeling in her stomach. However, the only response that pops into her head is "okay", as she takes her seat again.
"Okay, Ma'am to be very clear and blunt let me tell you we have a serial killer on the loose in our town here", started officer Menon.
Ba-dump Ba-dump
Her heart rate increased but she didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say.
"This murderer has been terrorizing the town for the past month. He has had five victims as of now and all of them are random. There are no similarities between each of his victims except for the fact their throats were slit", officer Menon paused for a bit to notice how Patricia was dealing with this entire news. He noticed her eyes were glued to him and she did not react at all. Probably because of the shock.
"We think you were supposed to be his sixth victim, however by luck you survived and gave us this valuable information of the murderer", he continued. "I have sent out a few officers who are looking for him now. In the meantime I assure you I will assign a few more officers around your apartment for your safety, any questions ?", he finally concluded.
There was a minute of silence as this was a lot to take in for Patricia. it was like a calm atmosphere before a storm. Finally, the awkward silence came to an end and she spoke up.
"This man has killed five people in a month and you guys have no lead?" she raged in anger, banging her fist on the table as she stood up. "How incompetent are you people?"
Praveen tried to calm her down by holding her arm and make her sit down. Officer Menon had a very guilty look on his face. "Yes, we have not been able to catch him yet. This person is way too cunning and our little town has never come across any such case like this but I assure you ma'am we are trying our best to catch him."
Patricia's eyes softened at the helpless look on the old man's face and she finally calmed down. It's not always you see a senior police officer accepting their faults and weaknesses or accepting the fact that they haven't done their job properly.
"Haven't you ask for help?", Patricia asked, her voice softer this time.
"They did. A homicide detective flew in from Mumbai two weeks ago to assist them. He has a very good success rate and is the best at what he does. He is currently leading this case.", Praveen answered this time. He was quiet all this time and finally decided to speak up.
"Yes, yes if I am not wrong, ma'am even you are from Mumbai, right? Do you know this person", officer Menon asked. His eyes lit up when Praveen mentioned the detective as if this unknown person was some kind of Messiah.
"I am sorry, Mumbai is a heavily populated city, its impossible to know everyone there, may I know this detective's name though", Patricia chuckled.
Being in a small town everyone is acquainted with everyone unlike in the big city. She did have few friends in law enforcement but it is a scarce chance it will be one of them.
"Detective Arjun Malhotra", officer Menon replied.