Lost in thoughts, Anirudh looked towards the station. His footsteps slowed. The man was there again. The same quiet figure. The same dark jacket.
Anirudh freezes for a minute, staring at him with a neutral face. As he started to walk towards him, he started to remember.
The Police officer who shot a criminal
The police officer who was suspended
"Aren Valric?" Anirudh asks from behind.
Aren turns back on hearing the man's voice. staring for a minute, he realizes that the man who noticed him outside the window was none other than him
"Ah...you must be.." As Aren starts to continue, Anirudh speaks up
"I am Anirudh Diksith, new member the corps..I was transferred here just few days before"
Aren continued to look at Anirudh for a second and the looks down. For a second there was absolute silence between them, and just the noises that usually came from inside the station.
"You're right, I am Aren Valric, who was suspended....on shooting.." Aren's eyes became tearful as he feels the pain from being a police officer to nothing.
"Do you regret it?" Anirudh asks in his firm yet quiet voice to Aren who was still looking down as though in shame.
"I don't specifically regret it...but i don't feel completely at peace with it either" Anirudh faintly smiles as he expected the answer to be somewhat like that. He then walks up to the side wall, leans, putting his hands inside the pockets.
"I had read about you in the file, the police officer whom I was going to replace, but I think I heard more humane version of your biodata from Mr. Kaelthorn."
Aren looks down, smiling faintly, something he would expect from Veydrick.
Anirudh noticed the reaction and looks back at the window. He didn't need to ask Aren why he still tries to hear the investigation.
At the hospital, there was the usual bustle of doctors moving from here and there, some walking and some running, families and relatives waiting at the counter. When suddenly a alarm rose. The survivor is death.
The cop who was guarding the room, had disappeared and was later found to be at a store. Did the survivor died because of his own decision?
The police team arrived, including Rethan. The survivor was already death. Everyone became shocked.
"He was our only..."Mirelle muttered, looking at the body being carefully brought down and layer down on the floor gently. Rethan immediately turned to question the cop in charge.
Mirelle knew how this would affect Aren. He had been the one who had saved him. Anirudh noticed the worry in Mirelle's eyes, but he didn't say anything.
Later that night, Aren sat down alone in his apartment. His notebook open, on his table.
Three locations
Three victims
One survivor
He stared at the last line. "Atleast one person had made it out" suddenly his phone rang, it was Mirelle.
Across the city, Noctren sat quietly in his chair. The news of the death of the sole survivor arrived to him from one of his men.
Choice and then the consequences
"He changed the choice, but not the outcome"