The Red-Light Area

Lost love came stumbling

I was pacing outside the interrogation room while I waited for the logged-book to sign-off before I handover the keys of patrolling car announcing the end of my duty. I was to be replaced with my substitute within minutes but unlike other times, I wasn’t looking forward for going home. Everything within me wanted to stay when the brain was thinking every possible way to take me out of the place knowing exact consequences that I may have to face with the prolonged stay.

Kiara had been taken inside for interrogation while her legal team paced outside the police station, drawing strategies. She was weeping, and looked so week and tired that I felt like engulfing her in a big bear hug. I wanted to comfort her.

“You think, she is involved?” whispered an officer who worked as a front desk officer as he eyed his colleague, expecting an answer. My ears perked up to listen to the answer to the very question that had been buzzing in my head from the moment Kiara had stepped in.

“She may be! Heart break does it to you.” Answered the lady companion as she furiously typed the report. “besides,” she added huffing. “she did it right if she did it. No man has a right to play with a woman’s feeling. He should have deciphered the consequences of his doings. I would have done the same if I were in her place.”

Feminist. I rolled my eyes at her response and continued playing with my mobile phone

“I don’t think she could be involved.” I mumbled not intending to make it audible, nonetheless, it did earn attention and although reluctantly I had to add an explanation. “She doesn’t look like a murderer. Hell, we don’t even know if it is a murder. He was a drug addict. He could have fell in the pool.” I shrugged slightly embarrassed.

“And how does a murderer, according to you, look like, Paige?” Asked Mathew Anderson making everyone laugh at my apparent stupid exclamation. I looked at my shoes embarrassed and mentally smacked Mathew’s head to the computer system at my right yet I didn’t say anything as I waited for the laughter to subside down. “and if that guy isn’t involved in Mohammedi’s murder then Vensmith would frame murder charges of that Prostitute’s case. Either way, the man is finished.”  He added and the urge kill him boomed.

“You think she is involved?” Raien repeated tilting his head towards the police station making me shrug my shoulders. I didn’t know if she was, and I was too tired to care. I was exhausted and the only thing I wanted to do was crash my bed. My brain was a mess with all those thinking and the appearance of Kiara after a decade was overwhelming.

“Maybe or maybe not! Whatever it may be but her brother is in real s**t. She needs to hurry up before the jury starts the trial. Vanderson Anderson is all buckled up for the due promotion. He has arranged the proof to put it on that Aronson’s head. Wicked fellow!" I muttered as I managed the cigar in between my teeth. 

“You think there is any slightest chance of our promotion for we have discovered that wrapped gift box from Juana's vanity when no one could do it.” Raien elbowed me, making me shake my head at the slightest possibility of it happening in this lifetime. 

“Don't raise your hope so high, Rainey. We are not getting promoted unless we replace this dangling d**k with a tight v****a and these six abs with big bouncy boobs.” I spoke sternly making Raien all confused as he shot me a bewildered look. The logged-book arrived, intervening our conversation and I motion Raien to sign-off before I walked out of the premises.

“What were you saying there?” Raien joined me after a while and I shrugged it off. However, his unwavering gaze got in my nerves already.  

“Ugh! Don't give me that look. Don’t you know the rendezvous of Vanderson with Forensic assistant, Serena? He has hooked up with that sexy fat ass-big boobs last week in his cabin. Banging the life outta her. Poor woman had limped her way home but in a couple of days, she finds herself to be recommended for the forensic department with thrice the times' increment. Sometimes I wish I had a v****a instead of this hanging d**k in between my legs. The promotion could have been so easy.” I chuckled putting the cigarette in between my lips as I took a long drag. The cigarette was a real stress buster for me. Could there be a lamer symbol of the era of addiction over true moral choice than a cigarette? Probably not. I watched Raien’s eyes getting bigger as he watched for my final nod for confirmation and I rolled my eyes, knowing well what was to come.    

“You fooling around with me? don't ya? You are taking revenge, taking it all over me for your girlfriend.” Raien jumped, grabbing my collar. “Bastard!”

“Ex-girlfriend!” I corrected him. “I wish I was, but it's true!” I mumbled, shifting away. Raien looked at me and then at the round belly of the chief inspector before he burst out.

“That s**t head! And I thought Serena was into me. Asshole! I had started searching for a honeymoon location. Damn it!” Raien kicked the tire making me guffaw at his expense.

“Hey! It isn’t my fault. She had been giving me those mixed signals. Bending at the table to show the cleavage. Urgh! I have been wanking off all these times. For what…Argh! let it be, Paige! It doesn’t matter now. We have been knocked off so frequently that it feels ordinary and…regular.” Raien let out a sigh as he watched me lit up another cigarette. He groaned before stomping up to me.

“Enough! You have had enough. It’s fifteenth. Do you have a death wish, Paige? You look like s**t and smell too! It has just been a couple of hours for you have seen her. She didn’t even recognize you and don’t forget she didn’t pick up your phone.” Raien said as he tried to snatch the stick away while I maintained the distance keeping it away from his reach.

“It isn’t her.” I defended when we both knew I was lying,

“I know it isn’t. Just throw it away and let’s head home. I have got this exclusive whisky, all labelled and exquisite. Let’s have a couple of shots and drink our miseries away.” He suggested pointing at the whisky bottle in the back seat of our car, peeping underneath the sheets of daily returns.

I looked at the bottle and then at the entrance. I didn’t know what took over me but I somehow found myself striding and taking the bottle out as I gulped half the contains in one gulp before letting out a long breath, I didn’t know I was holding. Surprisingly, Raien did nothing to stop me as he always does. He just stared at my miserable state and unlocked our personal vehicle before he handed the keys of our patrolling car to our substitute for the morning patrolling.     

“Get in!” He commanded tilting his head and I followed his instructions. I waited for him to pull the car out of the police station before I exploded in the passenger seat. The moist that I had been trying to hide away came floating on the surface as I cried my heart out, not caring about Raien who was giving me worried glances but kept driving.

“It’s our anniversary―eleventh.” I choked out, voice thick and laced with a mixture of hatred, love and hurt. “Today was the day she came running to me, huffing soaked in sweat looking for a bathroom―ironically; nothing much has changed except her breast size. They have become this big, all round and juicy─ ready to be sucked and fondled.” I cried touching my chest. “She still came running, huffing and soaked in sweat looking for an arrested brother―not for me, Raien. Not for me!” I smiled looking up at the sky as I snatched another cigarette and lit it. The wrinkled toxic stick spread the chemical into my system invading the lungs. I took out my mobile phone and stared at the last picture we had clicked together that was my wallpaper and kissed the screen.

It was of the night we last made love a decade back, she last kissed me good night before she disappeared from my eyesight and my life. Kiara was sitting in my lap in a cute sweatshirt that falls until her slim thighs. Her hairs were all over me while she posed to play with some of her locks as I kissed her right cheek, smiling cheekily.

“That b***h has left you for she was selfish! She had found a replacement and was about to begin a fresh start if her brother did not decide to go all Tarzan now and look at you! A mess for a human being. Why can’t you get over her? She doesn’t look that great. You can do a lot better, Paige,” Sneered Raien. He was trying his best to divert my attention yet I couldn’t help but melt in Kiara’s eyes. I love Raien―my best and only friend who was my only family after my own had disowned me years back. He had left his family too for he wanted to do something on his own. The duty as a constable was more of a need than a choice for us. We both worked our asses off when the only thing that we hoped was to get out of there ASAP yet we waited for ‘the right time’ to come.

“Hey, it’s Kiara―”

“Your Kiara we are talking about who has left you with no explanation and without any excuse. She didn’t bother to leave a text or a sentence before she went away with her family, has probably f****d a dozen guys after you, who knows she might have birthed a baby and involved in the criminal conspiracy, yet you love her and cling to her as if your life depends on it. Dude, you make me sick.” I glared at Raien and he shrugged nonchalantly, averting his eyes on the road.

“That’s the part of the tragedy. You think I am not hurt. You probably think I am insane. No, I am not. I am mad at her so mad that I would f**k her the moment I talk to her, who knows I will push her in same pool and send her to that shitty face fiancé of hers. Yell all sort of bitchy words I would think of. That Slut powers ten! w***e multiplied by twenty million! She doesn’t deserve my love but still, I do.” My voice crackled at the end as I took a last look at the picture before slipping the phone in my pocket. The whisky was kicking in to my system and I knew, I wouldn’t last long. “My heart is begging for revenge, Raien and that would only accomplish when it will have what it couldn’t have years back.”

I punched the dashboard in anger and yelled colorful words at the couple who were shamelessly making out near the bus stand.

“I have loved her with everything in me, yet she left me. She doesn’t deserve my love. I deserve a better life, Raien. She had gotten over me and I am so over her. I am deleting her pictures right now.” I sobbed like a toddler as I deleted all of her pictures and replaced the wallpaper with a lame one. Raien just shook his head knowing the backup file in my computer system would be needed again and told me. “Screw you, Asshole! It was a mere four years relationship―”

“Four years, two months, two and a half weeks to be precise.” I interrupted as I smiled at the memory while eyeing the advertisement board. I whistled at the bikini model and spoke in slurring voice. “Do you know how I had met her?”

“Yes, you have told me eighty times.” Muttered Raien, looking everywhere but at me.

“It was our high school party. We were sophomore but our seniors had invited us. I didn’t want to go but my senior brother dragged me with him. I was his entry pass. Kiara had come with her brother too.”

“Man, you have told this a trillion times.” Groaned Raien but I didn’t care. He would hear it a trillion times and one and I would bore him with it as long as it keeps the soothing memory alive and kills the time before I meet her again.