When destiny decides to play a dirty game with you, you either play along or fight a losing battle. ~Victor
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Emilia Gardiner was enjoying the last bits of sunshine she would experience before she was put under lock and key for life. She had killed someone and no jury in the world was going to acquit her. The evidence was too damning. It was really a beautiful day nonetheless even when the area was swarming with law enforcement personnel. The first responders had done the logical thing and roped off the area with yellow crime scene tape. The crime scene techs had also seized her car and now they were tearing through it like hyenas.

Emilia jumped when she heard his deep booming baritone. She turned and her weak heart tugged in her chest. She really needed to bring her heart up to speed with the details of their not so unanimous break up.

It seemed her body was also not up to speed with the break up because it moved towards him of it's own accord. Her shaking hands came around his waist and she leaned her head on his chest. Emilia did her best not to comment on the fact that Archer smelled faintly of Victoria's secret perfume. Archer promptly stiffened and Emilia tore herself away faster than lightning. Emilia's cheeks flamed and her eyes suddenly became glued to the tarmac road.

"Um what happened here?" Archer said after clearing the emotion out of his throat. He was trying for professionalism but failing miserably. He wanted nothing more than to kiss away her unshed tears. He wanted nothing more than to hug her until she worried about nothing. He wanted nothing more than to-

Archer stopped himself. Emilia had clearly stated her case and he was going to abide by her wishes until she miraculously changed her feelings even though it killed him. Atleast he had his dreams.

"Um I was on my way to Mattapan to visit my sister when Har-this woman ran onto the road. I tried to brake but I was too late. I swerved but I still hit her. Am I in trouble?" Emilia was desperate and she really needed Archer to believe her. The other cops were just giving her side eyes. Others were blatantly staring daggers into her. Emilia had already figured that after that incident where the charred corpse was found in her house two years and two months ago, she was not exactly a favourite with the cops.

"Why did you use this route to go to Mattapan? This route takes you all around Mattapan before entering it." Archer asked with a frown on his face. For a brief moment, Emilia was tempted to smooth the lines and edges on his beautiful face.

"The protest." In a better situation Emilia would have spiced up her answer with a "duh" but she settled for making a face instead.

Archer smacked himself on the head. He had completely forgotten about the protest. He really needed to get more sleep.

"Archer!" Amanda Brown, the State Medical Examiner and Coroner called. Her voice was muffled because she was wearing a mauve colored face mask that went well with her purple spects. Amanda's brown hair was loosely tied up in a ponytail and her lab coat swayed wildly with the wind revealing her navy blue sweater dress underneath.

"Stay here." Archer said as he went to talk to Emilia's friend turned arch nemesis. She took two tentative steps towards the side of the road so that she could be closer to the forest.

What Emilia noticed first was the smell. The forest smelled faintly of decomposing leaves and wet soil. Emilia also noticed that the forest was not happy. Birds didn't sing, squirrels didn't screech in ecstacy. Not even crickets chirped. She turned away before she was tempted to venture into the forest and that's when she felt it.

The telltale itch between the shoulder blades, the ringing in the ears followed by the eery silence that one felt when they were being watched. Emilia turned abruptly and she could have sworn that she had heard someone laugh. Emilia knew that she wasn't crazy. Yes, she was sleeping less than usual and yes, she had only slept for two good hours last night but she wasn't insane. She was not imagining the deep rich laughter that she had just heard.

Emilia turned abruptly towards the forest and she shouted, "Who is there?" She was about to take a step closer when big strong hands grabbed her arm and yanked her back. She looked up into two beautiful brown eyes. The same eyes that she had dreamt about for the past two years and two months.

"What are you doing?" Detective Archer asked. His hand lingered on hers before he gently let it go.

"I-I felt someone watching me and-and I heard someone laugh." Emilia had turned hysterical.

"Oh please Emilia. " Detective Rukelle Savannah who was now at Archer's side said. "First you run over and kill a woman who has been missing for two weeks and now you are trying to get yourself out of this by summoning your imaginary friends? How low could you stoop?"

Emilia, who had flinched at the word kill looked at Rukelle in the eye. She felt ice spread from her belly and crackle through her veins, "Deciding whether I am guilty or not is the job of an impartial jury. I suggest that you focus on doing your job or-"

"Rukelle let's go and finish up with Amanda." Archer chimed in. He knew that Emilia had become belligerent and there was no stopping Emilia when she was like that.

Archer guided his partner by the arm towards Amanda who was clearly scowling behind her facemask and Emilia was left alone with her mixed feelings of triumph, guilt and shame. The ice melted and it tried to make it's way out through her eyes. Emilia clamped her mouth shut to stop what would have been a nasty cry and she closed her eyes to capture her emotions. When her zen mask slipped back on, she opened them.

Meanwhile a few paces away, Archer was furiously scribbling notes into his portable notebook. Amanda's preliminary reports seemed to be an award winning essay.

"The victim is-was severely malnourished. Her ribs are jutting out dangerously and her abdomen is enlarged. Her legs are most definitely broken and her skull is cracked as a result of the accident. From her brittle nails and pale skin, I can unofficially conclude that she is anaemic. Now to the interesting part, Harleigh has petechiae in her eyes consistent with strangulation and the cuts on her body are definitely pre-mortem."

"Wait what?" Rukelle interrupted. "Are you trying to say she was tortured?"

"Look at these." Amanda pointed to a gaping wound in Harleigh's thigh. "These are not fatal wounds but more like those meant for torture. What intrigues me most is the blade that caused these wounds. It is of a rare shape. Long, slender and serrated. The hesitation marks on the body indicate that the knife was blunt."

"By blunt what exactly do you mean?" Archer asked.

"These kind of marks around the wounds are significant with knives whose tips are broken off."

"Is the tip in her body." Rukelle asked.

"No, all the cuts bare the same marking but I will have to check again to be sure. Archer? Are you okay?" Amanda asked because Archer was swaying dangerously on his feet. He had literally turned into one of those swaying tube man balloons.

Archer was sweating even when it was about twenty degrees celsius out. Why was destiny playing such a dirty game with him? Archer was spinning away. He was no longer at a road in Dorchester but he was back to that day twenty two years ago in his bedroom. A time that he had long chosen to forget. A time that he was now forced to remember and all he could think of was the rusty tinge of blood staining the white carpet. Blood. So much blood.

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