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"When you're free from the shackles of solitude you never get the sense any mountain is too high to scale, or any horizon is too far to conquer "

Saim .A. Cheeda

The City

Chapter 1

It was the beginning of December in New York city and the slight rain hadn't seemed to have stopped since the first morning hours this gloomy Saturday evening.

It was not usually dark this hour but the heavy clouds made the city appeared more hazy and dim than normally this winter.

In a quiet road next to a flower shop a young red haired woman parked her small white car hastily.

As she walked with quick steps towards her apartment building a tall man with a black jacket kept politely the door open.

She hasn't seen this dark skinned man before around.

She gave him a quick sweat smile and continued entering the elevator.

A sigh of relief came suddenly from her.

"Almost home! "she thought cheerfully.

Her apartment was the last one on the top of the high building.

It was nearly six o clock in the evening now when Caroline entered her apartment in Ranville Street 55.

It was a busy day and her only thought was to take a relaxing shower before slept in her worm bed. She has spent a long but pretty interesting day in the buzzy New York homicide investigation department until late in the afternoon.

And after that she didn't missed her swimming also in the Sheridan Park Poll.
There was her handsome trainer Mathieu every day this month also.

And this was a motive for her to go there regularly also...

Fortunately for her the afternoon hours was available for women's classes during winter.

But strangely David despite his appearance never seemed to like his job or his women trainees and avoided any further discussion with almost everyone there.
They said that he had a serious health issue lately.

From her point of view if a man didn't show any interest for an attractive woman like her was either gay or a looser.

She was quite vain about her  appearance but she was experience enough to understand that the best way to deal with a married man from his 20s ,if this was the case with him, is to show him just a silent contempt.

The was wearing casual clothes now and few in her the apartment block knew that she was working for the police.

In fact she was not police officer but a crime scene investigator.

A pretty rare career path for a girl as rare as her own name ,her aunt often said to her.

Since she was little girl she was fascinated from the fictional crime stories that she red in her bed every night.

And she never regretted her choice.

It was her passion, a puzzle that she always felt excited to solve digging for the truth.

As soon as she took her degree, few months before she was accepted and now she was already involved in an important investigation.

From her appearance was difficult to guess her profession ... in fact she was more like the two twin girls from university that lived downstairs , often disturbed her sleep with their loud music and parties.

Not tall but athletic and slender in body with her long auburn hair loosen now in her white shoulders.

Her light brown eyes were slightly angled like cats and her eyelashes long and rich.

Despite her attractive appearance she was full of determination to prove herself in her new career.

Her supervisor Frank said often that she will have bright future there.

But she wasn't sure if she should believe this words from him.
She had the impression that the recently divorced man was over friendly to her from the beginning.

She left her keys in a small box next to the basket where her white cat Shophie was sleeping.

When she heard her arrival Shophie approached growling and rubbing her shiny fur to her calfs.

Caroline sat in the sofa felling too exhausted to play as usual with her.

As she removed her white socks she walked barefoot inside, slightly limping from her right leg.

She had a small accident two nights before as she returned from her jogging late in the afternoon.

She sat lightly in her bed lifting her knee to reach her dainty feet.

Her ankle was in pain again.

She tried to relax her strained ankle massaged him with slow gentle movements as her doctor Mr Brown suggested.

Doctor Brown had very few patients because of his weird habits which one of them was to collect venomous snakes in his basements in Lexigthon Street. Extracting their venom for hobby was an extremely time consuming process.

Most of his few patients didn't want to hear about his accomplishments with the deadly reptiles but he still boasted about them and the effect of their venom in the human body.

Fortunately the doctor was still in Europe this week for a medical convention and he uploaded regularly in his channel in YouTube all of his speeches as a proof of his "unlimited" knowledge as he usually said to his patients.

Her phone rang for a few seconds just when she wore her light night dress and stretched to reach her blankets...

"Who is this? "she whispered warily as she saw the unknown number.

"Is her again " ,she though.

She dumped her phone in the side of her bed with a sigh of boredom.

Her friend Josephine has probably change number again to avoid some annoying admirer as few weeks ago...

Her friend was sometimes a little mysterious with her behaviour.

At least she said to her before moved in another address again not very far from hers by car.

Josephine was older from her around twenty five and criminal phycologist working often with her colleges in the police department.

Then she remembered her hot chocolate milk that always enjoyed before bed.

As she enjoyed her cup watching from the window she saw something that catch her attention.

One grey car with half closed windows that parked in the corner next her own car.

It was not the first time which she remembered the same vehicle around her...

All of the sudden her cat jumped from the sofa next to her and ran towards the door.

" Shophie what happen? "said softly with a little surprise.

"Cats sometimes were as mysterious as the humans" she thought with a wry smile.

She lifted up her cup for a last sip when suddenly she felt very tired.

Her felling now was almost like she has just returned from a hang over night outside with Josephine.

"A bad influence "she thought smiling.

She left her cup and walked slowly towards her bedroom feeling dizzy.

Suddenly her vision darkened as if a heavy veil felt in her eyes.

She made few more steps and collapsed in the wooden floor gradually loosing almost all her senses...

She didn't remember many things from then.

But she sensed that something was different now.

She wasn't alone ... someone was there.

Somehow she could felt his eyes peering at her face.

She felt something touching her in her  neck.

Then again.

Few moments after someone grabbed her slender ankles and drugged her silently in the smooth wooden floor.

Then she felt herself like someone carried her like a child in arms and gently placed her somewhere dark.

But she was not sure if this was dream or not.

The time seemed like he stopped for her then and she was lost in an unknown deep dark place helpless and unable to think or move.

The Room

Chapter 2

She was breathing heavily when she slowly opened her eyes, still a little dizzy.

She was like she had fever and woke from a weird unpleasant dream.

In her hands she could feel a soft blanket which was her mattress.

She could listen that her pulses was raising as she gently raise herself with some effort and sat slowly in her mattress.

Her eyes started to clear from the blur.

The light was very faint like in a twilight night. It was coming from a small lamp hanging from the wall behind her.

She realised that she was in a small room like basement, somewhere.

She felt cold in all her body.

Her limps were stiff and cold.

For her surprise she was still wearing only her grey nigh dress which almost cover her until her knees.

As she stretched her bare feet still fought with her dizziness she felt something cold attached in her left ankle.

Her hands reached instinctively towards her feet.

Then a chilling feeling ran through her back.

She realised that someone had restrained her with a black coloured ankle shackle.

The shackle was holding her ankle like a creepy dark hand in the shadows.

A sudden wake up call sent in her brain.

Her heart stopped.

She tried desperately to free her ankle from this terrible grip but in vain.

There was no way to unlock her leg without a key or something...

She looked around.

They are no windows or openings except a small door that she could see in one dark corner.

Hesitantly she got up with her eyes wet and wide.

Silently she started walking towards the dark door with light steps.

She felt the roughness of the cement under her bare feet.

Slow from fear in the beginning but with quicker step from agony few seconds after she approach the only exit from her cell.

Then a sudden pulling from the cold metal in her ankle stopped her few steps before she reached the handle.

She stretched her hands but still was impossible to rich the door.

The chain which restrained her was purposely not long enough for that.

She was now starting remembered some dreadful images of one of the crime scenes which she was present with her investigation team.

"Is him ..." she whispered lost for a moment in her thoughts.

Felling desperate but still holding her nerve from panicking she glanced at the rest of the small room.

A small black box was in the centre.

When she reached it she realised that was a small metal volt with a number combination lock.

On the top of it a note paper stuck with tape.

She read with her pale hand's trembling the strange message:

"Six hours and the lights will be turn off.

Find the combination for your keys if you want to live.

Otherwise this room will be your eternal home.

Red Game begins "

As she read the note a black long glistening thing approached her from a corner. A reptile was in the room looking her with cold steady eyes.

She wasn't alone after all.

Back to life

Chapter 3

Five days later in the city the life was continuing with the same fast pace as every city in the western civilized world.

This morning although an anxious blond haired woman was waiting in her car outside of the New York Hospital.

In her slender pale hands she was holding the last blood exams that finally proved her friend clean from every harmful toxins or drugs in her body.

She was Josephin  her best friend who awaited her to exit the hospital after a last discussion with the doctors who saved her life.

Her almond blue eyes were looking with great anticipation at the exit doors.

She scratched again her small old tattoo in her white shoulder.

Some name was there but now she didn't even wanted to remember it.

For some reason she felt guilty for what happened to her friend.

She bit her lips pensively as her eyes notice the daily newspaper in the seat next to her.

The yesterday news related mainly with crimes or accident's was in the front page, as always.

But one was different from the rest and concentrated the public interest lately:

"A beautiful young woman  has founded wandering barefoot in the cold streets of New York yesterday very early in the morning few hours before dawn.

She was found by a police patrol accidentally, afraid and with only her nightdress.
She faint soon after in their hands and she taken to the hospital.

The medical examinations show that she poisoned and from her descriptions of her story after her recovery she was kidnapped and restrained in a an underground room.

For almost two days she was held captive in an abandoned industrial area near the outskirts from her unknown kidnapper.

The police suspected that this crime related with a series of unsolved young women disappearances last months from New York.

Her escape details were not known to the public yet.

Some suggest that the criminal ..."

The column continued with other minor details about the case before started with another topic.

But she knew the all story from her friend lips .

She had used only an old rusty nail that she found palpated in one dark corner of this horrible basement room.

How many hours and how exactly she did it she didn't knew.

But in the end she managed to open the lock and unshackled her feet.

It was like a miracle ,she told her yesterday .

Tears was rolling from her cheeks as she was laying in the hospital bed and held the hand of her friend after all this events.

"We must put her under a witness protection program" ,she thought as she was looking again towards the entrance.
"It is the least that we can do for her now" she whispered looking again down at the newspaper.

But she couldn't imagine that the plan of the kidnapper had worked perfectly untill now.

His tall figure was dressed like the medical staff of the hospital.

No one was wit enough to suspect him he thought.

He was watching constantly the hospital for days.

His patient had no end when he stalked someone.

And now this fair girl  Josephine was finally found again from him after many long weeks'...

He will carry on with his plan and move on for his final kill ?

He was still watching her lost in his thoughts when he suddenly felt this familiar pain in his left side.

He grimaced in pain.

"Some things can wait" he said to himself and left the room.