Martha Murder Case Investigation: Day 33

Lara Murder Case Investigation: Day 13

Reyna Murder Case Investigation: 9

New Murder Investigation: 2

The new days were passing by… one after another. Without much to get and without much to find.

                                Days are passing with regret, 

                              Evil emerging from the past

                              The halt in life is hard to forget

                              Signs lurking in the dark

The recent interview goes into the trash, once again, as Caius turns the entire picture in his favor. And since he has enough evidence to support it, there is nothing legal to do, and he is released instantly.

And soon after the interview, he is sent to a mental care center for evaluation and stay. A notification is sent to the bureau, notifying them of the sudden change in Stygias’s mental status. He was considered mildly mentally conflicted till this point, but for some reason, his mental health declined for worse within a day of time.

Stygias starts showing signs of mental issues. From time to time, he starts acting like a different persona of his is malfunctioning. They sketch out all the possibilities and all possible scenarios, but nothing seems to make sense at the moment. He is not mentally sick, but he doesn’t seem mentally healthy either. There are signs of mental illness, but not big enough for him to have such reactions and symptoms.

And apart from this case, Maya’s health is not in the worst state. The nights are hellish and her gaze is cloudy. Shadows fill the corner’s view of every place she goes. Such visions are no longer clear, only hazy views of shadows are tormenting her day and night.

Her nightmares start some time before, but they aren’t as frequent till the fourth. Things take a worse turn after that.

She is having nightmares about encountering and being tortured by all kinds of devilish animals and demons. Sometimes her dreams are so realistic that she would be confused even after waking up, conflicting her dreams and realities. She can’t decide whether they are real or not. 

Sometimes, she would hallucinate in real life and hear voices that were not present. Of course, she knows at this point that something is very wrong with her mental state and it can’t be avoided any longer. Mostly because her paranoia is making her doubt every single decision, and she is checking CCTV everywhere to find something. She even installed cameras in her own apartment, even in the corners to ensure that nothing stays away from the watchful eyes. But it is to no avail. Her paranoia would make her stay awake the whole night, reviewing the footage, and sometimes coming up with some security measures of herself to protect from unknown evil.

Her mind is in pieces. Memories are becoming distorted. Her actions are sometimes questionable as well. She would lock herself in the interrogation room for half an hour and then claim that she obtained the evidence. Her mental condition is now visibly making her incapable of being part of the case. 

After all the chaos, she starts being almost on the verge of losing her composure most of the time. So, after observing such changes, Rebecca calls an internal meeting between Daniel, Maya, Lily, Runo, and herself. She announces, “I think we all know and agree with what I’m about to say. But still, I need to get the paperwork done today. So, let’s not resist what is evident.”

Maya is aware of what is about to happen, but her anger makes it hard to express that she also agrees. She stays calm and then Rebecca continues, “I understand that Maya is no longer in a condition to investigate this case. Her involvement is necessary, hence I didn’t push her to seek medical help before. But it was my selfishness to do so. But now my decision has become an urgent need of the time. Maya is our reliable and talented partner, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the right to her life. This is the time when she should give herself some medical attention and thus, I have decided to give you an official mental evaluation visit option. Let’s get you tested again and see where to go from that point.”

Maya is visibly angry and annoyed but nods in agreement and signs the form of agreement. She visits the doctor after a few hours and the results are shocking. Still, even at this point, her mental state is marked as “normal.” The reason for her behavior and health was unsure. They advise physical examination for further study and she follows the process. Unfortunately, her physical body was also free of any obvious diseases. 

After ruling out all the possibilities of mental and physical health, doctors suggested she submit reports for further research and prescribed preventive measure medication for relief of her symptoms.

She does feel temporary relief from the medications, so she decides to follow the process. After the report, Rebecca gives her leave until she is considered legally and mentally healthy enough to return to her investigations. 

Doctors consider these symptoms to be the trauma that might have been triggered by her past being uncovered during this investigation. They speculate that her past memories are bringing such suffering because she was never provided psychological help in her childhood. It did make sense to her as well. She was too poor in her childhood to think about any such thing. But now, she is assigned to a psychologist's visit twice every week. And her story became a background thing for the case for now.

And this entire process took a week and strangely enough, not a single murder follows.

There were 4 murder cases at the moment, but they are very certain that there will be another case, given that previous cases usually happen between a 7-10 days gap. And now it has been 10 days since the last murder took place and things are very calm. 

It is a weird thing to say, but they are almost ready for another case. And when it doesn’t happen, it almost feels… worse. But the investigation is still ongoing and things are taking a turn every day. 

After Maya leaves the bureau, they find some witnesses that connect the case with other cases even more strongly. It seems that some hidden parts are finally unrevealing themselves… voluntarily. Finally, things are looking positive for the case after almost 1.5 months of the case.

But it is unsettling how it all seems to unfold after Maya is out of the picture. Almost like someone was holding all the information, particularly to single out Maya in the case, and when she left the bureau, all the little pieces were being revealed as if it was a reward for the act. It is funny how things were unsettling when nothing was in sight. But the feeling got worse when the secrets started revealing themselves. 

But between all of these changes, everyone is still worried about Maya because her health is not getting better even with the heavy medications. They decide to take turns and visit her every now and then, but their schedules don’t allow much interaction. And since Maya is no longer part of the team, they have to overcompensate with their time and this made it even harder to manage such breaks in their schedules.

Surprisingly, even during all of this business, Lily still keeps in touch. She is the only person who would visit her regularly. She even purchases and brings her things that she might need. It is a side of her that nobody saw before. She is very attentive and even though she doesn’t show much concern for her, her actions are showing the opposite. She is like the sister Maya never had. 

Everyone thought her to be an AI-like human, but in this case, she proves to be one when she manages her work efficiently and then visits Maya with an hour’s drive at night, and then returns home for sleep. She has her rules and thus she never stays at a friend’s house, but that doesn’t stop her from visiting Maya late at night and then spending an hour or two with her. Then she returns to her home at midnight and sleeps in peace, only to wake up early in the morning to support the early shift for the case. Her charm was never so apparent to people, but now everyone is seeing her golden heart. 

This carries on for a few days and then a week. It goes on for longer than anyone expected. Every single day is a struggle. However, this made Maya relieved. Even though she is going through the hardest time of her life, even though she is living the hellish past, every day, all over again, she is not emotionally drained because she knows that there are people who love her. There’s Lily, who is more like a sister than a friend to her.

There’s Rebecca, who covers legal corners for her so that she can return when she is deemed fit to do so. Daniel and Runo take her workload on themselves to ensure that her track record stays on the upper hand. Everyone is working hard and giving their best for the sake of her present, for the sake of her past, and for the sake of her future! She can’t be the one to give up, not at this point. Not now! Not at all! She decides to strive till the end and face all the situations that come her way! She decides to fight the time and make her own way in this life!

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