Chapter 1: The Innocent Dilemma - Chapter 1
It was dark and cold, i had a blanket around me and a half sleepy scene on my face.
I heard a sound from the back which was scary at the moment to turn back as the dark was scattered all around the room.
I was too afraid to come out of the blanket and turn around but i had to and saw my friend Adam coming back to his bed shivering inside his blanket.
I saw the clock, it showed me around 3:00 in the morning.
I was shocked to see Adam, he came from outside at this scary hour.
I remembered, he was the most innocent children in the building and one who gets scared easily.
We lived in an orphanage, everything around was jungle,too many ghost stories could have been made around us as the place was quiet and peaceful but makes you feel scared and depressed at the same time.
We had a caretaker who used to tell us stories about the things which happened around the orphanage, Some creepy stuff.
"What happened, why are you shivering and where did you go?" I asked politely.
He replied nothing, he just kept murmering but i couldn't hear the words..
I assume, he went to the bathroom and it was a cold morning, so he might have felt the cold outside and might be feeling sleepy again, so I stopped my interrogation and slept again.
"john, john...wake up..peter is lying on the bathroom floor" A voice came, it was Julie, my mate.
"What happened", i asked her
"come and see, i am scared to look at it, everybody gathered already." she replied..
I was still in a sleeping position and my whole body was still on the bed trying to restore what she said.
I went with her in the bathroom, Everybody was there.
I suddenly turn around my back, I saw peter lying on the bathroom floor, blood was all over the place,it was coming out from his head, everybody was murmuring about the scene, He fell in the bathroom and hit his head on the floor.
It was a quick guess, the bathroom was indeed very slippery and many children had faced the incident regularly while entering the bathroom.
After an hour, the police came investigating around the place and began interrogating the children's if they know something about the incident.
Everybody believed it was an accident as no one would suspect the childrens and accused them of a murder and no evidence was found around the accident, so they closed the file with a conclusion written on the paper "A clear case of an accident, The child fell on the floor and hit his head,because of it the blood flooded from his head. The blood amount was too much flown away which couldn't support the body to
survive and the child had a lack of sense and blood".
He was declared dead, everybody was shocked about the incident. Nothing serious of that kind happened before. It was the first time the orphanage had seen such a moment of shock.
I was astonished by the incident, Peter was really a good friend, a very kind and fun loving child who had all the humour to himself.
Evening came around, Nobody could forget the incident and everybody was talking about it.
Peter was the luckiest among us. He was about to get adopted by a couple who had no children but a huge property to be left for anyone of their own.
Adoption in our orphanage happened rarely, nobody comes around to see us.Even the NGO people who supported us had a rare occasion to visit us again after a while. The place was quite unknown to many people, nobody knew much of us.
So it was obvious to feel jealous of the children who were about to get adopted.
Peter was a clever and smart child, so everybody around the orphanage was quite jealous of him and tries to fight with him very often.
One of the people who hated peter was Raj. He was two years older than all of us and had a quick anger in his nose all the time.
They used to have a rude conversation everyday in the breakfast hall. Once Raj locked peter in a room for a day, Everybody thought Peter had gone missing but was found in a locker room, full of dust and was shivering and lying on the floor.Later they found out, it was Raj who had locked him and was punished for a week to clean the utensils after everybody had done with their dinner.
Raj went mad after the punishment but does it meant that I could connect Raj with peter's incident, i asked myself but felt an answer of no.
They were pretty bad when they see each other but Raj couldn't have the guts to do the kind of thing which kills a person ,he is a 15 year old boy but still an under grown up boy.
I tried to recall about the incident and something hit on my head.I forgot about the night when Adam came inside the room at 3 am in the morning shivering and murmuring something.
Because of the incident that happened, i forgot about Adam who went to bathroom that morning.
I remembered the police officers discussing about the time of death which was around 2:30 am.
I realised from that morning when Adam came back, he always looked shocked and talked with no one other than himself.
I thought, does it have to do with the incident, the timing was quite nearly accurate of both incident, Adam was an extrovert who doesn't hesitate to talk and expressed his thoughts to anyone but he seemed a bit lost after that night.
I had a habit of reading Sherlock Holmes novel stories and felt a little thoughtful.
I questioned myself, Should I try to investigate the situation but i was a 13 year old boy and felt a bit weird about it.
I assembled the situation and list out the possible accused people in the orphanage.
One was Raj who had a very bad anger and always fought with peter and once tried to kill him.
Second was Adam who went to the bathroom the same moment when Peter was there, so maybe he had something to do with it but felt unsure as he was very innocent and cheerful one. but I couldn't think of anyone other than both people.
I remembered the first step of an investigation is to search for a clue in the possible accused people's assets.
I searched around in both the culprit's bag and room's but found nothing.
Second step is to read their faces for some evidence.
I felt the second step was a bit off because everybody was shocked about that incident but I felt something more could be found on their faces.
I saw nothing other than a scared face which was normal in every way possible because everybody had it.
But there was something i sense in Adam which made me to investigate him more.The way his whole behaviour changes from the night.
It was quite noticeable.
I tried several times to lure him into telling me the incident happened that morning when he was out but could get nothing out of him other than a silent murmuring.
Several days went by and found no evidence to accuse any of them. I gave up the investigation.
It was the day when Peter was to be adopted but when the couple heard about the incident, they were shocked to hear the news.
They decided to choose another child from the orphanage.
Their choice was julie. She was the most smart and clever girl and a good friend of mine. I felt she deserved more than anyone else because everybody around used to tell about her story of being a depressed girl. She was very much abused by her parents, she had a rough childhood and saw some bad situations while growing up. But due to her parents died during a car crash and she saw the car crash happened. It must be a shocking visual to see her parents dying as she was in the car crash too.
After two days, she was adopted by the couple and everything around was normal again like nothing happened. Everybody was waiting for adoption so they could live a happy life in their future.
I saw improvements in Adam's behaviour, he was cheerful again like before but whenever I tried to ask him about the situation, he just skips the question and runs away.
One day, I saw Adam in the lawn alone digging something and a bracelet on his hand.He was trying to hide it and scared scene all around his face.I came near him without him noticing me and grabbed the bracelet from his hand.He tried to fight with me but i was a bit stronger than him, I pushed him away and saw the bracelet.I remembered it was Julie's bracelet which had a blood stain.
I remembered julie telling me about the bracelet which was given by Adam as they were the bestest of friends and Adam like her a bit but scared to say about the things that he felt for her.
"Where did you get this from" I asked him and he refused to answer.
I warned him and told him that I would tell the police about the blood and incident happened and scared him of putting him in jail.
His face totally blued and numbness all over the body and shivered like a dog when they are found guilty.I knew He was connected to the incident and he did or saw something that night which made him lost.
I was shocked to see a new evidence comes in the picture.I tried to figure out how is Julie's bracelet related to the incident.
Then the incident hit through my brain about when Julie was crying a month back.
She told me that she was the second choice for adoption of the couple as they wanted a boy in the first place and nobody was smarter and more clever than Peter. She felt alone that day and was in her bed all day long but i tried to convince her that a couple will come again soon to pick her up, I tried my best to give sympathy and comfort her in every way possible.The couple told her, if they would have not met Peter they would surely have chosen her by all means.
As Adam was standing right in front of me shivering all over his body,
"Does julie had something to do with the incident" I asked Adam and his face became red and began to shiver more.
I knew something was going wrong. I warned him, if he doesn't reveal the truth, i will ask the caretaker to call the police
and tell them that Julie has something to do with the incident happened last week.
"I did it" Adams screams.
"What" i asked him shockingly.
"I was the culprit who killed Peter, i woke up peter from his room that night and told him that I would show something to him."Adam began to confessed...
Peter was very fond of nature and his main interest was on butterflies.
He use to read all day long and kept searching for butterflies of new kind.
As it was jungle all around, there were many types of new butterflies which flies around in the morning.
"As you know, Peter loves butterflies, so i told him there is a new kind of butterfly near the bathroom and I have locked that butterfly inside the bathroom, lets go and see it. when we were entering the bathroom, I pushed him, the bathroom was very slippery,so he fell off the bathroom floor and hit his head on the bathtub and he was dead already." Adam began to cry..
I was totally shocked at how he narrated the story totally unreal.Adam was a very cheerful guy with an innocent behaviour, who would have thought anything of that innocent level could have done that.
"Why did you killed Peter, what was the reason" I shouted at him scaringly.
"Because of julie" he replied..
"Because of julie, why because of julie,,..tell me the reason" i was in shock listening to the reasons.
"One day, I saw julie crying in her bed. I have never seen her that way. She is my best friend. I asked her what happened and she told me, because a couple came for adoption.. they chose me first but when they saw Peter, they were quickly attracted to his witty nature and optimistic behaviour and i was rejected...i wanted to live a happy life with loving parents...i knew what she went through during her childhood...she faced a lot of abusiveness and was not ready for more loneliness, so i felt very sad, i couldn't sleep more than an hour thinking
about it and was figuring out to resolve the situation. I was totally thinking about it the whole day and night. I saw Julie becoming sad every day and night, began to stop talking with me. I was frustrated and depressed by the behaviour julie was showing towards me.
i decided to plan a murder and took the advantage of peter's love for butterflies. I was totally scared at first but that night julie was very mad at me, It was the first time she was mad at me for nothing. I liked her a lot but due to his changing behaviour,
I couldn't face the situation and decided to make her happy by replacing Peter's turn with her.Now she is happy but the incident strikes me back, so the only evidence I had was the bracelet.During the fight, Julie returned the bracelet back to me and i wore that night but that night when the incident happened ,i tried to place Peter's head near the door and the bracelet got blood stains in it.I did that for julie. She is now happy somewhere. I just wanted her happiness. She began to talk to me after she heard the news that she will be the next
choice of the couple." Adam cried..
I was shocked at first to listened to the planning of the murder and was totally lost.
We were children, I tried analysing the situation and began to justify it.
It was a very scary thing to judge and to leave the situation but i had to since it was a matter of a child's murder..
I felt as Adam did it for his friend and was innocent and felt bad about him.
I had to decide whether to say anything about it or not.
I was in a deep dilemma to decide about what's right and wrong.
Adam was a child but he did a very evil thing, I Couldn't think and decide what to do next.
We left the lawn as other children came to play outside.
I was still in a dilemma to decide what to do next.
I felt as if I should tell the things to the caretaker but was afraid what would happen to Adam, he is a child and a good friend of mine.
His whole life will be lost inside a mental hospital, may be.
Two days past, Adam began to skip lunch and dinner and wouldn't talk to anyone.
I can understand the pressure he had on his mind, As a child it is the scariest thing to think of and to reimagine a murder.
I felt bad and finally decided that I wouldn't tell anyone about the incident.
Adam was always inside the room.
I knocked on the door and but no answer came, I pushed the door and saw him lying on the floor.
I lost it for a minute about the incident which i saw inside the room.
I screamed in fear a minute after, everybody gathered around to see what happened.
Adam lay dead on the floor with his eyes glaring at me, I was totally scared to watch the whole incident.
The police came after and declared it a suicidal case.
It was a shocking moment for everyone, It happened again.
Another dead boy in the orphanage.
I understood the situation but kept quiet.
Adam had a tremendous pressure inside his mind. The pressure of murder that he planned, The visual that he saw.
The last moment of Peter that he saw might have been very disturbing. He confessed to me and was in fear about the situation and everything.
I realised, it wasn't easy to forget all the things that he saw in the last 2 weeks.
I knew everything, i felt the things which he felt more than me but he kept quite inside him and it ate all his patience and made his final goodbye to everyone and his friend julie.
A true friend indeed, one who wants happiness and peace of his friend.
I felt quite sad about the things and thought what would julie would have thought if he knew what I knew about the things.
After the death of the two children in the orphanage, everybody felt scared about the place and we were shifted to a better place.
Near the town where everybody could have found us.
The place was abandoned because of the incident that happened there and was declared a haunted place by many newspapers.
Now it's been 5 years since the incident happened. we children are still together but less of us.
Many had been adopted during these 5 years.
Today is my turn to be adopted. I think of having a good future after all these years with a loving family that i didn't get in those years.
I still think about the incident which happened with adam, What if he were with us, what if i would have convinced him that everything will be fine. I won't tell anyone, he might have lived and get adopted during those five years.
It's a lost picture which i put my effort to think of, A secret that will remain inside me life long,
I might reveal it someday through a medium but still a lost picture about how an innocent boy executes an evil thing, not a natural phenomenon... .
The regret I had was to not convince adam to relax and be alright, everything will be fine sooner or later.
To be continued -
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