Guilt of Innocence

Chapter 3

∅ Silence’s Screech Ξ

“I swear it wasn’t me! Why would I ever hurt her?” said my voice, echoing through the tarnished walls of my head, jumping out into the unknown.

“Then explain why she calls an Unknown number, out of the blue, just before she falls off a 19-storey building?” said the shadows that chained me with guilt.

“Why, what could she have ever done to you?” said a crying voice, with depths of concern filled with oils of rage. “Tell us, or we will make you.” said the voice of a stiff man, greyish white hair, whose eye had but one tear, dying to take that leap of faith.

My veritable innocence stood as dumb mouths,

that drowned in tears like their ruby lips

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,

 As the shadows let slip the dogs of war,

as I, their Sinner, fled to darkness cast in the light of their shadows

as the death-bringing Canines chased me away to the shallows of hell.

Life was given to us a billion years ago, what have we done with it? Survival, fights against the naturistic heat, light and poison was our past, survival by fights amongst us, by wars and treachery is our present.

Life, an empire too strong to defeat by nature, and thus nature turned life against itself, to watch a castle crumble by its own hands, via a game of survival.

In a game of survival, is where I was embedded.

It all started because of a phone call, from a number I did not know, from a voice I did.

“Hello,” said the voice, yet before I could reply, butterflies in my stomach flapped catastrophe. The voice, as mellifluous as honey through one’s ears screeched which ended in a contact with the Earth.

“It couldn’t be, she couldn’t have died.” “There’s no way that she’s dead, what was going on?” “

It was her, I knew it was her. The girl from the river, The Mermaid of the Ocean of skies, and I knew she’d fallen down. Her life was in danger, as catastrophe struck like lightning on a painting sky.  I ran out, as the sky showered with light, as the stars appeared as shattered diamonds glittering in the sun’s rays. I ran and searched as my eyes dropped diamonds, I ran.

I looked at skyscrapers that shined the glowing sun, I watched birds as they flew back to their nests, I saw mothers walking along their cradles and fathers walking back home from work, but I could not see the Queen of my skies.

I couldn’t find any place in the area where people had just gathered, I could find no fall nor sounds of Ambulances, until…

“Stand right where you are boy, you’re under arrest for the Murder of Hemanika D’Souza. You’ve the right to remain silent and right to a lawyer” said a voice in a blue vest.

I froze, raised my hands up, clenching my phone, the last portal to her voice.

“I swear I didn’t do it, I swear,” said I

“Get in the car, somebody wants to see you,” said the voice, with blue and red lights shining behind its shadowy head, like the face of God.

I felt a knock on the back my head and everything shred to darkness.

“Wake up, answer yourself. Who are you? Why did my daughter die after calling you?” spoke a voice shrouded in anger.

“Why am I not in the Police Station, where am I?” Said the voices in my head. I’d assumed I was instructed to be brought here before the official legal procedures are taken. A common procedure in wealthy India, as the law bends to those who can smile money.

“I haven’t killed anyone, nor do I have anything to do with anyone’s murder. I’m innocent, I just got a call from this number and I knew that voice. It was the girl I’d saved a few weeks ago, from drowning” said I, pleading for innocence.

“Saved? So you were by the river too then, it was you, who tried to drown her to death. Wasn’t it? Officer, that’s a confession for a double attempt to murder. Chain the dog and lash him until he confesses why he did it. I want, no. Need his eyes to be shut, before my daughter can open hers” said the man, father probably.

“She’s alive…then?” said I, in ecstasy.

“Sorrowful that your plans failed? She’s alive, just at the brink of it, yes. No daughter of the D’Souza’s die a death of mortals. Officers, take him away. Make him speak”

“I swear it wasn’t me! Why would I ever hurt her?” said my voice, echoing through the tarnished walls of my head, jumping out into the unknown.

“Then explain why she calls an Unknown number, out of the blue, just before she falls off a 19-storey building?” said the shadows that chained me with guilt.

The only talisman of hope was the girl herself, only she could prove that I was Innocent. My truth was hidden in the eyes of a girl, breathing to be saved. I wasn’t guilty, I’d never kill the girl I was in love with. I didn’t even know her name, yet I was chained with her murder, like an albatross across my neck for sins I didn’t.

So, I ran. Ran, to freedom, ran towards the edge of the skies, away from the world, until I could prove that I was guilty, guilty of nothing but innocence, and find the man who has been trying to kill my Queen.

It is said that when beggars die there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes, and death greeted no prince with honour. The heavens remained calm that night, so I knew, our deaths weren’t near.

Fleeing into darkness, was I, a prince yesterday, a knight today, for her Queen’s Justice. Would I survive the plight of the world? Would she wake up, to remember why she fell? Could she save my life or could life’s pleasures not reach the acquisition I was charged with?

As I looked at the sun rise across the mountains, I had more questions than answers of life;

Was I to live? Was she to survive to let live? Or were I to live and let die?