Murim Recurve

"There's another person here. She's alive." A Constable said after discovering Re'Kha.

'Dammit, she's the killer. She's acting like a victim now. Don't be fooled by her!' Re'Kha mentally shouted as she opened her mouth to speak, only able to let out gasps that were faint to the extent even she was unable to hear them.

Two constables picked her up and carefully brought her out of the stretch of bushes. And, no matter how she tried to signal them, they didn't seem to have obtained her message.

Her heart lurched when they set her next to Chaya, screaming in her mind for them to look at her and understand her message. The Inspector seemed to be the smartest of the bunch. So, she quickly looked at him, motioning with her eyes as she tried her best to express her fear for Chaya.

This way, she hoped for him to understand and quickly separate them before Chaya made use of the chance. Unfortunately for her, he seemed to have misunderstood her, thinking the serial killer was prowling in the surroundings.

Immediately, all of them turned around and took stances. The Inspector even pulled out his gun, taking aim as the rest of the constables searched around for traces of the killer. In the meantime, they had already called for an ambulance.

The moment they turned their backs on them, Re'Kha was devastated. No longer able to depend on them, she craned strength in her right hand. Even though it was damaged pretty harshly, it was the least wounded relatively when compared to her other limbs.

So, she had the highest chance of making it move through sheer effort.

'Move! Dammit, move! MOVE!' She screamed in her mind as her right hand twitched, slowly accumulating strength in it. Feeling a light rustle on her right, her expression collapsed as Re'Kha turned her head, eyes widened as she made eye contact with Chaya.

'Dammit!'

Chaya pulled out the knife she had hidden under her sleeves and clenched it using her left. She had been biding for time while recovering her strength all this time. And, upon seeing the Constables lay Re'Kha next to her, she smiled, feeling that the heavens had helped her.

Craning all the strength left in her, she lunged the knife straight at the throat of Re'Kha, planning to rend her life once and for all. That way, her revenge would be complete.

'Ugh!' Re'Kha barely managed to react on time as she lifted her right hand, facing the bone towards the knife that pierced it. It got lodged deep into her as Re'Kha pulled her hand, gritting through the pain as she prevented Chaya from removing the knife to launch another attack.

Hearing the commotion, the Inspector and the Constables turned around, flashing their torchlights as they saw the scene of Chaya stabbing a knife into the right hand of Re'Kha and was struggling to pull it up. Her emotionless face coupled with the density of blood smeared on her hand that was a mixture of wet and dried blood, gears churned in their heads as they realised the concept at play here.

Chaya was the serial killer!

They instinctually had glossed over the fact that women too could become serial killers. Unfortunately for their mindset, killing people required strength. And, as women were biologically weaker than men, they had glossed over this fact.

It was also to be attributed to the fact that almost all the cases they dealt with usually involved men as killers. So, they default thought the serial killer this time was a man. After all, the killing feat could only be performed by someone with enough strength to kill a group of people singlehandedly.

Without any hesitation, the Inspector grabbed hold of Chaya's hand and pulled her away as three Constables helped pin her down. They swiftly cuffed her while the other Constable headed to the rescue of Re'Kha, "Are you alright?"

Re'Kha tried to reply but words failed to form in her mouth. All she could do was try her best to stabilise her breathing and prevent herself from falling unconscious.

"She must be dead! I'll kill her! Don't stop me!" Chaya screamed like a banshee as the Constables moved her a couple of metres away, unwilling to take any chances where she might escape their grip and lunge at Re'Kha once again.

Upon hearing the noise, some of the Constables standing guard around the forensic experts jumped over the walls and arrived at the scene. The chatter in the place increased as Re'Kha felt a bit relaxed now.

'One mistake from my side embroiled me in such a difficult Quest.' Re'Kha mentally sighed, feeling exhausted since she hadn't even heard the familiar sound in her ears. It meant she hadn't completed the Quest yet.

This was the problem with the Quests. Even if it might seem like an easy Quest, if the direction of approach to it was wrong, it would consume a lot of time and wouldn't even be resolved. If Re'Kha had taken a different approach to it, she would probably have completed the Quest by now.

Re'Kha opened her mouth, barely able to utter something as she was able to exert some strength in her vocal cords now. Upon seeing her actions, the Inspector craned his ear closer in an effort to hear her better.

Followed by a lot of exhausting gasps, Re'Kha finally managed to utter a word, "…time?"

"Time?" The Inspector frowned for a moment as he flashed the torchlight on his watch, "It's 11:58 PM."

'Two more minutes left then.' Re'Kha heaved a sigh in relief, feeling that she somehow made it through. Chaya was taken away by the police. And, she was waiting for an ambulance, surrounded by some police that guarded her safety and tried their best to aid her.

She could also hear the sounds of an ambulance's siren in the surroundings. Within a couple of minutes, it would arrive on the scene and she would survive.

Just as she thought of this, the air around her felt moist before it seemed like she had jumped into a river. The next moment, Re'Kha sat up, looking around to see her surroundings were silent.