The Tainted Chalice
Kensington, an observant fellow, had walked by the big building twice at night on two different occasions but he always notices the strange quietness and lack of any sign of life.
Source
Court Lane is no stranger to quietness, but ever since Sky High Towers constructed a building there, peace and quiet fled like the air trapped inside an over-inflated balloon that was pricked by a needle.
The building was named The Everest Suites. The building was aptly named. The building was a humongous piece of work which stood out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood filled with bungalows by residents made up of retired and active civil servants.
Court Lane was a place where everyone knows each other by the first name. It was a cordial secluded community until one greedy developer ( Sky House Towers) acquired some number of houses and there were talks of redesigning the houses acquired to suit a "more younger generation" who are "hip" and sometimes annoyingly referred to as millennials. It was a decision kicked against and vehemently refused by residents of Courts Lane. But at the end, the big money won and The Everest Suites were born.
True to their fears, Court Lane was changed forever as there was the never-ending stream of people, mostly young men and women, who the residents believe all led "questionable lifestyles". But with time they grudgingly have to accept their lot and learned to live with it.
Kensington was surprised to see The Everest Suite dark, deserted and the most disconcerting of all; quiet. He instinctively knew something was off or at the very least wrong. He walked on and soon was on the lighted part of the road. Facing the only Bank in the area was a big sign announcing Flo Pharmacy. He walked into the drug store and Florence Matt, the proprietress, was sitting alone with no customers.
"Hi, good evening Mrs. Matt, it's been a while I have been here and today is just a quiet night good for walks."
"Good evening to you too, but I doubt the evening is good for the residents of Everest." At the mention of Everest, Kensington knew his hunch was right after all. He tried to hide his apprehension as he quietly asked.
"I noticed everywhere is quiet as I just crossed there and at first I thought everyone left due to an ongoing maintenance or something."
"You really do not know?" Florence asked in surprise.
"No. I do not." came the calm reply.
"Well, that is surprising since the news is all over the town, and with the many arrests and the scandal. I am just surprised that you never heard."
"The thing is I have been inundated with work, and if not for this headache I won't even be out this night. I leave early and return late." She nodded sympathetical to this explanation.
"Three people died there."
"What?" Kensington shouted, his cool veneer discarded by the piece of information.
"I know it is just a matter of time someone shoots someone with the number of rough looking characters hanging around that place." He added.
"Who said anything about them getting shot? The three that died was not from a gunshot." She replied like a child that came to school with a bag full of ice creams; everyone would just have to wait to get a share of the goodies.
Kensington waited.
She continued as he hoped she would.
"The police are asking the same questions too. The bodies were discovered later after three days." She said.
"What do you mean by discovered? Where did they die?" He asked.
"They died in the same house, but due to the wild parties and the way everyone goes about their businesses no one noticed that one of the tenants were missing.''
Her nose wrinkled in disapproval. Kensington wondered if there was anyone in the Court Lane who liked the people of the Everest.
"You said three people died, what do you mean by no one noticed one of the tenants missing?"
"The other two, a lady and a man came to her house. So far, the police have identified the man. It turned out that the lady was the deceased girlfriend. But the man was a married man who was having an affair with one of the two ladies."
"Wow. That was quite some mix ain't that?" Kensington said.
"The man, whose wife was pregnant took a six hours flight to come for this little fatal rendezvous. Can you imagine such a betrayal?"
"I couldn't imagine that." He nodded in agreement.
"But the bodies were all bloated and disfigured making identifying them almost impossible if not for the identity cards found on them."
"That's a terrible thing to happen." He sighed.
"It was even more terrible for other fellow neighbors who wanted to break down the door when the awful smell coming from the room couldn't allow them to sleep at night. The caretaker later brought the spare keys which they used to access the room and they discovered the three bodies and called the police."
"You do have a lot of details about the case. So what killed them?"
"Have you forgotten my younger brother is a police officer? He gave me the information. There was no sign of forced entry; the door was locked with keys on the table. As of now, the police are investigating the triple deaths."
"Any suspects?" He queried.
"No suspects yet. Right now, there were no talks about it being murder as there was no mark on the bodies. The investigation is still in progress. Residents left their apartments out of fear; until the cause of deaths is ascertained."
Kensington decided he is now up to date with the affairs of the Everest triple deaths, and bought some drugs for his headache and went home. Life continued and he never gave much thought to it. Today was twenty-eight days after the incident occurred. Police are confident they have the suspect. When it was announced many could not believe it. It was the pregnant wife of the man having an affair.
How did she kill three people and escape without anyone spotting a seven-month pregnant woman around the building?
It was simple. She discovered of her husband's plan to dump her for the girl he traveled to see. In a fit of murderous rage, she planned to kill him. She poisoned the husband's drug (a habit she recently discovered) hoping to make it look like he overdosed on the drug. She never contemplated that the husband would share the drugs with the girlfriend and her friend. A sad case of infidelity ending in a disastrous manner.
Her lawyer argued for diminished responsibility on the account of her pregnancy and the hormonal changes which make mood swing very probable.
The case is ongoing.
The End
Authored by: @greenrun
@adsactly: I'm curious to know - why name this story 'the tainted chalice' and what does the red rose symbolise in the story?
I'm really not able to connect he story of a vengeful pregnant woman who ends up killing 3 people in addition to her cheating husband with that of either a chalice or a rose - sorry, I'm a little blank here :)
PS: I'm really suprised half the coments are on the beauty of a rose etc etc instead of the actual story too. The story was captivating nonetheless.
Oh and as for the rose, if i am correct, that is a wilting rose in winter. That should represent Court Lane losing its peace and quiet after Sky High Towers constructed a building there. It was never the same.
@royalrose
Spot on. Thanks
You"re welcome.
Makes sense now! Thanks!
@roji.abraham, A chalice represents something pure, but when it is tainted it portrays the opposite. I hope you could now make the connection.
Obviously, the flower comments are from people who did not read the story.
Thanks - symbolism is clear now that you mentioned it :)
keep up the writing!
@roji.abraham, I'm always glad to clear some things up. Thanks a lot.
My guess is that the tainted chalice represents the 'cup or vial of drug' the three deceased persons shared.
I thought the same thing about a lot of the comments being about the rose. I suspect their just clicking on the post and commenting about the first thing they see.
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nice rose
Didn't expect a story this long but it was pleasant surprise :)
The picture of the rose in winter is eye-catching. I didn't have time to read the whole story but I opened the article because of the picture. Nice work!
Never knew that the rose would even get a second glance :)
Nice red rose !
We call in urdu language
Its a cora that is infront of flower
Excellent fictional writing.
I was glued to your writeup from start to finish.
Who would have ever imagined the pregnant woman was guilty of the murder cases?
Awesome!!!
Thank you very much. I am happy you took out time to read the post.
That flower's days are numbered
i liked it very much story. Nice demonstration red rose ...
Your posts are always grabbing my attention a rose in the winter , you have my vote, my friend. As always will continue supporting you. keep it up my friend
Thanks a lot friend.
looking forward to your next post
Till then. Thank you.
Interesting story! I almost wished it was not a short story. So the tainted chalice is what? Whatever vial contained the drug which the three deceased persons shared? As usual, the flow in your writing is exceptional enough to keep one captivated till the end. well done!
I just gave a clue above, now you should be able to make the connection. I do not want to spoil the fun :)
I see what you did with the end. Cool way to end a story.
@stellarr thanks a lot
You are welcome.
@stellarr thank you.
Yes, I will... eventually.
@royalrose, thanks a lot.
the red rose is looking nice....also the story...thanks for share.
i follow your post and i saw your post because it s a beautiful post
I was lucky, the rose did not appear until I had finished reading, so it did not distract me.
I liked the story, but I think the ending was not as powerful as you wished it to be. Having the man go home with his headache and learning the truth 28 days later faded the degree of anxiety you had built up.
I hope you accept the comment I'm making, in the spirit it was made. I am not good enough to be a successful writer, at steemit, but I do see where the weaknesses are in stories written by others and I just naturally want to help them grow and become great authors.
Nice post
Really cool
This is an educational story, to learn a lot from this story.
You shared a good story with us.
So thanks @adsactly
Beautiful story, and a very beautiful red rose.
thank you for putting very beautiful full flower in this post
nice gif
People who do not like flowers are very few in the world. I like flowers very much like you love flowers. If you are a rose flower then there is no word. Rosa flower is a flower which is used for all purposes, writes a blog: It is very beautiful
Please did you read the post?
excellent piece of writing ,
beautiful red rose.
Flowers are some of my favorite things to take photography of aside from light.
Nice shot
Wow, I like it. Nice story. Thanks for sharing your creativity
great topic friend , good luck
have a nice day
All of Love And Like Rose..
Nicely Story..
Thank You
the rose is really beautiful. It fits great with the story.
I do like flowers. They're as beautiful as they come. Thanks for sharing adsactly, greenrun writes really good
Do you know the story is not about a flower? Please take out a little time and go through it.
Oops! Sorry, just Glanced through at first. Over it now, Pregnant wife drugs her husband outta anger of being betrayed.
Say, comments could really be deceptive. It shows most of us here didn't actually read this post.. I feel ashamed bro. @greenrun
@pangoli, at least you read it now. Thanks
You're welcome bro..
Life is not rose but life story is climex.
Kensington, the main character figure. Nice story
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It's my favourite flower. I love rose very much.
it's a really interesting story, I hope you continue it
Nice. Follow me my friends
What a beautiful red
Nice post
some times your friends are insensitive to you
nice story dear . im feeling lucky to be your follower
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Love to your writing skill....
Nice blog man
Cek my blog or post
Sankyu
Nice blog man
Cek my blog or post
Sankyu
I don't know where you live but it looks lovely! I love "wild" spaces
Congratulations @adsactly!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
good story. excellent image
Thank you
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