DAY 2
"Fee-fi-foe-fum, madness strikes the hour of tides. Blended within the fire of woes, fragility her undying keeper. Deeper and deeper still the fires of youth bled into fiery dreams, a disposition of hunger and desire. How can one fathom the weight of dreams upon the shoulders of one so young and fragile? Ceaser Grey is surely dead," the great and terrible voice spoke from within Ceaser's heart.
"Elizabeth! She is a blinding light I can't quite reach. The gentle touch of her fingertips….a rare jewel I dare not dream of." Ceaser listened to the voice echoing from the hollow of his chest.
"Elizabeth…" he muttered under his breath.
The jolting force of a rubber boot against his ribs tore him out of the beautiful dream. His eyes snapped open, glistening with tears. A stranger's smiling face hovered over him, and with it came the stench of bleach and the heavy light of reality.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ceaser Grey," the strange man said.
"Uh! It's a pleasure to meet you too… I guess," Ceaser mumbled, still drowning in confusion.
"My name is Tev Eindritch. I've been assigned to your case, the double homicide." The man's grin widened, too knowing, too calm.
Ceaser's eyes darted across the room. He sat beneath a dying bulb, cocooned in a restraint gown that reeked of disinfectant and despair. The leather straps around his arms looked like scripture written in madness, binding his sins in place. Light quivered over his face, half revealing, half denying the man beneath. For a moment, he seemed less human, more like a soul caught between waking and an endless dream.
He had woken inside the nightmare he feared most. Had they sent him back to Sbrana? But no! Something felt wrong. He didn't recognize the man before him.
"Don't strain yourself. This isn't Sbrana Psychiatric," Tev said, almost reading his thoughts. "You're at the High Court of Spiritual Beings. You've been brought in as a witness for the double homicide in Masa Square. Would you like to recount what you saw?"
Ceaser blinked, mouth half open.
"Hold on…what do you mean 'High Court of Spiritual Beings'? What on earth is that supposed to mean?" His voice cracked between panic and disbelief.
"Calm down, Mr. Grey," Tev said softly, eyes gleaming. "We'll get to that, once I have your full story."
Ceaser took a slow, trembling breath. His chest felt heavy as he began recounting the horror he'd witnessed inside Cine 3, the two men, the fight, the light, the bloodless death. But when his gaze drifted up, the expression on Tev's face made his lungs forget how to breathe.
"Let me stop you there, Mr. Grey," Tev said sharply. "Are you by any chance…..a habitual liar?"
"What do you mean by that? I just told you what I saw!" Ceaser's voice broke, trembling with outrage.
Tev squinted, leaning closer until Ceaser could see his own reflection in the man's eyes, cold, unblinking, otherworldly. The silence grew heavy, suffocating, until Tev finally exhaled.
"You really have no idea what you've done, do you?"
"What I've done?" Ceaser stammered. "Mr. Eindritch! What are you implying?"
Ceaser's eyes glistened with confusion and fear. He tilted his head, desperate to find a lie in Tev's words, but nothing came. Tev's lips curled slightly, a faint, knowing smile. Then, without warning, he placed a hand on Ceaser's head.
"Let me perform a soul search," Tev said calmly. "That way, we'll both know the truth."
"What do you mean? A soul search? What does it do?" Ceaser stammered, panic rising from some ancient, primal place.
A burst of light erupted from Tev's hand, seizing Ceaser's mind in its grip. The world shattered into a chaotic mosaic of memories….walls he'd built to keep them buried now bleeding with truth. He saw everything he had ever done from the moment of his birth. Then darkness came. Tev accelerated through the shadows, sparing Ceaser from reliving the event that had shattered him three years ago.
Moments from yesterday flashed by, the horrified look in Elizabeth's eyes, the scene at the cinema, distorted and alien. It was nothing like he remembered. It felt as if a specter had possessed him and erased the evidence.
"It's not possible!" Ceaser screamed.
Tev's expression didn't change. He already knew.
The two were ejected from Ceaser's mind, the world snapping back into place as his thoughts collapsed inward, walls closing like a trap. Reality dissolved into swirling darkness, and in that void he recognized the voice that spoke to him every morning before he woke. It was not a dream, it was memory.
"The police will find the evidence," Tev said coldly. "You'll be committed to a mental asylum. And after that, I'll return to execute you."
He stood tall, his voice formal now, almost ceremonial.
"Ceaser Julius Grey, son of Ian and Rebecca Grey, father of Robert Kylie. I! Tev Eindritch, sentence you to death under Section 13 of Spiritual Beings. Execution in twenty-four hours. If you have any last wishes, speak them now."
Ceaser's eyes darkened. The truth had finally caught him. His mother's face surfaced in his mind, her soft voice, her warmth, and his heart broke.
"Let me see my son one last time," he pleaded.
"That's impossible," Tev said. "Elizabeth Kylie has a restraining order against you."
Ceaser's shoulders fell. "Then… let me visit my mother's grave." His voice trembled.
"Understood," Tev replied quietly. "But this will hurt."
Ceaser barely registered the motion before Tev's hand struck his neck. Darkness.
Two men entered as Ceaser collapsed.
"Senior Attorney Tev," one asked, "could you beat the Gothic threat, Nimesh, in a one-on-one fight?"
Tev smirked. "Not while the host still has power. But once he syncs completely, no man or creature on Earth could stop him."
Block 5 Graveyard....
"My dear boy… my troublemaking teddy bear."
"Stop it, Mom! You'll make my cheeks red!"
Her laughter echoed through his dream, then cold water shattered it. Ceaser jolted awake to find Tev staring down at him.
"What kind of woman were you dreaming of?" Tev asked, amused.
"Wha!! How did you know it was a woman?" Ceaser muttered.
"Men like you only cry for women they love," Tev said softly. "A wife, a lost lover… or a mother."
They drove in silence. The black SUV stopped at a quiet cemetery. The grave wasn't special, just a small headstone:
Rebecca Grace Grey.
Ceaser fell to his knees, the world trembling around him. She had been the only one who loved him unconditionally. His tears came quietly at first, then broke into sobs that emptied everything left inside. Tev waited until the man ran out of tears.
When Ceaser finally stood, his face was calm and resigned. Tev understood.
By noon, they returned to the mansion. Red tape and flashing lights filled the yard. Constable Mogomotsi waited at the door.
"Mr. Grey! We almost called a manhunt. Where have you been?"
"I went to see my mother's grave," Ceaser replied flatly. "What's going on?"
"The forensic report confirmed you're the killer," Mogomotsi said. "The only reason you're not already in cuffs is her." He gestured toward Detective Kylie, combing through evidence boxes.
"Just tell us where you hid the weapon," Mogomotsi pressed.
"You won't find it," Ceaser said quietly. "Because the murder weapon… is right here." He raised his hands slightly.
Mogomotsi froze, hand inching toward his gun. Elizabeth turned sharply, her breath catching.
"You're saying you killed them with your hands?" she asked.
"Yes," Ceaser said. "That's the truth, Rose."
Elizabeth froze at the name 'Rose'. Only the old Ceaser knew it. Her heart sank.
"You finally remembered," she whispered, her voice trembling. Then she cuffed him and pushed him into the back seat of her car.
CBD Police Station....
Ceaser confessed to everything. The prosecutors finished their statements and left, their voices fading through the corridors.
"This man is disturbed," one muttered. "He should've been sent straight to Sbrana Psychiatric. Someone's pulling strings here."
The captain nodded. "Then it's final. He's being transferred to the ward."
They left him alone in the holding cell. The door creaked open once more.
Elizabeth stood there, silent, watching him.
Ceaser looked up at her with hollow eyes, and for a moment, just a moment, there was peace in the pain.
She looked at me.
For the first time in a long while, she was really looking, not at the monster they all remembered, but at the man imprisoned by his own sins.
It was a letdown. I was the letdown, and I knew it deep down.
Yet the faint sweetness of her lips, the way she drew them softly across each other as she spoke, reminded me of the nights our lips met.
"Elizabeth." The name never needed to be shortened. It was beautiful as it was, just like the woman it introduced.
"Maybe you should sleep at home more often," Elizabeth said with a quiet smile. "It looks good on you."
Ceaser met her eyes and, for a fleeting moment, caught the faint smile, a fragment of the love he'd lost.
Then Constable Mogomotsi fastened the cold chain cuffs around his wrists and ankles. A guard of honor... not really a guard of honor, but a parade for the killer they thought they'd caught.
Every piece of evidence pointed to him, yet he alone didn't understand how that could be. Outside, a swarm of reporters blocked the road, cameras flashing like bursts of lightning. Civilians hurled rocks that split open his brow.
Though blood ran down his face, Ceaser didn't flinch. Not once. Not even when the police vehicle's door shut behind him.
Through the narrow tear in the blinds, Elizabeth watched the car drive away.....
again.
"She really did try to help you, man," said Constable Mogomotsi quietly. "But the evidence doesn't lie."
"I know," Ceaser whispered. "I know more than anyone."
And thus, the second day came to an end.