LUST; Chapter 1: The Tavern

Chapter I

THE TAVERN

Year 1993, 30^th of March.

She was staring by the window in front of her. The phone rang. Then came a loud harsh voice as if it was a sound of an ogre coming out from his cave. He was a man. A man named John Albert de Lousteroine. He was a policeman. He said that he was an inspector on a sudden mission.

Shrieks were heard.

Exchange of bullets.

Cries, as if tears flooded the whole place.

Then the unknown sirens of vehicles were heard. She doesn’t know if it was from the policeman’s car or an ambulance that rushes down to the scene.

Suddenly, the voice of the inspector was gone. The phone was cut and the signal was off. Shirley was so startled and confused of the things she heard in the phone. Still, she didn’t entertain the call. As if it was just a prank call from a child that’s making fun of her. Anxiety arouses on her feelings so she decided to drink water from the quite opened faucet as if the droplets of water were luring her to come near and drink. But the phone rang again.

The phone rang the second time.

And it rang again.

While she was staring the phone ringing she was thinking twice if she would answer the phone anymore because of what happened previously. Shirley does not want to entertain prank calls anymore in her life. But her hands felt cold and decided to answer the call and for the second time around, it is the inspector. He said that it was an emergency and he badly needed the cooperation of Shirley.

‘What was it all about?’, Shirley asked.

‘There was a shootout in my mission here in Choiseuol Ville.’, the inspector answered.

Shirley breathed. She was informed of the ‘Ville’. The place where she came from. The policeman said that he needed to see her immediately. So she was shock because of the sudden rush of events. She doesn’t know what to do and she doesn’t know what she had done. Why does the inspector need her? Why?

Same year, 31^st of March.

She has a long black hair as black as ebony, a beautiful face and a beautiful heart. Shirley was in her mid twenties. Shirley was having a nice job on doing her daily chores. Cleaning the house and washing the dishes. She’s the only one living in her little house.

As she was waiting for the call of the inspector, she was thinking if she had done anything that can bring her into trouble. She has nothing to do with her relatives ‘cause she had none. Her parents died the same day she was born. It was a car accident that cost her parents lives. When her mother was in labor in her, their car was struck by a bus, her parents died and she’s the only one who survived the accident.

She was thinking if she had some problems with other people. But she had none. So why does the inspector need her presence? What was it all about? The whole day she was thinking about it.

April the First.

She received a call from the inspector. Saying that she is needed immediately to go on Davion’s Inn. Suddenly her heart stop beating. The memories of the past were coming back to her. Shirley didn’t notice that the door of her house was widely open. What was on that inn that made her feel the way she did?

It was her ex – boyfriend.

On March 3, that same year her boyfriend told her to go to Davion’s Inn for an exclusive one – on – one date. It was a gloomy afternoon. Many things had happened before that day. As if that gloomy day expresses a silent but deadly event would happen but for her boyfriend it was just all the same. The same dates they have done for the relationships they we’re going through.

But it wasn’t the same. Shirley was feeling a little bit sorry for accepting Romy Guttierez as her boyfriend. She became a slave and a victim when she accepted Romy as his boyfriend.

Yes, she was. For the 5 years they’ve been in that wicked relationship Shirley became restless for all the tortures that his boyfriend is doing on her. For Romy, handling a girlfriend as if she was a maid is a great honor for him and his friends. For him his words were laws.

On that same inn.

Shirley realized that she had to deal with her boyfriend. She had to stop the nonsense. The relationship that has been battered by cruel words and wicked thoughts that her boyfriend has put into her. She broke up with him.

She tossed her ring. The sign of their ‘relationship’. And on that day their relationship was ended. Because she couldn’t stand it anymore.

While thinking of her past, she was afraid to go again to that inn. It was a very difficult decision to her, to go to an inn where an unforgettable freedom experience happened. Yes, it was really an unforgettable experience. Though it gave her freedom, it also gave her heartache.

But she decided to go to the inn. For if a policeman on a mission invited you on urgent meeting, it is very hard to cancel that invitation. For you can be convicted on a crime that you didn’t do or even worse you can be a wanted person with a price tag on your head.

She met the inspector in the Davion’s inn. The place was still the same as the day she got her ‘freedom’. There were wooden chairs and tables with checkered covers. It was a dim lighted inn. No customers but one. For it was a luxury inn previously and it still is.

She saw this man. About 6 feet tall. Brown jacket and brown cap. He was drinking a coffee. It was the inspector and he expects that Shirley was the one staring at him. Being on that it inn was really hard for Shirley. So she expect the discussion to be clear and brief.

‘Hi. I’m Shirley Jones. I think your Inspector Lousteroine?’, Shirley asks.

‘Yes, I am. I want to tell you something for it happened previously on my mission which I told you on phone.’, the man said.

Shirley remembered the call. For she thought it is only a prank one. The one that had a line disturbance. But she also remembered the strange sounds that she heard on the phone.

‘Yes, I remember. But what are those strange sounds that I hardly heard while you we’re talking to me and why did you suddenly shut the phone off?’, Shirley eagerly asked the inspector.

‘It was all because of the shootout. It was on Choiseoul Ville. I came there inspect the different factories located there. It was for my report. I didn’t even expected that it was a lair of moron drug addicts.’, answered Inspector John.

‘But what about the cries? Is there anyone hurt?’, Shirley continued asking.

‘Yes, there were 5 casualties. 4 killed and 1 badly wounded. Sorry, but I don’t have to discuss these things to you. You had nothing to do with the shootout.’

‘But what am I here for?’

‘Do you know a man by the name of Romeo Guttierez?’

Suddenly, Shirley felt cold. For she never heard that name for 2 weeks. She had moved on, on their break up. Even though she don’t want to answer the question the inspector asked, it’s hard to lie on this situations facing a policeman.

‘Yes, I know him. Why?’

Even though she had moved on, she still and still is concerned with him.

‘Is there anything happened to him? I believe that she was living on her aunt right now.’

‘Sadly, no.’

‘So what do I have to do him? We’re done.’

‘I believe that you were his past girlfriend right?’

‘Yes, I am. But why…’