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Chapter Eight: The Breaking Point
They thought they were interrogating me.
What they didn't realize... was that I had been interrogating them since the moment I walked in.
Three days. Seven officers. Two psychologists. A profiler from the capital. They all asked the same questions in different accents, different clothes, different levels of desperation.
But the answers?
They were already in their questions.
"Why him?"
Translation: We don't understand your selection criteria.
"Was it personal?"
Translation: We're hoping for an emotional trigger.
"Do you feel remorse?"
Ah. That was the good one. The holy grail of police morality. Remorse. They needed it like religion.
So I gave them what they couldn't process: honesty.
"No. I feel clarity."
They didn't like that.
Detective Ayra Sen stopped coming in by day four. I could sense her watching from behind the mirror, but she never stepped inside again. The others were easier to bend.
Especially the profiler—Dr. Mihir Das. He fancied himself an expert in deviance. Quoted Freud and Jung like scripture. He thought he was mapping my psyche. What he didn't realize… was that every word he spoke was a breadcrumb trail back into his own mind.
"You exhibit classic signs of antisocial behavior. Lack of empathy, narcissistic tendencies—"
"Do you think what I did was wrong?" I asked him.
He paused. "Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you hurt people."
"So if I hurt a man who was already hurting others, that's wrong?"
Silence.
"But if the court gave him five years for raping a child, then let him go after three... that's justice?"
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Be careful, Doctor," I whispered. "If you keep thinking like that, you might start agreeing with me."
He stopped coming the next day.
---
Day Five. 2:13 p.m.
The silence was different now. Not sterile, but fearful. Like the building was holding its breath.
I looked at the camera in the corner of the ceiling. Smiled.
I had left one piece of evidence behind. One drop of blood. A deliberate mistake. It was the bait.
And they took it.
Now they were stuck with a man they couldn't charge properly, couldn't release publicly, and couldn't understand logically.
So they turned to the last place left: psychology.
They sent me to the ward.
The white walls. The "safe" furniture. The soft-spoken staff and cameras in every corner.
That's where I met her.
Dr. Isha Mehra.
Brilliant. Kind. Strong-willed.
And completely unprepared.