(First: https://redd.it/111m676 Next: https://redd.it/113cjed)
A few months ago, I started working on some very strange cases as a CSI. Bodies were being found inside solid objects. Inside a tree, inside a building, and inside a car. It simply wasn’t possible for them to be in those places in such a short amount of time. And the lab results came back suggesting that somehow, the bodies became fused into the material they were found inside.
The strangest part of the case was people stopped talking about it. No newspaper reported them, and no one leaked them online. Then I was visited by two oddballs looking to be agents of some sort, claiming if I posted about the cases online, more bodies would appear and they might be able to solve what was happening. In the end, I agreed. And became the next victim.
One night I went to bed early for once. When I woke up, I felt an all-encompassing pain wondering what the hell was happening. I found myself on my back, hard cement under my body. Because of the red-hot pain in my stomach, I didn’t even notice where I ended at first. I only saw the stone pillar sticking out through my gut. I stared at it in disbelief before letting out some hoarse screams. It hurt so much I could barely make any noise. I put my hands against the stone feeling its coldness. I prayed this wasn’t happening and I just became aware in the middle of a terrible nightmare.
This situation was identical to the cases I had been called on. People with objects clipped inside their bodies for a lack of a better way to describe it. When I agreed to keep the cases going by posting about them online, I never would have thought I would not only be next, but the people we found were still alive when they became fused into something. The horror of that thought came over me. How long did Beck live for being all twisted up inside that car?
By all rights, I should have died right away. The stone pillar took up most of my stomach and important organs would have been damaged or gone. Silently sobbing, I tried to see if there was any way I could remove myself from my position. The pillar stood in a line of others with chains attaching them together. They were made to be a barrier to keep people from going off the park pathway and near the lake just a few feet away. If I pushed myself up, I would get trapped on the chain. I decided I would try and move, hoping that would damage the remaining of my stomach and kill me faster. But my brain hesitated for a few long and painful seconds.
I heard a car pull up in the distance, the sound stopping my attempt to move. I knew was already dead, but in the back of my mind I wondered if I got medical attention fast enough, I may live. It was an unreasonable thought. I was missing most of my torso from the pillar. People could live without certain things, but not nearly all of their stomach. There wasn’t a doctor in the world that could save me. Still, I moved my head towards the sound of someone walking trying to fight back pain and panic.
I saw their shoes first. Clean and shiny professional dress shoes. Not entirely shiny. One had a small scuff from where I slammed my door onto it a while ago. Looking up I saw the surprised face of a man named Jackalope. He wore a suit and gear bundled up on his back.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you, Mr. Garcia!” He sounded honestly shocked.
Without addressing me again, or attempting to help in any way, he started to set up high spotlights. Placing down a white tarp within a few minutes, my dark corner of the world turned into a blazing white. He also set up a camera on a tripod but didn’t turn it on just yet. The lights looked heavy although he didn’t have any issues setting them up. I whimpered from pain ready to die as he worked away.
“I really shouldn’t be giving you this so early but…”
Taking a case out from somewhere, he placed it down beside me. Due to how much pain felt from the pillar, I did not feel the prick of a needle going into my arm. Within a minute the pain faded. My entire body turned warm and loose. I nearly fell asleep but he gave me another shot that made me keep my eyes open. I still felt drowsy but thankful for the pause in the pain. My head felt heavy and I turned it towards him. His cream-colored hair fell out of the ponytail as he worked. After fixing his hair, he sat down a few feet from me, hands on his knees studying my situation.
“Thank you…” I muttered sounding sleepy.
“It’s good stuff. Not available to the public for pretty good reasons. Anyway, if you’re feeling up to it, I need to ask you a few questions. If we can figure out a link between the victims, we may be able to put an end to this whole mess.”
He stood up to turn on the camera but paused when I spoke again.
“Am I going to die?” I asked finding my strength.
“Yes.” He replied after a few seconds.
It was a miracle I wasn’t dead already. Everything about these cases went beyond logic. Nothing natural could explain how this was happening. Or how I wasn’t already dead.
I wondered how often Jackalope came across cases as strange as this. He let me suffer while he worked setting up his gear. He carried on with his strange job with no hesitations. He didn’t even look like he cared that I was going to die soon aside from a slight pause in telling me my fate. This man sounded and acted friendly, but he might be entirely something else under that mask.
“Aren’t those socks against your company dress code?” I asked finally with a weak laugh.
Peeking out from his suit pants were a pair of neon green socks. He gave me a smile almost looking relieved I’d forgiven him for how he so coldly acted beforehand. I heard him turn on the camera and watched as he sat back down to get on my level. Taking a clipboard, he put it against his legs to look over the questions on the sheet. I still felt sleepy and ready to pass out. It took a lot of willpower to stay awake. I reached over to touch the cold stone pillar to remind myself of my fate. I wasn’t going to just slip off into a nap. Death waited for me.
“Now, Mr. Garcia-”
“You can call me Carlos.” I interrupted.
“Carlos then…” He said with a small smile and went back to his clipboard. “It says here your mother passed away. Uh, let’s see, what was your relationship with her and how did her death change you?”
I might not understand how or why people were being clipped inside things, but what does my mother have to do with any of this? Becky, one of the other victims still had both of her parents alive when she passed away. Hell, she never lost a single person in her life before. This line of questioning didn’t feel relevant.
“I loved her and I became motivated to make something of myself after she died. What about your mother? Are you close to her?” I mostly tossed his question back at him to waste his time because I felt like he wanted to waste the limited amount I had left.
“I don’t have anything like that. Let’s see…”
He said it in such a so matter of fact tone it hurt my chest. I long suspected that Jackalope was an agent of some shadow organization. He may have been an orphan raised to do just one job and didn’t have any connections in the world. The man simply a living ghost. Having that theory outright proven in so few words felt unexpected.
“I bought you some of those cream suckers you liked. They’re at my place. My spare key is hidden under my little happy frog figure on the front lawn if you want to go and get them after I die.” I commented only because the thought crossed my mind.
The comment a silly thing to bring up. I brought them and it would be a waste for them to not make it to their intended person. Jackalope looked a bit surprised again. It appeared as if no one had ever gotten him anything before. Maybe that was the truth. He placed his clipboard beside himself and then brought his long legs against his chest. His arms wrapped under his deeps as he looked deep in thought.
“Do you have any lingering regrets?” He asked me displaying some somber emotions that didn’t suit him at all.
What a thing to ask someone while they had a post stuck inside their stomach. Of course, I had regrets. I regretted dying to start with. I felt hot tears come to my eyes as my end loomed ever closer. A million thoughts came flooding to my mind because of the question. I felt so scared of death, and strangely at the same time, I felt guilty about those thoughts.
“I don’t want to die so soon but… Why is that? I don’t have anyone. My father was shot in the line of duty and my mother died of cancer. I’ve dated on and off but never found a person who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I don’t even have a pet. Not even a fish. Why should I want to live? I guess I regret that. Living a life, I didn’t think was worth living and yet… wanting to keep going. It’s not fair you know? That I want to stay alive when I have nothing and no one. Becky still has so many people mourning her. She was going to be something….”
I needed to stop speaking to choke down sobs. Jackalope listened patiently and started to pick at a wrapper of one of his suckers. He looked unmoved. The only hint he felt a little upset over my rant was how he just couldn’t find the start of the wrapper to open it.
The pain in my stomach drew my eyes away from him. Whatever he gave me started to wear off and I assumed I ran out of time. I wasted my entire life and yet at the end of it wanted it to keep going. Just a bit longer for me to do something, anything to make it all worth it.
“I’m sorry…” I raised a weak arm up to rub my eyes.
“For what? This is a perfectly reasonable reaction.” Jackalope replied but still hadn’t gotten the wrapper started.
“I’ve made you cry.”
Unaware of it himself, tears started in the corner of his eyes. Pausing trying to get his candy free, he raised a hand up to rub one eye and stared puzzled at the wetness on his finger. More tears started to come and he used the sleeves of his suit to make attempts to dry them. It was a strange sight to see someone crying when they weren’t aware of why it happened.
“That’s strange. This shouldn’t be possible for me….”
I knew the thought to be selfish, but I felt glad that he was there in the end. I finally did something in my life. Even if that small something just left my mark on a stranger who might not even be fully human. Waves of pain started overtaking my thoughts and I closed my eyes trying to shut it all out. It was becoming nearly impossible to breathe and my entire body felt like fire. I might only have a few moments left. I could only hope my death lead to some answers as to why people died being clipped inside things and so this wouldn’t happen to someone else.
I heard Jackalope’s frantic voice calling out my name to try and keep me awake. I never expected him to care so much. The pain kept my eyes closed but I heard him rushing around running back and forth on the white tarp. Whatever he started doing, I felt like I needed to see it. It felt like hours dragged on but only minutes passed. Opening my eyes a crack, I saw the man I would like to consider a friend kneeling in front of a small black stone slab. His head bowed and nearly touched the tarp. The black slab only a few inches tall and wide. Still, it gave off such an ominous look sitting on top of the white tarp and inside the bright spotlights. Whatever power the slab held, it scared me more than my quickly approaching death. I opened my mouth to ask Jackalope to stop. The words died inside my throat.
Jackalope lifted his head only enough to meet my eyes. I swear he gave me a little wink. Then, a gust of wind slammed into me. I couldn’t hear anything through the noise of the tarp flapping around and nearly being blown away. The spotlights slammed to the ground, sparks flying. Darkness overtook my sight. Just before my vision faded, I saw that darkness cover Jackalope on the ground. Dark tendrils twisted around him taking him into the blackness and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
I woke up screaming and tumbled out of my bed. For a long while, I could do nothing but scream and hugged my knees against my chest. When the fear finally started to fade, I sat in shock over being alive in my own room. Frantically I lifted my shirt seeing a large scar where the pillar had been. A scar I did not have before that night. My legs were unsteady so I sat on my floor confused and terrified over what happened that night.
If it wasn’t for the scar, I would have assumed the entire thing was a nightmare from being stressed from working such odd cases. I should have died that night. Jackalope did something to save me and I had no way of figuring out his fate.
The next few weeks we made no progress on the odd clipping cases. They started to slowly go closer to the cold case pile. In the meantime, I started to do little things in my life so I wouldn’t have the same regrets as I did before. First, I donated some blood and then put myself down for an organ donor. If I died the next day, I might be able to save someone. That was a slight improvement over the useless life I’d lived so far.I then adopted a rabbit. I really wasn’t home enough for one but I still got him. The people at the animal shelter worked with me to make sure I had everything set up for him, and even put him on hold until I got everything together. I wasn’t even aware the animal shelters kept rabbits. Here I thought they just took in dogs and cats. Soon I owned a one-year-old white rabbit named Pesto.
After all my minor improvements I still felt guilty. As if I didn’t deserve my second chance. Trying to shake off those thoughts I went to the pet store to buy more supplies and toys for Pesto. I pulled my car into the driveway and my heart nearly stopped when I saw someone sitting on my front porch. Gathering my shopping bags, I walked over and stopped just before the stone steps thinking I might be seeing things.
Jackalope sat wearing a large wool coat and a small travel bag sat next to him. The left side of his lips was torn and scarred over so badly that his teeth showed through. His left eye was a dull blue and he wore glasses. More guilt tore through my stomach but he only gave me a smile.
“I got fired.” He told me with that warm smile of his still on his face.
I got so choked up I couldn’t respond. I walked up the few steps to my front door.
“Can you take these so I can unlock the door?” I asked him holding out the shopping bags.
He knew where I kept my spare key. I didn’t know why he waited outside until I got back. He reached out to take the bags but something felt off. Focusing on his movements I nearly dropped my key when I realized what wasn’t right. The left coat sleeve flapped around empty. Not only did he become half blind for my sake he also lost an arm. Terrible guilt twisted inside my stomach. No matter how I lived my life from now on, I would never be able to repay such a sacrifice.
“Why would you give up your arm for someone like me? It wasn’t worth it.” I couldn’t meet his eyes as my stomach tightened.
“You were kind enough to think about me after we met. It seems like you’re still thinking about me.” He added with a small laugh and raised up the pet supply bag to prove a point. I could have adopted a cat but I’d adopted a rabbit because I felt guilty.
“That’s not enough of a reason to go so far…” I argued.
“People have lost a lot more for a lot less.”
Pulling out a sucker from his pocket he started to try and open the wrapper with one hand. I reached out and took it for him to open, only for him to offer it back to me.
I couldn’t bring myself to refuse the offer. He lived the life of a person who had nothing and no one in his life. Not a soul thought of him after they met. He had one job, with an organization I didn’t know a thing about. Given a name that reflected his nonexistence in the world. I had the sudden realization that my life wasn’t worthless until that point. If one small gesture like buying candy for a stranger affected another so greatly, I may have done other extraordinary acts without being aware of them.
“They kicked me out of the recovery station and I’m in a bit of a pickle. I didn’t want to bother you but I don’t know anyone else. May I crash on your couch for a few days until I can get myself a bit more in order?”
He saved my life. I wasn’t certain how but that didn’t change how much I owed him. I would have forced him to stay if he didn’t ask. Nodding, I finished unlocking the front door so we could go inside.
We still haven’t solved the cases of the clipped bodies. I didn’t ask him questions about his job or what is really going on. Right now, I just wanted Jackalope to get settled. He didn’t say so, but he looked tired. I introduced him to Pesto and sat down to type all this out. When I came back to check on him, he’d fallen asleep on the couch with Pesto on his chest.
I may not know anything about him, but I trust him. After he recovers, we’ll work towards solving the strange body cases without the help of his mystery organization. They tossed him away after he broke whatever rules and saved me. I needed to prove to myself that what he sacrificed was worth it.