“Nothing. I feel nothing; no pain, no emotions, no regret. Is this death? A dark resting place for the conscious? An eternity to self reflect on your limited time for an unlimited time? How fitting; it’s no different from life itself isn’t it? Or does that mean I was never living in the first place?” Those were the thoughts that resided in my head until I noticed something off. A dull reminiscence flickered in the distance. ‘Is that, light? Why is it getting brighter? Why are my thoughts becoming clearer? Why am I cold all of a sudden? Why..?”
“Mam. Mam are you ok?”
My internal monologue met its end. Soon after follows the ear-piercing wales of a siren breaking my anxiety-free state. The voice of what sounds to be a woman continues, “Stay right there ill signal help.” Instinctively I opened my eyes expecting to see a paramedic in front of me complimenting the flashing of red and blue in the distance. I met eyes with a woman; a citizen I presume, wearing a clear face of concern. Her face and voice soon conjured a tone of aggression. She looked back at the huddle of ambulances covering the street hiding what even scene they were attending.
My eyes mimicked her tracking to see a light pole in the distance slightly tilted and a set of tire marks leading from under the ambulance leading past where I previously laid. She began to scream, “ you damn bum, did you cause that accident? Why the hell were you sleeping in the street?” That’s when I noticed my clothes were soaked giving off a civilized appearance. I tried to force out a response, fumbling my words repeatedly,” no, I had nothing to do with this. I’m not sure what’s going on I swear.”
“Officer!”, she shouted causing attention towards me and a crowd slowly forming on the scene. “Hey lady stop right there”, a man called out alerting me to the realization that I was fleeing. Gasping for air I began to exhale a plethora of puzzling questions, “How the fuck am I alive; why don’t I feel any pain or see any blood? Is this a damn nightmare?”. I must have been scared out of my mind. The gap between me and the crowd was immense. I soon heard the uproar of cop cars causing me to break the line of sight of anyone. I hid in an empty dumpster until I could find an uber home. I rushed to the bathroom upon arrival, vomiting profusely in the sink. My vision started to lose focus. Before succumbing to darkness once more, I looked in the mirror. My eyes were dilating in and out rapidly. (Link breakage)
Soon after I heard a noise that must have been imagined. A familiar beam-like sound that I can not describe. Soon followed a deep sense of loss. Deep was an understatement. I felt like I lost something that was always with me. A loss so noticeable, I should be able to come to an instant realization of its origins, but there was nothing outside the well aquatinted black beneath my eyelids.
[bang bang bang] “Claire!” I jolted off my couch with a racing heart. As I gain control of my breathing, my awareness began to peak. Picking up on the background noise of the news I notice right above it were flashes of red and blue exchanging positions on the wall. [bang bang bang]
“Clair, it’s officer Reynolds, jasmine’s father.”
I opened the door; “is everything ok Mr.Reynolds?”, I asked with great concern. His face held stern, but I knew it masked a sense of sadness.
His voice confirmed, “My daughter,” he said sobbingly, “when was the last time you saw her?”
In a confused fashion, I responded, “yea umm..last night we went out to eat actually. I rode there with her there but took an uber home afterward. I thought she told you guys after graduation. I haven’t heard anything from her since.” I didn’t think would be an appropriate time to say we had a falling out nor did I care to. I just wanted this man out of my face.
“Enough with the bull shit Clair; I know you did it!” Suddenly he grabbed me by the wrist dropping folder he held previously envelope.
“Let me go! What the hell is wrong with you?” I jerked away from him and swiftly grabbed a knife that fortunately had been on the kitchen table.
“ you stupid brat I know you did it; you couldn’t just leave the James incident alone, could you?! I used to feel sorry for you. I was actually happy my daughter was kind enough to be your friend. I’ve read about you in numerous files on your parents during their run-ins with us. Took me a while to realize you were their god-forsaken child. I guess broken homes do create broken children”
“Screw you; you drunk! Your bitch of a daughter only pretended to be my friend out of guilt. I don’t know where she is now but you both can go to hell!’’ Now with bloodshot eyes, his face contorted in rage. He grabbed me by my hair and slammed my head against the glass coffee immediately handcuffing me soon after. ( Soul linkage)
The sound from last night returned with a profound sense of rage. It only got worse as the words displayed on the TV seem to manipulate the face of that man. It was like I could feel everything he felt. Every bit of sadness; every bit of malice. “Young teen found left dead after horrific car incident; foul play is in question.” I felt the rage start to boil over into blood lust as the words slid out of view.
He started to go on a rampage kicking the tv and flipping the coffee table furthermore shattering what was left of it. He sat me up against the frame of it and proceed to pick up the envelope. This guy was definitely out of his mind.
His breathing pattern was inconsistent, “ A wreck? Bullshit! That’s far from a plausible cause of death. ”
He pulled out the pictures from what looked to be a scene. The same location as last night’s. There it was; a tilted pole, and Jessica’s car just beneath it. On queue, he read from my thoughts.
“The car barely has a dent in it. Only the bumper where the low half of the pole meets is damaged. Do you mean to tell me that will kill someone let alone leave them like this?!”
He ripped out the last 3 pictures from the envelope. It took a second to understand what I was looking I wanted to vomit but couldn’t to say the least. It was Jessica. Her face was caved in itself. Her neck laid limp with the stump of her vertebrae formed clearly as her skin contoured it so vividly. Her arms and knees had the worse case of Rigor Mortis. She was locked into what I can only refer to as a disfigurine. Even with the best CGI tech, I doubt any horror movie could come close to this horrid depiction.
A voice sounded off on a megaphone from outside the house,“ Come outside with your hands up Reynalds. we know you kills those girls this morning. There doesn’t need to be any more bloodshed.”
“Stay out of this Frederick. You saw what they did to my daughter. These sick bastards must pay and ill be the one to make them. You can’t stop me from giving justice to my daughter.”
“ You killed those girls?”, questioned, visibly shocked.
“There’s only you left. I’m guaranteed to get the right one.”
He took his gun out of his holster cocking it back. I felt the bloodlust 10 fold.
“You think I want to live?!”, I shouted “I have nothing to do with your daughter’s death but kill me! My life has been a living hell since birth. The only person to make me feel alive was taken away from me by you and your mangled daughter. You killing me will be the best thing to happen to me since James. you can’t make me suffer more than I already have”
That seemed to set him off. he let out a murderous shout and point the gun in my direction. I couldn’t explain my following actions at the time but it just felt right. Off impulse, I force my face to the ground swallowing chunks of shattered glass as a shot from the barrel sounded off. I expected to feel a sharp pain from both the bullet and the glass once I became conscious of what I just swallowed, but that pain never manifested. Instead, I was met with a choking, more like frothing sound. I open my eyes to see a shell on the floor positioned above my knee and a puddle of blood. But, it wasn’t my blood. I looked up to a blue-faced officer Reynolds coughing up blood and clawing at his dark red neck. It looked as if he ruptured every vessel in his neck and was bleeding internally. Needless to say, I took this opportunity to free myself
He forced a gurgle full of barely comprehensible words in a depressing attempt to speak.
“What; what did you do to me? What the hell are you? ”
Before I could respond I felt a sudden gagging sensation causing me to vomit all the shards I consumed. Reynolds seemed to mimic me; spewing blood by the pints. His body convulsed as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. I had to see. I had to know if what I thought was real. I took the knife from the floor and violently ran it across my throat. Reynolds winced one last time before coming to a stop. (Link breakage) the noise from before announced itself upon death’s arrival.
Officer 1: “Reynolds come out with your hands up. There are twelve of us and one of you. Make this easy on yourself.”
(footsteps/ dragging sound)
Officer 2: “stop or we’ll shoot dammit!”
Officer 1: “ hold your fire! It’s the kid. Claire; are you alright?)
Officer 2: “Wait what is she dragging. My god. Is that?”
“Gagging noises”
Officer 1: “ Jesus Christ. Claire, it’s gonna be ok. You’re in shock; just step away from the body.”
Officer 2:” why is she smiling?
Officer 1: “I’m not sure. There’s something in her hand”
Officer 2: “Oh shit! Drop the gun now!”
Officer 1: “Everyone stand down! Claire. You don’t have to do this to yourself. You can recover from this just take the gun away from your head and explain to me what happened in there.”
Claire:” I think I get it now.”
Officer 2: huh? Get what?
(Soul linkage)
(Gunshot)
(Bodies drop)
(Link breakage)