With a disastrously tasting coffee in hand and munching on my last piece of sandwich, I entered my office. The usual morning clutter of police work waking up, was gradually filling the air. Another day, another crime… I sighed. I fervently hoped, prayed, to whoever stayed up there, that at least today, I would be assigned some boring job instead of some cold blood murder or slaughter or suicide cases...
Glugging the last few dregs of my coffee, I lazily scanned the front page of the morning newspaper. Apart from the usual nonsense, even the papers these days did not have anything interesting to report. Where did the good old days go?...
“Good god!! Can you ever be on time?”, came my partner, Hank’s voice from somewhere. I looked up and smiled, but almost immediately frowned on seeing the thick file in his hand.
“Bad headache and laziness is an evil match”,I said, without taking my eyes off the file. “Please tell me that’s not our new case file”
Hank grunted. “You should be ashamed of yourself. No discipline… no manners… No-” He sighed. Good. Finally it dawned, that those words never made it to my dictionary. “Anyway, to answer your question. No, this is not our new case file. It's a report on the last one. But we do have a case. 2 missing people… missing from 3 years, mind you...married to each other. Recently, the forest patrol found their car, half buried in the floor”
“Really?? A missing case?.. Sounds fun”. Missing cases were far better than murders or suicides. There truly is a God!!... “Well, what are we waiting for?. Let's go”, I said, displaying all my yellowed teeth.
Hank rolled his eyes. “If you had come in early, we would have been half way across by now”
We headed out in our car, towards our destination; me laid out in the front passenger seat, with my Russell's cap, pulled over my eyes. As if fighting with the horrors of our previous case, last night, wasn't enough, I had to close my eyes again and welcome them with open arms, hadn't I? If this wasn’t stupid, then I don't know what is. The images rushed in, bringing with them, the voices of the murderers.
“How’s your headache?”
Hank's voice came as a welcomed bird song. But I wasn't gonna let him know that. “Concerned, are we?”, I said with a teasing smile.
“Maybe…A little... I'm sorry you had to be there”. I could hear the concern brimming in his voice.
I laughed. “Don't get all chummy around me, Hank. I’m never going to marry you, you know... Besides, I had to be there. How else would you have known, how the murders happened?”, I said, still under my cap.
I could sense him shaking his head disapprovingly. “I don't know, Clara… but I don't like this. Thankful as the police department are towards you and your powers, I just don't like it one bit. These scums are just selfish, looking for more money and more publicity. They do not care, what you go through, everyday… They don't care if you die in a car accident or facing your horrors...No… nobody deserves to be used like this, not even you… Goodness knows, how you manage it, Clara, with all those nightmares flipping in your head… But every time, when you walk into office, acting all cool and sane, I admit, it surprises me to nerves end!!”
I laughed again. “Thanks to you”, I said and punched him on his arm. We both laughed.
Yes… nobody deserved to be used like this. But with the curse I have, I couldn't exactly sit at a mall and sell chocolates. A giant pain it may be, but I wanted to think, I was using the curse for some good purpose. Although there were times, where I hovered over the edge of sanity, when the good or bad didn't make sense anymore, even then, I couldn't bring myself to have a quiet life. And with Hank around, I always found a reason to bounce back. He had become sorts of my personal embankment.
We parked our car on the small walk way, near the place where the car had gone missing. I stepped out lazily and stretched.
All around us the trees stood, long and strong… but that was all. No birds chirped or insects whirred… not even a single cricket's sound could be heard. This was their paradise, their home and yet, they seemed to have abandoned it. Something very grave had occurred here, and it still haunts the place.
We walked a few meters inside the forest, to find the abandoned car. It was half buried in the floor and under 3 years of forest litter. I pulled out my camera, and started taking pictures. Behind me, the leaves crunched. The sounds were vague, very soft and very smooth. I turned. Hank was standing a few feet away, waving his torch around, but there was no third person. Strange… I ignored the sensation and pulled out my own phone torch, it's light neatly illuminating the car’s insides.
The steps grew louder… it was walking besides me now… and-
My surroundings faded.
The smell… of decaying bones under rotting leaves… mixed with a delightful music, created by the buzzing flies… and death singing in the air… The feeling that spread through my chest was of utter bliss…
I stared down into the night dark recesses of black Irises, fright of death seeping out of those hallowed holes… crying a silent plea...
Through the broken windshield, I could clearly make out every tiny little feature that defined their deaths… Blue-decayed-into-black grooves, fashioned their faces in an intricate artwork. Traces of dry white saliva froth could still be seen around their parched open lips. A mute sound escaping them. Bony fingers, extending from thin slender arms, had latched themselves around the locks of the side door, while the arms themselves lay limp and forsaken on their sides. Great flakes of skin had been ripped over their chest, through whose patches, white rib bones and a blackened dead heart could be seen.
A few more hours and I would have missed this pretty sight!! A few more hours…, I smiled as I imagined, their bones would turn into mere particles… A few more hours… Before I target my next victim… before I revel in death again...
“Clara!! Clara!!... Hey!!”. Hank’s voice reverberated from afar. I did not respond. He shook my shoulders heavily. I blinked and the surrounding forest flickered around me again. I could see the trees staring down and the sunlight, fighting it's way to meet the ground, which itself was covered in years of forest litter. And, as a recent addition, an old missing car was dumped.
“Hey!!” Hank called again, concern creeping into his eyes. “You alright? You look weird...”.
“They are murdered”, I whispered, my breaths’ heavy. The killer's voice, still echoed in my ears.
“Who?”
“The couple… the missing ones…”
Fear seeped into Hank's eyes. “Are you sure?”. But he already knew the answer.
“Do you know who was responsible?”
Damn!! Damn my curse!! Damn my visions!! Even though I could clearly hear and feel a death, the images presented, were always blurred, just dark, shady outlines. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't ever able to put a face on the participants. This one was no different.
“All I know is, he's tall, probably 6 feet… not very muscular…”
“And the couple?... What’s he done to them?”. The revolting images rolled freshly against my eyes again. I shut them as I slumped down on my knees, my stomach bile threatening to fall over.
Hank rushed closer and held me tight. “Deep breaths, Clara… Deep breaths…”, he whispered. I rested my head over his chest. Hank's voice coxed again. I obeyed and took in a few long breaths, concentrating hard on the days, Hank and I spent, jollying around in a local bar. The horror started to subside, slowly, as thin vapors.
“Better?” Hank asked. I nodded against his chest. Cold sweat still seeped out of their pores over my forehead.
Slowly I found my voice. “They are dead… He had them poisoned... Their bodies… disintegrated, turned to nothing…”. I forced myself to breathe, as the nausea started to take over me again. “They had become mere wisps in the air, Hank, before it all ended…”
“Good lord!!”
Those poor people… What grave sin had they committed to be eligible for such a heinous death? No… But this wasn't punishment… This was a pure psychotic act…
A few more hours… before I revel in death again...
No.. I can't allow it to happen… No...Pulling myself straight, I tried to will some strength into my frozen bones. Curse It!!... The academy had made it seem bloody easy, but now it felt like, I had reached the end of time itself, before I could finally stand.
“Hank… he's not done yet… and he’s not gonna be done…ever…”
