Heartless

Being an officer, my good friend Detective Griffin allowed me to follow along with him on a big case he was investigating. As he headed to the crime scene, I was able to tag along.

Coming onto the scene, I spotted Bree, the medical examiner. Even as experienced as Bree was, she seemed to be stumped as to what events played out for our victim; female, white, appeared to be roughly in her middle-to-late 30’s, no signs of a struggle, no visible bruises, scrapes or lacerations. She was found like all the other deceased victims; one of her most important organs was missing – her heart. It was like something out of a low-budget horror movie, her heart was just pulled right out of her, nothing else was damaged. People gathered on the street, trying to get a glance at the body – nothing attracts a crowd like the unknown, people sometimes have a morbid sense of curiosity. Red and blue lights flashed, illuminating the dreadful yellow crime scene tape, blocking off the dark alleyway, where the poor lady had met her demise. This was getting to be just too much! Too many people just like her were being found left and right. Who was doing this? Why? I tried racking my brain for answers that wouldn’t come. This had to be stopped, I couldn’t stand to think of the people who had to get a call or visit, telling them…their mom, dad, aunt, uncle, sister or even brother…was gone…

“Bella, are you okay?” Detective Griffin asked. I was leaning against the hood of our unmarked car, holding my arms close to me, bracing myself against the weather; it very cold and windy. “Here, you’re shaking, you must be freezing” Griffin said, placing his jacket around my shoulders. “Do…do you think she was cold? Or scared? In her last moments? Did she think back on all her life, on what she never did… did she have dreams? She never would have guessed walking out of her house today, it would be her last day alive…” I spoke aloud. “Bella…” “My mind tends to wander to much I know, but I can’t help it.” I interrupted Griffin. “This poor lady…was a person, she had a life, and it was taken from her… as if she was nothing more than a fallen leaf… crushed beneath cold unfeeling feet, left to die and wither away.” I said, letting my head hang down, as the wind blew my hair. Griffin tried to console me about the events, but I just brushed his attempts to the side. This had been going on for 4 months now, I worried that my family, friends, work colleagues or even myself, could be next. The attacks were seemingly random with no motive, but then again cats don’t catch mice to eat them, rather they do it for the pleasure of it.

I sat at my desk going over the case file again. This was a big case. I’ve seen a lot as an officer but never something quite this gruesome. I work with a bunch of glorified paper pushers so there was a lot of junk I had to deal with from people at work. It was all so juvenile! People were dying, families were grieving, and all any of them could do was make unneeded comments, crude jokes and invent cruel nicknames for me. What was their problem? Were they upset because I was doing more work than that they had probably done in a whole year? I tried to ignore them. I was more worried about finding justice for the victims and their families. I had sacrificed many nights of sleep, going over the case notes and evidence, hoping I could find something, anything.

“How about we go get a coffee? Hmmm?... You look like you could use one” Griffin said, with a small laugh. I turned to face him, spinning my chair around. Griffin was resting against the wall close by my workspace with his arms crossed, smiling at me. Griffin was one of the few who I worked with that was actually nice. “Yeah, a coffee would be nice…” I conjured up a smile that I didn’t really feel.

Griffin and I walked to a small café not far from the precinct. I took a few sips from the coffee I had ordered, before closing my eyes and pressing the cup against my face, stealing the warmth from the mug. “You’re worrying me, you know that? I want the case to be solved too, but please… don’t push yourself and your health to the side.” Griffin said, placing his hand on top of my free hand that was resting on the table. My eyes lazily opened, I moved my face off of the mug, setting the cup on the table, staring down at my other hand, flipping it, letting my palm come to clasp his hand. I gently rubbed my thumb on the top of his hand. “I’ll be okay… I appreciate you worrying about me, but I’m fine really.” I spoke this softly, unsure if I really believed it myself. I was too tired to hold my head up, so I just kept my head down, looking at our hands; his were rough and I could feel the impressions of the scars that wore on his hands. Sitting there taking in the stillness that filled the space around me, as silence grew, starting slowly, then all at once consuming everything with it. Even if it was only for a second, I enjoyed this moment of solitude.

Griffin had tried to start some kind of small talk with me, but I soon started to slowly drift away from the conversation. I could hear Griffin’s voice as he spoke, but his speech became a stream of sound with no discernible words. I could hear the worry in Griffin’s voice, it was firm, but not harsh, calming, almost like a gentle breeze, reminding me he was there, that he cared without beating me down with empty words of pity. I took note of the tones in Griffin’s voice and how they blended perfectly together, but the words he spoke were muffled deep beneath the ocean that flooded my mind, slowly drowning my consciousness. “Bella?... Bella?!” Hearing my own name is what brought me back to the present. “You seem dazed? Is there something you want to talk about it? Griffin asked, “No, I was just thinking…” I said, blankly staring at him. I looked up out of the window towards the sky, seeing the kaleidoscope of different colors that danced in the sky to paint a beautiful sunset. I soon realized the day would be over, so I decided to head home. “Thanks for the coffee, Griffin... you’re a great friend.” I said, standing up to stretch. Griffin offered to walk me home, but my house wasn’t too far, I could make the walk home by myself.

Drip, drip, drip. As I was coming into my house, I could hear the sound of water dripping from my kitchen faucet. I headed for my bedroom to hang my duty belt, I was looking forward to a nice hot shower and a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, my body was weary, my eyes felt like they were full of sand. I couldn’t keep running on empty like this, but my mind refused to let my body rest, so instead of my hot shower, I splashed some cold water on my face to try and wake me up. The crime scene plagued my brain, playing on a never-ending loop. Making my way back to the kitchen, thinking maybe a hot cup of tea sounds inviting, but instead I find myself gripping tightly onto the kitchen counter, bowing my head forward, letting out a shaky sigh. Tears started to fill my eyes, but I wouldn’t give myself the relief of letting them fall, I didn’t have that luxury – I had to solve these crimes. The families of the victims found slain, and their hearts taken – they could afford this release, this emotional purging, but I didn’t deserve to let my pain drip out, and because of that… I envied the faucet as it continued to taunt me.

Drip…

Drip…

I stepped out onto my front porch, hoping the cool autumn breeze would calm my uneasy mind. Looking out, I could see the empty and quiet streets of my suburban neighborhood. I guess that was one of the reasons why I liked living here, it was always so peaceful.

“Marcellus? Marcellus! MARCELLUS!” The silence was broken by the sound of a worried woman’s voice yell from down the street. As she got closer coming up the road, I got a look at her, it was Lucinda. Lucinda was a lady who lived a couple of houses down from me, with her two eleven-year-old twin sons; Zachary and Marcellus. I use to babysit these children. “Everything okay?” I called out to Lucinda, stepping off my porch walking towards her. “I had gone to get my boys for dinner and I couldn’t find Marcellus. I started looking for him when I saw the front door open! I asked Zachary if he had seen him, he said that Marcellus was playing in the front yard last he saw,” Lucinda said. She looked so worried and distraught; I could see she was holding herself together, but just barely. Marcellus was just a child, unaware of the danger that lurked in the shadows. Thinking about what could happen to him was enough to wake me up. “I’ll help you look for him, I’m sure he is alright...” I told her. I had no idea if he was okay or not, but to keep her calm I had to give her some reassurance. Before leaving to go help her look, I went back in my house to grab my off-duty weapon. Being an officer, you are taught to be prepared for the unexpected. She took one street and I took another to try and find him. I asked around if anyone had seen him, with no luck. I called out for him, only getting a sore throat for an answer. The sky was growing darker by the minute. With what had been going on I feared the worst for Marcellus. I wasn’t going home until I found him. I couldn’t bear the thought of letting Marcellus’s mom experience the same pain of losing him like so many other people had with their loved ones. The guilt of not finding peace for families of the victims was eating away at me like an unrelenting disease. Marcellus had his whole life in front of him, I wanted it to be a long happy one. I couldn’t let another person’s life be taken again, even it meant losing my own…

I was making my way down another street, when something caught my eye. It was a superhero action figure. When I used to babysit for Lucinda, Marcellus would always carry this around with him; it was his favorite toy. It made him feel brave with his favorite superhero by his side. The figure had scratches on it from the pavement. Had he dropped this running from someone or something?... I could feel my stomach twisting. “Please…please let him be alive… let him be okay…” I said under my breath to myself. There was a little bit of a forest close by where I had found the toy. I knew it wasn’t the smartest idea going in the dark forest by myself, but it would’ve taken longer for back up to come, and by then… it could be too late, and it could be too late now… but something in my gut was telling me to keep looking. A foul smell hit as I was going deeper into the woods. An animal or something must have died, it was horrible, it gaged me. “W-what in the world?!” I spoke out loud to myself. I found the cause of the wretched smell; a young deer. The dead animal though was not what had me flabbergasted, it was how it must have died, and all too familiar scene for me. The body was still intact, but the heart was gone.

I just stood there…staring at the poor thing. Not only were people being killed this way, but now animals were too…but why? The sound of a child’s scream caused me to turn my head, looking in the direction from whence it came. I started heading that way. My eyes had been in the darkness for so long that they had adjusted to it, but even so, all I could make out were silhouettes of things within the forest. Coming closer to the screaming I could see a line of trees. The trees were bending and moving to the rhythm of the wind as if it was music. “SOMEBODY HELP ME! P-PLEASE!” It was Marcellus! I recognized his voice when I heard him yell for help. Marcellus came running out of the trees, tripping on the ground in the process. A loud growl erupted from the woods, something angry was in there, but it wasn’t animal-like. I couldn’t make out what it was, but something tall on all fours emerged. It was huge whatever it was. This made me draw my weapon. Marcellus screamed as it crept towards him, trying to grab him. I fired a few rounds off in the air to try and deter it away from him. The creature let out a low growl, as if to warn me before it was to strike. I went to grab Marcellus’s arm, but the creature got to him first, it all happened so fast. Marcellus continuously screamed out for help, as the creature drug him deeper into the forest. Without thinking about the consequences, I ran as fast as I could to try and keep up with them. It made sense now, a creature, something thought only to exist in the world of make believe, was the suspect in these crimes, not a human. I had to try and stop this thing, who else would if I didn’t? If I tried to explain what had happened, they’d all just laugh me out of the station and say I had finally lost my mind. I had to destroy this creature myself. After running for so long, I had no choice but to stop and catch my breath, the cold night air burned as it entered into my lungs. A large knot grew in the pit of my stomach as I thought I had lost where the creature and Marcellus had gone, until a quiet but faint whimper caused me to glance up at the trees from whence the sound came. The brightness of the moon cast a menacing silhouette of the creature who was seemingly poised to attack. I was surviving off of pure adrenaline, not logic. I only cared about trying to protect Marcellus. “HEY! OVER HERE!” I yelled out at the creature angrily. It turned and snarled at me. If I could lure it away from the tree, maybe Marcellus could climb down and get to safety. My plan was to entice the creature to come after me, rather than Marcellus – to exchange my life for his if need be. It slowly and cunningly started to come down. “RUN! GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!” I instructed Marcellus, as the creature had made its way to the ground. It took him a moment to gather himself, but Marcellus swiftly climbed down, running out of the forest, not looking back. Now it was only me and the creature. Coming face to face with it was blood-curdling. It was as if it could actually smell the fear running through my veins. I was frozen and couldn’t move. The creature circled me several times before coming to a halt behide me. I felt the snout of the creature press firmly against my back, as it continued to let out a low but angry growl. A great fear rose up inside of me. Out of every call I have ever experienced as an officer, never before had I ever felt such a paralyzing sense of dread wash over me, causing me not to even think to draw my weapon. I now knew how all the other victims must have felt; incredibly helpless. I closed my eyes, letting a small tear fall down my face, almost as in acceptance that this was it, just waiting to feel death. Everything then fell quiet and still. I was truly terrified, I waited with bated breath before finally turning to look behind me. When I did, the creature was gone. I stared off into the forest breathing heavily, looking for where it could be lurking. There was nothing. As my breath started to normalize, I had realized how much air I had been holding in. My thoughts turned back to Marcellus though, the creature could’ve gone after him. I ran, as fast as I could, yet I could not find him. After sometime I made my way to Marcellus’ home, he was on the porch with his mom Lucinda and brother Zachary, appearing as if nothing had happened. I could not believe what I was seeing. Marcellus was safe. There was no sign of the creature. I did not know how I would tell anyone about the events that played out tonight. It just vanished; how could the creature just vanish? Weeks passed, no more people have gone missing, no more deaths have occurred, I should be happy by this, but every night as I get into my bed, I can’t stop thinking about where the creature may have gone. Was it a dream? Each noise that comes through the quiet nights, I fear the creature is returning. Living with this daily sometimes makes me feel like I am losing it. To this day Marcellus doesn’t speak of it, he just smiles and waves when he sees me, maybe he blocked it out of his mind, choosing not to remember it, maybe he had told his mother and she thought he was crazy, so he didn’t speak of it. He never spoke to me about it. A mystery, that may never be solved, or maybe one day the heartless beast will show its ugly face once more.

Story and artwork by Tabitha Sealey