It was a warm night, even warmer in the lab, yet young Dr. Carla Harkin shivered. As she stared into her telescope, she searched the night sky for her sister Louisa’s star. Thousands of miles away, her sweet little sister, all grown up now, was a college student at Michigan University. It was a rather calm life, but still. Carla couldn’t stand the thought of her baby sister coming into harm’s way. The star was Carla’s way of making sure her sister was alive. The star was Louisa’s lifeline.
As the telescope fell across the star’s usual resting spot, she was rewarded with only a glimmer of fading light.
“No!” Carla screamed, reaching for the telephone to dial up Louisa, but she knew it was too late as the star faded to blackness. Louisa’s beautiful soul was gone.
“Louisa? Louisa, pick up! Pick up now!” Carla frantically begged over the answering machine, hoping there had been some mistake.
“Carla?” As Carla heard a (confused) voice over the phone, she sighed. Her sister was safe.
“Carla, this is me, Sammy.” Carla’s heart clenched with dread again. Sammy, Louisa’s roommate.
“Sammy, where is Louisa?”
“Louisa?” Sammy’s voice sounded confused. “She’s been asleep in her bedroom for an hour.”
“Are you sure she’s sleeping?” Carla’s voice was rushed and frantic.
“It’s almost midnight, you know,” Sammy’s voice sounded a little bit annoyed now, “but if you want I can go wake-,”
“Yes, please do that,” a usually patient Carla interrupted her sister’s roommate.
It was a minute before Sammy returned.
“That’s weird,” she puzzled. “I could’ve sworn I saw her walk into her bedroom a little over an hour ago. She probably just snuck out without my noticing.”
Carla almost stopped breathing. “Sammy, I need you to listen carefully and do exactly what I tell you,” she spoke between heavy breaths. “Go into Louisa’s room, and tell me if the clothes she wore today are lying around somewhere.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean it’s just-,”
“NOW!” Carla yelled as loud as she could, making Sammy jump.
“Alright, alright.”
Less than a minute passed until Sammy was back on the line.
“Actually, yes, the clothes she wore today are lying on her bed. They seemed to be laid out or something.”
The phone clattered out of Carla’s hand. There was no doubt about it. Louisa was gone.
The Star Murderer had struck again, and this time close to home. Carla knew she would never forget her sister, though the others would. You see, it was as if the victims had never existed. Lives went on, and after a week of a victim’s disappearance, not a soul remembered them. Well, nobody except Carla. You see, Carla possessed a rare talent, or in her mind, a curse. Carla could remember everything about these people, and she couldn’t tell a soul.
