Perfection

Chapter 12 - You think you know someone but you don't

“Remind me why we're here?” Jeremy gazed over the backyard at the old high school; they had expected to find something but there was nothing to be seen.

It was already dark outside, yet not dark enough for Melanie to remove her hood; Jeremy was still very frightened that one of the police troops would recognize her.

“The note said 'Back to where it started'.” Zandra placed her hands in her pockets as she led their way back to the front of the school.

“When it comes to Kevin, it all started behind school.. Strange.”

“Hey!” Claire called out, she hadn't followed them to the back of the building; her interest had been lured in by a broom which held the front door open.

“I think Kevin left the door unlocked for us..”

The others hurried after her and entered the dark school. The smell of dust was overwhelming and a lonely lamp flickered in the ceiling. Claire, like always, was already on her way up to the second floor and the others didn't have much of a choice but to follow.

Indeed, it had all started behind school but this scenario was more than familiar to Melanie; they had all walked up the stairs just like this, just moments before their horrible discovery. The last step creaked as she stepped off the stairs and onto the second floor. As a teenager she had run down these corridors so many times but they seemed so different now. Quiet, empty and aged. Zandra carefully ran her finger over her old locker and Melanie knew that she was thinking of Miranda.

“Sure seems different, huh?” Claire whispered.

A door creaked as Jeremy opened it, just a few feet away from the women who were all studying their old lockers. Lost in nostalgia and memories; the rare kind which Melanie could actually remember and enjoy. Jeremy firmed his grip around the door handle.

He knew he had to run to her, to the woman sitting on the dusty floor of the abandoned classroom in front of him, the one that the others had yet to discover. He knew, but for those few moments that twirled by, those short seconds of deafening silence that pulled his heartbeat up to his throat and forcefully took a grip around his neck like nothing he had ever felt before, for those few moments he couldn't move.

For no fear, no anxiety, no grief had ever struck the young man like it did this day. He moved one foot before the other, slowly, carefully, not sure what he was facing or which part of it was reality. His long time friend had a bleeding wound by her stomach, and the blood had long dried into her shirt. Long. Not recently, not just now.

Even if he had entered the school first instead of following the others traceless plan to the backyard, he wouldn't have made it on time. He wouldn't have made it to his friend, wouldn't have dried her blood off her favorite shirt or hugged her one last time. There was nothing he could have done, nothing he could do now. Nothing was left.

He pressed his fingertips against her throat, desperately hoping, praying, for a heartbeat. A pulse, anything, any sign of life, yet there were none. There was no sign of anything, no traces left of what she used to be except for... Her phone. A phone lied behind her back and it's display lit up as he touched it.

“Jay?” Melanie called out from the corridor; none of the others had seen her, Felicia, they hadn't seen the devastating scenery that he had just witnessed.

He pressed his hand against the floor and tucked the phone down his pocket. He hurried his steps, he had to leave, they had to all leave before his mates from work were to arrive. Watson would find out sooner or later. About that. This. About the murder.

Murder, the word slipped through his mind, ripped him back to the harsh reality, reminded him to breathe again and focus on the present. On her. On Melanie, to focus on getting her out of there before she had gotten another crime on her hands, and most of all; to force her out of there before she could see Felicia's body. For that kind of image was too harsh for her to carry.