Redemption

Saturday #13

The roaches of the sewers, driven by their inexplicable sense of ominousness, chose to end their typically humdrum day early. Meanwhile, some others were busy searching even for the smallest of puzzle pieces scattered across the timeline – and also for the captures of the unimaginably imperfect memories. They were deserted from passion and enriched with nothing but a single stack of overused paper. When the hands moved clockwise with a surreal 'tick' reverberating like the aftermath of a short echo, Lee knew too well that he was losing all the time he was granted upon every instant the day was simply there to be. Time was all they could spare; therefore, it didn't seem wise to squander the most valuable yet most expendable resource.

So the two did not linger around just for the sake of wasting that moment. They moved into the sky at the very brink of night and day, to the supposed 'crime scene' that had been very timely and conveniently located.

Where Lily found the head was a square play area behind one of the camp buildings with rather forgettable details, filled with a thin layer of golden sand left in the lurch amidst a cloud of reeking damp air. And needless to say, the reek had an origin, coming from the level below the intangible depths of the dying grains. Under a pit made below the motes of rippled sand, awaiting atop reproachful echoes from the yet-to-happen disclosed emancipation.

The ceaseless gust of wind had already blown the tip away and into the expanse of the turbid sky. Lee took a glance at his own fragile pair of hands and heaved a sigh of relief that he wouldn't have to endure the vile predicament, of which would leave his nails besmirched beneath filths of abandoned remnants of a once-alive.

The head, only one-half exposed to the rest of the world, had its eyes blurred like the snowy mountains hiding among the high clouds, while its mouth was obsessed gulping and tasting the sand tainted with its own body fluid. It had no hair, but one of its ears was still attached with its profile preserved, while the other was horrifyingly crucified, reduced to a single ugly ridge after two dozen crows had a pompous feast upon its decaying meat. Oval-shaped but not perfectly elliptical - it had some components stolen from a cube. Behind it leaked liters and gallons of opaque liquid through a cleft made upon its skull, about a finger long and wide.

Lee met its left eye bloated above the corrugated surface. His instinctive sense showed an immediate reaction, killing his stomach and burning deep, trying to push everything he swallowed the day before into liberation. But with his stomach nearly emptied, the plot was aborted, and Lee instead retched up a thin stream of sultry air.

Lily stood aside as if she was within a whole different world.

"Comments, lieutenant? How do you feel?"

"Never better," Lee said satirically as he crouched down against the wriggle that tormented him from within, exacerbating as seconds passed by. The odor was ripping his nostrils apart.

"I understand if you might need some more time." Said Lily with a sense of dry concern.

Lee shook his head a couple of times and rose, trying to seem passionate like the cop he really was.

"So... this is... it is a severed head." Lee managed, sounding a lot more silly than he portrayed himself to be.

Lily glanced at Lee with eyes submerged under hazy ponds. "What do you know about that case that happened here, ten years ago?"

"16 confirmed victims including this one, all found decapitated. The body was missing, and so were any suspects." Lee recited blankly but also confidently. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else that he was aware of that could be served useful.

Lily shrugged and reached out to its few remaining strings of hair.

"Hold–stop there, what's this all about?" Lee called a halt to the process.