Born To Die | Vanessa Afton

24

You walk into work as usual, it wasn't too busy today, although you did notice the reporter in the corner, writing down notes about something. Walking up to the front desk, you plastered a smile on your face and cleared your throat. The lady at the front desk, who you only now realise you don't know the name of, turned to you, her eyes flicked to the reporter and then back to you. "What's that all about?" You questioned, leaning your arms onto the desk. She shrugged.

"Apparently they've found evidence on those missing children at another pizzeria location. You know where I'm talking about." She wrapped up very quickly, as if we couldn't say the name. You suspected that if she had and the reporter heard, she would have come to us to ask, and neither of you wanted that. You turned back to the lady as she opened a small drawer, she sighed. "Last pair of keys. Lucky."

She pushed them onto the desk in front of you and you took them gracefully, about to leave, when you saw the one person you really didn't expect to see this morning. Vanessa. She was always dead on time, never early, never late. It was odd to you since you thought everyone has those days where they can't hardly function and come in late. You turned back to the receptionist, who gave you a small, knowing look. "Since there no more police cars-"

"Yes, yes, I'll ask her." She said, playfully rolling her eyes at you. She knew something was going on between the two of you and there had been for a while. You gave her a light smile as if to thank her. It would be an understatement to say that you weren't scared to talk to her, it would be the first time properly since that day she had kissed you. Sure, there was the odd hi's and byes said but nothing that could be called a conversation. Well, you'd have to deal with that if she said yes, of course. Her walking up to the desk took you out of your thoughts. "Shelly, unfortunately, there are no keys left because someone crashed another car again, would you mind going with L/n."

"I wouldn't mind at all, thanks Emily." She replied, flashing you a small grin. At least you know the receptionist's name now for future reference as well. You mouthed a thank you to her as you began to walk off, Vanessa following close behind. As you got outside, you felt your heart rate increase tremendously, it was probably really clear that you were nervous about this.

"How did your meeting go yesterday?" Vanessa asked you curiously as you entered the car, deciding that you would be the one to drive around today. It wasn't often you got to drive around anyway when it was just you and Vanessa. You thought about the question that she had asked you, there was an obvious answer. The meeting went very very well, and you knew that, but why was telling her so hard? Why was telling her anything very hard?

"Yeah, uhm, it was good. Everything went perfect, she basically said that she'd stop treating me like a baby." You admitted. You tried to chuckle, but it came out more as a sigh or a huff, but out of the corner of your eye, you did see Vanessa crack a smile. Even though the awkwardness was still lingering in the car, talking to her now felt a lot, less pressured than what it did a few weeks back. Even if there was lots to talk about still. "Anything interesting happened with you?"

"Nothing interesting ever happens with me." She tried to say it as a joke, but you could hear the sad undertone of her voice when she had said it. She was a lot like you in many ways, you assumed that she was just as lonely as you were but it just made you like her more. As you drove down the road, you see a car pulled over at the side of the road, clearly had its hazards on, but it was unusual to see a car like this in the middle of the night. "Pull over, let's see if they're alright." you nodded, agreeing with her.

You pulled over to the side of the road. As you looked in the back, you realised that you must've left your coat in your car, you let out a frustrated sigh, due to it almost being freezing temperature outside and you only had your police shirt on. Vanessa saw this, and because she had multiple layers, she handed you her jacket, smiling as she did so as if she was overjoyed to give it to you. You whispered a quick thank you before going to check out what happened.

Going round to the side of the car, it was quick to see that there was no one in there and there was nothing in there. Vanessa proceeded to check with the sides of the car while you check the area to see if there was any evidence of anyone being nearby but there wasn't. Shaking off the odd feeling, you called it in with its number plate, and you got back in the car. This time Vanessa offered to drive.

As you we're going down the road, you kept her jacket on you. it was warm and it was weird to say but it smelled like her. Your hands sunk into the pockets, and although you were one to respect someone's privacy, you got curious when you felt a folded piece of paper or cardboard in her pocket. You pulled the piece of cardboard out revealing it to be a postcard. She hadn't noticed you doing this but you opened it to reveal a picture. In the picture, there was a little blonde girl. Her features all matched Vanessa's, her eyes, her hair, even her facial structure. To you, there was no doubt that this was her.

Next to her, was the one thing that kept you up at night, the one thing you kept theorising about, this yellow rabbit. Normally, this wouldn't have raised any thing in your mind. The yellow rabbit, you could now see his face, the man behind the yellow rabbit. On the back, it was a small note written. It confirmed something you never thought would be true.

"Vanessa? What the fuck is this?" You asked, you hadn't mean to be so aggressive with the question, but she had lied to you so many times before and you weren't going to let her get away with another one especially on this big. She had told you that she was close with the owners of Freddy's, you didn't know that she actually meant that her dad worked there, and even worse that he might be the murderer that killed all those children.