Dark Shadows Darker Secrets

Chapter 2

"Where did the men go?"

"I don't know."

"You didn't see anything?"

"I was more worried about my friend." I hiss at Officer Malcolm. I turn to look out of the window that is streaked with raindrops. The sky outside looks dark gray that leaks as if it is weeping with me. It reflects my mood more than perfectly.

Officer Malcolm sighs. He is getting annoyed of me for not knowing enough of the information he wants.

He taps his foot on the wooden floor of my parent's small living room in our small apartment. He sits on the coffee table across from me while I sit on the comfy love seat. The room doesn’t have any lights on; the only light comes from the dim outside world through the window beside me.

"Can you describe the men?" He presses on with a hard tone.

"No." He sighs again and rubs the back of his neck.

"Not one?" He asks in disbelief.

"It was dark." I snap.

"What about their voices? Can you describe them?"

"Yes." My answer seems to have surprised him for he quickly takes his pen out of his mouth and presses it to his sheet of paper.

"Go on." He urges.

I close my eyes and lean my head on the back of my mother's plush chair. The familiar scent of her perfume rises into my nose and I breathe it in for comfort.

"They were deep, but not too deep, and they had a scruffy sound to all of their words." I squeez my eyes shut in concentration. My answer is pathetic.

"Anything else?" I keep still and listen to the soothing sound of the grandfather clock ticking in the background. Officer Malcolm sighs once again. "Scarlet, these questions are to help find your friend's attackers."

"Don't sugar coat it." I pull my head up and glare at him. "Her murders."

He gulps down a large breath of air and I watch how his adams apple moves as he does so. I sigh, "They all had accents." I say remembering the weird way they formed their words. The way it sounded so threatening on the men, but pleasant of the boy who saved me, the boy I hate.

He writes something down on his pad of paper and flips it closed. I can see how frustrated he is, and I can’t blame him. His only reliable witness can’t answer any simple questions or give a straight answer.

My mother chooses this moment to walk in with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. "Can you leave now?" She asks politely. "The police already asked her all of these questions."

"Yes they were just follow up questions in case.. she remembered anything." He eyes me when he said remember, like he was waiting for me to fess up to a crime. He thinks I’m lying. They all think I'm keeping it a secret from them who killed Rachael with giving them vague answers, but really I didn't know the answers to anything.

"I thought that was concluded as just a gang attack." My mother shakes her head from side to side. "These happen all the time in New York."

"Yeah but this was different." He says still eyeing me. I shy away from his eyes and return my attention back to the window. People with umbrellas swarm the streets and avoid the spraying of splashing cars. I glare at the people below that crowd the streets and fill it with their presence. Where were they all last night?

"Different how?" My mother sneaks a worried glance at me like she is afraid I shouldn't hear this.

Officer Malcolm shrugs. "No murder weapon found, no finger prints on the body even though it was obvious she was beaten with hands and there seems to be no witnesses besides this whole event taking place outside a popular bar." My mind imminently thinks about how deserted it was that night. How dark and empty everything seemed.