Red and blue lights flashed throughout the community. One squad car, then dozens with EMS services surrounded the home. A flurry of first responders hustled and bustled as a large audience gathered. Beginning to trickle in while the police maintained a barrier around the home, many times, the officers reminded onlookers to keep their distance.
One reporter, with her videographer close in tow, stood with her microphone close to her breast, scouring the area for an opening. Her previous attempts to bypass the police line proved unfruitful. Accosted for attempting to circumvent the barricade, as her competitors lurked in the back of the home before the officers spotted them, she continued to weave her way around, surveying the area for any sign of entry.
"Hey, sergeant! Where do you want this?" An officer inquired.
"Get your head out of your ass! Put it around back and sit there while you're at it!" The sergeant screamed.
Sulking, the officer took the yellow roll and moved around his vehicle towards the back of the home. His shoulders low, his head down. Turning around, the sergeant continued his conversation with his captain.
"Fill me in." The Captain ordered.
Very thin with an elongated face, the Sergeant met her height yet not her physique. An older man, with deep eyes and heavily drooping eyelids, the pear-shaped man exhibited poor health as heavy bags and dark circles hung under his eyes.
"Well, it's the damnedest thing. There is a mummy in the house. It's the size of a boy and is most likely the son of the household."
"What?!" She exclaimed. "How can that even happen?"
"That's the tricky part. The homicide investigators have no idea. I have been searching on my computer for anything similar to this." He said looking down at his laptop connected with a mifi. "Zip." He responded glancing back at the Captain.
"Where is the family?" The Captain inquired.
"Now, that gets even stranger. The mom just died, recently, and the dad is not far off. But..." He held a solitary finger in the air. "Here's where it gets even trickier. There is a kid missing."
"Hmmm, kidnapping? Possible ransom?"
"No idea ma'am. The investigators say this happened mere hours prior. If this is a kidnapping, no one has called for ransom, yet or given any demands."
"Get the picture of the missing boy and have it posted on the news. Continue to cordon off this area." She circled around gauging the area. "Get those reporters back. Tell them we will have a conference in one hour. Right there." She pointed to the edge of the driveway where it and the road met.
"Yes, ma'am." The Sergeant turned to relay the information to another officer.
"One more thing." The Captain called out.
Stopping mid explanation to his officer, the Sergeant pivoted his head back towards her.
"What is the name of the missing child?" The captain inquired.
The Sergeant looked down at his notepad to jog his memory. "Samuel Walker. The remaining child we know of their whereabouts is Janet. The corpse is suspected to be Kyle all with the same last name."
"Right. Let's do all we can to find the missing boy. Whoever did this, most likely has Samuel. We have limited time to find him. Get it done Sarge."
"Got it!" He responded over his shoulder.
Continuing to talk to one of many officers to facilitate the orders, in all, ten uniformed police officers and four homicide investigators were present while yellow police line lingered everywhere. Overly excited, in their work, this sleepy town with a potential homicide, albeit a mysterious one at that did not happen in this community since the late 1950's.
Kyle, the young boy, the eldest brother, found shriveled up with a horrific expression, spent his afterlife gawked at by strangers. His eyes shut tightly; his mouth gaped open, tight wrinkles formed around his eyes, almost as if, he died mid-scream. Creases of former flesh clung to the skull and body. His body mummified, free of all bodily fluids, loosely hung clothes from his shrunken frame. His hopes and dreams gone, wafting in the breezed, forever out of reach.
Stepping forward towards the body a man with blue-gloved hands, reached downward, gingerly touching the neck of the corpse. Its normal fleshy feeling forever extinguished. Only a pale prune remained with sinews woven tightly around each other.
"Wow." The investigator said. "That's fucking unbelievable.
Gazing at the small torso, the investigator marveled. Lifting the shirt draped over Kyles shrunken torso, he noticed the abdomen.
With widened eyes, he said, "Holy shit." under his breath.
One of his peers approached after coming from the bedrooms. Kneeling beside the corpse at the opposite side, bending his head, he gazed, inquisitively into the lifted shirt. His eyebrows knitted hard while his eye tightened.
"What the hell am I looking at?" He thought inwardly.
Their eyes met. One begging the other to explain the horrid sight they witnessed. The other shook his head in response.
"I don't even know what could do something like this. It's as if he was flash-mummified."
"This is freaky shit." The initial investigator whispered under his breath. Speaking the words as an exhalation.
"How do you even account for the organs? There were no lacerations to indicate they were removed. But the size of the abdomen suggests they were crushed yet still no lesions where the excess fluid would have spilled out."
Perplexed, they looked around the corpse once again. Meticulously attempting to find any clue to the body's present predicament.
"Anything?"
"Not a damned thing."
"Just like you said. Freaky shit."
Many unfounded guesses abounded. From aliens to satanic rituals. The media had a field day, perpetuating the stories from residents stating they saw creatures such as hooded wraiths or dozens of people fleeing from the premises of the home roughly before and after dawn.
---
Thick full tears flooded down her face. Clutching her sides as the emotion caused her to tremble, Janet broke down as she witnessed this horrid scene unfolding over the television. Her story, the tragic demise of the Walker family emblazoned upon the screen caused dread to swell within her bossom. As she sat in the small office, she could hear the coalescing sounds mingled together. The beeps and pings flooded the hallways. The echo formed a pulse for the hospital. Each sound causing her to blink away tears. Unable to decipher the tones and intercom messages, each interruption, to her, announced her father's predicament.
Helpless and shaken to her core, her mother and brother, now dead, while her father hung precariously on the edge of life and death this girl's world flipped upside down in a matter of a week. Her eyes, bloodshot, the fount streamed from her eyes, refusing to relent, as a social worker, gently, pushed a tissue box towards her.
"Let me know when you are ready. I know you are going through a lot of pain, but we need to finalize your plans to have a place to sleep tonight. Please take your time." A soft voice instructed her.
The female social worker sat in a chair directly across from Janet, her face impassive, her thoughts trailing to what she would have for dinner. Good at faking concern, the years of working in tragic situations presented a barrier around her emotional mind. Intuitively, knowing Janet's grief outweighed her focus, the social worker's eyes glossed over slightly. Inconsolable, Janet and the worker before her sat far away, a canyon separating them.
"Where is Samuel?" She thought, bitterly the bile of rage billowing in her chest.
Unable to ascertain his whereabouts, this question continued to remain the subject of discussion. Through the office window, Janet saw Samuel's face plastered upon a television with a phone number to call for information. Gazing at the picture on the screen, she could not help noticing a sinister aura enveloping him. The boy physically repulsed her. Coming near to him, she felt nothing but darkness. Death.
In her angst, she recalled attempting to tell Kyle to be careful, just two days prior.
--------
He chuckled, "He He. You worry too much."
"But he is just.... Wrong." Don't touch him." She spoke.
Her hair billowing in the wind created by the sway of the playground swings as they swayed. Stopping his momentum, slowing himself briefly before shooting his feet into the recycled tires shards caked around the playground, to brake, the drag made a muffled reply.
"Shut up. Stop being a pansy." Kyle responded, annoyance thick in his throat.
Standing, he looked back once more at Janet. Eyeing her carefully, he turned and walked the short trek home. Sitting in the swing, no longer pulling herself forward looking downward, she closed the tears away. As cracking of a twig disrupted her attention.
Looking up, and towards the left. A baseball field lay, empty, the ghost of a former game lingering around it. Within, the pitch, at a gate near the dugout, a small figure stood watching through the metal barrier. Standing frozen in place. Janet focused her eyes. It looked almost like...
"Samuel!" Janet thought to herself.
Moving from his place, towards the opening in the gate. Unnerved, she promptly left the seat before followed Kyle.
"Hey! Wait up!" She called, her voice pleading with him.
Begging for Kyle to protect her from the recent recognition of horror, a thought resounded in her mind, He had heard them. He knew what she said. Janet's heart pounded in her chest as a thumping resounded in her ears. Moving to shorten the distance between them, now mere feet from Kyle, she looked back towards the swings. Met with a ghastly sight, Janet's heart pounded in her chest, a cold sweat brewing on her brow. Samuel closed the distance as he walked the street a few yards behind them. Nonchalantly striding with his hands in his pockets, his hair billowed softly in the cool breeze. Turning, Kyle's eyes widened as he noticed Samuel walk closer to them.
"When did you? He said perplexed.
Standing their ground as Samuel passed them. Looking up he winked at Janet. As the color faded from her face, Janet latched upon Kyle, the two of them watching the younger boy carefully as he moved past them and into the driveway of the house. Entering silently, Janet turned and looked up at Kyle pleadingly.
Pushing him, she angrily yelled, "See! How is that normal?"
"Eh. He is a creep. That is all. What the fuck could he do at his size?" Kyle reasoned
Walking up towards the house, he turned and casually strolled as he spoke.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure nothing happens to you." Kyle said smiling. "Well, not anymore." He thought bringing up the pain they endured when they were Samuel's age at the hands of their father.
Pushing these thoughts aside, Kyle turned back, moving inside as well. Standing for many moments before realizing she held tension in her shoulders. Janet released them as she breathed deeply, furiously. Gasping, she wheezed a bit as her heart slowed. Feeling the tension fade, she collected herself as she entered the home where Samuel waited.
"He was creepy, but he is much more," she thought to herself.
Bringing her head down, she walked the path. Her vision blurred. Thick drops fell to the ground leaving a trail. Her life ending, instinctively as she knew it.
--------
Not admitting it, she felt relief due to Samuel's absence. A pain to her and the family, worst of all, not belonging to them. This was clear to everyone. Remaining passionless, an empty shell, sitting and watching Kyle and Janet as they played, as they watched television, almost studying them, Janet's internal danger signals erupted around Samuel. Now, for the first time of her life, free from him. Her tears stopped. Janet's eyebrows knitted. Rubbing her eyes with her matted tissues, in her hand, Janet threw the wad into the trash as her dread was replaced with blistering anger. Looking up from her hands, she surprised the social worker with her dry stare.
"O-Ok. Let's begin." She said smiling towards Janet, slightly unnerved.
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