Absentia: The Murder of Nefera

Chapter II: She Puts the Fun in Funeral

It had been a couple of days since the gruesome event happened. Andrea, Nora, Daniel, and Jade had found their best friend, brutally murdered. There were no leads on who had done it. But there was a killer on the loose... And no one knew if they would strike again.

"It's horrible, what happened to her" said Celia Garcia, Daniel's mother. The Garcia family was having breakfast together. It was a family tradition, Daniel couldn't even remember the last time he ate breakfast alone. His mother was reading the paper. Today was Nefera's funeral, so of course, it's the headline of today's paper.

"You knew her, right?" asked Carmen Garcia, Daniel's older sister. Carmen had always been a snitch. No matter how much you would pay her, or how many chores you would do for her, she would always rat you out. Carmen knew Daniel and Nefera were friends, and she also knew their parents wouldn't approve. Maybe because of her religion, or maybe because of the color of her skin. Either way, Daniel's parents were homophobic, racist, and in general, discriminated against anyone different. Luckily, he didn't think about people that way.

"We had some classes together, which is why I'm going to her funeral" he answered. Nefera had always said she wanted an all American funeral, just like the rest of the people. She was religious, but her image was more important than religion. This is why she had also always said she wanted an exposition of her photography work at her funeral. So, she got that.

It had been pretty hard on all four friends of Nefera's. A piece of the puzzle was missing, and it itched in all four of them. Who had killed their friend? They wanted justice, they wanted revenge, but most importantly... They wanted her back.

"Mom! Peter! I'm leaving for the funeral!" Nora screamed in her home.

"Wait!" her mother, Veronica, came running down the stairs.

Nora was wearing a short black dress with lace details on the sleeves and collar, it was not her style, but it was beautiful. Normally, Nora would walk out the door with these kinds of clothes because her parents made her wear them. At school, she would just change into her real clothes. But today was different. She loved this dress. It was beautiful and respectful. It was a dress Nefera would have loved. And that was all that mattered to Nora. Her mother then licked her hand and began 'fixing' Nora's hair.

"Mom, that's enough" she said.

"Okay, go. Will you be okay, honey?" Veronica asked her daughter.

"Sometimes it's okay not to be okay..." she answered.

Andrea parked briefly in front of Jade's house.

"Thanks for picking me up" Jade said as she stepped into Andrea's car.

"No problem, how are you?" Andrea asked her friend. It had only been a couple of days, the friends hadn't spoken much to each other since they found Nefera dead. But if and when they did, they most frequently asked, 'How are you?' Which was perfectly understandable of course. Jade spoke to Andrea about how she felt. They were both curious as to who had done it, but nobody knew or saw anything. And it didn't help that they weren't the ones who called the police.

"Andrea, I can't believe we didn't call the police, isn't that like super-illegal?"

"We were nervous, it could've looked like we did it for fucks sake... I don't know Jade, maybe we should've called, maybe not I don't know."

After a short drive, they had arrived. Everyone did. Daniel, Nora, Andrea, and Jade met up in the parking lot and walked together to the entrance. A lot of people were already here. Nefera was loved, not only by her friends and family. She had fans, people from all parts of California came here to see her photos and pay their respects.