Later Found Dead

Running, she was running her thighs were on fire and her lungs felt like they were full of smoke. She couldn’t breathe. But she couldn’t stop. If she stopped he would get her. He would get her.

A Month Ago

‘Morning mum’ said Jamie Wallace. “I’m off to school.”

“Bye sweetie” Her mother called from the kitchen of our two bedroom, one bathroom apartment. Jamie went outside; made sure she had her keys and started walking to the bus stop, the morning dew laid silently on the grass as if holding its breath. Her name was Jamie Wallace she had a normal sort of life. She had two best friends Susan (Susie) and Lindsay. She had a boyfriend Kent. Jamie has dark brown hair that just fits into the category ‘long’. Her eyes are a mix between amber and brown. Like the colour of honey being held up to the sun. She was average height and was 17. As the bus stop comes into view I hear a yell, it was my younger sister Jo (she was 12). Her backpack was on her front she was hastily zipping it up. She slows down into a walk when she sees me stopping. We walk on with Jo babbling on about nothing. Then I see Kent and dash up to give him a hug. My sister pretends to be gagging. He too has dark hair but he has black obsidian eyes. He’s wearing the standard uniform which is black pants (for girls it’s a skirt) and a white shirt. We board the bus. 

“Did you see today’s newspaper?” Kent asks holding my hand.

“Hmmm, yeah I did.” I reply Kent gives my hand a squeeze. Teenagers have been going missing for a month now. All get found a day later dead in an abandoned alley. The count so far is 3. The articles have been called ‘Later Found Dead’. It’s a month before Halloween so a lot of people are excited. When Jo, Kent and I get to school we see Lindsay and Susie. They come up and give me a hug. 

“Hi, how ya doing” Lindsay says. “Wait I bet your doing fabulously amazing” she puts her fingers to her temple as is reading my mind.

“Correct again Lindsay” I say raising my eyebrow “we now have a physic who can tell our futures”

“We’re going to have to get you tarot cards and crystal balls” Susie adds.

We all laugh. We said goodbye to each other and then we go to our separate classes, first I have English.

At lunch I go sit with Lindsay, Susie and Kent. We discuss about Halloween for a bit and we avoid the murders. 

The rest of the month goes as per normal. During that month four more people (three girls, one boy) all of which I heard were really academically gifted, go missing. Maybe they knew too much. I shake the thought out of my head. But I decided to research more into the murders and the victims. I don’t want to end up like them.

In the library I walked to the section at the back with every newspaper dating back to the 1990’s. I search for 2013 and find the past two months papers. I grab the ones with the letters L A T, the first three letters of ‘Later Found Dead’. There are seven in total. The first victim was a girl whose name was Beatrice Halger. She had a sister and her mum was single. She had blonde hair. The next victim was a boy Fernando Sheppard he had brown hair. He was an only child and had two parents. He was walking home from a meeting. The same thing happened to Beatrice wrong, place at the wrong time I guess. I t as getting late and I didn’t want to be out past seven so I decided to hire them and left.

The next day, which is a Saturday, Lindsay sends me a text 

We R going out 4 coffees want 2 come?

I reply back

Nah. Going 2 have some me time. Have fun.

KK. We will. Bai.

I started to find a pattern in the murders but it didn’t make sense. Beatrice had blonde hair and Fernando had brown, Amy (the next victim) had blonde hair, brown, blonde, brown and blonde. What sick person would kill to from a colour pattern? No. Nobody would kill for a pattern. I spend the rest of the weekend figuring out who the murderer was. In the end I had finally come to a conclusion I knew that he was murderer but I hope he didn’t know that I knew. Maybe they knew too much. The words come back to haunt me.