What Remains of You

The Stakeout

The street was one she had never heard of and her mind instantly assumed it was the one her dad had died at. She rushed back out of the garage and upstairs to her room. Rebecca noted with some surprise that her mom hadn't noticed or came to see her about all the ruckus she was making. In fact, she hadn't seen her since the breakfast she made earlier that morning. She guessed she was just sleeping through the pain that probably haunted her and stalked behind her at all times through the day and night.

Her mom had lost so many people and things in her life, Rebecca was shocked she could even stand with all the agony weighing her down. Her mom had married Oscar when she was only 22 and had birthed Dennis at 25. Rebecca had come two years later, but in the same year, both of Rosa's parents died. One from old age and the other from depression. Eight years later, Oscar had passed too. More like got murdered, but we won't go into the logistics of it, Rebecca thought. Now, her first-born son had passed away and her daughter was on some crazed streak of finding out that maybe both deaths were not an accident.

She grabbed her computer and put it on the desk in front of her. The search bar stared back up at her and she typed in the street name that was written in the note. A road not too far away popped up and she grabbed the stuff she would need to sit in a forest for a while. Food was her first priority and then came the small lawn blanket that resided in the back of her mom's car. Gabbing her phone off the counter, she rushed to the only car they owned and started it. She had shouted to her mom that she would be gone for a while but she doubted that her mom even heard her.

Dennis had taught her to drive the second he learned how to do it himself, so although Rebecca didn't have her license yet, it didn't matter. She drove out of the driveway and began the trip to the wretched street where so much had happened.

Rebecca had made the decision that she was going to camp out in the woods beside the road and see what happened. She did not care how long she stayed in between the looming trees, she would do anything to figure out what happened to Dennis.

Not only one, but two of her family members had died due to a supposed car crash on this same street with no cameras to prove what had taken place. They were both murdered and she was sure of it. If she didn't do this for her dad, she did it for Dennis. To avenge what horrible person had put her through this pain and had done something to her brother. She would strangle them with a cord to get information out of them if it came down to it.

She pulled over to the side of the road right before the turn onto the street. Deciding to walk through the forest up until the middle of the road to get a better view of the whole thing, she traversed through the thick brush.

Tall trees with dark green leaves that seemed to suck the life out of the brown trunks below them, loomed over her. It was all very eerie, but Rebecca felt more at home in the misted grey and green than in her stuffy pink room. The road to her right had only two lanes and the yellow line separating them was fading and cracking. She guessed that the city wouldn't pay to fix a road that barely anyone drove on. That is also why she assumed that there weren't any cameras here either. It would be the perfect place to kill and plant a body.

She placed her things down in the middle of the road and began the long wait. She wasn't even sure if anything would happen, but it was worth a shot. She would do anything for her brother.

Rebecca sat there in silence most of the time and would play through what Dennis thought had happened to her dad in her head. It actually made quite a lot of sense, except for the extra time in the middle where the person had left with her dad. She assumed it could be to help prove that they wanted to "help" him, but why wait so long? Even after a few hours of sitting under the trees, thinking about it, she couldn't figure it out.

Her hands had started to tremble and shake in the cold, and she wrapped her sweater tighter around her thin shoulders. So far, quite a few cars had passed by, but nothing had taken place, and they simply whizzed past on the empty road. As much as she wanted to do this for her brother, her lips were slowly turning blue and not many other cars would pass by here at this time in the evening. The sun was getting close to being past the trees, and a slight purple hue already tinted the sky. She was about to walk back to her car after deciding to come back tomorrow when the unthinkable happened.

A grey van with a small silver circle in the front, about the size of a dime, came into view. It was driving quite slowly so that not even dust sprayed down towards her when it went past. That was when it seemed to sputter and all together die down. A loud swearing noise came from the inside of the car. A battle began in her mind whether to help the person or leave them basically stranded on this road. The urge to see if anyone else would come over and help them won over her mind, and she laid restlessly impatient on the forest floor.

A white car, looking quite new, arrived from the depths of the road and stopped when they saw the other person out of their car and clearly struggling. It slowed to a stop in front of it and a man with light brown hair and a thin goatee stepped out from the front. He seemed very hesitant and even from down beneath the trees Rebecca could see the circles under his eyes. His steps faltered slightly but a quiet calm seemed to engulf him when he asked the younger man if he needed any help.

A conversation erupted which she could not quite comprehend from her standpoint and the two men left in the white car. Pounding sounded in her head and she guessed that she was witnessing a very similar recreation to what could have happened to her dad. She would not leave now, for the man had left his car on the street in front of her and she knew he would be back. No matter how long it took, she would wait until she finally got answers.

The last bit of food she had brought called to her and she dug into the last granola bar in the small bag. The taste dragged on and seemingly turned to ash like the rest of the food in her bag she had tried earlier. It felt like the dust on the road was mocking her and she lost her appetite again. It was no use to dwell on stale food anyways.

She continued to bide her time, not caring that her mom was probably worried or that the sun had almost dipped down below the horizon. Where she was shivering before had now turned numb and it felt like she was put into a freezer slowly cooling and finally freezing into ice from the inside out. She wasn't sure how much longer the man or men would be to come back to claim his car which he had so foolishly abandoned without even locking it. Not that she could be certain of that, but she did not want to be caught red-handed if and when they did manage to come back. A rumble sounded from the distance telling her that someone was arriving.

Again, the white car appeared which was the least shocking of the things that lay before her. The brown-haired man was driving and a person was lying in the passenger seat whom she assumed was the owner of the broken-down car. His black hair was pressed against the window and she hoped he was only sleeping. He was not. The other man walked out from the front, a glazed expression over his features. He looked like a puppet, not knowing or wanting to do this, but not having the willpower to stop it. He dragged the now dead man from before and placed it in his grey car. Taking out a hammer from his trunk he whispered one thing before swinging it down to the car with the man inside. "For my daughter."

Random authors note, but I actually forgot post this yesterday because I was too addicted reading All the Young Dudes and would have forgotten today too if I didn't see my story tab open. 💀 Anyways, thanks for reading!