A Detective's Deed (OC Version)

Chapter 1

She couldn't breathe.

Even as she watched the man before her stop breathing. Her only remaining kin, her father, the one who raised her, the one who loved her, the one who sacrificed everything for her, the one who she was just talking to, slowly closed his once lively eyes and laid lifeless in a metal chair. His body fell limp, still, unmoving. It was almost as if the world had frozen for a few seconds. But she knew that was impossible. For time stops for no one.

She couldn't move.

Even as the guards who were standing behind the door, watching their every move, rushed in to grab her father's now lifeless body, his corpse. Not even caring enough to transport him gently, they moved harshly, with no ounce of sympathy for the girl who had just watched her loved one's death. She stood still, unmoving, just like her father just did. The difference was, she was breathing, alive, but not aware. It seemed as if her mind was elsewhere, transporting her to another world inside her mind.

She couldn't speak.

Even as the other guards forcefully ushered her out of the meeting room. The same room where she watched a horrid death occur. She walked with the guards almost unconsciously, the filthy walls of the prison cells all blending in together in her vision, like a chaotic but peaceful painting. The guards were cautious with their actions, almost afraid to touch her, as she might suddenly lash out on them. As if she was a wild animal unable to be controlled. They were scared of her, of what she could do. What could she do? She was in shock. Did they expect her to scream out in agony? No, she couldn't do that, for she knew nothing she could do would change what had happened. It would take a miracle from God themselves to fix this.

She couldn't think.

Her head hurt. Her mind had not fully processed the fact that her only living family member, the only person she had left, had passed away. Her father had left the world, just a distant memory of the past. She would never see him again. She didn't even notice the tears slowly seeping out of her frantic eyes.

Her father had left the land of the living, and with him, left her happiness.

His cause of death? A sudden mysterious heart attack.

------

The funeral was two days ago.

She remembered what it was like as she stood near the casket, rain pouting down loudly on the perfectly cut grass of the cemetery, but she didn't care. She let herself be drowned in the shower of freezing droplets, just like she had let herself drown in her sadness. She let herself sink to the bottomless ocean of despair, waiting, wanting to suffocate to end her endless misery.

She stood alone as her father was lowered to the ground below, becoming one with the earth she – and million others – stood on. That's when it dawned on to her. Alone. She was now alone in life. The family that was once filled with happiness was now reduced to one lonely person. Life was funny sometimes, right? She wondered what she might've done in her past life to earn such a painful future.

How pathetic must she look right now? Standing in the rain, cold and alone.

But no matter how much she thinks, she can't change what's already happened.

Because a few days had passed.

And her father was still dead.

------

It had been a few weeks since the funeral.

Still, she couldn't think straight. Her thoughts were all over the place. Over the past few days, she had been distracting herself from thinking about what she had witnessed. At first, she used her job as a distraction. If that didn't work, she'd occupy her mind by reading a book. Didn't work either? She mindlessly scrolled through the internet, gobbling up every useless information she would probably never use in her life.