LARSSEN'S LANE: Grey

Chapter 1.1 - Last Spring in Crimson Creek

CHAPTER 1.1

LAST SPRING IN CRIMSON CREEK

Chester Henry is a speed freak. No matter where and in what situation, as long as on the road, he likes to pump up his adrenaline with speed. Just like this time when he was driving right away from California to Texas. Running at about 120 mph, close to his car's top speed, the 1400 miles of distance, that average people will take 20 to 22 hours, was shortened down to around 12 hours by this freak. It's all for nothing but thrill.

Nothing can distract the freak young man when he's driving in high speed. Not even his curtain that was untied to his low ponytail and covered some of his face. Driving a white 2010 Lancer Evo X, he was going to spend his spring break somewhere in Texas after joining his younger sister's birthday party with his father and mother at his uncle's family's house.

Aaron Lee, who was with Chester on the ride, couldn't do anything to slow down his heart rhythm. The man with East Asian physical appearance couldn't even move his narrow eyes away from the road. There were moments when he felt like dying because his freak companion was less than one second to collide anything that approached from the opposite.

After the long ride of the day, the two friends were now entering a neighborhood in Crimson Creek. And the white sedan's muffler's roar got lower as its speed dropped down. Dash clock showed the time was a few minutes past ten o'clock in the evening.

Considering the straight road was long and safe enough, Chester took off his hands of the wheel and tightened up his loosen ponytail. His curtain suddenly felt annoying.

But then, two police patrol cars flashed over when Chester was driving his car along a boulevard. And when the two cars turned to a road that he was going to turn to, Chester's curiosity suddenly popped up.

"Can you access local police live streaming? I wonder what's taking place." While turning his steer, Chester asked Aaron.

"I'm on it." Aaron answered without sliding his eyes away from his phone screen. He apparently had the same curiosity as Chester. After being silent for a few seconds, listening carefully to the live news, Aaron then spoke, "Crime took place. What's your uncle's address?"

"1853, Marty Drive. What's wrong?"

"The crime scene is on the road."

Following Aaron's answer, Chester grabbed his phone from the dashboard and tapped a speed dial button. After a few seconds and got no answer from the number he dialed, he redialed. A few more times dialing, but still no answer, Chester's face started to get stretched. Something seemed to be bothering him. He then stepped his throttle pedal deeper.

"You're not thinking it's going on at your uncle's house, are you?" As if Aaron knew the answer. He should've not told Chester where the crime scene was. Once again Aaron had to hold his breath.

Less than five minutes later, Chester arrived at Andrews Family's house—his uncle's house. He stopped in front of the house that now had been surrounded by police officers, patrol cars, and ambulances. Crime scene lines stretched around the spot.

Chester slammed the door when he got out of his car. The tall man then ran toward the house which had turned into a crime scene, disobeying people yelled at him and hands tried to stop him.

Aaron chased his friend. "Chaz, No! You can't ...!" But then his pace slowed down when Chester was stopped by two police officers right before crossing the line.

"Sir, you can't go in there, this place has to be sterile." One of the officers warned Chester.

"But maybe I know them, this is my uncle's house!" Chester yelped while stretching his hand toward the paramedics who were carrying two body bags out of the house. Then he brushed backward his curtain. And when he was about to run toward a spot next to an ambulance, where the bags were laid down, the two officers grabbed his hands.

"You can take a look at them, but no touch." Another officer warned this time, then followed Chester, walked toward the paramedics next to ambulances. He told the paramedics to show Chester the bodies' faces.

Chester squatted and looked up at the dead body's faces. He saw his uncle and aunt were in the bags. There was some blood traces on their faces. "No way, this is not happening." His voice was trembling. "Where are the others?" Still with a trembling voice, he yelped to the paramedics.

"Sorry, we didn't find anyone else," answered one of the paramedics. He and the other paramedics then zipped the body bags and put them in the ambulance.

"Sir, you better calm yourself." The police officer slowly patted Chester's shoulder while handing him bottled water. "You better go home and take some rest, there's nothing you can do here. We'll inform you right when we find them."

"He's right," Aaron agreed to the police officer's suggestion. He squatted next to Chester then patted Chester's shoulder. The two friends were silent for a moment until Aaron stood up. "Come on."

"You better take a rest now," advised the officer. "We might need to ask you a number of question about the victims and your family tomorrow."

"Yes."

"And we need to save your number, as contact."

After giving his number to the officer, Chester went to home, to an appartment which he and Aaron rent for this spring break. Regarding Chester wasn't steady to drive, Aaron replaced him.

That was a killing-long night to Chester. He couldn't rest his mind at all. Even though his eyes were closed, his mind kept thinking about the incident at his uncle's house. The images of his uncle's and aunt's faces with blood traces always appeared in his head again. And expectation which was then encountered by bad probabilities was raging in his mind. He wanted to do something to find the rest of the missing family members, but he just couldn't. Or more than everything, the young man wished this was all just a bad dream. Nothing he could do but dropped his body into bed, got up, checked up phone but nothing related to what he expected, and rolled his body. It was a tiring cycle during a night full of anxiety.

Until finally Chester's phone rang beside him in the afternoon, when he was sitting still on his bed, looking down through the floor as if it wasn't there. He grabbed it and saw a public service number on it's screen. He answered the call, then listened carefully to every detail that the caller informed. His face looked more depressed than last night.

He rubbed his sleepless and watery eyes then covered his face, not listening to the caller speaking anymore.

Capturing the scene of a depressed friend, Aaron, who was previously sitting next to the room window, walked toward the friend, took over the phone, and continued the conversation with the caller. "It's Chester's friend's speaking. I'm sorry he can't continue speaking. Can you please tell me the whole thing from the beginning?" He then quietly listened to every detail the caller said. "Alright, we'll be there soon."

Phone call ended.

Aaron put the phone on a night case then stared at his brunette friend, who was hiding his face in his palms and messy hair. "Uuhm ...." He hesitated to say anything.

"Tell me. What did she say?"

"Umm ... you're needed for victim identification."

"When?"

"Anytime .... But sooner will be better."

Chester was silent for a while. "Leave me alone."

"Umm ... Chaz ...."

"Leave me. I'll go when I'm ready."

"Okay, I'll go get some lunch."

Chester didn't respond anymore. He didn't even look up when Aaron left and closed the door. Sinking his mind into grief.

~*~