Project Pen (first draft)

prologue (tw: suicide)

The smell was horrific. It always was. I've seen many cases, but none like this. There was something so ominous. So grim. It was supposed to be a standard smell complaint. Nothing could've prepared me for when I saw it: The first body. A young girl, no older than twenty, was laid on the floor. Her intestines ritualistically ripped out and strewn across the floor.

After further investigation, I entered the bedroom. There was barely anything in it. A desk with papers sporadically thrown across it. The bed was neatly made. Though, there was a molding teacup on the nightstand. The room's unignorable centerpiece was the body hanging from the ceiling. It made me sick, all the death and decay. It was too much for me, but I knew I had to continue. I called the police and continued to look.

I entered the last room and found what appeared to be an office. It was kept nicely furnished with warm lighting surrounding it. The desk was eerily clear, with just one thing on it: An open laptop displaying a singular document. My lungs expanded as I nervously took in the heavy air around me and prepared to read. What I read shocked me; it didn't make sense. Why would this be what she chose to display? Was this what sent her over the edge?
The document was a novel that detailed the double life of a scientist who victimized innocent people to experiment on them. Each kill had a strange, familiar undertone like I'd heard before. It stumped me, but upon reading the detail of the jock with a tattoo on his thumb, did I realize. It was a fictional recount of the unsolved murders on campus! It was unreleased information! The only way she would've known was if...

I felt sick. I was sicker than before. I knew I had to get out, and I could barely feel the ground beneath my feet as I ran.