Déjà vu

Chapter Three: Death has its own Beauty

I really didn't want to go to work today especially if police officers and news reporters are around the building but I have to Autumn thought to herself as she walks out of the subway station and started heading straight towards work as she used  to call home but now  is  more called a murder house in her mind.

As she was getting closer towards the building, she heard someone shouting her name. She sighed as turns around and found out it was none other than Jonathan Rogers.

"Oh, hey Jonathan. What's up?"
"Oh um nothing much just running a marathon trying to catch up to you. How about you?"
"Um, heading to work or at this case 'The Crime Scene'."

Jonathan laughed at her sarcasm. As they were getting closer to the Teens building, Jonathan explained his "theory" of how Mindy Castro really died when Autumn's phone starts to vibrate. "Whose texting you?" Jonathan curiously asked as she checked her phone.

"Ugh! It's from Mr. Cunningham. He asked me to..." as Autumn started to read the text message out loud, she stopped and her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. "What? What did he say?" Jonathan asked even more curious. "He asked me, well most likely demanded me to take a couple pictures of Mindy's body?!"

"Why would Mr. Cunningham ask you to do something like that?" Jonathan wondered. "I don't know." Autumn answered confusingly. What does getting pictures of Mindy's lifeless body mean anything to the industry Autumn questioned herself.

As they were a block away from the building, there's paparazzi surrounding the entrance, cameras flashing, and every news forecast, you can think of from BBC 1 Radio to ABC News, reporting the tragedy of Mindy Castro. Police cars parked in front of the building, pushing the crowd back so they don't cause a ruckus.

Wow there's a lot people Autumn though. "How the hell are we going to get inside with all those people standing in our way?" Jonathan asked breaking her train of thought. "Let's go down that alley. There's a door that leads straight into the photo shoots." Autumn explained to Jonathan. He nodded his response and headed straight towards the alleyway. 

"Wait. How do you know there's door down this alley? I've didn't even know there was another entrance." Jonathan asked. "Less talking more walking." Autumn hushed. As They started to speed walk towards the secret entrance, when one of the paparazzi noticed them and yelled out "Hey! Wait up, I just want to ask you guys a couple of questions." They started running towards door as quickly as possible not wanting to cause anymore chaos. Autumn was the first to reached the door, grabbed the handle, and yanked the door wide open so Johnathan and her can get in locking the door as it was closed shut.

"Come on. We can't keep Mr. Cunningham waiting for us." Autumn said finally catching her breath. Jonathan sighed of exhaustion but kept on following her. "He's mostly likely wants to see you in his office." he shouted at her across the hallway. She just rolled her eyes and kept on walking towards Mr. Cunningham's office.

When they finally got to his office, Autumn just barged in, as usual, and close door on Jonathan not wanting him to hear their discussion.

"Hello Ash. Can I call you Ash?"
"Nice to see you too, Miss Wilson."
"Aw come on now. We just got into first name basis."
"Alright what do you want?"
"You know what I want Mr. Cunningham. I want some damn answers is to why in the hell do you want me to take pictures of a dead woman's body?!"
"Shhh. Keep your voice down."
"No. I won't. Not until you tell me what the hell is going on around here. Right here, right now!"
"Alright I'll tell you. Now sit down and be quiet."

Autumn gladly sat down on the couch, smiling from ear to ear, finally getting some answers of why he's forcing her to take this weird task. "Huh. I don't even know where to start." he sighed heavily. "Just from the beginning Mr. Cunningham. You know you can't keep me here captive all day long." Autumn droned as she was looking at her fingernails.

"Alright. The reason why we want you to take pictures of the late Mindy Castro is because it would increase our sales and the industry's reputation of how we view of our fellow models coming into the industry and how they will always remember even if you're a rotting corpse."
"Ok, well that's a bunch of bull crap. So your basically saying that you just want the industry to grow bigger but that still doesn't make sense of how I'm in this whole process."
"This is where YOU come in Autumn. The head of the company wants you to capture how death can capture true beauty even at its most tragic state. Plus he loves the way how you capture emotions and beauty in a timeless frame in a single click on your camera. It really shows us how you view the world in your perspective."

"Your just really trying to kiss my ass aren't you Ashton?" Autumn sarcastically asked after he was finished explaining the company's reasonings. "Well I don't know about kissing ass but I can tell you one thing and that's the head director saying he loves your work. If he loves your work that means there's a big chance that he will make your 'internship' will end more like a job in the long run." Mr. Cunningham explained.

Autumn was in complete shocked yet pleased with all this new information she was informed with. Who wouldn't though that the head director would actually look at my photos of some of the models (even though they are a bunch of spoiled brats) and some scenery Autumn though. This is the best news she's heard in a while since high school.

"Well you caught my attention. So let me summarize what you want me to do here. You want me to take pictures of Miss Castro dead body and I quote "capture her beauty" even though she's rotting to the core with flies everywhere, maggots eating her reeking flesh, and maybe just maybe capture the way her blood glistens or reflects out of her wounds if she even had any? Tell me if I'm missing any details out of this equation you want me to solve Mr. Cunningham."
"Yes actually that's precisely what we want you to do here Autumn. In fact we already prepared the body for you to take pictures at the photo shoot Room 201." Mr. Cunningham replied with a huge grin on his face.
"Well then, I didn't know I would be working in some kind of freak show."
"Neither did I but that's called show business for yah.

........

"You are excused now Autumn."
"Pleasure doing business with you." she said as she walked out the door. Well time to get to work I guess she thought as she heads straight to Room 201.

As she walked into the photo shoot, she stopped in her tracks, flabbergasted from what she's just seeing right in front of her. Mindy's corpse was layout in what looks a bed of flowers filled with peonies, daisies, and roses as her body just lays there delicately as if she was in a peaceful slumber.

I never saw anything quite beautiful and yet disturbing at the same time as Autumn thought as she was starting to take the first of the many pictures of the beloved dead corpse.

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Well this took longer than I anticipated. Anyway, hello again. It's been quite some time since I last wrote a chapter in this book. I didn't really know how to quite end but I'll just end it right here while Autumn is working I guess. See you soon.