A Forgotten Past

Clues and Rules (I)

"So?" Ben said, letting go of his grip of my chin. I sensed that he felt satisfied with what he has done. Well, thanks to him, I'm now traumatized.

"So... what?" I asked.

He chuckled a little. "I know you're a little curious to find out."

Find out? About the murderer? Why it happened? How it happened? Why her? What's going on?

I'm not just 'a little curious'.. I'm dying to know!

"I take that as a yes. I've seen that thinking expression on that face. Now, shall we?"

"Shall we? Where to?"

"Jeez, you're so slow. As a start, try finding for clues,"

"And how will that lead us to finding whoever did this?" I crossed my arms, leaning against a tree behind me, watching him go behind the car and opening the trunk.

"I don't know. Just find anything and maybe that will lead us to anything useful," he said, rummaging through some junk, not facing me at all.

"Fine," I said, unfolding my arms. "Where do I start?"

"Start by checking the corpse," he said with a smirk. "And if I hear you shriek or scream, I'll make sure you'll be sleeping with her tonight."

Wh-wha? Is he joking? Start with her? That... that thing?!

Ben noticed me standing there with a confused look and knew right away what I was thinking about.

"I'm serious." He said, keeping a straight face.

Hey, we've been buddies for a long time and believe me, I know that tone and look anywhere. When he says he's serious, he means he's really serious.

He did a great job bringing my memories back about him and his charactetistics.

Okay, I'm going. Yep, definitely going. He was crazy enough to force my head to the body, and he wouldn't hesitate to make me sleep with it. Makes me shiver at the thought.

I walked over to the red car, kicking sand and stones in my way. Overcoming my fear, or rather, trying to overcome my fear, I crouched down to her knee-level, feeling through her pocket slowly and carefully.

I gave a little whine as my hand went deeper. I mean, standing so close to the rottening body and breathing in the air around it makes me feel kinda scared and sick. What more reaching into its pocket.

I accidentally wriggled my hand too much, and that caused her cold hand, with her long nails to brush against my hand and then it knocked the side of the car.

Her.. hand just.. touched... m-mine?!

Did it just....?!

Terrified, I screeched a little, but I had enough time to cover my mouth with my other hand.

I looked over at where Ben is, and it seems like he didn't notice. Whew.

I took some breathing exercises and continued. I felt something rectangular and thick and decided to take it out, as slowly as I can.

Slowly, Jennifer. Slowly.

At the same time, Ben was done with whatever he was doing and for some reason he chose to slam the trunk shut. That startled me and my hand made another major movement which disturbed the body.

The head moved.

From facing the front, it dropped down, looking at me, with its mouth opened, dried lips and dried blood on its cheeks.