We Come From The South » Isaac Lahey [2] ✓

climax of clues

Adrianna hastily made her way down the steps into the maze of the basement in the high school. She followed her acute sense of smell, still slightly shocked at how strong and accurate it has provided so far, and weaved through the corridors to one of the most dimly lit ones. She paid little mind to the fading footsteps above her, only keeping a small portion of her hearing out for footsteps making their way towards her, but no such difficulty had arisen yet.

She stopped at the tip of the corridor, the few lights guiding ones way down it were still flickering. The first two doors were still closed, showing no signs of anyone having ventured this far down here, the last one was also the same she had left it, widely open. The smell has increased, instantly hitting her as she made a slow trek down towards it. It faded on the burnt flesh smell or increased towards a rotting, garbage ridden thing.

She swallowed the urge to run away and violently throw up and picked up her pace till she stood in the doorway, holding her breath. The single, un-covered light bulb was not on as it were before and therefor, the odd firefly had vanished. She stepped into the middle of the room, and slowly turned around. The reeking, rotten, disgusting heart still lay behind the door, although most of the dead-flesh flies had abandoned it.

Adrianna pulled out a plastic hazmat bag from her bag that she stole from her Uncle's, why he had them was unknown to her but she didn't mind as it suited her needs. She held two fingers out, the underside facing the ceiling and gulped hard. The purple mist slowly started to float around her fingers, the heart rose up from the floor with a glug and carefully floated towards the outstretched hazmat bag. She dropped her fingers, the mist vanishing, and the heart dropped into the bag. She sealed it shut and left the room.

---

The hospital was quiet and slightly empty in the lobby, which surprised Adrianna as she expected a rush of people due to the town still experiencing the blackout from last night.

Melissa McCall rounded the corner, her tired eyes finding Adrianna instantly and she rushed towards her. "Let's get this over with."

Adrianna nodded in agreement and followed her down the corridor in which she came from. They went right to the end, and stopped in front of the elevator. Melissa pressed the button that indicated down and stood back.

Within seconds, the silver doors dinged open and they gathered inside. Melissa pressed the button indicated B for Basement and the silver doors closed them in.

"So, were did you find this?" Melissa absently wondered.

Adrianna glanced at her then back to her blurred reflection in the doors. She debated whether to tell her, there was no harm in telling of where it was discovered, but any further questions into her theory's of it could prove difficult. "A room in the depths of the basement at the highschool."

Melissa's black eyebrows came together, "At the school? Why would it be there?"

Adrianna shrugged, "I don't know." Although that was a slight lie, she had a rather strong feeling it was there because that's where she was, but she did not voice this.

The doors dinged and slid open, revealing a fresh smell of anti-septic and a wide, gray hallway that led to the morgue. The two woman ventured down the hall and turned a sharp right through a set of silver double doors. A long room lay before them, with evenly spaced human-sized silver benches running the length of the room and only two covered bodies on them. On the right wall rested a dozen or slightly more large square, silver doors, tightly sealed against the white tile of the wall. On the left wall, there was a larger silver bench was pressed against it, holding several medical items used for an autopsy and other various activities.

Melissa moved to her immediate left where a set of matching silver filing cabinets resided. "The EMS bought in a man a couple of weeks ago, found him near that old park on Roosevelt St."

Adrianna's eyebrows contracted and she slowly raised her head to her friends mother, her jaw tightened slightly. If Melissa was talking about the same park as she assumed, it was the one directly across from her apartment set.

"Ah, here." Melissa plucked out a thin manila folder and walked back over to Adrianna. She quickly glimpsed a written piece of information inside it before walking over to the metal doors on the wall.

Adrianna placed the heart in the bag on the closest bench and opened the folder. There was no picture attached but a brief report on any information that was found. It was a middle aged man, license found said him to be 33 years of age, born in Bordeaux, France, is married to a French woman with a young daughter; cause of death is loss of major organ: heart. Adrianna's heart skipped a beat, or more, her hands clenched around the edges of the folder and caused the paper to wrinkle.

The sound of metal lightly scraping against metal echoed throughout the room, bringing Adrianna's attention away from the familiar and heart-breaking feeling. Melissa stood at the head of a pulled out bench, a man with short-cropped black hair and pale skin lay on the table, a fist sized hole near the sternum.

Adrianna jaw clenched and her eyes hardened. She nearly choked on the air in her throat and her hands started to shake. She was frozen in her spot, her eyes unable to leave the still form of the man on the bench for she knew this man. His name was Jacq Couture, his wife was Adaline Couture and their daughter wasn't even born when she knew them, she was a mere thought. He and his wife were friends of her family, a close connection and a safe home whenever she needed. And now his body lay before her, as still as the air around her.

"You knew him?" Melissa's voice seemed far away and so soft it could barely be heard.

Adrianna swallowed down the lump in her throat, and tore her eyes away from the body. She leaned forwards and rested her hands against the bench in front of her and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the moisture in them to fade. Her body was still shaking and the urge to hurt somebody very badly was arising.

"Adrianna?"

Melissa quickly slid the bench back in, closed the door and rushed over to her sons friend. She wasn't aware that she knew the victim, or else she would have approached the situation a little differently. She gently placed her hand on Adrianna's back, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Adrianna took in a deep breath, her jaw starting to throb at her clenched teeth. She didn't know why this had happened, or who would do this. But she intended to find out.

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( edited )