Safety Among Scars (A story of Depression)

Chapter 3: Enter the Dark

Credits to Reddit for the Dark Web Conspiracy idea.

Percilla rolled up his left sleeve.

Katherine gasped, "Is that.. did you.. did you do that?' She stuttered in horror, struggling to get the words out. Percilla simply nodded. For a while, neither teen spoke. Katherine softly dragged her hand along the lone cut, as if to trying to soothe it. Percilla had closed his eyes, not even paying attention to what Katherine was doing.

"Perce?" Kate called, no response. "Perce?" She shook his shoulders. Again, Percilla continued dreamily gazing through the window.

"Percilla!" She screamed,

"Huh, oh what? Yeah, I'm fine, what?" Percilla sputtered out, returning to reality.

"What was that Perce? You weren't even moving!"

"It was nothing Kate."

"To hell with that Percilla! You and I both know that wasn't nothing. Now tell me, what the hell was that?"

"I SAID IT WAS NOTHING KATE!" Percilla slammed his fist on the table. "I'm leaving now."

"Percilla wait," Kate called out. Percilla turned his head. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Percilla was at the front door when a voice called out, "Leaving so soon, Percilla?"
It was Mrs. Samuel, wearing nothing but a bathrobe. "Why don't you stay for a while?" She said with a wink.

Percilla looked away. What was she thinking? "Yeah, uh.. I have.. I have somewhere to be. Bye!" He hurried out, slamming the door behind him.

Deciding he'd had enough for the day, he headed home to see how his mother was doing. He unlocked the door, "Mom, I'm home!"

As expected, Johanna was passed out on the couch, undoubtedly drunk. In her right was a charred cigarette, and an empty beer bottle in her left. Percilla sighed. Without even bothering to change, he dove into bed, hoping to be blessed with the gift of sleep.

He did not sleep soundly that night. Tossing and turning in his bed, the questions Kate had asked earlier would not leave his thoughts. Who had killed his father? Why? John had many business rivals, but would anyone go as far as murder? Perhaps the results of the autopsy the next day would answer some questions.

The next morning came as usual. The sun rose, the birds chirped, the people woke from their nightly escape to begin their day. Percilla would not receive the results of his father's autopsy, so he decided to spend some time on his computer.

See, Percilla was no ordinary child when it came to computers. While most kids spent their spare time playing video games and watching YouTube videos, Percilla hacked into and explored the  dark web.

For those who are unaware, only about 4% of the Internet is visible to the public. The other 96% is the 'Dark Web.'

The Dark Web is hidden from the public and hard to access, where sites sell drugs, hacking software, counterfeit money, hitmen, and more. Of course, Percilla never bought anything on the Dark Web. He simply enjoyed exploring for the kick of it.

He had no idea what he was searching for when he first hacked into the dangerous area.  In fact, that was his biggest mistake. Because he had no idea what he was looking for, it would lead him into a conspiracy deeper than his town of Eastborough. Deeper than his state, and even deeper than the entire United States government. But as Percilla explored this horrid place, he stood oblivious to the vast horror he was letting into his life. In fact, he should have ended it then and there. He should have closed his laptop, and walked away.

But no.

Percilla continued on his exploration of this 'place.'  There's no official name for this place, or at least I haven't seen one. There were rumors, however. These ranged from an illuminati chat room to a virtual holding cell for an experimental Artificial Intelligence gone rogue. In reality, it's a lot worse. After a long and painful process of breaking down firewalls, encryptions, solving bizarre philosophical riddles, and following hidden links, Percilla was finally directed to a blank white page, with a single line of text and an empty text box.

The text read, "What do you seek?" Percilla was stumped. He tried a bunch of answers, but none of them worked. He was getting frustrated at this point. Maybe this was a gag page. Maybe he really hadn't figured anything out. This would've been the best thing that could've happened to Percilla.

Suddenly he had an idea. It was a long shot. He had no idea how it came to him, but he typed in "what also seeks me".  To his surprise, the page went blank. He waited. After about five minutes, Percilla was directed to what looked like a forum. No, not even that. It was more basic.

Just a list of links over a light blue background.  The links themselves were just seemingly random sequences of characters, symbols and letters. A lot of them symbols which Percilla had never seen before. It almost looked like an alien language. He was about to click on the first link when the phone rang.

The forensic evidence office had called to inform Percilla his father's autopsy had been completed. With one last glance at the mysterious links on the screen, Percilla closed his laptop, deciding he would investigate further when he got back.

Slipping on his oversized hoodie, he called Kate to see if she would accompany him to the forensic office. She didn't answer the phone. Was she still mad about earlier? Percilla was an outsider at school with very few friends. He didn't want to lose one of the only friends he still had left.

Trying not to think about it, Percilla jogged down the familiar dirt path to the main road. This time, however, instead of turning right, he headed straight at the intersection to the police station. The Eastborough police force was rather small. A sheriff, a couple deputies, and only about 70 field officers managing a town with a population of 20,000.

"I'm here for the Forensics Lab," Percilla said. A male clerk looked up from the reception desk.

"And you are?"

"Percilla. Percilla Laurence."

"May I see an ID, Mr. Laurence?"

Percilla handed the clerk his school ID. The clerk nodded.

"Down the hallway, first door on your right. It's marked 'Forensic Evidence Laboratory."

Percilla thanked the man and headed to the forensic lab. Inside, an attractive brunette woman in a white lab coat welcomed Percilla.

"Mr. Laurence, I'm glad you could make it. We've completed the autopsy on your father." She paused, "As expected, the cause of death was a gunshot to the head. There are no signs of struggle. It appears as if his body was found within 4 hours of his death. He died instantly and painlessly."

Percilla nodded blankly.

"I've attempted to identify a murder weapon." The woman continued, "it appears he was shot with a 7mm hunting rifle. Whoever did this is clearly a skilled hunter, as they demonstrated impeccable accuracy. Honestly, I'm surprised. Guns like this are quite hard to obtain in Eastborough."

"And you would know, how exactly?" Percilla asked cautiously.

The woman smiled, "I own a hunting rifle of this caliber, Mr. Laurence. But I hunt deer, by people. If you are by any chance suspecting I may have murdered your father and that poor police officer, I'm afraid you are gravely mistaken."

Percilla stood up. "I'll be on my way now. Thank you Ms.. uhh.."

"Davis." The woman finished.

On the way home, Percilla couldn't help but wonder how many people in Eastborough owned 7 millimeters hunting rifles.

In fact, Ms. Davis seemed to know a lot about guns. Could she have potentially been the killer? Or was it just knowledge learned from working in the police force? He tried to push those thoughts aside as he hiked into his driveway.

As he was putting his bike away, he noticed a figure in the distance on a nearby tree. Trying to get a better view, Percilla took a few steps closed and gasped. His mouth fell open in shock and eyes widened in horror;

For there, hanging from the Laurence family willow tree, was the dead body of Katherine Samuel.