Past Tense (editing)

Thirty six// Discoveries

It seems that Past Tense did not make it on The Wattys 2018 Longlist. To be honest when I first entered the contest, I was so sure I was not going to make it, but now that the Longlist is here and my story is not in it, I don't know, I feel kind of disappointed and I'm kind of sad too. Anyways, I'm definitely going to try the next year because I'm so disappointed by my writing and I'm going to try harder on this, I hope you support me on this and thank you for reading until this chapter!

"After a long research, the police officers in charge of this case still cannot seem to have any leads on finding either Timothy Powell or Elaine Jenkins." the lady on the television said.

Douglas giggled. "And they never will." he said.

"Why can't you let us go?" Elaine begged.

"Because all news channels are looking for you and look what they say next." Douglas said and motioned his head to the television.

"What do-" Elaine was about to say but Douglas cut her off.

"Just listen, El!"

"As we learned today Karen, Timothy Powell is actually dead and now they are searching for his body." a man next to the woman named Karen said.

"Indeed, Bob. After a confession from one of his best friends, Timothy Powell's death was confirmed."

"But they still don't have any leads on finding Elaine Jenkins except that she probably is with the man that the police is searching for months, his name is Douglas Stevens and he is a drug dealer and a very dangerous man, since he is holding Elaine Jenkins and one other man hostage."

"See El?" Douglas smirked. "I'm a very dangerous drug dealer and I am holding you and some other man hostage."

"But you are!" Elaine protested.

"Yeah right! Like you didn't want to fuck me when we first met."

"Exactly, when we first met I didn't want to fuck you, I liked you, you were treating me so well and I don't know how you turned out to be, an egoistical, control freak bastard!" Elaine screamed.

"Shut the fuck up, you little ungrateful bitch! I gave you a home, when your father left you!" 

"My father still waits for me at home!"

"To bad you are never going back there!"

~

"It's alright darling." Curtis tried to comfort his wife. 

The house was all quiet and Amber was crying over her dead son, in his bedroom.

She went over all of his drawers and his closet looking for what?

She didn't know. Going over all of his things, looking at his pictures and smelling his shirts, made her feel like he was going to come back.

"I can't believe I let this happen." she cried "I'm an awful mother, I should have known better, that he was into something."

"I should have known." she said, choking with her tears and starting to cough.

"Amber! Amber!" Curtis ran next to her "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, it's my fault, I shouldn't have been drinking so much. I just need you to relax a little because you are going to kill yourself."

"Curtis, our son, our only son is dead." Amber cried again "How can you be so calm when a man beat up our son to his death?"

"I am really sad to, Amber." Curtis explained "But, we have a funeral to prepare and we need to stay strong."

"For Tim." he finished off.

"I guess you're right." she sniffed.

~

"Alright Jacqueline, we evacuated the area for police investigation, and now we need you to tell us where exactly you saw Tim's body." Mr. Ortiz explained.

Jacqueline nodded and got out of the police vehicle. She started walking and a bunch of police officers followed her into the woods.

When they arrived near the lake, Jacqueline stopped right were Douglas was standing the last time they were here.

Then, she saw it. It was that part of the ground that had no grass, only mud.

"Here it is." Jacqueline pointed at it. "Tim is buried in here. The spot where there's no grass."

"Thank you Jacqueline, now if you could go and wait over there and we will be right back. Don't worry we evacuated the area." he said again.

"Alright." Jacqueline said and walked where she was told to.

She couldn't see properly, but she saw two officers with shovels, so her guess was that they were digging out Tim's lifeless body.

"It seems like there is a wound on his head. But there is a bandage around it. So Douglas Stevens was probably treating him and helping him to stay alive in order to avoid the death penalty." some officer said.

"Alright search the place a little further and take the body, I'm going to take Jacqueline home, and I will see everyone tomorrow." Mr. Ortiz said and walked toward Jacqueline.

"Let's go." he told her.

The car drive was quiet and Jacqueline had a feeling of unease in her stomach.

When they arrived at her house, with her giving Mr. Ortiz some directions, he said that they were messing with a dangerous man, and when they get out of this, they should be more careful.

Jacqueline nodded but inside, she was thinking that if they also got Elaine they would be very grateful and they would never do something like that again.

"Goodnight." he said.

"Goodnight, and thank you for driving me here." Jacqueline said.

"No problem."

Hi luvs!

I said almost everything on the other A/N above but let's just say, don't be ghost readers!

Have a great day or night and see you on the next chapter!

xxx frufraki