the After Effects of Death

(1)

The police sirens blared in the background. Pairs of officers swarmed the house as I trembled in the furthest room in the darkest corner. Words couldn't describe the pain I was feeling, the sides of my forehead seemed to throb endlessly, and my eyes blurred in and out of focus. I held my head up, I could've sworn all my energy was abstracted from me in those few seconds. Two police officers-- a rookie and an experienced one from the looks of it – walked in and somehow never acknowledged me. In fact, they looked right at me, almost as if they were staring right through me but I had the darkness of the room to blame. "Sir, could this be...?" the rookie put up a hard exterior, but his voice and eyes were clawing their way into the deepest abyss inside of his soul. He looked as though he wanted to go home and snuggle up under his comfiest blanket, how pathetic.

"I'll go write this up with the Chief, you stay here and check if she's alive." The rookie gulped and nodded.

"So, it's just you and me.." I giggled quietly at his actions, what made such a tedious, fearful and disquiet young man want to become a police officer? I almost decided to creep up on him and scare the young man out of his boots, but I considered the fact that I was a mature young lady now. Well... I think I'm a mature young lady, now that I think of it, I lacked memory. I couldn't tell you who I was before this event or why I was here, what I do know is that my name is Jessica Grey. I hummed whilst having a train of thoughts and it caught the attention of the police officer, "Why are you here?" the officer seemed to conceal his fear when addressing me. I felt his cold glare pinpoint me from across the room despite the lack of light.

"I don't know." At the time a wave of excuses was brought over me but something inside of me decided to be truthful. I caught myself thinking, 'What if he could tell me who I am or perhaps why I'm here?' I knew such ideas were pointless and doltish of me. He didn't even have to respond, he let out a great airy laugh and repeated his question. I decided to tell him a fib, one that'd hopefully get me out the situation. "I stumbled up here drunkenly I supposed, perhaps that's why I lack memory."

"Had you said that from the start I'd have believed you but due to your hesitation I feel obliged to question you. Do you know who this lady is?" He pointed over to where they'd found the dead body, I could only see her arm sprawled out with her hand grasping onto a thin black cloth thanks to the mess of a room. The drawer had been pushed and sat at a diagonal, the mattress belonging to the bed had capsized off the bed and the long, black thin curtain had been ripped from the bottom. That explains the material in the late women's hand. I walked slowly towards her, my heart paced with fear and my gut instinct told me something was about to go wrong. Now that I was in the light the police officer seemed to chant something under his breath, prayers maybe? I felt a growing fear inside of me like a flame that had been lit in a very flammable room. I stood over the woman, I begun to analyse her from bottom to top. Too afraid to see the look that would be perched on a dead person's face. Her shoes informed me that was she was indeed apart of or above middle class, they were a glossy black with a small heel. Even though the heel was small it had a great job of informing nosy street urchins that she was above them it also happened to be a great hit with first impressions. Her dress was marvelous and managed to flow along her petite, desirable figure well. Her corset, that's if she even felt the need to wear one, seemed to carve out her slim waist and her big skirt would've fallen into place like a grand waterfall if she were stood up. Her skirt had also seemed to have risen just to her calves, suggesting that she could've fallen or maybe even tripped over her elegant clothing. My heart thumped quicker, I was now staring at her neck, I have already stated just how fair this young lady was, but might I add that she failed to have any flaws and any flaw she did have she'd made beautiful. I began to take in her facial features, the way her lips were curved into a frown and her eyes were soft and afraid. Her nose was small and pointed, quite desirable these days. Her eyebrows were raised in fear and her lips were parted like she'd said something before exhaling her last breath.

Suddenly, too quickly to acknowledge the change, the way I viewed her had been altered. I no longer saw her as beautiful but ghastly! Her lips faded from a rosy pink to a cold blue and her eyes became hollow and distraught. I hurried backwards, wanting a glance of her altogether, what was once marvelous and elegant became sickly and horrid. Her pure dress had been infected with blood stains and dirt, her shoes were no longer polished but dirty and her heel looked as though they were used to dig through mud. Her head drooled with blood and she had a giant gush on her temples. I began to panic; the police officer was belting the prayers now and seemed to be directing his words at me! I saw a grand mirror behind him and saw a glimpse of my reflection.

"No!" I cried out, trying to grip onto the dresser besides me to support my legs which seemed to have given up. I couldn't hold on however and found myself drifting down onto the blood-stained carpet, "Noo!" I wailed, clawing at the fibers and screaming into the air. The rooms temperature had dropped, it went from a warm cosy feeling to an icy, horrendous freezer. I crawled my way closer to her body, my body. "No.." I whispered, one last time. I lost the energy to scream and thrash about and so I just sat there, watching myself. The room around us seemed to fade away to a pale-yellow light and I allowed myself to recall the events which had killed me. It all came back to me. The headache I'd felt made sense now, I was still experiencing the pain even after I'd died. And as for the lack of memory...? Well I guess that's just one of the after effects of death.

Glossary/

Abyss - a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm

Tedious -too long, slow, or dull; tiresome or monotonous

Doltish - (of a person) stupid; idiotic.

Disquiet – a feeling of worry or unease.  

A/N excuse any mistakes I wrote this at night :)