𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦

Chapter Four: The Scene

"So what did this man look like?" The officer said.

"Hm?" I reply. "Sorry I was spacing out... I've told you before — all black." I stutter. I looked at the yellow crime tape, fencing off the area of trees that has some of Julia's remains. Her body was being lifted off the gravel that I left her on, her body was limp as one of the doctors lifted her into a body bag. Some blood was still leaking out of her chest, even after the cloth they put on the wound.

"Chantelle, I know this is really hard for you, but we need you to answer these questions as best you can. We want to find this man in all black who killed your sister" The officer said, cutting through the supposed silence of radio chatter and the smell of rubbing alcohol.

"I-I don't know! He had dark b-blue eyes, does that help?" I stutter, trying so hard not to start sobbing uncontrollably in front of the officer again.

The officer writes that down on his notepad, I've been with this officer for fifteen minutes and I don't even know his name yet. I looked to the right of his uniform, and it read S. Kelly.

"Officer Kelly, r-right?" I ask

"Oh — yep that's me." He replies in surprise

"Sorry, I just looked at your name tag"

"It's alright, I mean it's there for a reason" He says with a little chuckle.

For the first time since this whole disaster happened, I gave a little chuckle too. It felt good, being able to do so again. But, one look to my left and I would have the butterflies in my stomach, and want to throw up again. I accidentally already threw up on poor Officer Kelly's shoes about ten minutes ago. He told me to sit down on the bench, and drink some water, but don't look to your left.

Another officer walks up to him, tall and lean, taller than Officer Kelly. The taller officer whispers something to Officer Kelly.

"Excuse me for just a moment, Chantelle. Take a seat over there, would you?" He says to me, and points to the park bench on the other side of the park.

"Sure," I reply, as I start to walk over to the bench across the park. I was glad he sent me off because I was about to start sobbing again. I didn't want the officers to see me like that again, they have already seen enough.

I took a seat on the bench, and a woman officer came up to me. She sat next to me to keep me company, I guess.

"Hello, my name is Officer Henry, and I just need to mention some things to you real quick before Officer Kelly continues to talk with you." She says.

"O-Ok" I reply, wiping tears from my cheeks.

"Your parents have been notified of what has happened, and they are on their way. Julia's body will be transported to our crime analytics office for an autopsy. The autopsy reports will take about six weeks to process, and that's when we will ask you and your family to come back to the station"

I couldn't believe this. I felt so sick and I was hoping this was a bad dream. I wanted to wake up to my father's salty smell of egg omelets, and check my phone to show me that this was all just a dream.

"Of course, we will also mention this to your parents as well. But, it is important for you to know as well since you are almost eighteen..."

After those words, my head started to tune out her voice. I felt dizzy. I stared into the field that was surrounded by pedestrians trying to look into the action. The streets were lined with police cars and fire trucks. I could already see local journalist vans pulling up the neighborhood street. Even through all the chaos that was happening right now, there was something that was calming about looking out into the field that I just couldn't put my finger on.

Then I saw it — my sister's favorite tree.

The Almond Tree