The Forest's Secrets

Chapter Eleven: Games

The girl smiled and looked at him. Brooks carefully slipped the fabric of her shoulder. The dress was complete, but the wound underneath was deep and uneven.

Before he got to asking his question again, Eli answered:"I did that. I also did a lot more things."

"Why would you do that?", Jamie asked. All his anger and annoyance seemed to have turned into worry.

Eli stood quiet for a while. As the officer checked the time, she still hadn't said anything.

"We'll talk about that later", he decided," we're almost done, you just stay here. I'll lock the doors."

Eli stood perfectly still as he first closed the door, then locked the car and left. The lights in the car went out after just a bit, but she didn't bother turning them back on again. She knew that it couldn't be late just yet, but the girl was tired. So she just fell asleep whilst waiting for the team to be done with their investigation there.

A few hours later, at a bit past 2 am, Brooks unlocked his car. Eli woke up immediately, but kept her eyes closed. As the officer turned in his seat to greet her, he instead muttered:"Oh, she's asleep."

With a heavy sigh he started his car. The way back to the station would be half an hour. The man was drowsy and tired. "There's a bunny", Eli said after a few minutes, and Jamie immediately stepped on the break.

As a rabbit ran across the street, the man turned around and growled:"I thought you were asleep."

"I was, until you came back", she replied calmly.

Brooks just turned back around and continued to drive back, to get into his own car and the girl in the backseat locked up for the night. Eli starred out of the window into the dark, that got slowely polluted by the lights of the city. The trees and grass got replaced by houses, first smaller ones, for one family at most. Then the bigger houses and finally the first skyscrapers came in sight. The loneliness of the forest got replaced by the night owls of the city, Eli could see party-goers, couples of different ages, people taking walks and a few cops here and there.

When the car stopped in a spot on the car park behind the station, the girl had already opened her seatbelt. But she couldn't open the door of the car on the inside, and as the officer opened it, he quickly got a hold of her arm.

The girl scoffed and stood up slowely. She felt dizzy, but was wide awake. Brooks pulled her inside the building and started talking to another officer. Eli didn't pay attention, she didn't care what they were talking about. She just felt unwell all of a sudden, she knew what she had to do. But there was no way she could do that, and so she just felt worse and worse with every second that past.

As Jamie noticed that something about Eli's body language had changed, he asked:"What, are you scared now?"

Eli shook her head and replied:"I'm not scared. Just... unwell."

"How come?", the man kept asking curious.

"I'd really need to get out of this dress", she replied without looking at him.

Brooks laughed and replied:"Well, good thing we need you to change out of it anyways."

He handed the girl a shirt with long sleeves that was a dark blue color and a pair of black fabric pants. He pulled her along a few more steps and shoved her into a changing room carefully.

"Get dressed, then just come out again. We'll take care of your shoulder and after that I will bring you to where you'll be sleeping tonight", he explained and closed the door.

The girl quickly took off the dress. "I wanna burn this piece of trash", she growled into the empty room. Then she sighed and took something out of the pocket of the dress and threw the clothing to the floor.

The girl changed her bra to bandages, fortunately she always takes some with her. Then she took off her dirty boots and her socks and slipped into the outfit the officer gave her. There was no mirror in the room, but the girl knew that she looked sick and tired, even without it.

As she walked out the door, Brooks asked:"This better?"

Eli nodded and replied:"Yeah. Feels like pyjamas."

"Are you sure you want to go barefoot here?"

Seeing that Eli just nodded in reply, the officer decided to not question that choice. He opened the door across the hall, and they entered a small bathroom.

"Do you mind taking your shirt off?", he asked her carefully.

She stood quiet as she just did as he asked. The man looked over her once, there was the big cut on her shoulder, a few smaller ones on her stomach and her collar bones.

"What happened at your chest?", the officer asked and pointed at the bandages she just wrapped around it.

"Nothing", Eli replied," it just helps hide it."

"Why would you hide that?", Jamie kept asking.

But Eli didn't reply anymore. So Brooks just gestured for her to sit down on a bench and got out more bandages. Then he disinfected the cuts on her body with rubbing alcohol, but the girl didn't make another sound anymore.

After a few minutes they were almost done, and the cop asked:"Are you tired?"

Eli shook her head and quietly replied:"No. Just thinking."

"Mind sharing your thoughts?"

"Am I going to sleep alone?", the girl asked carefully.

"Yes."

"What do those cells look like?"

"You'll see, it's not that bad."

"Not very reassuring."

It was quiet for a few moments after Eli's rough comment, then Brooks said:"Put on your shirt again, we're done here."