House of Scars
Chapter 1: All Night Blogging
Adam Ross was working late again.
Adam sighed exasperatedly and let his head fall onto his propped up palms. He massaged his temples with his index fingers and continued to stare at the disappointing message blinking on the computer monitor before him.
"What's wrong, Adam?" Lindsay asked as she entered the lab. Adam cast a careless glance up at his colleague and sighed. Lindsay wore a look of pure concern for colleague. Lindsay was always so full of concern and love, smart and beautiful, and… married.
"I entered the photo you guys got from the pocket of the shooting victim into the DMV database, but there's no result. It's like the girl from the photo never even existed."
"It is getting pretty late. I'm sure that screen isn't helping. Go home, Adam, get some rest. I'm serious, get moving," Lindsay said and smiled tiredly at him. Adam smiled as he cast an irritated glance back at the monitor and hung his head.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll finish up here and leave, I guess." He finally surrendered.
"Good. I'll see you in the morning. And I will be checking the security tapes to make sure you did actually leave, Adam. I mean it, get some rest. You've been on edge all week about this case." Lindsay said spuriously and hugged the tablet she held closer to her chest.
"See you in the morning, Lindsay," Adam said and managed to bite back a smile. Lindsay nodded and backed out of the room, heels clicking on the hard floor as she walked. Adam smiled and released the smothered chuckle, turning back to the computer monitor.
Lindsay's right, I should probably leave. He finally stood and hurried down to the locker room, where Lindsay was exiting on his way in. She smiled a victorious smile and let him enter before her, patting his shoulder on her way out and walking directly into the open arms of Danny at the end of the hall. Adam twisted the knob on his lock and yanked it down and out of the hole, throwing it into the shelf on the top of the locker. He gathered up his things and slung his bag over his back. He was almost to the door when he realized he left his cell phone up by the computer. Sighing, Adam ran back to the elevator and punched the floor key to the lab. When the elevator door finally slid open reluctantly, he darted out and hustled to the computer, dodging the other lab rats and CSIs as he went. He yanked the glass door open and slammed his hand down on the small silver object, bringing it to his pants pocket and slipping it into the pocket. He turned to leave and had his hand resting on the door handle when the monitor suddenly lit up and a picture popped on the screen. Excitedly, he raced over to the monitor and flopped down on the chair, sending the wheeled chair a few inches over to the left. Adam scooted the chair over and got to work.
Good thing I didn't clock out yet. He thought and shook the mouse to illuminate the screen again. Adam exhaled dolefully at the sight of the notification, which wasn't what he wanted it to be. Instead of a result from missing persons, he wound up with an email. Adam once again let his head fall onto his knuckles and reluctantly opened the email, hoping it wasn't something from the FBI or anything worse than that. That would be just my luck. No hits in DMV and on the FBI's radar. That'd piss Mac off for sure. He breathed a sigh of relief as the email loaded and popped up on his screen, and to his appeasement, was not from any major government corporation. Rather, it was a link for a website. After running it for viruses and bugs, he clicked the link and waited for a new tab to pop up.
The new webpage didn't surprise him; it was the content that made him uneasy. When the page finally loaded, Adam felt his heart jump to his throat. It was a blog of some sort, probably belonging to a teenage girl from the looks of it. I shouldn't be looking at this. But then again… it is on the internet, so anything's fair game. It could also pertain to the case, and that'd piss Mac off too if I didn't look at it. Adam let his curiosity get to him as he scrolled through the endless morbid posts. Each post was worse as they came; ranging from posts about self loathing to eating disorders. Adam knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help himself. Something about the gloomy attitude of the blog echoed in Adam, triggering horrifying fear and hopelessness in him. The blog had been set up several months ago, and since then, it seemed as if the blog never died. There was always something for each minute of every day, even when a normal person would be sleeping. Adam refreshed the page and scrolled to the top for the latest post, a video. Snatching his earbuds from his pants pocket, he jammed the tiny buds into his ears and pushed the jack into the headphone jack on the side of the computer and pressed play on the video.
The video faded from black to a barely illuminated room with only a few candles for light. A girl appeared on screen, looking almost like a ghost than an actual person. Her thin, pale face was partially covered with a shadow, so Adam couldn't see the left side of her face. The girl looked to be about sixteen or so, with almond shaped eyes and rich chestnut colored eyes. Her soft auburn hair tumbled down her shoulder and ended a few inches above her elbows. She had a petite nose and matching mouth, slender jawbone and high cheekbones.
"I'm scared," she whispered to the camera. She gazed into the lens with a strikingly dead expression, unreadable in every sense.
"I don't know what to do, everything's just, fallen to shit, like usual." She shrugged and looked down, inspecting her nails.
"But I think this is it. I'm sorry. I truly am. I've tried to make you all happy, but I just can't take this anymore. I'm done. So, congrats to all of you who wanted this. I'm finally out of the way. And I'm sorry to the few who didn't. I'll see you soon, I guess." The girl said quietly and clicked the webcam off. Adam jumped at the abruptness of the video and checked the time stamp. Only a minute had gone by since the video had been uploaded, still enough time to help the girl. Finding the ask box, Adam bypassed the account login and typed a frantic message.
"Don't do this, you're worth more than you think. It goes away, it gets better. Trust me, I know." He typed into the ask box and hit send, leaving him with an ugly unsettled feeling instead of the hopeful, helpful one he expected. After hitting send, Adam went back to the homepage and continued to read the posts, feeling a dark power overcome him.
"Adam?" A sudden voice said, making him jump and accidentally click the close button.
"Hey, what's up?" Adam asked wearily and spun around to face Jo.
"Were you here all night?" Jo asked as Adam rubbed his eyes in exhaustion.
"Ah, no," Adam stumbled and Jo narrowed her eyes, raising her eyebrows. "Yes," he finally capitulated with a sigh.
"You need to go home! Get some sleep!" Jo exclaimed and waved her arm to the door. The same door that Lindsay happened to be passing by. Lindsay stopped and ripped the door open, stepping into the room.
"Morning, Lindsay," Adam said, waiting for his normally collected colleague to let him have it.
"Adam." She replied and turned to Jo.
"We have another vic. Flack's already there; he's just waiting for us."
"How old?" Adam interrupted, earning an irritated look from Lindsay.
"Fifteen, sixteen, why?"
"Can I come with?"
As Lindsay fumbled for words, Jo piped up. "It would do you some good to get you out of the lab for a little while. Grab your kit and meet me in five in the garage. Lindsay, we'll meet you there." Lindsay nodded and glared at Adam as she left the room, running down the hall to the elevator, Jo watching her go. Then she turned to Adam and smiled.
"What could you have done to piss her off so much?"