To Speak With the Dead
Rifiuto: Non Mirena
Summary: In 1991, the two youngest Lupo siblings disappeared from a movie theater. They never came home, and no bodies were found for their family to bury. Nearly twenty years later, a disoriented young woman is found wandering the forests surrounding Eureka; claiming to any who will listen that she's Jo, the younger of the two missing teens. Nothing supports her story, and every answer she gives leads to dead end leads- from a defiled grave to a boy missing thirty years prior. She knows things about that day, and as she tries to build a life in Eureka, she has no idea what the reprecussions of her reappearance will do to a town long buried in their grief- or how violent her very presence will rip open the wounds and long buried secrets of a once tightknit family.
She stumbled, tripping over the branch, her jeans becoming soaked in blood from the open gash on her leg. She looked behind her, though she was alone, she felt a presence around her, watching her. Brushing her hair out of her face, she climbed to her feet and continued through the forest, dodging low hanging branches and the forest sounds chasing after her. Fear crept over her, blanketing her shoulders like a cloak, steeping her in a scent that flooded her senses.
Finally, after hours of running, she caught sight of a road, not far in the distance. Weak from exposure, she stumbled towards it, losing her footing and hitting the ground, forcing herself to crawl towards the asphalt. Once there, she managed to pick herself up and stagger into the middle of the road-
The screech of tires and the blare of a horn drowned out her scream, but did nothing to deafen the impact as her slender body hit the windshield.
She awoke, in a bed, connected to wires and surrounded by monitors. The familiar quiet that befalls a hospital in the late hours after the rush settled around her, and she pushed herself onto her elbows, looking around. She was alone.
"You're awake." Her head snapped up and she looked towards the doorway; an older man was silhouetted in the faded light of the hall, and after a moment, he pushed away from the door, coming to her bed. She backed up, but he held up his hands. "I won't hurt you. I promise."
"Wh... who are you?" He sighed, taking a seat on the chair by her bed.
"Sheriff Carter." She nodded, finally seeing the badge glinting in the reflective light over her bed. Her gaze moved around; this was an odd looking hospital.
"Where am I?"
"You're in Eureka." She turned back to him.
"Eur-what?" He chuckled softly at her confused look.
"Eureka, Oregon. We... found you wandering in the forests around town. You'd... wandered onto the road and... were hit by a car. A few scrapes, a couple broken ribs and some swelling, but you'll be fine." She nodded, not trusting her voice. "Normally, I'd come back in the day and do this, but I told Allison that I'd look over you, so we might as well get this over with." He pulled a notepad out of his pocket. "What's the last thing you remember?" She swallowed.
"Um... I... seeing a... car coming... towards me..." He nodded, writing it down.
"Uhuh. And... where are you from?"She thought a moment. The answer was niggling at her brain, it rested on the tip of her tongue, waiting for her to open her mouth.
"J... Jersey." She looked up at him; he nodded, writing it down.
"How old are you?"
"A... I... I was born in... ni..." She swallowed. "Nineteen-seventy-nine." He nodded.
"And-" The questioning went on for several minutes, before he finally asked, "One more, and then I'll leave you alone to get more sleep. Okay?" She nodded. "What's your name?" She thought a moment, licking her lips.
"A... Jo." The sheriff's head snapped up, and she slowly turned to look at him. "Jo Lupo."
"Josefina Charlotte Lupo- born October Thirty-first, Nineteen-Seventy-Nine in New Jersey. She disappeared with her older brother Luca, in the summer of 'ninety-one. He was fourteen, she was twelve. They went to the movies in their hometown, and never came home. It was suspected that... maybe a drifter took them and buried the bodies, but nothing ever came of it; and at one point, we even thought they were victims of the BTK killer, but... that was just a dead end. There were... other leads, but... nothing ever turned up anything. Eventually, the Lupo disappearances went cold." Allison glanced at Henry. They, Fargo, Henry's wife Grace, and Zane Donovan- Eureka's resident particle psychist and troublemaker- were all gathered in Fargo's office, listening as Carter went over the evidence from a case that had plagued him since his time as a marshal.
"But... how... "
"You know an awful lot about this case, Jack." Henry cut Allison off. The Sheriff sighed.
"I... I was twenty-two when they went missing. I worked the case- searching nationwide, but... it's haunted me ever since." He watched the others turn their gazes to the photographs of the teens- both clean-cut, all-American, with bright smiles and dimples in their cheeks. Dark-eyed, dark-haired teens, with a love of life-
"If... if she's really the girl, then... then she'd be in... in her thirties. Jack, can you be sure this woman is her?" Allison asked, picking up the photograph of a twelve-year-old Josefina Lupo, smiling at the camera, long dark hair over her shoulder in a ponytail. A chill ran up Allison's spine; she looked so like Jenna- happy, always smiling. She couldn't imagine the agony her parents had gone through when she and her older brother Luca, disappeared.
"If she is that missing girl," Zane started. He glanced over at everyone, before taking the photograph from Allison. "Then where's her brother? Why isn't he with her? Why did they disappear in the first place?"
"Why did Natalee Halloway go missing in Aruba? Or the Springfield Three? Why was Steven Staynor killed in a motorcycle accident years after being found? Why was Amber Hagerman murdered, or JonBenet Ramsay? Why are children taken from their homes, from shopping malls, walking home from school? Why was Jaycee Lee taken walking to the school bus? And she was one of the rare cases- found after eighteen years, alive. To be found alive after years- in the world of missing children cases, that's a miracle. Jaycee was lucky." He shrugged. "No one knows why, it just happens."
"Why didn't her parents ever declare them dead?" Fargo asked. Carter sighed.
"Declaring... loved ones dead is... it's a process that can do more harm than good. It's... essentially a way of giving up. Their mom died in 'eighty-seven from ovarian cancer, and their dad... he couldn't do that without tearing the remainder of his family apart."
"So... what do we do with her now?" Zane asked, never taking his eyes off the girl in the photograph. Carter shrugged, looking out the window towards the hall that led to the infirmary.
"We keep her here until we figure out if she's telling us the truth."