Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Moonlight, I just play with the characters.
It's almost dawn. Driving alone through the night, I target on my apartment. I am dead tired. How can all of this fit into just one day? Coraline is alive, but human and very sick. Josef is dead.
Thinking back I wonder why I am still this calm, this disimpassioned.
I had just retired to my freezer, when my phone woke me up again. It was Josef's emergency ringtone, but it wasn't Josef calling. His security guard told me with trembling words that there was an explosion in Josef's office and gave me a chance to see the place. I took it.
When I got there after the police left, I hardly felt anything; I just tried to take in as much information as possible to find out what happened, as I was in a stage of grief somewhere between denial and anger.
I crouched on the grey floor littered with debris. The place was trashed: burned cables, decomposed panels, smashed leftovers of exquisite furniture, empty frames, tiny shards of the wall-to-wall windows. The UV-protective foil that had been installed to cover the window glass flagging in the wind. The brass artwork in the entrance was only a blistering mass of metal. The expressionistic mural that had covered the central part of the ceiling was raining down in rainbow colored particles. The walls of his inner sanctum were carrying the shattered remains of the high end flat monitors, now black and motionless.
Everything was drenched in stale sprinkler water that didn't have much of a chance, as the place had burnt down almost instantly. It was eerily quiet, and the place smelled of scorched wood, damp plaster, molten plastic, and underneath it all, a whiff of charcoaled bone.
I took a broken glass vial into my hands and sniffed the AB negative. Josef's favorite. There had been three; Tim, Dan and Josef. I had been invited, too, but had called to say I wouldn't come. I had been up all day with Morgan – no, Coraline, and was exhausted after the games she played with me all day, drained by the sudden clarity of knowing her identity and the realization of what this could entail. I was still reeling from the vengeful rage of Beth that resulted in taking Coraline's mortal, dying frame to the ER.
But I didn't think about that while I explored the ruined office. I was left alone there, and I wanted to be alone for a while, take it in, get a grip on myself. I still tried to make myself believe that somehow this didn't happen, that Josef hadn't been here, that this was all a big mistake or a bad joke. Whatever.
Of course I wouldn't find any clues in the debris, as the victims had been blown to ash; they covered the floor, spread out over the whole office area that Josef had used as a secondary home. Not even a distinct pile of matter to place into an urn, to have a place to remember Josef by. The remaining bone fragments weren't enough to fill a tea cup, and certainly not enough for three.
In some way, I was glad. Had there been more, such as visible fangs in a residue of skull, I would have had the sorry duty to destroy the evidence.
Suddenly I smelled Beth behind me, and glanced over my shoulder. How was she always first at a new crime scene? Everyone else I could have just evicted with some borrowed authority, but not her. I almost felt sorry for Ltn. Carl. On the other hand, she was the only one I could talk to openly. I just wasn't sure I wanted to talk now.
"It was poker night. I was supposed to be here."
"I'm so sorry."
"Yeah, me too."
She pulled me into a short conversation about the crime scene, but I saw movement at the corner of my eyes. A camera. She brought a camera man! This was a crime scene, for crying out loud! I wasn't even remotely ready, still trying to find something, anything, to explain what happened. I snapped at her. Not in the mood to argue with her any more, and wary of the hurtful things I might say to her if I went on, I left in a hurry.
After driving for a while, I finally reach my destination and step into the elevator. Smooth metal walls surround me. There is still some residue of Josef's smell inside, and I realize he must have been here yesterday. He always makes himself at home at my place, whether I am there or not.
Made. Not makes. Suddenly it hits me. He is gone. I will never hear his snarky comments on my foolish endeavors again. He will never give me his unwelcome advice that always turns out to be in my best interest. Never again will we reminisce about the good times we spent together, I will never hear more stories about his earlier years. Not that he revealed much of substance in the anecdotes he shared with me. I never got a clear picture of him. I always tried to figure him out, never succeeded.
He had been such a constant presence in my life.
And now my life would be empty, broken like his office, empty shards, molten memories, just litter fluttering around in the wind. God, I really need a drink.
Stepping out of the elevator I catch a whiff of perfume, of summer sun and honey. Beth. She sits in front of my door as if she is afraid to miss me going in. How long has she been waiting there? She looks forlorn and sad. I need to apologize for my foul mood at the office, but she starts her apology for bringing a camera at the same time. I think to myself it's okay now, really.
I realize that I am relieved she is here. She is the only friend I have left, and I need to get the hurt out, or it will consume me.
So I try to explain how I feel. She understands. She always understands me, even if I don't talk. I try hard not to cry, but the tears just start falling. And then she takes a step forward and hugs me. And I remember that first time, when I carried her out of the burning building, and the other night she got up from my couch after the college student almost killed her. But this time she is the one giving comfort. For a moment I almost feel as if I can go on living.
I invite her in for a drink. Somehow I don't want to be alone tonight, like all the other nights, and I open the door.
Josef sits in my swivel chair, at my computer, in my robe, drinking my stash of blood. How could that be?
I am really relieved now that Beth is here, because otherwise I surely would have killed him for doing this to me.
