Note:
The first formal sections are the FBI memos sent to the Lab. I'm basing it on the informal memos sent between law enforcement and labs here in Singapore, if you guys know the right format, do tell. thanks :)
the second section is the Victim's POV during his/her last moments.
Muahahaha... enjoy!
FBI Forensics Report
Physical Evidence 1: Human Tissue and Blood found on Area One (Playground Slide)
CODIS Match request by Dr Camille Saroyan.
Match found:
Mr. Jonathan David Hughes "Black"
Physical Attributes: 39 years old, 5 Feet 8 Inches (172 cm), 11 Stone (70 kg), Athletic frame, no health issues.
Nationality: American
Race: Caucasian - Irish American.
Occupation: Professional Cave Diver
- End report -
I woke up coughing really badly, and my eyes clenched shut. Every cough just made my head worse.
The air was impossibly hot, and I heard crackling over the sound of ringing in my ears. My brain felt all fuzzy, and my hand instinctively shot up to a small area behind my left ear. My hair was stuck together with drying blood, and I was struggling to remember past the blinding headaches.
I got foggy flashbacks as my head continued to protest. I recall feeling like someone was behind me when I went into the study, and hearing a sickening "thump" as something heavy collided with the back of my skull. I started worrying about concussions, and I realized my ears were ringing.
I tried to take a deep breath to clear my head, and I suddenly realized I couldn't. No, the air was thick with smoke, and a sudden primal fear chilled me despite the feverish air. I forced my eyes open against the onslaught of pain, and in horror I saw that all the books were piled high against the door, on the desk, and that the curtains were all being consumed by a crazed fire. I swerve my head around to try and find an opening out of the fire, my head screaming with each turn.
Instinct was ordering me to stand and run around the ring to find the opening, but years of training to expect the worst kicked in. The fire looked as if it had been started a while ago, while I was out cold. My watch told me I was out maybe twenty minutes, and a singe trail on the carpet meant that the fire was started by whoever wanted to kill me before they left me dead. I knew that I would run out of breathable air soon. I stayed low, grunting against the pain, and began to look for the air tank and respirators I kept in the corner of the study for decor purposes. They were a little old, but would still work. At least, I prayed that they did.
My eyes caught the orange flames glinting off the silver tank, and I felt a rush of relief when I saw that the fire hadn't touched it. I dragged myself a few feet to the tank, and that action cause me to double over in nausea from the pain and lack of air. Soot was beginning to settle on everything, and for a horrible moment, I imagine lying here and watching my body being covered and burnt. I shoved the mental images of myself being fried alive aside, and I grabbed the tank.
I felt that the tank was impossibly cold when my hand touched the metal. the tank was not hot, like everything else in the room, but could it be the metal casing? There was water on the sides of the tank, but I told myself I could be condensation in the heated air. I push my doubts aside, and pull the respirator towards me. I check the gas release, and stuck it in my mouth when I was satisfied it was working. It was a simple air tank with a bubble regulator, so I had about twenty minutes of air. I planned to take deep breaths and look for a way out, so I didn't run out of air. Not that I expected to last twenty minutes in a burning room anyway.
I drew a deep breath, and felt a satisfying rush of sweet oxygen fill my lungs. the air tasted weird though, but I couldn't put my finger on why. I also had a slightly bitter aftertaste, and my tongue went numb. Probably stale air from being left in the study, or soot on everything, or that I had been hit on the head a while ago.
I take another long pull to steady myself before I start searching for a way out, and now I know that something was definitely not right. It felt like the air a diver would use for a bottoming tank, when diver uses different combinations of gases of different density to combat decompression sickness or "the bends". Except that this tank was supposed to contain normal atmospheric air. The air had turned denser, coming out of the tank a little slower, and suddenly the respirator valve failed. The gas that was present in the tank came out in a menacing hiss, and straight down my throat.
I felt as if I was being strangled, and my chest went numb. My limbs had a frightening tingling, and I lay paralyzed on the carpet of the study. I couldn't breathe, couldn't feel, and my thoughts were beginning to scatter. The heat felt distant, and in that instant, I realized that I was definitely going to die.
My last thoughts were not that I was too young, or that I regretted anything I had done. Rather, they whether they were going to find me stiff but still looking like me, or was I going to be burnt to ashes, like the books piled high against the door. Surprise, dying seems so unreal when you're taken so abruptly.
My eyes wouldn't close, and my last thought after I knew that I was never going to ever breath again was whether there would be enough of me to scatter on the ocean when they find my body.
Then my eyes blacked out, and I felt water on my fingers. Then I was gone.
There you go! Please review, so I can get better with each chapter! thanks!