A/N: HALLELUJAH!!! WRITER'S BLOCK BROKEN!!! ^__^ *does a bit of a dance* Yayisms! I am back in action, baby!!!
Q&A time! Yippee!
American Fetus: Good observation. However, Kira doesn't say she's eaten them in the space of time when she was a vegetarian. I suppose that doesn't cover the turkey and cheese Subway, but hey. I guess Kira is a vegetarian when she wants to be. With her job, can you really blame her? ^_^;
Kylemacuk1234: Mine! *snatches copyright* Well…not yet. And it's a fanfiction…so it wouldn't count. Phooey.
MoriMori_EYE: KAWORU!!! *GLOMP* Hee hee. Yes yes, I love Kaworu. I may have used his name, but he does not appear anywhere in this story. *cries* Oh well. I'll track down his voice actor yet. ^__^ *swoon* Remember, name the episode the last reference came from and you get a cookie…
Jun: Sore wa…Himitsu desu! ^_~v
Short chapter, I know, but be thankful! Now I'm back on track, so more chappies will be out sooner. Worse comes to worse, IM me and smack me. That'll work, I bet. ^_^;;; Anyway, thanks to all who've reviewed so far! May nougat be showered on your firstborn! *blink*…where did that come from?!
Oh yes…for future reference, I am a girl. ^_~
Cheers,
~Rumer ("It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Then it's hilarious.")
Autopsy Report: Chapter 12
My watch beeped. It was approximately 11:45 PM, and I was still hard at work. Well, not at the office. I was at home. For once. Since the meeting with Dr. Sunderland several hours ago, I couldn't concentrate. I spent the entire day moping around the office, downing can after can of Coke from the vending machine, and trying to piece together just why my life was getting so damned complicated. I never figured out the answer to that question aside from the obvious, so when it was time to leave, I had quite a bit on my mind. As soon as I got to the apartment, I performed the mandatory 'search and destroy' routine and settled myself at my computer, a 2002 Dell Dimension 4500S. Yeah, it did cost a pretty penny. But it was worth every cent. I couldn't do anything with my old 1997 Mac. The thing was slow as molasses, and half as smart. I figured if I were to replace it, I'd make it a good one. So I did. Right now I was using it to find out who the hell Dr. Mary Sunderland was.
Well, I knew who she was, that was obvious. But aside from the name, I knew next to nothing. So I called up my hacking skills from the days of yore and got to work delving into the internet, getting into the files of most Ivy League schools and looking for Mary's name. I looked in Yale, Harvard, Birmingham, Vanderbilt, and all the most prestigious medical institutions there were. I even looked in Oxford, and I still found nothing. Okay, either Mary Sunderland was a pseudonym, or she just took classes from the neighborhood Mayo Clinic. Getting a bit irritated, I found my way into an extremely well used identification program. Well…not quite an ID program. More like a spy network. On many websites with over 50,000 hits per day, some people pay the website manager to put spies in the software. When you visit the page, the spy program is automatically imprinted onto your hard drive, where they monitor your moves on and off the net. Sadly, you can't get rid of them without specific software. And the software is expensive. Most people value their privacy, but then again, most people don't know about the spies. I thought that even John Doe must have picked up a few spies on his com, so I checked around the spy list. Sure enough, the name Sunderland was on the spy list. Hot dog. I double-clicked the link.
Beep.
A little box had come up on the screen. "Access denied: Password insufficient". Password? There was no place for a password. I tried it again. The box came up a second time. Okay, to hell with conventional methods. I started giving ALT commands. Hey, if it got me where I needed to go, I didn't care for any lawsuits daring to come my way. When I finished the ALT commands, I clicked the link again.
The computer beeped, and went black. I cursed aloud. If it crashed my system, I was going to be very angry. My computer was my baby, and I would kill any who would do anything to it. Wait, a C: prompt was flashing on the screen.
Hello, Kira.
White lettering had appeared on my screen in a very Matrix-esque manner. My jaw dropped.
Are you there?
I forced my heart back into my chest and typed shakily.
"Who is this?"
You know me.
I thought. And thought. And thought some more. Nope, I didn't really know anyone else who could hack into a system as well as I could. I've hacked into the Pentagon before, although not of my free will, so skills like mine were few and far between. So I just took a wild shot in the dark.
"Harry?"
Guess again.
"Mary?"
A few moments of silence before the answer.
No.
"Well, I don't know. Whoever you are, tell me what you want, and leave me the hell alone."
Not very polite, are you? No. I won't tell you who I am, but I will tell you what I want.
"Tell me."
I want you to go outside and look around. Come back and tell me what you saw.
I shook my head in disbelief. How stupid did this guy think I was?
***
Apparently very stupid, because I got up and made my way to the front door. I locked the door behind me, walked down the corridor and down to the lobby, cursing my naiveté. When I stepped out of the building and saw my breath, I remembered that it was now November. Cursing to myself, I doubled back, grabbed my deep-freeze-sub-zero-ice-age trench coat parka which I'd bought in Germany. They have some of the coldest winters around, and for that matter, so did Brahms. There was never any snow, but it got so cold that your breath would freeze and fall to the earth in tiny icicles. I slipped the hood over my head and locked the door again, and proceeded to go downstairs to the parking lot. As I crossed the decorative "garden" that acted as a median for the lot and the building, I heard a sound. I looked around cautiously, seeing if I could pinpoint what it was. A snuffling sound, almost like a large animal. I paused for a moment, heard nothing, shrugged, and continued to walk. My mind was still in dreamland. I started to whistle "Ode to Joy", but immediately stopped when I heard the snuffle again. I looked around again, this time more carefully. There was nothing but a small alcove where the dumpster was. Sure, of course that's where it would be. If I were a monster, I would hide in a garbage bin. I snickered to myself and walked over to the dumpster. I stopped in my tracks when I saw what was there.
A large dog, maybe a greyhound of sorts, was rooting through some spilled garbage. Hell, large couldn't describe it. Its back was as high as my waist. It looked like a small pony. It snuffled around, and turned its head. It caught sight of me.
Shit.
The dog started to turn. Nope, the size of it wasn't a trick of the shadows. It really was a monster of a dog. Quite literally. Its fur was slick and molded to its body, and a lot of bones showed through the delicate skin. Hell, I wasn't even sure it had skin. It was mangy, flea-bitten, and overall disgusting. I thought I saw the eyes glint red, but I shrugged it off. Red eyes? Pshaw. Not even Cujo had red eyes. So, being the sensible young me I am, I started to back away. The dog did nothing but watch me, staring after me even when I reached the building. I slipped inside and raced back to my apartment. When I got there, I ran to my window and looked out. The window was catty-corner from the alcove with the dumpster, I'd complained about the view before. But now I was astonished. The dog was nowhere to be seen. I let out a shuddering sigh and returned to my computer. The text was still there, and when I sat back down, another message flashed on the screen.
Did you see it?
"The dog?"
Yes.
"I did. What about it? It was a mangy mutt."
You're starting to see them too. In time, you'll be just…like…me. Keep it up, flatfoot.
The screen flashed blue, then the computer shut down. I tried to turn it back on, but to no avail. The thing was as disobedient as an ass. The donkey, not the person. Although the similarities are unquestionable. In any case, I wasn't getting any more work done tonight. I let loose a defeated sigh, trudged to the living room, and flopped down on my couch. I fell asleep right there and snoozed like a little baby. Pretty pathetic for the heap-big forensic pathologist, right? Or should I say 'flatfoot'? Naw. It's expected of the rookies. Whoever pulled the little Matrix prank was gonna pay, big time. And to do that I needed all the rest I could get. Considering I'd spent almost half a year sleeping, who knew I'd need it in the next, oh, millennium? Someone did. And it haunted me. I dreamed of faceless specters and ruby-eyed dogs. I'd gotten used to dreamless sleep and missed it horribly. Even I could use a tone-down of trauma. Lord knows I've had enough. But we weren't dealing with the Lord now…we were dealing with something else altogether, and that something else wouldn't give a damn about my dreams. Quite literally. Or maybe…he just might.
***
I woke up the next morning to my cellphone ringing. Heh, my scary little cell now doubled as an alarm clock. I opened my eyes and quickly closed them, cursing to myself. I'd forgotten to take out my contacts, and now my eyes were dry as hell. No matter. At least my ears were okay. I stumbled across my living room to the kitchen, where I found the phone and picked up on the last ring.
"It is I. What the hell do you want?"
"Dr. Devereaux?" It was Dr. Proudmoore. Oops. Quickly I changed my tone.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Proudmoore…you woke me up and I didn't get to bed until late last night. What's up?"
"Forget it. Listen, get dressed and come down to the clinic. We got another body in last night. From Silent Hill. Since you did all the autopsies thus far and have pinpointed everything about them, we wanted you to continue your work." Lucky, lucky me.
"Yes ma'am…I'll be there in about an hour."
"Half an hour. We really need you. I'll see you here." She hung up. Nice. I blew a raspberry and hung up. Letting loose a groan, I forced my eyes open and began to search for my rewetting drops. If I was supposed to do another autopsy, I'd at least like to see what I was doing. After all, I didn't want to spend any more time in the hospital. I'd pretty much spent all my vacation days at that haven for healing, and I did want to get some time to go to Bermuda in a few years. YEARS. I'd have to work my ass off to make it in that little time. And now was the best time to start.
I found my rewetting drops and struggled into some clean clothes. Best to not keep the client waiting.
~~~
Reviews=More chapters! Which I will put out at a faster rate, I PROMISE!!! ^_^;;;