well well well hello it is I the person who abandoned this story and then chickened out. I had a lot written for this but none of it felt right but here is thus regardless.
publisher date: 28/01/2021
He was 14 when he had to remove her body from the basement. It was few days of building the courage to look at her and then another few days to move her up the stairs and out of his house (subtly of course, he's not trying to get arrested here). By the time he had...disposed of her two weeks had passed 2 weeks. The search for her had been going strong ever since she went missing little over a fortnight ago and showed no signs of stopping.
It was tedious bypassing all of the search parties and finding the easiest way to dispose of a body. But he had signed up for this so it's not like he could complain. He had to deal with cards he had been given and they just so happened to entail a dead 20 year old woman trapped in his basement wall.
This woman had apparently called Johanna Crowley. All that was known about her is that she had recently gone missing and was inevitably presumed dead. No family. No friends. Only her manager to report the sudden disappearance and the suspicous CCTV footage that kept the case going longer than it should have.
Who she was isn't really important. It 's how she got in his basement and behind a concrete wall that is.
His parents weren't there to experience the aftermath of the wall crumbling away and revealing sightless eyes nor the numerous attempts at moving her body. They weren't there to experience much of his life and this particular milestone was no different.
He'd call it a milestone. How many people do you know who has successfully gotten away with hiding a body? None of course. What moron would admit to that.
Her body had been placed under a tree surrounded by nature. He assumed she wouldve liked it if she were still alive to see it. And so it was the most appropriate place to put the body of the girl you accidentally discovered. Over the years, nature consumed and buried her there.
They never found her body.
But they did find his.
I think I'm dead.
I'm not a professional on the subject. I've never died before, but this void i seem to be floating in feels quite appropriate for an underwhelming afterlife.
Now, I'm not a genius or anything, but when you wake up surrounded by a white void it is safe to assume that you've somehow perished in the night. Or I am incredibly high. Maybe someone spiked my drink and now I'm hallucinating. Maybe I have ascended to another plane of existence and I am forever stuck here.
Maybe, i have finally died at the ripe old age of 23. And I am now doomed to spend eternity within this poorly decorated and mind numbingly boring nothingness.
"You're not dead...technically,"
I whirl around expecting to see a man standing behind me. And where there should be a man ready to discuss the technicalities of my supposed 'not-death', there is simply the white void. I look up-or to where i assume up is- and say:
"Oh Mr Disembodied Voice, please do explain."
There is silence for a moment before an irritated sigh rings through the air.
"I had kinda hoped you would lose the smart ass attitude once you found yourself here", they replied.
I bristle and am just about to defend myself when a muffled thump sounds to my left. I turn to look at what created the noise and see a small velvet pouch. It stands out amongst the blank setting with it's black colour. I waltz over to it and scoop it up. It is just big enough to be the size of my palm. There is nothing interesting about it, it is plain much like me and my surroundings, and has no embellishments. Whatever is inside weighs a lot for how small it is.
I'm becoming aggravated with the lack of answers.
"What is this? What's going on?"
"You-"
He cuts off and I belatedly realise that it is not him who caused the incredibly convenient-unconventient disruption in his explanation.
My ears are ringing something fierce. It is the first of my senses to cut off. My eyes follow next.
And then I am hurtling through an ocean of black.
