chapter word count: 518

noir heart: eighty-nine

Some say that the human body is naught but a shell, a construct made to house the immutable spirit and the radiant soul, the essence of who a person is. They say that when the time comes to take the next journey beyond the veil, that the person's consciousness and soul travels on while the body is left behind. Its goal achieved, the body remains an empty, hollow shell.

Somewhere in the cusp of his hearing, Hiccup says, "C.O.D. was massive trauma to the heart, courtesy of a knife through the fourth and fifth rib. Death occurred within seconds."

As he gazes over her lifeless form, Jack wonders if maybe there's some truth to it. Aurora must have been beautiful, once. A radiant soul that illuminated the world around her.

Maybe she wasn't, maybe she was a haughty, narcissistic wraith that sucked away the good and replaced it with chaos.

"I also found a taser burn to her chest, and ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. No signs of defense."

Whatever she was, which only Captain Moors and her parents will tell him when the time comes, she's none of those things now. Just an empty shell on a steel table surrounded by two detectives and a medical examiner, with nothing but a pure white blanket covering her modesty. Whoever this person is, they took everything from her, leaving behind a woman with alabaster skin, wet, slicked back hair, empty eyes and a silent heart.

"Jack, are you listening?"

One life is all a person has, one life - and hers was stolen.

"Jack?"

Blinking, Jack looks up and stares blankly at Hiccup, who regards him with a cocked eyebrow and a mildly-suspicious expression. "What?"

The brunette rolls his eyes. "You were away with the fairies."

Jack looks at Aster, who quirks his lips and nods. "Sorry," he sighs, "long night. Massive trauma to the heart, taser burn, ligature marks, no defense. What else?"

Hiccup groans under his breath. "I was going to say - the tox-screen came back with something interesting, just like the other victims. High levels of scopolamine."

When he read through the report at home, Jack did wonder why the hell all six victims were found with seasickness medication in their systems, and he'd hoped visiting the morgue and would grant him inspiration, but apparently not. Scopolamine is obviously important to the unsub...but why?

"There is something different, though. All the other victims had signs of sexual intercourse - fluids, stuff like that. I checked if it was rape, but there was no bruising or trauma associated with it. Far as I can tell, when they had sex, it was consensual."

Jack looks at Hiccup through the corner of his eye. "I sense a 'but' coming."

Hiccup, his eyes taking on a thoughtful look as he folds his arms and gazes at her body, delivers the most curious thing of all. "But Aurora's different - she's the only one with a broken hymen."

Eyes returning to the lifeless woman, Jack breathes, "Aurora was a virgin."

another reminder that things'll be pretty dark. And adult. Jpbake: Elsa tried to make it look like someone else did it.

special thanks to: katara0301, vrupd.1992, jpbake, doomstone, oninoko, deadbreath, anastasia and hornedgoddess for the reviews.