At around midnight, a wave of realization finally struck Odd. He sat up in the couch he had been sleeping on. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as he realized he would finally have to come to terms with the facts: Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremy, Aelita, and TJ were all dead. What had he left to live for?
Perhaps that's a rhetorical question, he thought sadly to himself. Maybe I can sneak a pistol away from one of the officers. Lying back down onto his bed, he quietly reflected on all that he had lost in the past few months. He had always been a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, what happened? What happened to his life? Soon enough, he slipped away, back into his dreams…
Morning came way too soon for his liking. The sun unpleasantly met his eyes when he opened them, not unlike his first unpleasant awakening in the hospital. Rubbing his temples, he gazed down at the bags holding his belongings that were next to the couch on the floor. There's my life, he thought. It's all here, in this police station.
The morning started out like the ones he used to have at Kadic. One of the officers showed him to the bathroom, where he took a shower and brushed his teeth. After that, the officer showed him to the cafeteria, where he gorged down a huge breakfast. He was hungry after months of hospital food and life support.
Finally, he was led into the office he was in last night, where the same two officers were waiting. "Good morning," one of them said.
"Good morning," said Odd.
"How are you?"
"Discontent."
"Good," replied the officer, not seeming to actually be listening to Odd's answers. "Well, the detectives we put on the case will be back soon with their leads. Until then, I guess you can do whatever you want, as long as you don't get in the way of the officers."
"Sounds fair enough," said Odd casually. He left the office, in search of the room he had on his mind. There was other business that needed dealing with. After wandering around the station for about half an hour, he found what he was looking for. Making sure the coast was clear; he silently slipped into the locker room. Seeing an unattended locker open, he quickly bounded over, and began to rummage through it. Finding what he wanted, he hid it inside of his jacket and quickly slipped out before being caught.
He arrived back at his room. It seemed like nobody was going to disturb him. He had never really handled a gun before, and he fumbled awkwardly with it as he tried to load the bullet into it.
Finally succeeding in loading the bullet, he dropped the gun on the floor, letting out a great sob of grief. Could he really go through with this?
I've got to, he thought. Just one bullet and all of my troubles will be over. He squeezed his eyes shut as he pressed the barrel of the pistol gently against his right temple. Time seemed to move in slow motion. As his finger touched the trigger, the door suddenly burst open. There was a brief, tense moment as Odd looked at the officer with surprise and the officer looked at Odd with surprise. Then, something clicked in the officer's mind, and his face became solemn and dark.
"Kid," he said, "You'd better put that fucking gun down. I mean it."
Odd shook his head as tears rolled down cheeks. "Please," pleaded the police officer. "You have no idea what you're doing. Come on, you don't need to do this. You've only got one life."
"Fuck you," fumed Odd, becoming more and more upset. "Fuck you and everyone here. You don't care about me. You don't care about my friends, you don't care about anybody. You just do this to get your paycheck and pay your rent."
"Kid-"
"My NAME is Odd."
"Odd, please. I can't save you; I can only try to help you. You're the one who's got to put that gun down."
Odd finally broke. The gun dropped from his quivering hand, and he dropped to the floor in tears, his fist banging against the ground. "Come on," said the officer, helping him up. "Come on, let's go." Sobbing into his chest, Odd was led out of the room and into the bathroom by the kind man. He wet a paper towel and began to wipe away his tears. "Come on, it'll be alright." Each time Odd tried to open his mouth to speak, he felt another wave of tears coming on, and shut it.
He watched the officer fill up the sink with water. A cool washcloth touched his cheek, as the officer washed his face. It was as if he was an infant again, being cared for by his mother.
My mom, he thought sadly to himself. Why can't you be here, Mom? Why did you have to go? A wave of sadness hit him again. Why did he have to keep asking rhetorical questions?
Odd was led back to the room he was staying in. "You sure you'll be alright by yourself?" asked the officer. He nodded quickly. "Okay," continued the officer. "I'm going to send somebody to check on you in about ten minutes. Take care, kid."
He hung his head in shame, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. Why did he have to go pull a stunt like that? Why did he have to just screw things up even more than they were? Again with the rhetorical questions…
At last, he noticed that amidst all of this, the officer had taken the gun away. Glancing down at one of his duffel bags, he pulled out a comic book, leaned back and began to read.
When noon rolled around, the officer he had spoken to twice now walked in. "Hey, kid." Odd gritted his teeth. How many times did he have to tell people this?
"My NAME is Odd."
"Whatever, Odd. Come to my office immediately. Our detectives are back. Come with me, you're helping out on this case."
"How am I supposed to help out? I know nothing about solving cases!"
"We interviewed some of your classmates back at Kadic. Apparently, you knew your friends better than anybody else did. That is a crucial point in solving this."
Odd groaned. Still, he couldn't comprehend why this had to happen to him. "Fine," he stated simply. The officer glared at him.
"Look, ODD, at some point you're going to have to accept that this is happening and that not everything is going to be okay. One of my coworkers told me what happened earlier. Now, I'd better not catch you trying to pull any of that shit again."
Odd stood up, offended by the officer's words. "FINE. I'll help out. But I'll have you know, I don't appreciate your attitude towards me, so I think we need to set some boundaries. YOU don't get entangled in MY shit, and I don't get entangled in YOURS. Cappiche?!"
The officer stared at him with his mouth agape. Never in the history of his career had he had somebody as young as Odd was speak to him like that. It was something he in a way respected, but still didn't understand.
They walked the rest of the way to the office in silence. An invisible tension seemed to rest uneasily between the two of them. Three detectives sat before the officer's desk. The officer sat in his chair, and Odd stood off in the background.
"Alright, Steve…" began the first detective.
So that's his name, Steve, thought Odd.
"We may have a lead to begin this case. My team here (he gestured towards the other two) have dealt with many mysteries closely related to this one. Each time we investigated, the murderer left absolutely no trace. No leads, no traceable sources, no DNA evidence, nothing. Whoever commits these crimes take no risks." Steve frantically was scribbling down notes. "However, it seems that they may have slipped up this time. As it turns out, for exactly ten seconds on the night we found the five dead, all internet access went down, and then they died. We traced the source of the black out, and discovered that it came from an old shop in a backstreet not to far from Kadic. Now, as it turned out, that very shop burned down in a fire that very night. We interviewed some witnesses who were in the area when it burned down. There are several accounts of having seen some unidentifiable men pile into a car and drive away before the shop went up in flames. So, that's the only lead we've got for now."
Steve vigorously punched the last period on his notes, breaking the pencil. He grunted in frustration. "Well, that's excellent. Is there any other news concerning the case?"
The next detective cleared her throat. "Yes, actually there is." Odd perked up. "Tomorrow, an autopsy will be performed on TJ Johnson tomorrow to try to discover the cause of his internal injuries. This will prove to probably be one of the most crucial points in solving the case."
Nerdwithagun: What will happen next? Find out next time on: Autopsy!