Short Stories with Tragic Endings
Chapter 2
-Sakura Kinomoto-
I felt dead as I walked through the mass of people to get to my train. I wasn't able to close my eyes for one second without seeing Marissa's dead face filled with agony and fear, so I opted for working all night. The result is a very detailed report from my point of view regarding the sticky situation Senator Tatted is currently in. Hopefully it will be good enough for the weekly political and financial magazine.
I sighed as I sank down onto the cold seat of the train coach and popped my earphones over my ears. Loud rock roared through my mind as I watched the graffiti on the tunnel walls pass by in a blur. Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue, blue, red, blue… The colours of rival gangs in the area no doubt. They are always trying to 'outshine' one another one way or other.
I closed my tired eyes. Why on earth would someone murder Marissa? She is not the best advice columnist the world has ever seen, but she does care about the people. She actually really cared about them and really tried to give as good advice as possible. She even researched topics in detail before attempting an answer for crying out loud.
So was her murder linked to bad advice? Or was she just in the right place at the wrong time? I don't think that it was a robbery gone bad, nothing was taken and all that was touched was Marissa. Touched? No, butchered. I hope the bastard who did it to her burns in hell.
"Next stop, Central Station." I opened my eyes at the mechanical voice and found some man staring at me. His blue eyes met mine and he smiled at me. Ignoring him I lifted myself from my seat and made my way to the doors. I don't have time, energy or patience for flirty farts. "Please mind the step."
I hate those recordings. They are so dead, lifeless… There is no human touch in them, except that it is some woman's flirty voice. Like those cell phone adds. It's just some flirty female voice breathing into a microphone that you must not miss the new special they have available on the newest trendy phones.
I paused at the newspaper stand. The front pages ware splattered with images of a smiling Marissa and headlines about her death. 'Loved columnist murdered.' 'Gruesome murder shocks city', 'Famous journalist murdered' etcetera, etcetera.
Dirty, filthy bloody… I felt like screaming. Everything was going to remind me of Marissa today. Everyone is going to ask questions, whether I am okay or not. The television is going to have this on every damn channel and every newspaper and magazine in the city is going to cover it. One of their own was murdered, revenge must be taken.
Clenching my teeth I walked up the stairs to the exit. At the moment all I wanted to do is go back to my apartment, eat a ton of choc chip cookies, drink gallons of wine and play my favourite music really loud until I am able to forget everything I saw. But now I am on my way to work and although I have a large packet of choc chip cookies in my bag, I am not allowed to drown my sorrows in wine until I get back to my apartment.
I hate this damn city.
-Syaoran Li-
Headlines of the murder were everywhere. Newspapers, television, radio, even the internet. A journalist was murdered, one of their own, and now they want blood. To hell with justice, it was time for revenge and they will tear the person responsible to shreds with their words.
I pushed my hands into my pockets as I slowly walked down the cold hallway to the corner's lab. Hopefully Tomoyo has some answers that will shed some light on this case. The sooner this is solved the better. I do not even want to know what the media will do when we start identifying suspects.
Goodbye privacy – that is all I can say. They have already started harassing me since five this damn morning. Calling my phone, my cell, cluttering my e-mail, hovering at my door and my car... I hate journalists.
I need to phone that girl, find out how she's doing. Maybe she will be able to remember something. Then again, I'll have to go in and question the rest of her colleges anyway, I might as well see her there. That is if she went in to work. If? Ha! Definitely, she's always working. She does nothing else with her life.
I pulled off my jacket and put on one of those ridicules blue coats. Tomoyo patiently stood next to the body waiting for me with that calm smile on her face. I hate that smile, it always seems that nothing, no matter how disturbing, could ever stop her from smiling as if the world is the best place to live in. Not even when she's standing next to a butchered body.
"So, what do we have?"
"Good morning." I nodded in response and she turned and pulled the cover off the body. I silently grunted in disgust. Like I said, nothing can take that smile away. "Our victim is Marissa Glen, age twenty eight. Over all she was in good physical health, except for a bad cold. She wasn't raped or in any way sexually assaulted. The only thing that he did to her was tear her to shreds with sharp knife or something else that had a sharp blade.
"Cause of death, near decapitation. There is a bruise on the right side of her face and her entire body is covered with superficial cuts, her arms and hands are damaged the most. She put up a struggle. I gathered some tissue samples from under her nails, the lab is on it as we speak."
"Anything else?"
"No. No traces of anything were on her except for the tissue under her nails." It means who ever had the sick idea of doing this had it planned. I don't like planned murders, especially the sort of this kind. Hopefully the killer lost his taste for blood after this one.
Call it wishful thinking, but I would like to hope.
"Thanks Tomoyo."
"No problem." I lifted a brow at her smiling face, knowing that the little smile on her lips held more than a carefree attitude. "So…" she tested the water and I folded my arms in response. "You and Kinomoto, hey?"
"What about Kinomoto and me?"
"Are you going to… You know…" No I don't know. My body language said it clearly, because she let out a huge sigh and folded her own arms in response. "Are you still mad at her?"
"I was never mad at her."
"So are you going to give her a chance this time?"
"She's a witness to the murder I am investigating, or have you forgotten that?"
"All the more reason. Come on Li! She needs you, even more so now. You know how she is. And you know how you are without her – sad. You two have been barking at one another for years now, why don't you just ask her out and get it over with?"
"I have absolutely no intention of getting involved with that girl."
"Too late, you are already involved." She snorted at my frown. "Oh please, like I haven't seen you two eyeing each other or you staring longingly at her picture whenever she appears in the papers or on TV? What happens to all those clippings anyways, hu? Do you keep them in your office drawer or under your pillow at home?"
"Don't be stupid. Leave my life out of your little theories and get on with your work." I pulled the blue coat off and pulled my jacket back on. Stupid woman. She might be the best coroner this department has ever seen, but her nosy habits are slowly but surely driving me up the walls.
"She is meant for you, you know." I shook my head as she sang her song down the corridor, managing to get everyone's attention directed towards me. You would think with all the deaths in this city these people would have more than enough work on their hands, but apparently my so-called love life takes priority. Something I do not appreciate.
Kinomoto, of all people.
Did you ever see that one person
And the way they do these things
And it hurts so much it's like chocking, chocking, chocking…
Down the embers
I read through my notes again and again. Nothing, I have absolutely nothing. Not even a conspiracy theory that might lead me somewhere, even if it is to a dead end. None of Miss Glen's colleges could tell me anything except that she was a caring, warm person. No one had a reason to hate her.
Her neighbours loved her. She always smiled, she always greeted people, she went out of her way to help them. Ex-boyfriends still kept contact with her and loved her as a friend. Rival columnists adored her and claim to often share tips with her. Her family thought the world of her. I had everyone's input, except for Kinomoto's.
Her boss sent her home. Apparently she looked like a wreck and she just sat staring at her computer screen for half the morning. The girl can't cope. It's natural. I don't blame her. But I need to hear her side of the story, her view on Miss Glen. I pocketed my note book and climbed out of my warm car. Winter is on its way.
I pulled my jacket a little closer to my body and entered the apartment complex. The girl's home was on the fifth floor, number 506. I knocked and the door swung open. Loud music boomed inside and the girl hung on the door, her blank green eyes staring up at me. "Oh, it's you."
"Who else where you expecting?"
"No idea." I followed her in and closed the door behind me. Her apartment was clean for most part. On the table, however, two bottles of wine proudly stood amongst the empty wrappers of sweets and takeaway containers. One was empty, the other halfway there. She turned the music down and flopped down on a couch before emptying her full glass of wine in one gulp.
"You've been drinking I see."
"So?"
"You know how you get when you are drunk."
"Yeah, the way you like me." She grinned and I shifted uncomfortably. Apparently she hasn't forgotten our little encounter two years ago. She laughed and I held back a sigh as I sat down. "Do you want to do it again Urban Wolf? I won't mind."
"You'll mind when you are sober."
"Says who?"
"Says me. Stop drinking." I grabbed the bottle from her and sat it down next to my chair. This girl is insufferable when she hit the wine. "Sakura, stop that." She shook her head. "I said stop." She looked at me as she lay upside down on the couch with her feet in the air and her hair touching the ground. "You're such a child."
"And who are you, my father? No, so don't tell me what to do in my own damn home. You might be the law Xiao-lang Li, but here you are squat. This is my territory, not yours, so don't think that you can come and boss me around." She rolled right side up and walked over to me. Her body brushed against mine as she leaned over and plucked the bottle from the ground.
"Oh no, you don't. I've had enough of you and your little attitude when you've had one too many." I pulled the bottle from her hand and shoved her back in her seat. "No sit down and shut up." I sat down next to her. "Sakura, you need to talk to someone about what you saw."
"And too who exactly do I recall every gross and intricate detail that is forever burned into my memory? You? Fine. I found my best friend murdered in her own home. Her body was slashed to pieces. Her eyes where black as they stared at me and all I could do was stand and stare at her for ages unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to do anything!
"She's dead! She's dead Xiao-lang! Someone killed her and I couldn't do anything to help her. I had to tell her mom that. I had to look Mrs Glen in the eye and tell her that she won't be able to look at her daughter one last time, because he butchered her." Tears rolled down her face as she yelled at me.
"She's dead. She's dead. She's dead…" I held the girl as she mumbled on in my shirt. 'She's dead, she's dead.' She repeated over and over again. All I could do was hold her. I stroke her hair gently and whispered words of comfort in her ear. It's all I could do. She's dead.
Sakura's P.O.V.
I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes the apartment was dark and my music had stopped. I sat up straight and stared around. I was in my bedroom under my duvet. Li was no where to be seen. He must have put me in my bed and walked off.
Bloody idiot.
I groaned as I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom, switching lights on as far as I went. I don't like the dark anymore. It hides things, people that should not stay hidden. I flicked on the bathroom light and found a note stuck to my mirror. It was written in Li's sloppy handwriting telling me to stay home when I woke up. I am in no condition to go to work. I crumbled it in my hand and threw it in the toilet. Who is he to tell me what to do?
I stared at my face. Dark circles were clearly visible under my eyes, my hair was in more of a mess than usual and I just looked sick. Great, I look the way I feel. Then again, I've felt and looked this way for a long time now. Ever since I came to this cursed city. It's just come to a point where it looks awful. I look awful.
I've lost my faith in people, in the system and in the world. The only thing I could trust was my writing, and it was dependent on other people. When people screw up I tell the world about it. Have I too become one of those sad people walking the streets looking for the life I will never find?
I hate this chapter in my life. This short story of me in the big, grand city. It is filled with loneliness, doubt and mistrust. I was never like this. Back home I was happy and carefree. I did not feel the way I feel now. I want to go back. To daddy and Toya, and the cherry blossom trees.
I am going back.
I'm going to finish Senator Tatted's short story and then I am going to start a new one of my own. Back in Tomoeda, where I am happy and I don't feel so alone.
He held her close, he listened to her breathing. He listened… Her body pressed against his, the warmth of her flesh sent a rush through his blood with her every breath. Breathe… Breathe… Her breasts against his chest, her thighs so tightly pressed against him… Breathe… Breathe… She breathed her last breath.
