Chapter 5: Melissa and the Morgue 2-3

Hello!
I would just like to ask of you to please re-read the first two chapters, for I have significantly edited them. This chapter may not even make sense if you don't re-read them.

Thank you!

A crowd of people, including Melissa Joyner, step out of the morning bus and walk to their townhouses.

In her hands are two grocery bags; one containing toilet paper, the other having toothpaste and snacks.

She walks along the sidewalk, which is covered in leaves and tree roots that come out of the concrete, cracking and crumbling it. A few times, she had to step over some large roots. And these roots were not the color of brown, as they are in Summer, they were the color of ugly gray. Well, for most people, they were the color of beautiful Autumn trunk and wood, but she saw them as another sign of death/dying.

She reaches the top of the steps to her townhouse, lays her grocery bags on the floor, and searches for her keys in her purse. She flips through all the receipts, tissue bags, pens, and, finally, finds her keys.

While unlocking the door, she hears shouting coming from her right side. It was of her neighbors, Patty and Daniel Nicholson. Melissa had never heard them argue that loud before. She'd hear them all the time inside her home (they share a wall), but it was never loud enough to hear them outside of it.

Curiosity caused her to peek through the side window of their home.

Patty was screaming and pointing her finger at Daniel, whereas Daniel was not even looking at her; he was clenching his fist while storming around the living room. This was serious, of course, but what really tempted Melissa to do something was their 5-year-old child, Christopher, bawling his eyes out in the corner of the room.

Melissa debated whether she should do something, seeing that all the neighbors quickly rushed in their homes as soon as the yelling began; as if no one wanted to deal with it.

Then, to Melissa's surprise, the Nicholson's front-door opened wide, followed by Daniel's body being literally thrown out onto the pavement of the sidewalk. Patty Nicholson is definitely a tough girl, she thought.

Daniel looked directly at Melissa in embarrassment. And just as his face turned red, and his fists clenched so hard that they turned purple-colored, Melissa took action, for she knew that he was going to get physical back at Patty.

As Daniel stomped his way towards the steps of his house, Melissa laid her hands on his shoulder.
"Uh, Daniel. Please don't—" but Daniel had swatted her hand away in irritation.

"Stay out!" Patty shouted while throwing a plastic bag full of Daniel's clothes onto the sidewalk.
"You bitch!" He yelled in response.

"Daniel, calm down," Melissa begged.
"Don't tell me to calm down! She just threw all my shit on the floor!"
"I know, but let's just stop and think for a second."
"Trust me," Daniel said while opening the trunk of his car, "I am."

He pulled out a large, metal, pole.

"Daniel, no! Don't, Daniel, please!" Melissa begged, trying to help out the situation.

Disregarding Melissa, Daniel walks to the front door and shouts "I'm sick of your shit, Patty! Open the door, or I'm coming in myself!"

"I've called the cops, and they're on their way! Don't think of doing anything regrettable!"
"Fuck you!"

And with that said, Daniel smashed the door-handle off with the pole and kicked the door extremely hard, causing it to fall down like a domino.

Melissa had a burst of courage and ran towards Daniel, trying to pull the pole away from him. In a fit of rage, Daniel punched her, making her fall down the steps and onto the pavement. Her eyes began to tear up.

Then she heard the sounds of something rumbling. It wasn't of thunder (there was no rain), or the wind (there wasn't much of it), it was of a motorcycle zooming its way down the street.

She looked towards the street (to her right), and saw a someone jumping out of their motorcycle and running towards Daniel. As they ran, they unbuckled their helmet, revealing an Asian man around his late-20s.

The man yanked the pole right out of Daniel's hand, leaving him defenseless. He then threw the pole onto the sidewalk far away from Daniel.

They stared at each other, waiting for someone to say something. Their faces were an inch apart.

The Asian man breathed a long breath and finally said "What're you doin?"
Shocked at the response, Daniel said "Uh, girlfriend kicked me out."
"So you broke the door?"
"Ye."

The confrontation was weird, to say the least.

"Then you punched this lil lady here?" The Asian man said whilst pointing at Melissa.
"That was an accident."
"So why didn't you apologize when you did it?"
"'Cus I was mad. And still am."

Melissa knew that Daniel was scared of this Asian man. It was obvious from the tone of his voice, and the fact that his eyes never met his.

"Are you okay?" The man asked Melissa.
"I'm fine, thank you," she replied with teary eyes.

But as the man turned around, Daniel had already punched him square on the jaw.

"Aww," he groaned. But not in a hurt way. In a pleasure sort of way. "You sure do hit hard, fella. Gave me a scare there." As he massaged the bruise, he looked at Melissa and said "You're my witness. I was just defending myself." And he got up and tackled Daniel, dropping him hard on the pavement.

The two wrestled on the floor for about a minute. And within that minute, the Police had arrived, handcuffing them both, but only putting Daniel in the police car.

Patty came out with a luggage bag filled with Daniel's clothes and knick-knacks. Patty sure was one tough girl to just ignore Daniel's aggressive attitude and pack his shit, all the while a fight was happening outside of her broken door.

Melissa stood up and wiped off the dirt on her jeans and sweatshirt. To her left was Patty hugging Christopher at the doorway of what used to be the front door, and to her right were the Police speaking to Daniel and the Asian man.

She was cut off guard when the Asian man shouted "Hey! You were my witness. She was my witness."
Melissa nodded in response.
"I want a restraining order," Patty yelled from the house.

After a few minutes, the Police concluded the situation. They took Daniel to jail, told Patty to acquire evidence and go to the local courthouse for the restraining order, and told the Asian man to carry on with his day. But they spent a while speaking to him. Laughing with him, actually.

"Guilty as charged," the man had joked.
"No way that was you! Dude you were awesome!" A Police Officer had cheered.
"So when you performing next?"
"Sorry, boys, I'm on a two-week vacation," the man replied.

The Police finally left the area.

"Hello," the man greeted Melissa.
"Hi."
"Umm, I'm Jerry Cheng."
"I'm Melissa Joyner, it's nice to meet you."
"Likewise."

Jerry picked up his red helmet from the floor and whispered "So...why was that guy going crazy?"
"I don't know. They both argue all the time."

Jerry raised his head toward Patty, who was smoking cigarettes while sitting on the steps outside of her home with Christopher, and asked "Do ya need help repairing that door?"
"Nah. I called my brother; he's coming over later to help."
"Oh, alrighty."

"So what was all that chatting about with the Police?" Melissa politely asked.
"Oh," Jerry chuckled, "I'm a performer—a motorcycle stunt-show performer—and they went to one of my shows in Pennsylvania."
"Really?" Melissa was impressed.
"Yes, ma'am. Right now, though, I'm on vacation, so no driving for a few weeks. Well I do drive at night. And...wow...this city really never sleeps."
"I know right," she smiled.

And as Jerry described his job more to Melissa, she couldn't help but think how fun her life would be if she did what he did. Driving into the night. Doing daredevil stunts for an audience. I've never even ridden a motorcycle before, she thought.

But she wants to help people on a personal level, and performers don't get to do that. And her job allows her to.

Something had tugged Melissa's sweatshirt, grabbing her attention. It was Christopher, the Nicholson's son.

"Hi, Christopher," Melissa smiled. But Christopher continued to pull on her white sweatshirt.
"Who's this wittle guy?" Jerry asked.
"This is Christopher, Patty and Daniel's son. Daniel was the man who just got arrested, and Patty is her," Melissa pointed toward the doorway to where Patty was previously sitting, but she wasn't there.
"Oh. He's cute ain't he? Doesn't look a thing like Daniel, though."

All the while, Christopher never stopped tugging, finally prompting Melissa to look where he was pulling, which happened to be on her back area.

To her astonishment, she felt something sticky and wet. She raised her hand to see blood all over it. With panicked eyes, she twisted her head around to see that there was blood all over her sweatshirt.

Immediately she felt embarrassed and worried.

"Uh, I gotta go," she said, cutting off Jerry's conversation.
"Oh, alrighty."

"Nice to meet you!" Jerry yelled as Melissa hurriedly made her way to her home, picking up the groceries she had left on the steps.

She ran to her room and immediately threw her sweatshirt on the bed, leaving her with the gray t-shirt she wore under.

She unfolded the sweatshirt quickly and saw the blood become bigger and bigger as she smoothed its wrinkles and folds. Panic had took over now, making her take off her t-shirt and feel her back for any scratches. There weren't. She wasn't bleeding or cut in any way. No pain in the back area at all. She rushed to the bathroom and stood in the mirror to clearly check.

After seeing nothing, she went back into her room and studied the blood on her white sweatshirt. But she hadn't noticed something. The blood...it formed a shape.

She moved her sweatshirt upside down and angled her head to see carefully what this blood had formed. It was dark-red and still dripping down the cloth.

To best describe the shape, it was as if an animal—an animal with big, thick, long, claws—had dipped its whole hand in blood and made a handprint on her sweatshirt.

Melissa freaked out, breathing very loudly. It was morning outside, but her black curtains had made the room dark.

The rest of the day was spent washing the sweatshirt with her other laundry load, cleaning the house, taking a shower. Basically, anything to rid of that scary, bloody, claw-print out of her thoughts.

As the day ended, she thought of Mr. Winston's words. Could he have been telling the truth?

I saw...Henry in the middle of the road. He died exactly 27 years ago. It is the manifestation of evil and fear, Melissa. It's back. And It's here. In this hospital. Right now. It wants me. It knows I've told you everything. Melissa, don't trust anyone or anything. It won't hurt you if you're not scared. Don't be scared.

"Don't trust anyone or anything," Melissa repeated aloud.

Could it have been a coincidence that she was given this bloody mark on the same day she met Jerry Cheng?