The Memory of Murder
By E.M. Megs
Chapter 4 – Determination
She vaguely remembered her mother's murder in her dreams. The hazy, dimly lit parking lot that she could see from her kitchen window, fogged by her five-year-old breath as she waited for Kotoko to return home. She would be taking the bus and any minute she would walk around the corner. Haruhi quickly got her coat and shoes and raced back to the window. She waited, bouncing to the sound of her father's chuckles behind her.
And finally she was there. Distractedly carrying the grocery bags in her arms through the pouring rain. Haruhi, heedless of the rain, ran out the door, ducking past her father. She was halfway down the worn wooden steps when the lightning struck and the thunder crashed.
Primal fear coursed through the child and she immediately dropped into a ball, all pursuits of welcoming her mother home forgotten.
The next time she looked up, her mother was in a puddle, the groceries scattered. Apple rolled, noodles lay broken in their plastic bags, and the watery red mixture soaked into the ground around her.
"KOTOKO!" her father screamed in the same instance that the world completely shifted to her running toward the outstretched arms of the man she would never reach.
But somehow, although he was so far away, she still felt the ghost of a kiss come from his lips, his caring touch whispering, "I love you," before being drowned in another thunder clap.
She woke without screaming, without tears. Just breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. Just wanting to get away from the nightmares that plagued her.
"Come find me," the bare remainders of her dreams teased, "Find me, Haruhi." She shook her head and looked around as though someone else were in the room too, waiting with baited breath for her to find them in the shadows.
She drew a shuddering breath, determined not to cry anymore. To be exactly what he wanted from her. The strong, beautiful, intelligent woman he had met 13 years ago. "I love you, too," she mumbled to the empty bedroom. She'd never gotten the chance to say it back. He'd been too quick with the trigger.
She rolled enough to take hold of the note he'd left on her bedside table. His suicide note. His very last words besides the phone call. His thin explanation of why. She drank it in a few times more.
Pieces didn't fit in her head. None of it made sense. Her partner had not been rash nor senseless. He had been framed for murder before and even when they had arrested him he had remained confident in the fact that he was innocent. Even if he had done it, he would have faced prison, had some grand reason for it all. He wasn't a cold-blooded killer. He just wasn't.
"I don't believe what they say about him."
She pondered for a moment.
No.
"I don't either," she breathed.
~o~
A/N: No comments from me this time. Nope. None. None at all.
Kudos to Shining Sunny and lilsketcher617.
Update on LD should be up soon too. Not today... But soon.