Cryptic Deaths - A Novel (Chapter 3)

I lay on my bed one January morning. The moment I woke up, I felt the morning chill pierce through my skin. I got out of bed and went straight to my closet and got more clothes to prevent the frosty air from biting. I returned to my bed and tried to get more sleep.
After a couple of seconds, I closed my eyes, and then opened them again. Out of the window, two flying red ribbons caught my eyes as they soared with the winds and settled in a tree. I watched them jump from branch to branch until they were out of sight. My attention was diverted to the dancing mahogany tree’s leaves. They were squirming wildly because of the winds, until a leaf lost its attachment from the tree and was blown over a hundred meters away.
I closed my eyes again, felt the warmth of my blanket, and exerted all my efforts to seize my sleep. Too bad but all my efforts failed. I just stared out of the window and suddenly, memories came back to me.
I remembered Marie. I remembered the times when she was still alive. I remembered the feeling when she was still around.
Marie Umber was a beautiful woman, half-Filipino, half-British, tall (5’8”), sexy, friendly, and generous; it was like she had no negative traits. Her beauty is unique - a blend of tall, white British woman and innocent, Asian beauty of a Filipina.
She had a nice but strong personality, had a good sense of humor, was a member of the local theatre arts group, could sing, dance, and act, was the editor-in-chief of our school paper, and had won the national teenagers beauty pageant-a talented woman indeed. But behind all the talents that were given to her, there wasn’t a time that she lifted her feet off the ground. Despite her busy schedule, she still had the time to mingle with other people, and that’s why she got the congeniality award voted by and among all graduates when we were in high school, because she could really blend well with anyone and everyone in school.
One nice day when she was still alive, my friends and I had a vacation in Kyle’s house in Manistique, Michigan. We spent one week there and enjoyed every second of our stay. We did plenty of activities like water skiing, fishing, and swimming, picnic by the Manistique Lake, wakeboarding, morning exercises, badminton, board games, and a lot more. We also soaked ourselves under the sun while watching the magnificent Lake Michigan.
I remembered my bonding with my friends especially with Marie. We had a very memorable stay there.
I also remembered that after our first dinner in Kyle’s house, we needed to wash the dishes ourselves because the dishwasher was out of order and the helpers were out for their summer vacation. We needed to work it out so we played spin the bottle and the one who was pointed three times would be the one to wash the dishes by hand. The bottle was spun for a couple of times and Marie and I were in the lead with 2 points each and the rest were pointed once. I spun the bottle, which was the last spin because it pointed Marie which means she would have to be the one to wash the dishes. I volunteered to help her because I was the reason why the bottle pointed her.
We went to the kitchen and did the dishes while we talked and laughed. We chatted about our funny childhood memories and about the future until we realized that bubbles were already flying around the kitchen.
We laughed, threw bubbles at each other, and laughed some more.
After washing the dishes, we ended up soaking wet, with bubbles spread all around the fully furnished kitchen. Naturally, we laughed again, wiped the bubbles scattered around, got tired, and had rest.
Silence and darkness covered the night as happiness invaded me. My mind stopped working and sleep came to me.
I woke up and knew that I was in my bedroom; in my house here in Bellwood, just outside Chicago. I sat up and felt a tear run down my cheeks and suddenly, I let myself burst into tears. And those were tears of joy because I saw and felt the happiness when Marie was still alive but at the same time, I was sad too because I need not dream about it when she’s still alive because I wouldn’t long for her presence.
Marie was a good person. She didn’t deserve what was done to her. She didn’t do something wrong and I’m sure about that. We’ve been friends for too long and knew almost everything about each other. To me, she’s not just a friend but a family. I treated her as my older sister that’s why it’s just so hard to accept that she died.

Perplexity

There’s a feeling in me that I want to explode and be lost in this cold March night.
Am I in love? Am I lacking someone’s attention? Am I just bored? Am I just sleepy? Am I longing for somebody’s love? Am I missing a person? Am I angry? Am I sad? Am I losing my self? Am I embarrassed? Am I excited? Do I want contact with someone? Am I okay?
With these thoughts that makes me confused, is it proper to say that I’m full of problems?
I went outside and looked at the moon, stared at it for a moment and I didn’t know what to think about. I went back in the house and did the same thing – stare at something w/ nothing going on in my mind.
What I want to know is why I am feeling like this. What am I going to do? What’s happening to me?
I lay myself on my bed and tried to settle my mind. I wanted to sleep but I couldn’t. I was on my bed for almost an hour until I realized the thing that’s been confusing me. I am missing a person. She’s someone who is very close to me. For me, she’s my best friend. But sometimes, I ask myself “Could it be more than that?”
It could be. But I’d rather sleep and meet her…in my dreams.

Cryptic Deaths - A Novel (Chapter 2)

Everybody was packed in one place discussing things. I didn’t trust the police so I walked away from them. I was already about 200 meters away from everybody when Kyle looked at me, maybe he was curious why I walked away. I waved my arm for him to come.
Kyle approached and asked, “What are you doing?”
I gestured for him to be quiet and said, “I’d like to wander around. The police might have been missing a thing.”
“But they said they couldn’t find anything,” he demanded.
“But I feel there’s something here. Let’s take a walk. Maybe something will show itself.”
“What?!”
“I mean what if evidence is hiding, waiting to be seen. Now come on!”
He wasn’t speaking after I spoke but he first started our walk. Even though the police didn’t allow it, we took the risk.
We walked around the lake and investigated the place. We stopped beside the large rock where Marie jumped and laid our eyes on everything that were there - the lake, the rock, the sky, the sand, the trees, the bushes, and the blackish plasma-like substance on a bush’s leaves. I thought it was just a drop of sap from a tree. It took a moment until I realized it.
“Kyle! Look! Over there! The bush! There’s blood on it!” I said.
But after a second, thoughts came rushing into me. There’s blood on the bush. Was it Marie’s? If it was, then someone, or more than one, has dragged her into the woods. There’s blood here then this must be of great help. Now we could locate the body. Body? Full of blood? What was done to her? Why was she killed?
Kyle saw the blood immediately then gasped. He looked very stunned. “Let’s tell it to the police.”
“Huh?” My mind was sprinting around in my head. Kyle pulled me very hard as if my arm was going to be ripped off from my body. After 2 seconds, I realized we were already running towards our group.
“Mr. McAllen! We saw blood on a bush over there!” Kyle exclaimed while catching his breath.
Mr. Victor McAllen was the chief investigator for this incident. He ordered us to tell him where the bush was.
“Go at the right side of the lake. Stay at the shore. Go straight where the huge rock is, and the bush is there, under the trees,” I explained.
Mr. McAllen and his members went straight to where the bush was. They came in no time then saw the bush where it was. Blood was wiped on its leaves. It’s like something was hauled into the woods. It must be Marie’s body.
The police entered the woods and followed a trail, a trail which the ground and the bushes were distorted from their original positions.
They walked slowly, scrutinized the place to collect evidences. After over a hundred meter, the trail broke. The chief ordered his men to search the place. The suspect must’ve carried the body somewhere.
After thirty minutes, a police called his chief. They saw a woman’s body. They took pictures of the place, and the most important of all, the body. They also searched the place for evidences.
They found two very unusual things, things that can hardly be considered as weapons for killing. Positioned beside the body was a wallet sized calendar of the year 2008 in which the number 28 under the month of October was encircled, and a small dictionary starting from “Z” - “A”.
The very sight of the body was the most mind-boggling of all. The police found out that the body was Marie’s because it had a blue butterfly tattoo beside a brown heart-like birthmark on the lower right part of its back. The police saw it easily because her body was lying face down. The upper back was badly wounded and the cuts resembled a stanza:

The first is thee,
The next is your tee,
I’ll stop your pee
Then hey! You’ll be free!

Each letter cut deep into her skin. Blood had spread and covered her back and had dripped to the ground.
We saw the evidences and the pictures. The calendar and the dictionary gave us an unbearable confusion, and the sight of Marie’s bloody body left us bewildered and crying on our knees, vomiting.

...

Marie’s death made a great impact on our lives. But no matter what, our lives kept on moving. Even though the police failed to solve the crime, my friends and I didn’t give up on looking for answers and searching for the truth.
Marie was buried after 5 days from the day of her death. Her memories gave us the strength and inspiration to work hard to achieve justice. But as we searched for the truth, we found out that terror was just beginning.

Cryptic Deaths - A Novel (Chapter 1)

I went to the park to have lunch with my friends. They’re Dave, Daniel, Kyle, Phoebe, Meg, and Marie. All of them were already in the lake that I was the last one to arrive. I didn’t expect to see them in the lake because it was 12 noon and the sun was warming their skin madly. As I was coming, they called for me to join them. But as I was preparing to go to the lake, I heard them crying Marie’s name.
“Marie!”
“Oh my God!”
“Help! Help!”
I didn’t know what to do.
I ran to where the sound was coming from and saw them at the lakeshore looking very scared. Phoebe and Meg hugged each other with Dave at their side. Daniel and Kyle stayed in the lake diving, took turns trying to find Marie under the water.
I was just standing there, thunderstruck. I was really confused and was unable to move any muscle.
Minutes passed and everybody was exhausted looking for Marie and crying for help. But after a few minutes, my friends argued again. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what had happened. I didn’t know how to react.
Darkness filled the night and all of us were silent, stunned about the circumstances that came our way. Marie was one of our dearest friends and we knew nothing to do if ever she’s already dead. We strongly asked ourselves what to do. Must we tell it to Marie’s parents, call the police, or wait for her to come back, hoped that she was still alive.
We had our camp there and tried to sleep through the night, but we couldn’t sleep. We thought “Is she okay?”
In the middle of the night, we’ve agreed to pack our things up and go straight back home to our families.
We got aboard Kyle’s car, which was the only vehicle that was there. Kyle started the car’s engine, but something went wrong. The engine failed to start. We were very frightened. We went very wild. Meg and Phoebe shouted and cried. All of us talked and screamed our lungs out and didn’t understand what the other said. I told them to calm themselves but it was no use. Seconds were wasted and our energies depleted. We went still. I felt something weird and saw that my friends felt it too. All of us looked back at the lake. We saw a woman standing over the water, dripping wet, with a sad face and a bloody head, with her hands trying to reach us.
We froze, stared at the woman’s face and it was Marie!
Again, Kyle tried to start the engine and thankfully, it worked. He stepped on to the accelerator and we were off quickly, running away from our friend.
We cried during our journey back home. Marie’s appearance played in our minds.
We were on the road for a long while until our nerves calmed and I was the first one to talk and asked what happened in the lake. Dave, the most outspoken in the group, said, “We were having good time there in the lake, swimming. We were amazed when Marie dived from a big rock but all of a sudden, blood spread in the lake. We panicked and tried to find her but we didn’t succeed. Then the rest, I think you know, and that will be our unforgettable history.”
“I think when we were leaving the place, Marie… Oh Marie!” Meg inserted.
“I know it’s not easy to accept that she’s already dead but we can’t do anything now, so continue what you were just saying,” I said.
“I can’t believe it, she’s dead!”
“No one can accept it that fast but let us try. Please, Meg, be calm,” I saw Phoebe was crying too.
Meg wiped her tears and continued, “When we were leaving the lake, I think she showed herself to tell us not to leave her. I saw her trying to reach us with her arms. Oh God! How I wish this didn’t happen.”
The day after, we came back to the lake. The police were there and told us that they have seen nothing, barely nothing.
Her relatives would keep on grieving for not having anything after Marie’s death, not even her body.
Marie would be in the lake and wait for her friends to go back and save her grieving soul. She would stay there and haunt anybody who gets there…forever....

“Amity” - A Poem

It’s been a long time that I didn’t speak
The words just clung on my tongue’s peak
Now this is the time I’ll let them out
For you to know what it’s all about

From the very first time we got very close
I’ve felt that happiness always flowed
We followed the beat and gracefully danced
’Til the music stopped, I got exhausted

Then we went home and bid goodbyes
You didn’t know I made long sighs
As I thought of you along the way
And prayed that you wouldn’t go astray

So as I eat, I think of you
When I would pray, it’s all for you
And as I sleep, I think of you
And in my dreams, there’s me and you

After time passed, we got closer
We have been always together
Until I said this, “I love you”
Then you revealed your feelings too

But after that, we were very shy
To meet again, I didn’t know why
I cried so much ‘coz I missed you
While hoping that you missed me too

I tried to make things to be better
But as time turned, our times got bitterer
I ignored you, you did the same
Until our Christmas party came

All of the class danced to the beat
With you and me who danced in it
Oh yes we danced and sang and played
But our closeness was still buried

After the party, I hugged the class
And reserved you to be the last
So we could talk to each other longer
But we couldn’t deny that time was over

Then we went home, I drank my lime
While I imagined of our good times
Now it’s already our vacation
And it’s already our “Winter Season”

‘Til Christmas day and New Year’s finished
It’s also time our break has vanished
And now that all our class resumed
Everyone’s relaxation is doomed

Then we’ve waited for graduation to come
We’ve heard “goodbyes” from everyone’s tongue
But months before that said occasion
We didn’t talk again so I bellowed

I was very sad for what had happened
I thought my heart has already harden
I asked myself how it would happen
Because my heart wasn’t even broken

I just wanted to rest my mind
From thinking of you all the time
Because I’ll just be very sad
Maybe I’ll cry again very bad

But all I wanted now is to tell you
I want to be very close to you
But before our college days are through
I’ll repeat this again, “I love you!”