September 3, 2007

10:40

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I was minding my own business. I had slept late so I was getting back to last night's work. Parker was still asleep on the couch, and Aaron was in the shower. I took the time to make myself a cup of coffee and was just settling into my chair when Parker shot upright with a loud screech, gasping for air.

Needless to say, he startled me and I flung coffee everywhere.

"Jesus! Why do you always do that?!" I frantically tried to dab the scolding coffee out of my keyboard, "God, you're worse than a chihuahua."

Parker looked around as he calmed down, "Sorry," He rubbed the back of his head, "Just a dream, I guess."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think I'm just getting another migraine..."

At that time Courtney opened our front door, "Hey, do you know there's like a gaggle of cops downstairs?"

I looked over my computer at her, "What? Why?"

"I just assumed they busted Parker and Nate," She shrugged, "I'm not trying to get got too!"

"They didn't say anything?" I asked.

She shook her head, flinging her blonde hair around, "No, they have the entire second floor taped off."

My curiosity outweighed my social anxiety and I needed to know what was going on.

"Con, don't go down there," Parker followed me, "I can't go to jail again! I haven't been waxed."

I just rolled my eyes and tuned him out.

Courtney was right, there was caution tape starting at the stair’s landing and maybe a dozen cops coming in and out of an apartment.

We caught the attention of one of the officers and she made her way over.

"Oh, we're fucked," Parker mumbled, "We're fucked."

I tried to swat him behind me without drawing too much attention.

"Excuse me, do you live here?" The cop asked.

I nodded, "Yes ma'am, the fourth floor..."

"I don't," Courtney cut me off, "I live on the other side of the city."

"Yeah, me too." Parker piled on, "Like way, way over there."

I rolled my eyes and pretended I couldn't hear them, "Can I ask what's going on?"

"We were called about a possible death, can't say more than that. Do you happen to know anything about the people that live in 217?"

I shook my head trying to rack my brain, "Um, I've only ever seen a woman getting mail. She moved in about a year ago, I think? Other than that, nothing."

"Have you heard or seen anything unusual lately?"

"No. Was it a murder?"

"I can't say," She handed me a card, "Thank you, give us a call if you remember anything else."

We trekked back up the stairs

Parker was quiet, he was absentmindedly tracing a black fingernail over a scar on his forearm.

"Stop that," I swatted at his hand, getting his attention, "What is it?"

He hesitated for a second, "What happened last night?"

I raised an eyebrow, "You know as much as I do."

"No! After..." He trailed off.

I quickly caught on, "No, Parker, don't even go there, you know you had nothing to do with this."

"How? I don't remember anything from last night."

"That's because you were asleep all night. Trust me, we don't even know how or who died or even that it was last night. So just hang on, okay?"

"That's so sad, someone died in your building..." Court butted into our conversation shaking her head, "Do you guys still have pizza?"

I ushered them back into the apartment, Aaron was out of the shower sitting at the counter tinkering with something while Nate was rifling through the cupboards.

"Oh! Hi," Aaron slid off his headphones when he saw me, "Do you have a second?"

"Sure!" Courtney answered for me, "Whatcha workin' on?" She asked the question I was too afraid to ask, mostly because when he was tinkering with something a few weeks ago he short-circuited our VCR and caused a small fire.

"Hydro-projectile." He said, his higher register raised with excitement.

"Fancy, what's it do?"

"You know how you put a mento in a soda?"

"Uh-huh."

"The ultimate idea is a hand grenade type design with a mechanism and/or chemical rigged to release a steady stream of holy water in the surrounding area, but for now..." He dropped a seltzer tablet in the bottle of overly carbonated water.

The bottle burst drenching everything, including the three of us. Courtney got the brunt of it since Parker decided to use her as a human shield while Nate stayed dry by ducking behind the couch.

Aaron removed the wet strands of hair from his eyes, "It's a work in progress." He then gestured to the water dripping down the wall, "Would you say that's about twenty feet?"

I nodded as I used my shirt to dry my face, "I would."

"Cool!" He went to get some towels from the bathroom while I went to change and find something for Courtney to change into.

"High fashion." She joked, pulling her hair out of the gray shirt that said "Byre High School PE" on it and wiggled into a pair of my shorts, "We gotta get you a girlfriend, babe. Or at least a better wardrobe."

I shrugged, she's not wrong on either argument.

Aaron was occupied cleaning up his mess, I turned on the TV so the other three would be entertained while I did a few things. Sometimes I swear I'm a glorified babysitter.

I pulled up some recent police reports hoping that there would be something about what was happening downstairs. It took hours for anything to come up. My guess is that it's going to be a long investigation for them. There wasn't an autopsy yet, just investigator's notes which would be enough for my curiosity.

"I've got something." I had to speak loudly to get their attention.

"On?" Nate asked.

"The situation downstairs,"

"Mm," Nate took a drink from his can, "Toldja, there's a cream for that."

Courtney snorted.

I rolled my eyes, "I meant with the cops."

"Cops?" His eyes widened, "Cops! You're telling me now? I've got hella shit in here, man!"

"Don't worry, Parker, smoked and snorted it all first." Court joked.

Parker nodded.

I glanced over at Aaron to make sure he still had his headphones in knowing he wouldn’t want to hear about it.

"Someone died downstairs,"

Parker sat up, "You have how?"

"Young woman," I scanned the report, "Mid-thirties, laceration to the throat. She was found..."

"In the bathtub." Parker interrupted me, his eyes wide.

"How did..." It was just going to be one of those days where I didn't get to finish my thought.

"I had this gross dream last night," he shook his head, "I thought I was in our apartment but I guess it was just in the building, there was blood everywhere, and this girl... She was just sitting in blood with this huge gash in her neck."

"That's pretty much what this says."

"What does that mean?" Courtney asked.

"Means he was high as fuck." Nate added.

"Usually my drug dreams are more Alice in Wonderland-y, not so much Nightmare on Elm Street-y." Parker shrugged, he paused for a second, "I wanna go down there."

He got up without hesitation, "I need to know how much adds up, this can't just be a coincidence!"

"That's hard to argue with, but they're not just going to let you into a crime scene."

"Eh, I'm sure they're gone by now."

"You're going to get arrested," I warned.

"What, like it'll be the first time?" He tapped Aaron on the shoulder, "I need a favor."

I felt obligated to follow them, mostly because someone was going to have to get Parker out of trouble.

Also, I knew he wasn't going to disclose to Aaron that he was about to be an accessory to breaking into a crime scene.

Courtney and Nate came too, either to see Parker get arrested or out of morbid curiosity. There are some questions I don't need answers to.

Unfortunately, Parker was right, the cops were gone but the second floor was still taped off.

"Um, what are we doing?" Aaron grew suspicious.

"Breaking into a crime scene," I answered before Parker could lie and he shot me a glare.

"What?" Aaron squeaked as his already huge eyes widened under his glasses.

"Not for real," Parker lied, "It sounds like a weird crime scene, vampy maybe. I just need you to pick the lock."

Aaron didn't trust it, I can't blame him. He just continued to stare at Parker.

Until Parker batted his eyes and said "Pretty, pretty please."

"We can just wait until the rest of the reports come in," I said.

"How long's that gonna take?" Parker asked.

"This isn't a good idea," I said instead of answering him.

"Yeah, and if I got paid for bad ideas I'd have all the money in the world, I know. We need to get in there."

I hated to agree, but I wanted to know too.

Aaron reluctantly picked the lock for us, as we argued.

Once we were in I used the sleeve of my sweater to turn on the light, "Don't touch an..." My voice trailed off as the grotesque scene set in.

There was blood everywhere, it's hard to believe there's that much blood in a person.

Parker covered his nose and mouth with his shirt, he looked nauseous. To be fair we all did.

"Well, this is gross," Court stated, "What's the ‘sitch?"

"Everything's the same... Hold on." He backed out of the room into the hallway.

"Are you okay?" Aaron asked.

"I'm fine," Parker staggered a slight bit but stabilized himself enough to sit against the wall. He let his head fall into his hands.

"Parker?"

He let out a groan before he slumped over.

We scrambled to help him and he came to a few seconds later.

"Are you okay?" I crouched down to his level, something was off but not enough that I could pinpoint it directly.

"I wanna go upstairs." He mumbled.

We gave him a second to get sorted out before Nate and I helped him up the stairs.

"I'll ask the obvious question," Courtney handed him a glass of water, "What the hell?"

"Mm," Parker ran his fingers through his hair like he was looking for something, "I don't know, I just got this really bad pain in my head."

I had to closely study his face before I was able to start closing in on what was odd.

"Can you hand me a flashlight? Second drawer on the left."

Aaron was quick to hand it to me.

Parker flinched when I shined it in his eyes, "Ow."

"Sorry, just look at me."

His light oak eyes looked darker than usual, under the light I could see why. They were a cinnamon-red color.

"Air," I gestured Aaron over for a second opinion.

He and I exchanged a look.

"What?" Parker put his hand over the light.

"Your eyes..."

"They're red...ish." Aaron finished.