Soar, Part 13 - Button

Roxie sat on her bed for a while, staring motionlessly at the Ouroboros poster on the opposite wall, before getting up and tiptoeing out of the room. She had been planning to get a glass of water before returning back to her room, but what she hadn’t expected was to see a dim light shining from the cracked open kitchen door. She checked the clock at the end of the hallway. 1:45.

She slowly pushed open the door and entered the room to find her mother sitting at the kitchen table. There was photos on it, the table, dozens of photos, mostly of people’s faces but also of a strip of road. Roxie recognized the road instantly. She glared at the photo, though the photo didn’t care.

Her mother looked up from the report in front of her when she heard the door open.

“Oh, Roxie, why are you still up?” she asked, setting down the glass she had been drinking from, the amber liquid swaying slightly. Roxie glared at the glass as well, though its reaction was similar to the photo’s.

“I had a weird dream and couldn’t get back to sleep,” she said simply, going over to the cabinets and producing a glass of her own. She filled it with water and sat down across the corner from her mother. “I could ask you the same thing though… This the case data?”

“Yeah,” her mother said, rubbing at her temples. Roxie picked a few pictures at random and flicked through them. The police had taken a photo of everyone they’d found on the street that day. From the corner of her eye Roxie noticed Annalise’s face, but she refused to look at it. “We’ve ID’d nearly everyone that was on the street, notified families, cataloged every piece of evidence we found on the street, had a lot of paperwork…” She shook her head and downed the rest of her drink. “The only thing we haven’t done is find any kind of sensible reason why any of this happened.”

“You found evidence on the scene?” Roxie asked, laying the photos back on the table.

“Something like that,” her mother said. “We gathered up everything on that street, from candy wrappers to a lost button.”

“A button?” Roxie asked, amused. It hardly seemed like anything between the two would be valuable as evidence.

“Yeah, a really pretty button at that,” her mother said, shuffling through the photos before picking one up and sliding it to Roxie. It had a button in it, about an inch in diameter according to the measurer next to it. It had a crest on it, though Roxie couldn’t quite make out what was in it. “We’ve yet to match the crest to any family, race, or company, although the girls down at the lab are at it as we speak. I’ve been trying to tell them they need to go home and sleep every once in a while too, but when do forensics teams listen to the detective in charge?” She smiled a little at that, leaning her chin on her hand and then let out a sigh. Roxie knew how tough this was for her, to be unable to produce even a theory of the events.

“Sorry about that,” Roxie said but she shook her hand.

“We’ll find the truth. Eventually,” she said and then paused. “We did notice something weird though… You know how there were a lot of people on the street?” Roxie nodded. It had been unusually crowded that time. “Well, the position of the people was… really weird. Like, it’s hard to believe that everyone was just walking like that at the same time.”

“I have no idea what that means,” Roxie said. Her mother picked up another photo, taken from above the scene. You could easily see the way the people standing.

“Look at this,” she said, pointing at the people. “These people are standing abnormally close to each other, these two are on a collision course, and this guy is a businessman standing in the middle of a group of teenagers… None of this seems natural! It feels like someone who didn’t know what a normal street view looks like tried to arrange the people.”

Or maybe the people didn’t freeze simultaneously, thought Roxie, thought there really was no way to prove that. No one’s watch or phone had stopped, unfortunately for the police.

She dropped the picture back on the table, pushing some of the others around for a bit. And then something caught her eye. She picked a photo off the table with trembling hands.

“Mom?” she said. Her mother looked up, frowning. “Who is this?”

In the photo was a girl, not more than ten in age, who was smiling and looking to the side. She had orange eyes. Big, orange eyes. Roxie knew those eyes, but what she didn’t know is why they were here.

“That’s one of the only vics we haven’t identified, actually,” said her mother. “No one’s filed a missing child report, so the only thing we’ve been able to do is go around schools and hope someone recognizes her. No luck yet though.”

“Is she… where is she?” Roxie asked, her head spinning.

“Uh, at Samhain Memorial Hospital? Like all the other victims as well,” her mother said, frowning. “Are you alright, sweetie? You look like you’ve seen a ghost? Do you know this girl?”

Roxie stared at the photo, unable to understand what was happening. Why? How? This was the same girl she’d seen in the dream, she was sure of it. But what did it mean? How had she appeared in the dream if she was laying petrified at Sam Memorial? Why had she revealed to herself to Roxie in the first place? Why had she left before she’d said anything? Had… had something happened at the hospital..?

Roxie turned to her mother, eyes wide and opened her mouth.

The phone rang, loud and shrill in the silent kitchen. Both women jumped and Roxie’s mother shuffled out her work phone.

“Sorry, honey, I need to get this,” she said and answered the phone. “Hello? Yes. Yes. Wha- … yes, I… What? When?! Are you sure? Alright… mmhm. Yes, I’ll be right there.”

She hung up. Roxie looked at her, shocked, as she stood up and put her phone back in her bag.

“I need to go,” she said.

“What? Where? Why?” Roxie asked as her mother packed the photos up and stuffed them into the bag as well.

“To the hospital. Something has happened to one of the patients…. the victims.”

Roxie stood up, her chair falling down behind her.

“I’m coming with you!”

“Oh no you’re not,” he mother told her. “It’s late and you need to go to bed. This is official police business, I can’t have you running around playing Nancy Drew.” She paused, and sighed. “I know you’re worried about Annalise, but I promise you I’ll get to the bottom of this. She’ll be fine. Not get your butt back into bed, young lady! I might be out for a while.” She pressed a kiss to Roxie’s temple and then left the room. Roxie could hear the jingle of keys and then the front door slamming.

She stood still for a moment before rushing back to her room, grabbing her phone and a pair of pants, and then she was out the door as well.
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Heyyyyyyyyy. I still don’t know what’s happening but ohhh well.

I actually finished this in the bus on the way to Helsinki at around 3, but for some reason the bus wi-fi won’t let me onto blogspot???, so I can’t upload it until later. Sorry about that.

Well, that’s all from me for now. I do wonder what they’ll find in the hospital though, hmmmm… Your topic isssss…. “Staff”

Pie out.