Fragments of the Past

As I was enveloped in darkness, muffled sounds of sirens and distant panicking voices filtered through my haze of unconsciousness. Before completely shutting down, all I could see was thick smoke ascending, overshadowing the beautiful sky like clouds covering the sky on an overcast day. This was a clear indication to those with wits that things had taken a dark turn.

When I opened my eyes, my vision was blurry, half-conscious, as though part of me was still asleep. The scene in my line of sight was not new, nor was the near-death experience. The room was dark, probably because the lights were off, with only a dim overhead lamp providing a little illumination. Dressed in a hospital gown, the sterile scent of antiseptic filled the air—everything that annoys me all mashed up together. And I had just woken up, for heaven's sake.

"Hey you, how was the long nap?" a female voice spoke from the corner of the room, mingling with the darkness. I could make out the figure of a woman but couldn't gain clarity due to the insufficient light. Based on her statement, my intuition pointed to one suspect only: another annoyance in the room at this late hour.

I squinted and said, "What are you doing there, hanging in the corner of a dark room like the Big Bad Bat?"

"What do you think, genius?" she shot back in a sharp, rhetorical tone.

"I was really worried about you, Grim," she said as she walked toward me.

"You...!" I chuckled. "That is oddly out of character for you." I continued to mock her heartfelt sentiment. Taking a seat right beside my bed, she replied in a steady tone, "Yeah, I shocked myself too. It's the second time we've been exactly like this, isn't it?"

Upon hearing that, I looked down, not wanting to remember that day—the day I call Judgment Day. The day everything went south after joining the Law Enforcement. I found myself in a similar situation, lying on a deathbed with dear Cressida Small talking me back to full consciousness.

"But somehow you never fail to surprise me; you always escape death's jaws," she continued, looking straight into my eyes with a warm smile. As soon as she finished, I turned my face from her to the window just to my left, pausing for a moment to gaze at the starry sky outside, for it was the middle of the night.

"But not all of us escape the jaws of death, do we?" I responded after a brief pause, my mind flashing back to that day I called Judgment Day.

She stretched out her hands and held mine gently, leaning closer without saying a word, reassuring me that she was there for me.

"Well, this is new. Where did you learn that? In some romcom anime or something?" I said with a giggle, looking at her hands that were holding mine.

"You had to fuck it up, didn't you? You just couldn't let the moment end on a beautiful note, could you?" she remarked, her face souring with hints of annoyance and disappointment.

With a burst of laughter, I responded, "What did you expect? An emotional breakdown or something?"

"Grim, in our line of work, we are taught to be tough, but you're a person too. You don't have to always shove your emotions deep inside your heart," she said softly, reaching toward my chest with her right hand. Her statement cut deep, like a double-edged sword.

A brief silence followed, tension building as strong eye contact between us prevented any movement.

Breaking the ice, I said, "I don't have a heart to shove anything into, sweetheart. My heart was severly damaged at nine, and on that day I lost every bit of it that was left..." My voice took on an assertive tone clothed in the Boogeyman's character, a side of me she didn't know. First time my nightime character was crawling into my daylight's activities. Probably because I was half conscious. I said this removing her right hand from my chest using my left.

"Only my brain is still intact..." I added, pausing to build anticipation for what I would say next. "And that's all I need in this line of work. If you're a smart girl, you would better switch from working with your heart to using your brain instead." I continued in a laid-back tone that made my statement hit the bullseye of her heart.

Leaning back, she briefly stared at her right hand that I had pushed off my chest before standing up. As she walked away, she took her phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Cressida," the phone picked up.

"Hi, Dorion. Our ghost is back to life..." she said.

"Wow, good to hear! Took him long enough. I will be right there in a couple of minutes," Dorion responded through the phone.

"Nice, see you when you arrive," she said and ended the call. After that, she made no movement, staring at the clock on the wall. A grave silence filled the room, punctuated only by the ticking of the clock's second hand.

After about ten minutes, Dorion arrived, budging the door open. "Hey! Hey! Hey! What's going on, guys? It's as if I can cut the air in here with a knife," he exclaimed, exchanging glances with both Cressida and me. "What did you do, Jake?" he continued with a giggle, focusing his gaze on me.

With a loud sigh, I replied, "It had to be me."

"Don't worry, Dorion; it's just him being grim all the time," Cressida cut into our dialogue.

"Yeah, because it's literally in his surname: Grimshaw. What did you expect?" Dorion replied sarcastically, which made us all crack up, lightening the mood in the hospital room.

"It's good to have you back, man. It just wouldn't be the same without you, dude," Dorion added, looking at me with a smile.

"Definitely wouldn't be the same because I'm the one who's actually useful in the Force," I joked with Dorion. Hearing that, he slouched, looking at me with a mocking smile. "Aah, no, because having to take your place is too exhausting," he said, laughing.

"Alright, boys, that's enough," Cressida said, cutting the mood in the air. Looking at Dorion, she added, "Dorion, may you please..."

"Sure thing," Dorion responded, shifting from a casual tone to a formal stance. Although Dorion was a dear friend, he was a junior detective under our wing in the Force, along with a few others.

"Detective Grimshaw, here is the report of the early findings we have gathered as Team Beta concerning the Mayor's death during the three days you were in a coma," he said, passing me a file.

"Three days!" I exclaimed, surprised to learn I had been unconscious for that long.

"Don't worry about that for now; I will fill you in later about all that happened while you were unconscious," Cressida said to me.

Flipping through the pages to get context for the report before really delving deep, I saw something intriguing.

"Boogeyman! Who is this guy?" I said, feigning confusion to gauge the Force's perception of me.

"He is said to be the killer of Mayor Besu, according to witnesses, although not much can be said about him for now," Dorion replied.

"And is he also the one caught on the footage from the Mayor's office?" I asked, trying to determine if the Force was associating me with that guy from the footage.

"We have reasons to believe so, but descriptions of this boogeyman from the witnesses say otherwise," Cressida answered.

"Here's something else that will be very interesting to you," Cressida said, leaning closer to me and turning a few pages in the file to show a picture of a familiar face.

"We found an interaction between this guy and the person we believe to be the office footage guy at a classified location you are not allowed to know about when we reviewed all the cameras in the city," Cressida added.

"Classified... not allowed to know? What kind of prank are you pulling here, Cressy?"

"Oh, I forgot to mention: you have been officially taken off the case," Cressida said, laughter hinting in her voice.

Upon hearing that, all I could say was,

"What the fuck!"