Section Zero by Ariel

Case One

Section Zero

by Ariel

Case one

Kagome stared at the scene before her in poorly masked horror, her naturally gray eyes bulbous and threatening to burst from their respective sockets as she found herself unable to tear away from what was in front of her, almost as if forcefully glued to the spot.

She was unable to stop the cold, uncomfortably wet shudder that ran up her spine as the smells of the beginning of decay swarmed into her nostrils, as if someone were playing their ice-cold fingers across the smooth planes of her back.

In front of her lay the unmoving body of Ayumi, one of her closest friends since high school, her once bright chocolate eyes dimmed and impossibly round, as if to be able to capture the image of her attacker even while being brutally struck down. Several knife-wounds were visible, mostly on her upper body, neck and face. Her long dark-honey hair was in messy clots splayed across her battered body, her limbs twisted amongst themselves in a sickening way that defied nature.

The slightest sound of dried blood cracking against the pungent air brought every last nerve end of Kagome's senses alive and the first tears to her eyes, and then her lips trembled, breaking into a terrified scream for help before everything became but a blur.

The image of Ayumi's very dead body pasted itself onto her mind and she was unable to stop the sobs coming from her own lips even as she heard urgent footsteps climbing the staircase leading up to the top floor of the school building, as the door to the open roof area slammed open, and as shocked gasps sounded from just behind her.

Everything but the battered body of Ayumi was in a haze.

When Kagome regained most of her consciousness, she was sitting in a less than comfortable stool, a bright light shining into her abused eyes and a solemn-faced woman in police-wear sitting across a black metal desk opposite from her. The pure white walls around her seemed to close in on her in rhythm to the ticking of the three-legged clock on the wall just behind the officer's head, and Kagome just barely stopped herself from whimpering due to the pressuring room that had her encased.

"At what time did you discover the scene?" Kagome almost jumped at the first words that were spoken. The voice of the officer was gentle but indifferent, and it failed to sooth her frantically beating heart as it worked itself overdrive.

"Around five in the afternoon, my classes for the day had just ended," Kagome responded, surprised momentarily that her voice didn't seem to betray her unease in the sense that it came out quite smoothly.

She noticed the small recording device sitting silently on the smooth surface of the desk, its black body slightly camouflaged against the equally dark color underneath, and vaguely wondered who would be listening to the tape after the interrogation was over.

"Can you remember if there was anyone else up on the roof besides yourself?"

Kagome had to think this over before coming up with her answer. Everything was still a little hazy and she had been way too focused on the sight of her friend's body upon entering the roof area to see if there was anyone else there.

"No, I don't remember if there was another person there, but usually the roof is vacant at this time."

Her answer to the previous question brought on the next."What were you doing up there, then?"

Unconsciously, Kagome pulled both of her lips between her teeth in an act of nervousness, stretching her philtrum for anyone to see, a habit that she had developed from childhood.

"I... use that roof as a hide-out sometimes, because not many students know of it and normally there wouldn't be anybody there at all. I go there to look at the sky and to get some air, nothing else."

"Does the victim go there with you sometimes?"

Kagome shook her head before answering, "no, she has never gone there with me before, in fact, I have never taken anyone with me to the roof. I'm always alone, beside the rare occasions that some people I don't know goes up there to chat amongst themselves, or single persons going up there to take a breather like I do."

The officer looked rather thoughtful for a split second, then shifted her eyes downward to a piece of paper beneath her clasped hands, no doubt printed with some basic information of the case, of the interrogated, and of some important questions that needed to be asked. Then her eyes returned to meet Kagome's, before she continued.

"Now, I will begin asking you some questions regarding the victim, and your relationships with her. I hope that you will give us as much as what you can tell us so that we can rest this case as soon as possible." The officer paused and waited for Kagome to give her nod, and then began the questioning anew. "How well do you know the victim, Shihara Ayumi?"

"We have known each other since the first year of high school because we were in the same class," Kagome began, a stinging in her heart making itself more and more impossible to ignore by the moment as she recalled the beginning of her friendship with Ayumi. She felt her eyes began to water, and willed herself not to let the drops fall, "after we got into the same university, our friendship deepened despite being in different departments. For a couple of weeks following the start of school, we had lunch together every day and occasionally had sleepovers with our other friends from the same high school."

The officer offered her a tissue as she began to sniffle, and she accepted it with careful fingers, not using, but rather tucking it under the palm if her hand. "Do you know if she is currently in any relationships?"

She shook her head, "she currently has no boyfriend that I know of."

The rest of the interrogation went by with several more questions regarding Ayumi's family and other friends, to which Kagome answered to the best of her knowledge. Minutes that seemed more like hours ticked by, and Kagome was more than relieved when the officer announced the end of their session and both of them stood, one just as eager to leave as the other, if only to get away from the stuffy atmosphere brought on by the brutal case.

Kagome found herself being led to the door by another police officer, and was asked to finish a couple of forms at the front desk before she was handed a card with two phone numbers on it.

"Thank you very much for your cooperation, Miss Higurashi, if you happen to run into any problems or have any information that you would like to inform us of, please call these numbers and we will try to provide you help immediately."

Without looking carefully at the content, she mumbled her gratification and shoved the card into her backpack with her textbooks. She hurried to the exit of the police station, wanting more than anything at the moment to free herself from the uncomfortable air that coated her from head to toe.

The way back home was nearly as uncomfortable as her time in that police station, as she could focus on nothing but the state of restlessness and tiredness of both her body and heart. The cab reached her self-rented apartment and the driver jolted her from the jumbled mess in her brain with his statement of arrival. Handing him the exact amount for the fare, she quickly scurried into the building then the elevator box, and pressed the button for her floor, fumbling as she did so.

How she wanted so much to be in the safety of her home just a second quicker.

Reaching her door, she once again fumbled with her keys, having trouble placing it perfectly into the locks with her hand shaking like she were on drugs. Finally open, the door slammed shut the moment she was inside, and Kagome felt her legs give out from underneath her body, suddenly too heavy for her trembling legs to withstand. She slipped down, back against her door until she was in a sitting position on her carpeted floor. Then she felt a wave of sadness as everything that had happened just earlier hit her once again, this time with more force than she could take, and she could no longer suppress the wails and sobs that racked her frame.

She cried for an hour before exhaustion finally lulled her into a fitful sleep.

---

A/N: From the boredom of long vacations and a freaky dream I had the other night. I dreamt that people around me were being murdered one by one in school, and I was the next to be killed. I was called into the staff room where teachers and staff members offered help, and I had to figure out who the murderer was before I was killed. Luckily I was able to solve the mystery and survived the dream. Hehe!

Short chapters like this will help me update quicker so please bear with me. :) Please let me know what you think! Second chapter is WIP.