Saving Scarlett

A/N: This is the first chapter in the sequel to the book ‘Saving August’. I do reference incidents from the first book.

Detective James Chapman

"Hell of a way to start out the New Year Martinez…what are we lookin’ at - WHOA!" I stop in my tracks and toss my half smoked cigarette into the alley.

“Well shit, about time you got here. My God James, you wreak of one of your hundred dollar whores, you could have at least showered before you came here.” Martinez wrinkles his nose and takes a step away from me.

“Jealous Martinez?" I step deeper into the room and look around. "Man, what the hell happened in here? What’s wrong with their eyes?” The scene before me is one I have never encountered in all my years in homicide; and I've seen some shit. Their eyes are nothing but black holes, bloodied around the sockets.

“Not sure, we just got on the scene. Someone called in a disturbance. Hey, put that shit down! CSI is on its way, I’d like to try and not destroy any evidence if possible.” Martinez grabs a bottle of who knows what from my hand and puts it back in its place.

“Look at this place! How would you even know? There isn’t a single space uncovered on the walls. Look at all this shit. How many dead?”

“Three, and one survivor. They found him curled up in a ball and mumbling incoherently in the dumpster out in the alley. They have him in the ambulance and are checkin’ him out.” Martinez continues to look around the room, but for what I have no idea. The place is in shambles.

“Can we at least turn that damn radio off? That static is driving me crazy.”

“Don’t touch anything! That includes the radio. Why don’t you go make yourself useful and see if they are makin’ any progress with the kid, and be careful, don’t step in whatever that is on the floor.”

I look down and there is a ring of some kind of dirt or something around the three bodies. I make sure to avoid it as I leave and walk up the stairs and down the alley to the ambulance.

It just starts to snow outside when I reach it and it's a little after midnight; I can still hear the partiers in the street screaming drunkin' 'Happy New Years' as they make their way home, or maybe to another party. Who cares, I was at my own party and now I'm stuck here.

“Hey, let me talk to the kid. He okay?” I nudge the big guy out of my way so I can make my way in.

“Hey James, I’m afraid he isn’t making much sense, we’ve given him something to relax. Physically he seems to be alright." Kevin looks me up and down and chuckles. "You, on the other hand, look like shit, nice shade of lipstick on you shirt.”

“Yeah, well, I was kinda in the middle of somethin’ when I got this call. Give me a minute with the kid will ya?” I pat Kevin on the back and he gives me a nod and heads to the other side of the rig.

I climb into the ambulance and look at this kid who is huddled on the gurney. His hair is black and you can tell he probably wears it slicked back, but right now it is falling in greasy strands in front of his face. His leg is trembling and he looks completely terrified.

“What’s your name kid? It’s okay I’m not gonna bite ya."

"Cedrick"

"Cedrick. How old are you? Are those your friends in there?"

"17 and Y-eah. Yes sir."

“Can you tell me what happened?”

"I already told them! J-just leave me alone okay? C-can I go? I just want to go." The kid tries to jump up and bolt but I firmly put my hand into his chest and push him back on the gurney.

“Look, Cedrick, your eyes are bloodshot as hell, and you have that ever popular ‘I just smoked a joint’ cologne on. There are three people laying dead down there and you were with ’em. That either makes you a witness, or the one who did it. The quicker you tell me what happened the quicker we can both go.”

“We-we were just playin’ around. Thought it would be fun to spook each other so we came here, we told the woman we wanted to do a séance, we made up a story… told her we were lookin’ to contact my sisters dead boyfriend.”

I'm busy writing this stuff down and I look up at him in surprise when he mentions her. “Your sister in there?”

“Y-yeah.” The boy starts crying. “It…she… it wasn’t human.”

“What wasn’t human?” This kid is making no sense.

“My sister started acting all funny and I thought she was jokin’ around. But then she lunged at the fat lady asking questions. My sister kept asking who the girl was… the big lady told her that she wasn’t welcome here and that she needed to go back where she came from.” He is nearly whispering like he is afraid that someone, or something, might hear him.

“Where were you when this happened?”

“I – I was sitting on the couch. The girls were sitting on the floor. The woman made a circle around them with some kind of dirt or something”.

“Then what?”

“Something flew out of my sister and then into her friend. It…It looked like a woman…a ghost. It flew out right through her eyes! I – I screamed and ran out the door and up the stairs…I thought they would follow me.”

“Okay…Okay kid calm down. Did you hear a name?”

“Scarlett. The fat lady screamed the name Scarlett. T-that’s all I know, I ran and hid in the alley. I swear!”

“So you’re sayin’ you saw something fly out of your sister? What like a ghost?”

“You don’t believe me-” The kid grabs my sleeve as I turn to walk away. "Mr. You gotta believe me!"

“James, come look at this.” Martinez ushers me back into the alleyway and into the room. He points to the ceiling. “Up there…”

“Shit…The kid said the same name. He said that the big one there screamed it as he ran from the room. Who the hell is Scarlett?” We both stare up at the ceiling and see Scarlett smeared in black across the entire surface. Written over and over and over again. I don't know who this Scarlett is, but I intend to find out.