Eye of the Beholder
von
Nesh
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Iris Segelken
Eye of the Beholder
The snow is falling gently to the ground, looking soft and incredibly white. Sometimes, when a little wind blows, it dances in front of the window, playfully drawing circles. Some flakes settle down on the windowpane and seem to curiously peek into her room.
It is empty.
For a little while, the flakes sit on the dull glass, the wind whispering past them.
In the street, people hastily pass by. No one looks up.
No one sees how the flakes fade away.
Only a tiny drop of water remains, trickling slowly down the windowpane.
The snow falls in drowsy flakes down from the sky and on to the trees in the forest. A few fluffs make their way down through the branches and twigs and silently settle down on the frozen ground.
The detective watches one particularly large flake slowly gliding towards the ground. Then he kneels down with a sigh and looks at the remains of what had once been a human body. "Yes. Definitely been shot in the head."
His eyes wander over the skeleton and the tattered remaining clothing. "Female. Probably in her twenties or thirties, I'd guess. Looks like she's been left there for quite some time. Probably a couple of months."
He rubs his eyes and wishes he could just observe how the snow falls instead of dealing with another cadaver.
She was facing her murderer but she didn't realize it yet, didn't want to realize it. Her heart pounded fast and strong, sending shivers of hope through her body. She tried negotiating. "I can tell you all about Johnny's gang! Where they meet, where they get their stuff from! You could bust them and take them out of business! I'm sure your boss would be very pleased by that!"
The detective runs his hand over the stubble on his chin and takes in the location of the corpse. "To me, it looks like she has been executed from a close distance."
"Do you think she died here or was later dropped here after her death?" The young police officer asking is looking at the body both with fascination and disgust.
"Hard to tell. After all that time she's been lying here." He gently brushes a snowflake from his coat. "We need to wait for forensics to be here."
She nervously gazed at her opponent. "I swear I didn't do it! I swear I didn't mean it! Please..." She tried begging.
"Please... You can just tell them that I was already gone when you came for me. Please! I beg you! Please! Don't kill me, please..."
She felt a sob rise in the back of her throat and let it emerge. Maybe her tears would evoke some pity.
"You've had your chance." The voice itself would have given no clue about the seriousness of that statement. It had a casual almost conversational tone.
"Kneel down." She saw the drawn weapon through a film of tears and felt for the first time that, yes, this was real. This was it. This time she might not be lucky.
"Please.....!!" She was crying uncontrollably by now, her body shaking with fear and panic.
He has given up smoking some time ago, but looking at the skeleton that was slowly being covered by snow makes him wish he hadn't. It would have given him something to do while waiting for the forensic team.
"Maybe we should cover the body up", the police officer suggests.
He slowly shakes his head. "Won't make a difference. Been lying here for so long. And the team should be here soon."
He runs his hand over his face again. Staring at the snowy trees he tries to shake his sadness off. "Monsters out there", he mutters. "There're so many monsters out there. Killing a poor woman and dumping her in the godforsaken wilderness for the animals to feed on. Monsters."
"Kneel down." The voice was commanding now, a little impatience creeping in.
Deep down she knew it would be her death sentence, but she was too afraid to disobey. There was no more to be done, every action she could take would result in her death anyway. She knelt down.
"Pleaaaaase....." A fine whimper almost inaudible.
She lifted her face to look into her killer's eyes.
The nurse leans forward to check for the old woman's pulse.
"She is dead", she says after a while, sinking back into her chair.
"Finally", the male nurse says, moving in and pulling the white linen sheet over the wrinkled worn face.
"Shouldn't we wait for the doctor to do that?" the nurse says, uncertainty but not disapproval in her voice.
The male nurse shrugs, staring at the heap of white sheets on the bed.
"He can't do anything else, can he? She's been practically dead for ages." He walks over to the closet and opens it. "Did she have any relatives? Friends? Family? Somebody we should give a call?"
The nurse shakes her head. "Not that I know of", she says slowly. "But I've only worked here a little longer then you have."
"Well, good." The male nurse says, ripping off a name tag from the inside of the closet reading Mrs. Myers. "I hate doing those calls."
The nurse frowns. "Wait. Remember the dotty old frump that used to work here? Franny? She told me once about a visitor that Mrs Myers had had on a few occasions. Some strange woman. Maybe a granddaughter or something."
Franny pursed her lips and eyed the young dark haired woman up.
"And you would be?"
"A relative." The woman returned the look calmly.
"And you don't happen to have any proof of I.D. for that?"
"I have been here before many times. Nobody ever asked me about my I.D."
"Well, I cannot account for my colleagues lack of proper conduct. With me, things are certainly handled differently. I will not allow any random people in this facility."
Straightening her back, Franny tapped her pen against the writing board. If that woman believed she could just walk past her desk, ignoring procedure and disrespecting Franny's authority, she was mistaken.
" I just want to pay Mrs Myers a brief visit. I won't stay long. Ask one of your colleagues; They know me."
"Protocol is protocol."
"It's okay, Franny." A middle aged woman with gentle eyes had come down the hall and up behind her colleague. She lay a hand on Franny's arm. "The lady's been here before to visit Mrs Myers." She gave the woman a friendly nod.
Franny sniffed. "But that is against protocol."
"It's okay. Just let her in." Without waiting for Franny's answer, the nurse smiled at the young woman and motioned her to follow. "Come with me, please. I believe, they have moved her into another room since you were last here."
Franny watched them walk away down the hall. Her left eye twitched. If she had known how lax employees here handled their duties, she would have never come to work here!
The male nurse starts taking out clothes and putting them into a plastic bag. For a while, the nurse watches him, then she turns her head and stares out of the window. Snow has started to fall.
"I don't like snow", the nurse murmurs. "It reminds me of an overlarge
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