Ella Awakened

by S. E. Duncan

  Oh my gosh, Burke! It’s the girl we overheard arguing with her boyfriend before the movie. She thought he was having an affair with some girl named Mara, remember? I didn’t realize until just now because everyone was huddled around her and I couldn’t see her face.

  It’s her boyfriend down here and I’m not getting a pulse. Don’t ask her any questions. Just sit with her. I’m gonna call this in.

  Burke got out his cell phone and dialed the police precinct. “Hi Katy,” he said when the dispatcher answered. “This is Burke Gellar. I’m at the movie showing in the city park. I need you to send a unit out. I’ve got a 10-53.” Burke listened a moment then replied, “10-45D.”

  “What’s going on? Are they all right?” someone shouted down to Burke. By now almost everyone who had been watching the movie had gathered around.

  “Everything’s fine. I called 911.” Burke called back up. He didn’t want to cause a panic, and he could already hear the police sirens in the distance.

  What’s really going on? Ella asked him. What did those numbers mean?

  I can’t move around due to the risk of disturbing evidence. I need lights before I can do a cursory exam of the body. I just got close enough to feel for a pulse. 10-53 means man down and 10-45D describes the condition of the patient, which is dead. I’m not sure yet what happened. Maybe he fell, maybe she pushed him. We can’t tell anyone that we heard them arguing though; we won’t be able to explain how. However he got down here, he hit his head on a rock when he landed. That’s where the blood we smelled was coming from. Head wounds bleed like crazy.

  Are you gonna perform CPR?

  No, he’s gone. When I laid my hands on him to check for a pulse it was obvious to me that he was past the point of being brought back. Carl’s on call tonight, but since I’m already here I’ll take this one. I’ll find out what really happened when I get him back to the office.

  I’ll come with you.

  Burke couldn’t see clearly what was going on above him; there were too many people blocking his view. He could hear Jeremy asking Ella what was going on, though.

  Tell Jeremy to take Sarah back to the apartment. They were with us the whole time so they didn’t witness anything. I’ll tell the officers they were here and I let them go.

  Ella suggested to Jeremy that he take Sarah back to the apartment just as the first of the uniformed officers approached the scene. “I don’t want to leave you here,” Jeremy told Ella.

  “I’m okay, I’m with Burke. This is what the internship is all about, Jeremy. Even if we hadn’t been here when it happened, I would have come with him or Carl when they were called.”

  Jeremy hesitated another moment before saying, “Okay, call me if you need me to come get you.” He took Sarah by the hand and started leading her back towards the apartment. He didn’t know how Ella could stand being a part of this line of work, especially considering how her parents had died. It kind of gave him the heebie jeebies. She was a bad ass.

  By now there were six uniformed officers asking the movie patrons questions before sending them home. Ella recognized Detective Brady strolling across the lawn toward her.

  “Ella, the M.E. intern, right?” he asked extending his hand.

  “Right,” Ella said shaking his hand. “Burke’s down there,” she added pointing towards the gully. “He needs lighting so he can do a cursory exam.”

  “You,” Brady said, pointing at one of the uniformed officers. “Get some lighting down there.”

  Brady walked over and called down to Burke that the lighting was on its way. He took a flashlight from another officer. “I’m coming down,” he announced to Burke.

  “So what do you think?” Brady asked Burke when he had joined him in the gully.

  “I’m not sure just yet, but it looks like he fell and hit his head.” Suddenly the crime scene lit up from above. The uniformed officer had rolled one of the huge flood lights to the edge of the gully and angled it downward.

  “Fell or was pushed?” Brady circled the body and glanced back up the hill contemplating the effects of a fall verses the force of a push.

  “Don’t know. We’ll have to wait to see if I find fresh bruising or scratches that can’t be explained from the fall.”

  “Who’s hysterical girl?” Brady motioned with his head toward the hill. The young girl was still crying uncontrollably as a police woman tried to ascertain what had happened.

  Burke shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure, girlfriend maybe.”

  Brady had circled the body a second time and was now kneeling and studying the head wound. “She found him?”

  “Yes, she screamed and Ella and I ran over. There were already a couple of people with the girl trying to figure out what the problem was. I saw the body and came down to check for a pulse, but he was already dead. It’ll be hard to find signs of a struggle on the lawn the way everyone came running and trampling around.”

  Brady stood up, shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, and raised a questioning eyebrow at Burke. “Here with the hot intern, huh? Giving Mike a run for his money?”

  “Just catching a flick with a friend,” Burke knelt down and busied himself by looking over the body.

  “Sure, sure,” Brady flashed a crooked grin. “I’m gonna go chat with hysterical girl for a bit. You want me to send Ella down?”

  “Yeah, have her bring bags and the camera.”

  Ella cautiously made her way down the steep incline. She could have easily jumped, but there were too many people standing around. Burke was right; she needed to be considerably more careful how she moved. She wondered if Jeremy or Sarah would say anything later about how fast she leapt to her feet when the girl screamed. If they did, she’d just chalk it up to adrenalin. Hopefully her movement would be completely overshadowed by the fact that their movie had been interrupted by a possible homicide.

  “Sorry our night turned out like this,” Burke said when she’d reached the bottom.

  “I know, I was really enjoying myself. So, what do you want me to do?”

  “Let me take pictures, and then we’ll bag his hands. I also want to check for a wallet and give that to Brady. I didn’t do it earlier because the lights weren’t set up yet.” Burke started walking around the body taking multiple pictures from several different angles. The flash from his camera illuminated the scene in bright morbid strobes.

  Do you think the Demon did this? Ella silently asked him. She scanned the area to see if anyone was watching her and Burke. Didn’t murderers have a sadistic interest in the aftereffects of their handiwork? If the Demon had done this, was he watching them now?

  I don’t know. It doesn’t look good for his girlfriend. Just because we can’t say we heard them arguing doesn’t mean someone else won’t come forward with that information. You know what they say about a woman scorned.

  Yeah, hell hath no fury. She glanced up the hill at the still crying girl. I gotta say, I’m not really getting a ‘hell hath no fury’ kinda vibe from her.

  Ella had been standing out of the way while Burke took pictures. He paused and glanced at her. “Did she say anything while you were up there with her?”

  “Mostly just cried and moaned. Brady’s talking to her now.”

  Burke put the lens cap on the camera and carefully stowed it back into its case. “I’ve gotten enough pictures; hand me those bags for his hands and we’ll get the crew down here to remove the body.”

  Burke bagged the victim’s hands and pushing him slightly to the side, reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. He flipped it open and looked at the driver’s license. “Daniel Parker, twenty years old,” he said.

  Burke stood up and turned towards Ella. “Why don’t you walk back to the apartment and check on Jeremy and Sarah? I just need to give this to Brady and I’ll be with you in a minute. If you’re going back to the office with me, pack a change of clothes so you can spend the night at my place when we’re done tonight.”

  “All right, I’ll see you in a
few minutes.”

  Straight there, Hutsool. Burke looked wistfully at Ella. He wanted to take her into his arms, but this was neither the time nor the place.

  Yes, and you too. If you’re more than ten minutes I’m coming back.

  I love you.

  I love you, too. She flashed a comforting smile then carefully made her way up the steep incline. She was getting a peculiar vibe from him – she knew Burke had a bad feeling about this.

  Ella walked the short distance back to her apartment. She didn’t have her key so she knocked on the door. It opened straight away and Jeremy practically jerked her inside.

  “Jesus Christ, Jeremy! Are you trying to rip my arm off?” Ella snapped at him.

  “Sorry.” He stuck his head out the door and look around before ducking back inside and locking the deadbolt. “What the hell’s going on over there, and where’s Burke?”

  “They’re interviewing people and sending them home. Burke will be here in a few minutes. No one knows yet what exactly happened or rather, how it happened. Someone died, that’s all I know. Now chill out. You’re upsetting Sarah and you’re annoying me. I’m going to the M.E. office with Burke. I don’t know how long we’ll be so I’m just gonna crash at his place. Is Sarah going to stay here with you?”

  “Yeah, she’s staying here. She’s a little freaked out.” Jeremy nervously chewed on the corner of his fingernail.

  “Right here,” Sarah called, waving a hand from the depths of the couch. “I can hear you.”

  “Well you were freaked out,” Jeremy said. “Shit, I’m freaked out. Aren’t you freaked out?” He asked Ella with wide eyes. He went to the window and peeked through the blinds. He was just too worked up to sit down.

  “A little bit, I guess,” she answered. He has no idea what freaked out is. This is pretty much routine compared to the rest of my week, Ella thought. “I’m going to run into my room and change,” she said.

  Ella went into her room and closed the door. She paced around for a few seconds running her hands through her hair. This was not good. When Burke had taken her to the crime scene of the rape victim that morning she hadn’t gotten this feeling, this instinct. She couldn’t explain it – not even to herself. She knew it didn’t look good for hysterical girl; how sad that she had come to be called that so quickly and it was sticking. Even if she and Burke kept their mouths shut about what they’d heard, chances were someone else might come forward. It seemed to be a rocky relationship to say the least. Heck, Mara might even come forward. Ella really hoped not, because she just couldn’t shake the idea that this killing had something to do with the Demon. It would be horrendous for hysterical girl to take the fall for something she didn’t do. Had that happened in the past? So far all of the killings had been ruled accidents. Jill had drowned, and the jogger had died of sudden cardiac arrest. Did the Demon consciously try to make the killings look like accidents? That would imply he cared about covering his tracks - that he was being methodical and careful. It would mean that he was much more than just a monster on a rampage.

  There was a sudden knock on her bedroom door. “Ella, can I come in?” It was Burke.

  “Yes, the door’s not locked, come on in.”

  “Are you ready to go?” Burke asked as he opened the door.

  “No, I was just about to change into some jeans and a t-shirt. I still need to throw a few things into a bag if I’m staying at your place tonight. Speaking of which, I already told Jeremy I wouldn’t be home. Sarah’s gonna stay here with him. She’s a little wigged out.” Ella got out a backpack and started packing a change of clothes and a few toiletries. “Do you have anything in your car we can leave with them? Some kind of weapon – but not a gun. I’d feel better if I knew they had some kind of protection.”

  Burke shut the door and leaned against it. “I have a Taser. It’s pretty easy to use. It looks kinda like a gun. The range is 35 feet. When you pull the trigger two electrodes fly out but stay attached to the main unit by conductive wire. It completely incapacitates the subject’s neuromuscular function. Now whether or not it would affect the Demon in any way, I have no idea. Also, it’s government property.”

  “Please show him how to use it and leave it with him just for tonight. I’ve got a funny feeling about what just happened at the movie. I don’t want to leave them here absolutely defenseless.” Ella zipped her backpack and tossed it on the floor by her bedroom door.

  “Okay, Hutsool, I’ll show Jeremy how to use the Taser. They’re still leaving in the morning to go to your Aunt and Uncle’s house to look after Sophie, right?”

  “Right, which is good.” She went to her dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and tossed them on her bed. “They’ll probably stay at least two days. Sarah’s doing her classwork online now and Jeremy’s calling in sick. Just tell him to leave the Taser in the kitchen pantry when he and Sarah leave. My uncle has a hunting rifle and Jeremy knows how to use that.”

  Burke walked over and pulled Ella into his arms. “You seem a little tense; even more than warranted by the situation at hand. You okay?”

  “I’m okay, I’ve just been thinking about a few things. We’ll talk in the car. Let me get changed while you show Jeremy the Taser. I’ll be out in a sec.”

  Burke smiled reassuringly and ran his hands down Ella’s arms. “It’ll be all right, Hutsool.” He wished he believed that himself.

  ~~

  A short time later they were headed toward the M.E. office.

  “So what were you thinking about in your room?” Burke asked.

  “Quite a few things. First, I just get the feeling the Demon is responsible for this death. I can’t explain it. Call it warrior’s intuition I guess. Of course, I could be wrong, but I’ll be surprised if I am. I didn’t feel this way at all when you took me to the crime scene in the woods this morning. Second, so far it seems to me the Demon has kind of gone out of his way to make the deaths look like accidents. Why would he do that? Why does he care? It’s not like the humans would believe it was a Demon from another world anyway, so why not just leave a random bloody trail? Why not let the authorities think it’s the work of some kind of serial killer? And why is he sticking around here? He could travel all over the world taking random victims. I mean how hard would it be for him torture some rich guy, make off with a ton of money and live it up in the tropics - or even better Mexico - where people go missing every day? You and I must be the key as to why he’s staying here; it’s the only thing that makes sense. So, first we have to figure out why we’re so important, and then we have to figure out what we’re going to do about it.” Ella’s ideas came out in a rush. She needed to get all of her thoughts out so that she and Burke could analyze everything she had questioned.

  “You’re right, everything you’re saying is completely logical. Even on Quintar the deaths looked like accidents. Why didn’t we ever notice that? I guess we just figured the Demon didn’t know the healers could see how the victims died, and that by making the murders look like accidents he was able to stay hidden and more easily choose his victims.”

  “You told me that after my parents died you left and he followed you. Did he ever try to kill you? Did you ever actually fight him?”

  “I wounded him once. He was attacking a young girl. It was just to the point that he was starting to steal her breath. I threw a knife and hit him in the back. He dropped the girl and ran. As he fled I managed to get another knife into him, but then I stopped to help the girl. Maybe I should have pursued him and tried to finish him off. I only had a split second to make my decision, and I chose to save the girl. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice.”

  “You saved someone’s life.” Ella grabbed Burke’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

  “I know, but if I would have chased the Demon I might have ended it right then and saved more lives than one.” He ran his thumb over her fingers.

  “Don’t second guess yourself, Burke; you went with your healer’s instincts. Had my
father been with you, or if I had been with you, it wouldn’t have been a decision you had to make in the first place.”

  Burke didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to argue with her, but he knew in his heart if she had been with him all those years ago he would not have let her go after the Demon alone. They had arrived at the M.E. office anyway, so there was no reason to sit here arguing about something neither one of them could change. “Well,” he said, giving her hand a hard squeeze, “let’s see how good your warrior’s intuition is.”

  ~~

  Ella and Burke were standing in the autopsy room. The victim from the city park was on the table, his body covered up to the neck with a thin white sheet.

  “How do we do this?” Ella asked uneasily. She knew she needed to see the vision but she was nervous as hell. She stood staring at the body. It was like watching a train wreck – almost impossible to tear your eyes away. She was about to share this man’s death.

  Burke took Ella’s chin and turned her face so he could look into her eyes. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

  Ella held her breath for a second then slowly exhaled. “Yes, I need to see. Maybe I’ll be able to pick up on some detail or more likely be able to find some correlation later if he kills again before we destroy him. Which, though I hate to admit it, you and I both know is a very likely scenario.”

  “How about if I look first, and then if it was a Demon attack I’ll try to share the vision with you. Ella, we don’t even know if this is possible yet.”

  “So no one – ever - that you know of - in the entire history of Quintar – has ever shared a vision with anyone else?”

  Burke shook his head. “I never said that. But I don’t know of anyone who wasn’t a healer ever seeing a vision, alone or through someone else. I have heard of two healers witnessing a vision together. If a non-healer was bonded to a healer and saw a vision through them, I am unaware of it.”

  Ella was getting the feeling that they could stand around here for hours arguing about this. Burke did not want her to see the vision. She would have to compromise.