As that
As this
As of
Anew
Early December 2023, narrow alley way in an isolated coastal town:
Weak light glinting off broken glass in an alley way of non-threatening vibe, the light used to be stronger but has since dimmed over the years since it's installation following a spate of attacks that forced a response from the local council to install a street light despite grumbles from some who saw it as a waste of money that wasn't in their own pockets by now.
Not exactly a big alley way really as it only takes about twenty two point five steps from point to point, it's issue is that it's secluded between several houses that don't give much of a view from their back windows plus there's the garages that block out some of the view. Hence the demands that it be made safer.
Safer, yes, but it wasn't. Not really. Thing about those looking to commit harm is that light doesn't faze them as such as long as they aren't seen committing the act. Moving onwards to the act in question which is taking place now as an elderly woman is on her way home, she is taking the alley way as it's a quicker route home. She missed her previous bus so was late to get home not that she had much to return home to, no surviving family, never had kids so no grandchildren either. Never married. All that awaits her is unending silence which will likely be all that remains of her when she's gone.
Still she is making her way home as she doesn't like to be out after dark. She is counting her steps and cursing getting old, she could have managed this much faster when she was younger, now it takes twice as long. The exit is in plain view but it feels like an eternity to get there with how slow her walking is these days.
A person steps into the alley from the point she is trying to reach, she doesn't see another enter from the point she had entered. She hopes they'll let her pass but they don't, the one approaching her from the front just smiles while the one behind her grabs her. She tries to fight back but she's pinned tightly, she tries to scream only got a hand to go over her mouth.
"If you'll come with us please" No returning home any more.
January 2024, some forest in the back end of bugger all:
Open door, step out into the cold winter air of early January, hello frosted nips. Fuck it's cold.
"Heard something" Her boss had said on the phone earlier. "Pit of bodies all ranging from newborn to late teens, various sexes, no idea on genders. Bunch of party goers for New Years stumbled across the pit, panicked, called the police and the media who are stirring up a real shit storm but that's the media for you.
No idea how long they've been there but it's a pretty nasty scene, I want you to go in and learn what you can or at least see it for yourself. The police have been informed so they'll be expecting you, might not want to eat anything before hand but if you do then take some sickness bags with you or find a good big tree to go behind by the sounds of it" Meant it was a hell scene, charming.
Door locked and secured with a wee double beep that sounded loud in the forest, so many dead trees for the winter waiting to grow new leaves once winter buggers off for a short while if it can even be arsed to, winter tends to last longer than summer in this part of the world.
She can see some news vans close by as well as police vans and cars, lots of curious onlookers too.
Morbid curiosity is such a nasty trait.
"Miss Kaie?" A youngish looking officer asks, couldn't be no more than twenty seven, maybe twenty six, very nice green eyes under a head of reddish brown hair that frames her lovely face.
"Aye, my boss said you would be expecting me" A nod in response.
"Yes, said you were investigating a bunch of disappearances that CIA were investigating as well and that you were working with them as more of a private investigator, they're on the way but as you were nearer then the man upstairs wanted you to have a look and see if there's a link to the disappearances" She had a feeling in her gut that they were though the ages seemed wrong, she was investigating disappearances of elderly people, not children and teenagers yet her gut was saying this was connected somehow.
"Aye, so let's go see what's been found" She's seen dead bodies before, even her own once after she was dead briefly back when she was a police officer and almost murdered outright by a half mad cis man high on a combination of various drugs and heavily intoxicated. She had been legally dead for ten minutes only to, somehow, be revived. Some people said it was like someone from a series of crime books written by someone in the local area, coincidence frankly as far as she was concerned.
She could still remember what it had been like seeing her own body laying there as paramedics worked on reviving her, her blood pooling around her body. It had been a surreal experience.
She had spent the drive here prepping herself anyway which she was glad she did as the officer led her to the pit of bodies, holy fuck Batman it's a scene out of World War 2.
She counted at least thirty bodies, maybe more, all of varying ages ranging from late teens to newborn just as she had been told, all in varying stages of decay. They all looked like they had died in extreme pain and distress before being dumped unceremoniously in this pit, according to the information she was told there had been a large tarp placed over the bodies but the young adults who had come here for a party had pulled it away, leaving the tarp close by.
Shit this was nasty to put it mildly.
"Just curious but how many disappearances have there been?" The officer asks as she walks slowly along the pit.
"At last count about 32, the most recent was early December last year. Elderly woman named Francis Nami, another one of mum's old friends, snatched from an alley way, no one saw who took her but there was a van seen leaving the area on CCTV with false plates just minutes on CCTV after she was seen entering the alleyway. Whoever's kidnapping those people is very good at keeping themselves from being traced.
Thing is there's no disappearance of anyone younger than 60 so all these bodies here doesn't make any sense as this amount of children and teens would be noticed by now, parents would be demanding for their children to be found, there would be search parties and this place would have been found much sooner. My gut is still saying that this is linked though and I don't know why" Ignore the stench of decay, quine, just ignore it. It's stronger than a changing room full of sweaty bodies running on testosterone.
"Anything in the disappearances in particular that match?" The officer asks.
"All of them lived alone, no surviving family, either widowed or never married. All over the age of 60" So why was her gut feeling saying that this pit of bodies of much younger ages was connected? Always trust your gut, her mum used to say, if something feels wrong then listen to it. This all felt connected and so sickeningly wrong but why?
"Wild hunch and probably way too X-Files but what if you've found those missing people? Like I said, wild hunch. If so though then how did they become younger if it is them?" Good question and one without any solid basis in fact yet what if they are? The very notion alone would send ripples within the medical and science communities, there would be a lot of questions as to who has managed such a thing and how.
There would be a lot of rich people bidding fortunes to be young forever if such a thing was even possible.
"Wild speculation won't provide answers to this tragedy, not to say that wild speculation should be suppressed. But let's focus on the facts as we know them for now and see if there are any possible connections that could link the disappearances and this death pit together first" She is led over to where the team chief is waiting for her, she listens as they tell her about what little they know, about how the bodies were discovered, all things she pretty much already knows. As she listens she goes over all of the possible ways this pit of bodies could connect to the disappearances, even the wild speculative notion that these bodies were those people.
Her gut feeling is adamant however that those people have now been found, at least most of them. She couldn't shake that feeling no matter what she tried.
But what if she has? What then?
After meeting with the team from the CIA who eventually arrive, photos taken with permission to help with her investigation, a chat with the officers and team and a talk with her boss, she finally heads for home an hour after the sun has set. Chilly day met with chilly night.
Unlocking her car as she nears she's interrupted by the officer from before.
"Miss Kaie? Just wanted to see if you were okay, you looked a little pale at times while taking the approved photos, I could get you a cup of tea if you're wanting one" The tea provided was little more than watered down piss and not really fit for purpose, she wanted something stronger like a cup of coffee. Alcohol was something she was determined to avoid.
"No, it's fine, thank you"
"I'm curious as to why you're investigating those disappearances, if you don't mind telling me" Not the first time she's been asked this question in the past two years since the first disappearance.
"One of mum's friends went missing shortly after mum died, she was the first to disappear. Since then it's happened so many times that it's not easily swept under the carpet, someone is kidnapping lonely elderly people for whatever reason I can't understand yet. If it means working with the police again years after I left the force then I'm willing to as long as we find out what's going on and stop whoever's behind it. Simple as that.
Shift change should be happening soon, aye? You should get yourself off home for some sleep, well if you can sleep after what you've seen" The officer gives a somewhat sad and distant smile before responding.
"Seen worse, ma'am, before I joined the force. You never leave the theatre of war without injuries, no one does. See you later, ma'am"
"Miss Kaie or Cassie is fine" She liked this young woman, she had a certain air about her.
"I know, can take the soldier out of the army but you can't take the army out of the soldier. See you later, ma'am" Yep, definitely liking her. She turns back to her car and notices that one of the back doors seems ajar, bloody car, she really needed to get that back door seen to at some point. It always did that when the car was unlocked.
The forest now behind her she heads for her office first before home, she wanted to upload additional copies of her photos which she had sent to her boss in case of any computer issues wiping the originals. Technology is far too fickle in the supposed age of high technology after all.
As she stops at a turn off she's sure she can hear someone sniffling, maybe she was imagining it. This is followed by a loud sneeze from her back seat, quickly she drives to the nearest lay by before turning to the back seat. Nestled between the back seat and passenger seat is a teenager of maybe 18 years old, female by the looks of things, wearing little more than a tatty looking winter coat, thin trousers and a thin t-shirt.
"Who the hell are you and how did you get into my car? Where did you even come from?"
"Please, Cassie, please don't hurt me" How did they know her name? She had never seen them before. Had they overheard her talking to the officer?
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" The shivering teen looks like she's going to burst into tears, she looks filthy and malnourished, her dark brown hair matted and dirty. She looked familiar but she had never met this person before, had she?
"It's me, Cassie, it's Francis. I knew your mum, it's really me!" No, no way, impossible. Francis was 71 and struggling with a failing hip, she wasn't this shivering teenage girl.
Despite her doubt though she felt the need to ask a personal question.
"When I was seven and mum was unwell, Francis took me in because mum needed to go to hospital. What did I do that first night?" The teen thought for a moment before answering.
"You cried like a baby for your mum, you wanted to see her but you couldn't so you curled up in my lap and cried through the night as I comforted you as best as I could. You passed out in my arms after awhile and I sat there cradling you the whole night, I had never felt so maternal as I did that night.
The next day we went to see your mum and I treated you to a fancy piece at a bakery afterwards, a big jam and cream slice that was half around your mouth and the other half in your stomach, I bought you a teddy that you named Jammy because you had jam on your fingers that caused a bit of it's fur to stick together. You've still got that teddy if I recall though it's been a while since I last saw you until today as you work pretty hard in order to distract yourself from the grief of your mum's passing, you really need to take time to grieve instead of bottling it up" No way, there is no way that this was Francis, it couldn't be.
"If you are Francis then how are you like this?" The teen looks down at her thinly covered legs before responding, there is so much pain in her eyes.
"I was heading home down that narrow alley way close to home, a couple of men, at least I think they were men as it's frankly hard to tell these days, grabbed me and bundled me into a van. They took me to some house near the forest those bodies are in and injected me with something, the pain was horrific. I faked my death and listened as they called me another failed test subject, they threw me in that pit. I was able to get out and tried to find some help until those young people arrived, I was able to steal some spare clothes from them when they weren't looking. I hid when they found the bodies and when I saw you arrive I waited until you unlocked the car and slipped in through a back door while you were talking to that officer.
It's me, Cassie, really. Whatever I was injected with has made me younger and I'm still getting younger, I'm sure of it, I was about twenty one when I was thrown in the pit and I think I'm about eighteen now, maybe a little younger. I can feel my body getting younger bit by bit" That was impossible, this person had to be lying yet they did seem a little shorter than they were a moment ago and a little younger.
"I don't know, you do look familiar but I don't know! If you are Francis then you would know what my mum's last words were as you were with me when she died" A look of sad pain before a response.
"She said that she was sorry that she couldn't have been in better health, that she couldn't have been there for you more as you grew into the headstrong woman you are now. She was so proud of you and so angry at her body for forcing her to miss out on so much of your life, she asked me and the others to be there for you as much as we could be but one by one they've all disappeared leaving just me.
She held your hand as she died, holding on as tightly as she could until she couldn't any more. Her eyes were so full of love for you until the last flicker of life left her eyes. Her poor health took her from you" Her mum had been ill for as long as she remembered, since before becoming a parent. Some kind of rare genetic collapse that was slow and painful, something to do with her cells literally trying to make her younger but causing her great pain and ill health in the process.
She had been scared that it had been transferred to her daughter though no indications have appeared.
"Francis?"
"Yes, it's me" This was impossible, there was no fucking way. This teenager could not be the last of her mum's friends, it was too far fetched.
"It's me, Cassie, it's really me. The people who kidnapped me were talking about your mum, talking about her condition. They got their hands on genetic material from her before she died and are experimenting with it, I heard them very clearly. Whatever they injected me with has made me younger and is still making me younger, they talked about the others who had disappeared and how the injections had failed, they said the same of me but it didn't fail! It's worked!
All those bodies, Cassie, all of them are of every friend of your mum's who had no one else to look out for them so they were vulnerable and easy game for these monsters. I'm the last one left and they are after you, they want your blood because they think it can make their formula or whatever they've made much purer, I heard them talk about you!" A sudden loud banging of doors can be heard near the car and a familiar voice.
"Thought so, I saw the girl enter the car and waited until Cassie left before calling you, I suspected she would stop at this layby if she heard her stowaway. Predictable" Shit, the officer from before if she even was an officer as no one had really acknowledged her other than a few light nods. Another face in the crowd.
"Miss Kaie, don't try running as we'll ram you off the road and we would much prefer to have you in one piece along with your unintended passenger!" She could try gunning it down the road but it is a narrow road with some hard turns, not ideal for a car chase with a much heavier, most likely, vehicle gunning after her as well. She had to think of something quickly.
"I'll sacrifice myself, you keep going" Francis pleads. "Please, let me at least honour your mum's last request to me" No way she was doing that, she was going to have to rely on cunning. Checking her mobile's battery she sees she has enough power to make a call, quickly grabbing her charger she starts charging the phone while she makes the call and talks quickly. She taps the window down just enough before opening the door after a quick remark then nodding to Francis to keep herself hidden as much as she can.
"Alright, I'm coming out, no need for any violence!" Stepping out of the car with her hands raised she turns to face the officer and a group of people, all of them looking pretty stocky.
"So I take it you're not an officer, aye?"
"Oh I am, kind of, I can easily pass off as an officer. The real officer who has this badge is currently being held at our place and if you come with us they'll be set free though might not survive, hard to say. If the formula works on her as it did the girl in your car then she might though she'll have to start school again, puberty and more.
Your mum's DNA is seriously fascinating shit and being her daughter your DNA must be hot shit too, imagine the fortunes we'll make if we can dispense eternal youth to all those rich wankers" Think fast, quine, this is the UK so you don't have a gun. This isn't some Hollywood movie where quick shooting will win the day, this is real life with a bunch of money hungry thugs. Think fast.
"Her DNA killed her, how do you know you can stabilise whatever you've made? Could blow up in your face and you're already facing manslaughter of at least 31 people, you'll be on the run for life" The officer looks over to the backseat of Cassie's car, nodding to one of the men. Cassie quickly locks her car before the man can open the backdoor.
"Give me the fob, Cassie, this doesn't have to be violent. Come with us peacefully and we'll see if we can stabilise the girl before she's a newborn" Think fast, so she slips the fob into her underwear.
"Take it and I'll snap every bone in any hands that try to take it, justified self defence against intrusion on bodily privacy" Yay for self defence classes and the training she had in the force. "You know I'll defend myself with all due force if you even try" The officer snarls before indicating to two of the men to hold Cassie in place before approaching her.
"Whatever, seen enough shit in my time to not give a crap about doing the same to others. Want to make this difficult then it's going to be difficult" Four rather large and strong hands grip her arms as the officer shoves a hand into Cassie's underwear.
"Scream if you want, don't care, not going to violate you but I want that fucking fob"
"Take it then, snap" Moving quickly she traps the officer's hand with her inner thighs, twists hard until there's a loud snap before twisting her upper body with her lower body swinging and slamming the officer into one of the arms before twisting again and throwing the officer into the other man, dropping to the ground where she quickly jumps up as the other men charge her.
Keeping her momentum going she kicks one of the men in the crotch before another kick bangs his head against the side of the car, the other man she jumps away from before whipping out her rape alarm and pulling the pin out, using the loud noise as a short term distraction before clapping her hands on the man's ears hard enough to make him crumble to the ground.
With the men out cold she approaches the officer who is nursing their broken hand, the key fob next to them in the dirt. Scooping up the key fob she brings a foot down on the officer's broken hand, pressing down hard enough to make the officer cry out in pain.
"Got more at the house or this all of you? Take it you're the organ grinder or would that be someone else? Why did you kidnap those people? How did you find out about my mum's condition and just who the fuck are you?" She can hear sirens getting closer, they got the call just in time, oh how real life could sometimes emulate fiction.
"I was one of the researchers who learned about what her DNA was doing to her, I had just been discharged from the army and got a job as a research temp. Saw the chance for some easy money so called in some old friends from the army days who weren't happy with the shit money those greedy pricks in power were barely paying them for serving, once your mum died we started taking those she was friends with who didn't have anyone else to look out for them, experimented on them to refine the formula.
A lot of bodies piled up as the formula was tearing them apart internally from the effort of reverse ageing then that girl in your car survived though we thought she was dead, with her blood and your blood we could refine the formula, be stinking rich. Rich enough to buy this fucked up world" Another press down, another cry of pain.
"Treating people like lab animals for money, the depths that our species will go for a profit. Don't even try to deny it once you're in cuffs as I've recorded it all, called my boss who called the police, they've heard everything. Using the dead like you have disgusts me" Finally a few police cars arrive and she flags them down, her would be kidnappers arrested quickly.
"Are you okay, ma'am? We found our officer alive and well and the house is being searched, looks like the lot of them are here" An officer asks.
"I'm fine, ID? I want to be sure you're genuine since that bitch wasn't" The officer shows his ID which Cassie scans with her mobile, the officer was genuine.
"Mind if I say something to her, you are welcome to listen and record" Leading her over to the car where the false officer is being detained Cassie eyes the woman who's anger is all too clear.
"What?" She snarls.
"Just to say that this is no good guy wins the day shit, what you've created would have remarkable benefits to the population but your methods are questionable. Using the dead for profit isn't exactly something that's new but it's still a disgusting thing to do, do you even have morals?"
"I used to until I saw the shit that goes down in war, it's hard to hold onto your morality when you've got a kid's guts in your hands and a baby's blood on your face. All this talk about how we're a supposedly morally superior society yet we let the young die for a profit and the innocent die for some hollow ho rahs and pats on the back for doing such a good job with legalised murder.
Ain't no one a saint unless they're very young and it's always them who get it in the neck from the people who sold their morality for a yacht.
There's no such thing as good guys and bad guys, there's only action and consequence. We delude ourselves into thinking that we're the good guys because it's too hard to see the void where our souls have been torn to pieces.
No one's won here because none of us are innocent, not even you given your past"
"You clearly know all about me" Cassie remarks which doesn't surprise her as her time in the force is on record, the actions that had led to her being discharged.
"Bloody right I do, quick on the trigger, slow on the pre-thought. Kid would have been the same age as the girl is now if you had waited just one more second before taking the shot. No saint in you, just the void howling for a redemption you ain't getting. We done?" Pulling back from the car she looks over to where Francis is being treated to a warm blanket and a hot cup of piss tea.
"We're done, see you around" Going over to Francis she notes that Francis now looks to be around fifteen years old, her regression is slow but steady. She's been pretty quiet since the police arrived.
"Is she going to jail?" Francis asks, her voice sounding pretty young.
"Probably given the charges, that's a lot of bodies, the house is being searched so bound to be even more to be used against them. How are you feeling?"
"Small, young, mind's feeling fuzzy in places and I think my potty training is going to weaken before long. Getting pretty hard to think like an adult, at this rate I'm going to be an infant by the end of the week. So what happens now? I refuse to be poked and plodded by people trying to understand how I'm getting younger" Good question, one that Cassie wasn't sure how to answer.
"We'll see what happens but I'll do my best to be there for you like you were for me" She hopes she can anyway.
Thirty one funerals had been held in January for people who had no one, thirty one lives who had been experimented on and had died in extreme pain, thirty one names now left to memory and a case closed. Judgement was cut and dried in the court, their killers were facing multi life imprisonments for their crimes while a lot of very wealthy people are demanding access to their research which has been sealed and classified.
Questions were being asked with answers being a no comment from those who also wanted access to the research, near immortality is a tempting carrot for those who hunger for profit and power above all else.
Cassie has other concerns though which are namely a baby girl who used to be an elderly woman. With the case closed and everything now in the hands of the courts Cassie has focused on taking care of Francis who had returned to infancy a week after her escape from that house where she had been experimented on.
It was admittedly strange to be a parent now, Francis had lost all of her memories by the time she had stopped regressing so she was a blank slate now, Cassie hadn't planned on being a parent so she was still figuring things out a day at a time which she was told was quite common for all parents.
Life has a way of bringing change when you least expect it, as many would attest to. Especially so from death.
Oh how death can change things for those left behind.
Thirty one lives gone so that one could survive and begin anew, society so close to being on the verge of near immortality if that research ever got out. So much potential change right there.
Tapping a key she destroys the last firewall which allows the research to go into the hands of the public, whatever happens now will change the world. Those lost lives had to count for something as it had cost them everything.
"Take it, snap" Cassie whispers as the public become aware of just what had been created.
As before
As now
As will be
Anew and change
