Writing Wednesday July 27, 2022 (Patreon)

Date: July 27, 2022

What did I work on? one shot based on prompt

How much time was allotted: 30 mins but went more like 45-50

Thoughts and Feelings: Got a positive reaction from the person I let read it so that made me all fuzzy inside

Word count (if known): 1189 minus the prompt words

What was written:

I'm gonna let you all take a read! :D

- Start your story with somebody taking a photo.

There was a lack of flash, the detective noted, as the shutter of the camera did its thing. He supposed had it gone off, it would have disoriented this entire scene even further. A momentary flash of light to truly illuminate an already uncomfortable crime scene.

There a victim lay face down with odd, pale and twisted things protruding from their back.

“Victim’s name is–” the detective tried as he crouched lower.

“Unconfirmed,” another officer responded.

How unhelpful. “And do we have any idea of the origin of, uh, these things?” he gestured, alluding to the two large unidentified objects in the victim. They looked like twisting tree roots, almost ivory in colour except for traces of blood and what could have been flesh smeared across them. If they weren’t such an odd shape he might be tempted to call them wings with the way they were positioned curling downward and out towards the victim’s sides. Another question was though: where did they originate?

The morgue assistant on scene helped to show the detective that these things did not protrude out of the chest of the victim and were instead only on the victim’s back. “Funny thing is I don’t think they were stabbed in. See here, the flesh suggests this came out of the skin except I can’t explain to you how that is since there are no entry wounds,” she explained, dark eyes mystified and begging for some better explanation. He got the impression she was chomping at the bit to be present for an autopsy.

“That is very strange indeed,” the detective agreed with her, nodding in affirmation, “Is there anything else you can tell me? Because forgive my ignorance but these look like tree roots and I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all this.”

She and the other officers nodded too, just as perplexed. “Well I can confirm they appear to be solid but as to their origin and make up we have no idea. Only thing we can say is time of death is estimated to be two and a half hours ago or so.”

The detective pictured himself suddenly back in that time frame enjoying a delicious, hot submarine sandwich. While he was stuffin’ his gob, this poor sod had whatever the hell this was happen to him. What an odd and crazy thing.

Normally the detective didn’t allow himself to think of things like that and connect his “real-world” with the timeline of the victim. But this time he knew the comparison seemed almost justified. Because what in the name of Pete was this? What was he looking at?

Another picture was taken, this time with flash.

“G’damnit warn somebody will ya? I’m seein’ stars!” He stood up and shielded his eyes as the culprit muttered apologies to his colleague on the case.

As he blinked them back, he saw another individual standing across from him on the other side of the body looking down on it. It had to have been a trick of the light but they were blue haired, pale skinned, royal blue breasted jacket of some sort and seemed to shimmer as though the spots in the detective’s vision were somehow actually casting light like stars onto this clothing. Furthermore everything about this individual was long: long hair, long nose, long face, long coat…

This person, whoever they were, shook their head. “Mistransformation,” they spoke and sounded female. “How very odd.”

“Sorry, who are you?” the detective pressed but “Long” didn’t even look up.

“That’s definitely what killed them although I’d hate to say for sure without a full examination. Did this break the poor selbie’s back or did he somehow bleed out internally? I’ve never heard of extreme pain killing someone though it’s a good guess that’s what he went through here.” Long crouched beside the body and looked closer at the protrusions.

“Excuse me,” the detective pressed again, confused as all hell at this mysterious individual’s presence and commentary, “Are you a consult? What?”

She made a face. “Let’s get him out of here before the law enforcement can come calling. A transformation broken like this is sure to attract attention of more than just our realm. Something feels off.”

“Detective?” the uniformed officer called out just louder than a normal tone of someone standing so close to him.

He turned and looked at the man, losing sight of Long in the process.

“Sir is everything alright?”

“No, who is this–?” He turned to point out the mystery woman but she was no longer standing there. He glanced around frantically but found she was no longer present on the scene. “There was just a woman here in blue, blue hair,” he began to explain loud enough for all within a few meters to hear, “where is she?”

“Uh, sir?”

Two other officers quickly went into action to see if some bystander had started to flee the scene but within minutes it was determined that the detective’s mysterious “Long” had gotten away.

“She was right here, right across from me examining the body and going on about…about transformations and-and something like a shelby or selkie or something,” he explained with growing desperation and frustration. He led the officers back to the body to demonstrate.

“I was standing– no, crouching here and then after that photography flash I stood up and saw her and she was—” He trailed off as he caught sight of the body which no longer resembled the one he’d come here to investigate.

“Wh-where are the roots?”

“The what?”

“The roots? Coming outta the guy’s back? Where the hell are they?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, detective. Roots?”

The detective explained a little hysterically that the man he’d come to investigate here had two protruding white tree roots coming from his back which were now very obviously gone without any sort of trace whatsoever. The guy didn’t even have any blood on him. “How the f– How the heck is this possible?!”

His colleagues were all looking concerned and confused. The assistant who had taken the crime scene photographs came over and as a peace offering showed the pictures that had been taken.

They matched this body.

“We think this man passed away in his sleep probably due to complications of his alleged homelessness here but we’re going to treat this like a homicide just in case,” she explained.

The detective turned around in a circle. “I don’t understand this. I don’t understand any of this! What sort of sick prank are you all playing!? Did Jaymes put you up to this?”

“To what?”

“This–” He paused to find the right word and found himself suddenly unable to grasp upon it.

He turned towards the body again for a moment to help him think and after a second shook his head. “Sorry I don’t know what I was saying. Okay so died in his sleep we think? Let’s check for any signs of a struggle on him first before we bag up and take him to the morgue.”

“Yes sir,” they all agreed.