[ Sitting right on top of the roof of a car, a small, brown package waits to greet its intended recipient. It is oddly out of place, easily catching the eye of anyone who manages to get a good look at the vehicle. In such a public place, it is strange to think that it is still sitting where it was left at all, and it begs the question of when the parcel was placed. It could not have been long ago. Maybe whoever left it is still lurking around, waiting to see the reaction their gift may or may not elicit from the viewer. ]
[ Attached to the small box is a small square of paper, baring the text: ᴏᴘᴇɴ ᴍᴇ in computerized print. Once opened, it reveals that it is filled to the brim with pearly-white human teeth, obviously adult in nature. Settled in the center of them lays a single voice recorder, taking a shape similar to a ballpoint pen. Upon clicking the point, a message plays. It leaves more questions than it answers. ]
[ Tied tightly around the recorder is a key. It seems to be crafted from the same material as the teeth – bone. It is carved to resemble an older model of a car key. The significance is difficult to determine. Maybe someone else has a clue? Beneath the voice recorder there lays a single index card, with a message inscribed upon it. Whoever has placed this parcel here has put more thought into this than is immediately apparent.]
ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇɢɪɴɴɪɴɢ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ.
Signed,
A Concerned Citizen
It was a normal practice for doctors to work rotate shifts so there weren’t only a few stuck on the night shifts, and twice a week Casey was graced with the task of helping any night owls who decided to drift into harm’s way. For the most part drunks were the only ones who stumbled in having met their match with another drunk, a random metal object, or their on body’s ability to handle alcohol. Surprisingly, tonight, in fact the past two nights, were completely silent in the Emergency Room. Of course there had been patients, but nothing to out of the ordinary, nothing compared to some of the stuff she’s seen in the ER. She felt bad leaving seeing she hadn’t done anything during her shift, the useless feeling overwhelming her, but she wasn’t sure another cup of coffee or even a shot of espresso would be able to keep her up any longer.
Casey yawned as she made her way through the hospital parking lot, the light from the rising sun highlighting her path. She saw the brown box from a few feet away, and stopped in her tracks. Maybe this wasn’t her car, just a similar one, and in her sleep-deprived state she had forgotten where she parked her car. She took a breath in as she hoped the remote in her hand would trigger a car across the lot, but as her thumb hit the button, the car’s lights went off in front of her. The air came out of her slowly as she shrugged and prepared herself for whatever it was.
Not that Casey wanted to expect the worse, but with the Whitaker name, anything was possible. She placed her bag on the hood of the car slowly, praying this wasn’t some kind of explosive. She knew she was jumping to conclusions which made her laugh, but she could feel anxiety starting to course through her. Even with all the recent odd cases to go through the ER, none had ever been this dramatic. This could mean it was all part of some kind of turf war, but Casey had already begun to rule that out a long time ago. This was way too personal. Again she shrugged, trying to push it off as not a big deal, trying not to let her nerves get to her.
The note begging her to open the parcel did nothing for said nerves though, but she did as instructed. Slowly, she peeled the sides away from one another to reveal the white of the teeth. Her brows furrowed as she continued to try and rationalize the situation. Perhaps some practitioner needed them for a display, but then why was there a note on it? She picked a molar up expecting to feel the smooth plastic in her fingers, but she didn’t need to be a dentist to know the feeling of cold enamel in her hands. She looked up, not willing to face what she already knew, as her thumb traced the top of the crown, instantly feeling the distinct Y, the five distinct points, and the size “Human, of course it’s human”.
Her nerves now proving hard to restrain from what seemed like something out of a horror movie, she moved to the object that seemed so out of place within the shinning white teeth. The pen made no sense or seemed to connect to rest of the box, and only further confused her. She pulled it up noticing the larger white object tied to. A groan almost like a whimper escaped her as she didn’t need to feel it or examine it any closer to know this was actual bone, and her hunch was it was probably human too. A bone in the midst of teeth made no sense to her let alone a bone shaped like a key in the midst of teeth. Turning the pen, she looked for a clue to the box’s contents, and eventually clicking it to reveal the recording. She clicked it a few more times, listening closely for something beyond the static of the recorded message, but her mind continued to race as she couldn’t fit any pieces together. Finally, she read the index card over once before deciding this was enough on her nerves and mind. She wasn’t going to figure it out alone. She quickly closed the box and got into her car, gently placing it on the passenger seat. She could feel her hands shaking a bit as she let out a small laugh, and thought about how she now had a story for Christian.
