KILL OR DIE: "REMEMBER YOU TO NEXT LIFE"

SEARCHING THROUGH SECRETS

Darren drove the car on the empty highway with Keith in the front seat beside him, looking outside the window, as if trying her might to see if she could remember anything from the things she could see on the road.

But like how her doctor told her, she cannot expect any familiar sight to flash back to her. Her brain, is pretty much like a formatted device.

“You okay?”

Keith was out in her deep thoughts when a rough voice asked from behind. She immediately turned around to look at Darren and gave him an innocent stare.

“Yeah. I’m fine”, she answered, but Darren could read right between the lines, and that the word “fine”, was meant the exact opposite of it.

“You’ll get used to it. Just give yourself some time. Consider it as if you’re living a completely new life”, he advised, but it was not something Keith needed at that moment.

Living a new life is not something she should do. But she has to find every bit of information that could help her learn everything that her lost memory knew.

“New life. Tsk, that’s impossible. I’m a detective, Doc. Which means, right after I get discharged, my life goes back to its original place. Whether my memory is gone or not, I need to continue solving cases, so new life is not an option for me.”

She answered as she remained staring outside. Darren gave her a small stare and smile on his lips as he passed through the sign on the road that says, ‘Torres Highway’.

“We’re on Torres highway, Mario street should be here somewhere-

“10 meters ahead. Turn right”, Keith spoke out of the blue, cutting Darren off to what he was saying. He gave Keith a confused stare that asks a lot about how she could tell when she has lost her memories. Keith only gave him a plain stare, as she raised her hand to point at something.

“It says there: ‘Mario Street’”, she said pointing at a direction which Darren followed. And around 5 meters away from the car is a street post that says ‘Mario Street’, and a direction to the right. He chuckled a scoff right after he fully understood the context and turned the car to the left, and entered Mario Street.

The entire area is equipped with streetlights on the side of the road, though, there were no houses to find, except for one, at the far edge of the street, which was quick for the two to notice.

Darren understood that he was to head to the only house there is in the area, and slowly came to a stop right after they were right in front of the front law of the house.

It did not took a second before Keith has completely unbuckled her seatbelt and was completely out of the car, examining the entire area.

Darren killed the car engine and followed her out as she continues to observe the entire vicinity.

“How does it feel? Ring any bell?”

Keith turned to look at him with the dim lights in the darkness.

“Nope. But I expected it anyway”, she said and immediately went headed to the front door without a word. Darren quietly followed her through it.

No words coming out of their mouths, Keith looked at the door carefully and tried looking for a way in with the locked door while Darren quietly stayed right at the edge of the front porch with his arms on his waist, watching her.

“Why don’t you pick the lock? Aren’t cops supposed to learn how to unlock a locked door?”

Keith turned around and gave him a bored look before she pulled something, and Darren completely disappeared from her view which she was not expecting.

She quickly got her hands off of the tie and ran to check if he was ok.

“Are you dead?”

She asked through the hole below and her voice echoed beneath.

An echoing chuckle went out from the hole and Keith took her phone to turn the flashlight on.

Right beneath the hole is a trampoline which helped Darren have a safe landing.

An amused smile immediately curved on Keith’s lips as she jumped on the hole and landed safely on the trampoline as she enjoyed jumping for a second while Darren stared at her.

After some moments of jumping on the trampoline like a child, she got off and went back on her plain expression as she searched for an identical button she had found on her front porch.

“How did you remember you had this?”

“I’ve always liked to have a house with a secret door, so I was trying to see if I finally got myself one. And it looks like it”, she replied and pulled another button which automatically closed the hole.

The lights underground opened, right after Keith pulled a random switch and revealed an underground passageway that goes further, right in front of them.

Another smile curved out of Keith’s lips while Darren was left in awe with his mouth slightly opened.

“This is so cool”, he commented and followed Keith as they both walked on the passageway.

It did not take them 5 minutes before they reached a small door and gave them access inside the house.

She turned the lights on her phone again and looked for the light switch which she immediately found on the wall glowing in the dark.

The house was finally bright, and she could see the interior and outside of it which took her off of her real purpose for a second.

She went to the kitchen and turned on the coffeemaker.

“We have an hour left before we head back to the hospital”, Darren reminded her, but like a deaf person, she continued making coffee as if the remaining one hour did not matter to her.

She gave a cup of coffee to Darren, which he gladly accepted, and then walked upstairs to the bedroom.

She was expecting she could find the documents she needed all in the bedroom, but it was not as easy as it was.

Keith does not know what document to get, because she pretty cannot remember the documents and information she has at her house, but she needs to find something useful.

Her bedroom had the area exactly for a single person.

A single size bed at the far end of the bedroom with the pillow covers, blanket, and bedsheets all of the same color grey.

A table and desk on the left side of the bedroom with a personal computer, and a bookshelf on the right side of the bedroom.

She started searching through the books on her bookshelf, as if searching for anything important, but they were pretty much literature books, so she moved on to opening the drawers of her table and searching for notes, but her bedroom was way too empty.

She was left with her personal computer.

She sat on the chair and turned the computer on, but like she expected, a password is set, which she obviously has no idea what.

“What kind of information are you looking for, in particular, anyway?”

“Who found me?”, she answered Darren’s question with another question.

“I found you”, he answered without hesitation, and with that, Keith turned the chair around, so her whole body faces him, standing on the bookshelf.

“And how did you found me? By accident?”

“I lived around the area and was on the road. I saw a car accident, two cars bumped each other, so I quickly ran to check for patients. Then I found you, unconscious, no person on the other car.”

“So the person driving the other car ran off?”

“That I can’t answer. That person probably ran to get some help, or he ran away from the accident. But t was only you that I found. You do not have any wounds outside, and you weren’t bleeding, so I assumed the injury is inside your head which is more dangerous.”

“And where did you found me?”

“Keith, I can’t answer all your questions right after you just woke up from coma-

“I’m fine. So answer the question, where did you find me?”

She was determined to get an answer, and Darren could only sigh as he was clearly left with no choice. Her authority speaks loud enough to let him obey to whatever she wants.

“

“Sotori City”, he answered and Keith scoffed, not expecting the answer.

“That’s 2 cities away from here. And I went there by myself? Why?”

“That I cannot answer-

“And that is what I want to find out”, she cut him off once more and faced back on the computer and randomly started typing password combinations.

After the system refused identification, Keith plugged the socket without turning the computer off and went to the other room where her clothes are kept.

Pictures were hanging on the wall, but they were of no use.

“You probably went there for an investigation”, Darren spoke out of the blue from her back, which made her stop from searching nothing. It was something that made sense to her, so she turned to her back and gave him a plain stare, which Darren seemed to perceive as a doubt.

“You said you’re a detective. If you don’t have any personal business on that place, then you might be in there to investigate.”

“So I need to confirm if I’m really investigating”, she said and quickly pulled out her phone.

Darren gave her some space and went to the living room to finish his now, cold coffee.

His Dad immediately answered her call, and without a second, greeted her Dad with a question.

“Do you have any idea why I went there?”

The other line went dead for some seconds, while her father was trying to process the sudden question his daughter has asked him, right after he answered the call.

“Ahm, am I supposed to know what means, Keith?”

“They told me I was found in Sotori City. That’s two cities away from here, Dad. Do you have any idea why I could be there?”

“I thought it was clearly instructed that we’re not allowed to bombard you with information cause it might cause mental breakdown?”

“Well, I’m perfectly fine and curious. Why did I went there? I do not know a single person from that city.”

“Early in the morning that day, you told me, you had found a lead to the case, and you’re headed on that city to investigate.”

“So I was investigating? On what case?”

“I can’t tell you anything else further than that. If you want to get answers from me, you better get well very soon and get back to work.”

“Dad, please, just the case. Just the case, I won’t ask any further”, she pleaded, but in a tone as if commanding her dad to tell her about it. And just like her doctor, her Dad was left with no choice but to sigh and give in.

“Fine. Just the case. You ever remember hearing a news about a woman, left-handed and on her 20s gone missing?”

“Dad, you know I’ve lost my memories, right?”

“I’m not talking about the ones you had after your developing years. When you were still a kid, you remember about a woman missing?”

The question immediately made her crooked her eyebrows while she tries to remember anything related to it. Carefully searching through whatever is left in her memories.

~Breaking news. Gwenn Stefan, 22 years of age, female, is reported to be the second woman missing right after the disappearance of Olivia Salvador last week. Gwenn was said to be seen taking a taxi outside Giant Resto Bar last night at 9 : 43 in the afternoon. The police department is once again reminding ladies on their 20s to avoid staying outside late at night while the suspect is still on the loose.

“I think I can remember hearing it on the news. What about it? That’s like almost a decade from now.”

“That’s the case you were investigating. A total of 30 missing women from year 2000 to 2018, all in their 20s, and are left handed. You were solving that case.”