Special Place in Hell

The Beginning

“Time to go and get the awkward greeting over with. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll be good enough to get coffee after today.” I gave my lucky charm, a pendant with pictures of my family on one side and my Bella on the other a kiss, took a deep breath and walked into the building. I walked to the front desk, showed my ID and was instructed to go up to the second floor and report to a Senior Field Agent by the name of Bill Edwards. As I stepped off the elevator there were people rushing here and there, others were sitting at several desks in the middle of the room and along the outside walls were actual offices. I assumed I was looking for Bill Edwards in one of those. I had walked past three offices when I saw Bill Edwards. I put my observation skills to use and noticed he was probably mid-forties, slightly balding, a dark complexioned man sitting hunched over a file on his desk. He appeared to be deep in thought over it. I quietly knocked on the door frame since the door was open. He looked up at me with piercing blue eyes and a very grumpy look on his face. He softened and put on a warm smile when he saw me. It made me self conscious. Should I have tied my long brown hair back? Should I have worn the grey suit instead of the blue one that matched my eyes? Should I have worn less comfortable shoes?

“Hi, uh, DJ, uh Special Agent D Jayde, Divya Jayde, uh….”

“Stop, just stop. DJ, right?” All I could do was shake my head up and down like an i***t.

“DJ, I’m Bill. DJ you are my new agent. I am your boss and have been here longer than I care to admit. Now that we have introductions out of the way, take a breath, close your mouth and manage to walk over here and sit in the chair without falling over.”

I did as instructed and managed not to embarrass myself any further. Bill had gone back to his file, but I could see he was still smiling. I’m assuming he found my utter failure at being a human being rather amusing. I sat there trying not to stare or shift too much in my seat for what seemed like an eternity. Finally I could take it no longer and blurted out, “Sir, um, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but can I do anything?” He seemed to ignore me and after another eternity he sighed, closed the file and sat back in his chair. And stared. He stared at me for five minutes before he sighed again and began to speak.

“DJ, as I stated before, I am Bill. Not Sir. Please always call me Bill unless there are news cameras around. Then you may call me Special Agent Edwards. I have read your file and I know more than you probably know about yourself. I know you are from New Orleans and you lost your dad to the storm, your mom to cancer and your sister is at ease with herself as much as you are awkward. I also know your sister is a journalist and a rising star. I know you are rather intelligent having graduated High School at 16, college at 19 and finished top of your class from Quantico. I know you had your pick of assignments and you chose to come home. What I don’t know is why.”

“Well, Sir, I mean Bill, it’s pretty simple really. New Orleans is my home. It’s where my sister is and where my parents are. We never did find Daddy’s body, but he’s here with mom. Their spirits are here with me every day. My few friends are here and honestly, my city needs me.” He sat there and thought about that for a few minutes before he replied. It seemed as though he thought it was a good reason because he opened the file and began to talk. “Since you feel that way, I'm glad you are here. I know you are new, but you're smart and you love this city just as I do. This file on my desk has been here for four years. Every day I open it up and read it, hoping to find something, anything, that will help me. Every solstice I add a new face to the file, but never anything that can help me. Mind you, I’ve had a combined 100 years of experience who have worked on this. The result is always the same. So, newbie, lets see if you can crack it or at least think of something we haven’t.”

Little did I know at that time, but this file would consume me, dominate every thought and put me and my sister within arms reach of evil. This decision would change not only my life but the lives of everyone around me.

There was nothing significant about the jacket, but the moment I opened it I knew this file was anything but insignificant. On the first page were 16 pictures of young women. All had long brown hair and blue eyes. Each girl was smiling like they didn’t have a care in the world. As I looked at each one I realized that I looked just like them. As I looked at each description they were all in their late teens. The oldest one was just 19. Young Tia was just 15 when she disappeared. I turned the page and gasped. There were 16 more pictures, but this time each of the girls was deceased. All of them had their hair cut short, their eyes were sewn shut, their tongues had been cut out, their ears had been cut off and they each had a symbol carved into their foreheads. The symbols looked familiar in some way. I know I’ve seen them, but where? As I read the notes in the file it appears that one girl went missing and one found on each solstice. It took the parish police longer to connect the girls because of how they were abducted and found. Also it appears that he only keeps one girl at a time for three months. The parents all report missing jewelry. Each girl had been taken from a public place in the morning and another was found later that evening exactly two blocks away. I wondered about the distance so I asked Bill. “Why two blocks?”

“Because the police had taped off a one block radius around the abduction site. He’s smart, patient and seems unlikely a suspect. Interviews state no one saw the girls being abducted or dumped. No one saw anything or anyone out of the ordinary. At least that is what they say. It’s like he’s a ghost.”

“I’ve seen these marks before, but I can’t place them right now. Has anyone figured out what they are?”

“No. That has been one of the major mysteries that no one has figured out. How is it that you can vaguely recognize them when no one else has?”

“I don’t know…..yet. Give me some time and I’ll have an answer for you. I have friends in odd places.”

And with that, I was dismissed to continue the rest of my day. This consisted of more awkward introductions to people I will never remember the names of, shown where my desk was which I proceeded to break a drawer in, and attempted to learn the phone system. After my epic fail at the phones, it was decided that the computer system would wait until tomorrow. I may be the smartest dumb person I know.