No face.

The way back home.

I decided to stay silent for the rest of the journey, until now I never heard her talking about a sister, sure we hadn't been together for long, but it was certain that my stupidity had hurt her. I turned my head and looked at her trying to fix this situation, but my mouth stayed shut, I just kept looking at her sad and thinking eyes, eventually I noticed what a creep I was being, so I just started facing the front of my seat, reflecting all of my past cases. 

I partially remember some of the sad ones, where people lost loved ones by things so common as a car crash. Usually the clearer ones are those where people get killed for some stupid reason, the kind were you know they were taken from this earth too soon, just because one person was a complete i***t. I have to admit that I kind of like working those, not for the thrill of the solve, not for the gruesome killing, but because they offer something more rare, they often give closure to the people that were close to the victim, like I told you in the beginning, I'm a good private detective, so I had just left 4 open cases, so I usually manage to offer people some form of revenge, maybe not the kind that they are wishing upon the f*****g killer, but at least is something.

That is a chance that I never had the opportunity to experience with my dad, he got killed on the dawn of my 16th birthday, he just got out to get me a second birthday present which got held over the postal office, it was supposed to be a surprise, so no one knew he was leaving, until it was too late. The next morning he appeared 3 kilometers away from the post office, he was completely naked, he had two gunshots in his legs, three in his chest and one in his forehead, his ID was partially burned. The only thing they could find that could lead to a potential killer were some markings on the wall made with blood that read: "I'm the devil incarnate, anyone who dares to face me shall burn in the darkest pits of hell. Sinners shall repent or I will kill them all". They also found my gift tossed in the trash of a nearby alley, they knew it was mine thanks to the inscription: "I hope you find passion in literature as I once did". Inside was a book of a murder mystery, I remember that after the police gave it to me I read it time and time again trying to improve as a detective, I was determined to find that damn killer who calls himself the "devil incarnate". 

I also started thinking about my 4 open cases, they were impossible to solve, particularly one jumped almost immediately to my head. A family called me one day, they had gone over this with the police and 3 other private detectives, but they just kept telling them the same thing. I'll go back a bit and try to explain the situation, the family had reported the disappearance of their oldest daughter, there was no trail, no ransom call, no note, one day she just got out of her house and never came back, everyone kept telling them that either she was already dead, or she had escaped, but let's be real for a moment, no one found a body, not her car, she had credit cards that never got used, it was as if she had disappeared from this dimension. I tried solving it, I remember working it for months, but we couldn't find a damn trace, and either the best killer of the world had gotten to her, or something impossible had happened. 

After leaving it open I remember the faces of the family, it was complete disappointment, I was completely sure that was what they were feeling because I had the same face ever since my dad died, just looking at the incompetence of the people that tried solving the murder, for the first time in almost 15 years I was able to understand them. I remember that I couldn't sleep for a long time, I just kept trying to solve that stupid mystery, my darkest desire for almost a year was being able to return to the family and give them good news, but that was just impossible. 

Since then I just kept avoiding the hard cases, just accepting the ones that had easy solutions, I feel guilty of leaving everyone behind, of disappointing who knows how many people for my own selfish reasons, just so I couldn't feel pain anymore? Maybe that's kind of what drove me into this case, some forgotten part of me that's still trying to see that family, and every case that I rejected being able to get that closure that was denied from me that many years before. That's why Tracy's sister disappearing was opening old wounds that I never knew I had, maybe this is the way that it's supposed to be, and this time I'm determined to get everyone some closure, even if it costs me my life.

A slight tap on my arm allowed me to return to my reality, she didn't look disappointed anymore, but I felt worse than before. I got up from my seat, she followed me close as we exited the bus, the streets were almost empty, a few kids running could be heard at the distance, the gardens from the houses had green grass and every house seemed as if it was copy pasted one after another. As we walked towards the house I felt the need to apologize, but I was never good at it, so I started overthinking, even trying to find the correct words for that situation was hard, eventually I had gathered the courage to say sorry, but the silence was broken before I could do that:

-Well, this is it.

-Are we here?

-Yup, just a fair warning, I didn't tell my parents I was coming back, so if they ask why are we here you will need to invent an excuse, I don't want them to worry about this.

-Uhhh, yeah, yeah, I think I can do that.

She got close to the doorbell and rang it, I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that this place seemed familiar, maybe I had visited this neighborhood for a case before, but for the life of me I swear I couldn't remember when had I seen it before.

Steps could be heard from behind the door, this damn feeling was still there and I started to panic as I couldn't translate what my head was trying to tell me. A few locks could be heard from behind, and the door started to open, as I could peer inside I started remembering the furniture, this was definitely a place that I had visited before.

Two people that I had grown to know from 10 years ago started welcoming us into their home, I froze in my place, my pupils dilated, I couldn't take my vision of the faces that I had disappointed before, and as Tracy started entering her parent's house, the dad looked at me and had a curious look in his eyes, like if he was about to recognize me, this time I was seriously in trouble.