Isabella Hawkins:

Finally, after months of rain, thunderstorms, and cold winds, the flowers bloomed, and the sun appeared. I was standing in my huge office, going through some files, while Meredith was comfortably sitting in my chair, shoving chips into her mouth and scrolling through her phone. Yeah, she works during the evening hours. I have been friends with her for the past seven years, and yet, to this day, her so-called hard job remains a mystery to me. I have no idea what she does, but I think it’s computer-related since she has a PhD and a master’s in computer engineering. Sometimes, she scares me, I swear.

"Amazing! Another loss!" Meredith shouted, her voice echoing in the office. "Oh god, what now? I am so freaking tired of all these weird illegal activities happening throughout America. Trust me, Mere—(short for Meredith)—you won't find a single police officer, forensic scientist, or detective just sitting around and chilling. It has been like eight months since these activities began, and yet, there’s still no proper evidence and no culprit." Yep, that’s me—Officer Isabella Hawkins. I’ve been working my tail off these past few months as the number of cases has skyrocketed: regular murders, disappearances, and much more that I’d rather not discuss.

"Chill, girly! I'm sure the culprit will be found soon. By the way, you look damn tired. Did you even sleep last night, or has your poor coffee machine become the ‘Bell’ (short for Isabella) number two, which also worked with you by making 50 cups of coffee?” I have no idea how life seems so easy for her while I barely get any time to breathe. "Well, you guessed it! My poor coffee machine and I worked incredibly hard last night. I still don’t know if it was worth it because I’m still clueless!"

"Wow, someone's really mad. Hey, stop stressing out! Let’s hang out this evening. I have the day off today because I worked overtime for the last two months straight. I requested a three-day holiday, and tada! I got it, so come on, Bell, let’s have some fun! I know you have work, but please take some time for yourself or at least with me." Meredith was right—I really needed a break. I decided I would try my best to finish all my work by 3 PM so I could go home, get ready, and hang out with Meredith. "Yeah, I guess you're right; I do need a break. Here’s the plan: I’ll try to get off work by 3, and then let’s go to my house, get ready, and let the fun begin!"

"Oh my goodness, FINALLY! The workaholic is getting off work to spend time with her invisible best friend." I chuckled. "Oh god, Mere, you're so extra! I do sometimes call and chat with you. It’s just that I'm swamped. Plus, I have to take care of my lab-based work since I also work in the forensics department. And you can never be invisible because you're around me 24/7. But yeah, I enjoy your company." Meredith just chuckled back, and after a bit more chatting and laughing, I continued with my work while she spent her time texting her admirer. Don’t get it wrong—he’s not her boyfriend, just some guy she met at the club. It's crazy how manipulative she can be. Even in our senior year of high school, every other guy had a crush on her. I warn her to stay away from strangers all the time, but she brushes it off. To her, interacting, communicating, and making friends is just a part of life. Meanwhile, I can’t stand socializing! I prefer having one or two close friends and living my life without needing a whole group of people.

I managed to finish my work and spent the evening with Meredith, shopping and eating all the time before getting back to my other tasks. I know I seem like a weirdo, but I have another secret job that even Meredith doesn’t know about. I received an email from a strange sender who requested that I find a man named Jacob Dyllians, offering around $80,000 in return. As a police officer, I should report this or find this person, but my greedy mind convinced me to help a little. I thought, “Why not?” Let’s just hope it’s not a fraud and that I don’t get into any trouble. The words in the email seemed promising, so I listened to my instincts.

Last night, I went to bed around 3 AM, excited because my boss had given me and a few others a two-day break after all the overtime I’ve put in these past few months. But, of course, my luck isn’t great; early in the morning, around 7 AM, I received a call to come to the department because it was an emergency.

I rushed to get there, stopping by Starbucks to grab a huge cup of their strongest coffee before heading to the building where I work. Being just a two-minute walk away from Starbucks is definitely a perk. When I arrived at the department, it looked like a freaking debate competition hall—or rather, a war zone.

Tons of people had gathered over there, some men were shouting on the poor receptionist Olivia, while Brandon was dealing with tons of the others, Brandon is my friend and works in the same departments as me, forensics and crime discovery, he's an amazing guy and plus he is so charming, sometimes I find myself crushing on him, trust me I've been caught by Meredith over twenty times, but what can I say he is charming, just imagine chocolate brown curly hair, green eyes, muscles and that sharp jawline, oh god what's wrong with me, I should be focusing on my work, not a stupid thing like "love", in which I have zero believe.

I literally froze cause everything was just so disrupted, women and children sitting on the ground crying, while the males are shouting at the department staffs and workers, oh god! "EVERYBODY QUITE!", I yelled like hell well yeah I have anger issues. "Can somebody explain what's happening here???". "Our children have been lost for around four months now and no one's doing anything about it, and worst of all, we all got robbed last night, houses were burned and all of you just remained silent, what sort of a behaviour is this??", shouted one of the mans. Oh my god, there houses got burned, but how?.

"Sir, calm down, we're trying our best to find the missing kids and the robbers as well, so please just have some patience, and about your houses, you guys can stay at the government state in the mean time until your houses are restored.", that was the only thing that came out of my mouth, "Keep patience??, that’s the shit we have been hearing for over two years now. Only if you all were responsible and took care of everything as soon as these activites started, nothing like this would've happened!", he shouted so bad, I was angry on him but his pain was reasonable, his anger, his frustration made sense, but what can we do, we're trying our best, I think assurance is the only thing I can give, and later I'll come up with another plan, on what I am going to.

I assured them all that we will come up with a solution and thanks for Brandon for supporting me at that time, or else I would've lost it I swear, but anyways we managed to sent them to the government official houses for fire survivors. Later on, me and my team, we went to the forensic lab to do some research and work on a very strange thing, I don’t know anything about it yet, but according to Brandon, he said that during the fires, a few strange events happened and he said that the bodies we are going to work on today might be something we have never seen before.

Upon reaching the lab, or should I say about to reach the lab when we heard a scream, Brandon and David(forensic scientist) rushed only to find a trembling Scarlett. Scarlett is one of my team members, and her shooting skills are just fantastic, but this sudden scream of hers just halted me on my spot, she has never ever taken such a voice out of herself. When I went over, I saw the reason as why she shouted, the bodies that lay before us, there condition it was unexplainable, there veins had turned blue as if someone has frozen them, there faces mixture of black and yellow, while eyes nearly popping out of there sockets and there mouths, oh gosh, it felt like all there white blood cells had reached there throats and they just threw them up. Leave Scarlett, even I was terrified of the scene.