~{A Corpse Can Tell a Story Too}~

[Amber Lyn Annihilation]

Claire Lucia Valentine was hard at work, just like any other day, trying to debunk the latest murder case to come into Angeles Bay PD. She was the head of the Forensics Department and none of the cases were ever really a challenge for her to solve. This case that she was working on today was like many others she'd seen. A mother of four children began to have fluctuations in her hormone and chemical balances, due to the intake of a migraine drug that was still in the alpha stages of testing, it was an adverse reaction, no doubt. The chemical imbalances in her brain were causing her to hallucinate violently and of demonic and evil creatures. These hallucinations often went after her children, torturing them, she felt as though she had to save the children before the demons got to them. There were journal entries of hers on a computer for months before the attacks were carried out. They were written in excruciating detail. Everything from how each demon looked to the exact way she intended to carry out the children's salvation. The mother had separately planned the deaths of her four blessings and carried them out tragically. The heartache from what she had to do to save her children sent her spiraling down quickly. A nose-dive into self destruction. She took a kitchen knife and slit her own throat in the bathroom before throwing the knife away from herself and waiting for the icy hands of death to take her as they had taken her four children.

The father had been the one to find all five of them, he called immediately seeing what had happened. He was a suspect for a long time until the mother's toxin screening came back from the lab. Claire had searched the crime scene multiple times to find any and all evidence that the normal forensic team could've missed. She was the head of the forensics department after all, she was generally correct when she believed there was evidence missing from a case that someone looked over at the crime scene. She was sick of all this though, the cases were easy and never ended up saving anyone else. She wanted a better use for her forensic skills. She had put in an application to The Cumberland Institute of Forensic Medicine a few months back and was just itching for them to contact her back. At the very least, she needed a break from this for a while as she waited nervously for their response.

"Hey, chief, I need to take some time for myself, all these cases are getting to me lately." She said regretfully as she approached the front exit of the station.

"Are you sure it's the cases and not your nerves concerning Cumberland?" He interrogated her sounding very serious.

"How did you know about Cumberland? I never told anybody in the station about putting an application in there. I certainly, didn't breathe a word of it to you either." Claire was defensive now, she always was when it came to her personal life.

"I only know this, because the CIFM sent a letter directly to myself here at the station. Their message to me was your resignation letter, Claire." He said firmly.

"What are you talking about? I never sent any sort of resignation letter to them for you." She grew curious, why would the CIFM ever do that without contacting herself first.

"Consider this your two weeks notice, Claire. You've been hired at Cumberland. They sent an apology letter to me along with your resignation letter. You start in two weeks, you'd better get your things packed and get ready to fly out there." Chief cracked a smile and chuckled a little bit when he mentioned the apology letter.

"But, Chief, what about the forensics team? What are they going to do without me?" Claire was instantly worried about her, now past, forensic team.

"Well, Claire, I got this letter about a week ago, so we've been looking for and training the new head of forensics while you were at home. You've only got a few days to prepare for what's ahead of you. I wanted your team to be ready, so you can spend these last few days with your family before you leave."

Claire was shocked, she was speechless. She means, what can you even begin to say about that? Her two weeks started without her even knowing and they saw it better fit to train the new head of forensics without her? She was infuriated that she didn't train the new guy herself. This team was her pride and joy for two years now, who had the right to do all these things right under her nose? Without telling her?! The fact that all this was done to accommodate her leaving though, that was incredibly sweet on the behalf of the Chief and her entire department. She truly was speechless. "Chief, I don't know what to say." She took a breath. "I mean, half of me is pissed that you'd train the new guy without so much as consulting me." She could see the sorry in his eyes, he knew she sounded mad. "The other half, though, the other half wants to hug you for giving me such a nice and easy send off. Thank you, Chief. It means the world to me."

He looked at her with a huge grin on his face and beamed then. "Then do me a favor, dollface. Get outta here and be the best damned forenic scientist you can be. CIFM will get you there, go change the world and make this station proud to say that you were ours once."

Claire smiled softly. "Alright, Chief, I'll make the station proud." She paused opening the door to leave. "I'll see you around, Chief." She closed the door before she could hear his response, she didn't want to hear goodbye. It would hurt too much. A tear rolled down her cheek and along that soft smile that was still on her face as she started her car and headed home.

[Amber Lyn Annihilation]

~A Few Days Later~


Claire was finished visiting with her parents and they were now driving her to the airport for her flight to Cumberland. Of course, her flight was waaaaaaaay too early in the morning. Her flight was to leave at 4:30 in the morning. She wasn't amorning person at 10 in the morning, let alone at 3 when she got up this morning. Her parents were being very sweet though driving her to the airport and to keep her car. She wouldn't need it. There was on site boarding for the forensic scientists. She just brought most of her belongings. Clothes, gaames, toiletries, cooking supplies, and everything of the sort.

They pulled up to the airport and got out of the car, and the long process of baggage check began. Her parents stayed alongside her the entire time until she had to go through the gates and board the plane. Claire could see her parentss in the window as the plane took off, until the window was too far away, waving her off. She slumped into her seat and tried her hardest to fall asleep. It was a long plane trip, well a long trip nonetheless, it was 6 hours of flight. She was not excited, even if it were her first time on a plane, she waqsn't much oif a fan of heights, they unnerved her. You could say that she has acrophobia. She did finally end up falling asleep about an hour into the flight and slept the rest of the flight.

She had many dreams about her old job versus her new one. All the ones pertaining to the old one were black and white, grainy, and very dull. Much like how it started feeling there in the end. When the dreams would transition from her previous job to her brand new one, it was close to being the same as Dorothy's trip to to Oz. She was in vivid color when her new job started in her dreams. She felt like a hero, saving lives by figuring out mysteries behind the murder cases. It felt incredible, even if it was just a dream, she never would've known it was until she woke up upon landing.

Claire walked off the plane ansd had no trouble at all getting all her luggage from claim check. Now, here was the part that she was worried about from the time she arrived at the airport back home, how ws she supposed to find driver that was to pick her up from here and drive her to the institute. What was she supposed to look for? Someone in one of those silly driver's hats? A limo waiting outside? Most definitely not. She was definitely not that important. Not for all that anyways. She walked with her hat on and her arms crossed across each other. She bit her lip nervously as she walked, tearing at the dead skin. It was bad, she knew, but she couldn't help but do it when she was nervous. She peaked her head up and finally saw something good in this busy hell hole of an airport. A man was standing with a sign that read "C. L. Valentine".

She approached the man holding the sign. "Are you the one that's supposed to take me to CIFM?"

"If I may see some identification, yes." He told her strictly. She quickly extended her ID."Follow me." And she was off to CIFM.

[Amber Lyn Annihilation]

Claire arrived at CIFM in the middle of the afternoon. She was led by that very strict man that drove her to the Chief's office here. The halls in this place were massive, so many doors, floors, and hallways for her to lose herself in. This whole place was insane, so much more asdvanced than her old lab back home. What was even more insane was that she was here to be one of the lead forensic scientists. She means, with how advanced this institute was, how was she hired as a head forensics specialist, coming from her little rinky dink town. It all seemed impossible.

"Miss Valentine." A voice came to her as she was lost in her own head, shaking her from her trance.

"Yes, I apologize. I was just so stricken by this place." She apologized, being honest.

"That's quite alright, it happens every time a new scientist sees this place for the first time." He paused, realizing his expression had softened. "The chief is through here. He'll give you a map of the whole institute with a highlighted path to your room." The man said before he walked away and turned out of her sight.

Claire took a deep breath before knocking upon the thick wooden door. She heard a voice instructing her to come in. She obeyed, letting out one last nervous breath. She had to be strong and confident now. She walked into the room, which was well lit by a few decorative lamps. The light showed the interior of the room well. There were three large bookshelves, taking up two walls respectively. In front of her was a desk with a large dark-skinned man sitting in an ornate chair.

"Good afternoon, Miss Valentine. We're glad to finally have you here and grateful that you so graciously handled our resignation of yours and came to our institute. Your first case will be tomorrow, the case file is in your room on you desk. Your room is connected to your office and your own research lab that includes a morgue. I hope that you enjoy your time here and stay for quite some time." The man explained to her.

"Thank you, sir. I don't exactly have the slightest idea on how to get to my room though." She confessed somewhat shy, dammit she thought to herself.

"I've sent the map of the premises to your email and will be able to be opened in your normal GPS application. Please make yourself at home and rest up for tomorrow. Your new career starts tomorrow."

"Thank you, sir, for everything." Claire said as she left his office. Sure enough, she opened up her GPS, holy crap this place needed GPS to get around it was that huge, and easily made her way to her room.

Her room was incredible. It may as well have been a nicely sized apartment, honestly. There was a fully furnished, pretty decently sized, living room with all the furniture needed and a television, everything there could be. There was a kitchenette with an oven, microwave, island, all the utensils she could ever need, and food to boot. The bedroom was insane! There was a queen-size bed with microfiber sheets, super-high thread count, and so many pillows. She just had to jump into it. It felt like heaven! The bathroom was attached to the bedroom and was also incredible like the rest of the apartment. There was a whirlpool tub that was huge and a stand in shower with that ice cube glass surrounding it. It didn't have a showerhead really, but more so small waterfalls that came from the walls. Is this what all the head forensic scientists' "rooms" looked like? Oh, she couldn't care less! It was time to bed best friends with the shower and that bed!

[Amber Lyn Annihilation]

Claire awoke the next morning feeling more refreshed than she had in months, she means that nice long bath in that huge whirlpool tub was exceedingly relaxing just before bed. She got out of bed and immediately went to her bathroom and begun the process of getting ready for the first day of her new career. She realized that she didn't get dressed before she went to get her face prepared. Back to her suitcase she went, she'd have to find time to unpack everything eventually, and pulled out her favorite black dress and sheer undershirt with the long sleeves that were puffy at the shoulder. The dress went down to her mid thigh so she decided to put on light grey sheer pantyhose and black suede boots that went up to her mid calf that laced up nice and tight. Now, she could go and do her hair and makeup, even though she knew she'd basically be working alone in her own forensic laboratory, she still wanted to look nice, she liked getting dolled up frankly. She brushed through her long mane of blonde hair and curled it loosely so it flowed round her shoulders and waist nicely. Lined the eyes with black and a small wing by her eyelashes before putting a light silver shimmery color onto her lids. And with all that out of the way, she was off to her office to pick up her first case file and get started.

Upon walking into her office, she was amazed yet again, she was equipped with a large desk and the most high-tech computer that she could never afford. There was a recorder on the desk next to her computer and she could see the door to the decontamination chamber that would lead to her own forensics laboratory and morgue. She sat in the large computer lounge chair and flipped open the case file. The name of the case was "'Cause YOLO". She sighed to herself and said "Oh, Lord." This one should be good. There was no knowledge of the identity of the killer. The man would go into very populated areas and lay the some sort of bomb that was set off from a distance. The last attack was at the mall that was in town. The victim's name of this attack was Jody Hansen, she was a teenager and had a great life going for her. Perfect grades, a stable home environment, a boyfriend that was decent to her. This girl had the makings of a bright future that were swiftly taken away and blacked out. The reason this case was named what it was is because the place of the attacking would always get an anonymous call from a tracphone in which the attacker just mockingly says 'cause YOLO'. Jesus, what was wrong with people these days. I'm going to snipe people out of their precious lives because you only live once. 'Are you kidding me?' She thought to herself. "Guess it's time to check out this poor girl's body." She mumbled to herself.

She walked into the decontamination chamber and waited for it to run its course before the door to the morgue would open. She walked through and saw the white sheet that covered the girl's body. She put on latex gloves that were of her size and slowly pulled back the white sheet to expose the body. There were a large burn that emanated from her hip outward across her body. The burn was of the same severity all the way across her body from where the burn originated. The only way she could tell that the hip was the place the blow hit her first is because of all the bones that were shown to be broken on the x-rays, her hip was in shards inside of her muscle tissue. She looked closely around her hip for any shrapnel that would be stuck in any of her tissues. She found a large piece of metal that went directly through her muscle and actually embedded itself into a fragment of her pelvis. She took a swab to her body right around the area that the explosion emanated from. Claire couldn't find much else that stuck out in particular on the body, so she decided to move on to the personal effects.

She started at the origin of the explosion on her jeans, there was a large hole in the jeans from where the explosion hit her. She cut out small sections of the clothes that was on the outskirts of the hole. She figured, if nothing else, she could find some sort of dust from the explosive left on the clothes. She went to the lab that was next door to the morgue and sent both the swab and the swatch of the jeans into the component differentiator. The machine found that the main component in the dust was ammonium nitrate, a compound that was commonly found in plant fertilizers.