Falling Rain

She laid on the grass, admiring the walnut orchard, taking in all the nature that surrounded her. Glancing over to the river down below she wondered if death could ever be this peaceful. There were a million ways for her to die right then. Her thoughts ran across these possibilities, and she was quite amused. Her mouth came up in a tiny smirk, "For someone who's obsessed with death I sure do love being around nature." She voiced her thoughts, which happened often, sometimes without her knowledge.

"Melanie!" she heard someone shout over the roars of the river current. Not paying attention to who it really was, Melanie concluded that it was probably her Aunt Ami. Ignoring her, Melanie sat up and turned the other way. She heard footsteps and heavy breaths approaching her. Aunt Ami was wearing her long blue cashmere sweater and capri jeans. Her blonde hair barely grazed her shoulders as she bent down towards Melanie. "Sweetie, why don't you spend quality time with me? I haven't seen you in days and you always find time to do your homework and spend time up here. Why don't you invite some friends over for a game night? So that way we could all hang out."

This always happened, Aunt Ami trying to force her into socializing. Friends and people in general meant nothing to Melanie, and she laughed as Aunt Ami suggested this. "Aunt Ami, I can't stand people, you know that. So what makes you think that I could spend even one night with several people over?'

Aunt Ami shook her head, "Don't talk like that, it's not healthy for a girl your age to not have stable friends supporting her."

"I don't need friends." Melanie spoke without hesitating. It had been years since she had held a decent friendship, all that had faded away with her obsession of death. It had begun to corrupt Melanie and then she had no time to visit anyone because all she did was think and talk about death.

"You will someday." Aunt Ami said disappointed, "Well, dinner is ready. So come when you get hungry." She walked away slowly, hoping Melanie would follow after, but Melanie stayed where she was absorbing all the life near her. The scenery pleased her, and it was only these few special moments where she could keep to her own thoughts and separate herself from the world. These precious minutes had become rare since she started her research. Melanie had begun her hunt for her mother's murderer at the age of fourteen. Melanie had dedicated her life to finding the person and then explaining to them quite clearly how they had twisted her life so much that not even her closest aunt could not recognize the little girl she once was. Then Melanie's mind began to drift towards that dreadful night…

This night was cold, colder than any other, and little Melanie just wanted to cuddle up in her mother's warm bed after having heard something that disturbed her sleep. Melanie toddled to her mother's room through the dark hallway. She had to feel her way around, her feet gliding across the wooden flooring. It was past midnight by now, and only the full moon illuminated the house through the few windows their small cottage had. It was a quaint abode only housing her mother and herself. Melanie's father had left her at a young age for a younger, smaller version of her mother. She couldn't understand at the time, believing that her father left for a secret mission that only her mother was allowed to know. Her mother liked this, considering that she didn't want Melanie to hate her father.

Melanie finally felt her way through the hallway and found herself in her mother's room. The moon lit it in an eerie manner. She crawled her way up into the bed and inched her way over the bed to embrace her mother. To her surprise, the bed was empty. Melanie found her way over to the lamp to light the room and get a better visual. Once lit, sure enough, she was the only one in the room. Feeling a sense of loneliness she left the room in search of her mother. First she headed downstairs to find that the kitchen lights were on. A bit puzzled by this Melanie skipped into the kitchen, not expecting what she was going to see next.

There was not a lot of blood, Melanie began to remember. The scene was far from gory, she only remembered her mother's still body reaching for the phone. Melanie started to smile to herself, amused that she was thinking about death when she was surrounded by so much life. After so many years thinking about her mother's death constantly, she had started to become desensitized to everything. Even the darkest of movies didn't bother her anymore. Looking towards the setting sun Melanie realized how late it had gotten, and she was surprised that Aunt Ami hadn't taken a second trip to get her. Finally tired with the mundane picture she headed down the hill back to the cottage. She walked inside the small wooden home where the aroma of beef stew still lingered. Melanie took some supper as she looked at the clock. Her eyes widened as she noticed how much time she had wasted just sitting there.

"So you finally decided to join me?" Aunt Ami asked. Melanie looked up to see that her aunt's head was hanging down. She had changed into her nightwear with her cliché bunny slippers. Melanie smiled, entertained by her aunt's simplicity and childlike attitude.

"I lost track of time," Melanie answered honestly.

"Well, I kept the stove on, so you can have as much as you like. Just remember to put any leftovers in the fridge." Aunt Ami replied softly. She then turned, left the kitchen, and headed to bed. Melanie was left in a pool of silence, the only noise being the soft hum of the stove. She looked around the kitchen slowly, absorbing the fact that once again, she was alone. She rummaged together her meal and ran upstairs, swiftly isolating herself from the rest of the household.

Melanie set herself on her bed and began eating the stew. Her room was full of candles and plants, giving the space an earthy sense. The world itself left Melanie mesmerized. On one of her hikes she had come across a rock, but this rock was odd. It was in the shape of a cube. Over the years she had sketched all over the rock, and would sometimes play with it to get her mind away from the world. On days much like today when she basically spent the whole day laying in the green grass admiring the earth.

Melanie slowed down her eating when her eyes glanced over to a shelf on her desk. It had been a week since Melanie had touched her files. Gradually she made her way over to the desk, sat down, and slowly opened the folders which held all the information she needed to cage the one person she truly felt hate toward. Setting aside her food, having suddenly lost her appetite, she opened the files and began her work once again, fumbling through all the scattered papers and photos. Melanie felt frustrated because the only images she possessed were silhouettes of the figure from that dreadful night when she had heard a strange noise outside her home before she found her mother. Melanie never told the police of these photos simply because she had forgotten about them after all the commotion from that night. It wasn't until three years earlier, after her fourteenth birthday, that she found them hidden away. By that time the police had given up on her mother's case, so Melanie felt no need to burden them with this information. She believed she could solve the case herself. Melanie scanned the silhouette of the murderer into her new computer. The scan of the photo was lightened by a program on her computer and she figured out that the person in the photo was definitely male.

The hours flew by quicker than Melanie thought possible. Before she knew, it her alarm clock buzzed. Melanie sighed as she stopped her research and sulked over to her full body mirror. She wore her green capris, a white tee-shirt, and a loose gray sweatshirt that went past her hips but was above her knees. Her appearance meant nothing of any significance to Melanie, and she decided to at least change her sweater and pants that she had been wearing for three days now. She shrugged off her old, gray sweatshirt and replaced it with a navy blue sweater, leaving her white tee-shirt on. Melanie turned around again to look for some pants and finally found a pair of solid black Bermuda shorts. Not bothering to look in the mirror again Melanie staggered her way to the bathroom, continuing her morning routine. After having washed her face she glanced up to find that she looked like she had aged ten years. There were dark circles underneath her eyes, and she found no life in them either. Her skin had become pale and translucent with the lack of sleep. Her light brown hair had become tattered and damaged. Melanie shuddered a bit and then proceeded back to her room. She quickly filed all her papers away and started to speculate about what she had accomplished during the night. Her computer allowed her complete more work and figure out some new evidence in less amount of time than she ever had before.

Melanie glanced at the clock and realized that she had fifteen minutes to reach school. Quickly grabbing a file of her mother's case and her keys she ran out the door and started her car. Aunt Ami had noticed Melanie leave the house and she went outside to wave goodbye to her niece. Melanie did not notice this loving gesture made by her aunt, but Aunt Ami did not mind.

Melanie always had a need for speed, and with that she reached the school in less than five minutes. She parked her dark green Chevrolet Camaro and sat in her car for another five minutes, trying to find some sort of motivation to attend her classes. All her lessons were extremely easy for Melanie because she had intended it to be that way. The easier the class was, the quicker she would finish her homework and less time she would spend studying. This gave her more time to focus on her mother's killer, and put the man in jail.

Melanie finally left her car and proceeded towards the school with three minutes to spare. She realized that it had been a while since she was present to any one of her classes because she would always convince herself that the case was more important. It was only then that it dawned on her that she had missed ten school days that semester, five more and she would have to repeat the year. This being her senior year, she knew that repeating the year would only hurt her. Knowing that would take too much time out of her research, Melanie walked into the school dreading the six hour school day.

The bell rang with Melanie still walking in the halls towards her biology classroom. She walked in and the teacher already began the lesson. The biology teacher was the only one in the school who was extremely strict about tardiness, but Melanie's case was special. Teachers and students attending the school were aware of what was happening in Melanie's life. They all held pity for the girl, and her biology teacher just shrugged off the tardy and motioned to her to take a seat. Continuing the lecture, Melanie took her seat in the back row. Today's lecture was about the human body, Melanie smirked because she knew just about everything there was to know about the human body. Having death be an obsession of hers helped her with that knowledge, she would wake up early on weekends to study up on why some human systems failed when they were disturbed. So this leads her to have enough time in that class to pick up her mother's case she had halted that morning.

The rest of Melanie's day went the same, learning 'new' stuff she already knew. Melanie was glad to have gone to school, because without her knowing people was what she really needed at that moment. She had avoided people before, but never for over the course of two days, let alone a week. The separation between her and 'regular' people had caused Melanie to become unaware of how people act. Knowing how people behave has a significant impact on the way her investigation will turn out. She started to contemplate about how Aunt Ami acts, she had lost her sister after all. She questioned why Aunt Ami wasn't as mad as she was. Actions like those left Melanie puzzled and angry. Aunt Ami should be angry, she should want revenge, she should want this guy to suffer completely, but it seemed as if Aunt Ami forgot her sister entirely. Melanie would have to approach her about that. Right then, Melanie shrugged off idle thoughts and continued to search for clues in the folder she brought to school. She took out the enhanced photo of the killer again, finding some sort of relief in looking at it. She found relief in knowing that this man existed, and that soon she would find him and lock him up forever. Melanie gazed at the image for quite some time until her gaze fell upon the man's wrist, it had a sort of bracelet on it. Looking closer she found that it was a paper wristband for a club. She gazed at the photo and saw that there was some writing on it, possibly an address she could make out when she returned home to her computer.

The rest of the school day moved slowly, and Melanie dreaded every second of it. It was not the fact that everyone avoided her, it was the fact that she had to wait even longer to finish figuring out a piece of evidence she had found at the beginning of the day. Once the last bell rang she shot out of the school and hastily got into her truck and sped off back to her home. Having taken even less time to return home than when she went to school in the morning, Melanie dashed out of her car and raced to her room and advanced to her computer. Her breathing increased as she opened the picture and zoomed in the wristband and sure enough, there was an address as clear as day, 2022 Axiom Road.

Melanie smiled as she wrote down the address. She felt triumphant, after all these years looking it only took an enhanced photo to finally catch him. She rushed to her car keys and proceeded down the stairs. On the way she collided with Aunt Ami, knocking over her cup of water. The water trickled down Aunt Ami's sweater and sprinkled on the wooden floor. Melanie ignored the incident and advanced to the door.

"Where are you going?" Aunt Ami asked, wiping the water from the floor.

"Out," Melanie stated plainly.

"Well, be careful alright? Don't get yourself into trouble," Aunt Ami said caringly.

"Okay, fine," replied Melanie. She finally got out the door and turned on her car. Once in her seat, Melanie looked up to see Aunt Ami in the doorway with her arms crossed, her eyes pleading for her to stay home. Melanie considered it for a second, but then realized that she had been waiting for this night for three years. Putting the car into reverse and leaving the gravel driveway she left her trivial abode without another glance to Aunt Ami.

As Melanie reached the town she became aware that the town was really full of life. The sun was slowly setting and the lights of all the tall buildings were coming on. As she drove, the town became more daunting. The roads became narrower and the buildings were closer together causing this part of the city to be darker than other parts. Finally, Melanie found Axiom Road and turned to instantly find a club with flashing lights. Looking down at her small piece of paper, she was able to confirm the address 2022 to be precise with this club's address. Melanie parked her car, got out swiftly and progressed to the club. This must've been a very well known location because there was a line that stretched all the way to the next block to get into this place. Ignoring the line, Melanie proceeded towards the door only to be stopped by a security guard.

"I'm sorry I need to get in there," Melanie spat out.

"Well I'm sorry little girl, I'm afraid that only adults 21 and older are allowed into this club. You're going to have to wait a few years," the guard stated.

Melanie had already been waiting long enough, not even bothering to listen to what the guard told her, she tried to rush past him. Having quick reflexes, the guard promptly picked her up and set her back down only to flash her his gun afterward. Melanie stared at the metal object and fantasized about him shooting her right there. She was snapped back to reality when a couple going to the club had shoved her out of their way. Melanie scoffed at them and then turned around to leave this unhelpful place.

Once she made her way to her car she was about to open the door when she looked over to find a very suspicious looking alley just across the way from the club. It was a very typical place for a climactic movie. Melanie shrugged to herself and turned back around just to see if there was anything of any use to her. Obviously this address of this club was very important in the case. As she made her way over the dark alley she spotted a few men by the dumpster. She stood there for a second, trying to find anything of use to her. After musing at the alley, Melanie turned around, disappointed that the trip had become such a waste of time. Suddenly, she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey pretty lady," a man yelled out, "Now why do you look so familiar?"

Melanie turned around only to let out a short gasp at the sight of this man. He was about twenty feet away from her, and she could only see his silhouette. She gasped because this silhouette looked so familiar. Melanie pulled out the photo in her pocket and compared the image to the man right in front of her. After concluding that the figures were the same her eyes fell to his wrist. Sure enough, there was the wristband, the same as in the photo. Melanie's face turned red with anger, and she could not contain herself anymore.

"You!" she shouted with all her might, lunging towards the man. He had not seen what was coming to him, and was knocked to the ground with Melanie on top of him. She was kneeing and scratching him, basically hurting him with all the strength she had. Finally realizing what was happening, the man caught both of her wrists and rolled on top of her. She struggled with everything she had, but he was too strong. At last, the man remembered where he had seen this girl before. Panicking, he positioned his knee perfectly where he could knock the wind out of her in a single blow. Melanie felt his knee rise and she tried to roll away, only making the man's job easier. With one thrust he left her breathless and she was on the ground gasping for air. The man dashed out of there as quickly as possible, knowing that he only had a short amount of time until the authorities would catch up to him.

Melanie twisted over to see the man run away from her. Her eyes watered as she blamed herself for letting him get away. A couple people rushed over to where she was, to make sure she was okay, only to find her on the ground gasping for air, crying. Someone had dialed the police about this incident, and they came, only to suspect Melanie of drinking underage. This had angered Melanie and she gave the police the cold shoulder, not helping her in her case. Of course, the police had no evidence whatsoever that she was drinking, only the smell that emanated from her jacket. The jacket only smelled like that because it had not been washed in about three weeks, not because she had been drinking. The cops drove her to the station and placed her in a holding cell until she made bail. Which would only be made if Aunt Ami was willing enough. In the back of her mind, Melanie believed that she wouldn't come, because she had said she would be careful. That night's events had broken her word, and Melanie was sure Aunt Ami would be furious, but instead Melanie was bailed out. She walked out of the station to find Aunt Ami with the green Camaro. Confused by this action, Melanie walked up to her and stopped and searched her eyes for just a flicker of disappointment, but none was found.

"Are you angry with me?" she finally asked Aunt Ami.

"No," Aunt Ami replied quickly, "why would I be angry?"

"Because I broke my word!" Melanie exclaimed, "Why aren't you angry with me?"

Aunt Ami was taken aback by this question. She had not expected Melanie to yell at her like that. "You know that saying, 'Forget and Forgive?'"

"Yes," Melanie replied, confused once again.

"I choose to forgive, but I will never forget. You're a teenager, it's the time for you to make mistakes and grow as a person. I only pray that this little misstep teaches you something. I choose not to be angry with you because then my mind would only be focused on your faults rather than your amazing accomplishments. So, for me to see the best in you, I decide to forgive you."

Melanie stepped back, "Just like that? You're going to forgive me…just like that?"

Aunt Ami smiled, "Just like that. Now get in the car, it's getting late."

"But…why?" Melanie asked, still puzzled.

Aunt Ami sighed, "About ten years ago I got into a huge fight with my best friend. It was so silly, but at the time I didn't think so. It was silly because right now I don't even remember what I was mad at. I was so angry at her that I couldn't think straight. All my anger had built up and I called her horrible names and told her that she was the reason that my life was falling apart." Aunt Ami's eyes started the water and her voice started to crack. "The told her that she should just die, because that would solve everyone's problems…I regret those words every second of every day."

Melanie gasped. "You fought-"

"With your mother." Aunt Ami finished, "I lost her and I can never forgive myself for what I told her. I never got the chance to apologize, and what we argued about was so childish and foolish. Now I'll never see her again. I realize now, that all these words now are useless. She will never come back and nothing will change what has happened, so all I can do is cry the heartbreak away. I do not want a repeat of what happened with your mother, so I never get angry and I never seek revenge. I simply lead a life of love and hopefully that way, I won't have anything else to regret."

Melanie's mind raced, her aunt had surprised her. She wondered if Aunt Ami had forgiven the man that took her sister away, but it didn't matter because she would never forgive him. Melanie and Aunt Ami were complete opposites and that was no shock. Though nothing will change Melanie still wanted to make very clear to this man that her life was turned upside down because of him. He had to know, because then he could live with his regrets.

Melanie reached in her pocket to look at the photo once again, only to find that it wasn't there. She searched everything on her and the photo was no where to be found.

"Are you looking for that photo you kept from me?" Aunt Ami asked.

Melanie's head snapped up, "How did you know about that? I was the only one who knew it existed."

"The police took it, apparently the people who found you picked it up next to you when you were taken down. Because they have that photo now they have reopened the case."

Melanie looked in disbelief as her aunt said this. "They reopened the case?"

"Yes, and because you had actually found the man, and have a photo of him, they should find him very quickly." Aunt Ami said sadly.

Melanie was confused by her aunt's actions once again, but it didn't matter. The sooner they find that man, the sooner Melanie can release all the anger and hate towards him. She felt a sort of relief, and she entered the car, sat down, and sighed.

~ Two Months Later ~

Melanie sped along the flooded road as she made her way to the station. The police had finally proven themselves to her and caught her mother's killer. The rain was falling down harder than it normally did, probably because that day was not a normal one. The raindrops fell hard against her windshield and blinded her. Everything outside of the car as she sped was fuzzy, but she kept going, hoping that she would reach her destination without and delay. Finally recognizing a sign for Amnesty Lane, Melanie reached the station.

Pulling into the parking lot, she hastily got out of her car. Not even two seconds outside and she was already drenched. Once inside the building Melanie asked to be led to where they held the prisoners, and called to have a meeting with the man. A meeting with the man she had collided with all those weeks ago. At last, she got to see him face to face.

As she was walking down she felt as if this was the longest walk of her life. Her heart pounded hard under her chest and she hesitated before opening the door. This was it, the final moment for Melanie. She turned the door handle and entered the room. The room was gray and there had only been a dimmed light to illuminate the room. She sat down in the middle of the room, where two chairs and a single table sat. One chair was occupied but that man.

Melanie felt a sort of excitement as she approached her seat. All the repressed feelings she had kept would finally come out in this moment. She sat herself down and looked across from her to find the man that had taken her down all those weeks ago. Melanie stared, she honestly didn't believe this moment was happening. His face was old, frowning at her. She felt proud for a moment and grinned, realizing that she was the main reason he was caught. Melanie's eyes finally reached the man's, inside those dark eyes she saw sorrow and regret. Her grin faltered, her chest tightened and her eyes watered. She had made a speech, a long one, full of profanities and hatred, but at this moment, staring at the one person she truly hated…all she could do was cry.