It took her just over twenty minutes to arrive at the morgue. The building was large and grey, it loomed toward her like a giant husk. The sensation she got from it made her stomach turn. As she walked to the door she saw the intercom system and proceeded to buzz for entry.

"Hello? It's Lilith McMillan."

*Please come right in* responded the speaker, accompanied by a flurry of static.

The lock on the door released with the snap of metal against metal and Lilith pulled it open. Once inside the sanitary white halls, she was escorted by a police officer that not as much as blinked to acknowledge her presence. They walked for a few moments, zig-zagging through the halls before reaching a set of steel doors. The doors led into a room filled with lights hanging from the ceilling and metalic walls covered in slabs of which the doors were all closed but one. The police officer lead her to the slab that was covered in a white sheet and then stood next to it.

Dr. Stross came in through an adjecent door and smiled to her. "Thank you so much for coming." he said. "Now, let's get on with this, I'm sure you've got many things to do. All we need to know is if you recognize this person. Be warned, this may be a traumatizing event. If you need any assistance in the future, the city will gladly provide a free session with one of our social workers."

"Thanks." Lilith replied. "But I think I'll be ok." After all, it hadn't been the first time Lilith had seen a dead body. Her second grandfather died when she was about twelve, and she distinctly remembers the sweet smell that rose from his corpse at the funeral home. However, she somehow thought this would be far different, and it would be.

Dr. Stross stepped to the opposite side of the slab and gently peeled back the white sheet to reveal a pale and bloated visage that had been twisted into an expression of distress.

Lilith recoiled from the sight of it and her hand rose to her mouth. "God." she said, the words quietly escaping her mind through her mouth without intention.

The Officer behind her put his hand on her shoulder and spoke to her for the first time. "Please, I know this is difficult, that you don't see this kind of thing every day, but we need you to take a good look."

She turned and looked at him briefly before returning her attention to the corpse. It took quite a bit of will power for her to lean forward over the slab and inspect the face for any resemblance to someone she knew. She saw none. As she backed away, the churning in her stomach could no longer be ignored. "Please." She said, strenuously as she held her stomach. "Washroom."

"Through those doors and to your left." The doctor pointed.

Before he had finished giving the directions Lilith was off, running toward the indicated doors and entering the bathroom. She fell to her knees in front of a toilet bowl and vomitted. It took a few more heaves before her stomach had emptied enough. She sat back on her feet in a low kneeling position and rested her back against the bathroom stall door. "What a day." She said, staring at the tiled ceiling as her eyes watered from the exertion.

From the other room, a strange noise was heard. She turned her head to listen as a commotion broke out. She got up and exited the stall, wondering what the ruckus was all about when a man burst into the washroom backwards. He slammed his back against the tiled floor and slid a meter or so before coming to a rest at Liliths feet. It was the police officer, and the blue of his shirt faded into a crimson red as he bled out from a gunshot wound in his chest.

Lilith's heart raced, she backed away from the man, wide eyed, and frantically attempted to make sense of what had happened. She looked to the door and knew that whoever had just shot this man was about to enter. In a brief moment the puzzle of thoughts that violently swirled in her mind coalesced and she took action. She jumped on to the counter top to her right and pushed up on one of the tiles of the ceiling. Once they were out of the way she reached in and grabbed on to a bundle of wires that happened to be stirdy enough to hold her one hundred and twenty two pounds as she hefted herself into the ceiling. She clung to the rafters, knowing that her weight wouldn't be supported by the alluminum grid that held up the tiles of the ceiling. It took her only a short moment to replace the tile she had moved to enter, after which she repositioned herself in order to remain there indefinitely. A small vent that lead out near the door of the washroom had a slit that allowed her to see limitedly into the room and she peered through it intently. The door opened, and her heart raced once again as a man entered the room holding a pistol in each hand. As soon as she had seen him he was gone, passing by the threshold of her spy hole and further into the washroom. She could hear him searching the stalls, taking extra time on one, perhaps the one she had vomitted in. There was a few more minutes of rustling before he left the washroom in a hurry as sirens could be heard in the distance.

She remained in the ceiling for a few moments more before climbing down, covered in sweat and dust. She ran up to the police officer on the ground and slid on her knees as she reached him. She didn't know much about first aid, especially when it came to gunshot wounds, the only thing she could think of was stopping the bleeding. She ripped open his shirt and looked at the wound and the only logical thing to do in her mind was to stick her thumb into it. She did so, and put pressure around her thumb and waited.

"Help!" She screamed, confident that the murderer had fled, and now far more concerned about saving this mans life. "I need help in here!" Her voice trembled as the mans eyes rolled about in his head as he lay unconscious.

It seemed like an eternity before the door sprang open and a police officer, holding his pistol at her face, entered the room. He lowered the weapon and grasped the radio that was snapped to his vest on his left shoulder. "We've got an officer down, repeat, officer down at five twenty three College street, we need assistance immediately." He said as he holstered his pistol and raced toward her. "What happened?" He asked, checking the mans pulse. "Who did this?"

Lilith's expression had become desolately blank, and she simply shook her head in response before quietly saying "I don't know."

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I have no problems with anyone taking this story to whatever lengths their imagination can afford, however I'd ask that you please make sure to check your spelling and grammar before posting. Punctuation is a pretty big problem these days too but it's not nearly as distracting as horrible spelling.

As for the plot outline, as previously stated, authors can do what they want, but make it mysterious :).

I'll be writing more when I get the chance.

updated Sep 25 by Sly