Final Jigsaw Piece

Callum

It was late the next morning when Callum finally woke. Opening one eye he looked at the clock beside the bed. 9.35am. He stretched and smiled. Nina’s roommates would both be gone for the day. He kicked the covers off and scratched his belly in a very unladylike manner as he yawned wide. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and stood up in one fluid motion before heading out of the bedroom to go to the bathroom. He walked up to the basin and looked at the image reflected back at him from the mirror. He could see his face and Nina’s over laying each other. It looked like a badly edited morphing attempt by an armature film maker.

Words he had read the day before rose up in his head once more.

“Still waters lay bare twinned souls. Ripples scatter the visage thus anchoring the covenant.”

Yesterday he had no clue what they had meant but now he saw it clearly.

“No, don’t you dare!” Nina screamed at him from inside his head.

He just grinned at her image as he drew back his arm and punched the mirror smashing it shattering the images into disjointed fragments.

Her voice was suddenly silenced and he looked at his fist as he uncurled the fingers and flexed them a couple of times making sure they still worked. They weren’t small with dark skin and long nails. They were white, callused and with a little of the golden hair from his arms covering the top of them. Nodding he turned on the tap and rinsed off a little blood seeping from a number of small cuts.

He smiled up at the broken mirror one last time before heading out of the bathroom and into the living area. Looking in the fridge he found some cold Pizza which he ate with gusto and washed it down with half a carton of milk. With his hunger taken care of he went over to one of the other doors and opened it and looked around before closing it again. He didn’t need woman’s clothing. He opened the second.

“Bingo.”

Going in, he rifled through the wardrobe and draws finding what he needed. Callum couldn’t remember the name of the guy, but it didn’t matter anyway. The jeans were a little big in the waist but a belt would fix that right up. He pulled a long sleeve white t-shirt on and roughly tucked it in before finding the belt he needed.

The boots he pulled on were a size too big but thick socks fixed that, just as the belt fixed the too big jeans. He pulled a thick sweater over his head and grabbed an old black duffel coat from the back of the wardrobe.

Fully dressed he looked around the room and considered taking the change on the top of the dresser but decided against it. He did however go back and take the cash out of Nina’s wallet, but left her jewelry on the dresser.

“Well see ya Nina, it was….different. Thanks for looking after my heart and keeping it beating.” he nodded to the empty room then turned and left the apartment.

Callum jogged down the last set of stairs, pushed the door open and stepped out into the city. He drew in a deep breath of winter wind and felt the cold almost burn in his nose, then followed its progress on down as it traveled to his lungs. It was almost painful, and felt magnificent. He ran his fingers through his short blonde hair and grinned at the simple pleasure of being fully alive. It was good to be all man again, but there were some aspects of Nina's body he would miss. With a final nod to himself he strode off down the street.

With no fixed abode and no destination in mind, he was totally free.

~#~

Two days later

There was no trace of Nina, it was like she had just vanished off the face of the earth. There was no evidence of foul play, nothing seemed to be missing from her room.

The police investigated but couldn’t make head nor tail of the case. Yes the bathroom mirror was broken, but there had been no DNA evidence left for them to find. When questioned, her co-workers said she had been acting a bit different toward the end, but she still managed to get her work done. In fact she had just finished up the last piece the night before she vanished.

“It was an urn and she had worked hard on finding out as much as she could about it. Her write up says that it was thought that it was created with the help of the spirit world, and it was said to have the power to transfer the spirit of the dead into a living host that was connected to it, a family connection most probably. Funny thing though, she writes here that the lid only comes off in the presence of a spirit, but I saw her holding the two pieces separately on the first day it arrived,” Mr Copper said as he read her last entry on the computer. He stood up and looked the detective in the eye.

“Maybe that is your answer?”

“Thanks for your help, if you remember something that actually could help our investigation, call me.” The detective held a card out to him before turning to leave the research lab. Outside the door he turned to the uniform who was waiting for him.

“Have them bring that kid in from the mail room again, I have a few more questions for him.”

“Yes sir.”

The end.