Gone to Silence

They found the two bodies in the middle of the day. One at the foot of a building and another at the top. Discovery hadn't been at a romantic midnight hour. It hadn't been heralded with the mawkish cries of a weak-stomached passerby. Nor had it been accompanied by an anxious crowd of onlookers.

A man in a black coat had come to the scene. He looked upon both bodies without the expected shock of most people, taking in the graceless way their limbs had frozen in motion, the stillness of their petrified bodies, now cool like Icelandic waters and equally as rigid.

He pressed two fingers to the one woman's wrist, to a point just below a wheel shaped scar. He didn't have to touch the other woman to know she was dead.

The man slid both hands into his black pockets. He stood facing the nonexistent breeze with his gently receding hairline catching the brunt of the stagnant alleyway air.

He gave a slight nod, to no one in particular, and then removed his hands from his pockets and walked away. The bodies would be gone by tomorrow. The deed was complete and the memory of the two women would disappear with their bodies.