Better With Age || Viktor Brandt

[Euca]

2. Obsession, thy name is Jane.

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"As you can see, Timm, I've been dedicating much of my time to looking for this Jane woman." I unlocked my apartment and stepped in, headed straight for the kitchen to put my groceries down. "It's tireless work, but sometimes the most rewarding work is the stuff that keeps you up at night, ya know?"

Timm shuffled into the room, eyes wide in horror as he scanned the walls, all of which were full of news articles of people named Jane. A Jane Lobe went missing in 789 A.S. Jane Ehman, who won a money award for her work in the science fields. Another Jane, who managed to beat the record for amount of cats owned. A wide cast of strange and elusive Janes, all of which decorated my apartment like art. Well, at least I thought it was art, Timm seemed to be frightened.

"Don't you think this is all a bit... obsessive?" he asked as he prepared his drawing easel. I looked up from the fridge.

"Well, I mean, she left me for dead on the surface of a frozen planet. Oh! Then proceeded to kill about thirty thousand people." I moved the objects around the fridge to make more room. "Sometimes, obsession is healthy."

It had been a week since I was fired from the CTI and started my investigation. I scoured every single instance of odd behaviour from any woman named Jane. I kept working with words: articles, events or reports. I realized that if I wanted to truly catch such a strange woman, I would need to utilize all of my memory. I called Timm, an artist who had previously worked for the Polizei in sketching the faces of the accused. I knew him back from my officer days, and it was only a quick call to get him to come over.

"You all set up?" I asked, he nodded, and I came over.

"Uh so," Timm said, holding a pencil in his hand "start with the shape of her face." I reflected upon that night in Harburg, as the hail began to fall down outside. I remember she had dropped her scarf to the floor and I saw her face. She had a blocky face, with a triangular chin. It was really quite unremarkable, in hindsight.

"Got it, so how about her hair? What can you tell me about that?" It was black, but it caught on the light, making it look a dark, murky green. It was long, coming down just below her shoulders. It was also wild and stuck out on her head. It seemed coarse, almost as if it hadn't been taken care of for quite some time.

"Moving along, what was her skin colour?" She was a typical Rheinlandic Caucasian, with that light toned skin, almost pale.

"So, her face..." Suddenly, the memories came flooding back into my mind. Her eyes were large, a light brown perhaps? Her nose was slim, and streamlined straight up her face. Her lips were of average size, with her bottom lip sticking out somewhat. Timm finished his drawing, adding small details here and there, then finally spun the picture around to meet my eyes. It was damn near perfect, he had captured my oozing memory of her with perfect clarity. I thanked him, payed him, and sent him on his way.

Later that night, I scanned the image, then posted it to the wall. I stood back and smiled at the progress I had made. I muttered under my breath, the words filled with malcontent and vengeance. "Obsession, thy name is Jane."