Unafraid of Darkness
Chapter I
It was suppose to light up with the moon, but it didn't appear that way. It was rather black still, the deep crimson stains upon the carpet floor. It wasn't intentional for it to look so orchestrated, it just ended up that way. A rather pleasing coincidence then again it was a crime of passion, at least that's how they'll label it. Still examining the scenario he was certain that no one heard the screams. Or the breaking of a priceless family heirloom. Even lucky enough to get away with the sounds of the instruments being thrown.
He scratched the top of his head ever so lightly with the tip of a knife. Something in the room was missing. Something living, or at least clinging onto life. He let out a faint giggle as he followed to where a long black trail lead. Almost tip toeing to keep his final lunge that more exciting. "shhh" he pushed open the door that the trail ended. He caught a reflection of himself in the bathroom mirror. Letting a grand smile spread across his face, while the sounds of a disheartened whimper caught his attention.
With a lick at his bottom lip he flicked the light switch. Revealing to him the one who caused him so much grief. So much lost time because of this woman. He could even go as far to say maybe she drove him mad, or as they say crazy. Then again there's a lot of factors that could attribute to his sanity or lack of it. The two said nothing to one another all their words spoken earlier. What had to be said, mostly the truth. What needed to be said here? 'Mercy, why, sorry?' perhaps but it was all for an equal exchange he claimed.
He walked over to the bath tub the young woman put herself in. Covering what was left of her unharmed body. The sounds beginning to slow with each passing moment. He offered her a hand to which she glared at. "I'm not going to kill you" he finally said the words seemed to wake her. "The cold will do that" he moved his hand over the tap. Turning the water on, watching as the woman in the tub attempted to move away. He held her still with both of his hands gripping at her face. "count to seven" she heard the words fade as it happened. "And you'll wake in heaven..."
The call came in earlier that morning, Robin was still trying to wake herself up. Arriving at the designated building waiting for her already was a friendly face. "Just us?" Miho Karasuma said slightly annoyed with the hour of time.
"We're just examing the scene right?" Robin yawned.
"And waiting with the body, it yet to be transferred" Karasuma rubbed her eyes.
"wait with?" Robin repeated back hesitantly.
"Well we're not exactly going to be in the same room with it" she explained.
"What happened?" Robin asked...
Opening the door to the single bed room apartment Miss. Karasuma was taken back at first. "Careful there's a lot of glass" she warned. Taking the first step inside while Robin followed after. The first item to catch their eye was the broken grandfather clock. Almost broken in half face side down as if it was pushed on someone. A scatter of broken picture frames lay around the living room. In the center a large almost completely dried pool of blood. Miss. Karasuma held her head up feeling all the mixed emotions scattered in the room.
"She was expecting this" Karasuma said in a hushed voice. Following a trail that lead down the hall. Robin let her venture ahead while she examined the room closer. Walking towards the apartment window taking notice of the slight opening at the bottom. 'Someone climbed in and out this way' she determined pulling up the window and looking down to see the fire escape ladder. Whoever did this knew their victim, they had their escape route planned too. Robin caught a faint odor in the air, looking down she found the source. Blood.
A cut, probably small but it left enough blood to trace down the side of the window frame. The sound of a sudden bump against the hall startled the young Robin. "Karasuma?" she called out worried. Could the attacker still be here? She rushed over to find Karasuma standing in the hall, her back towards the door.
"Sorry it's just" she took in a deep breath and looked back collecting herself. "It's pretty bad" Robin looked at the door not hesitating pushed the door open. The floor was covered in water it looked to be dyed, only it wasn't color dye. Robins eyes followed slowly to the tub, as the sounds dripping of water filled the room. Inside what was suppose to be a porcilen white tub was something horrible. In their line of work it wasn't often they saw things like this. Even though they're trained to keep emotions held inside.
Robin shook about tremendously, the room was still cold with it's presence. The victim's head remained stuck on the water tap. While out of the body looked to be spikes, all pointed in different directions. The frozen body displayed signs of post modem attacks. As smaller blocks of the frozen body lay outside the tub. Slowly melting but the chill in the room still remained. She took a step into the bathroom, it looked relatively untouched. He had to touch the light switch, ignoring the medicine cabinet. Robin pulled the cabinet door open, what greeted her was a display of bottles.
She took one looking it over and handing it to Karasuma. 'Valium' she took another bottle 'Prozac' and pulled out another. 'Clozapine' Robin looked up to see how many more bottles she had.
"Do they all have the same name?" Karasuma read the name on the bottle.
"Maria Rose" Robin spoke her name quietly in presence of her body.
"She probably had a lot issues in her life" Karasuma put lightly handing the bottles back to Robin.
"Why?" muttered Robin
"That's what we're here to find out" Karasuma guided her out of the bathroom.
"Can you sense anything?" Robin asked her body still shaking.
"...it's all mixed" Karasuma walked back out into the living room. "One second their feeling nostalgic" she looked over the grandfather clock. "the next is this... attack" she stopped standing in the main center of the room. "and then they're happy again"
"The attacker?"
"Both of them"
"I think they could've escaped through the window" Robin pointed it out.
Karasuma walked over seeing the fire escape ladder and the darkened paths they could've used. "I found some trace of blood too" the red streaks at the bottom of the frame. Small but very helpful in the case. "We'll have someone trace the sample back with the files we have at HQ".
"Do you think they're wounded?"
"By the amount of blood, the attacker probably has a defense wound on his arm or hand" Karasuma walked over to the last picture hanging on the wall. Though it wasn't hanging at all. It was stuck to the wall, the cause. Karasuma grunted pulling out the thin sharpened piece of metal. The last picture fell over and broke upon impact.
She examined the sharpened instrument carefully. "looks to be hand made" it was light enough to throw, small enough to hide and likely the cause of the victims death. She scanned the room for more, just scattered the room lay half a dozen. All of them sticking to their targets, some stained with a thin red color. "If luck has a role here I'd say these attacks are just the start".
"Why do you say that?" Robin asked
"These two had to have been loud"
"yes?" Robin took notice of the small space it provided.
"Look at this place, it's a mess" true her words were. As Robin looked over the grimy walls, and unkempt plants.
"Where were the rest of the tenants?" she pointed out the apartment door.
Robin looked up at the door and was taken back for a second. It was Amon, his brooding presence faded into a detective state. His eyes cross examined the room, noticing the cans of garbage, the knife and blood trails. "I'd say they were scared out of their wits" he walked into the apartment as others followed in behind.
"She's in the bathtub" he directed as men in white protective gear walked in.
"Do we have any leads?" Karasuma asked walking to him.
"We looked into the potential of a water crafter, but they can't freeze or turn the element into a gas" Amon said knowledgeably.
"So our next guess is..."
"An ice crafter" he put flatly looking to his partner who looked to be lost.
"Ice" Robin uttered the word bitterly. As the picture of a white winter storm played in the theater of her mind. "Cold" her words were beginning to feel that way. Amon placed a firm hand on her shoulder. She was taken back by the sudden warmth of his hand.
"It's summer" he said sounding comforting at best. "Besides we don't have that many ice crafters on data"
"That means" Robin looked up to face him.
"We'll have a suspect brought in before noon" he assured with the nod of his head.
"A suspect" Robin muttered looked back at the men in white who were now carrying out a black bag. "A witch"...