Chapter 0
The crime scene was buzzing with activity. I barely had to check to know the time of death. 2 AM again. It was the same guy, alright.
"This is beginning to look a tad bit like a serial killer, eh, Jake?"
I didn't respond. This case was starting to grate on my nerves. He was right, though. Too much was common between crime scenes for this to be normal. The time, the location, every scene seemed to have only one variation; the variation being the round used to kill each victim.
"Jake, you listening to me?"
I stumbled a bit with the words.
"Uh...y-yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. Have you found what it was this time?"
Daniel turned to the nearest police officer and asked.
"It's a .308. Definitely a .308," he said.
"Last time it was a .44. The rounds are getting bigger. Eric, contact the chief of police."
He didn't waste any time with the answer.
"He's already here, sir."
That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear. The chief walked up to me and said in a troubled voice, "You're J-jake Louis, correct?"
"Yes, sir," I answered. I knew something was important, otherwise he wouldn't waste a trip down here. He's too lazy for that.
"Good. You're in charge of this investigation now. Have fun."
Then he walked over to Daniel and began to talk about the body.
"Shit," I thought. I didn't need this investigation on my hands. Too much trouble for someone with a kid. "This is gonna be a pain in the ass."
Chapter 1
I sat at home, working on another report for the newest victim. I pulled open my filing cabinet, and I was about to close it when something caught my eye: The Origami Killer. I pulled out the file and looked at its contents.
"I remember this...the rainwater, the orchids, the...everything."
I was one of the officers assigned to the case of The Origami Killer. I remember the day I chased Ethan Mars on top of the motel, the day I got the dispatch to that apartment, and most important, the day I lost a kid.
It was right after I was done thinking about all of it that Norman walked in.
"Jake, I heard you were assigned to the case."
"More than assigned, Jayden. I'm in charge of it."
He had a look on his face. The same look I had on Christmas morning when I gave my kids their presents. He rummaged through his pocket and pulled out an ominous pair of sunglasses and a glove.
"Have this, Jake. It'll be more use to you than me."
I took the glasses, but before I had a chance to put them on, Norman warned me about them.
"Be careful not to use that thing too much. It'll end up killing you. That'd be bad, Jake."
Then he handed me a vial full of blue powder.
"That too. It's addictive. Don't take it unless the pain's too much to bear. I'll be seeing you soon, Jake."
With that said, he walked out the door. I looked at the vial, put it in my drawer, then put on the glasses.
"What the hell?"
The glasses open up a virtual world. I was sitting on top of a mountain.
"Jesus Christ! This must be the ARI program the FBI was developing."
I looked through everything on the glasses and found handball. I began to play.
Plus one. Plus one. Plus one.
"This is amazing! How did Norman get this?"
But then I remembered something. I exited out of handball and found something else: files on the victims of the Origami Killer.
Looking through the files, I found a piece of evidence that proved startling: the origami figure put on my son's chest after he died. I closed out of the ARI, opened my cabinet, and found the cell phone. I sighed, mainly because there wasn't anything I could do to save him.