Streaked Fingerprints,

Prologue

Chris yawned as he walked through the door. Throwing his keys onto the hall table, he sighed softly.

"Logan? You home?" He called out, walking in to the kitchen. When he had no answer, he sighed once more.

There was a note on the bench, and Chris walked over, reading that his brother had gone out and would be home sometime the next day. Crunching the note up in his hand, the man walked over to the fridge, pulling out a beer.

Turning around, expecting to see nothing out of the usual, Chris let out a surprised gasp as a demon filled his vision. The first thought to come into his mind was that the demon was pretty damn ugly. His second thought was that he really did not want to deal with a demon after a sixteen hour day of work.

The twenty-six year old frowned, slicing his hand through the air and watched as the demon smashed into the wall, disorienting it. Taking the chance while it was down, Chris closed his eyes, focusing on the demons mind. Smashing through its mental walls with little mercy, he searched for an answer of why the demon was here. Finding no reasonable explanation, he found the core of the demon's mind and mentally attacked it. He was forcefully pushed out of the demon's mind when he had destroyed the core. Gasping, eyes flicking open, he watched the demon's corpse disappear with no remorse.

He figured it was just a low-level demon, coming here with the intent of pleasing its master. It didn't take him long to destroy its mind, meaning that it was weak and had no true power, but he was wary. Demons had rarely ever showed up around him, and when they did, it was in a large group with intent to capture him or his brother, not to piss him off.

Shaking his head, he glanced towards the clock. 8:45. He was exhausted. He had been called in at four in the morning, and had been on his feet almost all day. It was apparent that there was a serial killer on the loose, and Chris, who had the day off and had made plans, had to come into work and help deal with it. He still had no idea who was causing these crimes, and he was sure he was in for another long day tomorrow.

Beer forgotten, the man was ready to retire for the night and head for the bed that was calling him, he groaned as his phone started to ring. Pulling it out of his pocket and glancing at the display, he answered.

"Lieutenant Morris," He greeted warmly. Darryl Morris, after moving back from the East Coast with his family several years, had struck up a bond with Chris after working with him several times on cases. "What can I do for you?"

"Chris," There was a brief moment of silence between the men. "Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Why, Darryl, are you asking me out on a date? You know I don't date married men." Chris teased lightly, before answering seriously. "Probably at work all day, again." While Chris didn't groan, he was positive that he had sounded slightly whiny. His suspicions were confirmed when the other man chuckled.

"Long day?" Darryl asked, knowingly, and Chris could picture a soft yet teasing smile on the older man's face.

"You have no idea. I got called in at four this morning and just got home."

"Damn, that sucks." There was another moment of silence before Chris sighed.

"What are you after, Darryl? You didn't ask me what I was doing for small talk." He said, rolling his eyes slightly at the man's huffed laugh.

"No, you're right. So, there are some friends of mine. Witches, like yourself, and they've been having some suspicious demon behaviour, and while they don't need any help, they would like to meet up with another witch to discuss things."

"And you suggested me." Chris said dryly before continuing. "Listen, Darryl, I'll try my hardest, but I'm run off my feet. I might get some time tomorrow in my lunch break to discuss things, or maybe when I get home from work, but I have no idea how late that will be. The best I can offer is that they haul ass and get here right now or get them to call me sometime."

There was silence.

"Don't you dare tell them to haul ass and get here. I'm so tired at the moment that I'd probably end up falling asleep in the middle of a conversation. They'd end up thinking that I had died or something."

Darryl chuckled. "Get some sleep, Kid. I'll discuss it with you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Darryl." Chris said tiredly before hanging up. Trekking the rest of the way to his bedroom, he toed off his shoes before falling onto his bed, not bothering to change into his pyjamas, and almost immediately fell asleep.

When Chris awoke, he knew it was too early for him to get up and to go to work. A quick glance at his clock confirmed this. He quieted down for a second to see if he could hear the source of what had caused him to wake up. He heard light footsteps, and he cursed softly. He swore on his life if that was another demon, he would make it's vanquish slow and painful.

Standing, the witch quietly crept towards the source of the noise. Once he had found the room that he was sure the noise was coming from, he clicked his fingers, a flame illuminating the place. His eyes adjusted immediately, and he watched as a figure faded from view, and he sighed, extinguishing the flame and turning on the lights.

"Logan." Chris said, sounding exhausted. The figure that had disappeared faded back into view.

"Hi, Chris." The teen said, sounding almost nervous, and Chris would never admit to the slight pain that it had caused him. "Did I wake you?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "It's fine." He glanced down to the watch adorning his left arm. "It's almost three, I would've gotten a phone call soon enough. Why are you home so late?"

"Well, I wasn't going to come home in the first place, but I realised I had work today at nine, and I probably wouldn't have enough time to get ready and go."

"Why didn't you just take today off? You're only part-time, I'm sure they could have found someone to cover you." Chris said, scrubbing at his face and yawning.

"Used up too much sick leave. That and I need to actually attend work to get paid. What time did you get home?"

Chris smirked at the conversation change. He knew Logan was anxious about Chris getting angry at him over little things, and it was amusing to see that his brother thought he was that uptight, but it hurt at the same time. It reminded Chris of when he was in his teens and had been anxious about his father getting angry. He'd never be like his father, and especially not towards Logan.

"Around eight forty-ish. Had a demon in here when I got home. No idea why, it didn't attack me or anything, hadn't gone for the book and it was easy enough to vanquish, but just keep an eye out, okay?"

"Will do. Okay, I'm going to bed. I take it I won't see you in the morning?"

Chris shook his head. "Probably not. It's flat out at work at the moment."

Logan nodded. "Fair enough. I get off at four tomorrow. Text me when you have your lunch break. I'll see if I can meet up with you."

The younger of the two made his way to his bedroom without another word, and Chris sighed, walking into his own room. Pulling his phone that had been put in his pocket hours before out, he set it on the bedside table.

Pulling off his shirt and throwing it into the washing basket, Chris looked down at his chest, eyes tracing the thin, faded white scars that adorned it. He swallowed and fought back memories. He quickly found a new shirt and pulled it over the top. Frowning down at his jeans, he figured that they looked clean enough and would be acceptable to wear another day. Yawning, he slid his phone back into his pocket, ran his fingers through his hair as a makeshift comb and ventured out of his bedroom and into the kitchen.

Being so early in the morning, he had no appetite, but he knew he would be called in soon, and he had to eat. He knew several people who would kill him if he managed to slip back into his old habits. Grabbing an apple out of the fruit bowl, he figured it'd be enough until he managed to get out to lunch or persuade one of the rookies to go get him food.

Taking a bite out of the apple, Chris sighed, letting his mind wander to the past day to see if he could think of something he missed. He knew that it took longer than a day to figure out who a serial killer was, but it was frustrating the man. He knew that there was something not right about this, even more not right than a serial killer on the loose.

Being pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of his phone ringing, he quickly fished it out of his pocket, not bothering to look at the caller I.D, he answered.

"Yeah?"

"We need you to come in, again." His co-worker's voice came over the phone, and Chris smirked playfully.

"Oh, Abigail." He said, mock hurt, "You sound like you don't want to see me."

"Of course, I want to see you. I'm just frustrated that I've been dragged out of my nice warm bed to call you and most likely wake you up to tell you that you have to get to work, and then me, myself, having to go to work too."

"If it helps, you didn't wake me up." Chris offered. "Logan apparently isn't very good at stealth when it comes to three in the morning."

Abigail laughed softly, "I'll see you at work, Chris." She said, and hung up.

Sliding his phone into his pocket once more, he threw the half-finished apple into the bin and walked outside, stopping only for a moment to grab his keys.

The warm early morning breeze was nice as he walked out to his car, and helped him wake up enough to feel confident to drive and not die from falling asleep from the wheel.

As he slid into the car, he softly murmured to himself that it would be another long day.

Arriving at work at the same time as Abigail, Chris walked over to her car, waiting patiently as she fished her handbag out of the boot.

"Good Morning, Abby." He greeted the British woman warmly, smiling softly at her as they started to walk towards their work.

"Good morning my ass, it's a Saturday. I should be sleeping in and be able to do things with my family today, not work. I have my husband's cousin's wedding today that I was supposed to go to. I don't know her bloody name but I told her that we were coming"

Chris laughed softly. "It sucks, doesn't it? I had plans to go to lunch with my friends today. I haven't seen most of them in months and I was actually excited about going out. Had to cancel on them yesterday. Figured that we'd be called in."

"Yeah, well. That's life, I suppose." Abby grumbled, glaring at the building that they were approaching.

"Life fucking sucks, doesn't it?" Chris asked, sounding slightly bitter, and Abigail glanced up to him, rarely ever hearing the man sounding bitter. She saw that his eyes weren't focussed properly, and she realised that he was more talking to himself.

She smiled slightly, wondering if that was another clue to the mysterious man she worked with. While Chris was warm and understanding, he rarely ever wanted to talk about the past unless it was about his friends or his brother. It left her thinking what on earth could have happen to Chris.

She had read his file, what information had been collected from him, but it only had the basic details, his full name, Christopher Perry Jacobson. His birthday, 17th of November, 2003. His brother's name, Logan James Jacobson. His parents, Paul Christian Jacobson and Lauren Eve Jacobson who had both been deceased for almost nine years, dying in a car crash that had killed the both of them instantly. Beyond that, she didn't know much about him, she knew the basics. She knew that he was a big fan of classic cars, his favourite colour was silver, and his favourite band was Asking Alexandria. She knew all his favourite movies and books, what he did in his spare time, but she knew absolutely nothing of his past.

Abigail Baileys was a determined woman, who was also very curious. It was frustrating that she had worked with Chris for almost five years but still knew barely anything about him. The man was a walking mystery and she had made it her goal to figure him out.

She wanted to know Christopher Perry Jacobson's past, and she would stop at nothing to find out. She loved Chris like another one of her sons. She was forty three and had the maternal instinct that most women seemed to acquire around that age. She considered Chris as one of her closest friends, and she wanted to know more.

She was curious, and she was determined to uncover his secret, but she had no idea how to go about it. She had discovered that the man clammed up tightly whenever she tried to figure him out. She didn't know how to make it seem like she was only doing it in a friendly way.

As they entered the building, a thought struck her. Chris was extremely close to Logan, and who else would know Chris better than his own brother.

Logan looked up to Abigail, had adopted her as a second mother even, and she figured it wouldn't be that hard to get the information out of him.

Abigail was broken out of her thoughts as Chris spoke. "Ready for another long day, Abby?" He asked, green eyes full of warmth, and she smiled,

"I guess I am." She said, feigning exhaustion.

"Come on then." He said, with a heart warming smile that Abigail was sure he could make a few girls faint with, and held the door open for her to go in.

The rest of the work team looked up sleepily at their arrival, and Abby smirked, clapping her hands loudly, the sound sharp, making many co-workers flinch.

"Wake up, we've got work to do." She said, and at their groans, she heard a chuckle from Chris. It appeared that he was in an extremely good mood today, and whenever he was in an extremely good mood, it always seemed to be a good day. The man had a way of projecting his emotions onto other people.

"Great!" She exclaimed when they looked a little more lively. Her previous mood of not wanting to go to work was replaced. "Well, come on then! We've got murders to solve!"