Gary looked out the window of the car the team was driving in. They were headed to a grocery store that had been broken into the night before. Dr. Rosen said that they suspected an alpha to be involved.
Gary could see the reflection of the car in the window of a clothing store they were driving past. Dr. Rosen was driving, Gary didn't understand why, he knew he was a good driver and it troubled him that no one else seemed to acknowledge that.
He wiggled his fingers as streams of energy flew by his eyes. He played with them until the team reached their destination. The team exited the car and entered the grocery store. It was completely trashed, food smashed on the floor, bags ripped, glass shattered. One apple remained intact in the bin.
Bill approached it but Rachel stopped him
"I smell blood" she stated
It scared Gary to hear her say that, he often expected the worst in dangerous situations.
Bill approached the apple more cautiously this time. He picked it up
"Y" he said "That's all it says" he added showing them the front of the apple. A capitol "Y" was written in dripping blood
"The blood's human" Rachel said
"Is that all the blood you smell?" Nina asked nervously
Much to Gary's relief, she answered yes.
They searched the rest of the store but found nothing but the apple that Bill had now put in a plastic bag. The visible blood made Gary want to be sick.
"What do you think Y means?" Rachel asked as they drove
Gary didn't have a clue. He began to recite all the y words he could think of.
"Yellow, yummy, yimmeny, is that a word? Young"
Gary heard Bill sigh
"Can you stop that please, Gary?" Dr. Rosen asked calmly
"Yeah" Gary replied "Oh look, another y word" he laughed.
It was getting late, so Dr. Rosen dropped Gary off at his house. His mom answered the door saying she was getting worried about him. Gary apologized and went upstairs to brush his teeth.
As he entered the bathroom, he recited more y words
"Yelp" he said as he turned on the water faucet. "Umm" he said as he looked in the mirror. He dropped his tooth brush. In the mirror, behind his own reflection, stood the reflection of a bald man.
"You" the man said, and all Gary could see was black.
"Gary?" Gary's mom called
"Gary, where are you?" she asked getting nervous "Gary please answer, this isn't funny!" she cried desperately
She entered the bathroom and, much to her horror, saw the bathroom sink overflowing with water, a puddle on the floor and worst of all, no Gary.
She ran downstairs to call Dr. Rosen; surely Gary had to gone back to work and just forgotten to turn the faucet off...right?
She waited anxiously as the phone rang. On the second ring, Dr. Rosen picked up
"Hello?" he said
"Do you have Gary, I can't find him anywhere!" she yelled into the phone. She felt foolish talking about her son like he was a lost object.
Dr. Rosen assured her that Gary was not at the office. Gary's mom explained how he was not in her house either.
"I'll have my team come to your house" Dr. Rosen offered
"Fine" she agreed.
As she waited, her mind filled with regret. She knew she should have never agreed for Gary to join Dr. Rosen. It was much too dangerous for him. She remembered when she had agreed to let Gary join, Dr. Rosen had said that Gary had been a baby bird and it had been time for him to spread his wings. It seemed reasonable at the moment, but now she realized that flying was much too dangerous an act for her Gary. He needed to be nurtured and cared for, not put in harm's way.
She heard a knock at the door. She hurried over, knowing it was Rosen's team, but still hoping it was Gary.
She opened the door and Rosen's team hurried in. They all looked panicked.
"Where did you see him last?" asked Dr. Rosen
"Well, he was heading up to the bathroom to brush his teeth" she explained
She led the team to the bathroom. The puddle on the floor had gotten bigger, for she had been too panicked to turn off the water herself. Bill did now.
"What do you see, Rachel?" asked Bill
"Blood, on the window" she answered
Gary's mom began sobbing uncontrollably.
"It's alright, we'll find him" Dr. Rosen assured her, but she could hear the worry and doubt in his voice.
Rachel approached the window and gently touched the blood stain. The thought of blood made Gary's mom's stomach churn, but the thought of her beloved son's blood was unbearable.
"The suspect took Gary and jumped out with the window him, landing perfectly on two feet then he ran" Rachel said observing the footsteps she could see on the grass.
Dr. Rosen's cell phone rang, Gary's mom listened carefully to Dr. Rosen, but it was hard to make sense of a conversation she could hear only half of.
"A local clothing store has been trashed, we have to go search it" Dr. Rosen said to the team he turned to Gary's mom and said, "We will find your son"
Gary's mom nodded but didn't trust Dr. Rosen at all, why should she? It was his fault Gary was gone.
She closed the door behind the team as they left. She sank down on the couch and cried herself to sleep.
Gary awoke in a dark room. He was lying on the cement floor. The room was a perfect cube all walls were cement the ceiling and floor as well. Gary was the only thing in the room. He looked down at his wrist. There was a cut there with dried blood around it. Gary frowned, he had bruises all over. He searched his pockets for his phone. It wasn't there. He never liked people touching his stuff, let alone stealing it.
He looked around the room and found there was no door. He looked down at his clothes. His shirt was torn and his pants were ripped. He had dirt all over himself. He felt very uncomfortable. He wiggled his fingers as strings of energy flew through the air. He searched for someone's cell phone, but everyone was out of area.
He sighed and sat down, clearly there was no getting out of this room and he just had to trust that Dr. Rosen would find him.
Rachel sighed as they entered the clothing store. It was completely trashed.
She focused on her hearing as she examined the small store. After hearing nothing out of the ordinary, she switched to smell. She faintly smelled human blood in the distance. Roughly the same amount as the grocery store had.
After switching to sight, she saw that a baby's dress alone on a rack.
She approached it slowly as the faint smell of blood became stronger. She removed it from the rack. It read: Baby's First Holiday. The O was underlined in blood. She informed the team of her discovery.
"So, we've got a Y and we've got an O" Bill resumed
"YO? Are they some kind of sick gangster?" Nobody laughed at Hicks' joke. Rachel was much too nervous to. She could feel her hands shaking. She worried about the store, she was worried about the killer and she was most of all she was worried about Gary. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by Dr. Rosen informing them that they had to get back to the office.
Once they arrived Rachel went to her office to examine the dress farther. She compared the blood on the dress to the blood on the apple. She noticed it was from two different victims. As she exited her office to inform Dr. Rosen of her realization she heard a heart beat in the hallway. She looked both ways down the hallway, but found no one was there. She could feel her own heart beat speeding up.
She looked to see an unfamiliar man with his nails dug into the ceiling. He smirked as he dropped down onto Rachel's shoulders. Rachel heard a thud as the world went black.
"Rachel, did you find anything?" Bill called "Rachel!" he repeated. He assumed she was examining the evidence and simply, could not hear her.
He entered the hallway near Rachel's, office to find lines of blood on the floor and ten small holes in the ceiling.
"Rachel!" he whispered to himself. He ran to her office, but found it empty.
Nina was now walking down the hall. She obviously noticed the panicked look on Bill's face and asked what happened. Before he could answer, she noticed the blood and called for Dr. Rosen
Dr. Rosen ran in and noticed the blood. He sighed.
"We have to stay together. Nobody goes anywhere alone" Hicks now entered and obviously figured out what had happened himself
"And then there were four" he murmured
Bill, now coming out of Rachel's office, told them the evidence was gone.
"We have y and o..." his voice trailed off as he checked his phone that vibrated with a text message. "And we've got a fish store that was ransacked"
They headed to the fish store as Bill felt responsible for the loss of two team mates. No matter how much he teased Gary, he loved the guy. He'd never tell him that, though. He'd never hear the end of it.
Dr. Rosen sighed as he drove to the fish store. He felt like a failure. Members of his team were disappearing right before his eyes and he couldn't do anything about it. As he clutched the steering wheel, he thought of how much he missed Gary begging to drive. He thought of how he had let Gary's mother down. He knew she'd never forgive him for this.
As the team-or at least what was left of them-entered the fish store, Dr. Rosen sighed once again. It was a mess, he wasn't sure if they'd be able to find anything with Rachel missing. Nevertheless, they began searching.
Hicks found a single fish in each tank and on each tank, beside the name and description of the fish, were the next letters written in blood: 'R, U andE.
"YO'RUE?" Hicks pronounced
"You're." Bill said after a moment of thought
"You're..." Nina repeated as they drove home.
Everyone was silent after that, deep in their thoughts.
When they got back Dr. Rosen went to Rachel's office. He sat down on her chair.
"I'm what?" Doctor Rosen asked himself
"You're next" an unfamiliar voice replied. Then a knife was lightly pressed against Dr. Rosen's neck.
Rachel awoke in a dark cement room. She immediately called for help. When no one replied to her cries, she searched everywhere for a door or an exit.
She paced back and forth countless times. She tried to remember the events that had taken place that day. She remembered the clothing store and the evidence and then going back to her office and then... oh, what happened after that? She couldn't remember. She was too nervous and distracted.
She banged against each wall and called for Dr. Rosen, no reply, no hope.
She leaned against the wall and laid her head on the cold cement.
She had never been so worried in her life.
Bill walked down past Dr. Rosen's office when he heard Dr. Rosen's cell phone ring. He glanced down the empty hallway before entering the office.
He picked up the phone to see a text message from Nina. It read: Do u think Gary and Rachel r alright? I'm worried about them.
Bill laid down the cell phone, scolding himself for being nosy. He found himself wondering where Dr. Rosen went.
After searching the entire building he finally gave up. Dr. Rosen was gone.
He noticed tiny droplets of blood on the carpet. He sighed as Nina walked through the hallway.
"What happened?" Nina asked bill, who was kneeling on the carpet inspecting the blood.
"It got Dr. Rosen." Bill replied
"And then there were three" they heard Hicks mumble.
"We can't let this keep happening!" Nina exclaimed almost crying
"How are we supposed to find them?" Hicks asked placing an arm on Nina's shoulder. Bill wondered why they weren't dating already, but that wasn't important now.
"Well we've got you've and we've got..." Bill paused as he suddenly saw blood writing under Dr. Rosen's desk "Fault" he read
"Our fault?" Hicks questioned. He looked behind him into the hallway and realized that Nina was no longer there.
"Nina?" Bill called following Hicks' gaze into the empty hallway. No reply.
"No!" Hicks cried. He loved Nina, no matter how much he denied he loved her so much, and now she was gone... like the rest of them. Then there were two... Hicks thought, but he didn't bother saying it
"It's alright, it'll be alright" Bill said placing a hand on Hicks' shoulder
"Don't touch me!" Hick screamed, pulling away. "She's gone and it's my fault 'cause I left her there alone. I practically handed her over! No one was supposed to go anywhere alone! I'm such an idiot!" He ranted
"Yelling isn't going to help us find them!" Bill shouted
Hicks sighed. He was right.
"So we've got to find out who this guy is." Bill stated
"Alright, so he wrecked a grocery store, a clothing store and a fish store, what's left?" Hicks asked
"Book store" He replied after a moment
"Yeah, could be... he stays local... what local book stores are here?"
"The Spine?"
"Yeah, could be...he attacks once a day, they're always early in the morning."
"I think our best bet is to go to The Spine now" bill said checking his watch. It was 12:00 am; most of the attacks were around 1:00, they didn't have much time.
Nina awoke in a cold cement room. She immediately stood up and began searching for an exit. She found none, there were no doors anywhere. She sighed and sunk down to the ground.
She felt helpless and needy. She called for Hicks, the man she loved, the man she missed, the man she needed.
She closed her eyes. She remembered leaving Dr. Rosen's office to find a man with a gun in the hallway. She remembered trying to scream and failing as the gun was pressed against her head, he hadn't shot her though, he just took her. She remembered hearing hicks' voice in the distance, calling her name.
Hicks and Bill waited outside The Spine. As Bill suggested, they were parked around the corner where they could see anyone entering the building, but they couldn't see them.
Hicks watched the hand on Bill's watch turn. At 12:35, a man dressed in all black walked through the door.
Bill and Hicks followed stealthily behind him, guns drawn. He turned and saw them. His nails grew long and sharp before scratching Hicks across the face. Hicks grabbed the cat-like creature's arms and flipped him onto the ground.
"Where are they!" Hicks screamed, shaking the creature
"I don't know!" The creature said in a hissy voice
"Yes you do!" Hicks persisted shaking him some more
Bill pointed a gun at the creature's head
"Where did you put them?" Bill asked. Hicks let go of the man's shoulders and let him fall to the ground
"I don't know what you're talking about." The creature falsely stated
"I will shoot you." Bill said
"No you won't, you need my answer to your question. You need your gang back" the creature laughed
Bill picked the creature up by the throat and repeated his question
"They're... in the... old...hospital" the creature tried to catch his breath as Bill loosened his grip and set the creature down. He handcuffed him and led him out the door.
Hicks gently touched his cheek where the monster scratched him. He saw blood on his fingers, but not too much, he'd be okay, he would heal. Now he had to find his team.
A few days later, with the Alpha at Binghamton and the team back where they belonged, Gary's mother hugged him.
"Mom, you're squeezing me, you're hurting me." Gary stated
"I'm sorry sweetie, I'm just so glad you're okay!" She said, kissing him on the forehead
"Yeah, well I'm strong and... I'm brave" Gary said
"I know, honey" Gary's mom said, kissing him again.
Meanwhile Nina sat on her couch watching TV as the doorbell rang. Through the peephole, Nina was that it was Hicks.
She opened the door and Hicks held out flowers.
"What are these for?" Nina asked taking the bouquet.
"You survived"
"Because you saved me, I should be giving you flowers"
"I thought I'd lost you"
"I thought I'd never see you again"
Hicks kissed Nina for what seemed like hours, but still wasn't long enough. She pulled away and smiled, and he had never been so happy in his life.