Marcus' Story: Part 1

Marcus was sitting in his office building. He was 32 years old. He was skinny, clean cut with brown hair slicked back. He was a police officer and had been one for 11 years. Marcus was at his desk at his station. His partner, Rachel, knocked on the door. Rachel was 34 years old, 5'9, and blond hair. She and him had known each other for years. She entered inside the room. Marcus had never gotten the courage to ask her out, even though he had a small child crush on her.

"You really need a break from that." She said. Marcus looked up at her. "I need to catch this guy. He has killed enough people." Marcus said. His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at his papers.

"Yeah but its time to let go of this Marcus. I've known you for a long time but you are getting way too obsessed with this. Two police officers have died, just let it go. How much longer can you keep this up?" Rachel said. Marcus didn't say anything.

"Just leave me the *beep* alone seriously." He said. He started writing something down on a piece of paper.

"What the hell has gotten into you?" Rachel said. She walked out the door but then paused and turned around. "This isn't the man I met years ago." She said and left his office. Marcus put down his pen and cached up with her.

"Wait Rachel…." He said. He put his hand on her shoulder. She turned around to him. "Don't touch me." She said. "I'm sorry about what I said back there. I need a break from all this work, lets go out tonight. Just you and me for old times." He said. She paused and looked up at him. "Ok tonight. Ill call you." She said and then walked away not turning around. Marcus walked back to his desk to finish some work. Police Chief Logan came inside a few minutes later.

"What was all that about?" Logan said. Marcus turned up.

"What do you want?" He said.

"The Mayor is going to haul my ass if I have another dead cop because of you." Logan said. Marcus had ran into Jigsaw traps in the past day and once before injuring 3 and killing two police officers because he had went into trap zones without backup.

"What are you going to do take my badge away?" Marcus said looking directly at Logan. Logan nodded. He was a burly man, 52 years old and white hair. He had a wife and two kids. He'd been married for 26 years, he loved his job. Marcus handed it over, angry enraged at his boss.

"You can come back once all this blows over." His boss said. Marcus grabbed his jacket, put it on, and walked out the door.

Marcus was at the restaurant with Rachel that night.

"So I'm sorry about all I have been getting into lately with the Jigsaw case." He said to her.

"Yes its ok you really needed a break from all that *beep* man. Sometimes I feel like no one can help the people in this city." Rachel said to him. She took a sip of the beer glass she had, all of the poisons going into her from one sip. Marcus had stayed sober for 10 years, and he was proud of it.

"What do you mean? People can change, not everyone here is evil." Marcus said. Rachel laughed.

"No, they can't change. Born a monster you stay a monster, born a hero you stay a hero. I think Jigsaw is right in what he does, and sometimes I doubt if we should be stopping him or aiding him sometimes." Rachel said.

Marcus didn't say anything and kept drinking. Later on they both paid the bill and walked out.

"Marcus….I need to tell you something." She said to him. He stop walking and looking at her.

"What, what is it?" He said. A tear went down her eye.

"My….mother. She was tested with Cancer. They don't know if she will make it. Oh god I'm so scared for her." She said. She fell into his arms and started to sob as he held her. She cried in his arms. Marcus felt like it was just both of them in the world, no one to look after them but each other.

"I don't want her to die Marcus, I don't want her to die she's all I have. I don't want to be alone in this world." She said to Marcus. Marcus held her tight as she sobbed in his arms.

"She's not going to die, you're not going to be alone. Everyone is here for you." He said to her. They held each other for a minute as they comforted each other.

The next day Marcus sat down on his bed, thinking about what had happened last night. He got up and poured himself a cup of coffee. Suddenly the doorbell rang. Marcus spilled some coffee on himself and cursed. He ran to the door and opened it, seeing no one. He looked down both hallways of his apartment. Suddenly he saw a note on his doormat. It said 'Bronx Hall Café, 15 minutes. Ill be waiting.' Marcus looked around but couldn't see anyone. He grabbed his jacket and headed out to the café. Marcus ate there usually a few times a week, their town was small so he usually had breakfast there. He saw a man sitting at a table looking at him.

"I need to speak to you." The man said. Marcus sat down across from him.

"What's this about?" Marcus said. The man took out a picture. It showed him and a bunch of other police officers.

"My name is James Daily. Ever here of the town called Greensburg?" James said. Marcus thought for a second.

"Yeah, damn what a sad story about how its police officers died off and the town ripped itself apart." Marcus said remembering. It had been on the news about a month ago. "Well not all of them died. I survived it." James said. He handed Marcus a picture of himself at the police academy. Marcus's eyes widened. He was the first man to witness a survivor of the incident. "The person who did this to us hasn't been caught. It was the Jigsaw killer." James said. Marcus turned around to him, in shock.

"And he is trying to do the same thing here with our town?" Marcus said to him. James nodded to him slowly. He took a sip of his coffee. "How do I stop this!" Marcus said quietly. Fear filled through him, along with a burden of responsibility.

"You can't. They know you are the top man on the case. They will find you. You need to leave town before it gets completely destroyed." James said. Marcus shook his head and wondered.

"I can't. I'm going to stop this. How will I keep in contact with you?" Marcus said. James took out a piece of paper.

"This is my cell number. I live 10 blocks that way. You can't trust anyone." James said. He picked up his Jacket and walked away from the table putting a 20 on it. Marcus walked into the back of the restaurant, thoughts flowing through his head. The man could have been crazy. But it all made sense, because the police before had died in traps in the town. He should have seen it coming. He was going to stop this before it got out of hand. This man was not going to take down another town.

Marcus took out a cigarette from his back pocket. He suddenly realized he didn't have a lighter. *beep* Marcus said. A waiter came out the back of the restaurant. "Light?" The waiter said. He took out a lighter and lit it for him. "Thanks man." Marcus said laughing. It felt good to be smoking again. Suddenly he saw something fall out of the waiter's hand. It fell slowly to the ground, even though it all was happening so fast. It was a tranquilizer. The waiter's eyes widened in fear. "Wait I can explain." He said. Matt ran toward the waiter fast and punched him in the stomach. The man wheezed out a breath of air. "What the hell is that?" Marcus yelled. The man didn't say anything. He started to laugh at Marcus. "You are all going to die." He said. Marcus picked up the tranquilizer and stabbed the man with it. He got knocked out suddenly. Marcus started to run away from the restaurant. He went back to his apartment.

Reeves' Story: Part 1

It was late in the night. Hardly anyone was on the roads. The alley reeked of garbage, rotting flesh, and God knows what. Detective Reeves covered his face with his hand and coughed loudly. He almost couldn't take it. His mind was set on one thing only: getting out of there as soon as possible so he could investigate on his own. The Jigsaw killer had been running rampant, torturing people all across the city with his sick games. Reeves was now staring at the trademark of the infamous killer, a piece of skin removed from the victim in the shape of a Jigsaw piece. Detective Branch, his partner for six years and through the worst of the recent Jigsaw killings, lifted the cover to reveal the lifeless face of Detective Narus, a former associate of his, his face covered almost completely with flakes of dried blood. By Reeves' orders, he was called in to investigate a warehouse to get a lead on Jigsaw. He went missing after that. Guess it didn't work out too well.

Branch pulled the cover back over Narus' head. "Some junkie found him behind a dumpster about an hour ago," she said, "judging by the decomposition I'd say he's been here a while."

"I don't get it," Reeves broke in and said, "If this is a Jigsaw murder, where's the trap? Jigsaw doesn't just leave bodies out in the open for anybody to find with no trap showing how he died."

Branch nodded. "True, that would definitely be a first for him. Blood is leaking from several of his body cavities. Doesn't look too much like the results of some elaborately engineered trap either."

"You know what? I bet Jigsaw didn't even do this. Jigsaw's all over the news, someone who knew Narus probably just shot the poor bastard, cut a jigsaw piece out of him, and left him here just to f--k with us."

"Maybe, but what if it was Jigsaw and there just wasn't a trap?" Branch replied, "If Jigsaw left Narus' body here, it's pretty clear that he wanted us to find it. Sounds like something he would do."

Reeves pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lighted it. "Yeah, well call it what you want. Until I see any shred of evidence to the contrary I'm callin' bulls--t on this one."

Branch smiled. "Vintage Reeves."

Reeves smiled back. Since his wife divorced him a month ago, Branch was the only real friend he had. He had a lot of people he worked with that he would just shoot the *beep* with, but he didn't see them as anything more than coworkers and acquaintances. Branch, however, he considered was his only real human connection left.

"Well, as much as I enjoy getting called out at one in the morning to poke at dead former coworkers, I think I'm gonna head out. That okay?"

"You know what I like most about you? Your sensitivity."

"Oh, really? You wanna know what I like most about you?"

"No, but thanks for asking though," She replied sarcastically.

"Good answer. But yeah, I'm gonna head out."

"Alright. See ya in a dumpster in two weeks."

"And I'm the insensitive one."

Branch laughed and Reeves began to leave and walk over to his car. He needed to get some sleep so he could look into this case further in the morning. As he got out of the alley and to his car, he noticed a luxury sedan was blocking his car. It was Detective Hoffman's car. He could never stand the sight of it. Hoffman could never afford a car like that. It made him think he might have used some life insurance money he got from his sister's murder about a year ago to buy it, but wasn't sure. He tried not to let trivial stuff like that bother him.

He approached the side of Hoffman's car. Hoffman was in the driver's seat, digging though his glove compartment. "Hey, Mark," Reeves finally said. Hoffman looked up. "Oh, hey Alan," Hoffman replied. Hoffman was the only person who ever called Reeves by his first name. That bugged him a little.

"Hey, I think I'm gonna head out, would you mind movin' your car?"

"Oh, no, not at all. Sorry about that."

"No, it's fine, no big deal."

Hoffman backed up, allowing Reeves to get into his car and take off. About damn time.