Chapter Two - Papers and Death

"Officer Walker."

The violent hiss snapped Jay's attention back into place. His eyelids felt heavy, and every movement was more than an effort. He shook his head, walking his memory down to the present. He hadn't quite gotten any sleep the night before. By the time he'd drifted off, his alarm began to scream in his ears, forcing him to get up.

He'd changed, walking the two blocks to the police station. Except he'd ended up walking about five more blocks than he'd needed to, thanks to his disoriented mind. Once inside the station, he'd been herded into a room with a dozen other people, all of them with a sense of purpose that Jay severely lacked.

They'd sat down, waited for the chief, bickered and snickered with one another. Jay had chosen a seat near the back, leaning against the palm of his hand, and allowing himself to close his eyes, just for a moment.

Or so he'd thought.

Chief Garmadon was standing before him, a menacing look in his eyes. Jay smiled sheepishly, slowly sitting up and fixing his uniform. After a few snickers from his comrades, Jay wiped away the bit of drool that had escaped his lips.

With a heavy blush on his cheeks, the man cleared his throat. "Yes. . . sir?"

"I don't recall sleeping being part of the job, Officer Walker."

"Well, I didn't sleep very well last night," Jay said, trying to excuse himself. He'd broken contact with Chief Garmadon's eyes, and had decided to stare at the empty table before him instead. It was far less terrifying.

"What a pity," the chief said, without any sort of sympathy in his voice. The snickers continued. "Rest is important."

Jay allowed his eyes to venture up, a flare of hope lighting his blue eyes. Maybe the chief wasn't so bad.

"I guess the best thing to do, is send you downstairs. To the records room. Doing paper work always does wake me right up." Chief Garmadon smirked, leaning down, face inches away from Jay's own. "I'd hurry if I was you. There's plenty of work to be done."

Jay opened his mouth, then closed it again, trying to make sense of what had just occurred. Paperwork did not seem like a good thing to do when you were tired. Quite the opposite. It almost sounded like a punish-

Oh.

"Well, go on. We don't have all day, kid," a man with a rather impressive mustache said, motioning towards the door. Feeling all eyes glued upon him, Jay pushed back his chair, slowly standing. He opened his mouth again, frowning, trying to come up with something clever to say in order to defend himself.

It took only one look at Chief Garmadon to change his mind.

Moving as fast as possible, Jay went to the door. He headed out, hearing only a bit of the chief's words before he was out in the hall.

"As you know, another murder occurred. Just outside the city, a teacher by the name of- "

The door shut.

"Records room, records room," Jay muttered in a sing song voice, trying to keep focused. His eyelids were heavier now than they had been before, and his muscles were weighed down by exhaustion.

What a wonderful first day at work, the blue eyed man scowled, as he reached his destination. At least I'm still getting paid.

The room was almost pitch black. There were only three small lamps littered about, giving the place plenty of shadows to hide in. Shelves were spread out evenly, and a desk sat in the center of it all, with random papers littered about.

Not very impressive, Jay thought, stepping closer to the desk. He didn't exactly know what he was supposed to do. He'd been trained as a detective, not whatever. . . this was. He knew paperwork would be part of the equation eventually. But he'd been hoping to get some sort of. . . guidance.

He heard a strange shuffle from the back of the room. A shadow moved from one place to the next. Jay's heart skipped a beat.

Another murder occurred. . .

The chief's voice echoed in his head and Jay felt goosebumps travel along his arms. "Hello?"

The shuffling came to a sudden stop. Slowly, the shadow moved towards him, filled with purpose. Jay stepped back reflexively, his eyes widening.

"Why, hello!"

A short, rather skinny man stepped into the light. His clothes fit loosely around his body, white shirt untucked, tie far too short to be fashionable. The man's eyes glinted with a bright purple shade. His hair was dyed white, with a couple of streaks of purple sprinkled here and there.

In conclusion, he was the least menacing man Jay had ever laid eyes upon. Especially after seeing what Chief Garmadon could do with his eyes.

Chuckling at his silly fear, Jay smiled, stepping closer to the desk. "I'm, I'm Jay. The chief sent me down here. I. . . honestly have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

Holding out a rather pale hand, the man smiled at Jay. "Name's Pythor. Pleasure to meet you, Jay. The chief can be rather. . . unpredictable. I'm not what sure what I'm supposed to do with you myself."

Pythor looked around the room, clicking his tongue as he thought of a random job for Jay to do, something that would keep him out of the way of anything truly important. "Well. . . perhaps you could help me out with clearing out the desk here, organizing things by dates, maybe?"

"Yeah, sure." Jay rubbed his eyes, wondering how he would manage to stay awake through such a tedious task. He plopped down on the small chair before the desk, looking at the mountains of papers before him. Jay gulped. "No. . . No problem with that."

"Don't worry if you don't get through too many of them. That's a week's worth of work right there." Pythor smiled one last time before heading back into the shadows of the room, shuffling from shelf to shelf.

Sighing, Jay reached for the first bundle of papers, scanning the writings for a date. Once he found it, he began to make a small pile, trying to stay as organized as possible. It wasn't too long before his eyes were burning, and his mouth made uncontrollable yawns.

With watery eyes, he focused on the new paper upon his hand. Date, date, date. He told himself, trying to keep his mind moving.

"Huh," Jay said. "This was yesterday."

On September 20th, 2012, at approximately 22:11 a call was received on a disturbance near a domestic home. Upon arriving at the location (Temple of Fire, Tae Kwon Do Academy) signs of struggle were apparent. Two of the three windows had been shattered from the inside, and the lock on the front door had been tampered with.

Inside, the victim was found, a thick bruise-

"Oh no! I must have missed that! The chief ordered for all paperwork on that case to be sent up to him." Jay jolted, the sudden sound of Pythor's voice waking him up more than anything else had. The white haired man snatched the paper from Jay's hands, shoving it inside of one of the cream colored folders that were scattered about.

"I didn't hear about that." Jay said. "What happened?"

"It was all over the news! How could you have missed it?"

Jay chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "I'm not. . . not too big into the news. They can be dull to watch."

"Huh," Pythor looked at Jay, an unamused look in his eyes.

"So . . . What did happen?"

"A teacher," Pythor said. "He seemed to have struggled quite a bit. I heard the scene of the crime was quite the mess. Killed in the same way that poor boy was. Four or so months ago, I believe? We have reason to believe it was the same person, although. . . Why wait so long?"

"Right, right." Jay nodded, choosing not to ask which boy he was referring to. He hadn't exactly heard about that either.

"Well be glad the chief brought you to me," Pythor smiled. "I could imagine the anger you'd stir if you'd told him that you hadn't heard about the murder."

"Yeah," Jay said, absent-mindedly. As Pythor's words settled in, he shook his head. "Wait, anger? Why?"

"The teacher," Pythor said, as he stepped out the door. "Was his brother."


"And so ends my perfect first day," Jay grumbled as he began his walk back home. "Try to take the right turns this time, Jay, unless you want to add a cherry on top of this cake of bad luck."

The clouds were dark and low, threatening to spill before Jay was safe indoors. A flash of lightning erupted in the distance, accompanied by thunders. At least it sounds far away.

He continued to walk, but as he had begun to relax the first drops of water began to hit the ground. In seconds, the light rain had turned into a thick downpour, one Jay could barely see through. He began to run, knowing he only had to make it to the end of the block.

Jay spotted his destination, the lights shining from the windows kept him on track. "Thank you, rain. Now I don't have to shower in that creepy apartment."

The door was close now. Jay pushed it open, a triumphant smirk lighting up his face. It didn't last very long. As soon as he'd stepped in, his momentum filled body crashed against someone, making them both fall back upon the cold floor.

"Hey!" The rough voice said, as the man returned to his feet quicker than Jay expected. "Watch where you. . . Walker?"

Wiping the beads of water from his eyes, Jay looked up, recognizing the figure instantly. He returned to his feet, shuddering slightly due to his wet clothes. "Ch-chief. Hi. Hello. I, uh, I'm sorry?"

"That's the man that moved into the haunted apartment dad!" Lloyd shouted, pointing at Jay with a devilish smirk. "I told you he was funny looking!"

"You moved into that apartment?" Chief Garmadon shook his head. "No one's been able to stay long after that murder. Humph. Maybe I'll be rid of you faster than I thought."

Murder, Jay echoed in his mind, biting back the urge to ask about it. Pythor's advice to watch the news seemed more and more sensible by the second. "You, uh, live here, sir?"

"Come on, Lloyd. I bet dinner's ready." The chief ignored Jay's question, choosing instead to turn towards the kid. Lloyd climbed onto Chief Garmadon's back, small arms wrapped around the chief's neck with a tight grip.

"Ghost in my apartment, my own boss wandering around the halls, what more could I ask for?"

Once inside his apartment, Jay fiddled with his small radio, searching for a news channel to fill the silence. He then rummaged through his unpacked suitcase, searching for something to eat.

"- from last night was revealed to have the same strange bruises around his neck as the murder victim from earlier this year." Jay found a small cup of noodles, and he gave a small victory cheer. He walked towards the kitchen, setting a small pot of water to boil. "Many have begun to guess that it is the same killer, and we are left to wonder why the police never bothered to capture the first attacker in the first place."

Jay rolled his eyes. This is why he despised the news. Apart from being dull, reporters always found a way to throw blame here and there, as if making people look bad gave them strength. It was ridiculous.

"Not many details were released about the first murder, as the father of the victim refused to be interviewed, and the cops were, once again, not giving out many details." The water began to boil. "All in all, it seems that Cole Brookstone will never be-"

"Hey, that's me!"

Jay jumped, almost tipping the pot of near-boiling water towards himself. He swiveled around, his eyes widening as he located the sound of the strange voice.

A ghost stood in his living room, pointing at the radio.

A ghost.

In his living room.

Jay fell back, fear driving away his consciousness.