A black SUV with pulsing blue lights in the windows and the unmistakable letters spelling out 'Torchwood' etched on the front fenders screeched to a halt behind a parked police car. A small crowd had gathered at the yellow barrier tape trying to see what could be seen around the officers blocking their view, but that didn't stop the Torchwood team.
Jack was the first to climb out of the vehicle and he drew in a breath of the chilled night air as he stared at the crime scene ahead. He only wished the alien substance was a known one, it would have made his job incredibly easier. But then, where would be the fun in that?
When Own confirmed the substance on the body discovered by the traffic warden was indeed alien, Toshiko immediately set up a program to alert her if another body matching the first appeared at any of the police stations or morgues across the city. It worked and just twenty minutes ago, the body of a woman apparently bludgeoned to death in a car park was called in.
Owen and Gwen came up on either side of Jack each carrying a small plastic crate filled with various tools and supplies that might be needed for examinations. Tosh fell into line behind her teammates after quickly double checking the contents of her satchel. Once they were ready, Torchwood entered the crime scene.
After pushing the police officers back away from the body far enough so they could talk freely, Owen sat his crate down and crouched down beside the corpse to begin a cursory examination.
The deceased young woman lay on her back staring lifelessly into the night sky next to the only car in the car park. Her limbs rested at different angles, but not broken and her hair matted with blood stuck close to her head. The misting rain that fell from the night sky made her pale flesh glisten unnaturally in the light.
Jack stood over Owen with his hands in his coat pockets. He stared at the body with a mixture of sadness and envy. Sadness that such a young woman with her whole life ahead of her now laid dead in a parking lot, and envy that the poor girl had accomplished something he couldn't, something he found he wished he could, the ability to die.
"This one's just like the other one," Owen said in his typical dry tone as he examined the girl's body by the light of a torch. He gently touched the side of the corpse. "Badly beaten, I'd say there are at least four broken ribs. Look at all these cuts nicely done with a knife. All random like some sort of twisted fun time. She has a broken neck too, but I can't be sure if that's what killed her."
"What was her name?" Jack asked with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Sarah Altson." Toshiko answered from where she stood a few feet away scanning the air with a thoughtful frown. "Nineteen. Lived with her parents and worked at that diner across the street."
"CCTV?"
"I'll have to check on that back at the Hub, but we might be in luck," Tosh said and looked up at a small white box bolted to the top of the street light.
"Jack, I'm going to talk to the parents," Gwen said as she came up beside him. "Find out if she had a boyfriend or maybe the wrong kind of friends, that sort of thing."
Jack nodded. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. We need to find out if there's anything connecting these two women besides how they died."
"I'll do my best," she said and mentally prepared herself for the difficult conversation she was about to have with a pair of crying parents currently being held at the police barrier.
Once Gwen walked away, Jack returned his focus to the body. "Is there anything different with this one? Any trace of that alien substance?" he asked Owen.
"I'll have to take her back to the Hub for an autopsy that will shed some light on what exactly happened to her," Owen said.
"Sure thing," Jack said as he stared down at the face of the girl with a thoughtful, but sad expression.
"Oh, hang on now. What do we have here?" Owen held up the girl's hand and looked closely at her fingernails.
"What is it?" Jack asked and leaned over for a closer look.
"Looks like…paint chips. Blue paint chips."
Jack stared at the paint chips in disbelief. He recognized that shade of blue.
.
.
He was late and he knew it as he hurried down the pavement. At this point, Jim hoped beyond hope that he didn't blow it with Tiffany. She was a really hot girl from the gym and he couldn't believe that she actually agreed to meet him for drinks at the pub. They'd set the date for twenty-one hundred and he didn't want to ruin his one and only chance. Only he was ruining it because he was already ten minutes late.
Jim shoved his hands in his pockets and quickened his pace.
A strange whooshing sound caught Jim's attention as he passed by an alley and he stopped to see what could be making such an eerie noise. The alley was narrow and dark with the brick walls of the buildings on either side making it seem more foreboding then it really was, but none of that mattered compared to the translucent blue box flashing in and out of existence.
Jim froze at the entrance of the alley as he stared in disbelief while the box finally materialized into a solid, tangible thing. The flashing white light on top of the box switched off letting the soft glow of the police public call box sign stare back like a strange creature in the dark.
Slowly, the door of the blue box creaked opened and Jim took a step closer as he strained to see inside. He could see nothing but blackness at first, but as he took another step closer, he could see the very faint glow of a soft amber light coming from the middle of a room that shouldn't be there.
Curiosity finally got the better of Jim's sensibilities and he cautiously approached the strange police box standing there in mysterious silence. A shiver went up his spine as he leaned in to peer through the open door. "Hello?" he asked and swallowed at the fear in his own voice.
Suddenly, an arm shot of the darkness just inside the door and wrapped iron strong fingers around his throat. Jim gasped in surprise of the sudden attack. His eyes bulged in shock and terror as he tore at the brown pinstriped sleeve of the arm that held him by the neck impossibly tight.
His assailant pulled him forward into the police box with enough strength that Jim stumbled through the doorway. He staggered into the dimly lit circular room and the attacker used that momentum to trip and shove him face first onto the glassy smooth floor.
Jim coughed while he lay on his stomach and rubbed his throbbing throat. He moved to roll over but was stopped when his attacker dug a foot into the small of his back. Jim groaned in pain and he felt tears roll down his cheeks in fear.
"P-please." Jim begged as he turned his head and stared up at a lanky figure silhouetted in the door frame of the police box. He tried to focus on the man's face but could only really make out the spiky hair on the man's head. Then, he felt a rope curl around his neck seemingly on its own and he fought to get his fingers around it.
As if he were a rag doll, Jim choked out a cry as he was effortlessly dragged up a ramp toward the center column. He was lifted off his feet by the rope and slammed into a strange computer console that wrapped around the glass column. The sound of two loud snaps from his chest and the accompanying searing pain as he hit the console took over Jim's focus and he screamed.
But Jim didn't consider himself a weakling by any means and he refused to go out like this. With a renewed determination to live, he grabbed a hold of the rope around his neck and tried to pry it off. Much to his dismay, the rope maintained an iron-like grip, and his frustration melted into terror when he caught the flash of a knife in the hands of the madman now standing over him.
The doors of the police box slammed shut sealing Jim's screams in the darkness forever.
.
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To be continued.
A/N: thank you for the reviews, favs and alerts so far. I really appreciate it!