Hello everyone! Here's the next chapter.
Wow that was fast.
Well, I kind of have something to say first. Sorry.
LOVEBUGBOO99 (um, that's the spelling right?) : thank you for your reviews. It feels good to know that you've liked it this much. Now, about the things you've asked for. I'll eventually reveal what happened to Max's leg. But not now. To be honest, I don't know when will be the perfect time to do it. But I'm trying to find a place for it. And about Fax...well, let's just say we're a loooooong way from home.
Now about this chapter. I don't really what I should feel about this one. It seems a bit odd. But I think it's necessary. This one mostly highlights on the past though. I'm sorry, but this was important. There won't be much incident on the present.
Well, let's get on with this.
Chapter: 8
Blood Bank (part two)
Then the snow started falling; we were stuck out in your car
You were rubbing both of my hands, chewing on a candy bar...
May 2, 2014
"You?" Fang couldn't help but flinch as Max snapped at the brunette in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
And once again, Brian Carter was wearing his trade mark poker smirk, which awfully reminded Fang of their high school days.
"Max," he carefully stated. "Karen is Brian's wife."
Max's eyes came back on him. "Oh," she looked at Karen again. Then at the kid clutching at her waist, then they went back on Brian. "Then that means..."
"Yep." Brian picked up the boy in his arms and playfully tickled his sides. "Zed's my son."
"Oh," Max looked like she had lost all her words. Maybe it was just hard for her to picture her all-time-basketball-rival having a normal life. Well, it was quite expected actually. Given his attitude in their high school days, he was one of the most irritating know-it-alls and his poker face had always made them want to reset it with a beautifully formed punch. But they couldn't of course, he was a year senior than them after all.
Although he was changed. He was even more mature now, even more cool-headed (if it was possible to be), and even though Fang still wanted to smash his face and burn a hole into his dark blue mischievous eyes sometimes, he was quite bearable now.
"Well, the way things going," Brian smirked. "I'm just gonna presume that Walker hasn't told you of our current status." Max quirked a brow at that, he continued. "We're partners."
"We were." Fang tried to correct him, but he simply ignored him.
"You mean in the police force?" Max demanded, not really believing it.
"Yep," His smirk widened. "Interesting, isn't it? It's good to see you though. I did hear that you're back in the game."
"And who did you hear that from." Max inquired, now perfectly composed.
"Reynold Penber. Remember him?"
Damn! Max cursed. He's still got that stupid poker face. "Of course I do." She grumbled.
"Where'd you see him?" Fang asked.
"Just ran into him the other day." Brian shrugged. "He's the coach of West Over High."
Max mentally groaned. Seriously, of all the people, it just had to be him? Why?
"Looks like your next game will be one hell of a kind huh?" He continued. "I'll be looking forward to it Ride."
"Don't get too excited over there Carter." Max grumbled. "'Cause I'm totally not excited."
"Wow, look at all these pent up tensions here." Karen piped up. "You sure take that game seriously huh? You know, I never really understood this thing. I mean what's the point? It's just ten guys running around with one single ball and just abusing it! I mean, why don't you just give ten balls to ten guys? Isn't that much reasonable? One ball for each guy?"
...and they stared at her.
"...really Karen?"
...
...
...
They seemed in a rush.
I walked up to Brian who was madly skipping through the pages of a file."What's up?" I asked.
Brian didn't stop his work. "As you can see," he said impassively. "The celling."
I sighed. "Seriously Brian, I am so not in the mood for your stupid puns. Can you just..."
"Come on Walker," he started to walk towards the chief's room. "Chief called us."
"Why?"
"There's been another murder."
...
...
...
The crime spot was a blind and dark alleyway. The body, this time a girl around sixteen, lay on the dirt and grim as her face was turned up towards the sky. A blossom of blood could be seen on the white shirt around the area of her heart. Her hair was a tangled mess and her clothes torn and disheveled. There was still a sign of shock and fear in her face.
Just like the other six victims, she seemed to have a painless sudden death.
I stood beside her body as Brian knelt down beside it to examine.
"Same as before." He stated and his gloved hands traced over the cut on her jaw. He looked at Jase Stewart, one of our crime scene investigators who was also kneeling beside him. "Isn't it?"
Stewart nodded grimly. "Yeah. Died sometime in the night, I think. The killer used a knife, probably the same one he used for the other victims. And I'm pretty sure if we examine the body further, we'll find that she was also raped before killing and the same kind of drugs were used to immobilize her." He took a deep breath and looked at the chief. "Shall we take the body now...?"
"Yeah," Chief nodded. "Take it. And don't open the area before further notice."
Stewart nodded and walked away to arrange everything.
Chief looked at me. "So, what do you think Walker?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. It's pretty much the same thing. Girl gets abducted, he uses some kind of drug to immobilize her, he rapes her, he murders her, he gets rid of the body. It's the same routine over and over."
"Yes, but how is he picking them? The victims have nothing in common. If he is indeed a serial killer, how is he choosing them?"
I looked at Brian. He was still staring at the dead body. Then he looked up at me, his eyes speaking the same question as me.
"That's not what we're supposed to search for." He said calmly. "We're supposed to search for the reason first. We're supposed to find out why."
"What do you mean?" Chief demanded.
"The murderer," I spoke. "He isn't trying to find anything individual. So far it seems like he's randomly picking up his victims."
"But why would he do that?"
"That's what we need to finD out. Why?"
...
...
...
...
...
...
May 6, 2014
"How about your work?" She asked. Like always, her voice was soft and somewhat soothing. Though on the inside, she was itching to take notes.
Once again, Fang had a faraway look on his face as he stared out the window.
"You were talking about a case, right?"
Fang nodded. "Yeah. It was a chain of murders that was happening all around the city. Girls, mostly teenagers, but also women in some cases, were being raped and then murdered. We thought it was a work of a serial killer, perhaps. But there weren't any clue on how he was doing it, how he was choosing the victims. It seemed like a hopeless case. A murderer without any motif or particular reason, running loose, causing havoc throughout the city."
"Which year was it?" She wondered.
"2009."
"A year after your marriage then?"
"Yes."
"What happened after that?"
"We had an idea. A somewhat makeshift theme you could say. We came to the conclusion that he wasn't choosing them with anything particular. He was just randomly picking them up. But the cause, it was still unknown to us. We still couldn't figure it out. Why was he doing it? What was his intention? What did he gain from any of these?
"And then something happened, which gave us the answer..."
...
...
...
I waited in the parking lot as the first snow of the year softly floated down. It wasn't much. Just a small fleck here and another one there. Some of them got stuck in my clothes, but i could care less.
The lot was empty. I looked at the office building in front of me again, it was the headquarter of a famous advertising company. I observed it as my mind raced through the recently occurred incidents.
I didn't know when, but some time between my racing thoughts, Lissa had come out of the building. She was now jogging towards me, a goofy smile on her face, a bag on her shoulder and her camera in her hands. She halted in front of me and as she stuffed her camera carefully inside her bag, she looked at me.
"Hey."
"Hey." I smiled. We started walking towards the car. I watched her as she adjusted her scarf and tugged at her overcoat. "Cold?"
"A bit."
"So, how'd it go?"
"Good." She nodded happily. "It was a nice and clean conversation, and they seemed quite pleased with the samples I've given them."
"When's the deadline?"
"I still have a week. Though I'm almost done with it."
"That's..."
I was cut off as my phone vibrated. It was Brian. My eyes skimmed through the short text. Not quite believing what was written in it, I read it again.
I looked at Lissa, who was watching me with curious eyes. "Lissa, I'm really sorry but I..."
"Is it about that case?" She cut me off. I nodded and she gave me a soft smile of approval. "It's okay. I understand."
That was all I needed.
As I was about to rush off, I turned one last time, "Don't wait up for me!" She simply smiled and waved.
And even though she didn't say it, I knew she'd be staying up late, until I was back home.
...
...
...
"...out of nowhere, we got a lead. We never knew where it came from. It was an anonymous tip off that seemed to come from nowhere. As usual, the sources weren't reliable, and our Chief simply refused to act depending on something like that. It would've been rash. He said it would be idiotic. But then again, it would also be idiotic to give up on something like that..."
...
...
...
"What did it say again?" I demanded as I checked my revolver for the umpteenth time.
Brian turned a sharp left, his eyes busily skimming over the road. "It said that the murderer is in the fourth floor of that abandoned building. That he's sheltering there for the time being."
"What if it's false?"
"That's the reason why Chief's only sending the two of us and not the whole squad. FBI's warned us you know? They said that if we make anymore mistakes they'll be taking the case from us. Chief has to act more cautiously now."
"Yeah, I got that much." But another thought was running through my head. "But what if it's the murderer himself? What if he's playing us? What if it's a trap?"
"I'm thinking about that too. But we can't be sure about it without seeing it ourselves, can we? Let's just go and see what happens."
After a few more minutes, Brian parked the car two buildings away from our destined building.
"Well, Walker. Let's see where this takes us, "
As we'd planned before, we went separate ways. I was supposed to check inside the building, while Brian stayed out and circled the perimeter. It was precautions, just so nobody could likely escape without him noticing. But it also meant we'd be on our own. If something were really to happen, we won't be getting any help.
When I entered the abandoned building, I knew something was about to happen.
There wasn't any exact reason as to why I felt that, I just did. Maybe it was the atmosphere. The fact that it wasn't exactly a building but the skeleton of a burnt old building could've been the reason. For some reason, I felt like someone was watching me. I raised my revolver in front of me, trying to be careful, and headed for the fourth floor.
And it must've been those instincts that saved my life. Because just in time I was able to detect the moving shadow behind me and I ducked.
But it wasn't the most perfect timing either.
At first, I didn't feel anything, I was too busy trying to find the person that was behind all these. Then I started to feel dizzy...
...and as I looked down, I saw the dart sticking out of my arm.
Suddenly I couldn't find the strength to stand. My knees buckled, I tried to stay up, but they collapsed. I fell face first on the dirty floor. And that's when I saw the man looming over me. Through my blurry vision, I could make out the bald head and smooth shaved face. His lips turned up in a somewhat grimacing smile. He seemed to be mocking me.
I tried to move my fingers desperately and to aim the gun. At least to pull the trigger.
But he was closing in. I didn't have the time.
"And who you might be...?" His voice seemed to come out from a faraway tunnel as his smirk widened. "Or do you maybe want to know my identity first? Well, in that case. Let's introduce ourselves. Hello...I'm Jack Torrence...
"...and I'm the murderer you've been desperately looking for."
And I said I know it well
That secret that we know that we don't know how to tell
I'm in love with your honor, I'm in love with your cheeks
What's that noise up the stairs, babe?
Is that Christmas morning creaks?
Huh, that was that.
Please let me know what you think about it. I'm sorry but I won't be able to update for a while. I'm going to a vacation with my family tomorrow, eeeep, so happy!
I think this was a bit rushed though. Should I reveal the villain this soon? Hmmm. Decisions...decisions...
Oh and thanks to those who are reading this. Please review.
