Ascending into darkness

Chapter One

An aspiring actor Jordan Thompson looked up into the sky with the quarter moon slowly moving out from the clouds. He didn't have a clue as to what has happened to him. There were blood stains on his white turtleneck shirt. He was feeling cold with the chills of the evening crisp air of the harbor.

All he knew was the fact he needed to hide somewhere. He had a feeling that he might of caused some type of a crime and those involved just might be after him. His right shoulder hurt like hell with his fingers pressed against it to stem the flow of crimson seeping through his fingers.

There was no one around the harbor, and decided to find a place to hide inside before he freezes to death or from the lost of blood. There was a small storage building that was really old as he pushed on the door as it opened. There was only one window, while he found a spot to sit down on a broken down chair after closing the front door.

He settled down onto the brown chair to instantly fall asleep from exhaustion...

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Meanwhile two older men in their late forties began to run from the alley of a small grocery store after they had fought Jordan Thompson. He tried to stop them from shooting the owner of the grocery store, however it wasn't to be when two shots were fired to kill the owner and than another hitting Jordan in the shoulder to run from them.

"Frank, we need to get out of here quick before the police arrive. We will need to look for that witness after we hit him in the shoulder. It shouldn't be hard to find him leaving a trail of blood along the way."

Ron Darcy both hitmen for the syndicate were collecting monies from clients and the grocery owner was one of them on this particular block. "Let's get out of here now and call the boss to let him know the latest, he's not going to be all too pleased with the owner being dead with a witness having gotten away."

"I agree with your assumption Frank. I hear sirens, let's go out the back entrance and the alleyway leading down to the harbor." The both of them run towards the back entrance leaving the body of a sixty year old grocery owner Carmine Lombardo on the floor with two shots to his chest and head.

Meanwhile four blocks away Sergeant Esposito and Detective Kevin Ryan with Castle sitting in the back as an observer today with permission from his wife/Captain Beckett. "What's up Sergeant?" Castle hears the scanner call with Ryan picking up the mike to confirm that they were on the way over to the Oasis grocery store.

"Some type of shooting with a possible witness running away from the scene. Castle it's your chance to work on a case that just might be up your alley." Esposito replied to bring on a smirk on his face and Castle.

"Thanks." Castle said with the SUV vehicle stopping at a corner in order to walk on over to the crime scene partially arriving and including the Coroner Doctor Syndey Perlmutter in the area with the van. He had started his work on checking the body with the gunshot wounds.

Captain Nuyan a patrol officer five years in the department and four others were keeping the onlookers away from the crime scene. Meanwhile two tv reporters listening to their scanner reports heard about the shooting thinking that they might have a story to report. Captain Nuyan seeing the detectives and the mystery writer Richard Castle arriving at the scene. Captain Nuyan lifted up the yellow banner to let the three underneath to begin investigating the area.

Richard Castle wearing his grey jacket and purple gloves that he keeps on him for occasions like this. He began to search the area for any type of clues leading to the shooting. He was able to find the droplets of crimson on the ground with a trail. He needed to say something to Sergeant Esposito talking to Doctor Perlmutter with his usual banter with his personality.

"Doctor can you at least tell us how he might of died?" Esposito asked with annoyance in his tone of voice and demeanor on the verge of exploding after working a already long day so far.

"One forty five bullet pierced the heart and the other hit the right temple killing him instantly. I will have a full report once I finish with the autopsy back at the medical bay." He stated with a frown with his expression.

"Fine!" Esposito saw Castle walk over to him to say something into his ear. "What's going on Castle?" He was serious since his mood was really foul having to deal with the coroner.

"A trail of blood leading into the alleyway and a probable chance leading to the harbor." Castle says with Ryan coming over to say the same.

"Well in that case you two will go follow it and report back later at the station to the captain. I will stay here to follow other leads and talk with those having seen the one person running away from the scene." He responded with Castle 's eyes popping with a chance to work on a case in awhile. While Ryan was ready for the chore along with the walking exercise of looking for a witness that might be shot as well with the blood trail...

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It was getting late and Jordan was still asleep when all of a sudden he heard a noise inside thinking that someone might of be breaking inside. When he woke quickly with his shoulder cranking with a great deal of pain, even though no new blood seepage. Looking into the corner of the room he found that the noise was coming from two large rats fighting over crumbs of food that was left a long time ago.

He needed to move away from them to find a better spot with pulling the chair along with him. The noise of the chair moving along the cement floor scared the two black rats away into an hiding spot through the walls...