-1Worthy Ch.3
I heard the gunshots a few moments before I arrived on the scene. I hit the gas on my car and got there as quickly as humanly possible. As I approached the bikes, I thought I caught a fleeting glimpse of someone running into the darkness, but then I noticed the girl. I ran to her side and recognized her as Mary Reyes, a girl who went to my school. "Oh my god, what happened here?" I asked the blatantly obvious. There was blood everywhere, and more then one of the bodies was missing its head. "Mary, what happened?" I asked again. She couldn't stop stuttering, she was scared senseless. I knew interrogating her would be futile. I stood up and called my dad.
Within minutes my dad and the sheriffs department were on the scene. I was standing at the sidelines watching the investigation. My dad approached me after awhile and then asked, "Well before I ground you until you turn forty, What do you know of what happened?" I just sighed and said, "Not much, when I got here the party was over and the girl was just mumbling." He groaned. "Well, we have ten bodies, seven of them don't have heads but the two with scorch marks and the poor bastard hanging from the tree still have theirs, it looks like you scared him off before he could cut theirs off." He shook his head, "Otherwise the killings have followed a pattern, he stabs, burns or decapitates them, then collects their heads…" After a few hours I went back home, the bodies were taken to the morgue and Mary the hospital. When I got home, I jumped on my computer and did some homework.
The next day I went to my dad to speak with him. He was on the couch watching television. "Dad?" I asked and he turned to me. "Whatcha need pumpkin?" he responded. "I did some research on the nature of our killer, and I don't think this is a isolated event." He gave me a look that said "Go on." I cleared my throat. "Well, I looked up similar homicides online and I found that similar crimes have occurred before, but all over the country, and even in other parts of the world. I have reports on incidents in LA and New York here, one occurring after the other as well as separate incidents in Phoenix, Miami, and New Orleans. The one thing that makes these so bizarre is that the time difference is so large. The incident in Phoenix occurred in 1882, the one in New Orleans in 1936 and the Miami incident in 1979. The one in LA occurred in 1997 and the New York one, 1998. The MO is identical, except our boy seems a little more, well, sloppy." My dad sat up in his seat. "How is that?" I replied, "Well, these other murders, well the bodies were found strung up by wire, like in a butchers shop. Our murders have the bodies lying everywhere." My dad smiled and said, "So basically we have an immortal killer who likes to take off peoples heads? Maybe I should go arrest Duncan McLeod right now and get this over with?" I sighed, "No, no…I don't know, its like…maybe a cult of headhunters or something…" I was interrupted by the phone. Dad answered. After he got off he went and got his coat and cursed under his breath. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Something as happened at the morgue."
The workers at the morgue had had their work cut out for them. Fourteen murders in one week on top of all the natural deaths, it was the most work they had to do in a long time. The doctor tending the bodies was personally disgusted by the bodies lack of heads. He had personally done most of the autopsies, but he was still baffled. The blades used to cut the bodies were unlike any he has ever seen, and even more mysterious were the ones with the burn marks, the scorches had gone straight through the body, burning the internal organs as well as the skin. Never in all his years had he seen this in a murder or any death for that matter. He noticed the heads on the other bodies. Two had the scorch marks, and one had wire marks around his neck. That was a ghastly way to go.
The killer had reprimanded himself for letting three heads get away, as well as the fact that the noisy female saw him. Hopefully he had scared her enough so that she is to frightened to say anything. In the meantime, he would collect his lost trophies. He broke in through a side window of the morgue, sneaking silently past busy workers, and found his way to where the bodies. He saw the three bodies with the head still attached lined up on tables next to each other, and the man tending to them. The man turned, and it was obvious he was seen. But before the man could scream a massive palm closed around it, lifted him in the air and bashed the back of his skull against the table end. He took the heads and left.
When we got there the police had already arrived, we learned from them that the morgue had been broken into, the doctor who had been with the bodies was murdered and the three boys heads taken. "Was the doctors head taken?" my dad asked. The officer at the scene shook his head, "No his head was…well…splattered against the end of the table…" I stood there coldly as the investigation continued. Whoever was doing this just couldn't be human, how can anyone kill this many people in such a short amount of time, and seem to gloat in the lives he took, by taking their heads? My dad came out holding his cell phone, "Veronica, remember that girl Mary from the other day? Well, she's apparently feeling better and she wants to talk to you?" I walked over to him and took the phone. "Hello?" I asked. "Veronica?…I know this is weird but I think you're the only one who will believe me, even my mom does not believe me, even though she told me the stories of it as a child…" I stopped her right there. "What stories?" There was a pause. "Of El Diablo Invisable, The invisible devil…."
