(A/N: Well, here we are, we're already in the fourth chapter. This chapter takes some inspiration from the TV series "Law & Order". I am a fan of the series and many of the spin-offs that have been done through the years ("Special Victims Unit" and "Criminal Intent" are personal favorites).
For those of you who are sensitive, I should warn you that 9/11 will be mentioned a couple of times in this chapter. There will very likely be nothing too graphic, I'm just warning you that it will get mentioned because I don't want anyone to get upset.)
U-V-U-*X-Y-o-Y-X*-U-V-U
Cora was waiting in the living room for her uncle to return from his job, passing the time by watching the television. Although she had let him take her book, she still wanted it, she wanted to read it.
She started to look through the channels when she grew bored of the show she had been watching. She stopped on a news channel when she saw a live news alert appear on the screen. The headline said there was a double homicide only a few blocks away from the apartment building.
The reporter on the scene mentioned it was a savage murder with both victims being mutilated, but was not at liberty to say anything else. The reporter didn't need to say anything, she could see the bright, flashing lights in the background.
A homicide was just another day in New York City, it was almost as sure as a cup of coffee in the morning. It also meant that her uncle would be buried in paperwork, reports, and false leads from phone calls for at least a couple of weeks, with the first forty-eight hours being the busiest and the most crucial.
She sighed, shaking her head, and turned her head away from the television. It was at the moment, for a split second, she saw some kind of phenomena pass in front of the living room window. It was transparent yet distorted, much like the rippling surface of water.
A strand of her hair passed in front of her eyes as she lost sight of it. She brushed it aside and tucked it behind her ear as she asked herself, "What was that?"
If she was a believer of the supernatural, she would have thought she had seen a ghost. She didn't believe in it though, she knew it had to be something explainable, or nothing at all, she could have simply been tired or an unconscious concern she had about the homicide she had heard about.
She stood at the window as she thought about whatever she had witnessed, she finally turned when she heard her cell phone ring. She picked it up and saw her uncle in the caller ID. She answered it quickly in case it would be the last call for a while.
"Hi," she said into her cell phone.
"I'm sure you saw the news," he mentioned, she could almost hear how exhausted he was already.
"Yup, I did," she replied. "And let me guess, it's your case?"
"It is," he answered. "I'll be home as soon as I can."
"Yeah, I know the drill," she responded in a casual, monotonous voice.
She ended the call and turned off her cell phone, setting it on the arm of the couch. She wanted to feel worried for her uncle, but she knew the kinds of things he had been involved in his law enforcement career - shootouts, stab wounds, blunt objects to the head, even getting thrown through windows were occupational hazards. He was even near the scene of the Twin Towers collapsing during the tragic events of Nine-Eleven.
Still, she couldn't help but to feel quite a bit concerned about him, especially with a double homicide involving a mutilation so close to the apartment building. It was a cop's worst nightmare, crime was literally close to home.
Cora suddenly felt her shoulder being shaken and opened her eyes to see who it was, it was only her uncle. He looked terrible, he had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was an unruly mess, as if he collapsed from exhaustion on his desk.
She saw that she had fallen asleep on the couch, her head was on a throw pillow. She figured she must have drifted into sleep while watching something on the television.
She looked up at the window, it was still dark outside but there was a light from the sun that was gradually becoming brighter. With past experience, she thought it was very likely that he had just gotten home.
"Another all-nighter?" she asked playfully as she sat up. She rubbed her eyes and asked him again, "What time is it?"
"Almost six AM," he answered. He handed her an iced coffee he got from somewhere before he came back to the building, "Here."
She took the coffee with a smile, "Thanks. Did you sleep at all?"
"A little in the tombs," he replied, sitting on the couch next to her.
The 'tombs' were actually some cots set up in case a cop fell ill. It was nicknamed the 'tombs' by a few police officers because the cots were similar to what criminals in incarceration slept in.
"Must be stiff," she commented as she drank her coffee. She grimaced slightly as she swallowed it.
"What's wrong? Not good?" he asked.
"No," she smiled while slightly shaking her head. "I still haven't adjusted to civilian food."
"Craving that military crap?" he asked again, playfully.
She couldn't help but to laugh at that, "I guess."
The television was still on, the volume was low, but still very much audible, even to a sleep deprived person. It was on a news channel, a local news channel, and it was on the topic of the recent murders.
"Who was stupid enough to leak the mutilation to the media?" he retorted after hearing what the reporters and anchors had to say. "Now all of Brooklyn is going to be in a panic."
"Paranoia spreads like wildfire," she uttered, drinking her coffee again.
"Melinda is performing the autopsies, I'm going over there later," he mentioned.
Their friend Dr. Melinda Winston was a medical examiner for the New York police department. She often worked with John and his partner in particularly unusual cases, which was the most recent homicide in this instance.
"Is it alright if I go with you?" she asked.
"Why?" he questioned in bewilderment. She had been in a warzone not too long ago, he didn't think that she would want to see two decapitated corpses.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I guess when you hear about a double murder you want to know how it happened."
He understood what she was saying, to his knowledge, he never had to investigate a brutal killing so close to home. He never thought that there could be something such as this in his own backyard.
"Alright, let me see if I can make an exception for you," he told her as he stood up from the sofa.
She also got up a little while later and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Leaving her uncle alone to ruminate on the two killings that were his case.
He hoped it would turn out to be a crime motivated by drugs or gang activity. Although both were nightmares to handle, they were preferable to the case that started it all for him.
It was referred to as the Carr-Lamb Massacre by a number of police officers and the media; two drug lords were meeting in an abandoned building that bordered their territories, both planned to kill each other to eliminate the competition, but all those involved would end up as the inside of a slaughterhouse. He was on the scene when it happened and stood in the middle of the bloody room where the massacre had occurred. It was also in that room where he saw it for the first time.
It marked him, it wanted him… as a trophy. That desire for his head led it to follow him to the last known location where his brother was, and that got it killed… or so he thought.
It was alive, it adapted to the environment, and survived for ten years. It was abandoned… by its brethren, and driven to insanity. Once that happened, it had no qualms about killing the weak, the innocent, the unarmed. It 'worked' on the people and animals it captured, taking its time to kill them before it grew bored with their cries.
He witnessed it firsthand, it was one of the most difficult things he had ever seen. He, a veteran detective who's worked on crime scenes reminiscent of a slaughterhouse, felt sick to his stomach as he watched it.
He fought it, even though he knew he could have died, he fought his nightmare. The planets must have been aligned for him, it was only with luck that it was killed before it had any chance to kill him.
Cora, who was fifteen at the time, never suspected anything, if she did, she hid it well. She knew his sleep routine and knew he had insomnia from the years in homicide, he remembered how she would get out of bed in the middle of the night to check on him when he couldn't sleep.
She had a good heart even at a young age, her actions would have made his brother smile, they always did so for him. He raised her well - or perhaps his ex-wife had an influence on her - and now she was a veteran herself, a veteran of the military.
He fought in the Vietnam War along with Alan, through blistering heat, venomous insects and snakes, disease, and whatever the enemy threw at them. She fought in Iraq, in a hot, dry, desert environment as she led her platoon through known warzones with enemies armed to the teeth.
They had both been through a lot in their military careers, and he had to admit that he didn't have a tenth of her leadership experience, but he made a promise to Alan before every mission he did, including the one he was on when he disappeared. He promised he would protect her and to never reveal anything, despite not knowing much about the missions he did himself.
While in his thoughts, he didn't notice when Cora was finished with getting ready until he heard her speak, "I'm ready to go. What about you?"
He was taken by surprise when he heard her, but responded to her question, "Yes, I am."
They left the apartment for his car in the parking lot. As they drove out of the complex, John began to mentally pray that he was wrong about his belief about the beings from his past returning.
Thite was unsure of what to do next, he had allowed his rage to control his actions and now he was at a loss. He wanted to blame his great-grandfather for implanting the ideas that enraged him or even his father for being foolish enough to get himself killed, but the only one he could blame was himself.
Yautja did not allow themselves to succumb to any emotions, other than rage, yet he found himself ashamed for his actions. His heart was pounding with a growing anxiety - unheard of for his kind, but he couldn't stop it - as he tried to contemplate what to do next.
It was the early morning hours, a risky time to be out in the open, but he hoped to find the destroyed skulls and remove them from the alley before they were found. He was camouflaged as he scanned the area for them, and eventually did, but not in the quantity from the night before.
He found only a couple of dozen pieces and not very large ones. He faced the humans at the end of alley, they were still cleaning the crime scene he left behind. He focused on the boxes they were placing inside of their vehicles, and that was when he found the remnants of the skulls.
He hit the edge of the roof of the building he was perched upon with his fist in frustration. "Pauk!" he growled. "C'jit!"
Now, he was truly lost, he had no idea what should be done next. All he could think to do was to return to his ship and confess his mistakes to the Clan Leader. If he was lucky, he would be granted the right to be killed honorably.
"Let's go back and look through this mess," he heard one of the humans say through his Bio-mask.
He turned his head toward them when he heard this. They were taking the pieces to a facility for examination. He remembered what he was once told about humans, that many were lazy, they did not begin to work immediately and if they did they often did not finish quickly.
This was his last chance and to do it he had to risk being seen, he had to follow the vehicles to the facility they were taking the pieces. What he had done was reckless and idiotic, but now was his chance for redemption. It was as if Paya had blessed him with the opportunity to fix his mistakes.
He likely had only one chance and he was going to take it if it was his only salvation. He waited until the humans were finished and began to leave before he leapt down to the shorter building across from him.
They arrived at the coroner's office and John was able to get Cora inside with him. She wasn't allowed to be the examine room with him and Melinda, but she was permitted to view through the window.
"Alright, Melinda, give me what you have," he requested casually.
She had been through this routine many times, just as he had, it was second nature for both of them as she spoke in the same casual manner, "Two stab wounds through the heart and spinal cord, one from behind, the other the front. If there was a struggle, they didn't have much of a chance."
"Can you tell me what kind of weapon we're looking for?" he questioned.
"Scratches found on the rib bones indicates it's a long, serrated blade," she answered. "I don't know what kind of perp you're looking for, all I say is you must be looking for a villain out of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
"Why do you say that?" he asked. He sounded curious, but he thought he already knew what she was going to say.
She pulled back the sheet covering one of the victims, "The stab wounds were inflicted at the same time, judging by the angle and trajectory."
John was silent, he hoped it was only a superstition, but it seemed like it wasn't. There was little doubt forming in his mind that they were back in the city.
"There's something else," Melinda mentioned as she walked around the counter.
"What's that?" he asked again, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.
She showed him a metal tray with small off-white pieces on it. "These were found a little ways down the alley where the murder happened. A forensic anthropologist looked at these fragments and believed them to be from the skull of at least one or two individuals, possibly your victims, but we'll need DNA testing to prove it."
"Bone is very hard, how did they break?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Well, I don't think they were tap danced on," she replied jokingly. "I believe they were most likely dropped from a high area, possibly the roof of a building."
This didn't make a lot of sense to him, the stab wounds told him that it was the work of the creatures from so many years ago, but the bone fragments were a different story. He knew what they did, he knew they often took the skulls, and sometimes the entire spine, as trophies, destroying the skull made no sense to him.
Meanwhile, Cora decided to look for something to drink, hoping to find a water cooler. She was usually very patient when waiting, but she could hardly hear anything as her uncle and Melinda talked.
She eventually found a break room, it was open and no one was inside, so she decided to get a cup of water. She got a paper cup and filled it until it was full enough for her.
She started to drink the cool water when she suddenly heard a loud noise. It sounded as if something was attempting to break down a door before ripping it out by its hinges. It startled her, she almost chocked on the water and dropped the paper cup.
She immediately left the room and went to find where the noise had come from. She knew she should have went back to her uncle, but her military instincts became energized, fueled by the possibility of injured people.
She ran in the direction of where she thought she heard the sound, looking for anything and remaining on alert. Aware that anyone and anything could be lying in wait for her, waiting for the opportunity for an ambush.
U-V-U-*X-Y-o-Y-X*-U-V-U
(A/N: I think this as good a place as any to stop for now. I hope I did a good job with this chapter and I'm hopeful everyone enjoyed it.
Yautja language translations:
1. Pauk! - Fuck!
2. C'jit! - Shit!/Damn!
As you all know, today is the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, the day that changed everyone's lives forever. Keep the flag going, guys, and never forget our fallen heroes who gave their lives to protect us all from the same fate they had. The alternative is… unthinkable.)