Luck tucked his hands into the pockets of his coat as he walked down the short alley way. Up ahead, he could see the small team of investigators moving around in the area of the crime scene. Standing against the wall, he identified the man he'd come to speak to. In a few more strides, he'd brought himself to the man's side.

"Maiza," he greeted. His eyes swept over the scene before him.

"Luck, thank you for coming." the older man said. "This one has me completely baffled. Why someone would do this… I just don't know."

Luck stepped forward, walking past the other investigators to take a look at the body. Upon seeing the mutilated carcass he realized exactly why Maiza was uncertain about the ability of another human being to inflict this sort of damage. He himself had read detailed descriptions of the killings, but seeing it in real life seemed to make it twenty times worse.

The woman's throat was slit and her lower regions were torn. He let his eyes graze the ground beside her, seeing nothing but blood on first inspection. Her eyes were still open, glazed and staring up at the sky without seeing anything. Her hands were covered in blood also, clenched tightly. Her arms were twisted around oddly. Luck winced slightly. Her death hadn't been painless.

Maiza cleared his throat, catching the other man's attention again. "Luck, we have to hurry. There's a storm brewing up and if it hits, we'll lose all the evidence we haven't collected."

Luck spared a look upward. He could just make out a few clouds drifting in to cover the few stars that were visible in the New York sky. He let out a sigh before grabbing the pair of latex gloves that were offered to him. Carefully, he bent down beside the body to start a closer examination of it.

Tilting her chin slightly, he examined the wound in her neck. It was deep and jagged. It seemed she'd most likely been fighting when the assailant had done it. She hadn't gone down easily. Luck frowned, lifting one of her hands off the ground. It was clenched tightly around something. Almost like she'd grabbed it in her struggle to live. He looked more closely and found a few strands of hair were sticking out between her fingers.

Luck dropped her hand and stood. "She definitely wanted to live. She yanked some of the guy's hair out. You might want to collect it. Might be some DNA." He looked at Maiza as two of the crime scene investigators started to do as he said. He walked over to the other and watched them.

"Is that all you got from her?"

"Well," Luck paused, examining the scene from where he stood for a few seconds. "Whoever did this was clean. They weren't an amateur. They've tortured before. But, this is the first time they've done this type of torture. And I don't think they were altogether prepared for her to fight as hard as she did."

Maiza was quiet, considering his words. He stared the body as the others started to pack everything up. There was a roll of thunder in the distance and he yelled, "Hurry and get her in a body bag. I don't want to lose anything we might be able to salvage later."

Luck turned and started to walk away, brain gnawing at the mystery. He made his way up the alley towards where he parked his car. As he moved away from the crime scene, he heard Maiza behind him.

"Wait, Luck!" he called. "Does this mean you're taking the case for sure?"

He paused and looked back at the older man as the sky was lit up with the first lightning strikes. "Yeah, I'm on the case." Luck said, putting his hands back in his pockets.

"We'll find this guy."

"Yeah." Luck moved out of the way as the investigators brought the body out in the polyester bag. He watched them all go after clearing the crime scene. "But, I think there might be a problem."

"What do you mean? What problem?"

"This guy… No, this monster, isn't going to stop. He's going to keep killing. The way he did it, I can tell he gets some sick satisfaction out of it. If we don't stop him, then he'll keep killing. And the more he kills…"

"The better at it he'll be…" Maiza continued. He nodded in understanding. "See this is why I wanted you on the case. You have the best insight of any detective I've ever met."

"And we both know why that is…"

The two shared one last look, the look of two immortals who had both lived far past their natural time, before Luck turned again and walked out of the alley. He would continue to think on the case at home in peace.

This chapter was written by GremlinGirl