A slight warning before the chapter: Gore. Very descriptive gore. As in I think I detailed it a bit too much. Sorry. Sorry that I also forgot to put this here the first time round. Thanks for the reminder calleyrose.

END GAME

Chapter 11: Dead and Gone

Eren and Levi took a taxi to the center of Shiganshina District where the apartment complex where the murders had occurred, as Levi had clarified on the taxi ride over. The scene had been cleared of people, both neighbors and not who milled anxiously around the outskirts of the perimeter of patrol cars, barricades, and yellow tape. A few people had been pulled aside for questioning, huddled by the sides of patrol cars, their eyes wide with terror. Reporters pressed against the barriers and tape, attempting to get ahold of an officer who would talk at the current time. Not many were even bothering to glance at the reporters, much less talk to them.

Nac Tius met them outside of the complex and took them up to the third floor, where the murders had occurred. Mina Carolina and Samuel Price were waiting outside of the apartment, their guns pointed down at the ground and their faces tight, their eyes roaming the corridor every few moments. They only managed terse nods to the approaching three. Both of them kept their fingers on the triggers and Eren was certain that the safeties were off.

Eren wasn't prepared for the bodies to still be inside. The stench of blood slammed into him before he had even walked into the apartment, making his stomach twist and heave. Seeing the bodies lying on the floor didn't help either. Eren grimaced and pressed his hand against his mouth, fighting the urge to either vomit or turn around and walk away until the bodies were cleared of the gore that covered them. He wanted to look away but a kind of horrified fascination held his eyes on the victims. He knew he had killed a man before, two even, but those memories were hazy and almost forgotten, hidden behind a gauzy veil of memory. This was here and now and he had a clear mind for the images to be absorbed into, not one filled with unquenchable rage and fear.

There was a man with closely cropped brown hair lying in the center of the living room, just in front of a light green couch. His face was pressed into the plush white carpet, a congealing crimson stain turning the back of his gray shirt dark red while a large puddle of blood resided beneath his limp and lifeless body. Vacant hazel eyes stared at the wall to the man's right and a small trail of blood leaked from the corner of his slack mouth. His shirt had been torn in places, revealing countless lacerations across his back. Even from where Eren was standing just inside the doorway, he could see bones, both ribs and the spinal column, white and glistening red with blood, exposed beneath the shredded skin. A knife lay a few feet away from the man's head, the blade silver in the light beneath the thick coating of blood that covered it from hilt to tip.

Eren tore his eyes away from the man but they only found the woman next. A breeze from the radiator next to her body caused her body to sway as it dangled from the ceiling, her neck bent at an unnatural angle and a thick rope tight around her neck; a noose. Her hair moved in the breeze, dark ginger curls that had become dark with blood at the ends. The rope around her neck was tied to a hook that had been driven through the ceiling, probably solely for the purpose of hanging her. Her stomach was stained red, with blood still dripping away from the torn and bloodied cream-colored blouse that clung to her body. Each droplet splashed down into a small puddle that was steadily growing larger.

She hadn't been killed there though. A second bloodstain, nearly as large as the man's, was about six feet away from the woman's body, with smears of blood in the carpet from where she had been dragged. There was also a yellow piece of paper attached to her forehead. He couldn't tell if it had been stapled or taped; he could only tell that something was keeping it there. "What are their names?" Levi's voice broke the silence as he addressed someone. Eren ripped his eyes away from the body and his eyes landed on a person, one who was thankfully living. The man, Daz Smith, consulted the notepad in his hand.

"They were David Smith and Eliza Elliot respectively," Daz said, pointing at the man and woman in turn. "Their deaths were reported forty-five minutes ago, when their neighbor, Mrs. Johnson, came over to bring back a book that she had borrowed from Elliot. The door had been left unlocked, so Mrs. Johnson came in, saw the bodies, and called the police. Concerning the victims, Elliot and Smith were engaged, set to be married in January. Elliot worked for Wells Fargo in one of their program testing groups. Smith had a job as a bartender at the Mellow Mushroom on the corner of Elm and Cherry Street. We'll have more waiting on you back at the station, if you would like to look around."

Levi nodded as he pulled two pairs of black gloves from his pockets, one of which he wordlessly passed to Eren. "That would be good," Levi said. He wasted no further time as he approached Smith's body and pulled the shirt up, inspecting the man's back. He was silent for a moment, the fingers of the hand not holding the shirt twitching. "I can count twenty-eight clear wounds in his back, although with all the blood and muscle ripped up it's hard to be certain."

Eren hesitated a moment before he moved around the couch, making an effort to keep away from both the bloodstains while maneuvering his way over to Elliot's body. The woman was small, and even though her feet were several inches off the ground, her drooping forehead was almost level with the top of Eren's. The note on her forehead had been taped into place, the edges curling as it fluttered in the breeze that came from the radiator next to her. He straightened the curling corners of the yellow paper as he read the words that had been typed on it with black ink, crisp and neat and totally untraceable. There was a single red slash beneath the words, hopefully made from paint and not blood.

A game of the ages, we bring to you.
Can you play it all the way through?
None of their sins, we shall pardon.
Bring your best to the garden.

Eren pulled the note away, holding it delicately between his forefinger and thumb as he brought it over to Levi, who was still examining Smith and the area surrounding him. "Levi, you might want to look at this."

Levi glanced up and wordlessly took the note. His eyes narrowed as he took it in, his gray eyes wide and glacier-cold. "This is a game…?" His voice was quiet and cold, void of anything that might give away the thoughts running through his head. No inflection was needed to see the raw fury in Levi's eyes, burning silently in the gray depths. Levi straightened up and held the note back out to Eren. "We'll need to move fast. They're planning to strike again. Daz! Get the paramedics up here so they can start loading the bodies up."

Daz nodded and ducked out of the apartment, his footsteps audible until the stairwell door closed behind him. Levi moved over to Elliot's body and inspected it, looking but not touching. "We'll have to wait for them to be moved and examined by the coroners," he murmured. "But there's the matter of this." Levi shoved a large plastic ziplock bag into Eren's hands. The knife was in it, the blood coating smearing a bit on the clear interior. "There's something etched into the blade but we're required to get the blood tested before we clean it. You're in charge of getting the sample. Petra will show you how." Eren gripped the bag in one hand, the note in the other. "What do you want me to do with their note?"

Levi turned back around, "Hold onto it. Try not to lose it. We'll analyze it and see what we can find out when we get back to the station. We'll have about four hours while Hanji gets the autopsy reports completed."

Eren dropped the note off at the station and dragged Petra with him to the coroner's office, the same place that Zoe was employed at. Petra took him straight to the lab room where they took blood, hair, and semen samples in order to have them analyzed locally before being sent out for national examination if that step was required.

They had arrived a little over half an hour ago. The blood had already been swabbed and placed into a vial and they had already dusted the dark brown handle for fingerprints. The hilt was lacking in fingerprints and it wasn't promising that the blood would be anyone's but that of the two victims. Eren and Petra sat patiently against the wall, waiting for the knife to finish being cleaned of the coating of blood and bits of muscle and skin that persisted in clinging to the surface.

The floor, white tiles speckled with dark brown spots, kept looking like they were stained with dried blood. The images of the victims was still with him, forcing their way to the front of his mind every time he thought he had finally beat them back. That could have been me… Less gruesome, certainly, but that still could have been me. He could have died that day by the warehouses. He could have been lying in the morgue days ago, having Zoe cut him open and examine him, pulling the bullet out and closing him up before they stuck him in a coffin. Eren clenched his hands into fists on top of his knees, his nails digging cruelly into his palms. This world is cruel.

A clamor from outside of the lab brought both his and Petra's head up as they twisted in their seats to look through the tinted glass behind them. Four paramedics came in wheeling two gurneys; two paramedics for each. Both of the gurneys had been were bearing body-shaped lumps that had been placed into dark blue body bags.

One of them, the ones in front, had run into a bulletin board hanging on the wall and had knocked it down. Papers had scattered everywhere and the thumbtacks were jarred loose. One of the men cursed but it was barely audible through the layer of glass and metal separating them. Eren watched as he hurriedly scraped the papers and bulletin board to the side, clearing away so they could get the gurneys through. Eren watched as they passed by and kept watching until they turned into the morgue section of the office, disappearing from his line of sight.

"It's sad," Petra murmured, her eyes following the gurneys before returning to the white-washed walls in front of them. "Those were two lives that didn't need to be taken… They had a lot to live for." She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes sad. "When you're a police officer, you see a lot of death and violence, so much that it's almost unbelievable. But you Eren… you haven't been around enough of this to see just how dark it can get. We never know what we're going to see next. Hell, we never know when we're going to die. But I do know that a job like this has a bright side, no matter how dark it seems to get. You just have to have faith and courage." Petra looked over at Eren, a small smile spread across her face. "You'll find yours; you just have to look for it."

She watched his face for a moment, her smile slipping away and her face going pink with embarrassment when she noticed the startled look that had appeared on his face. "Sorry, you probably don't want to hear something like that right now." Eren shook his head and looked up at the ceiling. "… No, it's fine. I don't mind that, you just kind of surprised me. You don't normally say such deep things."

Petra offered a small smile before she sighed and leaned back in the chair. They lapsed back into silence, the only sounds being the soft hiss of water, the banging of the paramedics as they left, and the muted street noises that occasionally rose to a level loud enough to be heard inside. "Eren… you like Levi, don't you?" Eren clapped a hand over Petra's mouth, his eyes boring straight into hers.

"Shut up Petra," he muttered as he pulled his hand away, opting to glare at the ground instead of at the orange-haired girl. Petra smirked and tapped his shoulder a few times, her hand gentle and warm in the cold room. The sound of water fell away and Petra stood to retrieve the knife. "Don't worry," she said, "Keep away from the height jokes and you'll probably be fine."

The knife clattered onto the desk, an inch or so away from a yellow folder and the note, which had been copied onto another piece of paper, the original probably going somewhere where they could ensure that it would remain intact. Levi was still standing outside taking a smoke break. Eren pulled up a chair and dropped into it. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his middle finger and thumb and exhaled, his brow scrunching up into lines of concentration.

There was nothing about this case that made any sense. There were so many questions that he had, yet most of them couldn't be answered. Who was kidnapping the children and murdering people? What experiments were they performing on the children? What happened to those survivors from twenty-four years ago? Why would they suddenly start murdering people? Why, why, why? Too many questions, too few clues for any hope of finding an answer through the web of confusion that the enemy had spun.

Something tapped his shoulder and Eren jumped, his pulse skyrocketing for a moment. He looked up to see gray orbs staring down at him, an eyebrow arched above one of them. Levi retracted his hand and sat down, "Sorry. Zoe had Moblit call to inform me that she's nearly done with the autopsy on Smith. She'll be done with Elliot in about two hours." Levi picked up the knife and slid it out of the plastic bag, his eyes coming up as he spun the blade between his hands, two fingers rolling the blade over and three holding the hilt. After several rotations of the blade Levi tossed the knife up and plucked it from the air with startling ease, the blade clenched loosely but firmly between three fingers. He offered the hilt out to Eren. "Tell me what you see."

Eren took the knife from Levi's hand and glanced up at the man before he looked at the blade. It was similar to that of a hunting knife, albeit it was as long as a cleaver from tip to handle. Both edges of the blade were sharp and it drew to a deadly point at the end. It was made more for stabbing, not carving, but it was still capable of producing fine slices. The handle itself was dark brown, studded with small metal circles in the handle. Parts of it were darker from where the blood had stained the wood. Eren rolled the knife over, his eyes sliding over the blade.

The side of the blade that had been facing the ground had something etched into it, just above the handle. Eren brought it closer to his face so he could inspect the mark. It was a letter, a 'T' to be precise, about the side of the nail on his pinkie. It had been etched deeply but probably still a little less than halfway through the blade. "There's a letter carved into it. Although I'm not sure if it's for a brand of utensils or if it was later applied." Eren held the knife back out, turning it in his hand so that the handle faced Levi.

Levi nodded and took it back. He set it down on the desk and rubbed at his chin, biting his lip as he zoned out, lost in his thoughts. Eren took the few moments of relief to take a few calming breaths, still fighting to get his facing pulse under control, no longer hammering from the surge of startled adrenaline alone.

Levi scowled and picked the note up. "I'm willing to bet that they're planning to strike again. Based on the last line, they plan to murder in a garden. The only problem is that there are a million and one gardens that those bastards could be talking about. We've got an entire city to cover and too little manpower to cover everything that could be a possible target. Hanji will be getting us medical records for them to see if they can be matched through those. Daz also had Erd find everything on Smith and Elliot that he could, ranging from drivers licences to graduation certificates and arrest records. I gleamed over them a little after I finished interviewing their idiot neighbors. They were described as a 'happily engaged couple.'"

Levi took the note into his other hand so he could pass the folder to Eren. "From what I've read, the file says otherwise." Eren took the file and skimmed over the information. Two charges of domestic violence against Smith in the past three months; couple counseling; psychological therapy for Elliot… Smith was an ex-con, convicted for an attempted robbery of a convenience store. Elliot was charged for illegal prostitution. Quite the charming pair we have here. Eren glanced back up at Levi. "Wasn't one of the lines in the note involving something about sins and pardoning?"

Levi nodded, "'None of their sins, we shall pardon.' That only narrows the list down to about the entire city. Less if you don't count minor things such as speeding tickets."

Eren grimaced, "Even so, that's a lot of people that are possible candidates for the next strike. The murders happened in the Shiganshina district… would it be safe to assume for now that the next attack will occur in the same place? Unless of course they're following the pattern of the kidnappings, or should I say the lack thereof? So when we get down to it, we have no idea who or what they're going to hit next."

Levi nodded and set the note down on the desk. "Hanji needs to hurry up with those bodies. We might find something out on the reports."

Zoe pulled the sheet away from Smith's body first, leave his torso exposed. It was a pale, colorless white mixed with splotches of blue and green across his abdomen. His body was clean of blood. If it hadn't been for the lack of the rise and fall of his chest, he could almost have been a sleeping man instead of a dead one, albeit a very sickly sleeping man. Zoe took the clipboard from the end of the table and flipped the top page before she began to recite the report.

"Smith was beaten across his front. Judging by the size and color of the marks, I believe that he was beaten was bare hands and feet, not a blunt object. Aside from that the front side of his body is not damaged. His back, however, is another story. He has a total of thirty-seven stab wounds ranging from a half inch deep to the point where they're nearly through his ribcage. High right lung appears to have been nicked, along with several lacerations along his stomach, kidneys, liver, and intestines. He lost about three quarters of his blood, which ultimately led to his death."

She set the clipboard back into the bin attached to the table and moved over to the other table and pulled the white sheet away. Aside from the Y-shaped incision that Zoe had made and sealed, there were six lines on Elliot's pallid chest, beneath the dip where her ribcage ended. There was also a dark blue ring around her throat, darker in certain parts as the bruising pattern mimicked that of the weave of a thick length of rope. "Elliot was stabbed six times, all in the lower abdomen in non-fatal areas. Judging by the image of the bloodstain, I've come to the conclusion that they left her to bleed there for a few minutes before they wrapped a noose around her neck and dropped her. Someone probably held her up before letting her go. Whatever they did, they either did it enough to snap the neck or they got it just right the first time. Had her neck not broken she would have died of asphyxiation. Feel free to examine them to any extent that you need."

Levi nodded and held out his hands. Zoe slapped a pair of gloves into his hands, an action that must have been so familiar to the two of them by now that words, even actions, probably weren't necessary. She held another pair out for Eren and he gratefully took them from her. After wriggling his fingers into the latex confines he took his position on one side of Smith's body and slowly heaved the man upwards. His back was a mass of red cuts, some close, some overlapping each other. There was no pattern to the wounds, just what appeared to have been the product of mindlessly slamming a blade downwards, again and again, until the person lay dead beneath them.

Smith's neck was visible, the hair too short to fall much further than the end of his hairline. His neck was void of any markings, including the thin line that Masters had borne. Levi and Eren eased the body back down and moved over to Elliot's body to repeat the process. Eren pulled her dark red hair away, revealing a neck barren of marks or scars. They set her body back down and Hanji twitched the sheets back into place as Levi ripped off his gloves and grabbed the medical charts, first Elliot's and then Smith's. Eren pulled his own gloves off a little slower and threw them in the trash before he edged over to wait for Levi to finish with the charts.

"This makes no sense!" Levi snarled, his hands clenching on the edge of the clipboards, his face twisting into an agitated scowl. "There's no connection to the kidnappings aside from that damn slash!" Levi shoved the clipboards into Eren's chest and whirled around, his normally quiet and graceful movements were jerky with agitation. Eren could hear Levi muttering quietly to himself as he glanced over the clipboards Levi had shoved in his direction. The linking factors thus far, the age and blood type of all of the current victims, were nonexistent with this new development in the case. Smith was thirty-seven years old and his blood type was A-. Elliot was twenty-nine and B+. It just didn't add up.

Why would they suddenly change? Why start killing civilians? What's their end goal?

Chapter 11: End

Is it bad if I feel more comfortable writing murder scenes than smut scenes? I'm not quite sure... But yeah, I've had this last half of the story planned out since before I started writing it. Hahaha. I'll keep this short because I have damn Alg2 to study -_-

TheOtaku2: While I won't apologize for writing her like that, nor will I bash you for believing that, I simply ask you to remember why she's acting like that. Sure, she might be a little more overprotective than usual, but wouldn't you be too if you had watched your family, both biological and surrogate, die or leave, and then nearly lose your brother? But hey, it's your opinion~ :)
calleyrose: XD Thank you last minute ideas~ And murder always spices things up a bit~
ichiruzuka: And I hope you do, good or bad XD

layer14: I am planning so much. But I won't say anything for now. And there's a relationship... I'm just getting some much-needed help with parts of it. It'll definitely be pushed up a bit in a few chapters. I won't give an exact number though because I have no idea as to when exactly.
blackirishawk: XD Understandably since those were just something you thought would be there one minute, gone the next.
Guest/Soul: Don't worry, I try to update on even numbered days. Don't ask why even numbered ones. As for the kidnapping - I'd love to tell you... but that would ruin any surprises I have planned for you guys~