Bad Blood - Blood Tied, Book 1(#Wattys2015)

N I G H T M A R E_O N E

N I G H T M A R E_O N E

Present Day

It should've been a routine patrol. Drive around town, scare off any suspicious hooligans up to no good, then hold down the fort in a dark alley with a couple donuts until my replacement arrived.

When I turned down the road that leads past the cemetery, it was clear that I would have to cut down my donut intake for tonight. In the darkness, a black mass was moving around in the edges of my visibility.

With a sigh, I parked the car on the side of the road and rummaged around the glove compartment for a flashlight. This is probably going to turn out to be a long night.

A light in hand, I went off in the direction where I saw the black mass. Given that this is a cemetery, my eyes could've been playing tricks on me, seeing things that weren't there, but considering all the sick people in the world, you can't be too careful.

Not seeing anything unusual, I listened instead. The creaking of branches in the wind, and some chirping crickets proved that my imagination had been on overdrive. I probably should stop watching horror movies for a while.

I almost turned back to return to the car, but then I saw the black mass again. It was close to the ground, then dipped out of sight.

"Hey!" I called out, steadily shining my light in the direction of the movement while I pulled out my gun and pointed that in the same direction. "Slowly come out where I can see you, and put both hands in the air."

The black mass appeared above ground once more, and this time, I could clearly see it was not a mysterious mass, but a man. He did as I ordered, putting both his hands in the air. That was all I could see of him.

"Come up here slowly, and keep your hands where I can see them."

Making a bit of a show out of it, he did what I told, climbing up to my level and slowly turning to face me.

Then he locked his eyes with mine, and I couldn't look away. They seemed to be saying 'I hope you know I'm only playing along with you,' and I didn't like it one bit.

I adjusted my grip on my gun. "Stay right where you are!"

He gave a slight smirk, then my flashlight went dark. Before I could react, there was a sharp stinging on my gun hand, forcing me to drop it, and the light came back on.

"What the-?" I swung light around, searching for the man I was about to arrest, but he had disappeared.

I reached for my radio to put out a description of the man I just encountered to other officers in the area so they could keep an eye out for him, but then I realized that I couldn't give them an accurate description of him. We were on a small hill, so did that make him average height or tall? The quality of light wasn't the best, so his dark hair could've been anywhere between black and deep red. A similar thing could be said for his eyes, because of the light, I couldn't tell if they were brown or hazel. I also could not recall anything that could be used as identifiers, including scars, birthmarks, or clothes.

I decided that the only thing I could really do was let it go for now and vow to arrest him the next time I saw him.

I bent over to pick up my gun from where I dropped it and paused - there were two things wrong with what I was looking at.

First, there was a five-inch cut going from the meaty side of my hand all the way across the backside, ending near the base of my thumb. That must have been the source of the stinging pain I felt, but how did I not notice whatever made such a significant injury?