SOMETHING ROAMS THE NIGHT...

FORTY SIX

"Are you sure?" I heard Ezra ask the police officer. He had a exasperated look on his face. "Okay, thanks for the info," he said, and shut the door.

"What is it?" I sat at the edge of the sofa. "What happened?"

"Another murder," Ezra sighed. "The first in six months."

"Another murder? Who? How?" I gasped. Another person had been killed? Was this plain homicide, or something out of the oridinary?

"My neighbour, Mrs. Nancy," Ezra told me. "She was killed right in front of the police. Someone threw a knife at her throat from out her window."

"Wha-How?"

"I don't know," he shook his head. "This town was supposed to be peaceful. We did all we could to stop all these from happening."

"The police didn't see who the killer was?"

"No, but they know one thing for sure," Ezra said, his expression unreadable. "It was a girl. Someone Mrs. Nancy knew. She tried to kill her, but the police came before she could."

"A girl? Why would a girl kill Mrs. Nancy?"

"I have no clue. That's what we have to find out," Ezra rubbed his hands together. "There's one more thing. Before she died, Mrs. Nancy mentioned something about the girl not being a girl."

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"What I mean is that...there's a supernatural twist to this incident. No human could aim that accurately, and no human could vanish into thin air like that."

"So you're saying...the reapers..."

"I'm not saying anything," Ezra held out a hand. "But I'm going to find out who, or what the killer was."

"The knife," I blurted out. "Maybe they'd be some fingerprints on it or something. And if Mrs. Nancy has security cameras around her house, that could help identify the killer."

Ezra nodded. "The police are already on it," he told me. "God, I can't believe something like this has happened again. Will our town ever be the way it once was?"

"Don't worry," I placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find out soon enough."

At the same time, Ezra's handphone vibrated in his pocket. He rummaged for it, slid his finger over the screen. 

"You've got a match?" Ezra's eyes widened as he glanced at me. "Okay, send me a picture or something."

"What do you mean I'm not gonna believe this?" he continued. "Yeah, it's alright, I'll see for myself."

Ezra ended the call, and then a beep followed a few seconds later.

"Okay, let's see who this girl was," he clicked on the image to enlarge it. I peered over his shoulder at the screen. The image was blurry, and slightly pixelated.

"No," he choked, his hand shaking. "It can't be."

I was just as shocked as he was. 

I stared, light-headed, at the girl in the picture. She was grasping the knife by her side, standing before Mrs. Nancy. She was looking right at the camera with a sinister smile on her face. Her eyes were impossibly yellow, and a horrifyingly long tongue stuck out from between her lips.

"No," I felt faint when I realized why she looked so familiar.

The girl, Mrs. Nancy's killer...

was me.