Darkness Finds You [Andley]

Chapter Thirteen

Four days until what?
That was all Andy's mind could seem to focus itself on the rest of the day. He sat at his desk, staring absently at his case report. He hadn't filled in anything more than his name. This serial killer thing was really fucking with his head.

"First day back on the job, and you solved a case in ten minutes..." Megan rested a leg on the corner of his desk and leaned in on her arm, propped up on her knee. "You're a mystery, Biersack."
Andy smiled faintly. "We all love a good mystery, don't we? That's the fun part of this whole job."
Megan shrugged and sat up a bit. "So. Fencing. How'd you figure?"
"Did the coroner's report bring up any hesitation noticeable in the wound?
"No." She shook her head.
"Do they have any other clubs at the University that teach you how to precisely and skillfully wield a weapon with no hesitation?"
Megan blinked. "No..."
"Then it was clearly fencing." Andy shrugged and looked at his report again.

Megan shook her head and stood up. "It's no wonder you graduated the top of your class, Andy. You never fail to impress." She smiled and pat his shoulder. "Good job."
And with that she disappeared back to her office, leaving Andy to sit and finish his case report. He had managed to distract himself just enough to get it done, and when it was complete he set it on Megan's desk.

"Hey, Megan, I'm taking off early." Andy sighed as he slid the file onto her desk.
"Everything alright?" She frowned, brows furrowed with concern.
Andy nodded. "Yeah. Migraine, is all. You know how that goes..." He chuckled awkwardly. Megan nodded and shooed him off.
"Go. Rest up." She insisted and took his case report. Andy smiled gratefully and went back home.

Upon arrival, Andy noticed an envelope taped to his mail box. He frowned and grabbed the envelope, going inside with it. There was no name, no address. Just a blank envelope. He felt it with his fingers, confused as it felt that there was an item rather than a letter. He opened the envelope lip and carefully dumped the contents into the palm of his hand. It was a small item... A small Guns'n'Roses classic logo pin. What was this supposed to mean?
There was a folded post-it note along with it and Andy carefully unfolded it to read what had been written.
A hint
xo 27

A hint to what, though? To who it was? How was a pin a hint at all?
With a heavy groan, Andy left the items on the table and grabbed a can of beer from the fridge. He was about to open it when his phone rang. A knot of dread formed in Andy's stomach as he reached for his phone and answered.

"Hello?" He asked hesitantly.
"Don't sound so scared, baby doll..." A voice waved through the other end of the line, and Andy immediately stiffened. The man was obviously using something to disguise his voice, which only seemed to concern Andy more and caused his blood to run cold.
"What." Andy spoke shakily. His fist clamped at his side, shaking just as much as his voice.
"You got my clue?" The distorted voice mused playfully. Andy loosened his fist and picked up the pin from the table.
"What does it mean." Andy demanded.
"Oh, no, no... You don't understand how it works. I order, you take orders. Not the other way around." There was a playful click of the tongue before the sound of the phone being hung up, leaving Andy hanging with questions once again.
Just as he was about to put his phone down, it rang again. Without bothering to check caller ID, he pulled the phone back up.
"You better give me a damn answer this time, or I swear, I will-"
"Um." A voice that sounded to be Ashley wafted through with an awkward clear of the throat. "Is this a bad time?"
Andy immediately dropped his guard.
"Oh- No, Ashley, sorry- thought you were someone else for a second. Work stuff." Andy coughed. "So what's up?"
"Well... I was gonna say I got tickets to go see the circus, and I need a companion. Preferably someone tall, fair skinned, handsome... Can protect me from any baddies." Ashley hummed. "You wouldn't happen to know anyone, would you?"
Andy couldn't help but chuckle. "Did you just say 'baddies'?"

He could practically hear the pout in Ashley's tone. "I did, now cmon."
"Yeah, yeah... I think I know a guy." Andy grinned. "When and where?"
"The fair ground at 7 sharp. I'll come by at 6:30." Ashley chirped and hung up. Andy laughed and set his phone back down. Ashley really knew how to brighten his mood.

One of the many things he loved about him...

A/N: sorry this is shorter than normal :P packing for college is crazy af rn haha