Lights (Scomiche)

Blood

All he could see at first was black, maybe the inside of a tunnel or something.

“Hello world. You may have seen my face around on a most wanted list or two, but more than likely you have no fu¢king clue who the hell I am.”

All he could see was that face filling the camera and his entire body tensed in preparation for whatever he was about witness.

“You see, my name is Olivier, and I walked out of a bank with hundreds of thousands of dollars right through a fuckbunch of uniforms. The plan was GENIUS! EVERYONE should know my name, EVERYONE. But no. See, all anyone wants to talk about are these queer little bastards who didn’t do shi†.” He spat at the camera.

“But you’re going to know my name now. Stay tuned America. You see I want to play a little game…”

The camera panned out and instead of seeing Mitch like he'd expected, he saw Jeremy along with 4 other people he’d never seen before, arms tied above their heads and secured by… something. a hook he guessed.

“Your beloved members of that shit group Pentatonix are responsible for this. I asked Scott for a number, I was given three. Let’s see what happened when I asked Mitch.”

The video cut and a very weak Mitch was in the shot, hair falling into his eyes.

“Pick a number, Michelle. 1-5.”

“Nooo.” He whispered.

“You know you want to.”

“Please stop.”

He leaned in close and pulled on his hair. Those barely open eyes snapped closed, scrunching in pain as the collar pinched at his neck.

“If you don’t I’m going to drag Scott here and tie him down for my men to use as they want while you watch. How do you feel about that?”

He could hear the tiny sniffle and the shaky whisper. “2”

“That’s a good boy.” He kicked him and the video cut again.

Olivier was back to the original setting, walking past the line of people, 2 women, one younger girl and another guy around Jeremy’s age.  Jeremy was right in the middle.

“One… two… three” He stopped in front of Jeremy who looked weak yet still defiant. ”Looks like it’s your lucky day, Princess. Scott chose three.”  

Scott had to look away as Olivier backed up and four quiet shots were fired. Avi was staring at the floor. He put a trembling hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Wasn’t that fun.”

He looked back at the screen, wishing more than anything to go through it and strangle that man to death with his bare hands as he looked at the carnage, the remains of what had been 4 living, breathing human beings.

As Olivier stared into the camera the maniacal smile suddenly fell and the darkness was back again, that evil glint in his eye.  “You took my glory, Scott. I could have been in the text books, you know. Criminology 101. People eat that shit up. I was the genius, I was the clever one. Well, guess what, Scottie boy. I killed all of these people because of you and now i’m going to sell your little boyfriend’s body to the highest bidder. Was it worth it.”

He turned and walked straight over to Jeremy and shoved the knife right in his stomach. “one” He pulled it out and did it again before holding up the knife, blade dripping with blood. “2. It’s all on you.”

And then it was over.

He couldn’t breathe. He was suffocating. 

He opened his mouth to say something, but Kevin interrupted him as he leaned forward towards the computer. “Wait, go back.  No, even further when we first see them.”

The tech rewound and Kevin pointed up to Jeremy’s bound hands as they moved ever so slightly. “He’s signing, right? That’s sign language. They're letters.”

The tech obviously wasn’t versed in sign and neither was the other officer nearby, but they provided Kevin with a pencil and notepad.

He wrote down what he could figure out, what he could see. A D ? I ? O N ? T O ? ? E ?     His hands kept going out of frame but it looked like he was going through a loop. After watching the video multiple times through they had A D ? I ? O N S T O R A ? E  and right in between every loop … was the sign for “I love you”  & the letter K

The fill in the blanks were copied down and radioed and sent to wherever, but Kevin was staring at it, wheels turning.

“Something… storage?”

The tech began typing looking for storage yards in the nearby vicinity, none fitting into the blanks. He expanded his search and pointed. “Addison Storage! Ventura. It’s 2 hours from here.”

Kevin looked at Avi who looked at Scott.

It was a flurry of radios and instructions. He could hear them dispatching, coordinating.  

He felt like the room was spinning. He could hear Avi’s voice amidst everything but before he could latch onto it, the darkness took him.