The rain came down hard, the night had been unforgiving, akin to his crime.
The fangs of the local weather had been honed to articulate standards. For a late summers night especially so; having frantic, unpredictable winds as well as bitter, chilling rain - undoubtedly froze him to the bone, battered him relentlessly and left him shivering in the lonesome night.
The life nectar of his victim besieged his taste buds and the sin against now ran amok inside of his mind. Over and over he traced the scene like a broken record. His heart and lungs working overtime to keep his pace. He must have easily been 3 miles away way by now; his longest sprint.
"Keep going... you can't stop!" She yelled again from unseen heights. So he ran further and further until eventually he came to an overpass. A simple shelter from the storm. Like a house in a hurricane - it was his safe haven for now. He sat and listened to the rain hammer down all around him. Rose knew what he had done and every droplet that reached his ears was like a shotgun fired next to his head. It was deafening as he tried to think about what he had done. "It's my fault... I never kept myself in check and now I've ruined everything!" He practically screeched, the cover of the night hiding his vocals and indefinitely shadowing his position to those out of range. Though as he spoke, her voice cut through the darkness behind him and out she came into the light of desolation.
"Don't you ever say that about yourself? Do you want me to leave you sniveling in the dirt you pathetic, insubordinate, wretched cur!?" She screeched at him like a banshee as her face turned beet red, her nose began bleeding and then suddenly she began to sob immensely on the floor. Her knees collapsing underneath her as her strength was sapped from her like water from soil. Her strings seemed to finally have been cut as her body slipped from its stage. "Don't you love me any more...? If you love me than you have to keep going... please... in the morning we can go get Murphy and the others and we can go... we can all go and run! If you love me, stay out of the way... stay out of trouble..." She glared at him from beneath her golden fringe. Eyes soaked in salty tears and utilized emotions. Fury and honest sorrows fled from her tear ducts and her emotions were set to high. Her icy glare eventually caused Rose's submission and then his head followed suit. His voice having vanished along with his dignity. His arms like a cloak in the cold wrapped around her body...
Still, the warmth remained.
1 hour later...
He had officially been in an accident. Her cousin - Mike - hit by a speeding vehicle and had shattered his left femur, his left tibia had been obliterated by a protruding shard of metal removed in surgery, the right patella had almost been bent inwards the wrong way around. Causing severe trauma to his legs. Above the waist things only seemed to get worse. Sacrum had been dislocated and cracked, requiring immediate attention which in the process had also been found to have punctured the small intestine. A small shard of his lower vertebrate had been completely cracked into several pieces. 2 ribs had been broken and one shredded by the force of impact. His heart had been grazed lightly and caused some minor internal bleeding. Sternum left unstable and finally his skull had been cracked in 5 separate places. It was a miracle he was still alive and breathing they said. Even more so that he may actually make it through it devastating wounds; though it would be a while before they could tell for sure. She was terrified. A monstrosity of an accident and horrendous injuries yet somehow he was still managing to pull through.
She had to go back home, she needed her passport and printed documents of her purchase to even get on the steel bird that would take her over to where she needed to be. As she arrived home and opened the wooden gate that held back her "wee little man" She had been pounced upon and given a series of desperate licks that each converted to a message of desperation and undefiled love. She struggled to release herself from the beat that was her monstrous fluffy babe, then further to continue to acquire the other four of her beloved furry family locked in separate rooms with bowls of food and water to sustain them.
With a surge of anger, she began patrolling the house for the tall, pale fiend that she had trusted to look after her furry beauties and eventually hit her kitchen. Looking inside she found the body of an officer which had elicited a scream from her vocals in an instant. Pulling out her phone. She dialed the number to the police and asked that they immediately came around to her home. They found the murder weapon: an 11 inch stainless steel knife to the heart had been the death of the brave solider of justice.
By protocol; they had of course taken her in for questioning and they explained her side of the story to the detective that went by the name of Daniel: a man who smelt of cigars and a mixture of both vodka and whiskey. His tie hung loosely from his neck and wore a black shirt vest with a white frost white shirt that black buttons. His hair hung hazardously before his eyes while the said duel looking glasses were a deep hazel, heavy bags under his eyes with projected what seemed to be the result of an ugly, unkind result of 1,000 centuries without a wink or two of sleep. They had taken her to the police station where they began to interrogate her of the death of their comrade in the fight against the precarious streets. "Ms..." He began with gruff speech. "Officer Cormac was found... terminated at your house... where we're you at the time of death?" As he spoke, his brow furrowed and he stared tantalizingly towards the blonde girl at the other side of the desk, her eyes wide and frantic, darting around the room as she brought in every breath like it was her last before being calm enough to answer. "My friend had asked me to get some clothes from their hotel room so we could go out for a dinner later tonight." It was a simple answer, one that required no effort to think. A simple, straight and instantaneous reply. Daniel continued onwards, stroking his heavy stubble between his index finger and thumb before nodding to himself and making a few notes on a note pad before him with his sword of ink. "I see... and where is your friend now...?"
He waited again and stared once more at the girl before his eyes with an unbreakable itch of scrutiny within his fruitful gaze. "I..." She began, her hands shaking white a few splatters of clear liquid fell from her cheeks, arousing no response from the vigilant statue's contemptuous features. "I have no idea." She finally responded with an essence of damnable loss in her voice. One that seemed to satisfy the clarity the posture of the old man sat not 2 feet away.
Then he let out a breath filled with tar and poison. "Do you want to know what I think...?" He began, a hesitant smog of pollution and heavy stink. "I think you didn't do it... judging by the time of death and freshness of the wound. Then that little purchase you made earlier. I think it is safe to say that upon returning and since you have the card in your possession. You were not in the building at the time of the murder... however... I'd like to ask why you made such an edgy purchase tonight and at such short notice. Forgive me for my suspicious but they are exactly that. It's what makes you a suspect." He gave her another grim look of deterrence. Eyes watching for anything unusual or any reason to take this girl and lock her up. Or - in this case - lock her up.
"My Cousin... he got into an accident that nearly killed him... I need to go and see him!" The yellow bird chirped and exclaimed, desperation building in her voice. Yet; with a single snap of his fingers; she was silent once more. "I'll have my men escort you. I've taken the liberty of printing the documents for you," he threw a mustard colored envelope before tiny fingertips and gave a weak, however genuine grin of the kindest serpent that the eyes of any human being had ever seen. "And had taken precautions of this outcome. Your legal transportation documents are in there. Stay in touch in case I need to contact you... you seem like a good kid, honest. Just... get the hell out of my station and hope I never see you behind those bars."
The ride to the airport was a desolate one at that... it was now late into the night. Not a word was spoken. Not a single one. She got through her checkpoints, the dead security doing their routine checkup and in the end. Yet she carried no luggage as such, there was no need for most checks... all she had to do now was wait.
Though soon the time came when she had to get on her flight and as she got seated. She realized it was only half full. It gave her time to think, what had she forgotten...? "When I come back it's going to be rather irritating isn't it...? Murph will miss me. He'll whine a lot, bark a lot... I wonder... I feel like I'm forgetting some--..." Her blood ran cold for the second time that day. She reached for her phone to send one final message to Rose. She'd completely forgotten and it corrupted her soul that she'd not told him sooner, polluted even more of herself as she found out her phone had died. It'd have to wait she supposed. He'd be mad for a while...
"Christ... I'm in some deep shit tonight." She let out a ragged wheeze and lay her head down for an attempt for some sleep. She had a very long flight ahead of her.
Somewhere else in the city, the body of the officer had been found by colleges. A search warrant had been issued for both Rose and his golden girl. City-wide news had reached the ears of almost every citizen in the town. Everyone was urged to remain vigilant and take the utmost care when travelling alone. It unnerved few. Passed off by many. Though everyone had heard. Everyone would gossip. It seemed those who cared were only those who were the friends and family of the one killed. It seemed the ones who it mattered to be those who worked in the same line of work and believed so piously that he died with regrets. Died in the line of duty they called it - though they called it a death in vein; needless and with great anger in the blood of all the officers in the city. A pointless death. One particular officer; a high ranking detective by the name of Daniel - a distant, frail man of great servitude to the law and what he considered his city through cold, glassy eyes and grim determination to each and every case hidden by almost detrimental extensions.
He sat in his office, his hand wrapped around his head and shading his eyes while his other gripped firmly a bottle of hard whiskey. Laying supported in the ashtray was a half drained cigar which wafted up to the slightly misted ceiling. His mind had been wrecked from the countless companions he had lost on cases where they had gotten too careless and dived right in too confident; still it didn't make it any easier. It never did.
A knock came on the oak door and in came another, more traditionally dressed officer. Dressed in jet black with only a shining silver badge differentiating and defining his occupation from any other. Branding him with the mark of an officer. Two stripes on his sleeves made it clear to his superiors or any under him that he was a Corporal. He had short hair, combed back to make him look slick, sharp and professional in his line of service. "Sir," he began with his arms behind his back. "We have recovered what is believed to be the murder weapon. The boy's in the lab are running it through now. Also... the animals are in our custody what is your plan of action?" The young man waited for the Detective's response but when it never came, he enquired once more. "Sir? Did yo-" immediately he was cut off by the rough voice of the night hardened man before him who seemed to disregard any immediate response. "You... sit down and have a drink."
The Corporal stood, and he stood like an unmoving skyscraper in the middle of a city. Determination to refuse the gray man's offer was expressed and he politely declined. Though the response was not one of acceptance. "That wasn't an offer. It was an order." Almost immediately after, his eyes were pried off the desk and right at the Corporal's mask of solitude. "Sit."
The man moved with purpose. He pulled back the armchair before the Detective's desk as a small glass of fire-like essence was poured for him and he took it hesitantly as it was given to him and diminished the glasses contents, wincing at the burning sensation that spread throughout his gullet and suffered a light, uncontrollable shiver that had been set upon his entire form like the unforgiving winters howl. Finally; he began coughing, which - to the humor of his superior - gave him a grateful dose of oxygen that he suddenly craved for. "S-Sir, I understand... I know it's a difficult time right now. It's hard for all of us and that is something that we do morn over for one of our own. Just - right now is not the time to morn - right now; this very second there is someone out there who's dangerous and malicious without motive. Meaning that they might as well be the most unpredictable person currently residing in this city, and we are doing nothing but sitting on our damn asses. I know it's difficult for you. It is for me, too and his family is feeling the butt of it. With all due respect sir: we need to get off our asses and find this guy!"
The office was silent, deathly quiet like a long lost battlefield buried in shrapnel, empty shells and a blood drenched dirt. Like the tree that falls in the woods with nobody around to hear it... "I gave you one shot and you got the balls to talk to me like that... I like you kid. Here... take the report to whoever it concerns. I want the girl who owns the house in contact with me within the rest of the night and tomorrow. I want every bit of information we have on her and anybody else involved." The papers were tossed forward in a beige envelope and were immediately recovered into the corporal's hands. "Thank you, Sir." He then proceeded to leave the office however stopped abruptly in the doorway before turning his head back. "Sir," he exclaimed. "I'd like to apologize for the disrespect. I acted out of line and that was irresponsible of me. I-" For what seemed like the umpteenth that day, he was stopped by the raised palm of the drained detective. "Shut up, son. I needed a reminded of what duty means to me."
With that, the subordinate left the room and left Daniel alone to his thoughts. Picking up the unfinished cigar, he walked to his window and looked out at the City that sat below his heel. In the end, one question still remained: "Where the hell are you...?"
Chapter 13 – "Doctor's Orders"
The winged meteoroid of steel shook violently as it landed; waking the unaware sleeping occupants who The sun punching through the clouds while the only thing protecting the few occupants from the sweltering globe of blinding light in the sky was the air conditioning coming from ceiling. An eventual halt overcame the metal carrier and soon, the incredibly few passengers that embarked on this journey stepped off into blazing sun and into the airport. She soon checked in and immediately when she had left the airport caught a bus from Brantford Municipal Airport to Greater Niagara General Hospital. There, she met with staff whom had grim news to tell and a grimmer sight to see. On the top floor, hooked up to IV's, Drips and other appliances she found her cousin with family by his side, resting - though not peacefully...
Her reaction was instantaneous when she connected the dots, her eyes had seamlessly become pinpricks within the sockets they housed. Analyzing his body, she found his bare skin was covered in stitches, bandages, casts and he had an oxygen mask to help him breath and a feeding tube to help him retain the energy needed to live. The scene itself was a brutal one, a blood-curdling atrocity that made her physically sick to her stomach, though with a swallow of saliva she managed to keep the building disgust from reaching her esophagus while she made her way step by step to him. She needed to be there for him, she needed to comfort the unconscious body of the one person who came before Rose. She needed to be there for Mike, though as of this point... he might as well have been a shell of his former glory. The muffled conversation had over taken the silence ringing in her ears as she listened to the few police officers explain to the boy's parents that the man who caused the accident had been caught and persecuted after pleading guilty. The overshadowing doubt of a full recovery slowly grew as a plague in her mind with each and every step, as did the shadow that blocked her path. "I'm sorry Miss," spoke one of many officers in the room as the strong hands held her back and began to force her out the room. "Doctor's orders: only immediate family are allowed as of now. You need to leave."
It was like something caged had been let out as she began to flare. Her heart racing from its previously comatose state as she uselessly flailed like a fish out of water. Her arms racing out to grasp what was so dear to her. So close yet desperately far. "Mike! Mike, wake up! Please open your eyes! Wake up!" She'd scream again and again, some looked on in annoyance... others in pity or sympathy. Though in the end all eyes were on her like spotlights. She was on main stage now and her act was an eye catcher. It took a while, settling her down eventually took a powerful sedative to put her to sleep and she was to be watched and questioned once more. Mike's family on the other hand vouched for her to be allowed in to see him, she was close. Closer than any one person could imagine and eventually it was something that had been conceded by doctors under the singular condition she remain calm and allow him to rest. Which - with her mind at rest - she accepted with a desperate desire to remain by his side, watching over him with the utmost care while she began her decent into despair. Gradually: she was beginning to break.
Meanwhile back in Northern Ireland.
"Where are they...?" She questioned him as in the later hours of the morning they had made their way back to her home. For now, their safe haven. He closed the door behind him and locked it back up, however when he went inside. There was nothing. No animals, no signs of life; just complete serenity as the house began to feel lonely. Exponentially so with every passing second he stayed there. Though he gave his small companion no answer as he searched all of downstairs. He found nothing once more. The body had been cleaned up, leaving no signs of it ever being there to begin with. No blood, no struggle. The weapon he tossed aside has been retrieved and indubitably removed from the home itself as he couldn't see it anywhere. His eyes sparked to life once more as he scurried upstairs, calling the names of the animals. "Murphy!? Bailey!? Riley! Yogi! Vixi...?" As he searched every single room, every corner and inch... he found nothing. "Shit." He said with forethought lodged into his lungs.
Then came an ear-shattering screech from the floor below and he was off. Like a bullet of flesh he ran down the stairs in what must have been less than 10 seconds, his heart racing, yet there she stood, covered head to toe in blood and crying at the floor by the door that lead into the dark abyss under the stairs. Rose quickly jogged over and knelt by her side. Shushing her as she screamed and cried louder and louder, again and again. She eventually stood up and shoved him away as hard as her small arms could which in turn send him tumbling back around about half a meter as her sadness and rejection turned to pure hatred - then he saw what she screamed about... "I asked you to care for them, not butcher them!" She quaked in a shrill, solicitous voice that vibrated along the floor and into his ears, the words echoing into his ears rung throughout his entirety over and over again as the swaying shells swung back and forth, over and over in scrambled cadence. They were lined up one by one, bodies slapping against each other - fur against fur while their chins had been sliced perfectly down the middle until it reached the bottom of each abdominal muscles. They had then been further opened up and their organs on show, though the more disturbing part was their intestinal tract of all five had been joined up and shared between them, all five intestines had been stretched out and sown into the intricate circuit, hung up like sacks of meat being de-bloodied. Each one having an organ missing from their stomach's which could be found diced up, blended and poured into a hollowed out tail that served as a replacement for the missing gullets whereas the originals - as of then - was nowhere to be seen. Stakes made of sharpened bone had been stuffed through the tongues of each furry cadaver like tribal piercings. The wood they hung from creaked weakly under the weight of the all the corpses and every dull thunk that echoed seemed to make her anger and hatred rise.
She had finally had enough, she walked right up to him and slapped him across the face, emitting a painful sound and even more agonizing feeling as his nerves - spasmodic, with a most nasty surprise of physical torment. "Get out..." She hissed with stridulous venom. A voice filled with such raucous, discordant hatred exited from her precious lips, demonic in nature and filled with obliged malice. Rolled up in spite and wielded the sword of complete, underrated sadness. The type of sorrow where just before you cry, you become violent. Then she snapped and out came the poison of the widow's wording kiss. "What the fuck are you waiting for!? GET OUT!!!" Still; Rose was rooted to the spot, unable to move, his eyes stared horrifically at those furry wonders. Then he withdrew into himself. She tried to shove him back, but he wouldn't move. Erratically she attempted to push him back with screaming and crying, hitting and kicking but he still stood stone-like. Absorbing every hit like a punching bag as bruise among bruise appeared like a sweet graze upon him, like a fruit fallen from grace. Every hit broke his psyche as though one were to take a hammer to a mirror. Her protest to his presences fell on deaf ears and soon... a small puddle of blood on the floor had gathered.
Out of that puddle, a specimen was born - a congregation of pure madness: mangled in form and twisted in mind. The manifestation of the deformed sin birthed into the world. Even as no sound echoed into his conscience. His vision burned like molten rock being poured like rain in the form of tears, his head and heart screamed for him to move, but it was as though all control had diminished from his body and the only thing he could do despite internal protest: was watch. Watch as this abomination tore her limb from limb, its jaw hanging off by strings of muscle tissue loosely, dripping blood on the carpet below. A single eye exposed on its mutilated tongue, puppeteer strings dancing along its surface to the pupil at the center powering it's mechanical ability which violently darted all over, scanning for signs of life to bring them a gore fest that would dominate them into the kingdoms of dirt that awaited them. Several shards of bone had burst through the creatures sides like knives, large easily 20 inches in length however flexible like an arachnids' legs which in turn stabbed themselves into her waist and hip area - easily piercing the skin and protruding from the other side; severing anything and everything in its way. The legs were broken in opposite directions, knees bent inwards and skin diced until scars littered the fleshy blanket and - more visibly - the red rum of the body flowed onto the ground, not helping the mess. The monster's toe's had been deformed into infected stubs where skin seemed to be pulled over each wound by hand and stitched wrongly, tightening the legs and showing off more internal, grotesque mutations. Finally, the blood itself, small droplets began to wriggle and writhe on the ground as though in pain then grouped together and slithered towards the now injured, howling banshee entrapped within its unforgiving lock like maggots looking for a feast.
The walls swiftly lost their former naturalism, decapitation swept the hallway like a curse. Pictures soon became distorted to faces of horror, blood leaked from the eyes of any face in the photo while many a scream of fear filled the heads of the vicinities occupants and the recognizable murmurs of the girl he loved had been drowned out. The entirety of the house had lost its tranquility and in less than 30 seconds had been transformed into a slaughter house.
It let out a hair-raising roar, a spine-chilling screech before it proceeded in stripping the skin from her body in such a way it allowed entrance for these "bloodworms" to burrow into the open wounds. Like a fly in a web, her fate had been sealed the moment they began burrowing in. The areas in which they dug had immediately became large, blood filled boils which began popping not a minute later. Spraying out much of the beauties blood onto the beast, onto the floor... Onto Rose's face. Though he did not wipe it off, he was still frozen at the scene, his mouth did not move, his eyes stood firm though his mind was unable to accept this. His words that he desperately wanted to yell, though as he tried. He couldn't feel a single limb. It was like his entire body had shut down at the sight and all he could do was watch, listen to her screams and think about what he should be doing "Stop it! Go away! Leave her alone! Please!" Though... as he thought, he listened to her screams, the songs of unadulterated pain and undisputed woe. He began to think, the one thing he knew for definite which in that moment. Total synchronization came to fruition and he knew one certain thing which his beloved before him only grasp a further realization. "It's all your fault..."
"She was right..." he told himself over and over again in his head. He could have sworn he never had harmed those beloved pups, never dared to raise a hand to them. Never did he 'butcher' them like she had said... but there they hung, there they swayed. There they were, right before his vision. Dead. Nothing could change that fact. They were dead, she was screaming in total misery; and he? He was sitting on the ground doing nothing about it. He wanted to... he was not afraid of this hideous monstrosity, he was just... stuck. Frozen to the bone, his body was not his own in those moments and for that, he was paying the price. His nightmares coming to life.
The boils had eventually revealed some bone tissue and from its neck came a corkscrew shaped bone which it burrowed into her spine. Giving a final scream of agony before looking right into his eyes. "Just look at what you've done..." A split down the middle came as it drilled its way into her and like a jack-hammer... it tore her right in two. Her organs, both vital and not flew across the room, pelted the walls and the majority fell straight down. Down atop of Rose's head, and before his unprepared eyes. Eye's that could no longer handle the nightmare of this shattered reality. Tear's welled up in his eyes, slipped down his cheek... for the first time in those horrific minutes that passed. He made the first noise since the pain started... and finally lay broken down beside his limp beloved as the executioner dispersed into the dust beneath its bare, hideous feet.
Cruel...
It was a cruel... cruel joke...
Somewhere not too far away, Detective Daniel sat at his desk, signature cigar in hand whilst in his favorite chair. Once comfortable, he began to dial the number of the girl he had called the day before, curious to see how she was holding up and figured that before she came back, it would be best to tell her they had taken her pets into custody and they would be returned to her when she came back home.
First came the pestering dials before a weak voice picked up, it sounded like one would if they had just come back from swimming: with a runny nose and stuffy throat. "Hello?" She began suddenly without her usual enthusiasm nor flare. "Ah, Hello ma'am, I'm just calling to check up on you and see if you're okay. By the sounds of it, you're no-" Immediately, he was cut off by her sudden and somewhat loud response. "I'm fine! Just say what you need to..."
"Um, what was I going to s- Ah! Yes, that's it, we have taken custody of your domestic animals, don't worry, as soon as you get back they will be given back to your care, also... we haven't seen the culprit. If you can, we'd like as much information as we can from you, it's vital and could help us track him down." As soon as he had finished, he picked up a pen and began to twirl it between his long, nimble fingers. Only to be met with an unnerving silence that seemed to last forever.
That "forever" was not to be kept as eventually she gave a sigh and thought about things. "Call in a few hours, it's early morning over here... and I need to get some sleep, I need to think straight and when you do I'll tell you what I know..." With that, she hung up and the echoing sound of a dead line riddled down the ear canal of the Detective. He let out a huff and slammed the phone back down into its rightful holster on his desk. Gradually, he raised his head and spoke outwardly to himself in a rusty tone. Anger filling his vocals into a booming explosion that remained grizzly like the rough surface of sandpaper yet smooth as though it were small grains rubbing across silk. "I don't have time to wait for this shit..."
Giving another grateful sigh. He picked up his personal mobile and called one of the numbers within his digital phone book and waited, every second made him feel almost squeamish, each generic ring was like an emergency broadcast ringing in his ear out of a megaphone. Eventually, a harsh tone rang in his ears as well as a sigh. "Hey, Hun." He started beggarly, almost miserably as his eyes began to close. Listening to the modest, sweet tone of his wife on the other side, bringing him internal serenity that soother his soul with each and every syllable and anguished sound that vanquished any negative thoughts and emotional threads that might make this case any more personal for him. They caused pangs and vibrations to his core. Reminding him that he - like anyone else who knew how it felt to have a wonderful wife - that there was always some recognition to the positive sides of life; not just struggling, she was his psychological back up. She was his ultimate partner and even though they were words. They were almost distraught and worrisome. Although regretful that his duty caused her so much unjustness. It was a grave sanctification that still warmed his frosty soul, after 10 years being married. Knowing each and every working night there was always someone at home who cared and for an emotionally cancerous ageing man: It meant a lot. "Darling, please, come home! Relax - you've been working too hard and it's been stressing you out. Just come home, we'll have a lovely night in. Forget about the case for one night, all these years and it's breaking you, this pretentious desire to yourself; forget about it for a while." With hurt dependence on her husband - desperate and fanatical with her own suggestion - she wanted to console and he knew with that family intuition what she wanted but in the line of his duty. He would only evict that under the strictest of affairs of justice denial. With the hazy mist of transparent waterfalls that flooded his eyes. He denied the request with a simple "I can't... I'll be home tonight, just sit tight, I love you. I just need you to wait up for me. I needed to hear the voice of an angel with the stress piling up on me. I'll be home tonight. I promise you."
With that, he sighed and said his goodbyes for the day. Hanging up and standing up straight, giving a stretch with a light wheeze. Daniel snapped up his jacket with hurried distress and waltzed towards the door, he had a few more files to check up and loose ends to tie.
0bloo$&ys,