Sarah stood outside her dad's office door, knocking on it again. Her dad was still in there, possibly sleeping also.
"Dad... I'm not sure if you're still asleep... or, if you even slept. But you can't give up. Not like this." Sarah smiled and pressed her hand against the wood of the door. "I believe in you."
She moved away from the door and down the stairs, seeing her mom and brother standing at the door as they were waiting for her.
"Come on Sarah, I have to go to work and your brother is going over a friends house," Evelyn said. Sarah apologized, seeing her brother standing still with his eyes pointed to the floor. The three of them left the house, and now it was all empty and quiet.
Seth heard everything his daughter said. He was staring at the bulletin board with all the information he had about the case. Some information that the media or the police didn't know about. He was close. He knew it. All it took was the right amount of evidence to nail the bastard.
-x-
Walter placed the box onto his desk, letting Jonathan take it into his hands. It was heavy, but he was strong enough to carry it.
"You sure this is it?" Jonathan asked.
"Here's another," Walter said as he picked up another box. He tapped his fingers against the lid of it, biting down on the bottom of his lip. He felt like he just needed to confront Jonathan about what Jordan told him.
"Ok, I'll put this in my car and—"
"What's a bottom?" Walter blurted out.
Jonathan stared awkwardly at Walter as he was surprised that he knew that word. "Um. Why are you asking?"
"B–because... apparently you have a crush on me. And Jordan told me you would be a top and I'd be a bottom."
Of fucking course Jordan would say that.
"Listen, I don't have a crush on you. I don't know why Jordan would say that."
Walter sighed in relief, but then quickly realized that Jordan had tricked him into thinking that Jonathan was in love with him. He became upset at that.
"Does she hate me or something?" Walter asked as his voice had a sad tone to it.
"No, of course not. She thinks you're pretty cool." Jonathan placed the box back down on Walter's desk, gently nudging him. "She knows you like her," he said.
Walter looked at Jonathan with wide eyes, feeling goosebumps all over his body. "Really? W–who told her?!" Walter had a suspicion that it was Jonathan. He got up in his face, trying to intimidate him. But there wasn't much that made a 5'10 man scary against a 6'2 man. "Did you tell her?"
Jonathan pushed him away by the face, rolling his eyes. "Of course not. Straight people are none of my business. Now If you'll excuse me, I gotta go and work on a case." He piled both boxes onto each other and picked them up. "Oh and also, in case you ever think that I have a crush on you again, just know that white men aren't really my type." Jonathan shrugged and walked out of the squad room.
Walter sighed and shook his head in embarrassment.
"Everything ok, detective?" Wanda asked as she stopped in front of him.
Walter straightened himself out and nodded. "Yes of course."
"Ok good, because you guys got a new case. A double murder." Wanda threw the file onto Walter's desk, then looked over to where Seth's desk was before realizing he wasn't even there. She looked back at Walter, pointing to his partner's desk. "Where is he?"
"I don't know. Probably at home, still upset."
"Well call him and tell him to get his ass over here. He isn't being paid to just whine all day."
Walter nodded, watching the Sergeant walk off. He picked up his desk phone and dialed his partner's number. It rang for a while before eventually his voicemail started playing. Walter left him a short voicemail which got straight to the point. He couldn't waste time, so he started looking into this new double murder case.
-x-
Ray parked into an empty spot in the school parking lot. He wasn't able to sleep at all after seeing the pictures of the dead woman. It was burned into his memory just like the scene of his wife's murder.
Someone gently knocked against the window of Ray's car. He looked and saw that it was Luna, waving and smiling at him. She was dressed differently, less like a prostitute and more like a regular New Yorker.
Ray hurriedly got out of his car, looking around to see if anyone was staring at them. "What are you doing here?" He said harshly
"Oh relax. I just wanted to say hi," Luna said. Her eyes wandered around as she seemed to be on the lookout for someone. Ray knew exactly why she seemed paranoid.
"I know he's after you," he whispered. Luna sighed and crossed her arms.
"He wants to kill me. Reason why? I don't know. I saw him last night, but I got a weird feeling in my gut so I left." Luna bit her bottom lip and brushed her hair to the side. Ray also noticed she was wearing much less makeup, making her seem different. Which he kinda liked better.
Ray opened the car door and reached inside to his glove compartment to get the polaroid photos. Luna was standing right behind him, admiring his ass. He turned back to Luna, showing her the photos that Jack sent him last night. Luna's mood suddenly dropped as she went through the disturbing pictures.
"That's Anna," Luna whispered. "H–he killed Anna!"
"And he's after you now." Ray placed his hand on her shoulder, shaking her a bit as he tried to snap her back into reality.
"Ray, I'm leaving New York. Just to get away from him."
"What about your sister?"
Luna cursed as she didn't even think of that. But she suddenly seemed to come up with a plan.
"I'll tell her she can get a better job somewhere else. I just can't risk having her die as well." She tapped her fingers against her chin. "Maybe Chicago. I could go there. I know a few people over there. I'll try to find a job instead of..."
Ray smiled at the mention that she would try to find a better job than offering her body to strange men. "That's good. You'll do so much better in Chicago."
"Yea I hope so," Luna muttered. She sighed and gave Ray a hug. "I'll see you soon, Ray."
Surprised from the hug, Ray slowly wrapped his arms around her, gently patting her back. Luna pulled away from him and smiled one last time at him before leaving the school grounds.
He knew she would be safe, as long as she was away from Jack. Besides, Jack wouldn't be able to find her, right? It's not like he had that much power to find someone like Luna.
She'll do just fine.
-x-
Walter walked out the house of the female victim's family. Walter was terrible at breaking the news to people. He didn't like to be the one they cried to. Especially since he was a very stoic person, most of the time.
He still hadn't gotten a call back from Seth. It had been an hour already. Seth didn't usually ignore phone calls, especially when they came from work.
Alarms were going off in Walter's brain. Something wasn't right. He tried calling his partner one last time before getting his voice mail again for the hundredth time.
And it was at this point that Walter hopped into his car and drove off to Seth's house. He wasn't going to work this case alone. No way in hell.
-x-
Walter rang the doorbell a fifth time but still no one came to the door. He looked over to the driveway, confused as to why Seth wouldn't open the door because his car was still in the driveway. He was home, that was for sure.
"Seth, open the damn door!" Walter shouted. "I know you're home, your cars here!"
He looked under the mat to search for a key, but it wasn't there. Of course, that would be too obvious. Walter turned his head and looked over at the pot of flowers sitting on the steps. He went over to it and lifted it, seeing a gold key sitting under it. He smiled and grabbed it, using it to unlock the door. He could hear some barking that sounded like it was coming from the backyard.
"Seth, it's me! Come on, bud. We got a new case to work on!" Walter walked towards the kitchen, seeing a pot of what looked like coffee boiling on the stove. He furrowed his eyebrows and began walking up the stairs. They made a slight creak, which was a little annoying to listen to.
He checked inside the master bedroom, but didn't see anything unusual in there. The bed was made, but Seth's watch was on the nightstand. He knew that Seth didn't usually leave the house without his watch.
Walter walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. He looked down the hall, seeing a room which was just a crack open. He saw the light coming through, drawing him closer to it.
He slowly pushed the door open, and immediately noticed blood spatters all over the room. Walter was confused and a little lightheaded. For the first time in his life, his hands were shaking at the sight of blood. His eyes landed to the chair that was facing away from him, looking to the bulletin board on the wall.
Walter turned the chair to get it to face him, only to be greeted by his partner with a gunshot to his temple.
He dropped his hand and stared at Seth's dead body, emotionless.
-x-
After a long day of work and about six hours without a drink because he forgot to pour alcohol into his coffee that morning, Ray was beat and ready to go home to unwind. Earlier he was entertained by watching two students in his last class arguing about Edgar Allan Poe and how he died. He kept replaying the argument in his head, laughing to himself over it as he packed his belongings into his back–bag.
He looked up and saw Avery holding his briefcase in his hand as he seemed to just be passing by.
"Hey, Avery," Ray said. He picked up his bag and walked over to Avery. "Off to the bar?"
"No actually," Avery replied. "I'm going home. I'm emotionally drained and I think I just need to have some time to relax."
Ray slanted his lips, shrugging his shoulders. "Would you like to come over to my house?"
Avery smiled at the offer as he then nodded. "You know what? Why not? It can't hurt."
Ray also smiled and gave Avery a pat on the shoulder.
-x-
Sarah hummed to herself as she walked up the street to her home. She was bouncing a ball against the ground, catching it every time.
She heard sudden commotion as she got closer to her house before seeing several people surrounding it. She rushed towards it, pushing through the crowd. She was then stopped by a police officer and a crime scene tape.
"E–excuse me, I have to get through," Sarah said, sounding like she was in a daze.
"I'm sorry young lady, but this is an active crime scene. You cannot—" Sarah tried to lunge herself through the tape before being grabbed by the officer. "You cannot enter!" The officer shouted.
"This is my house! You have to let me through!"
"Officer!" A familiar voice said. The man looked behind him to see Walter standing by the entrance. "It's ok, let her through."
Reluctantly, the officer let go of Sarah who ducked under the tape and passed Walter. He quickly grabbed her by the arm to stop her from running inside and destroying possible evidence.
Walter leaned over to be on Sarah's level, even though she wasn't very short. "Listen, Sarah," he started off by saying, "your father... he couldn't really handle the stress."
"What are you saying?!" She angrily shouted.
"I don't know how to put this into kinder words so that it won't hurt you as much... but, your father committed suicide."
"That's not true!" Sarah blurted. "He wouldn't kill himself. He was driven to solve this case, and he wouldn't kill himself before he solved it!"
Although Walter wanted to believe that to be true, he couldn't just ignore the evidence. Even if he had a gut feeling that Sarah was right, he needed to accept the fact that the evidence points to his partner putting his gun to his head and pulling the trigger. That was the truth.
"Sarah, please think rationally."
In anger, she spit in Walter's face and ran off, grabbing her bike in the process. Walter didn't really react a whole lot, and just wiped the spit off his face. He felt more numb than ever. His partner that he had worked with and known as a close friend for several years was now gone as a result of his own stress.
-x-
Ray and Avery were both embracing each other as they were having a passionate makeout session. Two glasses of wine was enough to get them both into the mood as they also ran their hands over each others bodies, shirts off and pressed against each other.
Before Ray could fully take off Avery's pants, he heard his doorbell ring which startled him. He looked down at Avery who he was on top of on the couch, surprised that they had gotten intimate.
"I'm so sorry," Ray whispered as he hastily got off of him and buckled his pants back up. Avery seemed surprised as well. He sat up and pulled his pants up.
"Oh it's fine."
Ray looked on the floor for his shirt, unable to find it until Avery picked it up from his side of the couch, handing it off to him. Ray awkwardly smiled and thanked him, taking the shirt and sliding it over his head.
The doorbell rang again and Ray quickly got up to the door. He glanced over at Avery to make sure he was clothed before peaking through the peephole.
"What the hell?" Ray whispered to himself. He glanced back through the peephole to look at Sarah again who was standing there as she continued to pressed the doorbell, crying and praying that he would just open the damn door.
He finally did and Sarah threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist tightly.
"Sarah, what's the matter?" Ray asked, trying to pry her off him. Sarah buried her face into his chest, soaking his shirt with her tears.
"My dad," she muttered through her sobs. "My dad was more stressed than I thought he was. Because he..."
Ray wanted to be surprised, but he wasn't. He had a feeling something like this would happen. He kept telling Sarah to look after her dad, but it wasn't like it was her fault. What could she do anyways? He chose to take his life away. And if he was so set on doing so, Sarah wouldn't be able to change his mind.
Ray knew that since he was Sarah's teacher, any physical touch was considered inappropriate and would get him in big trouble. But he hugged her back anyways since she needed the hug.
He allowed her to walk inside of his house, hoping that none of his neighbors were watching and thinking of calling the police because he let a 15 year old girl inside his house.
"Would you like anything?" Ray asked. Sarah looked inside the living room, seeing Avery staring back at her as confusion crossed his face.
"Sarah?" he whispered.
"Mister Neumann... hi," Sarah awkwardly said. She used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe her tears away. "I–I'm so sorry to interrupt you guys. I'll go—"
"Oh it's ok, Sarah." Ray gently placed his hand on her shoulder as she sighed and gave him another hug. "I gotta ask, how did you find my address?"
Sarah shrugged and closed her eyes, scoffing. "My dad is a detective... or at least he was."
Ray chuckled lightly and nodded. "Right." His eyes wandered over to Avery who stood up and grabbed his briefcase.
"I should go now, I need to do some work." He gave Ray a two finger salute, then looked down at Sarah. "I'm so sorry, Sarah."
Ray frowned as he watched Avery walking to the door and leaving. He tilted his head down, pulling her off of him. "Does anyone know you're here?"
"No. I saw Walter at my house and well... he told me." Sarah walked over to the window, peeking out briefly. "I was just too mad because he was telling me that my dad killed himself. But that's not true!"
Ray furrowed his eyebrows as he seemed to think that Sarah was just in denial about her dad's suicide. "Sarah, I know it's hard to grasp this... but you need to face the facts and know that this isn't your fault."
Sarah scoffed and crossed her arms, digging the toes of her sneaker into the floor. "I knew my dad, and I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't ready to go. So please, don't tell me that... b–bullshit!"
The older man walked over to Sarah and reached out to pat her back, but being rejected when she moved out of the way.
"I need to go, Walter is probably looking for me and I don't want him to stress out." Sarah waved goodbye at Ray and saw herself out of his house. Ray watched her take her bike off his front lawn and ride away, leaving him feeling as if he didn't do such a great job on trying to comfort her. He sighed and closed the door behind him, shutting the lights off.
-x-
He dipped his calligraphy pen back into the jar of ink, pressing it back onto the paper. This would be the last letter he would send to Ray, so it needed to be perfect.
His accomplice slowly pushed open the door of a bedroom, holding his flip phone in his hand. He looked at the man sitting at his desk in the dimly lit room.
"Writing in the dark? Again?" He questioned. He sighed and flipped his phone open, pushing a few buttons. The noise caught the other man's attention, making him turn around to glower at him.
"I thought I told you never to bring your phone here," he said through his clenched teeth. "They can track it."
His accomplice apologized in a hushed tone before closing it and tucking it away in his pocket. The young man seemed to be unsure of how to speak to Jack. Especially since he wanted to talk to him about something that he knew would anger Jack.
"Hey...I, wanna talk to you," he said. Jack wasn't looking back, and continued to write the letter.
"Speak," Jack said.
"I... I don't want to do this anymore," the young man finally said. Jack stopped writing and sighed as he rose up from his chair, clutching onto the pen tightly.
"I see." Jack turned to look at his accomplice, cracking half a smile. "Well, if you truly want to leave, then go ahead." He urged him to do so, seeming to be unbothered.
The young man stared at him confusingly as he began to turn around to exit the room. Jack quickly got up and reached his arm over to slam the door shut before the young man could even go through it. He pushed him against it and stabbed the pen into his stomach. The young man shouted as his blood gushed out, staining the hardwood floors.
"You can leave anytime you would like," Jack began to say as the young man tried to pry him off, "but do not expect to continue living if you decide to leave." He pushed the pen in deeper and chuckled sinisterly as he could hear the room fill with his shouts of agony. He quickly ripped it out of his stomach, his pen and hand covered in blood as the young man fell to the floor, curled into a ball.
Jack walked over to his desk, staring down at the letter. All it needed was his signature. He pressed the pen to the paper and wrote with the blood, yours truly, Jack.
(A/N) School is ALREADY stressful and its finna be the third week. All I gotta do is finish writing chapter 40 and then publish the last two chapters but I'm so lazy.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Please vote and comment, it helps me out a lot and make sure to follow me to get updates. :)