Prologue
|Killer|

The muffled cries of the girl felt like music to her ears. The girl was tied to the bedpost of her own room. Her hair was a tangled mess. A woman was sitting beside her, a knife held light in her hand, smiling softly at the girl.

Her face was barely lit from the candle illuminating the room with its warmth. Her dark black eyes stared at the girl. The fiery shade of bright orange falling on her face made her look even more perilious.

"Don't worry. I'll be very quick. You won't feel anything," she said. She leaned in towards the girl, pressing the blunt side of the knife against the girl's forehead.

The girl shrieked loudly but her voice barely made it through the cloth pressed against her mouth. She squirmed and thrashed in her bed, trying to free herself. Her body was sore from all the pain she was feeling in her limbs.

The woman touched the girl's lips barely visible from the cloth tied around her mouth, motioning her to stay quiet.

"Why are you screaming? If you scream or thrash once again, I'll make your death very painful," she whispered, her voice growing darker as the seconds passed.

The woman glided her knife down the girl's thighs in a slow movement as if she were touching fur. Blood dripped from where the knife had touched the girl's skin.

The girl moaned as pain coursed through her body. Tears nipped at the corners of her eyes. She kept sobbing as she waited for her death.

She had let the woman in, now she was paying for it.

The lady looked at her with amusement laced in her eyes. She touched her cheek with her gloved hand, wiping the tears away.

"Don't cry. I don't like it when people cry. It lessens their beauty. If you calm down I'll not hurt you but if you keep crying like that, I'll have no other choice but to kill you," she told her, "Will you be a good girl?"

The girl nodded as she struggled to keep her fear at bay.

"You want to end this, don't you?" she asked, "You want me to let you go. Am I not right?"

The girl nodded once again, afraid to upset the assailant who was looming over her helpless frame. She was death itself, hidden in the body of a lovely woman.

The woman smiled, satisfied with her answer. She gazed at the girl with a longing look in her eyes. She let out a deep sigh before continuing her little conversation.

"I'll let you go, but you have to do something for me in return. You have to give me your love. Would you give me your love?" she whispered into her ear.

The girl nodded frantically, ready to do anything to be left alone by the woman.

The woman's smile grew wider.

"Thank you for your consent," she said before rising to from the bed. In one swift motion, she plunged the knife straight through the girl's heart.

"But your love can only be mine if you die.''

The distinct sound of police cars echoed in the outskirts of the town. Detectives Alex Ricosta and Mary Parker got out of their respective cars.

A body was lying dead in the cold alleyway near one of the town's most famous clubs, a knife lodged in her heart.

The partners searched the alley for any sign of evidence, but they found nothing. Whoever was killing those girls progressing ever so fastly, making each death worse than the others. The number of deaths occurring in the town was getting higher as the days passed. The detectives had done their best to find anything that could lead them to the killer, but the criminal was too smart.

"This case is the worst I've ever dealt with in my whole life!" Detective Mary said to her partner, "Whoever killed these girls is a monster. He deserves to be punished."

"Yes, that he deserves for sure," said Detective Alex Ricosta, looking at the body of the mutilated girl one last time before handing over authority to the forensics team that had arrived just moments ago.

As they turned to leave the crime scene, a soft yawn escaped Detective Ricosta's lips.

"Let's go to our place. There we can discuss the case and I'll make us coffee," said Detective Parker as she got into her car.

Detective Alex got inside his and followed Parker through the narrow routes of Downtown.

He pulled up in front of a huge abandoned warehouse. Detective Mary and Alex got inside. The fresh air of coffee and baked goods greeted their worn souls. This was indeed the best place for them to gather their thoughts.

Alex took a seat in front of the old metal table, pulling out some files from its drawer. They were the files of the victims.

Mary arrived soon with two cups of coffee. She handed one to Detective Ricosta and began sipping on her own as she sat down on a chair turned towards him.

"Alex, we've found no clue whatsoever. There is no similarity between the victims. It's been four months since the killings started, and we've not found a single clue about the killer, " said Detective Mary, trying to analyze the files in front of her.

"We'll find him soon enough. Don't worry Parker. It's not like he can run forever," Detective Ricosta assured his partner.

"Could you give me the file of that girl from two days ago? The one who was found dead in Hotel Midnight? I haven't studied her case yet. It might give us a hunch."

Mary handed the file over to him. His eyes scrounged the paper for anything that could be deemed useful. There must have been something useful, something that can help him with the lead.

An irritated sigh escaped his lips.

"So, what do you think about disclosing the information of the case to the public?" asked Detective Mary, "We haven't mentioned the 'stab to the heart' thing yet. I think they deserve to know."

After a few moments of thinking, Alex finally spoke up, "We should do that tomorrow."

After a few hours worth of useless attempts in finding something relevant to the case, they decided it was time for them to leave.

"See you later, Parker," said Alex, opening the door and getting into his car. He tried the ignition a few times, failing miserably with each passing attempt. It wasn't working.

Detective Parker let out a chuckle. "Well, I guess you'll have to get it repaired. Come on, I'll drop you home."

"What about the car?"

"Leave it here. It's not like anyone comes here except for us."

"I guess I owe you one now," said Alex as he walked over to her car.

"I wonder what you'd do without me," Mary replied with a chuckle, pulling on the seatbelt and securing it against her body. Her foot clamped down on the brakes as she pushed the button beside her steering wheel. The engine revved to life, ready for liftoff at the Detective's command.

"Mind if I put on some tunes?" asked Alex, fumbling with his keychain till he happened upon the pen drive he had linked to it.

"What? You thought I'd say no?"

Detective Ricosta smiled as Mary took off, watching the abandoned settlements whiz by as the country tunes sank into his racked nerves. His line of work didn't require him to move much physically.

But if one were to look at it from a mental point of view, his was easily one of the worst jobs in the world. He couldn't wait to meet with his newly purchased bed, to fall into its feathery embrace and wake up one day into the future. Even the thought of it made him drowsy.

They had reached Arigale avenue, which was halfway to Detective Alex's house. It wouldn't take them more time to reach his house.

Suddenly, Alex felt the air get knocked out of him.

"Easy on the brakes, Parker!"

Mary, however, had a nasty scowl on her face. Her eyes glared daggers at the car that had just zipped by them.

"Alex!" she bellowed as she pointed her finger at the glove box.

Detective Alex thought that whoever it was, he was done for. Driving like that was surely gonna buy him a ticket to prison.

Detective Mary floored the accelerator as Alex climbed out of the car's window. He fixed the siren on the car's roof, switched it on as he buckled back in. Red and blue flashed around them as they followed the car that had passed them by.

Alex leaned forward. Something was wrong.

"What's wrong Ricosta?"

"That car's swerving on a straight road Parker. Keep a distance, but don't lose sight."

The two detectives watched as the car swung into the pavement. It crashed into a wall with a loud bang, screeching to a halt.

"Dial 911!" Detective Ricosta screamed as he rushed out of their stopped car. Mary fumbled with her phone as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "We've got a car accident in the Arigale south precinct, Block 15 A."

Mary got out of her car, running over to her partner who had been staring into their victim's windshield.

"You look kind of pale Ale-"

Mary felt her stomach churn. It was not possible. This couldn't have happened.

There, in front of them was a girl, with her leg tied to the accelerator.

Alex felt a lump in his throat as he stared at her wide-eyed corpse, blood streaming down the knife lodged in her heart.

"Detective Mary, I believe we have a case to open."

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