Tick tick. Tick tick. The ticking of the clock echoed through his mind as Keith stared at his computer quietly, Tick tick. There was something bothering him as he stared at the translation of the Russian writing he had sitting in front of him. The words were a riddle rather than the answer he was looking for, something that Pyxis was trying to make into a trend for Keith to figure out

I am a bird, I am sand, and I am the sun. What am I?

The silence of the building was putting the young detective on edge as he stared at his computer blankly. Why was the killer communicating through riddles? It had nothing to do with him at all so why go through the hassle of finding riddles for him to solve? This wasn't some stupid comic or story where Keith was the hero and Pyxis was that weird villain who spoke solely through riddles and laughed like a madman with a mask over his face. This was real life where any wrong step meant death and he had learned that tonight as he visited the crime scene of Kouki's family.

"You are a bird." Tick tick. "You are the sand and the sun." Keith quietly repeated the riddle out loud as he leaned back in his chair to stare up at the ceiling above him that had water stains from the years of leaky pipes and old age.

What is the answer? Who was Pyxis anyways? Where was the vase? Why was Pyxis targeting Keith? Questions plagued his mind as he covered his face with his hands in annoyance and frustration. Why couldn't god send him a little package with all the answers to his questions? Something simple like that would work wonders for him since it was now currently three in the morning, the office completely deserted except for him and the lights dimly lit the main area where cubical offices laid scattered about with various decorations that complimented the worker that sat there. The police were tracking down the gardener who is now a suspect for fleeing the scene of the murder but something nagged at Keith; Pyxis seemed too skilled to not cover his face like the gardener did. He was doubtful that the man was their killer, it didn't fit Pyxis to make a mistake of showing his face especially since the damage on the inside of the house was devastating, why would he risk going through a fight like that and not conceal his identity in case he wasn't able to kill the family; which he didn't since Kouki lived through the attack.

The quietness of the building reminded him of how his home was before Lance moved in with those two cats he had. The thought of Lucifurr and DaFuzzy made his heart ache, they had a mutual hate for each other but he did kind of miss the fluff balls that Lance called his babies. He sat up and stared at his computer screen for a moment before he cleared his throat and went to Google to look up cat pictures to soothe his aching heart. It was about ten cat pictures later when he received a text message on his phone but he chose to ignore it, assuming it was Lance being Lance and wanting to talk about himself or about what had happened in the car. Keith had destroyed any Christmas spirit that the Latino had, he crushed it right in front of his eyes but did he feel bad about it? No, he let out his stress and it lifted a weight from his body that he didn't think would be lifted so easily.

The phone buzzed again as he scrolled to a cat pun, his eyes narrowed slightly as he ignored it again and decided to be more productive by searching up the vase description on the back of the photo. It was described as a Waterford House of Wicker piece so he typed it in just like that. He scrolled through the various shopping websites until he came across one in particular that caught his eye. It was a vase that looked exactly like the one stolen but the website it belonged to look like it was in some sort of sketchy business. At the top there were big red letters on the black background that read, 'No refunds, no credit card purchases.'

Pretty weird... Keith thought to himself as he wrote down the website address on a piece of paper on his desk when his phone buzzed again. This time instead of ignoring it he rolled his eyes and unlocked it to find he had three messages from Allura. It was three in the morning, she wouldn't be texting at an ungodly hour like this unless she had a reason to. Keith opened his texts quickly and read them just as another message came through.

Allura: Keith, there's some sort of scratching at the door, it might be someone's pet loose in the building but I can't be too sure...

Keith, the door just opened what do I do

Keith.

Someone's in the apartment and Shiro is at work trying to stop a fire that started thirty minutes ago, please help me.

Keith's blood froze in his veins as he read those texts over an dover again as if they were a song on repeat. It was a moment before he could process what was going on before she sent the next text, 'They're dressed in all black'. That was the moment Keith understood that Allura was in trouble, he grabbed his badge and keys to the car parked in the basement that was left in case of emergencies where detectives weren't able to get their car started for whatever reason. He then began to violently pull open the drawers on his desk in anxiety as he began to imagine what was going through his friends mind. It was definitely and intruder but he knew Allura could put up a fight for a few minutes but not long after that, his heart was racing as he ripped open his top right drawer and found it empty.

"Where is it!" He shouted as he slammed it shut and rushed over to his filing cabinet looking for his gun.

He was practically shaking from fear as he opened the cabinet and to his dismay, there was no gun. Without thinking twice he apologized to whatever god was watching from above and rushed to Irene's desk outside and ripped her gun out of her drawer and began to run down the hallway with keys and gun in hand; his badge in his back pocket along with his phone but he had no jacket or any form of protection for if the possibility of his gun being knocked away. He didn't care at all as he shoved open the door to the staircase and ran down them to the parking lot and to one of the spare cars.

He had been timing everything in his head ever since he read her text, it had been two whole minutes and counting. He silently cursed himself out for misplacing his gun and he wrenched open the door to the older car and slammed it shut once he got in it. Once inside he fiddled with the keys as he tried to put them into the ignition but his phone chimed signaling that there was a text message. He didn't think twice as he dropped the keys onto his lap and grabbed the phone to open it. His trembling stopped and shock began to take over his body. The received message was from a blocked number and a simple text sat under a picture of Allura and Shiro's Christmas tree.

"Don't forget the name deary Keith. With love, Pyxis." His breath hitched as his mind began to scream in all different emotions at once.

He was about to lose someone else in his life, he didn't want to stand there and let it happen anymore. He didn't want to involve anyone else with this case, this was now personal to him. The moment Pyxis enters his friends home and sends him texts of it is the moment he's had enough of the games. Keith took in a deep breath and grabbed the keys and shoved them into the ignition before he turned them and sped out of the parking lot without looking back at the phone.

The drive was rather quick, he kept track of everything in his mind as he took the corners with quick speeds and precision. He had wasted about six minutes now, the amount of time that had gone by was not good for Allura in the slightest. He had Irene's gun in his pants, it should be fully loaded much like his own if he could've found it. His phone hadn't made a single noise yet and his shaking was under control as he slammed open his car door and ran into the apartment building without a second thought. He carried his partners gun in his hand, as he reached the door he cursed himself out for not remembering he had to be buzzed inside. He stood in the hallway looking around quizzically. If he buzzed the apartment then it would alert the killer he was there, if he buzzed the apartment owner then they would probably think it's a prank of some sort and leave him on his own.

"Shit." He clicked his tongue before rearing up his elbow and slamming it down onto the glass on the door allowing it to shatter easily even if it stung at his now soon to be bruised arm. "Great, now I have to go now." He grunted as he opened the door and rushed into the building, people rushed out of their apartments in confusion but he shoved them to the side before finally reaching allura's door and stopped.

The handle had been shot with a silenced gun and forced open. 'How classy.' Keith thought to himself as he kicked the door open and raised his gun to lock it onto the first person he saw. In front of the Christmas tree stood Allura and a figure dressed in black, Pyxis. Allura's eyes widened as she saw him, in a near fit of tears she brought her elbow down into Pyxis' gut and managed to get away from him...or her.

The woman grunted as she fell back into the Christmas tree knocking it over in the process. "Keith, shoot her!" Allura shouted as she rushed to stand outside the apartment.

"But-" Keith looked back at Allura in confusion as he tried to process the killers gender. If Pyxis were actually a woman, that would mean the manhunt on the gardener was actually a hunt for a living witness that was much like Kouki. Keith didn't understand it as he stared at the woman slowly getting up from the blow Allura dealt.

"Stupid bitch." The woman growled in a low voice, probably trying to hide her real tone of voice as she grabbed an ornament and whipped it at Keith's head in full force, shattering the glass object onto his head and placing him in a long enough daze for her to rush over and knock his gun from his hands and kick it away.

"Shit!" Keith exclaimed as pain erupted from his forehead, his hands shot up to the newly opened wound that was now bleeding and dripping down into his right eye blurring his vision.

He stumbled backwards and intentionally shut the door to keep Allura out of harms way as she shouted from the other side, her neighbors pulling her back from the door she desperately tried to open up again to help Keith as Pyxis lunged forward and grabbed his work shirt tightly before she placed her free hand onto the back of his head to yank him to her in order to shove him to the ground where she let out a maniacal laugh that made Keith's heart race.

"How's it feel to be the one who's life depends on someone else's choices Keith?" She shouted in a bloodthirsty voice as she slammed his head into the floor causing intense disorientation.

His head swirled as his face was lifted up from the floor slowly. He hasn't even managed to hit her or inflict pain on the killer. Meanwhile, he was like Pyxis' puppet that she could take her stress out on. He saw the gun a few inches away from his reach and felt a sliver of hope show itself in the back of his mind, "It depends Pyxis, whether or not it's my life or yours." He then managed to twist himself from under her and shove the (surprisingly light) girl off of him and he reached for the gun and pointed it at her and fired with a large smile.

★CHAPTER 14★

The room was completely silent as the lingering effects of the gunshot rang through his ears. Pyxis stood with her hand covering her gut where he had shot her and stood there quietly staring down at him. He had done it, he had finally taken down the killer hadn't he? His entire body felt overjoyed as he rose to his feet and watched the girl stumble backwards slowly in pain. He ended it. No more deaths would occur because of him, he avenged Kouki's family and managed to save Allura in time too.

Then his gut twisted into a knot as the killer giggled insanely and stuck her tongue out of her black ski mask as if it were all a joke, her green eyes were full of playfulness as she pulled a dud bullet away from her stomach. "Gotcha." She laughed and reached behind her back to pull out a long pocket knife in which she charged at Keith with.

His reaction was only instinct as he swatted her hand away and grabbed onto her lanky arm and whipped her around him making her stumbled into the kitchen to their right. His heart was racing and his head was in disarray with millions of questions.

Pyxis stood up and turned her body to Keith, "How do you think Abby felt within those few moments Keith? She really thought you were going to save her, you gave her that same scrap of hope you felt mere moments ago and ripped it away from her like a bandaid." She rolled her shoulder as if trying to loosen it before she slowly got back into a fighting stance once more, "I really guess karma comes back to bite you in your ass huh?" She chuckled before rushed towards him again but this time she didn't miss as she dug the blade of her weapon into his stomach and pulled away from him with the blood soaked blade and backed away slowly as he clasped his hand over his wound that was bleeding profusely.

"H-How do you know who Abby is?" He asked in confusion, taking a step back as he tried to keep himself upright, but his head swam from blood loss.

Pyxis shrugged and threw her hands up as she tilted her head slightly, "I dunno, perhaps public records... I thought you were supposed to be the best detective that the city of Tristitia had to offer but you're more of a..." She placed her bloody knife over her bottom lip and looked up at the ceiling as she fell into a deep thought. "Uh I don't know, a dumbass?" She offered a raised eyebrow to him as if she were asking him if it was the correct word to describe him.

"I'm not the best, I'm merely average..." He breathed slowly, his legs beginning to weaken beneath him. "Now what the hell did you do to get those records of my family?" He asked with fierceness.

Pyxis licked the knife with a sadistic grin on her face, her green eyes squinted and blonde eyebrows dipped into frown. "Why don't we talk about that in your apartment huh? We've got to many visitors here." She closed the knife and slid it into her pocket, "Just so you know, I won't stop until you solve the puzzle Mr. Kogane, it's a simple game of cat and mouse where I'm the mouse and you're the cat." She walked over to the living room window and slid it open slowly, "But I guess it's the other way around since I'm about to go play with the cats at your house and the stupid mouse who's been crying ever since he got back from the hospital." She raised her hand into the air and smiled brightly at him, "Toodaloo Keith! Until later!" She jumped out and then ran out into the snowy streets outside.

Keith felt sick as he stumbled over to the front door and opened it slowly to find frightened civilians holding back a puffy eyed Allura with a bloody wrist. "Keith..." She breathed in horror as she looked at his wounds.

"Yeah...hospital later..." He mumbled under his breath as he stumbled down the hallways like a drunk person, his wound on his abdomen dripped blood onto the tile as he pushed open the doors leading outside and then began his trek towards his apartment.

He couldn't take anything that Pyxis said lightly anymore, she was telling Keith that Lance was next and that alone set off a fire inside of him as he slowly made his way through the park leaving a crimson trail of splatters on the snow behind him. As a child living in Jared's home, he was taught that with enough willpower you could do anything and get through the toughest things. Another thing he learned was that thinking of a happy situation in a bad one would calm your nerves and give you a chance to think clearly. Keith was using these words of advice to push himself through the pain of walking through the park that he would often sit in by himself to stare up at the stars or just to simply read a book with the peaceful wind gently pulling at his long hair. He imagined Lance standing in the kitchen moving his hips to the beat of a song as he sang to his cats with puns for names, and eating a pudding cup like the child he was.

Keith smiled at the thought of that situation, just being able to stumble into the apartment like that, in a hurry to save his friend only to see the tall dumbass acting like his life was completely normal. "How nice...would that be." Keith smiled to himself weakly as his right eye stung from all the blood flowing into it, forcing him to close it shut.

He imagined how Lance would react, he would probably point his spoon at Keith and rant at him on how Keith was over reacting about a loose threat from a psychotic killer on the loose and how he could protect him and his babies if he needed to. In actuality, the cats would probably protect Lance, not the other way around. Keith reached his apartment building and stumbled into the staircase door to push it open and dragged his body up each step slowly as he began to have issues catching his breath. When he reached the floor his apartment was on, he was gasping for air and had suffered from a large amount of blood loss that would cause him to lose consciousness soon. His head swam as he managed to walk into the hallway and over to his door. On the wooden door laid a star carved into it, the signature symbol of his enemy; the sign of death he would never grow used to.

Without a second thought about his health he managed to slam the door open in fear of the killer already executing his roommate inside but what he found absolutely astonished him. Inside was Lance sitting on his couch cuddling his cats with a blanket around them as they watched one of Keith's many horror films he had in his movie library. Lance and the two cats looked at him with wide eyes full of surprise.

Lances jaw dropped at the state that Keith was in. His head was bleeding and his hand that had been covering his stab wound was covered in his own blood; all in all Keith looked terrible...which was only an understatement. "W-what the hell happened to you Keith?!" Lance shouted, jumping out of his seat causing Lucifurr and DaFuzzy to jump down and surprisingly rush over to Keith in curiosity.

"Is she...not here?" Keith looked around the room breathlessly as he began to feel light headed and sick suddenly.

Lance rushed over and grabbed Keith just as he had begun to fall over, he held him in his arms roughly as he tried to figure out what to do with the bleeding man in his arms. "Who? No ones here Keith, what the hell is going on?" Lance began to sound panicked as he dragged Keith to the couch to lay him down and grabbed his cellphone sitting on the table nearby.

"P..." Keith couldn't even breathe out the word before his sight began to go black, only Lance's words kept him awake.

A gentle smack was felt on his cheek which made his eyes flutter open slowly to find the blue eyed man leaning over him with a look of concern as he basically yelled into the phone in a panicked voice. "I don't know what the hell happened lady! He just barged into the apartment and he was bloody!" He threw his free hand into the air in frustration as he went to turn away from Keith, possibly to grab something to put on his wounds.

In a final attempt, Keith reached out to grab onto Lance's blood soaked T-shirt but as his fingertips brushed against his friends back, he finally lost consciousness with the image of wide blue eyes looking over their shoulder in his head; and only the feeling of relief was felt.
'He's safe.'