His vision blurs and goes dark before appearing in the past.

The woman is laid down on the ground with multiple cuts and bruises all over her body.

Above the woman, a man stands smiling and laughing while holding a cane. His black coat, top hat, and face are stained by blood. The man has blue eyes, a grey mustache, and his face is pale as a ghost. The man looks around 40 to 50 years old.

The man crouches down and punches the woman's face multiple times. The woman tries to scream, but no sound comes out—her windpipe is crushed. The man slides his fingers down the woman's face, caressing her body in a twisted manner. He gets up and raises his cane above his head. There is a hidden blade at the end of it. He plunges it down into the woman's chest, his sadistic grin deepening as she dies.

What the actual fuck? This guy's mind is wretched.

Adrian opts to not rewind the vision, not wanting to see more of this scene.

He touches the woman's body, his vision returning back to the present.

He runs outside and looks to the sky, hoping to take his mind off what he saw, but it's etched into his mind—it refuses to leave.

"Give me details," Michael asks from inside the room.

"The murderer is a man. He killed her slowly and painfully. He was enjoying every single fucking second of it."

"Give me more, I need descriptions."

Adrian recalls the scene in his mind and starts describing the man.

"He was wearing a coat and top hat. He had a grey mustache, and he looked old, around 50 years old."

Voices fill Adrian's mind more painfully than last time. He clutches the top of his head and groans through clenched teeth.

Michael looks at him, waiting for Adrian to recover.

"Was he a Revenant or not?"

"No clue, he had no reason to show his power."

"The victim was a street girl. That bastard killed her after getting her to perform her services. Some sick fucking fetish," Michael said.

"The next body is at the end of the alley." Michael gets out of the dingy room and walks towards the end of the alley, with Adrian following suit.

At the end of the alley lies the body of a man in torn clothes with a bloody handprint on his neck, his stomach area bleeding profusely, with his wrists cut and a slash in his neck.

Adrian braces himself, then touches the body.

The killer walked out of the dark alleyway. He ran into a man who towered over him. The man noticed the blood on him, but before he could do anything, he was grabbed and tossed onto the ground. The killer reached into his pocket and took out a knife with a gold-crested handle. He kneeled down on top of the man and slashed his arms and legs before stabbing his abdomen multiple times and ending with one final stab to the throat. His laughs got louder with each injury he inflicted. His smile and laughter were less than with his previous victim. For some reason, he enjoyed this kill less.

He's a fucking Revenant, alright. Overpowering someone bigger than you like that isn't possible.

Adrian touches the victim's body, having his vision return to the present.

"He's a Revenant. He grabbed and tossed this guy with ease, despite being smaller than him. This kill didn't seem premeditated; he ran into him after killing the previous victim. He didn't want to leave witnesses, so he killed him too, using a knife with a gold-crested handle. He seemed to enjoy this kill less."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"He enjoys killing women more, probably due to hate."

Adrian braces his head for the voices to come again, but nothing happens after a few seconds.

Where are the voices?

"Hey, Michael, why am I not hearing voices this time?"

"You haven't gotten a proper explanation on madness, huh? Madness has different intensities. A normal level will result in it only happening after using your powers two times. The best way to decrease and eventually get rid of it is to use your powers in your own way. For me, it was beating the shit out of criminals, but it's different for each person. You gotta find your own method."

"Thank you for giving an actual explanation, but more importantly, how are we going to catch him?"

"With what we have right now, we can't. We need a motive, a name, or anything we can use to track him down, which we don't have right now. We should go check out the third body. Hopefully, that will give us something." Michael starts walking back towards the carriage. Adrian follows behind him.

They step onto the carriage.

"Grimshade Alley," Michael commands the carriage driver.

Adrian sits down quietly and stares into the abyss as his brain tries to process what he's seen.

"Are you afraid?"

"I don't know."

"It's normal to be afraid after seeing some fucked up shit like that. But don't let it stay as fear—let it fuel you and your desire to make sure it never happens again. That's our job. We entrench ourselves in darkness so that others can live in the light. That is the PRF's job. Always remember that."

What if I don't want to live in darkness? If I had it my way, I would be back at home playing a game or something.

...

The carriage comes to a halt. Adrian and Michael get out to the similar sight of another tight alley.

Michael walks over to a wooden door that's close to decay.

"It's in here." Michael pushes the door with little force. It opens.

They step inside to see another horrific sight. The body of a naked woman is strapped to a chair, beaten, slashed, and bloody. Her wrists are cut open, and her face and stomach are badly bruised and beaten.

"This guy is fucking insane. I can't wait to kill him," Michael clenches his fist as he tries to resist the urge to punch the wall.

Adrian steps closer and touches the woman's body. His vision blurs before going back into the past.

The woman is tied to the wooden chair with rope. The same killer from before is standing in front of her. He grabs her face and forcefully kisses her.

She bites his tongue. Blood sprays out of his mouth. He doesn't react—he seems to enjoy the pain in a twisted way.

"Fucking bitch," he shouts before punching the woman in the stomach.

He continues beating on the woman. Harrowing screams fill the room. The killer laughs and says, "That's good, scream more for me," in a tone of pleasure. He pulls out his knife and makes an incision on her stomach, then slashes her two wrists in quick succession before going behind her and slowly driving his knife into her neck. A bloody smile appears as her life slips away.

Sadistic fuck. I have to kill him.

Adrian touches the victim's body, his vision returning to the present.

"Nothing helpful. He tried kissing her forcefully, but she bit his tongue. Blood gushed out, but he didn't seem to feel any pain from it—he enjoyed it instead. He then retaliated by beating her, then slashing her arms and legs before inserting his knife into her neck. He took much more pleasure in killing her than the man."

"The victim was another street girl. His pattern seems to be preying on unsuspecting street girls, luring them and killing them. He gets a sick fucking kick out of it. His next target will probably be another street girl," Michael says.

"He also slashes his victims' wrists before killing them. It's like a fucking ritual or some shit," Adrian responds.

"We can catch the fu—" Michael's words are interrupted by voices filling Adrian's mind, talking in an indecipherable language. His head hurts more than before—the intensity has increased.

Adrian stumbles and takes flight. A force grabs at him mid-flight and puts him back on his feet. The invaders clear away from his mind.

"Thank you, but it seems like the intensity is increasing the more I use it. What should I do?"

"I can't help you with that. You have to find your own way—really think about what you want to do with your abilities and use them in that way."

"You were going to say something before I fell?"

"We can catch the fucker by hanging around here at night, looking for anybody suspicious, hiring street girls. It won't work well, but it's all we got. For now, we gotta go back to the station and write a report on him." Michael leaves the room and goes towards the carriage.

...

They arrive back at the station. Michael goes into the records room and pulls out a paper and pen.

"Sit down and write everything I say."

Adrian follows his command, descending onto the couch and crouching over the table with the pen in hand.

"First, this case's name. Let's go with..."

"The Butcher."