Grant stepped down the alley once again. The same one that he had been through a few times now. The nearby street lamps flickered for a moment as something flew by overhead, but Grant ignored it. The white chalk on the ground had vanished from the rain the previous night. His flashlight was quite bright, lighting up the alley to just how it would be in the day, except dyed white.

Something was different this time. He came here to look at the odd wall again, but this time it was missing. It had entirely vanished. Instead, there was an alcove, with a hut made of cardboard and scrap wood. A tarp hung over the top as a waterproof coating.

Inside were two sleeping bags, one of which was torn at various places, with the fiber filling slowly spilling out. The other one was rather pristine, if only a little washed out. Large reddish-brown stains covered a few parts of the structure, mostly on the outside.

"Damn I can't see shit," echoed a voice from behind Grant.

"Fetter, shut up and get over here."

Fetter walked up, letting out a dramatic whistle as he came up to the structure. "Is this shit supposed to be where someone lived? Don't they know about all the housing programs?"

"That would be unless they didn't want the government to know they existed."

"I suppose not."

Fetter immediately started walking off, kicking his feet against the ground.

"Fetter! Where are you going? Did something happen? You seem rather off."

Fetter stopped. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about some stuff. I might have fucked up earlier."

"What happened?"

"Nero went to District 13."

"Is he okay? Wasn't he the target of the attack at the campus?"

"He's fine. He's fine. But he called me begging me to bring Don out to him, because someone was dying."

"Since you are here. I'm guessing you didn't?"

"Yeah. I didn't. I feel like shit, but I also feel like it's what I needed to do."

"You let someone die."

"I did. Maybe they were already dead, but I didn't check, so it's basically the same. I can't risk my brother on someone I don't know. That woman could have been there."

"The one with the purple hair?"

"Yeah."

Grant knelt down and peeked inside the structure. The two sleeping bags were disheveled, but the ripped open one looked like it had just been thrown to the side, the other one was at odd angles, but still flat. Like someone had squirmed around on top of it. He wrote this down on his notepad.

Fetter shook his head a few times before turning back to Grant. "What's with all these blood stains? They're like smeared everywhere. Did someone die here?"

"Look at their height. Between two and six feet, and they are all smears, no pools."

"So someone wiped it there? Like with their hands?"

"Most likely." Grant put down his notepad, and snapped a few pictures with his phone before moving the sleeping bags around with his gloved hands.

"This torn up sleeping bag also has a few spots on the inside of it. So we can guess the owner of it to be the one who smeared blood." He snapped another picture.

"Why are there two?"

"Because it looks like there was a fourth person, at least."

"So you were telling me that the victim was probably the serial killer? So he smeared the blood everywhere when he came back home."

"Yeah."

"And there was someone else with him that didn't help him with the killings."

Grant scratched at his scalp. "Seems so. I wonder what their connection to Jack was."

"Lets see. Lover? Friend? Child?"

"You can't just list all the possible connections and claim you were right."

"I didn't say coworker. Or hostage, I didn't say that either."

Grant's hand lowered down to rub his face instead, before falling back to his thigh. He shuffled a little further into the shack, hunched over and squatted down. He moved around the cardboard at the back of it, flipping through the folded boxes until he spotted something at the back of it.

"Fetter! I found something."

"What is it?"

Grant crawled out, holding up a small black cylinder. It was a phone.

"Damn. A big score for the big man. Does it work?"

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"It's not turning on, but the battery might be dead. Let's bag up evidence and get out of here."

"Alright."

***

Maria stopped at the hole in the wall. "This is as far as I can take you. I'm going back." The redness in her eyes had mostly faded by now, but her voice was still cracking and hollow.

"Alright. I got it from here. Thank you for leading me back. And I'm sorry. I..."

"You didn't do anything. You don't need to apologize. I'm sorry that you had to be here for that and I-"

"I'm apologizing because I feel terrible." Nero stepped up to the hole in the wall. "I should leave. You need to go back to that hospital."

"Goodbye Nero." Maria walked off into the dark.

Once Nero was on the other side of the wall, he shifted the junk back in front of the hole, just as maria had the first time. He went out onto the street, nearly stumbling around in the moonlight. After bumping into a pole, he turned on the flashlight of his phone. He wandered around for a few minutes, before a ringing voice called out to him.

"Freeze!"

Nero jumped backwards, falling over against the ground. His phone spun around for a moment, before ending with its light shining back at him. Another light clicked on. Nero couldn't see past it, and tried shielding his eyes with his hands.

The woman holding the flashlight started yelling. "I come out here to check on border security here, and there's someone wandering around the wall, with a flashlight?! What are you doing out here? Playing games on your phone instead of working?"

Her flashlight turned away from Nero, shining instead on a couple men in blue uniforms.

"No sir!" one of them replied.

"Give me your phone officer!" she shouted back.

The man dug his hand in to his pocket, and pulled out his own phone only for it to be snatched from his hand. After fumbling around for a bit, sending the flaslight randomly around the buildings around them, it stopped. She turned it back to the man, handing his phone back to him.

"I guess I can't say so little of you! Maybe you were just jerking off instead!" Despite being right next to the men, she still shouted everything at them.

"Am I not allowed to be out here?" Nero asked sheepishly.

"Grab him already!" she ordered.

The two men marched over picked up Nero by his arms before wrenching them behind his back. One of them locked him into cuffs, and the other took a few paces back.

The woman walked closer, still shining her flashlight directly in Nero's face. Once she was right up on him, she pointed it to the ground, and Nero could finally see her.

"Director Sharp. Procedure indicates we should give a warning for trespassing on the first offense."

"I know you." She said while leaning awkwardly close to Nero's face. "You're that kid that caused a fiasco at the campus. Take this one into custody under the Residential Protection Act!"

"You think he's a terrorist?"

"He might have ties. He was the one who almost got abducted from the campus. Since he's hanging around District 13 now, I have reason to believe he could be associated with any of District 13's terror groups."

"He's just a kid."

"Follow orders!"

"Yes sir!" The man behind Nero pushed him along.

***

"Don't I get a phone call or something like that?" Nero asked, leaning forward against the table.

The man across from him didn't respond, instead just letting out a sigh.

"I want a lawyer."

The man still didn't answer. Instead, he got up and walked out of the room. He looked around awkwardly before jumping a bit when the door burst open. Director Sharp slammed it back shut with a thunderous boom.

"Nero Satou. What were you doing at the border of District 13."

"Walking."

"Where?"

Nero paused for a moment. "Aimlessly."

"Do you know what time it was?"

"About one-thirty?"

"Yes. Why would a college student like yourself be wandering around District 12 at one-thirty in the morning when you have class in the morning?"

"It helps with my anxiety."

"Working with terrorists helps your anxiety?"

"I wasn't working with terrorists."

"Who were you working with then?"

"I was... I wasn't working with anyone."

She let out a sigh before sitting down at the table. She spent a few moments softening her angry face into something like compassion, and then gave him a little smile. "Alright look. This will be a hell of a lot easier for you if you work with us. We're trying to catch some very bad people out there. It seems like you know something about them. If you work with us, you'll be rewarded for doing the right thing. You just have to tell us about them. You don't have to worry if they are threatening you-"

"That's not what I was doing."

"What were you doing then?"

"Walking."

Jessica slammed her hands down on the table, causing Nero to jump. "Don't lie to me Nero!" She slumped back into the chair. "I'm just trying to help you help us. You can talk to me."

"I was taking a walk. Why don't you believe me?"

"We have footage of you," she answered immediately. "In District 13."

Nero furrowed his brow for a bit. "I want a lawyer."

"Sorry. I have to go do something now. I'll be back later." She stood up, and quietly left Nero alone in the room.

She turned down the hall, to see Grant Johnson walking towards her. "Agent Johnson! What are you doing here?"

"I recieved a call that someone I knew got picked up along the border between Districts 12 and 13. I was going to go talk to him."

"You know Nero Satou?" she asked.

"Yeah. He was one of the people that Fetter Young and I saved from a mugging a couple years ago. I ran into him a few times after that."

"Who authorized you to talk to him?"

"I have the authority to do so on my own, as a senior investigator."

Jessica's expression tightened and twisted before she stomped off.

Grant moved to the room and saw Nero lift his head up off the table as he entered.

"Agent Johnson?" Nero said.

"Yeah. What happened to you?"

"I got caught in District 12 on a walk."

"Did you ask for a lawyer?"

"Yeah. I told them I wanted a lawyer."

Grant clicked his tongue. "They probably pretended to not hear- No they took that as a statement of fact, not as a request for a lawyer."

"What?"

"You didn't tell them to give you a lawyer, you told them you wanted a lawyer."

"What's the dif- Oh come on. That lady also said they somehow had footage of me in District 13."

"She probably lied to you. If she had footage they wouldn't be asking."

"Are you going to interrogate me too?"

"No. I'm here to get you out. Get up."

Nero stood up, before shambling over. "What time is it?"

"Almost seven."

"I need to go to class. I can't let my grade drop from absences, I-"

"Don't worry about that Nero. I'll make some calls and get you excused. Trust me. You need to go home and sleep."

Grant gave him a couple rough pats on the back as he led him out of the interrogation room.