Jolene got into her father's car and he pulled away without saying a word. "Does Eric's parents know you kids came here?"

"No."

"Do you even know the stories about that place?"

"What stories?"

"About that crazy old butcher who killed all those people and himself in there?"

"So it's true then?"

"It was all over the news even before I met your mother. The plant didn't last long after that because of all the accidents that kept happening so the authorities closed it down because of the safety issue. I never want to hear that you and your friends came to one of these places again, is that clear?"

"Yes dad," Jolene mumbled.

"I think I should ground you for this."

"I didn't want to come along in the first place. It was Eric and Priscilla's idea. I just tagged along because I couldn't stay at their place alone."

"You could have asked Eric to drop you off at home."

"Sorry."

"Yeah."

******

The next morning early at the Pasadena police station Bradley, Lara and a few detectives sat around a table in the boardroom discussing the latest case of the Pasadena ripper. A behavioural analysist stood at a white board with pictures talking about their sub. "In the nineties Pasadena was shocked with the first series of murders by the Pasadena butcher, better known as the Pasadena ripper. Back then the victims were young, in their late teens or early twenties. He was eventually caught and put in a high security facility. Now we either have a copycat at large or our ripper was released and went on a new killing spree."

A reporter raised her hand.

"Yes, you have a question."

"Why do serial killers kill?"

"Most serial killers kill because they are motivated by a fear of rejection, perfection or power. The feel insecure about themselves. They are terrified of being abandoned or exposed. Killing their victims gives them a sense of power or control over the victim. They believe the only power that matters is the power to destroy, cause pain or kill. They often focus on an specific category of people. They continue to kill because they get addicted to the feelings they get when they do."

"So how do you define them?"

"They have no less than four victims. Normally the victim is a stranger with no connections. They have a need to brutally kill their victims. Their motives are rarely materialistic, mostly psychological. They prey on vulnerable victims. Statistically they are mostly Caucasian, of a lower middle class status, between the ages of early twenties to thirties, had a history of suffering emotional and physical abuse from parents or foster homes.

*****

Julian, his wife and daughters had dinner as a family in the dining room. Julian first said a dinner prayer and then dished up some food on his plate. "How was school today baby?" Lorena asked Jolene as she was busy filling her glass with orange juice.

"It was okay, sort of."

"Sort of? And you Sonya?" Lorena asked smiling.

"It was good."

"Julian?" Lorena asked following on Sonya's reply.

He smiled. "The usual. You know trauma surgery never goes without some sort of drama."

"What happened?"

"A kid fell of a swing face first. He was terrified of me so he gave me a difficult time to have a look at him."

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Jolene snickered. "I don't blame him dad. I would be terrified of you too if I was a kid."

"Oh Jolene, you're so mean," Sonya replied on her sister's remark.

Julian looked at Jolene and smiled crookedly. "Really, do I look that scary?"



"Really, but I still love you dad."

"We'll that's comforting to know."

After dinner they gathered in the TV room to watch some TV. Julian was sitting on the sofa with his wife and Jolene sat on the adjacent chair curled up underneath a light polar fleece blanket. Sonya was sitting on the floor in front of her father. Lorena was holding the two month old Luke, feeding him his bottle while Julian channel hopped on the remote to take a peek of what was on TV and Jolene fiddled with a pack of horse cards. Julian curiously looked at Jolene. "Where did you get those?"

"Mom got them for me at the tack store yesterday."

"What did you get at the tack store this time?" Julian looked at Lorena with a puckered brow. He was too well aware of her propensity to spoil the girls every now wand then.

"Mom got me some new gear for your horse."

"Your mother is spoiling you too much. Let me see."

Jolene handed her father the pack of cards to have a look at. "They have all the breeds, and heights, weights etcetera."

Julian smiled. "Almost like the baseball cards I had as a boy." Julian packed them back in the box and stood up taking Jolene by her hands. "Come on sweetheart. Bedtime for you. It's still school tomorrow." He pulled her up from the armchair.

"Night mom. Night dad." Jolene left the TV room and sprinted up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Come on Sonya, you too." Julian took hold of her hands and pulled her up from the floor.

"Good night daddy." She gave him a bear hug and then ran up the stairs to her bedroom.

Julian sat down on the couch again and admired his baby son who was now sleeping. "How's my little guy."

"Daddy, he's doing fine. He's a real little angel."

"And beautiful too."

Lorena smiled and pulled at the collar of Julian's shirt. "He's so handsome. Just like his daddy. Shall we pack it in for the night?"

"Yeah. I had a hard day at the hospital." Julian sighed. "Sometimes it's killing me. I wish I could spend more time with you and the kids. I spend so much time at the hospital that I forgot what it's like to take the car and go somewhere for a weekend and take the girls to the beach and take you out to the movies and for dinner. It feels like I'm neglecting you all."



"But you love your job honey. I'm proud of you. I thank God every day for sending you my way."

Lorena's parents weren't so enthusiastic about Julian when their daughter met him. They wanted to marry her off to a very wealthy oil tycoon and a rancher from Dallas and tried everything in their power to try and split them apart, but Julian was was head over heals in love with her, so much that their efforts did not put a damper on his pursuit of Lorena. She was as much in love too and saw something in Julian her parents failed to notice, and she was convinced that he was the one that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with and grow old with. Almost two decades later, they still felt the same about each other as they did then.

"I'm going upstairs so long." She gave him a peck on the cheek.

Julian went upstairs later and stopped at Jolene's bedroom. The door was halfway open and he peeked inside to look at her. "Goodnight sweetheart."

"Goodnight dad."

"Sleep tight."

"You too."

*****

Present...

Julian walked up to his Volkswagen Touareg that stood deserted in the hospital parking lot, turned off the alarm, got in and relaxed for a moment before he started the car and drove off. He drove along a suburban road and then turned onto the on-ramp that led up to Foothill freeway. A dense fog eerily hung over the road like a thick blanket causing visibility on the road to be very limited. He was just about to enter one of the tunnels on the freeway when he noticed the florescent lights along the top sides flickering on and off eerily. Having the radio on and listening to a CD while singing along, the radio suddenly started to malfunction.



It switched onto some random radio station, tuning in and out erratically with static on the speakers. Julian looked down at the radio baffled when all of a sudden it sounded like a female voice was screaming for help from underneath the static on the speakers. "What the hell?" He wasn't sure if his ears were deceiving him and frowned as he tried to get his music back on while still keeping an eye on the road. To his relief the CD started playing again, but abruptly out of nowhere as he was about to leave the tunnel, a young blonde girl in her teens popped up in the road right in front of his car, with her back towards the car and gave him a fright. "Shit!" He closed his eyes for a moment, waiting for impact, slammed on the brakes and the Volkswagen skid forwards moving right through her, slithering from side to side and almost spinning out of control.

To his relief he didn't hear the expected thumping noise. Still gripping onto the steering wheel and somewhat startled, he opened his eyes as soon as the car came to a complete standstill and took a few moments to gain back his composure. "Dammit, that was close."

Rattled, he looked into the rear-view mirror and saw her still standing in the middle of the freeway. He couldn't comprehend how he managed to not hit her on impact. She was so close when he saw her, she practically could have popped up from underneath the hood of the car. He got out of the car and walked up to her.



"Hey, are you okay?" She didn't react to his question and just stood there crying. Either his eyes were busy deceiving him or she was real. When he gathered enough courage, he continued walking towards her and when he got close enough he noticed she was exceptionally pale and trembling. He noticed the massive cut on her left side with blood seeping out of the wound. There was a sudden nip in the air that made the hair on his neck and arms stand on end, and when he touched her she was cold as ice. "Sweetheart you're freezing." He took off his jacket and threw it over her shoulders before he almost protectively guided her towards the car and opened the door for her to get in.