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“Put your hands up!”

Was that Andrew? What had taken him so long? She knew he was a coward but still, didn’t he care about his partner?

“It’s me Andrew! Go grab the first aid kit!”

…

When she had finally finished patching up the women, several other cops and paramedics arrived. If the killer had gone mad and decided to kill everyone here they would’ve shown up to a building filled with corpses, given how long it took them to arrive. No matter how she looked at it they simply were not capable of catching the killer. She felt that even if they knew exactly who he was they still wouldn’t be able to catch him.

It didn’t stem from a feeling of failure or hopelessness either. From the beginning to the present he had always been a step ahead of them, the way he disappeared from crime scenes was as if he knew exactly where every single person was going to be. If they continued to operate the way they were right now then they would never be able to catch him.

How could they change though? What could they possibly do that would give them the edge? Even if he only targeted criminal organizations, they themselves were not able to get to them before he could. His method of doing things was almost cheating, how she wished she could force information out of someone without repercussion. That was her main problem with the police system, they were too slow and inefficient.

Why did the wellbeing of a criminal matter to anyone? Was protecting a criminal's rights more important than preventing more victims from being created? The more she thought about it the more she empathized with the killer. Who wouldn’t get tired of an incompetent system continuously failing to protect the people? Hold on… maybe… maybe that was the killer's goal! He had no reason to post that video other than to gain attention!

With every group of criminals destroyed more and more people would begin to ask questions. How could one person do what the entire police force couldn’t? What was the police doing all this time? Was there corruption in play? Could the police be trusted? Could the government be trusted? She could already predict how the situation would play out. The majority would still label him as an insane killer but a small minority out there somewhere would label him as a hero. Soon that group would snowball into a fanatical force willing to obey all his commands.

He wasn’t just mindlessly killing people as he pleased, he was trying to throw society into chaos! She had to get the reporters out of there! No! She couldn’t do that either. Any attempt to silence the media by the police would further reinforce support for him. There had to be a way! It simply wasn’t possible that they had absolutely no way of stopping him! He was still human after all.

If they could get some criminal psychologists on the case they would be able to gain a better grasp of the characteristics of the killer. Fortunately she wasn’t the only person who had thought of this. As she escorted the women down the stairs and out of the building she saw him. Tom Rostwood, officially he was a private detective, unofficially he was the Los Angeles Police Department’s strongest weapon. Every case he had worked on had been solved, the only downside being that he would only work cases he was interested in… and he was expensive to hire.

Like popular expectations of what a detective should look like he was clean shaven and dressed extremely sharply. His slicked back hair served only as a distraction to his cloudy gray eyes. Underneath the blue long sleeved work shirt and black plants clear outlines of muscle could be discerned. The aura he gave off made him noticeable in any crowd. She abandoned her escort duties and changed courses to trail behind him.

He silently sauntered around and scrutinized his surroundings, regardless of what he saw he kept his unflinching composure, even the burnt man didn’t phase him in the slightest. From the first floor to the third floor he maintained his silence, at least, he did until he reached the bedroom of the first apartment on the third floor. Seeing the wide open window everyone came to the same conclusion. The killer had started from the first floor and gone up until he reached the third floor, after freeing the women he left through the window. But why?

“This is where he started.”

He walked over to the window and stuck his head out and looked around. After doing so, for the first time in quite possibly his whole life his face flashed a hint of confusion.

“The killer used some kind of apparatus to climb up the side of the building and inside.”

He strolled over to the corpse in the bed and continued his presentation.

“With a small knife he slit the throat of this man open. The method he used suggests that he is proficient in anatomy.”

They made their way to the next corpse and he resumed.

“This man was originally standing guard outside. He was lured in and stabbed in the throat. The damage to his throat exceeded what was necessary to kill him and indicates that the killer is exceedingly cautious.”

From there he skipped the rest of the rooms and went directly downstairs to the man with the guts in his mouth.

“There were two guards here, the one here was killed after the other one. However, he was still alive when the intestines were placed in his mouth. He more than likely was force fed his own intestines before being killed.”

Now they entered the room with the burnt man.

“The killer caught this man in the act of raping a child. He seemed to have a wrathful response to seeing so, abandoning his previously cautious and disciplined behavior. As you can see here the wall is slightly damaged, from the middle of the living room he was kicked into the wall. The killer most definitely has some form of abnormal strength. Still resentful he stuffed the man into the oven and slowly cooked him to death, only returning later to raise the heat and confirm the man's death.”

After that disturbing recreation of the scene inside their heads they were led to the next room.

“The first man was pulled off of a woman then had his throat torn apart, ripping the skin off of his scalp in the process. The second was jabbed in the eyes then finished off.”

In the third room they gratefully received the shortest explanation.

“His throat was slit.”

Revoking all the peace they had gained from the third room, the fourth was literally a sight from hell.

“The killer broke down the door and rushed inside. From this point forward he stabbed, slashed, and hacked wildly until everyone was dead. He once again went on a wild rampage and abandoned all self preservation. The most likely cause of this being that he saw another child being assaulted. From this we can ascertain that his trigger is harm being done to children. This can stem from either personal trauma or an overwhelmingly strong moral sense, judging from how he took care of the victims it’s more likely to be a strong morality.”

Morality? Was he serious? The only morals he could possibly have were that he had to be the one doing the raping. Some kind of sick thought process wherein he was the only one allowed to do so. To call him moral would mean that every other person on this planet was a saint. She pushed that to the back of her mind and continued to take notes on his characteristics.

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“Afterwards the killer took one of the dead guards downstairs and used him as a decoy to get the others to open the doors.”

They traveled downstairs and into the room where corpses still sat on the sofa.

“Once the door was opened the killer dropped the corpse and rushed inside while stabbing the one who opened the door. Now here’s where I’m a bit puzzled. The killer was able to get from the door to the couch and kill all of them before they could fully stand up. The speed he would have to move at to achieve this is not humanly possible. As for the corpses in the bed, he just slit their throats plain and simple. Then there’s the next room. He did the same thing but with a machete, decapitating them and severing spines.”

Faster than humanly possible? Were they fighting a super soldier?

“My overall evaluation of him is that he is ruthless, cautious, sadistic, and has a very good understanding of the human mind and body. Based on other facts I’ve heard about the killer, he seems to be killing simply for the thrill of it, with a potential side goal of enacting his beliefs. It’s highly likely that he has a hatred towards both criminals and cops, stemming from the failure of justice being enforced on criminals. He is also seeking attention, possibly because he intends to stir up public unrest. Based on his ability to manipulate emotions it’ll be nearly impossible to discern him from your average person. If I had to give a rough description I’d say he’s between twenty to forty years old, no prior record, lost a loved one due to crime, has at least passed highschool, is middle or lower class, is currently jobless, and of a muscular build.”

Why did everything keep pointing towards Vaun? She had only encountered one person who fit into nearly all the criteria and that person was Vaun. Hold on, even if Vaun was the killer, maybe he was an entirely different killer, although their methods were similar this one seemed to possess similar hatreds that Vaun would have. However, if it was Vaun then he wouldn’t be at home right now. She sped back into the cruiser and slammed the accelerator towards his home.

***

Dear lord, that's a lot of cops. I was at least a mile away now and police cars were still streaming in, there were a few reporting vans mixed in though. Oh right! I had forgotten to check the news today! I wonder if they found the guy I framed. I was about to continue wandering around when I realized that everyone would’ve run away already because of all these cops. What should I do, what should I do? There was that plan… I don’t have enough resources though.

Before I figured out where to go I had to figure out where I was. I climbed on top of the tallest building nearby and looked around. More buildings… the city off in the distance… some random guy in a cloak… police lights. What did I just see? Am I hallucinating? I turned my head back and looked at the figure I just saw. Holy shit!

“What are you doing over there standing ominously!?”

“…”

They turned over to look at me and remained silent before looking down at something in their hands. I went to them and peered over their shoulder. In their hands I saw a tablet displaying what seemed to be a map with a red dot flashing on it.

“Looking for treasure? Do you mind if I join? I don’t really want anything and I don’t care if I die either. I just want to go on a treasure hunting trip.”

“…”

“Cool costume, what's it made of?”

“…”

“Are you a guy or a girl?”

“…”

“I’ll just follow you around until you talk to me, I have nothing better to do anyways.”

“…”

“On second thought, I think I’ll just kidnap you.”

While they took a moment to process what I just said I grabbed them by the arm and lifted them overhead before using the momentum to slam them into the ground. I grabbed them by the leg and swung them up and into the ground again. I was about to do so again when three wolves materialized out of nowhere and pounced towards me. Disregarding my initial confusion I swung my humanoid club into the wolves and knocked them back to the ground.

Clunk!

As they slowly tried to get back on their paws I slammed my club into them one by one. Instead of collapsing and dying they dispersed into foggy clouds of black smoke. Some kind of magic I guess. By now I had figured out that it wasn’t a costume, it was a suit of armor. I was going to try to choke them out but I had noticed a shotgun strapped to their back, two pistols strapped to their waist, and who knew what else on the rest of their body.

I wasn’t sure if it would work but I had to try to find out. After slamming them down as hard as I could I stepped on their back and grabbed their arm then pulled it backwards as hard as I could. For the second time since my strength had been enhanced I faced an intense resistance, it almost felt as if we were fighting on equal grounds. I locked their arm under my armpit then dropped down onto their back.

Snap!

“Aaaah!”

A slightly suppressed scream escaped from the suit of armor and I applauded my own intelligence. I dropped the snapped arm and went to the other arm to recreate my newly discovered arm breaking technique.

Snap!

“Mmmm!”

Now legs. What kind of technique should I use to break those? Could I even break them? I’d have to settle for a technique I had seen before. Still on their back I reached out and grabbed their foot, I placed one hand on the tip of their foot and the other on their heel, then I twisted violently with my entire body. I heard some bones click and clack but no solid snap, however the foot, along with the leg, was pointing backwards now.

“Ahh! Fuck! Fuck!!”

Oh, so it was a woman. I snatched the other leg that had been beating the floor and twisted it as well. I ignored her screams and flipped her around to look for a way to take off the helmet. After delicately studying the helmet and being cursed at for a while I found a peculiar thing, there were two ring like protrusions on the sides of the helmet. I ripped open her somehow tightly clenched hands and saw ring-like indents in the palms of her dark metallic gloves.

I moved her hands up to her helmet and placed her palms onto the protrusions.

“No. No! Don’t you dare!”

“I do dare.”

I jiggled them up and down then left and right. When those didn’t work I tried spinning her hands back and forth. As I spun them forward I heard a sound similar to keys entering a lock. I continued to spin them and the helmet popped off. A rough looking caucasian woman with brunette hair was now exposed to my eyes, not exactly pretty but not exactly ugly either.

“How did you summon those wolves?”

“Fuck off!”

“Come on, let's be nice to one another. I’m a lonely guy, I just want to be able to have friends to play with whenever I want. Tell me more about you.”

“Are you going to kill me or not?”

“I don’t really want to. Are you eager to die or something?”

“…”

I’ll just use the old fashioned method then. I looked for another set of rings on the body armor and quickly found them. I used the palm keys to unlock them and the suit opened like a jacket. Beneath the armor she was in some kind of tight fitting bodysuit. I tore at it a little bit and found that it was just a simple piece of clothing. I slipped her limbs out of the armor then dragged her out of it. Now that I could see her body she had gone from a four to barely a seven.

“Cool suit, are you like… some kind of super rich kid who wants to be a hero?”

“No, I’m no-”

When she opened her mouth I clamped her jaw open and reached around her molars to check for any kind of pills or wierd things, I also tugged on every molar to check if they were fake.

“I guess you don’t have a kill switch hidden inside you somewhere, that's odd.”

“Puh! Ptah! Puh!”

I was trying to see what she was trying to spit out when I remembered that I hadn’t washed my hands yet. Enough playing around, I hadn’t tested if I actually had those dream powers yet but I knew that in the dream I had eaten a piece of whatever it was that tried to kill me. I ripped the rest of the bodysuit off and a naked woman was all that was left behind. I spread her legs and looked at her sacred hole. I kind of wanted to release some steam but I didn’t want to risk sticking my dick in there and having it removed by some random contraption.

I’ll just stick to the plan. I turned the helmet away from me and dragged her into the corner of the rooftop then I pulled off my clown mask and revealed my face. The cool night air gently brushed my face and the moist heat surrounding my head slowly dissipated. I held her hand and lifted it to mouth then shoved it inside. My jaws slowly sunk into her flesh and crunched into her bones, her body was tougher than expected and I had quite some difficulty getting her fingers to come off.

“You lunatic! Get away from me! Get away!”

She was getting a little too noisy now so I grabbed her head and punched her jaw, managing to dislocate it in a singular hit.

“Aghlghlghhb!”

I continued chewing away, only stopping occasionally to see if I could summon anything yet. When I finished with her hand I still didn’t have any magic powers. Maybe her brain? Could I somehow eat memories? I pulled out the gun in my backpack and began to furiously slam the butt of it into her head. After around ten or so swings a small fragment of her skull fell off, I continued smacking around the edges until I made a fist sized hole. I dug my fingers in and scooped out the weird pinkish slimy intestine looking stuff and shoved it into my mouth then chewed hurriedly and swallowed it.

I was wrong! It didn’t taste that bad. I scooped a little bit more of it into my mouth and chewed gently before swallowing. Weirdly creamy, a little bit metallic, but no weird aftertaste. Maybe what I craved as a child wasn’t butter, but brains. I did eat a lot of fish brains until my mom scared me into not eating them. Why did I like butter as a child so much anyways? I had a strangely unhealthy obsession with eating it. Whatever.

“Come out doggies!”