“This is dispatch. The situation at the Midwell Complexes has escalated. Numerous reports of gunfights and fire incoming. There have been mentions of a gang war, proceed with caution.”

“I get the rifle!”

“You’re the better shot anyways.”

“Just stay behind me.”

“Yes ma’am”

Upon arriving they found that S.W.A.T. had been deployed and there was a negotiator on site. They found the nearest officer and got caught up on the situation.

“What’s happening?”

“A group of gang members have broken into a home and are holding the family hostage. They are asking that we hand over some guy. Apparently he shot a bunch of them and set them on fire.”

“Has the guy been found?”

“No.”

“Description?”

“Dressed in all purple and runs fast.”

Hearing that they were too stunned to speak. This mysterious purple man had been committing all the crimes their department had to deal with for the past two days, yet they were no closer to catching him now than they were yesterday and as time passed his crimes were escalating. Did he have a vendetta against the gang? Or was it just a cover up for what he was really planning?

“Was he asian? What color was his hair?”

“They don’t know, all of his body was covered.”

“Height?”

“Roughly around five foot-nine inches.”

That was just about where she estimated Vaun to be at. All the evidence pointed to Vaun but she would be foolish to believe that it definitely meant he was the suspect. Removing her personal bias simply left him as a quirky guy who happened to share the same car and height as the suspect. Although she could place extra attention on him she couldn’t allow that to keep her from looking for other possible suspects.

“I will kill her stupid ass! Stop playing with me!”

“Let the girl go! We can discuss this peacefully!”

“Nah! Get me the motherfucker who shot us and get the fuck outta here!”

“We understand that you are mad, but we cannot find the person you are talking about!”

“Y’all lying! You bitch ass motherfuckers really think I won’t shoot her!?”

She had seen this situation a few times, usually it ended with the suspect having his head blown off. But this time they had to account for all the other gang members inside.

“Don’t shoot! You don’t wanna do that! If you come out with your hands up we can still resolve this peacefully!”

“Y’all get away! Leave us alone if you don’t want nobody to get hurt!”

“You know we can’t do that! Just tell me what’s going on!”

“I ain’t tellin you shit! Get you and your friends out of here and we’ll go!”

“You promise not to hurt anyone!?”

“Yeah! Let us go!”

Bang! - Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The negotiator was in the process of signaling them to retreat when a single gunshot rang out and the hostage collapsed to the ground. Following a short pause several more gunshots were fired and bullets whizzed by them and shattered car windows, of those bullets one managed to find its way into the head of a nearby officer. At this point chaos engulfed everyone, bullets flew in all directions as if a tornado made of metal had suddenly descended. Sawdust erupted from the entire house and windows turned into shrapnel.

After a brief shootout everyone calmed down, they had to let the S.W.A.T. team make entry and clear out the remaining threats as well as save any hostages that were still alive. Everyone rushed to tend to the wounded and the police captains were trying to figure out who took the first shot. The occasional burst of gunfire could be heard coming from the house.

***

“You promise not to hurt anyone!?”

“Yeah! Let us go!”

What a bunch of pigs. I can’t believe they really wanted to let those scumbags go. It was a good thing I had come back to check on the situation. I took aim from the rooftop I was hidden on and took a shot at the hostage, after that I simply pointed towards the police and fired blindly. Now I had to skedaddle, I quickly slid off the roof and ran away. As I ran a storm made of bullets and gunpowder thundered away behind me.

***

“Who fired the first shot!?”

“…”

The entire room was filled with silence.

“Do you mean tell me that a ghost shot the gun!?”

“The gun was fired from behind us.”

“So none of you were paying attention to what was happening behind you?”

“Someone said they saw a glance of purple.”

“Who is this mystery man in purple? Do we have any leads!? What have you all been doing!? Argh! Piss off! Get out of my sight!”

She was just as frustrated as the chief was. The perpetrator seemed to be trying to cause as much chaos and fear as possible and so far he was doing really well at it. The public was still reeling in shock from the video he had released and news had already spread about the shootout. There was another lead though. Someone had made a phone call to the police, specifically they were the very first person to make a call.

It was reported that the caller had the same audio distortion as the man from the video. But that wasn’t the important thing, the recorded phone call was completely different from what they described. They had reported that people were being held hostage at the beginning of the phone call, but following that a gunfight broke out and the phone disconnected. When they arrived the bar had already been burnt down and bodies with bullet wounds were later retrieved.

This caller was very likely to be the murderer. The phone! No, that wouldn’t work, the murderer had definitely figured out how to keep it from giving away any information. This was so frustrating! Now that the gang was gone it wasn’t guaranteed that he would continue wearing purple either, if he started swapping clothes and changing identities catching him would be near impossible. For now they had to track down all the models of the car caught on the camera and she already knew where to start.

She logged onto her computer and typed Vaun’s name and age. Oldest child, had a sister, and both parents were still alive. That veered slightly from what he had told her sister, according to her he was living with his sister after their parents died. Everything would make sense once she paid him a visit, she dragged Andrew with her and they took off.

…

“Seriously Andrew, be careful. He’s fast.”

“He can’t beat a gun right?”

“I hope not.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“We‘re here. Stay behind me.”

They got out of the car and went up to the door then knocked. She prepared herself for seeing his face and steeled her mind. When Vaun opened the door it wasn’t so bad but when she looked into his eyes her heart was cruelly grabbed by an invisible force and all the strength she had was ripped away. It was only for a brief moment but she saw it, just then he wanted to kill. That gaze didn’t belong to a human! Those eyes weren’t looking at another person, they were looking at a victim! As she slowly collapsed she watched in slow motion as he grasped for her throat.

Andrew!

He should be fast enough to shoot him before he could kill her. He had to be fast enough! She could feel her body being thrown to the side and slowly floating towards the ground. Even then she could see exactly what was happening, Andrew had not even been able to unbuckle the holster before he was snatched into the madman’s den.

Get up! I have to get up! GET UP!

A dream. This had to be a dream. She let the darkness envelop her and fell into the abyss.

***

“Do you want to go fight some cats?”

“What?”

“Don’t you need to fight cats to get stronger?”

“Yes but-”

“But what? You wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped if you weren’t so weak.”

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“Normal people don’t randomly snatch cats off the street!”

“Well I'm not normal am I?”

“You’re so freaking weird.”

“If everyone’s insane then the one who is normal looks insane to them.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know, I just said it to sound smart.”

“…”

“Come on! Let’s go fight some cats!”

“No!”

“Please, it’ll be fun.”

“I don’t wanna!”

“Why?”

“Cause.”

“Cause?”

“Cause I… cause I-”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Did I leave a loose end? I ran over to the door and glanced out of the peephole. It was the girl from yesterday. I opened the door and abruptly felt the urge to go on a murderous rampage, why was she in police uniform? What kind of fucked up story was I in? And who was the cunt standing next to her? Before I could ask any questions her legs suddenly buckled and she started to slowly descend towards the ground. What was up with this narcoleptic police officer? I couldn’t just let her eat shit on my door step though. I quickly reached out and grabbed her by the armpits to lift her up.

As I did so I noticed the cunt reaching for the gun on his side, was this a set up? I tossed her to the side and grabbed the hand reaching for the gun as well as his throat and pulled him in front of me as a shield before quickly stepping back inside and shutting the door.

“What the fuck are you up to?”

“Ergh! Ack! Hck!”

I loosened my grip and asked again.

“Why did you try to shoot me?”

After taking a deep gasp he finally responded.

“I thought- you were- attacking her.”

“You idiot, why didn’t you grab her so she wouldn’t fall then?”

“Sorry.”

I kept my hand on his collar and opened the door again to check on the passed- spasming cop!?

“Does she have a condition?”

“I don’t know!”

“Fuck! What do we do?”

Think! First aid… CPR? Not that one. Something about their head… do I turn it?

“Andrew!”

Huh? We both turned to her and saw her sitting upright. Andrew went to pick her up and I stared from the doorway. Why did she do this every time we met?

“Are you done freaking out?”

They both turned toward me with completely different reactions.

“Hey, you better not shoot me. What are you here for anyways?”

She stood with difficulty and composed herself.

“We have some questions to ask you.”

“Oh sure, wanna come inside?”

“No!”

That was a wee bit aggressive.

“What do you wanna ask?”

“Where were you the whole day yesterday?”

“I was sleeping for most of it then I got up to cook and bring food over.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, I’m not sure. There’s a possibility that I ran around all day committing crimes and the person who brought you food was a doppelgänger.”

“You!”

“I’m just kidding! You can ask my friend, she was with me all day. Hey Elaine!”

The cat girl waddled her way over and gave a pretty damn good response.

“Whatever he says is true, I’m gonna go take a nap now.”

She shot me a glare before waddling back to the living room.

“Wait!”

She did not wait.

“Sorry, she’s a little bit self centered.”

“Does the red sedan parked in your driveway belong to you?”

“Yes.”

“How about the pick up truck?”

“That’s my dads.”

“And the SUV?”

“That’s my moms.”

“Have you ever been arrested before?”

“Yes, yesterday when I caught your little sister.”

“Any other times?”

“No.”

“That’s all we have for you”

“Alright. You should go get your condition checked out.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Sure. I believe you.”

“…”

“Wait. On a serious note I haven’t seen my family since yesterday, they didn’t leave me a note or tell me about any trips. What worries me is that they didn’t take any of the cars. I’m scared they might have been kidnapped.”

“When was the last time you saw them?”

“It was when I left for work for the overnight shift. They were gone when I got home.”

“Did you notice any signs of forced entry?”

“No, I’ve checked the entire house but nothing seems to be different.”

“Have you received any notes or calls demanding money?”

“No.”

“Can you give me a description of them?”

I pulled out my phone and flashed my lock screen to her.

“This is them. But an important trait that my dad has is a tattoo on his left bicep, our family name is tattooed there. Do you need me to send you a picture?”

“Yeah, send it to my phone.”

We exchanged numbers and I sent over a picture of my family.

“Hey, I know you guys are busy and I’ve been an asshole but please. Help me find them, I’ve got a really bad feeling that something's happened to them.”

“We’ll do our best.”

I saw the two officers off and went back to the couch to relax. They would definitely find my family, I had placed them right in front of their eyes. How should I react when they tell me my family’s dead? Should I be angry? Or should I just collapse? Which one was more believable?

***

“Do you think he killed his own family?”

“Andrew…”

“I mean, did you see how easily he attacked me? He’s not scared of the police at all.”

“You tried to pull a gun on him when his family mysteriously vanished. Who knows what’s going on in his mind.”

“…”

So his family had disappeared overnight, then the gang members' family had been killed during the morning and the officer's family in the late afternoon. Either he had gone on a killing spree after killing his family or he had been an unlucky victim of the murderer. Something was off though, the killer had left his victims for the police to find in all the cases. It was clear that he was trying to get as much attention as possible so why would he hide the first set of victims? Almost as if he didn’t want any attention to be drawn towards them.

Everything kept pointing towards Vaun… but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that the killer was trying to frame Vaun. That was exactly what someone like the killer would do. In that case where would he have hid the bodies? Knowing him it was likely that they had never left the house and even if they had they wouldn’t be far away.

“Hey Ally, let's go back to the station, apparently more bodies have been found.”

Could it be?

…

“What’s different about these bodies?”

“Well the difference is that they were found in metal barrels hidden inside one of the gang members' cars.”

“So they aren’t affiliated with the gang?”

“That hasn’t been determined yet. Currently we are still trying to identify them.”

“What was the cause of death?”

“Strangulation, likely caused by a rope.”

“Were there any other injuries?”

“Yes, blunt trauma to various parts of the body including genitalia. It’s highly likely they were sexually assaulted before dying, presumably by multiple assailants judging from the degree of injury.”

“Did any of them have any identifiers on them?”

“One had a tattoo on the left bicep, Lee.”

Shit… This was not good news.

“Did you say there were multiple assailants?”

“Yes, there were signs of them being held down and the trauma to their genitals was caused from excessive sexual activity which suggests that there were more than one assailant.”

“So was it the gang that did this?”

“That’s my best guess.”

How was she going to break the news to Vaun? He was extremely unpredictable and dangerous. He didn’t seem like an emotional guy but she knew how upset she would be if this happened to her-

No! Don’t think about it!

She was worried that he might do something extreme. But not telling him was worse than telling him, if he took action into his own hands he would be able to cause harm to many people. The best way to do it was in person, that way she could monitor his reaction.

***

I was in the middle of a short nap when I was awoken by knocking. Were they that fast? I guess the bodies should have been found by now. I quickly went to open the door for the narcoleptic cop and saw her and her buddy standing outside.

“Did you find them?”

“Yes-”

“Where are they?”

“At the police station.”

“Are they ok?”

“Well… Uh-”

“They’re dead aren’t they? I can tell by the way you’re stalling.”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“What?”

“Who killed them?”

“Ca-calm down Vaun-”

“I am calm. I just want to know who killed them.”

“We aren’t sure but we think it was done by a gang.”

“Which one?”

“For your safety we cannot disclose that information.”

“Have they been caught?”

“We are doing our best to find out who did this to them.”

“So you don’t know who did it?”

“Not exactly, we just need evidence.”

“Even though you know who did it?”

“Yes.”

“Ok. Makes sense. Good luck I guess.”

“We’ll contact you once their deaths have been registered.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I closed the door and turned around then started acting.

“FUCK! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!”

With every scream I sent an earth shattering punch into the wall and loud bangs resounded throughout the house. Oh shit, I forgot I was stronger now, normally I couldn’t do any damage to the walls because they were made of plaster but today they started to crack and split. By this time Elaine had rushed over to see what was happening.

“What are you doing!”

“Shh! I’m not actually mad. Go back to the living room.”