Amicia jolted awake. How long has it been? The shower head was still on, but the tub was only halfway full. She quickly turned off the water, glad she didn’t accidentally slip down in the tub. She would’ve been furious if she had just banished a drowning demon only to accidentally drown in a tub. With a shaky hand, she grabbed the lid to give her a boost up. She was freezing. She tore off her t-shirt and sweatpants in favor of wrapping a towel around herself. Walking back to the mirror, she noticed that the witch sigil had left faint marks on the glass and ash in the sink. A glance at her shoulder said that she needed bandages. Her earlier adventure in the hardware store made a mess of her back. All in all, she had been downed, but not out. Next time she’d be the one on offense.
Amicia considered something. Should she leave now when the creature wasn’t expecting her? Go and face it off in the dark of night? No, she needed rest. She knew that. After wiping as much blood as she could, she walked back out into her room. She grabbed the first aid kit she had in her luggage. After popping 3 pills of aspirin in her mouth, she started to bandage her shoulder. She knew she’d have to finish this tomorrow. If she waited any longer, it would start roaming. It had fed off tourists because they were the easiest. People who were just passing by, often alone. Poor folks that wanted a vacation. A chance to explore the state park after years of grueling work.
Once it evolved, the creature would want a specific type of victim. From what she knew of Gracie Espinoza’s death, the Variant would most likely want mothers. Those who had just lost their child. Its voice would lure the poor mothers to it. Just like it lured Emily Jacobson. The pain and loss similar to those experienced by Gracie at her death would empower the creature. Amicia was taught that if variants were allowed to go unchecked, eventually they would rise to even greater heights. They could become abstract in their existence. They would stop roaming from region to region. They would bring their terror to the entire world. It happened rarely, but it did happen. Plagues, world wars, natural disasters.
Amicia couldn’t stop a tsunami. She had heard of others on island nations. Hidden societies with knowledge passed down through centuries. In theory they could have such power. She was by herself however. Poor lonesome little Amicia she thought, scoffing at herself. She crawled back into her bed, praying for a dreamless slumber.
Amicia woke up to knocking at her door. The sunlight came in bright through the windows. Amicia groaned at being awake so early. She stalked to her door where the knocking was coming from. She flung it open, revealing Stevie Fellows standing there with two cups of coffee in hand. She was about to speak when she noticed that Amicia was standing there in her underwear.
Stevie turned around shyly. It was awkward to see a woman she had just met in a professional capacity like that. “I see I've caught you at a bad time agent.” Amicia leaned against the door frame. The exhaustion she had accumulated over the past few days had yet to fade. She grunted in response to the deputy.
“It’s pretty late in the day. About 11:30. Dad and I were wondering where you were. We had a space set up for you and everything but you didn’t come in. We didn’t have your phone number either. Dad remembered you saying something about staying at the Hampton. I called the hotel and they said you hadn't left yet. Apparently you made quite the impression on a certain receptionist.”
Amicia reached from behind the deputy, grabbing one of the coffee cups she was holding. She took a deep swig from it. It was, good? It was sweet and chocolatey with hints of hazelnut. She made an appreciative moan. Stevie let out a chuckle at her reaction. “I know right? I went down to Susie’s cafe. I wanted to apologize for how she was treated. Turns out not only is Dave negligent at his job, he was also telling people off for calling in during his hours. He’s fired now. Dad’s trying to convince the DA to press charges.”
Stevie peeked back into the room. She saw Amicia had put on a dress shirt, but she was still in her panties. She looked away once again. She kept making conversation, hoping the awkwardness of the situation would fade. “So yeah, I let Susie know we had some real leads about what happened. I might’ve broken protocol, but I told her Emily might've been targeted. That we thought someone was going around poisoning people. That must've been why Emily was acting so weird. I also let her know we were close to catching the killer, thanks to you.”
“Are we? Close, that is.” Amicia had finally gotten dressed. Still, she flopped back onto her bed, craving the comfort of its warmth. Stevie peeked in the room again. This time she saw Amicia was fully dressed.
“I think we are. Susie must think so too if she made her special blend for you.” Stevie said. She walked towards the tired woman, stopping when she saw the red marks below Amicia’s white dress shirt. “Holy Shit. What happened?” Stevie asked.
Amicia let out a grunt. “I was shopping in a hardware store. Place had some kind of valve burst. I got thrown back into a cabinet.”
“Did you go to a hospital?”
“No hospitals. I hate those places. Gives me bad memories.” Amicia murmured, her face pressed into a pillow.
Stevie sighed. “Fine. Be the big bad agent. Too tough to get proper medical care.”
Amicia turned over, sitting up on the bed. “Tell me what you found. Did you get CCTV footage from the airport?”
“Yup. I got it on my phone in fact. Here, check it out.” Stevie whipped out her phone. A video was playing on it. The quality of the footage was grainy. Despite that, Amicia could make out the figure of a girl. She was pretty. She looked so young and happy. There was a slight bump on the girl’s stomach. She waved enthusiastically towards someone standing next to a car. He waved back slowly. He definitely wasn’t as happy as she was. Amicia couldn’t make out his face due to his baseball cap.
“Did you get an angle on his plates?” Amicia asked.
Stevie shook her head no. “Couldn’t find the right shot. We do have this though.” She swiped the phone to a different video. This video showed a clearer picture of the man’s face. He was startlingly young. Amicia honestly didn’t know if it was better that Gracie Espinoza had fallen into the clutches of a boy rather than a man much older than herself.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Dad was thinking of sending this out to the public. Start asking if anybody knew who he was.” Stevie explained.
Amicia snorted in response. “Don’t bother. I know who the little shit is.” She got up from the bed, starting to stretch out the aches she had gotten from sleeping in the bathtub.
“You do? That’s-That’s great! ” Stevie said. She jumped off the bed in excitement. “Who is it? We can go pick him up right now!” Stevie was raring to go. She was about to catch a serial killer. One that took away a good friend of hers.
Amicia grabbed her phone from the table. She opened it to the ride share app. Swiping through to her history of rides, She stopped at Landon’s photo. She tossed it to Stevie who caught it deftly. “Look familiar?”
Stevie compared the two photos. There was definitely a resemblance. She looked back up to Amicia. “Landon Rowlton. How did you know it was him?”
“He gave me a ride from the airport. The creep stole a pair of underwear from my luggage too.”
“Wow, that’s just. Wow.” Stevie muttered in disgust. ”So we know he doesn’t have a lot of respect for women. We should take this to my dad. He’ll get everyone on the lookout for this guy. C’mon, let’s head down to the station.”
Amicia drained the rest of the coffee. She grabbed a few articles of her clothing to bring with her.
“Why’re you bringing a change of clothes?”
“If he rummaged through my things, he must’ve left fingerprints. We can compare the samples from my clothes to those gloves you found in the woods.”
40 minutes later, both of them stood in front of Captain Fellows. He looked over the two photos, comparing them. Another officer came in, setting a file down in front of him. He flipped through it. Looking back up at the two women, he nodded. “We have a match. Time to get this monster off our streets.”
An hour later, Amicia watched as armed officers broke down the door to an old colonial house. There was another team currently breaching through the back. Stevie had insisted on being one of the first ones in. Amicia elected to stand back and watch. She heard the SWAT teams shouting as they searched room to room. Soon, Stevie came back out and ran up to her.
“He isn’t here.” Stevie said. “We searched the whole house. Attic, Basement, nothing.”
“Did you find anything tying Landon to Gracie and her baby?” Amicia questioned.
Stevie nodded. “We found some stuff on his laptop. A bunch of messages were sent by Gracie to one of his social media accounts. There was a lot of arguing. He denied that it was his. He said it didn’t even matter if it was, he had big things lined up for himself and he couldn’t be chained down.”
“Real winner this one. So how did he get Gracie to fly back to Pocatello?”
“He told her he had a change of heart. That he found god and reconciled with the fact he had a duty as a father. Total horseshit. Gracie must’ve been convinced though. He offered to fly her back out to Pocatello so they could discuss their new life together. Marriage, house, the works. In his messages, he told her he was gonna show her his special getaway in the state park.”
“Question is, where is he now?”
“No clue, we’re having everyone on the lookout for him. We put an APB on his car too. He can’t hide for long.”
-Later in the day-
Amicia was having lunch. She had trailed Stevie for a while, but it was clear she didn’t know enough about the town itself to be of much help on a manhunt. She broke off, allowing the police to handle the search. Stevie had told her not to worry about it. All the help Amicia had given them allowed them to get this far. It wouldn’t be long now until Landon Rowlton was found and put behind bars.
It felt good, she thought. To help find the vicious murderer of a teenage girl. Landon deserved to rot for what he did. Ultimately though, he was little fish compared to what she was hunting. She took a bite of her reuben sandwich. It was salty and tangy. Just how she liked it.
Amicia was sitting in a cozy little deli store. The place gave her a retro feeling. The light coming in from the window gave the place a nice atmosphere. Pieces of Americana littered the walls. There was a TV hanging in the corner. It was currently showing a news channel.
“Breaking News” the host said. “Captain Scott Fellows announced this afternoon that a suspect has been named in the ongoing case of over a dozen murders. Local resident, Landon Rowlton is suspected of having poisoned tourists traveling through Pocatello. The poison is said to have mimicked the effects of drowning in his victims and he is thought to have dumped his victims in the Massacre Rocks State Park. We go to the captain now for more information.
“Ladies and Gentleman,” the captain started. “It is with great sadness that I must declare one of our own is responsible for these heinous acts. Landon Rowlton is a dangerous man. We have the full force of the Pocatello Police Department on the lookout for him. If you see him, do not approach. Please call 911 and report any possible sightings of him. We believe that he is on the run. The department believes that Landon took advantage of his job as a ride-share employee to isolate and …..” the captain continued to describe in detail about Landon Rowlton and his life.
The chef working at the counter was also watching with Amicia. “Ain’t that some crazy ass shit. I don’t remember having these nut jobs back in my day.” He was an older African American man. He slammed a big butcher’s cleaver down on the counter, trimming a cut of meat. The man was preparing for the dinner rush.
Amicia looked over to him. “Memories are a funny thing. We remember our high school bullies, our crushes, the class clowns. We don’t remember the kids who were killing cats in the neighborhood because deep down we were just a little scared of them. We wanted to forget the monsters. So we trick ourselves into believing monsters aren’t there.”
“Hell, I guess. So if I remember that son of a bitch Bobby Clay for taking my girl in 08, he must’ve just been a regular asshole.” he said. Amicia laughed softly at his joke. The man pointed at the T.V, an image of Landon was currently on screen. “That guy though. Ain’t nothing regular about him. Hope they find that nut job soon.”
“Hopefully. Hey, you got any blood for sale?”
He quirked his eyebrow at her. “Blood? Shit, you ain’t one of the nut jobs too are ya?”
She laughed again at his question. “No. No. I, uhm, saw this British recipe thing for blood sausages. It’s really blowing up online. Thought I’d try to get in on the hype for it. Maybe post a 6 second vid or two.”
“6 seconds? How anyone suppose to watch that?” the man asked. Amicia shrugged. The man shook his head with a small smile. “6 seconds. I got blinks that last longer than 6 seconds. I’ll get it ready for ya. You go on and finish your meal.”
Amicia took a bite of dill pickle. “I need a few rabbits too.”
“Sure. sure.” The man went back to his business and Amicia finished her lunch. She paid the man and went on her way.
It was going to be sundown soon. She was gonna go out to the park, find a nice spot to set up, and start her hunt.