She stood outside sipping on some juice as the sun rose over the trees. She normally wasn't a morning person, but since moving into this house, she got up early every day. She'd been remodeling since the first day, and it was finally the way she'd wanted it. But she woke up each morning with a task list, and at the end of each day, having accomplished each task, she'd fall asleep and wake the next morning to do it all over again. But all of the modifications were finally complete, and her house was a beauty. Simple, but a beauty none the less. She loved it. 

Though when she first looked at the house, there had been some issues. Like the two separate kitchens in the house, the closed off spaces, and the dreary colors. A great deal of time had been spent doing renovations. She kept the two kitchens. She did a lot of cooking and baking she needed the extra oven space. Toaster ovens didn't really work well when you wanted to make a souffle and a huge ham that could feed a family of eight and still have left overs for a few days. She opened up the spaces so her living room, dining room, and her kitchen were all open space. What separated her kitchen from the living room and dining room was the step up into the kitchen and the wrap around island. Her dining area now had a large table, for eating and for working. The only other part of the house that needed drastic reworking instead of simple reflooring and painting was the bathroom off the kitchen. It had been the largest one, but it was down six steps. So she had it converted to an indoor swimming pool. You get in from the doors leading out to the side yard, or from the kitchen. It was small, enough for many one, or two people to just relax, but that was all she needed it for. Herself. 

What drew her attention now was the backyard. It wasn't much. Maybe three fourths of an acre? And since she shared it with her neighbor, she didn't really have that full amount. She was never really good with fractions, so she couldn't figure out what half of three fourths even was. She didn't care in all honesty. It didn't matter how much space she had. For the first time in her life, she had her own little plot of land, and she was able to do whatever she wanted with it. She'd never been able to garden in the past, but she had loved to play in the dirty. Though her father always told her to keep those times a secret from her mother. She'd always been fascinated by flowers, plants, and just really any kind of plant life that grew around them and no one really seemed to appreciate. At least not where she was from. She had always wondered if she was capable of creating a garden like she read about in books or saw in pictures. She wanted that. And for the first time in her entire life, she had it right before her, and there was no one there to smack her and drag her back inside telling her no. 

Armed with everything she needed for her gardening, she stepped out onto the grass barefoot. Breathed the spring air in deeply and sighed blissful. This was going to be a good day. She could just feel it. 

* * * 

Kale woke with the midmorning sun streaming down onto his face having forgotten to close his curtains. Having gone to bed right as the damn thing was cresting the horizon, this was not a good thing. He stretched and climbed out of bed thinking this was not going to be a good day. Out of habit, he looked out his bedroom, and sure enough, there she was. His new neighbor was walking around the back yard barefoot. She's bought the house roughly a month before he moved next door, another month after that, and the house was finished. At least there wouldn't be the sound of saws anymore, or loud smashing. He didn't mind the music she tended to play while working, or when she sang along. It felt kind of peaceful when she did. 

This morning she was walking around, taking measurements, apparently plotting and planning about the best places to plant the flowers he could see lined up inside her kitchen, and around the side of the house. Her half of the yard was going to be rather cluttered if she stuck to the property lines. He'd have to find the right moment to tell her he didn't mind if worked in his yard either. He was hardly ever home, and when he was, he was working. It also wasn't as if he was going to be staying there forever. When she bent over to check something, his eyes immediately went toward her rear. He had to admit, she was a nice backside, and she was rather pleasant looking herself. The loose fitting pants she wore shook with the breeze, but when she bent like that, it still hugged enough to give him a nice view. At least his mind and another part of his anatomy thought so. 

He went downstairs thinking his morning might have gotten just a bit better. He poured himself a cup of coffee. He was surprised that he enjoyed the stuff so much. After two months, it became the sole reason he could even function. Sure he was a Divine, but with most of his powers sealed so he could blend in a humans, and even Divines couldn't function 24-7, he needed the stuff more than most of his fellow detectives at the station. Since the weather was warming, he'd taken to drinking his coffee out on his back porch when he got out of bed and was prepping for the day of hard work. He usually glanced at her out of corner of his eye, when she was busy directing the contractors about what to do. Today, it was just them. Her long honey brown hair was braided and secured at the top of her head. Her peach colored skin looked a little more golden today. Her shirt was a cute pinkish color, salmon he thought it was, with beige colored pants. She looked rather impressive. 

Man if his brother ever found out what he knew about colors, Kale would never hear the end of it. He would also never live down the paintings he asked Alekzandor to hide for him. 

She stood and turned them, shrieking and jumping a bit in shock when she saw him. Her face flushed with color, as she fiddled with her hands behind her back embarrassed. "I'm sorry, you startled me. I didn't stray into your yard did I?"

Kale shook his head before he sipped his coffee. "You're welcome to. Stray that is. From the looks of it, you'll need the space, and I'm not going to use it for anything. You can make it look like something out of a fairy tale for all I care."

She looked up at him shocked. He realized he said something he shouldn't have. "I overheard you last night on the phone with your father. My bedroom window was open, and you were in the kitchen, and it just came up toward me. I didn't mean to listen, but your excitement kind of put a smile on my face."

Her face flushed again as she laughed nervously. "Well thank you! Thank you so much! I will not let this be taken for granted or an inch go to waste."

She stepped toward him and offered her hand. "I'm Kali. Kali Nightmore."

He shook her hand, thinking she felt awfully warm. "I'm Kale Divins."

"It's very nice to meet you Kale." 

He didn't say anything, he was rather lost in the amber color of her eyes. 

"What prompted you to move out here? It's kind of out of the way from everything."

He shook his head a bit to drive out the fantasies that started to play through his head for a second, then shrugged. "Work mostly. I didn't like the feel of everything in town. I lived there for a month, and couldn't stand it. So I bought this place. I'm mostly in the city to do my actual work, but when I come home to do the rest of it, I like peace and quiet."

"Oh I'm sorry." She immediately said stepping forward. "All of my renovating must have rendered the move pointless."

"Hardly." He chuckled and smiled at her. "I can handle renovating, what I can't handle is a screaming baby, a mother cursing in the next room, a drunken lard above me, and a prostitute next door."

She cringed. "You must have lived in a horrible part of town."

"I actually stayed at the Beston."

Her eyes widened. "The Beston!? That's one of the most expensive hotels there are!"

"My grandfather and cousin fronted the money for me to stay there." He explained. "On my salary I never could have afforded it. Buying this house cleared out my savings. But it was worth it."

"Wait, there was a mother abusing her child, a drunk, and a prostitute at the Beston?" 

He chuckled. "Well, there was a nanny with the baby, but the baby has colic. The mother was kicked out of her fathers, and was then searching for an equally rich husband. The drunk, was an old man drinking away. I think he lost his wife or something. As for the prostitute, I have no proof, but she had a different man, sometimes a woman each night. And what makes me think prostitute and not just a woman who can't keep her legs closed, is she made the exact same noises, ever night."

"Maybe she was making a documentary or conducting a survey to see if people notice when a woman makes the same sound and motions over and over." Kali suggested point blank. "That she's horrible in bed and that's why she only has a one night stand with people."

Kale threw his head back laughing. "Well, that's an interesting take on it. So what about you?"

"What noises to I make in bed!?"

Kale couldn't help but laugh again, "No, though I can understand your confusion and I apologize, but why did you move out here?"

Her face, one second there was light, and there was happiness, the next, it was stoic, and there was a depth of pain and suffering there he'd never have known was there if she hadn't shown it.

"I," she started to say, but stopped, apparently thinking better of it. "I had a taste of freedom, and when chance came, I took it again. I have no intention of ever going back to servitude."

What in hell did that mean? He didn't say anything, his phone was ringing, knowing who it probably was, he nodded his goodbye, gathered his mug and went inside. He did his damnedest to not look back. He could tell by the very air coming off of her that she really didn't want to talk about her past. Kale was not the type of person to let something like that go if he could help it, but he had to. He had work, and she had her gardening to do. With any luck, he would be so immersed in it that he would forget this nagging desire to pull her close and never let to go again. So he would never have to see that kind of pain in her eyes again. 

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

* * * 

Kali went back to gardening. She let her mind drift as she worked. Eventually getting up and turning on the music, singing along with the lyrics that she knew as worked the ground to plant her flowers, the few trees that she'd bought, and whatever else she'd decided would be good for planting. If her back or muscles ached from over use, they didn't give her any. She worked till everything was planted. With one job done, and there was still daylight left, she went inside to see what else she was going to do. 

She let her work and the music take over her. She didn't let herself think about her strange neighbor who hadn't spoken to her besides an amiable hello now and again. She didn't let herself sit and remember everything from her past. That's all it was. The past. And she certain wasn't going to think about the desire to grab her neighbor and plant one on him the next time she saw him.

* * * 

Kale pinched the bridge of his nose and sat back in his computer chair as he shut down the computer. Apparently finding possible locations for a werewolf pack, and other supernatural creatures was rather hard. He had a feeling he wasn't going to be able to make much progress on that, at least not right now. So instead he looked over at his wall and stack of case files that were his mortal agenda here. It was his primary objective after all. Rick had murdered a few people when he'd let the demon possess him. While he apparently had a longer list, he'd only done a few. Since Rick's first murder, there had been more. Two, since Kale had come to town. Six more before that. All of them similar to the way Rick had attempted to kill his first victim Addie.

"Hey! Oldman! You here!"

"Up here!" Kale shouted down, then added in a softer tone. "Come on up."

A middle aged man walked into Kale's bedroom carrying a paper back. Despite looking he was twenty, Kale knew his physical age was much older than the man before him, but the man did look older than Kale. Graying hair, lines across the mans face from years of frowning and laughing, and a beer gut that Kale would never get no matter how much he drank. On the mans belt was the same badge that Kale had, signifying they were both homicide detectives. Kale's own badge sat on the dresser in a little wooden box with air currents carved into it that Alyson had sent him for a birthday gift. His heart was quickly melting toward that mother, and from what he'd heard from Alekzandor, when he finally got to meet her, Alyss was going to have him wrapped around her little fingers. He had their pictures and pictures of the rest of his family on the dresser with the little box. It was the only thing in the house that really had a personal touch to it. 

The new comer picked up the photo of Alyss, now six months old, playing on the sandy beach with a huge grin on her face. It was his favorite of the photos by far. 

"Yours?"

"Does she even look anything like me?" Kale countered. 

"I don't know, maybe around the eyes a bit."

Kale chuckled. "I should be so lucky. No, she's my cousin's daughter, but I think of her as my niece."

The man put the photo down and set the brown back in front of Kale. "Lunch. You don't eat enough."

When a man survived off of the air around him for centuries, food was a bit difficult to swallow. Though he wasn't about to say that to the man. He took the bag and began to eat the food that was brought to him. When their pagers beeped, they quickly grabbed their things and left the house. By the time they reached the scene, Kale's meal was gone. He just hoped that it stayed in his stomach after what he was about to see. Kale's partner went first to confirm the body laying in the alley way was related to their case, when his partner beckoned his over, Kale allowed himself closer to the crime scene.

"Another victim Marley?" Kale asked when he was close enough. 

Marley nodded. "Yup, looks like the same MO. I was hoping for a copy cat, but it's all the same."

Kale checked over the victim and cringed. Beside him, Marley sighed. "He certain did a number on this one, she's been mauled a lot worst than the others."

"Do we know who she is?" Kale asked turning to ME.

The ME, sighed. While his name tag said Carson, everyone just called him ME. Why Kale never really knew. It was the man's job title, but it seemed as if there was a story behind the nickname that he was ignorant to. ME held up a bag with several things inside. One of them a purse. "Contents were intact, so this wasn't a robbery, not that they ever are. Once again the killer wanted us to know her identity. Beverly Grishom, twenty-seven years old, and a teacher at the University on Parsnip Avenue."

The same one that Alyson went to when she was mortal. Kale thought. But as far as he could tell from the tendrils of currents surrounding the body, there was no connection to Alyson, or Rick. Oh there were connections, but without his more advance powers, he couldn't track them to the others. Sure once he saw them, he would know that they knew the victim, the problem would be proving it. Mortals were sticklers for proof, his grandfather as well. 

"Bring the body back and do your thing." Kale told ME. "I'm going to look over everything. Marley, make sure the evidence is taken care of and looked over."

Kale did his best work at home, and while everyone at the station didn't appreciate that, they didn't exactly fight him on it. It wasn't just the latest victims on he had on the board as he added the photos of Beverly and the information Marley sent him as they discovered it, he had them all. The new, and the old. The old, amounted to seven people. Rick's first victim was that Addie girl, she had been a rich daddy's girl who turned call girl for the more higher class men in over to sink her claws into a rich husband. The second and third had been Rick's parents. He had hunted them down and slaughtered them much the same way he had Addie. Leaving the raping part thought. The four doctors had been dispatched the same as his parents, there had been more, but due to the Divine protection on his friends, and the Alyson's family, he couldn't find them. 

Since Rick was dead, the some of the killings had taken place while Rick was still alive, his kills are the ones considered the copy cat, while they pursue the "real" killer. Though no one was going to get any luck catching Rick, and while station had hoped that with the copy cat going into hiding, the real killer would too, but that hadn't been the case. Kale was stuck on something. Of all the killers to mimic, it had been Rick. Why? 

He could see the tendrils of air connecting people, and the only thing that Rick's victims had in common with the newer ones, was Addie. Addie was connected to all of of the latest victims, but not the old ones. So, she was the real connection. But more than that, there was a strong bond between her and the others of the killer. More than that, there was a taint. Meaning they'd done terrible acts together, but since they were considered upstanding citizens, or came form money, no one knew of their true nature and crimes. 

That was wrong, someone did, and now that person was making them pay for their crimes. The killer never bothered with disguising their victims, which meant they wanted people to know who they were. Also, Kale didn't need the knowledge of Rick to know who he was hunting. Each of the victims dealt with but the new killer, each had their hearts missing. For whatever reason, the killer took a souvenir.

A couple of the hearts had turned up since the killer had started his rampage, but most were still unaccounted for. Kale stared at his wall, looking at the victims, looking at the way they were killed. Was he looking for someone specific? Where the identities left as a warning? Or to be meant as a clue to figure out how these people were connected? Kale didn't know. After two months he wasn't any closer to figuring out this killer or finding them. The only progress he made didn't even involve work, or getting back to his realm. It involved that pretty little thing next door, and possibly seeing her naked. Kale groaned and smacked his head against his wall. This was a lot more complicated than he thought it was going to be. 

 - - - - - - - - - 

A/N

and that was the much awaited chapter one. I'm sorry that it took so long. As you know I was put on a writing pan for awhile because I have carpal tunnel. I actually have to go see special doctors now to see what's going on and what all we can do about it. 

but when I got off the ban, and I was able to write again, I had a story idea stuck in my head during the whole ban, and I just had to get it out. ( https://wordpress.com/post/melgrinder89.wordpress.com/426 )there's the link for those who want to go check it out. Not a very long explanation, but I plan to post more about it over the summer. 

I wanted to write it to completion, and I did. Now I just need to edit it up to get what I want to actually happen out of my head and into the story. 

But I wanted to let everyone know, this is my last post till sometime in June. I have a vacation coming up, and I want to take this time to rest, and get ready. Not to mention catch up on all of my housework before I have to leave the state. Yikes! lol 

but thanks for reading and thanks for bearing with me! 

WD