The Begining
Let me take you back to where this story began.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Growing up in New York is not the way most parents imagine their children growing up but for Paul it seemed like the only way to grow up. He lived in a small two bedrood apartment with his mother, Reba Bakster. His dad, Richard whom Paul never knew was killed while on dutey for the NYPD. He was raiding a drug deal that was going on somewear in the deep maze of sewers and endless tunels under the city and something went terribly wrong. Early morning Reba was awoken, 8 months pregnant with Paul by two police officers knocking on her door. She was readying herself for that moment ever since Richard got into the force but I guess no ammount of preparation could realy make her ready. They burried the half filled casket with whatever they found left of her husband, gave her a flag, a big shiney medal and went back to theirl lives. She got no real explanation that could explane the state in which the body was found for they knew little themselves. She was toled that the raid had gone terrebly wrong and that they found everyone involved in the deal in a similar state.
Paul would have known very little of the events that occured on the night of his fathers death and defenetly never have known the gorry details if it wasn't for the police file and newspaper clippings he came accrose wile going through some boxes in his mothers closet. It wasn't realy somthing that was brought up around his mother, although he tried a few times but her responce was always the same, 'He died on dutey sweety' or 'He died for his country darling'. It wasn't that he felt a great loss over his father, for truth be told he never even met him, it's just that Paul always wished he had a father to begin with. At first he pushed his mother to remarry but after many failed relationships, he was glad enough to be just the two of them. It wasn't that he wanted her to be alone or anything, he just cared for what was best for her.
Getting through school was easy enough, Paul and his best friend Chris would walk to school eatch morning, spend the day mainly in classes and walk back home every night. When finaly they got to highschool they would roam the city after school till dark talking about how they would get into the NYPD and change the world. Their roaming never realy got the two of them into any serious trouble, not that they didn't looked for it but growing up on the streets teaches even kids a few ways to keep out of trouble. They knew all the shortcuts to anywhere in the city and even a bit of the underground, that was what happend when you had to avoid many alys at many different hours of the day inorder to avoid drug deals or just regular thugs and gangs. Chris was brought up by his two parents who were constantly fighting, he always took refuge from his ranting parents at Paul's house. He would talk about how he whished they would just break up and leave him with his grandmother, she wasn't mutch better in Pauls opinion but Chris seemed to be very fond of her.
Highschool ended like all good things do, so both kids spent a good part of a year working in petty jobs, hanging with friends, girls and doing all the other things eighteen year olds do when there's no school or any other oblagations to atend to. It was good while it lasted but Paul was begining to feel eager to get on with life so he urged Chris to concider continuing with their plans which hadn't changed since and take the nessacery steps needed to join the NYPD. Two years later they were both whearing police uniforms fresh out on the academy. I guess it was both luck and the fact that they were iseprable that that made them asigned as partners and slowly the years crept by.
Work had introduced them to many new scenes that thankfully not many of us have ever had to whitnes. At first they would be horrified by the images, that would haunt their dreams and steal their apitite but after nearly 10 years it had become a way of life. They were proude officer of the NYPD, homicide was their idea of an eventfull life. They were going to change the world or at least that's what they thoughtat first, digging up clues, an ocashinol body and finding the person responsable. This way of life did have a fair amount of thrill and it was sufficiant to keep both their minds content and off anything els.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A routien call, some lady had gone missing, Megan Norm, they got the call from an ananomous caller, he gave her name and address and hung up. Chris and Paul wern't supposed to be dealing with missing people but there was suspected foul play and they had reason to believe that the only thing they'd find of Megan was a boddie. It wasn't unusual for people to go missing in NY but lately it was getting worse, more and more cases were turning up only boddies, it was suspected that maby they were dealing with a serial killer.
Paul held the door open for Chris and entered behind him, this was defanetly a strange apartment. The walls were covered with strange paintings of black shapes, they seemed to be creatures but shapless, all in a mixed web of black. In between the paintings there was writing but neither of them could recognise the laguage. Megan was defenatly not a common person. It was a small one room apartment the only furniture was a table, chair, bed and refrigirator and strangely they were all covered with candles, every inch of space that wasn't being used that is. It seemed like this woman was afraid of the dark she had a huge pile of light bulbs and unused candles in the corner of the room. Chris flicked the light switch, they both flinched, the light was surprisingly bright and it seemed to come out of every corned and from behind every peice of furniture.
'Wierd' Paul said covering his eyes.
'Exactly what I was thinking' Chris answered while making his way to a pile of notes on the table.
'What is it?' Paul asked, coming up behind Chris.
'I'm not shure, it looks like the same language that's on the wall, There's also these scribbles' he said holding up a pile of papers with black marks.
'They look more like drawings' Paul said flipping through the drawings and setting them back on the table.
'Since when did you become an art expert?' Chris said mockingly.
'Look at this' Paul said making his way to the refrigirator.
'It looks like-' Chris began.
'The subway' Paul cut in.
'Man she's got some inner issues, look at these things' the refrigirator was covered in drawings of parts of the subway, only instead of crowds of people there were crowds of difformed creatures, all in black; black seemed to be the dominent color in this womans life which seemed strange concidering the ammout of lighting the small apartment had. The refrigirator had relatively normal stuff in it if you ignored the baggs of batteries. Also the light switch that was supposed to turn off the light when you closed the door was broken leaving the light permenently on and the fact that a woman who lived in such an apartment was expected to have a human head in her refrigirator and not food.
Chris walked over to the sink and opened the cabnet above it, 'Oh Paul guess what I found here' Paul hurried to his side.
'More lightbulbs and candles, how nice.'
There was a light comming from inside the cabnet, 'Freaky', Paul said closing the cabnet.
'That's for sure', Chris said turning to look at the room, 'No bathroom, I wonder how she managed?'
'I think they have a comman bathroom for the whole building.'
Paul stopped to sniff the air, 'Do you smell that?'
Smoke started comming out of the cabnet below the sink, 'Oh shit', Paul opened the cabnit which gladly welcomed the fresh air to burn, flames licked at Paul's legs as he jumped back. Chris grabbed the thick blanket from the bed and stuffed it into the cabnet, smouthering the flames.
'That's what happenes when you have five billion lights in a ten foot apartment', Cris said as he whiped off his sleeves.
Shure enough there was a burnt light bulb down there but Paul's atention turned to the bed, there was a small book in the middle, he lifted it to find that it was Megan's ditonary.
'I thought they sent a crew to check the appartment', Chris said looking over Paul's shoulder, 'They said they searched the place..ha, probably got freaked out by the look of this place and left with their tail between their leggs.'
Paul flipped through the pages, 'Man this woman was off her lid, she goes on about creatures in the dark and something about the end of the world.'
'Well that might explane the lighting in this place...anything thatcould lead us to where she is?'
Paul flipped through the pages, 'It seems like recently she started making regular visits to the subway at around eleven pm eatch night', Paul said as he continued to flip through the pages.
'Oh well some help that is to us, there must be a thousand miles of subway and underground tunnels under this city.'
'Yeah but not all of them are on the corner of 52nd street' Paul said with a smile, closing the diary in the proccess.
'So we're going to the subway' Chris said in an unhappy voice.
'I don't know, it's late, maybe we should sleep on it' Paul had an uneasy feeling that going to the subway wasn't the best idea, he suddenly felt afraid but he tried not to show it.
'I wasn't asking, I was stating a fact, the sooner we get to the subway, the sooner we can close this case and besids, this place is starting to really freak me out.
'Paul pocketed the diary and took a long breath, 'To the subway then...'
The subway was empty when they arrived, they stood on the empty platform and took in their surroundings.
'Not much of an improovment from her appartment' Chris said with a hint of sarcasem.
Paul just nodded, the subway seemed quieter than usual, it seemed far away from the city and the millions of people outside. The lights flickered for a moment, not something unusual in a subway but that night it seemed almost terrifying and the air felt strangly cold.
'Are we just gonna stand around and wait for something to happen or...' Chris's voice trailed off, he shuddered for a moment, 'did you here that?'
They both unbuckled their hostlers and walked towards the edge of the platform, the noise of a hundred little feet scurrying over the cold cement floor was growing nearer. Chris leaped down to the tracks and started towards the noise, Paul had no choice but to follow. The noise grew closer untill suddenly Chris jumped back.
'Shit, nearly scarred me to death!'Hundreds of rats dissapiered behind them into the darkness.'I wonder what scared them away like that' Paul said, looking behind them to where the rats dissapiered. Chris just shrugged in responce and unholstered his gun, Paul unholstered his gun as well, the feeling of cold metal on his hand gave him renewed confadence. They continued down the semi lit tunnel silently, Chris stopped and listened, he sniffed the air, the air was muffeled and full of tension, it was absolutely silent.
'Paul come and look at this...an animal maybe?'
Paul came up to where Chris was pointing, there layed a mangled heap of fleash and bone all in a puddle of dried blood, he covered his mouth feeling that he'd rather not breath in the stench that filled the air.
'Not unless this animal wore clothing' Paul said, turning his head away from the rotten corpes.
Chris kneeled down besid the body to examin it more closely, 'I think we've found Megan' he said in disgust.
'What makes you think...' Paul stoped in mid sentence as Chris handed him a piece of paper, it was covered in dry blood but it was covered in what was undistincably the same Writing that they had found in Megans apartment.
'Hey you, FREEZ!' Chris yelled out, pointing his gun to a movment in the darkness furthur down the tunnle, 'Stay with the body!' he ordered Paul as he took off after the movment.
Paul was about to protest when the lights flickered again but this time they stayed off, he heard Chris's footstept drawing further away.
'Chris get back here!' Paul yelled but instead of an answer the tunnle came to life with the sound of shots being fired ending with a sickening crunching noise.
'Chris, you ok!?' Paul called out, abandoning the body and runing in the direction the shots came from. Suddenly the lights flickered back on, a loud screech filled the air and Paul saw something melt before his eyes into dust, he wasn't sure what he saw but then he saw something that took his mind off it entierly, something he was sure about. Chris's body was laying on the floor, ripped appart as if someone teared him appart with a chainsaw. Paul fell to his knees and held back the urge to vomite. He tried to carry the body back to the subway platform but there were to many pieces, after a minute of blinded strugling and blood mixed tears, Paul gave up and ran to their car to radio for help. In less that 5 minutes the night was filled with sirens, the police and paramedics arrived to find Paul sobing next to Chris's mangled body. They flooded Paul with endless questions but Paul took no notice, he just stared blankly into the air, to sad to even cry anymore. They drove him home after realising that they'd get nothing out of him in his current state.
Paul did not sleep that night, the picture of his friends body was embedded in his thoughts, after a few hours of blankly staring at his bedroom wall Paul suddenly remembered the chilling screech and the creature...But it couldn't be, he had to be halucinating. He tried to convince himself that what he had seen was nothing more that the light playing tricks on him but he could not deny what he had seen, it was a creature, like the ones in Megans drawings. He suddenly remembered the diary, it was still in his jacket pocket, he took it out and flipped through the pages, there was no mistake, the creature he had seen was the same as the creatures in her drawings. Paul dropped the diary to the floor and continued staring into blankness untill hours later he was interupted by a phonecall. It was his mother, she was crying, he tried to calm her down by assuring her that he was alright, although he felt far from it but she was equaly devistated by Chris's death. She was like a second mother to him and she had seen just as much of him as a child as she had of Paul. Paul kept a steady voice, his mother had gone through enough without his problems to add, he had to be strong for her. Eventually his mother hung up and the next phoncall was from Chris's parents, they sounded like they had no tears left, instead only an empty space, their voices seemed hollow. The conversation didn't last long, there was not much to say and Paul felt, if possible, even worse after talking to both their parents. Paul dragged himself to the bathroom where he was sick till his stomach was empty and he just bent over, gagging untill his insides burned. He washed his face and the phone rang again, this time it was the chiefe of police, he said how deeply sorry he was for his loss and continued to appolagise while explaining that he needed Paul to come back to the police station and fill in a report. The last thing Paul wanted to do was go over the details of the night but he knew that as a police officer, the only whitness, Chris's partener and his closest friend, he was obligated to. Paul went into his bedroom and caught a glimps of himself in the mirror, he was covered is Chris's blood, his face was pale and his features exausted. He stripped out of his cloths and dragged himself into the shower, the warm water gave a sence of soothing but in his mind, immages of his partners boddy lying in pieces, raced endlessly. A few minutes later, he slipped into a fresh pair of jeans and a clean shirt, not as much for himself as for the people out on the street.
'I'm sorry about your partner...I mean Chris, I know how close the two of you were...' Kurtis began, not quite sure how he was going to get to the point. Paul's gaze stayed focused on the coffie mug, unmoved by Kurtis's words.
'I do not take pleasure in this but I must require you to fill out a full report of what happened.. last night' He choaked on the last few words, for he himself had seen the body or what was left of it, only a couple of hours ago, it had for one thing ruined his appitite for his morning doughnut. Paul stayed focused on the coffie mug, the surroundings seemed to be of no importance to him. His thoughts were abruptly stopped when Kurtis lifted the mug to his lips and walked between Paul and the desk. Paul looked up at the chief as if woken from a dream, 'The papers are on your desk, as soon as you fill them out I want you back in here.
'Without a word Paul left the office and made his way to his desk. He flipped through the papers he was all to familiar with but they seemed different now, how was he supposed to explane last night, he wasn't exactly sure what happened himself, he knew what he thought happened but it was still hard for him to believe it himself. For a few hours he sat and filled in everything untill the moment the lights flickered out, everything except the diary that is. A few of his friends came by his desk to try and comfort him but soon gave up after receiving no responce other than an empty stare from him. He didn't intend to come off so cold but he was at loss of words and trying to speak was just too painfull for him at the moment. Finally after nearly three hours of debating he left the report saying that the lights went out, shots were fired and he arrived to the boddy to find it like it was, no blood curling screech, no creature melting away before his eyes.
'You expect me to believe that in a matter of moments whoever...' Kurtis paused in frustration, 'whatever did this killed Chris and just dissapiered?!' Kurtis was pacing the room with the Paul's report clenched tightly in his hands. Paul was at loss of words, how could he explain what happened, who would believe him?'
I saw it...what was left of Chris's boddie and there's no way, No way I tell you, that it was done the way you said it was!' Kurtis yelled, loosing his temper and growing purple in the face. At this point Paul lost his temper as well, he got up from his chair, causing it to fall loudly to the floor, people gather round the office to see what the camotion was about but Paul ignored them.
'That's what I said happened and that's what happened, are you suggesting that I'm lying, are you suggesting that maybe I killed Chris?!' Paul yelled, sending flecks of spit onto the chief's desk, causing him to flinch in fear that Paul would do the same to him as he had maybe done to Chris.
'You do, I can see it on your face, you think I killed my partner, my best friend!'
Kurtis shrinked back against the wall, 'I was only suggesting that maybe your report wasn't entierly accuret, maybe you forgot some detail or another...' he said in a pathetic voice.
'NOT ENTIERLY ACCURET! Last night will be embedded in my mind till the day I die, you dare to come and accuse me' Paul took a deep breath, 'Suggest that I forgot something that is so fresh in my mind that I can still taste the stench in the air th-the-'
At this point Paul was interupted by a female officer he didn't know, 'Everything alright in here?'
Paul turned to her and suddenly realised what he was doing, 'I was just leaving' he said coldly and turned to exit the room.
Seeing Paul's retreat, Kurtis suddenly filled with renewed confadence, 'Leave your badge and gun on the table and you're free to leave, you're taking a vacation.'
'Are you suspending me?' Paul said, trying to remain calm.
'You're being suspended till furthur notice, furthur investigations will take place as to the cause of Chris's death, if you have nothing furthur to say then you're free to leave my office, I don't want to see you back here till we know how Chris got' Kurtis suddenly looked like he was going to be sick, 'The way we found him.' Kurtis finnished lamely.
posted by Y.Y. | 06:03
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home