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"Come in, Dispatch."

"Dispatch here, what's the situation?"

"My... My God... Dispatch, I don't ********' know what we need here."

"Protocol, Officer Sherman. What's the situation? I repeat."

"Thomas Higgins... he's been--[unidentified noise]."

"I'm sorry Sherman, did you say 'eaten'?"

"Sliced up like a holiday ham. And poor Jacob Barnes got a bullet enema not too far away. Whoever did this... whatever did this... has no soul."

A hand reached over and turned off the police scanner. Falling away the slender, pale fingers traced over a worn black leather bible before picking it up, blindly thumbing through until it settled on a blood-stained page marked Psalm: 137:8.

O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!

Trailing up the body that owned that hand, a wicked grin that flashed tea-stained teeth and stretched the poor pale skin on the skull. The skull of a man whose ink black hair covered his right eye for reasons only he and one other knew.

His name was Endrance Celsce Vierra, more recently known as "The Mad Hatter" after the massacre in a Catholic church and convent some days away. He was called such because he wore a black top hat with a fuschia band that he only took off to sleep or shower. And because he was particular about who touched it. The last man to try and wrench his hat away had ended up with that hand so far up his rectum, when they did the autopsy one finger was in a valve in his heart.

The only reason he wasn't walking down death row right now for the horrors he had committed was he had convinced a lone private eye that he had been brainwashed and seduced in to the acts by the one Patricia Dolores Lemmings, who, on official record, was dead and presumed missing. Now whether he was truly innocent remained to be seen but as it stood for the moment they were tracking Patricia supposedly with the idea of bringing her back to that small town and charging her with all the murders.

The trail had gone cold for a while but the scanner had picked up a curious case some hours before about two women and a stabbing victim. It was too broad to act on but what he'd just heard confirmed she was still alive and well. It made his black little heart warm.

Setting a toothpick between his teeth he gathered what few things he traveled with and exited the small room, going next door to notify the detective. He knocked calmly on the door, pulling the brim of his hat down to shade his eye from the fluorescent lights.

"She's on the move. Not as far this time." He announced through the door.

It seemed mere coincidence that such a strange man as Endrance would have picked a rather wet behind the ears detective rather than go for the most experienced and ruthless. Theo, for all his good points, seemed rather unfit for his profession but that was entirely the point. Whether or not this young man was good at what he did hardly mattered; Endrance needed the alibi.

Some years ago he had been sitting in prison, shackled and even muzzled as he had bitten a few inmates and guards for reasons all his own. Otherwise he had maintained an eerily calm demeanor which helped solidify the story that he was not as guilty as others claimed he was. His background helped as well. Religious, clean-cut family, close-knit community boy with the desire to serve his country stopped only by the death of his parents that brought him to seek God.

Except it wasn't God that had found poor Endrance.

He slipped in to the passenger side of the vehicle, toothpick being worked at by his teeth, and pulled up the GPS in the car, plugging away coordinates to set a route. For a man of God with a vow of poverty he sure knew quite a bit about technology. And weaponry, mostly firearms. That could be blamed on his brief stint in the military, not that he'd gotten far enough to use said firearms but he was mostly like a walking encyclopedia.

"Two, this time." He started after a long silence. "Two men were found in the woods a couple miles from a motel; one was the owner. The other was a record store employee. She carved up the owner and just flat out killed the other, I suppose he was unwanted baggage."

Cia, one of his pet names for her, was always careful to only use one for her sadistic meals. It had only been while she was staying at the convent that she'd ever carved up more than one at a time and that was because she could store the meat. Being that she was on the run she could only afford in the moment sprees.

If his hunch was correct, and usually they were, he wondered exactly why she had someone else with her now. She was not in the business of taking hostages and as far as he knew her tastes had not changed. The only logical reasoning he could come up with was she had conned this other person in some way. How long that would last would remain to be seen.

His fingers traced the binding of the old bible in his coat pocket.

"Tell me, Theo my boy... do you believe in God?"

It was a question he often posed, but one he never tired of asking.

Theo Tolliver

Theo would give Endrance a big open smile when he entered the car. A little concern he was chewing on toothpicks because what would happen if he accidentally swallowed it. It could possibly kill him if he did but Theo didn't mention it because he didn't want to be a negative nancy. Though he made sure he had his phone ready to call an ambulance if it's ever needed for that situation or another.

"Gee one would think they would get tired of the taste after a while. I know I would" Not that he would think of eating another human. Besides feeling it was morally wrong it also didn't seem like it would taste any good. Theo kept driving looking at the gps every once in a while to make sure they were going to right way.

Sometimes he wondered how some people didn't feel remorse for the people they killed. Accidentally bumping into someone would cause Theo to apologize right away. It was probably some mental disorder or the way they were brought up and the environment they were in. It was simple reasoning but it didn't help him really dive in to the issue at hand, maybe psychology would be a better choice for him. No it wouldn't Theo is always happy saving people and helping people out and while the government doesn't completely rehabilitate criminals it make sure that some people are deetered from that path.

Maybe they should check up on the place Patricia had been staying maybe they will figure more about where she is. However the scene might have some good evidence, especially since it seemed like she got sloppy this time. Being caught what sounded like right away after the crime.

A rather random but expected question from Endrance, if he believed in God. Which was the one time he didn't answer straight away. Mainly because Theo was thinking of a way to explain it without offending Endrance. "No...no I do not. I mean it does sound like a very nice thing to believe but I can't believe in him" Theo would say. "I mean he sounds pretty awesome being able to smite people and what not...or is that Zeus? Sorry I'm not actually that well versed with it hahaha" Going back to his more careless way of talking.

He had expected as much from Theo and made no indication that he was either unhappy or satisfied with the answer. Most people of the law did not believe in higher beings; they saw too much of Hell to have a sense of Heaven. The logic would go if there was one surely the other existed as well, but when you felt the balance was tipped... well, it stood to reason.

Taking from the inner pocket of his coat the tattered bible, Endrance opened it up and once more began blindly thumbing the stained and torn pages inside.

"James 2:24 reads: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." He shut the bible then and tucked it back in where it had been, giving it on last tender stroke before placing his hands back in his lap and lacing the long fingers together. "So you see, my boy, there is nothing to fear. Even should you never come to accept the Lord, there is always hope." The smile he gave was several levels of unsettling.

Going silent for some moments, he worked on the toothpick as he let Theo's previous words mull about in his addled brain.

Reaching up, he pulled the toothpick out, showing the wear he'd given it in the short amount of time. "And to answer your inquiry about tiring of the same thing: do the rich ever tire of the taste of caviar and champagne? Even when they have it night after night? The answer to that is no. The reason is, it's status. In the same way those delicacies make up part of being wealthy and high-ranked socially, consuming human flesh is a delicacy that defines Miss Lemmings."

Endrance cocked his head slightly, eye examining the toothpick.

"Do you know, there was a Native American tribe that thrived in the southern US called the Atakapa tribe. One of their rituals was cannibalism, but they would only eat the flesh of their enemies. They believed in doing so this sent the souls of the consumed to Hell. Of course, they also believed dying of a snake bite granted you the same fate." He chuckled. "My point of course being there may be another factor as to why Miss Lemmings does what she does, aside from perhaps enjoying the taste."

Endrance would not argue Theo's points or theories not because he believed the naive detective to be right or wrong but simply because he believed it to be rude to stir the waters with polite company, especially since he was to be feigning as much ignorance as he was. The truth of the matter was Endrance knew everything there was to know about Patricia not only because she had told him in utmost confidence in the time they'd spent together but because she had made him the same thing she was: a monster. Sin was hardly original anymore.

They arrived at the crime scene and Theo instructed he stay inside the vehicle, thankfully leaving it running so the headlights illuminated the area up ahead. And with at least a dozen more vehicles all in the same area, some flashing their highbeams, it was rather like daylight in this little section of wilderness.

There was crime scene tape everywhere, surrounding both bodies, and little numbered markers were scattered throughout to indicate where evidence lay. Not far from the main scene was a young man with dark hair face down in the dirt with a hole in the seat of his pants that were bloodstained in the same area, the ground near where his mouth should be covered in the same rusty liquid with chunks scattered throughout. By Endrance's guess, that was Jacob, the unnecessary one.

Some paces from there was the real crime of an overweight older man with chunks missing from his buttocks and backs of his thighs, the bright red muscle underneath still glistening in the light. Beneath him was a pool of blood that of course suggested he'd died well before she started cutting. That was her style, she didn't slice up meat that still bucked and hollered. North of the second body was a small campfire which several officers were looking over. One was off to the side retching from the smell. That was the drawback--human flesh when cooked tended to leave a rather foul and distinctive odor. It was how he'd found out the first time.

Finally Theo returned, looking none the worse for what he'd seen though that didn't surprise the priest considering the crime scenes they had been to before this one that were far more gruesome. He plugged in an address in to the GPS and they pulled out of the woods.

Endrance had to smile, though only to himself to hide the unusual amusement. "Her maiden name is Lemmings, as in the oil tycoon Richard Henry Lemmings. Her married name is Grim, as in the steel giant Frank Jeremiah Grim III, whose son she married. She goes by Lemmings."

He still remembered that conversation when he had mistakenly addressed her with her married surname. The scar on his collarbone was still there.

"If you intend to search for records, I should save you the time and tell you the paper trail officially stops six years ago with a rather lovely headline. The Modern Romeo And Juliet. Her family and the police that investigated the incident believe the first night of their honeymoon the groom, Terrian Grim, was brutally murdered in their hotel suite and his new bride found him and committed suicide somewhere else, to which there is no body to prove in the affirmative or the negative. Of course, they never found the groom's body, either. They swabbed the room and found his blood on the floor, ceiling, and bath tub of the bathroom."

That night had been her first confession to him. He remembered being horrified, not at what she had done, but the circumstances that had led her to kill her own husband. He had, of course, absolved her of the sin but had urged her to some way tell the police where the body was buried so that his family might have some closure. She had laughed, a soft tinkling sound much like a bell.

The very idea of staying somewhere nicer appealed to Patricia very much. It had been years since she'd graced anywhere that was of the caliber she had been born in to. Much of her missed the comforts but she had known a long time ago even returning home after her husband went missing that she wouldn't have stayed there.

Patricia and her mother had barely gotten along and always grinned and bore it when her father was around. It had been her mother's idea to marry her off as soon as possible so her father would pay attention to his wife again. Her father had doted and spoiled Patricia immensely, which had made her mother jealous. When Patricia had pitched a fit about the engagement her mother gave the ultimatum of marriage or a life in the convent. Either way, she was out.

The memory soured the lingering taste on her tongue and she sighed, watching the world go by from the passenger window.

"That sthoundsths fine," she said after a long pause, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible when inside she felt like singing Rune's praises for even entertaining the idea. Soft, actually clean bed, sheets that hadn't seen horrors and perversions as often or at all, and possibly no person in the neighboring room watching obscene channels with the volume at max. Not to mention an air conditioning unit that didn't constantly need to be fiddled with for comfort. For this alone she was writing off the possibility of ever killing Rune.

More minutes strung along in silence and Patricia seemed in much better spirits now, the tears having ceased and her eyes bright and observing as much as she could. Even the presence of the mirror on the side of the door didn't seem to bother her like the one in the motel where they'd met had.

If Rune was suspicious she didn't seem to be showing signs of it, which made Patricia curious.

"You can call me Cia," she offered finally. "If you want. Sthomeone usthed to call me that, and I don't mind." She hoped by offering this friendly gesture it would put more in her favor. Never would she let Rune all the way in, but if she was going to earn trust and keep it she knew she had to open up and give something.

Endrance felt his right eye twitching but suppressed the desire to rub at it lest he reveal the hidden gem. For his ears only there was a solitary wolf's howl echoing in the chambers of his mind and his vision grew hazy and in shades of greys, blacks, and reds. Sounds of traffic, the car, the night--everything was muted and he heard only his breathing and rapid heartbeat in his ears.

In his confused vision he watched a truck pass by but could not see the occupants for the way he saw the world now, but when it finally left and got far enough away all color came bleeding back and sound returned as though someone had suddenly cranked a stereo in a library. Endrance blinked, quite confused at the state he'd just been in, but mentioned none of it to Theo.

It was then Theo posed a question that the priest thought a little amusing and rather daring to ask.

"You do know I was someone before I took my vows," Endrance replied calmly, lacing his fingers in his lap. "But if it has your curiousity so, yes I have been on dates. I was quite charming when I was younger and had many lady friends. Even after I entered the priesthood many young ladies came by to tempt me, but by then my resolve was strong; I had made my decision. As for priests being allowed to date, no. We take a vow of celibacy and maintain no relationship with anyone that isn't purely platonic."

By then they arrived at the motel. There were still a few straggling police vehicles in the parking lot but it looked like for the most part the party was over, so to speak. Theo again took the initiative and got out, leaving the priest to follow at some distance, his hands behind his back with one hand grasping the other wrist.

Inside the office was a woman who sat behind the raised counter, sobbing near hysterically in to her hands which were already soaked in tears and snot. Theo began to ask her questions and Endrance wasn't even sure she heard him or understood through her hysterics. Leaving the detective to it, Endrance wandered out the office and strolled the walk way that led to the rooms, nose tilted up in the air much like a bloodhound. He sniffed and sniffed until he stopped at one door.

On the ground, sticking out just under the door, was a hair ribbon of the prettiest seafoam green. He bent at the knee and picked it up, running the ribbon under his nostrils, eye rolling back in his skull. Sweet powder, rose petals, earl grey, and the crisp bite of blood. It was hers. The ribbon was brought to his lips and he kissed it ever so gently then flicked his tongue out, tasting the fabric.

"It's been so long, my beloved March Hare..." he breathed to the ribbon. He heard a voice and stood up, hiding the ribbon as an officer came over and asked what he was doing. Plastering a pleasant but fake smile on his face Endrance merely replied he was taking a look about as he'd been asked to say a few blessed words for the departed souls. The officer eyed him suspiciously but decided to let it go, walking away.

Endrance pocketed the ribbon and started back to the office to see what Theo had found out, if anything. He already knew what he needed to, but was unwilling to share just yet.