|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:29 pm
Finished. DO NOT DELETE.
A warning
There will be mature content in this story. If gore, adult language, and implications of adult situations bother you, do us both a favor and don't read it. I sincerely don't care if it makes you uncomfortable. Thank you.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:41 pm
__Part 1
Ethan stumbled across the names by accident.
He was sitting at the table, eating the travesty of combined foods he called breakfast - salsa, vinegar-soaked bread and for some inexplicable reason maple syrup - looking for the sports page when his eyes fell on the small article.
Man found dead, foul play suspected
Mr. James Townsend, 42, was found dead in his home late Thursday afternoon by his landlord, Mr. Laurence Becker. The scene was reported by police to be 'unnaturally savage' - while reporters could not get close to the scene to attempt further questioning, it was noted that the body was removed from the home in separate pieces. This gruesome scene is alarmingly similar to a discovery earlier this month in Aekea, where Mr. Keith Goshawk was found dismembered in his home. In both cases, there were no signs of forced entry. Police-
This was as far as Ethan read. A chill had run down his spine, and he'd suddenly lost his usually unflappable appetite.
"James..."
James Townsend had been a sniper in the Brigade. A good one. He'd never liked Ethan, though he'd taught him play poker with James' old pack of playing cards, the only pastime the Piper had let them indulge in. Feeling very ill, Ethan pushed the paper away and went to clean up the mess he'd made in the kitchen, immersed in cold memory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:49 pm
__Part 2
After finding James Townsend's name in the paper, Ethan became more acutely aware of the news. For days and weeks on end there was nothing, and then another man he'd known from the Brigade would turn up in a news broadcast or in the paper, all killed in the same way. Strangled or stabbed, and...taken apart. Ethan shuddered each time he turned on the television or picked up the newspaper, poring over details obsessively and frightened of what he would find. Someone was picking the old Brigaders off. He had started a list, and it was growing disturbingly longer.
"Ethan, you're pale as death."
Ethan looked up from the newspaper, blinking confusedly. Crow looked at him long and hard from across the table.
"Sorry," he said absently, looking back down at the paper. No new names so far...
"Are you gonna tell me what's up?"
"No....I...later, Crow. Please. Just leave me be."
Crow acquiesced, getting up from the table and briefly squeezing Ethan's shoulder as she passed. He looked up and half-nodded, feeling the need to acknowledge her, and returned to his paper.
Fifth murder in three weeks, police refuse to acknowledge 'serial killer'
After a particularly bloody month in Durem, police are no closer to finding the culprit or culprits behind a series of murders that have rocked the city, all adhereing to the unusual profile of men between the ages of twenty and forty...
Ethan scanned the article with a critical eye, and with a cloying sense of dread wrote down three more names onto his list.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:34 pm
__Part 3
The argument between Ethan and Julian was explosive.
"I am NOT taking you down there-"
"Julian, you don't understand, this is important!"
"NO. I'm not bringing you in to see him. It's bad enough trying to keep the goddamned press out, if I bring you too I'll- "
"Shut up! Shut UP! I don't CARE if you get into trouble, I need to speak to him!"
Julian tore at his hair in anger, staring Ethan down. The two had never so much as spoken in harsh terms to one another - certain instances aside, anyway - but now it seemed likely that the two were bordering coming to blows.
"I can't," Julian said, trying to keep his voice level. "Ethan. I honestly can't get you in there. I'm sorry."
Ethan glared furiously at Julian a moment more, then strode out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. Crow, who'd been watching the exchange with wide, startled eyes, looked at her brother.
"What was that all about?" she breathed.
"Another murder last night. Two people, and the second one they found's alive. Barely, but alive. Ethan found out, and he wanted to visit."
"Why can't he?" Crow asked sensibly.
"Because the guy's in critical condition," Julian said grimly. "When you've been torn apart so badly you need your jaw reattached, you're not gonna be taking visitors..."
"Mnn," Jeddeth said from the couch, chewing on an old chicken bone. "Seems reasonable."
Crow, rather nauseous, said nothing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:41 pm
__Part 4
Ethan had no set plan on how to get into the hospital. He had no grand scheme on how to weasel past the security, the doctors, or anything of the sort. He was scared, desperate for some scrap of information, and his best bet was currently lying in the critical care ward, recovering from surgery that evidently had reattached an arm and a sizable chunk of jaw. Pacing up and down the corridors of the HQ, he passed by the door that lead to the Devreaux home no less than fifteen times. Something Julian had said the other day came back to him, and he hesitated. Well, it was worth a try.
Slinking through the door and pacing the front porch, Ethan swallowed hard and knocked.
"Liam?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:47 pm
As per usual, the house was fairly empty. Having children that constantly needed excitement generally did that to people. And so, again, as per usual, Hellis was the first to approach the door. He did, however, hear a name that wasn't his. Disembodied Voice wanted Liam, and so Liam Disembodied Voice would get. The young man padded up the stairs quickly and aroused Lima from sleep. Liam groaned, rolled out of bed, threw on whatever was on the floor from the day before, and shuffled to the door, pulling it open and using it as a crutch at the same time.
"Hgnn?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:50 pm
"Liam, I need you to do me a favor."
The words, Ethan was rather glad to find, came out terse and strained rather than mindbendingly desperate. Shoving his hands into his pockets to stop their shaking, but unable to hide the distinct paleness to his face, he looked at Liam imploringly.
"I need to get into the hospital. Julian said the other day that you and him went there to visit. They think you work there, you can get me in. I'll do whatever you want to pay you back, I swear."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:54 pm
Liam blinked. Well, s**t. On one hand, this was very illegal and likely a very bad idea. On the other hand, it sounded fairly exciting, and Ethan was obviously hurting. When faced with law and love, Liam always leaned toward the latter.
"Who're we goin' t'see, exactly?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:59 pm
"A man I knew," Ethan said, so relieved Liam was willing where Julian was not that he grabbed the man and hugged him. He stepped back almost immediately, unsure if he'd overstepped boundaries, and fiddled with the rosary on his wrist anxiously. "But he's hurt. Very hurt. It'll be hard to get in to see him. There's....media. And police. But I really, really need to talk to him. We have to sneak in."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:03 pm
"Not knew, know," Liam said, "and I assumed it was something like that, but a name would be nice."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:07 pm
"Oh. Er. Sorry. Anthony. Anthony Harper," Ethan said, tugging at the rosary so hard he ran the risk of breaking it. The cold knot that had made a habit of getting stuck in his throat the past few weeks was back, and he was having difficulty getting the words out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:09 pm
Liam gave a curt nod but no warning as he rammed the heel of his palm (and who named a part of the hand after a part of the foot, anyway?) into Ethan's gut and transported them both into the room of whoever this 'Anthony' person was. Or so he hoped.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:15 pm
Where they turned up was not a hospital room.
It was the morgue.
"-so you think you can stone me and spit in my eye, so you think you can love me and leave me to die-"
A morgue, inexplicably, echoing with particularly loud music and a man who couldn't sing to save his life.
"OOF," Ethan said belatedly, doubling over and trying to get air back into his lungs. The singing mortician heard the 'OOF', and whirled around.
"YAAA!" he shouted, badly startled to see people directly behind him.
"GAH!" Ethan replied, stumbling back.
"Who're you?" the mortician shouted over the music, brandishing a scalpel with menace. "I swear, if you're press, I'll cut out your damned liver and feed it to- hey, you're the intern!"
Tugging off his mask and fixing his thick glasses, Andy grinned at the sight of Liam and turned down his stereo.
"I was wondering where you got to," he said. "Figured Julian killed and ate you or something."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:20 pm
Intern? Oh, right! Intern! Liam gave a forced, appreciative snort of laughter.
"Nah, still alive. Yo, you get an Anthony Harper in here?"
Please say no, Liam pleaded silently, Please say I just ******** up and we're in the wrong part of the building.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:27 pm
"Mm," Andy nodded, stepping aside and waving a hand at the body on the table. "What's left of him, as it were."
Ethan went distinctly gray. A youngish man, badly beaten and bearing fresh stitches and staples on his jaw and arm, lay with his chest opened.
"Wh..." Ethan couldn't form any words. Only a whuffing sort of sound as air was forced out of his lungs as though he'd been struck again. He clutched at Liam's shoulder.
"Died in the night," Andy said, cheerfulness fading. He looked at the body and shook his head. "And would you believe, he got off lucky? The guy they found in the house with him, wasn't enough left to fill a shoebox."
"How did he survive?" Ethan managed finally.
Andy shrugged.
"Didn't, if you want to be technical," he replied, stripping off his gloves so he could reach into the potato chip bag beside a tray laden with bone saws. "His was the odder case, though. Cut up all over, and the wounds look like someone was pulling things out. Digging."
Ethan, already ashen, turned a corpse-gray one of the cadavers in the morgue would envy.
"Digging...?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
