Chapter 1: Blood dawn part 5

Charles was looking at his second case for this day. This night, he corrected himself. The bodies seemed unspoiled as they lay there. An undertaker could not have positioned them more peaceful. The carpet however was stained with blood, shards of bone and remainders of tissue. Then there was the message on the wall, written in blood: “Your next”. The murderer obvious wasn't a scholar, but he seemed to know what he was doing. He had cleaned up the room after the murder, except for the carpet and the message of course. Someone was dusting for fingerprints but he has not yet found a single one.

Charles went into the kitchen, to see if anything useful could be found there. He discovered some blooded shards of a vase in the trash and a knife that was lying a bit to obvious on the kitchentable. He bagged both and handed them over to someone of forensic, before returning to his car. He had seen enough here, it was time to interrogate their witness a bit more thoroughly. Back in his car he started putting the pieces he had seen together. But for now it didn't seem to make any sense, hopefully Maya could change this.

Back at the police station he found Maya in an interrogation room. She was just sitting there, trying to hide her tears, but without any success. All her make-up was already washed away, and she almost looked like a different person now, a much older person.

“First of all I'd like to give you my condolences.” Charles started.

“That's such a void statement” Maya said in between several sniffs.

“What a big mouth for such a small and sad girl.”

“I just don't like insincere people.”

“I was just trying to be polite, but if that's how you react ...”

“Hey! I just lost my family. I mean ...” the rest was lost in a stream of tears.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I just want to help you,” Charles said softly, “I want to catch the bastards who did this. But for that I need some help. Don't you want to help me?”

“I do,” Maya stumbled, “ but I feel so confused ... and alone ... and completely exhausted. I don't know what to do any more. It all seems so unreal and I “

Charles interrupted her “Maybe you should get some rest then.” And maybe I should get some too, he added in his mind. “I'll leave you then.”

Back in his office he almost collapsed. “What am I doing?” he asked himself, “When did I become so involved? Why can't I let it all go, even for a second? When Did I become so unprofessional?” With great trouble he managed to reach his chair, as soon as he sat down the questions started coming again. He tried to focus, to find some answers but he couldn't. The girl, it has to do with her. But what was it that dragged him in? As much as he despised her, he couldn't help loving her. What was so special about her? Her gaze rips right through him, as a blade, cutting out the scars, soothing and hurting at the same time. Who was she? She talked as if she had known him all his life, but she was as eager and interested as a child seeing something for the first time. And why...? Why...?

“Sir?”
“Sir?!?”
Charles looked up. He saw someone standing in the door opening. A man. A cop. He looked at the room. It looked different. Then he saw the clock. Five hours had passed.

“Sir?”

Finally Charles took the hint. “Yes?”, he replied.

“The first reports are in. The bodies we found at the house have been dead for 24-36 hours, the most probable cause of death is the loss of blood, together with the removal of several vital organs. Further there are some bruises. The body we recovered from the airport has only been dead for 24h at the most, but the full autopsy is still to be preformed. We also did a check on the people in that house and it appears they had no daughter.”

Charles jumped up when he heard this. He was already out of his office before the policeman could continue.
“But sir, there is one other thing I have to tell you.”

Charles didn't seem interested in what the policeman had to say.

“Davy Jones is back in town.”

Hearing that name Charles completely froze. For a while he hesitated. Then he turned around, took the documents from the cop's hand and rushed towards the exit, yelling: “Make sure you keep her here!”

Charles never believed in coincidence. Davy Jones had or has something to do with everything that was going on. But the question was what. What could he possibly gain by killing so many people? Maybe they were testing a new weapon. Maybe one of their agents had gone rogue on them. Or maybe it was just a test, to verify the skills of the police corps. Even though he would get the answer there it was better to be prepared since he knew his opponent was going to be. And what would be the fun if either party was significantly weaker? This is true for both discussions and fighting. Challenges is what makes life fun. It had been quite a while since he had a chance to compete with the master himself. The ringing of his mobile phone brought him back into reality. Which was odd since he didn't own a mobile phone. He pulled over and looked around to see where his automatic pilot had guided him. He was nearly at Davy's private airport. He turned his attention back to the ringing and reached back to grab the phone from the back seat.

“Hello?”

“Hey Charles, Toby here. Could you flash your lights?”

Charles flashed with his lights.

“Thanks” Toby spoke “Davy is in hangar 1”

Then Toby hung up. Charles proceeded to meet his arch-enemy. But he would not like this meeting seeing he was severely disadvantaged and not prepared at all.

Davy and his gang were waiting outside the hangar. Most of the people there he knew, however there were two new faces among them. One of them had now also noticed Charles and was looking back. There was something strange about this man's eyes. It looked like they could peer through the sun itself and instantly freeze it. All of the sudden Charles wasn't feeling at ease any more. His heartbeat and breathing accelerated. He tried to look away from the man, but he could not. Then another feeling started to come through, a feeling of sadness, of grieve. Slowly tears started coming to his eyes. As his mind started screaming “STOP! NO MORE” his body now completely froze. It was like his brain was no longer a part of his body. He could no longer feel his own limbs, it was all overshadowed by a sea of sorrow. His mind started pleading for death however he had not the strength to give into it. Then all of the sudden the man looked away and Charles totally lost it. He had to gasp for air, sweat started pouring out of his pores. He slowly started feeling his limbs again and step by step he seemed to be taken control of himself again.

By the time he was calm again two men had taken place on the backseat of his car.

“Hello Charles” said Davy “allow me to introduce Vlad, my European business associate, to you. I hope he didn't scare you to much?”

Charles look at the other person and looked quickly away when he recognised the man that had been staring.

“So? What have you got for me Charles?”

“How deeply involved are you in the airport massacre?” Charles answered.

“I had nothing to do with it. However I can always appreciate a work of art. Got any photo's?”

Charles handed him a file while adding the words: “what are we dealing with here?”

Davy and Vlad looked through the pictures together.

“It's definitely a supernatural creature.” Vlad started. “It's a by nature physical entity, non-physical entities leave different traces. Seeing the damage on the walls my first guess would be beasts, however those would have eaten a lot more of their victims. Also it seems to be done by something intelligent. The leftovers seem to be intentional as a sort of challenge. Is this far from the entrance?”

“Yes”

“Okay then it is most definitely humanoid. This leaves only vampires, summoners and inner demons. And neither of those seems to make sense. Vampires wouldn't leave clawmarks on the walls. Summoners would imply that those beasts are still in this reality and they would have also eaten more of the bodies. Inner demons don't care about fleshly mutilation, if it were those you would have a lot of complete hollow bodies, stripped of their essence. One last but very unlikely option is a hybrid. However if we're going to believe these exist we might as well start believing in leprechauns.”

“Any witnesses?” Davy asked.

“Just one. Profile her.” Charles said while passing another file.

This was Davy's speciality. “Her face looks young but her eyes give the impression she's over a hundred years old. Her behaviour is inconsistent, which she says is linked to her emotional state. She has a way of charming people around her. Even you can't resist her, Charles. But at the same time she frightens anyone who is near her. Though no one can explain it, they feel like there is an evil aura surrounding her. Am I right?”

Charles kept quiet. This meant he was right, and that he was beating Charles this game.

“So we're not sure who or what she is, but I'm damn sure she's deeply involved in this. Though she won't tell cause she uses her charms to guide anyone's thoughts away from this issue. Not even the great inspector Turner can withstand a little girl like this. Maybe you should ask Dr. Underwood to do a quick medical check on you.”

Charles brutally interrupted Davy: “Wipe that grin of your face and get out of my car!”

Before Davy got out he handed over the files to Charles saying: “Here you go. I hope this doesn't affect our friendship?”

Charles replied with more silence.

“So be it” Davy spoke “in that case I'll wish you an exciting race and good hunt.”

Davy and Vlad now left the car and they watched Charles drive away.

“You know who we're looking for now. She'll be hiding in the crowds. Scan the police frequencies for clothing store robberies. She won't be far. I'll take care of our religious fanboys.” Davy said.

Vlad nodded. Then they went back to prepare their hunts.