Blackridge city always smelled of rain and rust. Today it smelled like blood.
Detective Aria Vale walked towards the yellow police tape ignoring the murmurs of the officers that parted instinctively as she walked by. Some looked relieved to see her, others avoided her eyes.
The alley was narrow, squeezed between two buildings that leaned into each other.
"Good evening" Elias greeted her as he raised the tape up for her.
"Morning" she corrected as she ducked under the tape. It was three in the morning.
Blue lights flashed across the pavements.
"Third one. You're not gonna like it" Elias said.
Aria walked forward, she rarely liked anything about her job.
"Same as the others?" She asked and Elias nodded. A flash of emotion passed across her face but it was only there for a split second.
The body lay in the middle of the alley.
Male. Mid thirties.
Eyes sewn shut.
Same mark that had appeared on the other two bodies carved meticulously into the victim's chest.
She crouched beside the body.
The victim's face was pale, lips parted slightly as if he had been saying something before dying.
"Time of death is about an hour ago, it was a night walker who found the body and called the police" Elias said and Aria just nodded.
She stared at the body, carefully examining it with her eyes and something caught her attention.
The thread.
The thin black stitching that pulled the victim's eyes shut together.
Careful.
Deliberate.
Precise.
Whoever killed the man had definitely taken his time with the stitching, as well as the carving on the chest, it was not like that with the first two victims.
Aria exhaled slowly.
Blood had started to pool beneath the body and Aria's fingers were itching. Rain had started falling and was sliding down the alley walls in thin silver lines.
Aria wanted to move away from the body but her fingers wouldn't stop itching… it was the blood.
Elias shifted behind her. He looked uneasy.
A third murder with the same pattern meant a serial killer and even though Aria was the best detective to be on the case due to her reputation of solving the unsolvable, he felt there was something different about her this time.
"Are you going to do that thing again?" He asked.
Aria didn't answer right away. She pulled off her glove instead as cold rain touched her hands.
"Cover", she said to Elias almost in a whisper but the latter quickly moved into position having done this for her two times before. It didn't feel right, but Elias didn't always abide by the book either.
Slowly, as if dreading what was about to come, Aria moved her slender fingers towards the pool of blood.
She touched it.
The world tilted.
Cold crept up her arm like ice in her veins.
Then the emotions started coming.
Confusion at first.
Panic.
Fear.
Pain.
The victim had been terrified.
Aria's breathing slowed. She tried to focus more.
Something moved… like a flash. A tall blurry figure.
A flash of a blade. It's tip pointed so sharply and blood dripped from it. It had marks—symbols, engraved and one of those marks is the one that the victim had on his chest.
Then a surge of calm.
The killers emotions…
Aria couldn't make sense of it because the killer was feeling a hundred things at once.
The figure turned and Aria felt her blood freeze.
The image shattered and Aria jerked away, pulling air back into her lungs. Elias rushed to her side.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded, rubbing her temple.
"Anything?"
"Fear. From the victim" she paused. Elias waited. "He knew his killer"
She started walking away. Elias followed, knowing there was more.
"This one is different", she continued. "I couldn't feel the killer's emotions as clear as the victim's but, he thought he was doing something important"
She rubbed her hands together. Her wet hair stuck to the sides of her face where she made no attempt to move them.
That was the third murder that week and they haven't gotten anywhere with the investigations.
"What do we have on the mark" she asked after some minutes of silence
"Well, nothing" Elias said matter-of-factly.
"Great", she replied with sarcasm in her tone. "Tell Lina to report to me directly once she has anything on the victim. Every little detail matters and I want to know all" she was speaking too slowly.
"Sure"
"Good. Bring me everything we have on the two other victims. I want to go through it again"
"On it!"
She hesitated, "Elias", she called, "I have a deep feeling we've got more than just murders on our hands, what I saw now and the ones I saw before, there's something deeper going on here"
And it might just be the answer to every question she had ever had.
Without waiting for Elias to say anything else. She turned away and walked back the way she came. Patrol lights still painted the wet walls in blue and red. And the city was still asleep.
But a tall blurry figure lurked in the shadows and watched Aria till she disappeared into the fog.