I stared at Katherine with no reaction, trying to piece together what I had just heard. She didn't often get loud around me; she was calm and obedient but now she was... disobedient. I didn't like it. I hate when things don't go my way, but I need to keep my god like image around her. I walked up to Katherine and held her soft swollen cheeks in my hands. My red eyes were wet like a lake, my cheeks were puffed up and my hands were shaking. I leaned my head against her head and let my tears flow down from my clear pale cheeks.
Katherine didn't object to anything I did, her demeanor changed from loud aggressive jealousy to quiet sympathetic love. I pulled myself off her body and onto the floor. Tears rolled uncontrollably, everything I did crushed Katherine harder than before. She jumped down from her bed, naked and kneeled in front of me with a distraught look on her face. Before Katherine could do or say anything I spoke before her and prevented her from even saying anything.
"K-Katherine... I-I-I-I love you but S-sometimes I feel like you don't care for me. I want to spend my life with you because every minute every nano second, I spend with you feels like my world stops but now... I don't know if we can be together if you're going to keep acting like this."
Her face was frozen from my words, she couldn't speak but her quiet dead pale and sad face spoke louder than her own mouth.
Just as I was about to start crying, I felt her cold light hands covering my shoulders. Her smooth plump lips connected with my spine; her warm soft meaty body had been completely wrapped around me. Her eyes were crying for me when I couldn't. I reciprocated Katherine's hug, and we embraced one another.
JAMES
"Sir. You wanted to see me?"
"James please sit down. We need to talk."
Sitting down on the sleek black wingback chair. I listened diligently to what my captain had to say to me.
"James we've been friends for a long time and even though I've been promoted to captain I always know I can count on you so what I ask you I need a straight answer. Understand."
Shit.
"Where are we in the H-town gouger case?"
"Excuse me?"
"The media is so far up my ass I can feel them crawling through my head. I need some help here. Please, I need something. Anything?"
Jesus, can't he do anything himself. Everything about this man is fake. His hair, his fake disgusting obtuse angle jawline and the worst among them all, his job. He didn't earn his job; he wasn't even qualified for any job within law enforcement. He's too fucking dumb. The only reason he had a job was because of me. We entered the police academy together and graduated together but he was never good at the policing work. He was too emotional and got way too cocky with a gun however despite all that he had great social skills and knew how to connect with others. He made talking to victims and witnesses easy, but I had to do all the heavy work. Not that I didn't have the ability to sympathize with the hopeless trash on the street.
Not wanting to have this bug crawling up my ass I was about to give the captain the truth but instead I had a better idea.
"Liam tell them this...."
TREVOR
Opening the door to my house I spotted my entire family, father, sister and stepmother sitting down on the sofa watching television. Slowly walking to the living room, I could feel all their eyes leering at me. Not wanting to be the outcast in the family I joined them on the couch and watched what they saw.
It was the news in a constant loop replaying the same thing repeatedly. A man tall and relatively lean with what was clearly fake hair and an incongruent jawline. His body was practically like a smorgasbord of randoms human parts that didn't connect with one another.
In big bold letters read "Captain Liam Henderson commenting on the Houston eye gouger."
Listening to the news I got introduce to a man named Liam Henderson.
"These murders are a travesty, and they must stop, and we will stop them. I have my best officers working on them and we will stop at nothing to bring this monster down."
"Are there any leads as to who the killer is?"
"We have already begun to narrow down who the killer is."
"Captain! Is there anything you would like to say to the killer who might be watching!"
"I don't know who you are or what you are but whatever you are I will stop at nothing to bring you down because you are nothing than a cheap coward who preys on the weak. You disgust me."
Interesting I thought. He's trying to shake me. He knows how much of a public figure he is so he's trying to get me to come after him. If I were to do something it would put me in danger. It seems like the game is escalating. For now, I need to sit back and soak in the situation but if I wait for too long, I'll be in a corner, and I can't escape. I need to retaliate. But considering he's a high ranking official in the police force I can't make any stupid moves.
The best course of action is to sit back and watch everything unfold.
LIAM
After the media swarm ended, I went into my office and sat down on my black leather seat. My ass was wet from fear of what the media would do to me. But thankfully James gave me the perfect speech. I didn't know where he got it from, but it was the perfect speech for the perfect moment. He really saved my ass.
Opening an expensive bottle of tequila that I had hidden under my desk, I heard a strong quiet voice behind me. His voice was filled with nothing, no emotion, no resentment and no happiness. Like I was below him.
"Very good. You did well."
"Why did you make me say that? Especially the last part."
"You don't need to worry about that, when the time comes, I'll give you a specific set of instructions but under no circumstances should you talk to the media without my approval."
"Alright Alright. But this isn't dangerous right?"
"No of course not."
After our conversation was over, I watched as James flaunted his way out of my office. I had no idea what he was up to, but I trust him.
He wouldn't do anything that would harm me.
TREVOR
I woke up the next morning exhausted from yesterday. I groggily made my way downstairs to get myself some breakfast. I spotted my stepmother cooking, my father reading the newspaper and my sister watching the news. I've analyzed what the police captain said yesterday and came up with a proper plan to deal with him.
He wanted me to go after him, kill him. But unlike what he wanted I wasn't going to kill him. Yet. I need a key insight into the investigation and this man was my way in. The issue was how I was going to engage contact with him. I needed to find information on what I could hook the captain in.
After finishing breakfast, I went back to my room and scoured the internet for any information about the captain. Scrolling through the internet I found articles about the legend that was Captain Liam Henderson. Hundreds of articles going back to 1982 talking about him solving uncrackable cases. Space city rapist, Railroad murders of 1990 and... I stared at the name. The name was meant to be soothing but was a nightmare. My face stared at it, my hand wouldn't let go of the mouse and my heart began to eat itself out of my chest.
Minutes went by and I was still stuck on the article, with no reaction only the sound of my beating dead heart. I slowly moved my mouse to the top right corner of the page and tried to click the small X button. But I couldn't, my hand wasn't listening to me. It was attracted to the news article. I tried to pull my arm as hard as possible, but it still wouldn't listen.
The article glared at me like I glared at it. It sucked me in like a vortex of pain from hell. Memories resurfaced. They hurt me. I can hear his voice. Begging, crying and looking at me. He was innocent and I was screwed up. Among all the people I've met in my life he was the one person who I cared for. But he's dead now. I feel bad but I can't keep crying over something that happened 10 years ago.
My hand was free now and I clicked the small bright red X button. I looked at the pale white wall and reminisced about my younger years. Opening the drawer from my desk I pulled out a small, crumbled picture. It was a picture of two boys. They were hugging one another cheek to cheek and eye to eye. One boy had a wide smile; he was full of life while the other boy was emotionless and devoid of anything that made a human.
This picture was the last remaining semblance of that person. He was no more than what I am. Hollow and devoid of life. Darkness surrounded me as I looked at the picture, my bottomless eyes lit up a blood red color as I looked at the image. I felt my miniscule nails digging into the frog tongue of the image.
I realized what I did and snapped back into reality. I placed the crumbled piece imagery into the hollow brown wooden desk and shut it for good. I opened the curtains and looked up at the bright white ball in the sky, that was covered by infinite puffs of water droplets. If the sun could talk, I wonder what it would say? But even without a mouth I could tell what it was saying to me. "Don't get caught". Words of caution echoed through my head; this'll be my first major move. I need to proceed with extreme caution. This guy is a good cop; one wrong move will mean my ass.
I shut my computer down and sat on the edge of my bed. The red beating machine in my chest was bursting with energy. Gripping my chest with my hand I could feel the very thing that made me human but like so many times before I must abandon my humanity and consume another person's self-senses. I lay in bed and shut my eyes. Tomorrow is a big day; rest is essential if I want to be on my A game. I readied myself for what might be the end of me or for what could be the beginning of my perfect victory.
THE NEXT DAY
I walked into a bar, more specifically a cop bar. Walking in confidently I sat on a wooden degraded stool that was barely being held up together by a small green similarly degraded tennis ball. When I sat down the stool rocked back and forth almost like it was a cradle for an infant that was far too oversized.
I looked around and counted 39 silver-colored badges, no more, no less. Looking at my watch I saw the time was 8:30, the prime time to get drunk before the weekend. Several cops were in their uniforms enjoying the company of one another, ignoring the chaos in the streets.
A cop bar is the safest place to be in Houston at a time like this. Looking at the other bars and restaurants nearby, I could spot hundreds of people, all varying in age, around the bar enjoying themselves knowing that any immediate danger couldn't harm them. Putting my focus back on the bar I ordered a Coors beer. The bartender looked at me for a split second before grabbing the beer from the refrigerator under the table. I handed him a 10-dollar bill and began to drink my refreshment. The person who I was waiting for wasn't here yet so to pass the time I grabbed a newspaper and read about something that caught my attention. A high school senior class has gone missing. Reading through the article I saw that the cruise ship's name was Neptune. Continuing through my reading I saw something even more interesting. The cruise ship simply vanished. It was on course for the Bahamas but then... like the wind they disappeared. According to the article they believe they were swept away in a bad storm that caused the cruise to be knocked off course and... Just before I could finish reading, I heard a loud flamboyant voice echoing through the bar. Turning my head around I spotted the man I had waiting for. He wore a long brown trench coat, a similarly brown classic fedora, a plain black turtleneck that fit like a glove on his body, pure black dress pants and gleaming black shoes.
He walked around the bar shaking everyone's hands like he was the pope. After he shook everyone's hands, he sat in a black leather booth. Alone. I slowly finished my drink and kept a firm eye on the captain. Despite his status as captain, he was careless. I know that this is a cop bar but bringing your work to an area where you get drunk is stupid. Unless he's doing it on purpose. Is he trying to see if I'll Walk up to him? Trying to see if the killer will approach him? He's probably assuming that I'll ignore him and follow him home. But he won't anticipate what I'm about to do.
"Hello Captain Henderson. May I have a moment to speak with you?"
The captain looked at me surprised that someone had come to him.
"Uh, sure. But can I ask who you are?"
"My name is Richard smith."