Chapter 3

It was David and behind him were the other members of the team. Aimee, Sophie and Kelly looked totally petrified and the guys, Enrique and Ryan were trying their best not to shed any tears.

‘How’s she?’ David asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

‘She just got in, Dave. I don’t know anything yet,’ Vaughn said as he sat on the one of the seats available.

‘What happened exactly, Vaughn?’ Kelly asked while trying to calm him down; a motherly instinct that had been nurtured into Kelly even since she gave birth to her first child last year.

‘Don’t know, Kel. I was just trying to get some rest after our case then someone called me and it was Ayden. I thought she was calling me to settle the misunderstandings that we had regarding the case but then somebody else was on the line. I didn't recognised the voice but there was something he said about me suffering what he had suffered through.’

‘Why did he do this to Ayden and not to me directly? And again, why her? She is new to this team and we barely talked about anything other than cases and workloads’ Vaughn trying his best to stay calm and stable.

‘Do you think it is one of the suspects you or us had captured?’ Enrique asked. Their team was one of the best international homicide investigators in the world. There might have been hundreds, if not thousands, of suspects that had been put up to jail because of them. How do they find out which one had done this?

‘We’ll just have to figure this out as if it is one of our regular cases,’ David told the team.

‘Vaughn, you need to go home and get changed. It’s damning to see her blood on you. Ryan, you go with him and see that his clothes are sent to the lab for inspection and that Vaughn gets some food in him. You looked horrible, Vaughn.’

David told the rest of the team to meet him at their office after this before leaving the waiting room, heading to his car.

‘She’ll be alright. She’s a tough girl,’ Ryan said to those who were still in the room. After giving each other some hugs and kisses on the cheeks, everyone headed to their respective cars with Ryan driving Vaughn home. Enrique managed to tell one of the nurses there to call him if there was any news regarding Ayden, either bad or good.

‘Ryan, do you think she’ll make it through?’ Vaughn asked Ryan as they drove out of the hospital car park.

‘I told you, she is a strong girl. If she made it out with what she had gone through before, she will definitely make it out of this one,’ Ryan trying to ensure Vaughn, who was getting more distressed by the second.

‘What happened?’ Vaughn was clueless.

‘Oh yeah, you were on your mandatory leave when she joined the team. She never did tell the story again after the first day. When she was a teenager, she was just a normal person with a normal life. One day, her house was broken in by four gang members. She and her family were sleeping at that time. The gang members went inside her room and dragged her out of her bed into her parents’ bedroom. They did the same to her older brother. She was punched and kicked in front of her family, being the youngest thus also the most beloved by her parents, who were lawyers. Her parents were prosecuting the gang leader who had murdered one of the police officers in the area. I guess the gang members just wanted to scare her parents to drop the prosecution but it didn't happen that way,’

‘Her brother managed to untie his bound hands and began to fight the gang members. He was able to hit one of them unconscious, but the others retaliated. They shot her brother on his chest and stabbed her parents to death, with her watching everything. Not wanting to leave a witness, they took a baseball bat from the closet and hit her countless time. They must have thought that she was dead when they left her. But she and her brother were indeed still alive. Her brother, who passed out after being shot, just managed to get hold of a phone when she blacked out. All she remembered after that was waking up in a hospital, with most of her body wrapped in bandages. She said that because of this tragedy that she and her brother are working under law enforcement agencies. Their case still remained unsolved even to this day,’ Ryan said as he pulled on Vaughn’s driveway.

‘She suffered twice for something that she did not do!’ Vaughn spoke angrily.

‘Calm down, Vaughn. Go inside and get changed. I’m going to call her brother about this,’ Ryan said, pulling out his phone and calling Sophie, the one to call for any information.

‘Soph, do you have Ayden’s emergency contact number? I need to call her brother,’ Ryan asked gently.

‘Sugar, David has just called him and he is on his way from Australia. He’ll be here within the next 24 hours. By the way, how’s he?’ Sophie was referring to Vaughn.

‘Still upset but he’ll be alright. Any news yet?’ Ryan asked again.

‘Uhuh. Still under surgery,’

‘Okay, update me, alright?’ Ryan said before hanging up. 

*To be continued...

Chapter 2

Driving way over the speed limit, Vaughn reached Ayden's house minutes before the ambulance and police arrived. He entered her house with his gun drew out. Carefully, he cleared out the living room and kitchen.  He noticed a pool of blood near the broken coffee table.

' Ayden!!!'

No reply. He noticed a bloody drag mark up the stairs. He climbed up and the drag mark was leading to the main bedroom. He burst into the room, only to find Ayden lying down in her own blood. The killer had stabbed her five more times before leaving her to die. Miraculously, Ayden was still alive when Vaughn discovered her, although barely.

' Ayden, stay with me. You're going to be okay. Help is on the way.' Vaughn said to her with tears dropping down his cheeks. The blaring sound of the ambulance was heard, indicating that help had just arrived. Vaughn yelled to get their attention, not wanting to leave her side.

' He...said..ahh..this wa...s just.. hah..just...the...be...gin..ing,' she said weakly.

' Ayden, just calm down. Don't move too much. You're going to be alright. You're in good hands.' Vaughn trying to calm and keep her comfortable.

' Sir, you've to let us do our job. We need to keep her stable soon,' one of the paramedics said to Vaughn. Letting her go was one of the hardest thing he had ever done but he knew that he could not do anything but get out of their way.

' Miss, we are going to put this neck collar on you, okay? You need to breathe as normally as you can. We'll place an oxygen mask to help you breathe soon,' the paramedic said calmly to Ayden who was getting weaker by the minute. Every second counts.

' We need to control the bleeding asap or we'll lose her... Give me the blood absorbent powder and some gauzes,' the other paramedic yelled to the third. Pouring the whole absorbent batch available in the ambulance, they raced against the ticking clock to save her. With almost all of the blood removed from her stomach, the paramedics could now see the massive injuries she had gotten. Six stab wounds were still pouring out blood. Two of the paramedics cleaned the wounds with a lot of antiseptic fluid that made her squirmed in agony. Vaughn just stood outside the bedroom, feeling helpless and guilt had started to build up in him. With the paramedics yelling and Ayden's screams of pain, Vaughn just could not bear them. He ran outside and he noticed the huge crowd that had gathered to see what was going on. He ran back inside and decided to call his unit chief, David Horatio, if he could come and help to figure the situation up.

' David, you need to come to Ayden's house right away. She was attacked and in serious condition, ' Vaughn said as calmly as he could.

' What happened? Have you call the rest of the team?' David asked as he put down his cup of coffee onto his kitchen table.

' I don't know, David. I was just about to take a short nap when she called on my cell. I answered and there was someone else on the phone saying that he wanted me to suffer just like he did. He turned on the video call and he recorded Ayden, lying down on the floor bleeding. He stabbed her six times, David,' Vaughn said as he watched Ayden being brought up onto a stretcher.

' Alright, I'll ask Aimee to contact the team and meet you at her house,' David said as he put on his jacket.

' No, they are taking her to the Mercy Hospital soon. We'll meet there,' Vaughn said as he climbed into his car to follow the ambulance.  The red and blue lights of the ambulance were very visible despite the brightness of the morning skies and the sirens were deafening to the ears but to Vaughn, all he saw was Ayden.

Seven minutes of driving, they finally reached Mercy Hospital. They opened the ambulance door and rolled out Ayden's stretcher through the receiving door of the hospital with one of the paramedics still working on Ayden. Vaughn was not far behind but he knew he had stay in the waiting room. Due to the major trauma Ayden had suffered, she was placed immediately in one of the operating theater.

A few minutes had gone by and someone tapped Vaughn's shoulder.

*To be continued.... 

Chapter 1

'Hi, can I get some fresh salmon right there, please?' Ayden said to the fishmonger. It was Friday morning and fresh fishes were sold on the waterfront near the city.

'Can I get you anything else, Miss?'

'No, I think that is all, thank you,' Ayden said while giving the fishmonger the money for the salmon. She walked the whole length of the waterfront to see if there was anything else that she wanted to buy. After ten minutes, she decided there was nothing else to buy and started to walk home. The waterfront was about 4 kilometers away from her house. She had just gotten back at dawn from working a case in Texas with her team and just could not wait to get to her house and take a long and relaxing bath.

After walking for about three hundred meters, she heard something that sounded like a cry for help. She looked to her left where the sound originated from but could not see anything but the cloudy skies. Again, the sound came around. She was suspicious. She was trained to focus on her surroundings but this was weird. The cries for help sounded a bit electronical and robotic. The intervals of the cries were constant, every five seconds. These observations made her to decide to ignore the cries and continued walking. The area where the cries originated from was known to be a gang hangout. She just could not take the risk of getting hurt by heading towards the dangerous area. The gang there was known to hate the police and going there by herself would be like shooting herself in the foot.

She kept on walking and passed a dark alley on her right. Unknown to her, a hoodied figure emerged from the alley and started to follow Ayden. About halfway through the way to her house, she had noticed the hoodied guy. Ayden instinctively reached for her service gun and slowly unclasped the gun holder. Holding the mount of her gun tightly, she kept on walking, pretending she did not notice the guy behind her. When she reached her front yard, she looked back and the guy was no more. She took a 360 degree view of the surroundings and could not see anyone at all. She was relieved and walked to her porch.

Taking the keys out of her bag, she looked around again to make sure no one was following her at all. She unlocked the front door and walked in. Before she could close the door behind her, someone had pushed through the door hard, causing Ayden to fall on her back. Confused, Ayden tried to stand up but suddenly she was kicked by the person who had just trespassed into her house.

' Who are you and what are you doing in my house?' Ayden yelled, still trying to stand up.

' This has got nothing to do with you but with one of your colleague! You are going to pay for his mistakes!!' The trespasser was obviously very mad and from the look of his eyes, very determined to complete whatever mission he had got in his sick mind.

' Who're you talking about?' she asked.

No reply from him but something in his eyes told her to get ready to fight. She stood up and tried to get hold of her gun. Before she could unclasp her gun, a punch was thrown to her face. She fell down again, onto the glass coffee table breaking it into a thousand pieces. With some of the glass shards piercing through her back skin, she tried to stand again. The hoodied man walked toward her and punched her again in the stomach. She threw some punches to him and only two of them managed to hit him on the face, making him fell down. While he was trying to get back on his feet, Ayden took out her gun and aimed it to the hoodied man.

' Stop or I will shoot you!'

The man stood up and said nothing. Ayden pressed the trigger and fired two shots to him. The bullets hit his chest but he did not fall down at all.

' You should have aimed for my head. I guessed you are just too stupid to know that I'm wearing a Kevlar, huh?' he grinned. He raced toward Ayden, taking out a very jagged knife out of his leather jacket. He grabbed her by her hair and stabbed her once in the stomach. With the knife still stuck in her tummy, he kissed her left cheek and whispered to her ear,

' Doesn't this feel good, dear?'

He twisted the knife in her, increasing the level of pain she was suffering. He pulled the knife out and licked the blood off the tip of the knife. Ayden was lying still on the floor with both her hands clutching her stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. He then dragged her out of the living room to her bedroom upstairs, laying her down near the bed.

' I'm not quite finished with you. I want him to know how it feels to be helpless,' he said while taking out her cellphone from her pant front pocket. He dialled a number and held the device toward his ear.

' Ayden, are you okay? Why are you calling?' Vaughn asked.

' So that she can say her goodbye to you, Vaughn Reilly. Before I end her life with my hands!' he replied before clicking the video call button.

' What the hell? Who is this?' Vaughn frantically said. With the video call set up, the killer recorded Ayden who was in a lot of pain and bleeding heavily. Vaughn watched the feed with tears building up in his eyes. He used his other cellphone to dial 911, alerting the police what was going on and where. He himself raced to his car.

' Please, don't hurt her. What do you want?'

' I want you to suffer, Vaughn, just like I did,' the killer said before hanging up.

' SHIT!!' Vaughn yelled as he drove off his driveway.


*To be continued.........