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.........