Issue #169 : On The Hunt
Richard looked out over the rain battered street, through the huddled crowd of police officers and at the body, crumpled on the ground. The normal foot traffic of the city flowed around the crime scene, taking no notice of something that had become expected on any given night.
“Are you sure this is one of them?” he asked, turning to Jacob. “This is the second one already tonight.”
Jacob nodded without turning to look at him. “I heard all the details on the police scanner. They mentioned the marks on the body so I’m pretty sure our subject is starting to get greedy.”
Richard looked back at the police, absorbed in what had happened on that street corner. A few tourists strolling past stopped to take pictures but other than that, nothing about what was happening seemed unusual. Still, there was only one way to know for sure.
“Okay,” he said. “Go ahead and stop everything and we’ll take a look.”
Jacob took a rusted watch from his pocket and flipped open the cover. He cupped the watch in his hands for several seconds, eyes closed as his lips moved silently. A soft light began to emanate from the time piece, growing in intensity before dying back down. Jacob opened his eyes, looked up at the scene before him and gently turned the dial on the side of the watch.
In an instant, the world around them began to slow, as if whatever it was that powered the world was simply stopping. People’s footsteps slowed and conversation came to a stop. Soon, the only sound around them was that of the rain falling softly. Cars in the streets had ceased their movements, the drivers inside frozen in place and immobile. The pedestrians on the sidewalk had also come to a complete halt, frozen in mid-motion. It was like looking at a three dimensional snap-shot of the world.
Richard nodded and stood up. “Let’s go check things out.”
They approached the body, weaving in and out of the officers, now inanimate. There was no life in their eyes as they passed through to examine the victim. Richard gently moved the frozen shape of one officer slightly to the side to make room as he knelt down next to the person. There was no external trauma that he could detect but the skin had become devoid of color, so pale that it looked like it had been dead for months, not hours.
“Who is it?” Jacob asked, huddling over Richard as he examined the body.
“No idea. Looks like a college student but no way to know. Doesn’t look like there are any personal items. Why don’t you check the cruisers there and see if the police collected anything already?”
Jacob nodded and strode off. They had to move quickly. The timepiece could stop everything, but it would only hold for about ten minutes. Richard reached down and gently pulled the blouse away from her neck. No sign there but again, it didn’t mean anything. He placed his hands on her skin and gently massaged it, moving down the body to feel for anything out of the ordinary.
About halfway down her back, he detected a nodule of hardened skin under her shirt. Putting both hands underneath her, he carefully rolled the body, pulling up her shirt and looking at the skin. It was the kind of thing that would likely be casually dismissed in an autopsy as an insect bite or growth, but he knew what he was looking at. The puncture wounds in such close, perfect proximity was as big of a giveaway as you could ask for.
Standing up, he gestured for Jacob.
“Did you find anything?”
“Look, the thing took her blood out through her back. They’re getting better at hiding their tracks. They hardly ever go for the obvious spots on the body anymore, but it’s nearly impossible to completely hide the marks. I don’t know how this nest made its way into town without us noticing before now, but we either have an infestation on our hands or one, very powerful individual. And these killings are just going to get worse.”
Richard straightened and began peered around the street. “Look around and see if there’s anyone who looks out of place.”
Jacob nodded as he began to scan the crowds. “What am I looking for?”
“It’s hard to explain it for sure. They’re experts at blending in and looking like they belong, no matter where they are. This is beyond camouflage, its almost like they can trick you into forgetting what you were looking for. One thing though, chances are they won’t be affected by your time piece.”
Richard scrutinized the crowds, trying to gaze through the darkness and past the falling rain. It was unlikely that the thing would still be here. Vampires rarely stayed behind to watch after killing. The victim at that point was nothing more than a husk to them, an empty vessel. Still, they needed to be thorough.
“Look!” Jacob said and Richard turned to look in the direction he was pointing. In that moment, there was a clattering sound of something being knocked off onto the ground. From across the street, he heard a hissing sound as a dark figure leaped up, above the crowd and onto the side of the nearest building. Without even a glance back, it scampered up the wall like a spider, vaulting up onto the roof and out of sight.
“Come on!” Richard grabbed Jacob by the arm. “That was all for show. It can’t fly so that means its trapped up there on the roof.”
“We have to follow.”
