The Small Town

A woman sat on the floor of a little hut, crying. Her long almost black hair hung down her left shoulder in a low ponytail. She wore a maxi-length dark blue dress with sleeves which stopped at her shoulders. She felt as if her heart had been ripped out. The room was dark except for the moonlight which shone in through the window. The twenty-year-old woman sat on her knees, holding her arms over her stomach, shaking.       

A man with somewhat long brown hair held the woman in his arms, trying to stay strong for her. He was in his late thirties and was dressed like a doctor. His clothes weren’t exactly new but looked nice for a poor doctor of his time. He had wished that he could take the pain away but he couldn’t. "It’s okay,” he spoke in a soothing voice. “Don’t cry.” 

"But they took…” the woman couldn’t talk straight the thought of what she wanted to say was so heartbreaking. “They just came in here… and they…”         

“I know… it hurts what they did, but just try to calm down.” The man looked at the woman. “Look at me. Everything’s going to be alright… now come on I have to check to make sure you don’t have that plague… come on.”

The man stood up, pulling the woman to her feet. They walked into his little office. He had her sit down and went to get his medical tools.  Even though he was a doctor, they were poor and it was worse for them because it was the 14th century in Europe. It wasn’t a great time. 

“Okay, Nyght,” he said.

 

 

A few months passed, the woman was in her bed, rocking back and forth in horrifying pain. “The pain, Raymond…” the woman cried to the man. "I can’t do it… it hurts so badly. This plague… I’m dying…” She screamed in agony. “It hurts… it hurts so badly… they should have just…”         

“No, Nyght,” Raymond told her. “Don’t give up…”  he went to give Nyght a shot. “I’m going to put you to sleep for a while so I can do surgery and once I’m done you can wake up.”         

Nyght screamed in pain then Raymond quickly injected a shot into her skin and she instantly fell asleep.         

 

 

It was 2011 in a small town, somewhere in America. Inside of a police station, a twenty-one-year-old woman with somewhat long brown hair sat behind her desk, talking to a twenty-year-old guy with dark colored hair. “Why do we live in such a boring town?” the young woman asked.         

“We?” the young man asked. “I love it here. You know, Evlyn, I think that you just need to find a man. Either that or,” he spoke with a smile, “you can move anytime you choose.”         

“Really?” Evlyn asked. “Or are you just saying that cause you have feelings for me and you really want me to stay here?”         

The guy laughed. “I have feelings for you? Yeah, I don’t think so... besides I have a sweet little girlfriend. You should probably try Bradly. He really likes you.”         

“Bradly? I don’t know. He’s so weird.”       

An older man walked into the office. He wore a dark blue police uniform with a small silver badge on the left side under the shoulder blade of the suit which read: Chief Cormick.         

“Y-oh, captain, any new news lately?” the younger man asked.       

“Little girl’s cat stuck in a tree again. That’s about it,” the captain answered.   

A blonde nineteen-year-old girl walked over to Evlyn and the younger man. Her long thin blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “Hey, did you guys hear about that new Doctor Raymond Miller?”         

“Not that I know of. Why?” Evlyn asked.         

“Oh. Because him and his wife are moving to town. I heard from a family member in Chicago that he’s really good and that they’re really nice people.” The blonde smiled. “We are in a small town and it’s fun to gossip. Well, not spread lies about people who you don’t know but to stay on top of the news. I want to go welcome them. Does anyone want to come with me?”         

The young man just stared at the blonde, a little confused. “What? Did you understand anything you just said, Leanna? Cause I didn’t.”         

“She asked if we want to go meet the new doctor and his wife,” Evlyn replied.         

“Thank you, Evlyn,” Leanna said. “Chris, you’re a moron.”         

Chris kind of shrugged, still confused.         

“Yeah,” Evlyn answered, Leanna’s question, “it sounds fun.  What time?”         

“Lunch break. That way we can get something to eat too.  Do you want to hang with us too or are you too stupid to understand what we’re talking about, Chris?” Leanna asked.         

“No, I’ll pass,” Chris replied.  “Besides, I’ve kind of have a meeting with my girl.”

 

          

Raymond pulled up to the hotel in a small white Camaro and parked the car. The hotel was small and reminded him of the small inns from Europe. It wasn’t too fancy but it didn’t look horrible either. “Come on, Nyght,” he said. “We’ll be staying here for a little while.  At least until we get a new house or they kick us out. Whichever comes first?”         

The couple stepped out of the little car then headed inside.

The lobby was small and felt almost like a doctor’s office rather than a lobby at a hotel. They worked their way over to the front desk where a sixteen-year-old blonde girl stood behind the desk. She wore a dark red T-shirt with a small, silver name tag. Her long blonde hair was up in a high ponytail with her bangs hung over her left eye.  She wore a small silver pair of glasses which sat on her nose. She ignored Nyght and Raymond. She was too busy listening to her iPod and chewing gum.         

“Excuse me…. Miss…. Hello, Miss….” Raymond snapped his fingers in front of the young hotel worker, trying to get her attention. “Hello.”         

The young girl looked over at Raymond, annoyed. “Look, sir,” she spoke rudely, removing the earphones out of her ears, “you don’t have to snap at me. That’s very rude.”

Raymond sighed, remaining calm. “You’re not going to get any costumers with that attitude. Me and my wife....”

The girl looked over at Nyght, disgusted by how young Nyght appeared to be compared to the doctor.  “What? Are you trying to be like Hugh Hefner or something? You want me to believe that she’s your wife. You’re like thirty something and she looks like she’s at least twenty maybe even younger.”         

“Yes, there is an age difference between me and my wife but we’re from a much different time than you would think.”         

The young hotel worker laughed. “That is the funniest thing that I’ve ever heard and if you think that....” 

“Cindy, what’s going on out here?” a man asked, walking out of a room and over to the desk.         

“And now I’m in trouble. Thanks a lot.”

Raymond raised an eyebrow at Cindy as she walked over to a tall forty-five-year-old man. Although the man was completely grey he had a good amount of hair on top of his head. He wore a nice suit and tie.

“Dad, I didn’t do anything at all,” she lied.         

The man looked down at his daughter,a little mad. “Are you chewing gum? I’ve told you not to do that when you’re working because you come off as rude to the costumers….”

Raymond raised his hand in front of his face to get the man’s attention. “I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but she was also listening to music from her cell phone….”

“Uh it’s an iPod, not a cell phone- there is a difference,” Cindy retorted. Then realizing she had made the situation worst and thought, Oh crap!         

“Cindy, you’re done for the day and you’re not to go anywhere tonight with that attitude. Oh, and you’re grounded for a month. Now get your things and go home.”         

“But, da-”         

“I don’t want to hear it. Now go.”         

Cindy walked over to the desk and grabbed her things. “It’s all your fault,” she told Raymond, eyeing him. She left without another word.         

The man walked over to Raymond and Nyght. “I’m sorry about that,” the man told them. He appeared to be nicer than his daughter had been. “She’s at the age of rebelling. I wish she was still little at least then she wasn’t as much trouble as she is now. So how may I help you today, sir?”

“Well I and my wife are new in town and this was the closest place I could find. Can we stay here for now? At least until we find a place of our own?”         

The man turned his attention toward Nyght and said, “Hello.”         

Nyght nodded in acknowledgement.         

“Oh, she can’t talk. She was in this really bad accident a few years ago and well it damaged her voice box. I’m just glad that it didn’t kill her,” Raymond replied.         

“Sorry to hear that, ma’am…. And to answer your question, sir, I usually don’t let people stay here more than about a week but seeing that you’re new here you can have as long as you need. If you have any questions, I’m Manger Thornton, you can ask me.”         

Raymond laughed. “Your name’s not Billy Bob is it?”

Thornton also laughed. “No. But I get that joke a lot.”

“I’m Raymond Miller and this is my wife, Nyght.”         

“It’s nice to meet the both of you.” Thornton took a key out and handed it to Raymond. “You two are in room 2A. Turn left and go down the stairs. It’s actually not that far from here. Oh, and if you two would like to go swimming there’s a swimming pool out to the back. Just ask one of the workers and they will be more than happy to direct you."         

“Thank you, Thornton. Come on, honey, let’s go to the room and unload a few things from the car.”  Raymond and Nyght began heading toward the two glass double doors.

“Oh, and Raymond, you have an interesting choice in women….” Thornton joked. “Kind of like a lot of men in Hollywood.”         

Raymond paused to laugh prior to following Nyght through the door.

The New Couple

Raymond and Nyght walked to their room, carrying a few bags. Nyght kind of looked over at Raymond. Her look was kind of questioning. Dealing with the fact that his wife was a mute, Raymond had learned through the years how to read her expressions and body language to understand what she was thinking. She wasn’t one who wanted to learn sign language because it made her feel like she was deaf which she wasn’t and computers were too modern for her. She preferred to communicate with her husband in a way that was both unique and different.         

“No, Nyght. Thornton’s alright. His daughter needs to get her butt kicked for her attitude but they’re not the ones we’re after. I’ll tell you. I also believe that a few of them own banks and jewelry stores… but I’ll let you know what the job is.  Besides, I don’t want you to do anything until we get our own place. It’s not a good idea.” Raymond turned his attention toward Nyght. “Got it, honey?”

Nyght nodded.         

“After we put our bags into the room, we’ll go and get something to eat that way they won’t suspect anything. I know we don’t get hungry anymore but still we must act like them so they don’t suspect us. We’ve gotten this far and I know we’ll get further… until the end of time.”

 

          

Evlyn and Leanna hung out at a fast food joint, talking and eating when the new couple walked into the building and over to the counter. A twenty-three year old woman with shoulder length black hair was working on the other side of the counter. She smiled at the couple. “Hello, how may I help you two today?” she asked in a warm, welcoming tone.         

“I would like to order two meatball subs with onions, peppers... and everything else,” Raymond replied.

Nyght made a face which meant she was sickened by the food choice.         

Raymond sighed. “Of course… you didn’t let me finish, honey, I know you don’t like everything. I’m sorry my wife’s kind of picky when it comes to certain kinds of food.”         

“Oh it’s no problem. I can be picky too so no worries,” the young woman replied.         

Evlyn stared at Raymond and Nyght. It wasn’t too hard for her to figure out that they were the new couple, seeing that in a small town everyone knew everyone and well she didn’t know them. “Hey, I think I see the doctor and his wife. She looks a little young for him,” she commented to Leanna.         

Nyght heard Evlyn’s hushed whispered. She briefly glanced over at Evlyn and Leanna. She had no voice but her hearing was a thousand times better than a dog’s.         

“That’s so gross,” Evlyn continued speaking.         

“Aren’t you the one who’s always saying that love knows no age?” Leanna asked.         

“Yeah,” Evlyn answered, “but when I say that I'm talking about a twenty year old dating a twenty-five year old, not a twenty year old married to a man in his late thirties. It looks as if he’s dating his daughter and that’s really sick.”

“As long as they love each other. I mean that’s okay and I’m pretty sure that he’s not the kind of man who would marry his own daughter. Besides, he’s cute for an older man and she’s lucky to be married to a doctor.” Leanna stood up. “I’m going to introduce myself. You’re welcome to come.”         

“I’ll wait here.”         

“Of course… that’s what I thought.” Leanna made her way over to the counter. “Hey, Cathy,” she told the woman who stood behind the counter.

“Hey, Leanna,” Cathy replied. “You cops have any new news to report?”         

“Not yet. Cormick’s hoping that we get a call about a bank robbery or something instead of Little Sally’s cat who keeps winding up in a tree. I know she loves that cat but I think for some reason it’s trying to get away from her.” Leanna turned her attention toward the couple. “Oh hello… you must be the Millers. I’m Leanna Chase.”         

“Hello… I’m Raymond and this is my wife, Nyght.”         

“Ooo Nyght… that’s an interesting name and really unique.”         

“How did you know that we’re the Millers by the way?”

“Oh.... Small town so everyone knows everyone and word travels fast especially when new people move in. Besides my cousin told me that you were actually her doctor when you two lived in Chicago. Do you remember Kristina... Kristina Strong?”

“Ah yes. I remember Kristina.”          

“Yeah, she actually recommended you when she told me that you were moving here with your wife. I thought that I’d introduce myself so that way you two can at least know one person here.”         

“Well, it’s nice to meet you…. Leanna?”         

“Yep. Well I’m going to get back to my friend over there.”         

“Okay. There we have a couple of new friends now, honey.”         

“Okay,” Cathy said. “Here’s two meatball subs: one with everything and one basic sub with just meatballs and sauce.”         

Raymond grabbed the tray. “Thank you, miss. Come on, honey, let’s sit down and enjoy our food. You know I don’t understand how we don’t have taste buds anymore and you still don’t like to eat certain kind of foods. I mean you can’t taste anything so how do you not like anything?”

Nyght glared at Raymond.         

“I was just asking a question, you don’t have to look at me like that.”         

Nyght shook her head, a little aggravated.         

“And no. I told you I’ll let you know when we have a job. Although, I do want to meet that Cormick guy. That was the name….”

*****          

Leanna sat down in her seat. “They’re really nice people, Evlyn, you should meet them.”         

“I don’t know. It’d be too weird,” Evlyn replied. “I’ll feel like I’m talking to a sexual predator and his next victim. I wouldn’t feel right.”         

“Judging people before you get to know them. That’s not very nice.”         

“He’s like thirty something and she’s like in her early twenties. There’s something wrong there.”         

“Maybe they’re from ancient times,” a nineteen year old boy replied, appearing out of nowhere, followed by a twenty-one year old guy.         

“Yay!” Leanna shouted. “Calvin, you’ve made it. Come sit next to me, hon.”         

Calvin sat down, wrapping an arm around Leanna and kissing her cheek. “Oh, Riley. You can sit down too,” he told the other guy.

“Hello, Riley,” Leanna replied.         

“Hi, Leanna.” Riley noticed the cute girl who sat across from Leanna. “Hello,” he spoke shyly to Evlyn.       

“Oh, Riley, this is my best friend and coworker Evlyn. Evlyn, Riley’s actually Calvin’s cousin and he’s going to be Calvin’s best man at the wedding,” Leanna replied. “Plus he’s single.... I think that you two would hit it off,” she whispered.         

“Really now?” Evlyn asked. “He is cute.”         

Riley sat down.

****

Later that night, Raymond and Nyght were in the small but comfortable hotel room. Raymond sat in a chair and removed his shoes from his feet. “Okay, honey. Do you want to get in the shower first? Or is it okay if I go first?”         

Nyght slightly nodded toward him.         

“Okay. Are you sure? Cause I can wait if you want me too.”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Okay. I shouldn’t be long.” Raymond stood up and walked over to Nyght. He kissed her forehead then locked eyes with her. “I miss your voice so much. It’s my fault you can’t talk anymore, honey. I’m so sorry. Most men would like it if their wives couldn’t talk but I can’t stand the silence. I miss your voice. I’m going to do everything I can to try and get your voice box working again.”         

Nyght hugged Raymond and they kissed.         

“Okay. I’m going to go into the shower now. I love you, Nyght.”         

Nyght locked eyes with Raymond again and smiled. She loved him so much and she knew he loved her in return. If she were able to talk, she would have told him that.   

A smile grew on Raymond’s face. “You don’t have to say anything with that smile. I know you love me too.”

First Job

Nyght and Raymond shared the bed which sat next to the small round brown table that separated the bed from the long covered window and the door. Nyght flipped through a magazine while Raymond watched the television. His arm was draped around his small wife. One of the pages had caught Nyght’s eye and a smile grew. She looked up at Raymond with the smile planted on her face.

Raymond locked eyes with his cute little wife, confused. “What?”

Nyght held up the magazine, gesturing toward a picture on the page.         

“Oh…. You want a baby?”         

Nyght’s smile grew. She nodded.         

Raymond sighed. “I’m sorry, honey,” he told her, disappointment filled his voice, “but we need to settle down and not only that….”         

The smile on her face vanished. Disappointment overcame her and her attention dropped toward the bed. She wanted a child. The feeling of being a mother was one she longed for but listening to her husband destroyed that dream.         

“I did some research and neither of our reproductive systems works anymore. Besides, even if we could have a kid, it wouldn’t….” The man looked over at his wife, realizing that at some point she had left the room.  He stood up and walked toward the bathroom, knocking on the door. “Nyght…. Come on, honey…. If it makes you feel any better, I want a baby too but we can’t unless we adopt and I know that you don’t want to adopt at least not right now. Honey, come on please?”

 

 

Nyght sat on the toilet seat, staring at the floor. For someone who couldn’t feel pain sure was upset. The pain of knowing there was no possibility for her to have a baby of her own hurt more than anything.         

“Honey,” Raymond’s calming, sweet voice spoke through the door, “please? It’s not your fault and it’s not my fault. We’re not really alive anymore and that kind of affects a lot of things. Please come out? Please come back to bed with me, honey. I love you.”

 

          

Cormick sat in his office, thinking. His long brown desk filled the small room. A little lamp sat on the desk, letting out dim light to make the room seem dark even with the moonlight shining through the blades. A small picture hung on the wall behind him, barely noticeable. He kept his back toward the picture because of the sad memory it held.         

There was an obnoxious knock on the door.         

“Come in!” he called.         

Evlyn and Chris worked their way into the room. “So,” Evlyn began, “Mittens goes missing, Little Sally calls in a catnapping, and you have us go to find the cat which by the way is back up in a tree, meowing to get down. Cormick, is this town that boring that the most action us cops see is a cat which manages to run off from his owner?”          

“Sadly, Evlyn…. Yes,” Cormick answered.         

“Really, captain?”         

Cormick sighed.         

“That’s lame.”         

“You know, boss,” Chris interjected, “I think that you need to create a fake missing person’s file so that way we can have something interesting to report.”         

Cormick stared at Chris. “And lose my job? Don’t think so.”         

“It was just an idea.”         

“Leanna’s right.” Evlyn’s attention had moved from her boss to her coworker. “You are a moron.” She turned her attention back toward Cormick. “Captain, can I get a new partner?”         

“Sorry, Evlyn,” Cormick answered. “You’re stuck with him. You two are yin and yang. He can be the idiot and you’re the smart one.”

 

          

Leanna and Calvin headed out of a movie theatre, hands locked together. The building was a deceit size for a movie theatre with movie postures lined on the walls and a ticket booth on each side of the long wide glass doors. “That was an awesome movie,” Leanna stated.         

“It was good. Hey, you want to go to the park or something?” Calvin asked.         

“Yeah.”         

Calvin walked Leanna toward the park which wasn’t far from the movie theatre. The path of the park curved around a small round fountain and met on the other side. The park benches were spread apart, keeping a good distance away from each other. Groups of trees and bushes were separated throughout the park. The couple kept on the grey concrete path. Streetlights were spread apart, making it perfect to stare into the dark blue velvet sky and see the beautiful silver stars sparkling and the silver round moon hanging in the middle of the sky.         

Two young guys, about two or three years older than the couple, found their way over to them. One guy was about twenty-two with short brown hair while the other was about twenty-three with a nice golden tan and pitch black hair.

“Hey, Calvin, Leanna, what’s up?” the older guy asked. He was somewhat muscular and attractive. He was bit of a player when it came to the girls.         

“Oh hello, Samual,” Leanna replied, unamused by the guy’s confidence.         

“Oh we just got back from the movies,” Calvin answered.         

“Ooo…. What movie?” Samual asked.         

“The prequel to the X-Men; it was pretty good.”         

“Ooo…. Man, you have to come hang with us,” the other guy replied. He was attractive but not as muscular like Samual was. He acted like a tough guy but his light brown eyes revealed a sweet and softer personality.         

“Sorry, Bradly. I’m with my future wifey.”         

“Awe…. I have you trained so well,” Leanna interrupted.         

“Man, you’re so whipped,” Samual spoke with a tone which meant that he wasn’t up to hang with a guy who let his woman win. “Come on, Bradly. Calvin’s lost his man hood because Leanna wears the pants in their relationship.”         

Leanna dropped her mouth in disbelief while Bradly began laughing.         

“You better take that back,” Calvin responded, feeling insulted by Samual’s words.         

“It’s true so I can’t. Sorry, man.”         

“Get out of my face, man.”         

“Come on, Bradly.”  Samual left while Bradly followed behind.         

Leanna turned her attention toward her fiancé.  “You are kind of whipped.”

 

          

The following day, Raymond and Nyght had met up with a real estate agent at a vacant two story house in a small but welcoming neighbor.  The real estate agent had red curly hair and looked to be about thirty years of age.  She wore a nice dress suit which consisted of a pair of grey dress slacks, a white dress shirt under a grey coat which matched the slacks, and a pair of black dress shoes.  The collar of the shirt was folded over the collar of the coat.  “And if you follow me into this room, Doctor and Mrs.  Miller. This is the kitchen,” the woman told them, leading them into a room.         

The kitchen was kind of a wide room.  The refrigerator sat next to the sink.  Above the sink was a window.  The oven was straight across from the sink.  The counter around the stove separated the dining room from the kitchen.  Two sliding glass doors had kind of shared the space of both the kitchen and the dining room.  In the furthest and darkest part of the kitchen was a small door for the little pantry.         

“This is a cute little place,” Raymond told Nyght, examining the room.  “Don’t you agree, honey?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“We’ll take it,” Raymond told the real estate agent.         

“Okay.  Well,” the woman replied, “follow me this way and we can talk business.”         

“Okay.  We want to stay here tonight.”         

“But nothing works right now, sir. Are you sure?”         

“Yes, ma’am.  We don’t want to bother that nice man at the hotel and besides we just want to be somewhere that we’re going to call home.”         

“Okay.  If you insist, now come with me to fill out the paper work.”

 

          

That night, Raymond stood in the empty guest room.  The only thing in the room at the moment was a small window which sat at the far end of the room along the wall.  Nyght walked into the room and looked around.  “Tonight, honey,” Raymond told her.  “That woman who we bought the house from. She’s one of them.  Get ready.  The job starts tonight.”

Nyght kind of bowed her head then quickly left the room.         

“Be careful, honey!” Raymond called after her.

 

          

Chris, Leanna, and Evlyn waited in the office for calls.  They figured that they weren’t going to get anything interesting but they had to work anyways.         

“So, anyways he says to the girl, ‘No you’re not supposed to be here.’  It was her house. Man, my neighbors are jerks to each other,” Chris said.         

Leanna and Evlyn laughed.         

“That’s so horrible,” Leanna replied.

 

          

Nyght waited in the shadows, watching the lights turn off.  Once she knew the coast was clear, she made her way into the real estate agents house.  She wore a black out fit with a hood and a mask which covered her nose and mouth.  She had two small swords in two small but long sheaths on her back which crossed over each other making an X and a longer samurai sword which she had placed in the sheath which had gone straight down her back.  She wore a belt which held a couple of small daggers which ninjas would carry and pouches which held shuriken or ninja stars.  The black hood she wore was attached to what had appeared to be some sort of cape.         

She used the moonlight to guide her through the dark house till she found her way to the bedroom.  She pulled out a dagger, stepping closer toward the room.  She twirled the small knife in her hand, waiting.  She closed her eyes and listened to the light breathing coming from the room.  She silently opened the door and worked her way over to the sleeping woman, careful to not wake her.         

Using the dagger, she stuck the blade into the woman’s neck and slid it through her body.  She twirled the dagger in her hand then looked at the bloody blade.  She turned her attention toward the window then left.

Things Get Interesting

The following morning, Evlyn relaxed in her reclining movable office chair, bored stiff.  The most exciting thing for her to do was to fall asleep.  The phone began ringing.  She figured it was nothing but still had to answer it because of the fact that it was her job.  She picked up the phone, placing it next to her ear.  “Hello…. This is the police department…. What?!  Really that’s awesome!  I mean not the fact that she’s dead but this is just shocking news…. Hard to explain.”         

Chris listened to the conversation and worked his way over to Evlyn’s desk, interested to know what was going on.  “What was that all about?” he asked.         

“Miss Kennedy, the real estate agent, was found dead this morning.  Someone had taken a knife and cut her open.  That’s great news!  I mean not that because she’s dead but because this is our first murder in ages.  It’s exciting!”         

“Then we better go and check out the crime.”         

“One step ahead of you,” Evlyn replied, jumping out of her chair which rolled backwards.

 

          

Evlyn and Chris arrived at the crime scene.  Yellow crime scene tape blocked off the two story house.  Black and white cop cars sat off to the sides while a group of police officers held back nosy neighbors who were trying to find out what was going on.         

Leanna and Cormick met the other two cops at the door.

“Can we see the body, captain?” Evlyn asked, eager to learn more.         

“Actually,” Cormick replied, “we were waiting on you two to get here so we could head upstairs.  We haven’t seen the body yet so we don’t know how gruesome it is.”

 

          

Nyght woke up and worked her way downstairs then walked into the living room.  Raymond sat in one of the only two chairs in the house, reading a newspaper.  “Apparently, there’s a pack of werewolves in Westfield, Massachusetts. I’m reading about them right now.  It’s quite interesting,” he told his wife.

 

          

The four cops found their way to Miss Kennedy’s bedroom and walked in.  The room was a deceit size.  It wasn’t too big or too small but it was perfect size for a single woman.  A wide dresser sat next to the door the cops had walked in from.  The bed was across from them, filled with the blood and the dead corpse lay on top of it.  The stench of blood still lingered in the air.  It was a nauseating smell that would make anyone with a weak stomach hurry out of the room.         

Evlyn walked over to the body with interest and curiosity, not knowing if she’d ever have the chance to see something so horrifying yet exciting again.  Her eyes examined the cut which had moved downward from the neck.  “It looks as if someone tried to dissect her like a frog in biology.  It’s quite interesting to see but how did they manage that?”         

“Jayden said that they were up here earlier to get finger prints for the forensic team,” Leanna stated.  “They’re supposed to let us know about the details.  Then a few people from forensic will be checking out the body.  It’s going to be difficult for them to figure out what kind of weapon was used.  If it were a gun, it wouldn’t be as hard because they find out the size of the bullet and from there they could figure out what kind of gun was used but a knife that could do something like this to someone. I don’t know. That must be pretty hard to figure out.”         

“Well,” Chris replied, “we know it’s not a butter knife.”         

Leanna rolled her eyes, looking at him.  “Really, Chris?”         

A blonde woman, about twenty-three, rushed into the room.  She wore a blue police uniform with a yellow badge on the left side of her jacket, under the shoulder blade.  “Captain, the reporters are here what do you want us to do?” she asked.         

“Officer Kiley,” Cormick asked, “can you and Officer Jayden try and get rid of them?  No one needs to know.”         

“They already know, sir.  They keep questioning about the body.”         

Cormick sighed, kind of stressed.  The downside of living in a small town was the fact that news traveled fast.  “Tell them that we don’t know anything yet and we don’t want to have this on the news.”         

“Yes, captain.”  Kiley left.

 

          

Nyght walked around the empty deserted house, waiting for Raymond.  He had left to some things to do which including checking up on the job she had done the night before.  She listened to the rattling door knob then heard the odd squeak of the door opening.  The sound of Raymond’s familiar footsteps filled the air.  She hurried to meet him in the small hallway but couldn’t help noticed he held his arms behind his back.         

“The electricity is working and the water’s running,” he told her.  “We just need to get furniture and fill up the rooms.  Oh and I got something for us.”  He stood in front of her.  “Close your eyes.”         

Nyght did what her husband had told her.  She waited with her eyes closed.         

“Open your eyes.”         

Nyght opened her eyes, smiling at the sight of Raymond holding a little tiny brown puppy.  The puppy had a black patch of fur around his left eye and a small but noticeable black spot on his back.         

A smile grew on Raymond’s face, knowing he had made Nyght’s day.  “Since we can’t have a baby, I figured that a puppy is close enough to one so I bought him.  He’s out new baby boy.  Like a baby, he needs love, attention, and food. Oh plus he needs to be potty trained.  I think that you should feed him and I’ll do everything else.  We can both love him and play with him.  Now what should his name be?”         

Nyght grabbed the newspaper which laid on the little brown table which sat next to the opening of the living room and pointed to a picture.         

“Sylvester Stallone?”         

Nyght sighed and shook her head.  She pointed at the name next to the picture.         

Raymond smiled.  “Oh…. Rocky…. Like the Rocky movies with Sylvester Stallone.” He held up the small puppy, looking into the small black eyes of the little guy.  “Rocky…. What do you think little guy?  Does Rocky fit?  I think it does.” He turned the puppy toward Nyght.  “Okay, mommy. His name’s Rocky.”         

Nyght smiled, slowly taking the puppy and hugging him.         

“Happy, honey?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Okay…. Good…. Oh I noticed the cops were checking out the crime scene and a few reporters at Miss Kennedy’s house.  Good job, honey.  That’s one less we have to deal with. I think that we should go to the jewelers tomorrow because we have to check them out. Besides I want to see if they have something that would help me fix your voice box. I shouldn’t have tried what I did to save you. I wanted to keep you alive and I did what I thought would help but instead I destroyed your voice.  I should have tried something else.” 

Nyght turned her attention toward Raymond; a sad expression replaced her happiness.  She knew he had done what he thought was right at the time even though he didn’t know it would destroy her voice box.  If she could speak, she would have told him that it wasn’t his fault.         

“I blame myself for what I did to you and I blame them for what they did to destroy our lives. I should have stopped them. Done something before they did what they had done.  Not a day goes by I think about those two days.”

 

          

An attractive twenty-six year old man with a mixed skin tone tried to help Kiley shoe away the reporters.  The problem was that the reporters were persistent and kept trying to find a way in.  “Look we just want to do our jobs,” the man told the press.  “We don’t want to have to worry about what the people think.  We’re going to get to the bottom of this but we don’t need you reporters here trying to get inside.  It’s police business not the towns business to know what’s going on.”         

“It’s no use trying to talk to them, Jayden,” Kiley told him.  “They’re not going to stop and you know it.”   

“Yea but they don’t know what’s going on. They want to find out but it’s none of their business. We have to try to get them out of here.”

 

          

Evlyn and Leanna searched for any mistakes the murderer possibly made the night before.  So far their search efforts came up with nothing useful.  “Well,” Leanna began, “good news…. The crime isn’t about a cat. Bad news there’s a murderer here.”         

“Yea,” Evlyn agreed, “but this means that the town isn’t as boring as I thought.  Now we have a case to solve. Ooo…. Just like in CSI.  We have a case. A real murder mystery going on. I wonder how long it’s going to take us to find out who did this and why? Is it going to take thirty minutes like the black and white Sherlock Holmes or is it going to be an hour like Cold Case?”         

Leanna stared at Evlyn.  “You’ve been hanging out with Chris too long. Oh guess what?”         

“What?”         

“You remember Calvin’s cousin, Riley, who I introduced you to about a couple of days ago?”          

“Yea.... Why?”         

“Calvin was telling me that he wants to go on a date with you. Well to get to know you better.”         

“What?  Really?”         

“Yea….” Leanna smiled.  “I think he likes you.”         

Evlyn smiled at the thought.         

An idea popped into Leanna’s head.  “We should go on a double date.”

Next

Raymond worked his way pasted some old but still standing well-built buildings while he walked around the small town when he bumped into Leanna and Evlyn.         

“Oh hello, Doctor Miller,” Leanna spoke with a pleasant tone.         

“Hello,” Raymond replied.         

“This is my good friend, Evlyn Green.”         

“Hello, young lady.”         

“Hello,” Evlyn responded out of politeness although her thoughts told her otherwise.         

“If you excuse me, ladies, I have to be off.  I bought a puppy for my wife and me. And I need to get a few things like food, a collar, and even a few toys for him, if you don’t mind.”         

“Oh no problem,” Leanna replied.  “You can go.”         

Raymond walked away without another word.  Leanna and Evlyn began walking in the opposite direction.   

“How can you be nice to that man?” Evlyn asked with coldness in her voice.  “He’s a….”         

“There you go judging him again,” Leanna stated.  “You know just because his wife is around our age doesn’t mean anything.”         

“Yea it does. He’s robbing the cradle and she’s robbing the grave.”         

“As long as they love each other it’s okay.”         

“Yea whatever. It’s still sick.”         

They worked their way into a coffee shop still conversing when they spotted Calvin and Riley.  “There’s the guys come on,” Leanna told her friend.  They walked over to the two guys.         

“Hi, guys.”         

“Sit next to me, babe.  Evlyn, you can sit next to Riley.  He doesn’t bite. Besides, he won’t mind sitting next to you anyways,” Calvin said.         

“I don’t mind,” Riley agreed, shyly smiling.         

Leanna sat next to Calvin while Evlyn sat next to Riley.  They began chatting. 

 

     

During the same day, Nyght stood outside in the wide fenced with a woodened tall neighboring fence hiding the backyard from the world.  She stretched, practicing fighting skills while Rocky wondered around, chasing small devious little brown and grey squirrels.         

Raymond made his way outside and walked over to his beautiful slim small wife.  He prepared himself for training and gave Nyght approval for her to start the exercise.         

Nyght ran and jumped, kicking Raymond in the chest but he blocked the attack.  They each swapped turns throwing punches and kicks while the other blocked.         

The puppy noticed the two fighting and tried to play with them.         

“No, boy,” Raymond told the puppy.  “We can’t feel the strength of each other’s attacks as well as our own.  We don’t know if we’re too powerful or not and we don’t need to hurt you.  Sorry this is training for your mommy and it’s for life or death to the living.  We could possibly kill you on accident. Not what we want.”

 

          

Chris sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair, thinking.  Jayden walked over to him to see what he was up too.  “Hey, man, what’s up?” Jayden asked.         

“Just thinking about the case,” Chris answered.  “This is the first time we’ve ever had to deal with something like this.  Did anyone from forensic say anything about the body?”         

“Not yet.  It’s going to be a while before they figure out what’s going on.  Dude, this isn’t like looking for a missing cat for at least a few hours.  It’s much more serious than that and it’s going to be a while.”         

“I know. I’m still kind of shocked.  This is the first time something this big has happened in our little town.”  

“You can say that again.”         

Kiley walked with Cormick, lost in a conversation with the man.  “I didn’t find any finger prints so they believe that the suspect was wearing gloves,” she told her captain.  “They’re hoping to find some kind of DNA so they can find this person who’s responsible for the murder.”         

“Oh man that sucks,” Chris replied.  He couldn’t keep himself from jumping into the conversation.         

Kiley stopped in her tracks, turning her attention toward Chris.  “Yea it does and now we need to find more evidence that could help.  This is going to be a very long investigation.”

 

          

Raymond and Nyght sat on the floor in the living room because of the fact they still needed to get some furniture.  They stared at a black wall while Rocky lay in Nyght’s lap.         

“This is ridiculous,” the man told his wife, breaking the silence.  “We’re going to need to get a TV because staring at a blank wall is lame.”         

Nyght leaned against Raymond, smiling.         

“What?”         

Nyght’s eyes slowly began closing.         

“Oh so now I’m your pillow?  That’s nice.  Good thing we can sleep.” He kind of laughed.  “That’s the only thing we can do compared to all the other normal things that we should be able to do.”  He wrapped his left arm around her.  “Let’s go to bed and tomorrow like I said earlier, we’re going to the jewelry store.”  Raymond looked at Nyght, noticing she had fallen asleep.  “Good night, honey.”  He moved Rocky off of Nyght’s lap.  “Sorry, boy, but I don’t think that you want me to lift her up, while you’re lying in her lap.”  He picked his wife up and stood.  “Come on, Rocky.”

 

          

Raymond carried Nyght to the bed room, followed by Rocky.  He laid Nyght on the bed and covered her up.  “Good night,” he whispered, kissing her forehead.  “Sweet dreams.  I love you.”  He moved over toward his side of the bed, removing his shirt.  He noticed Rocky trying to jump up onto the bed.  “There ya go,” he told the pup, helping him up onto the bed.  “Now lay down.”  He went to climb into the bed when Rocky curled up into a ball on his side of the bed.  “Rocky, I don’t mind you sleeping in the bed but if I don’t get to lay down in my spot then one of us is going to be on the floor and it’s not going to be me.”         

Rocky’s black liquorice color eyes stared up at Raymond.         

Raymond sighed, kind of pushing Rocky into the middle of the bed.  “Stay there,” he told the puppy, climbing onto his side of the bed.  “Good, boy.”  He reached over and switched off the little lamp which sat on the table next to his side of the bed.  “Good night.”

 

          

The following day, Raymond and Nyght had found their way to the jewelry store.  Raymond met with the jeweler and began a conversation with the man who appeared to be about in his early fifties with short black hair which began vanishing due to a bald spot forming on his head.         

Nyght, on the other hand, worked her way around the jewelry store, checking out the jewelry which sat behind a glass case for protection from thieves.  She examined the jewelry, knowing that it was real, confused.  She knew that usually jewelry stores would showcase fact diamonds, hiding the real things in some kind of vault or case, but everything she was looking at was real.  She noticed a nice ruby red diamond which was attached to a necklace.  She moved over to Raymond, waiting for him to finish up the conversation with the other man.         

Once Raymond was done, he turned his attention toward her and she had him follow her over to the diamond, pointing at it.  He examined the unique diamond for a moment, taking in the sight.  “That’s something I need,” he told Nyght in a quiet tone.  “And I was right. The jeweler and his wife are them too.  Tonight is another night for ya, honey.”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Let’s get going.  You’ll come back tonight as well as going to their house.  It’s three jobs tonight.”

 

          

Evlyn found herself back at Miss Kennedy’s house, along with Chris and Leanna.  Their job was to search for any other clues which they might have missed earlier.  “Do either of you think that the killer might strike again?” Evlyn asked.         

“Don’t know. Maybe,” Chris replied.         

“Possibly,” Leanna answered.  “What do you think?”         

“I think it really depends. I just want to know why anyone would want to kill Miss Kennedy,” Evlyn replied.  “I mean she was a nice person and got along with everyone.  Why would someone want to kill her?  It doesn’t make any sense.”         

“Yea I agree.  It doesn’t make sense.”         

“Maybe she was a druggie or something and she didn’t have the money to pay for the drugs,” Chris said. 

“That would make sense,” Evlyn began to agree, “but I don’t think so.  I think if that were a possibility they would have had her shot rather than sliced opened.”         

“Maybe she was a spy and wanted to get out of the job but they didn’t want her to leave so instead they decided to have her killed so they wouldn’t have to worry about her giving away top secret information.”        

Evlyn and Leanna stared at Chris like he was an idiot.  “Yea either that or aliens experimented on her,” Leanna spoke with sarcasm in her tone.         

“I haven’t thought about that.”         

“It amazes me that you were smart enough to get this job.”         

Evlyn ignored the conversation her two collogues had while she worked her way upstairs, searching for anything they might had missed. 

Any Connections?

The jeweler closed the back door in the kitchen, revealing the dark outline of Nyght’s shadow, but the man hadn’t noticed.  She stayed close to the wall on the left of the door.  She blended into the dark space of the room.  She pulled out two small round flat disks from her belt and pressed a button on each of them, turning them in two shuriken.  She threw one, hitting the man’s stomach then threw the other one into his neck.  The jeweler dropped dead.         

Nyght slowly worked her way over to the man and removed the two small weapons from his lifeless body.  A noise came from another room which let her know that someone else heading into the kitchen.  She quickly and silently moved back into the shadows and waited.         

A woman about in her late forties walked into the room.  It wasn’t hard for Nyght to figure out that the woman was the jeweler’s wife.  The woman noticed her husband’s lifeless body lying on the ground and began to scream in horror.         

Nyght threw the two ninja stars, hitting the woman in the same two areas on her body like she had done to the man.  The jeweler’s wife dropped dead, landing next to her husband.  Nyght worked her way over toward the woman, removing the two weapons.  She looked around the room, listening for any signs of other people in the house.  Once she knew that no one else was around, she left.

 

          

Nyght arrived at the jewelry store, working her way inside.  She used the same two throwing stars she had used on the jeweler and his wife to destroy the security cameras she came into contact with.  She maneuvered around the security beams so her weapons couldn’t set off the alarm.  Once she arrived at the diamond, she opened the case and picked it up without a problem.  She knew it was real, knowing how the jewelry store workers hadn’t used decoys in the place of the real jewelry like most places would.  After she placed the diamond in a pouch along her belt, she left.

 

          

The following day, Cormick walked out of his office with grim news to tell his employees.  “There were two murders last night.  We have to go to the jeweler’s house and check out the crime scene.  He and his wife were found dead in the kitchen. One of their neighbors just called.”         

“Oh man.  Do you think that it was the same person who killed Miss Kennedy?” Evlyn asked.         

“Don’t know.  That’s why we have to go check it out.”

 

          

Raymond worked his way around the living room, thinking.  Rocky trotted behind like a shadow.  “What do you think we should do, boy?  We need to fill this room with something so it doesn’t look empty.  Besides when we have guests we don’t want them to think that we’re poor or lame.”         

Nyght slowly walked into the room, kind of sluggish after the night she had.         

“Awe good morning, honey.  Did you sleep well?”         

Nyght kind of smiled.         

“We should go and get some furniture today.  That way we can fill up these rooms and that includes a TV.  I’ve been missing football and I know that you want to be able to watch According to Jim and stuff.  And besides we should have a house warming party to distract them.  The cops are investigating the crimes.  We still need to meet the captain because I believe he’s one of them but I can’t prove it yet.  They don’t know what we’ve been through and what we’ve seen…. What we had to watch happen to our….”         

Nyght moved quickly in front of Raymond and covered his mouth with her pointer finger from one hand while using the other to cover her mouth.         

“I’m sorry, honey.  I know you hate thinking about what they did but it just angers me to know that they got away with it.”         

Nyght’s attention fell to her feet, sadness filled her eyes.  The memories were the hardest thing for her to think about.         

Raymond placed a hand under her chin and held her chin up to look into her lifeless sad dark brown eyes.  “They will pay. I promise. They all will pay.”  He kissed Nyght’s forehead.         

“Come on.  Let’s go to get a couch and stuff. Oh and when we get back we should put up some pictures.  That way the walls won’t be bearing.”         

Rocky squeaked out a little bark which made Nyght smile.         

“Sorry, boy, you’ll have to stay here.”         

Nyght walked over to Rocky and bent down next to him.  She gently wrapped him up in a humanlike hug and he replied with a small wet kiss with his long pink tongue.         

Raymond smiled.  The couple left the house, leaving the puppy alone.

 

          

Leanna and Chris walked into the jeweler’s kitchen, noticing the bodies on the ground.  Leanna moved over to the two bodies and began examining them.  “Hmm…. Well it can’t be the same killer as the person who murdered Miss Kennedy because they weren’t cut opened.  I think if it was the same person they would have done that same thing,” she explained, puzzled.         

Chris kept his attention on the bodies.  “Or maybe it is the same person but they like to change things up.”  He looked over at Leanna, to see what she thought about that.  “If they did, then we have to be careful. Either that or maybe they have someone else working with them and switch jobs.  We need to find out more information; this is going to be a long investigation I believe.”         

Leanna turned her attention toward Chris.  “Who would kill these two?  Nothing’s making any sense.  I want answers, not a goose chase.  This is going to take forever.  Now we have one, possibly two killers on the loose.  I’m so confused.”         

“You should probably go talk to Calvin.  Let him know that your wedding is probably going to be put on hold because of this investigation.”         

Leanna eyed Chris for his comment.  “No. You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for that day to come and if I don’t get married soon I’m going to be kicking butt and you’ll be first.”         

“Not my idea. Besides if this is the same person, we might be dealing with a lot more trouble than we want.”         

Jayden hurried into the room, almost panting.  “You two are never going to believe this, but there was a robbery at the jewelry store as well.”         

Leanna and Chase exchanged worried looks then turned their attention toward Jayden.  “Do you think that they’re connected?” Leanna asked.         

“Yea but all of the cameras were destroyed.”         

“What?” Chris asked.         

“Yea.”         

“Now the next question to solve is why would they want to rob the jewelry store and kill the jeweler and his wife?” Leanna asked.         

“Don’t know. I haven’t been to the jewelry store to see what was taken; I just got a call from Bradly letting me know that the store had been robbed.”

 

          

Calvin was working at the furniture store when Raymond and Nyght walked in.  He noticed the couple immediately and worked his way over to them.  “Hello, I’m Calvin Walker,” he introduced himself with a pleasant tone.  “How may I help you two today?”         

“Thank you, sir,” Raymond replied, returning the same attitude, “but we already know what we want.  We’ll let you know if we need any help though.”         

“Alright then.”  Calvin left the couple alone, returning back to what he had been doing before.         

“No, honey,” Raymond whispered to Nyght.  “He’s not one of them so you don’t have to worry about him.”         

Nyght kind of nodded.  She began searching the furniture.  The variety of choices filled the building and she knew she’d find something she liked.         

“Want to check out the couches first?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“We probably shouldn’t have had sold just about everything we had in that yard sale before we left Chicago because now we have to get everything back.”  Raymond regretted the choice, knowing that they’d have to spend more money to fill up their new home.         

Nyght couldn’t help but smile.         

A smile grew on Raymond’s face.  “Oh well then we wouldn’t have fun decorating the house.  Come on, honey.”  He grabbed her hand.  “You can pick out what you want.  I won’t say anything against whatever you choose. I swear.”         

Nyght raised in eyebrow.         

“What?”

 

          

Evlyn and Kiley worked their way through the jewelry store, trying to find clues and see if anything else had been stolen.  “I have a bad feeling that this crime is somehow linked to the murder of Miss Kennedy. I just don’t know how,” Kiley explained.         

“Man,” Evlyn replied, “I don’t think any of us are going to be able to sleep knowing that there’s a murderer out there.  It’s life threatening to everyone in town.  We have to figure out who’s doing this.”         

“I agree.  Man, this is horrible.”

No Mistakes

Nyght stood in the backyard, holding a sword in her hand.  She waited for her husband so she could begin training.  Even though, she didn’t actually fight it was good practice just in case.  She used her fighting skills for war if she felt the humans needed help like the two world wars which had threatened the human population.

Raymond stepped out onto the porch and picked up another sword.  He worked his way over toward his wife.  “Ready for some training, honey?” he asked.         

The woman nodded.         

“Okay.”  The man moved in front of his wife so they could stand face to face.  “Ladies first,” he encouraged.         

The couple prepared themselves for fighting.  Nyght gripped both hands around the hilt of her sword like she was holding a baseball bat and lunged for Raymond.

The man blocked the attack.  The melt of the blades made a clinking sound when the two swords met.  The couple went back and forth attacking and blocking the other one.  At some point in the middle of the training session, Nyght knocked the sword out of Raymond’s hand, grabbing it quickly, and held both swords up to her husband’s neck.         

“Good job, honey,” Raymond spoke with a smile on his smooth bone structure on his face.         

Nyght removed the swords away from the man, satisfied with the training for the day.         

“You just need to learn how to use a gun.  You can’t always use knives or ninja stars.  You’re going to run out of weapons to make them think that there’s different…. Honey, you can’t just always use older weapons. You need some newer ones as well. It’s to let them know that we’re still suffering because of what they did to us. What they did….”         

Nyght placed a finger over Raymond’s lips.         

“We can’t just go on like it never happened, honey. I know you’re still hurt from what they did. So am I. We’ve seen things that shouldn’t have happened. We’re cursed with this plague. Somehow we survived for years and years. We’re not dead but we’re not alive. I’m working on finding out what we are. We’re not immortal either. We can’t do things that the living can but it still hurts knowing what they did. Nyght, I love you no matter what happens but we have to let out our anger that we still have that’s why.”         

Nyght walked away.  She didn’t want to hear the words.  She knew what he was implying and even though she no longer had a beating heart the pain was coming.         

“Nyght.... I know you can’t…. I’m sorry…. Nyght.... Please come back over here…. Nyght….” Raymond sighed, knowing how pointless his words were.  “Fine. Go inside. I’ll meet you in there later. Okay.”  He began pacing back and forth, letting thoughts sour through his mind.

 

          

Chris and Leanna held a conversation when Evlyn arrived into work.  “Talking about the murders?” she asked, joining her two collogues.         

“Yea….” Chris answered.  “Oddly, we think that the murders of the jeweler and his wife are connected with the murder of Miss Kennedy but we don’t understand how.  It’s strange. Two different weapons were used but somehow the murders are connected.  It doesn’t make any sense. If there is a murderer in town, then they’re way smarter than we are because most murderers use the same weapon plus they mess up somehow like leaving finger prints or something with they’re DNA but nothing comes up. We’re dealing with someone who knows what they should or shouldn’t do. This town is in big trouble.  I hate knowing that no one in this town is safe. I’d rather live in a boring town than a nightmare. We could never catch the murderer. And that’s not good for us or for everyone in town. We’re doomed.”         

“I agree with Chris. We’re all in trouble,” Leanna replied.

 

          

Nyght and Raymond sat at the small round brown kitchen table they had bought from the furniture store.  Rocky stood over at his doggy dish and ate.         

“I’m sorry about what I said earlier, Nyght.  I just think about the past and it hurts so much. I know you remember and it hurts you as well. I need to talk about it. You would if you could but you’re mute and it seems that you don’t want me to bring up the past. It’s going to come out sooner or later and we both know it.  I ruined your voice while they ruined our lives. The pain keeps coming back as I think about it.  I wouldn’t think about it but it’s always on my mind. I could have done something to stop them but I didn’t and it hurts.”         

Nyght stood up and moved around the table till she was behind him and wrapped her arms around him for a hug.         

“I love you.” He placed a hand on Nyght’s arm.  “I love you so much. But I hurt you trying to save you. I’m sorry we have to live like this. I’m working to bring your beautiful voice back. But it’s going to be a while. I’m a doctor but by trying to save you, I took away your voice. It’s my fault.”         

Nyght kissed Raymond’s forehead, tightening her arms around him.

         

“Love hurts. It doesn’t matter what you do. Whether you’re trying to save the one you love or if you’re trying to kill the one you love. Either way you hurt the one you love whether you mean to or not. I’m sorry.” 

Rocky finished eating and left the room.         

“I’m tired, honey.  You want to go to bed yet or do you want to stay down here for a little while?”         

Nyght smiled.         

“Alright then.”  Raymond stood up and grabbed Nyght’s hand.  “Let’s go to bed.”

 

          

The couple walked upstairs and made their way into the bedroom.  The puppy ran into the room before Raymond had time to close the door.  “Looks like Rocky doesn’t like to be by himself,” he told Nyght.         

Nyght picked up the little mutt and placed him on the bed.         

Raymond walked over to his dear little wife, turning her to face him.  “You can’t go to bed until I get my good night kiss.”         

Nyght smiled at her husband’s words then they shared a brief kiss.

 

          

Evlyn worked her way through the street, heading to her house, when Riley had found her.  “Oh, Evlyn,” the guy said, looking at her.  “I’m looking forward to our date on Friday. I can’t wait.”          

Evlyn smiled.  “Yea me either.”         

“Why are you out walking this late at night?”         

“My car broken down and I didn’t want to fight with it.  I’m on my way home.”         

“I’ll walk with you.  It’s actually much safer anyways. Especially, because of the murders that have been going on recently.”         

“Thank you but I am a cop and I know self-defense.”         

“That doesn’t mean anything. You could still get jumped.”         

“Yea that’s true. But not only that the murders happened in the victims’ houses so either way it wouldn’t matter.”         

“Then let me stay at you’re house tonight and I’ll keep you safe. We don’t have to share the same room. I’m a good boy. I’ll respect you.”         

“Like I haven’t heard that one before.” Evlyn kind of laughed.  “I think I’ll be fine thank you.”

 

          

Nyght woke up and leaned forward, sitting upright on the bed.

         

Raymond kind of rolled over, waking up.  He noticed Nyght was awake and didn’t have to ask why.  “Another dream about that day. Nyght, try and go back to sleep. And don’t think about that day. You don’t need to worry about it. Okay, honey. We’re slowly getting revenge for what they had done. It’s okay, Nyght. Try and go back to bed, honey.”         

She ignored Raymond and stood up.  She walked over to the window where the moonlight shone in the dark room, kind of lighting the area.  Her attention moved around toward the outside.         

Raymond sat up.  “Honey, please come back to bed.”         

Nyght began growing angry while thoughts filled her head.         

Within a blink of an eye, Raymond held her fist. He had moved quickly out of bed when he realized that Nyght was lost in fire of anger.  “No, honey.  You can take your anger out on me but I will not let you destroy this house.  This is our only place for now.  I will not let you destroy it. You had another dream. Another nightmare of that day and I don’t want you to destroy everything in sight.  We’re only marking off the person who were responsible and that’s it. Got it, Nyght?”         

Nyght looked up at her husband, losing the anger.         

“It’s okay to hurt.  Come here.  We’re going to get through this; until we’re done. Come on to bed.  We need to rest.  Come on, honey.”

Annoying Neighbor

A week had passed since Nyght and Raymond had moved into their new two-story home, when a somewhat quiet but hearable knock came from the front door.  Nyght made her way to the door and opened it.  A blonde woman stood on the kind of small porch, holding a round decorative bowl in her hands.  She looked to be somewhere in her late thirties, early forties.  Her blue eyes glistened with her smile and she handed the bowl to Nyght.  “Hello,” she spoke with an overly friendly tone in her voice which Nyght found to be annoying.  “Sorry I didn’t come over sooner.”         

Nyght took the bowl, confused.         

“I’m Wanda Willis,” the woman introduced herself.  “I live next door.  I would have been here sooner to welcome you and your husband but I and my husband just got back from a vacation. We were told that you two had just moved in and I wanted to drop off these homemade cookies as a way to say, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’”         

Nyght looked down at the bowl in her hands then to Mrs. Willis.         

“It’s a small world literally. Everyone here knows everyone and everything.”         

Nyght closed the door while the other woman continued to move her mouth.  Clearly, she had been extremely annoyed by the new comer and didn’t care if she was being rude or not.         

“I think that maybe we should have a double date sometime,” Mrs. Willis’s voice spoke through the closed door.  Obviously, she didn’t get the hint.  “You and your husband....”         

Raymond walked into the room to see what all the commotion was about.  “Who was that?”         

Nyght kind of left the door.         

“Hello,” Raymond replied, opening the door.  “I’m Raymond Miller and well you met my wife, Nyght Miller.  Sorry about her rudeness. She’s mute and she kind of doesn’t want to hear a lot of people talking because she feels that it’s a tease to her.”         

Nyght raised an eyebrow at Raymond.         

“Oh I’m so sorry I didn’t know,” Mrs. Willis responded, turning her attention toward the mute.         

“It’s okay,” Raymond replied.  “It’s not going to kill her.  Would you like to come in?”         

Nyght kind of dropped her mouth and shook her head.         

Mrs. Willis took a step inside.  “Oh I’m Wanda Willis.”         

“It’s nice to meet you,” Raymond spoke with a friendly tone.         

“I was telling Nyght that we should double date some time. I and my husband always have a date night and we would be delighted to have you both join us.”         

Nyght kind of rolled her eyes.  She didn’t want to spend another second with the annoying neighbor.        

“It would be fun.”         

“It sounds like a great idea.  Don’t you agree, honey?” Raymond asked.         

A rude smile worked its way onto Nyght’s face.  She disagreed with the idea but couldn’t speak her mind.  She didn’t want to deal with the woman and her husband for one bit.         

“Oh and before I forget, I brought that bowl of homemade cookies for the two of you.”         

“Why thank you, Mrs. Willis. That was sweet of you. Don’t you agree, Nyght?”         

Nyght stared at Raymond.  She couldn’t believe how he could be so nice to someone who was so annoying.         

“Well, I would love to stay and chat but I have to get back to my house and supper.”         

“I got an idea why don’t you and your husband come here tonight and we can get to know each other?” 

Nyght’s mouth dropped at her husband’s suggestion.         

Mrs. Willis took a moment to consider Raymond’s question.  “That sounds fun. I’ll just have to talk to him about it.  Nice meeting you two.”         

“Nice meeting you too.”         

Mrs. Willis left without another word.         

Raymond closed the door but kept his hand on the doorknob and turned his attention toward Nyght.  “Why were you being rude, Nyght?”         

Nyght looked at Raymond.         

“You can’t be rude to people like that. Especially when they bring you cookies.” The man looked into the bowl to see what kind of cookies their neighbor had brought them.  “Is that peanut butter?” He asked, kind of being ironic.  “Anyways, she’s our neighbor. You think she’s annoying like The Nanny, don’t you?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“So what if she’s annoying? Her and her husband are invited to come over and besides I have a good feeling that they’re next on the list.”         

Nyght continued to stare at Raymond but this time with interest at the last five words which came from his mouth.         

“Yes but you can’t do anything yet. That’s why I invited them over anyways. Besides before you do anything, I have a couple of more things, but for tonight we are to stay home and have a nice cooked meal with two of our neighbors. Now we need to find something that the living likes to eat.”         

Nyght nodded.

 

          

Leanna, Chris, and Evlyn were sitting inside of a dinner.  Each of them had cups on the table but none of them had felt like eating.  They were worn out from the cases, trying to figure out what they were missing.  “No leads. No leads. No stupid stinking leads. This is ridiculous. What are we supposed to do?” Evlyn asked, frustrated and tired.  “Have people evacuated their homes until the murderer or murderers are caught?”         

“You can only do that when giant lizards are attacking. Don’t you learn anything from movies?” Chris replied.         

“For the hundredth time, Chris. Godzilla is a fiction movie not nonfiction. Idiot,” Leanna replied, annoyed by the guy’s response.         

“Actually, it’s a science-fiction movie and science-fiction means that it can happen.”         

“Yea,” Evlyn replied, sarcastically, “if you believe in aliens.”         

“They do exist. Why do you think that area fifty-one is so top secret?”         

Evlyn and Leanna stared at Chris then exchanged glances with each other only to bring their gaze back to their coworker.  “You’re an idiot,” Leanna answered.         

“Okay can we get off of this subject? I feel like I’m stuck with five-year-olds,” Evlyn replied.         

“Yea…. So how are things going so far for you and Riley?”         

“I feel girl talk coming on so I’m going to go ahead and leave. See you two later.”  Chris grabbed his cup and left.         

“So?”         

“He’s so amazing and so sweet. He’s the perfect guy. Well not perfect,” Evlyn answered, acting like she was back in high school, “but he’s close enough.”         

“Aw that’s so cute. I think that you two are going to wind up getting hitched after me and Calvin. I can just feel it.”         

“Ooo….” Evlyn smiled.  “He’s also been helping me to get my mind off of the murders as well. Has Calvin been helping you with keeping your mind off of the cases?”         

Leanna sighed.  “I wish. Calvin wishes he could work on the cases.  He reads mysteries and now he wants to be a detective to help solve the murders.  He even went out and bought a detective costume and kit. I know I’m marrying a man-child but hey I love him and that’s what matters right?”         

Evlyn laughed.  “Well, you said, ‘Yes.’ You could have said, ‘No.’”         

“And break Calvin’s heart, I don’t think so. Well, at least, I know that when we have kids, he’ll be good with them.”         

“Yea…. Just one problem.”         

“What?”         

“You’ll have to make sure that he doesn’t take their toys from them so he can have something to play with.”         

Leanna tried to suppress a laugh.  “You’re horrible.”         

“I know but you love me.”         

Leanna sighed, smiling.  “That’s true.”

Dinner With Mr. & Mrs. Willis

Raymond watched out of the window.  He watched the two neighbors head toward the house and figure that it must not have been hard for Mrs. Willis to convince her husband to come over for dinner.  “Mr. and Mrs. Willis are on their way over here, hon.” He turned his attention toward Nyght, noticing the annoyed look on her face.  “Look I don’t care how annoying they are to you.... Don’t be rude.  They’re our guest. Okay, Nyght?”         

Nyght looked at Raymond and kind of shrugged.  She couldn’t have cared less.         

Then the annoying knocking began.         

“That’s them now.”  Raymond worked his way toward the door.  “Come on, honey.  Let’s welcome them in.”         

Nyght made her way over to her husband while he opened the door.         

“Hello,” Raymond greeted the neighbors with a warm welcoming smile, “Wanda, and you must be her husband….”         

“Steve,” Mr. Willis quickly replied.  He was kind of chunky in down in the stomach area.  His brown hair appeared to be falling out but he wasn’t bald or going bald.  He had to be somewhere in his late forties, early fifties.         

“Ah…. Steve…. I’m Raymond and this is my lovely wife, Nyght.”         

“She looks kind of young for ya, don’t you think?”         

“Steve,” Mrs. Willis whispered kind of mad and a little embarrassed by her husband’s judgmental words. 

“What?” Mr. Willis asked, also whispering.  “It’s obvious that there’s an age difference. Look at how young she is compared to him.”         

“Still you can’t just go....”         

Raymond and Nyght stared at the other couple, feeling the awkwardness enter the room.         

“Saying things like that to people. That is so rude.”  Mrs. Willis turned her attention toward Raymond and Nyght, smiling.  Her embarrassment hung in her eyes like stars in the night sky.  “I’m sorry about him.  He can be kind of blunt. Honestly, I wish he wasn’t.”         

Raymond kind of smiled while Nyght continued to stare at the other woman.         

“This is why I don’t really like bringing him anywhere.”         

Raymond glanced over at Nyght for a brief moment then back toward the two interesting neighbors.  “Ok-ay. Would you two like to come in now?”         

“Oh yes. Thank you.” Wanda walked into the house.  “Steve, be nice.”         

Steve followed behind.  “Women,” he told Raymond, “you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. Maybe I should have married a girl way younger than me. You might have had the right idea.”         

Raymond kind of smiled while the other couple worked their way passed him and Nyght.  Nyght eyed her husband with anger, shaking her head.         

“Remember,” Raymond whispered to his wife, “honey, be nice. Not until I say.”         

“So, Raymond,” Steve began, “Wanda tells me that you’re a doctor.”         

“Yes, sir. I have….”         

“Can you look at my foot for me?  See I crushed it a few years ago.”         

“I’m….”         

Without hesitation, Wanda slapped her husband.  “I told you not to say anything. He doesn’t have to look at your foot.”         

“But he’s a doctor, honey.”         

“Yes but he’s new to town. Let him get use....”         

Nyght began growing annoyed by the bickering voices of the other couple.  They were nonstop and she wanted them to stop.  She wanted to harm them so bad but knew she couldn’t; not until her husband told her that it was time.         

“I don’t think he’ll mind. It’s his….”         

“I do. I think he minds. He just moved in and already….”         

“Do you mind if you look at my foot for me?”         

Raymond began to open his mouth but Mrs. Willis quickly cut him off.         

“No. He doesn’t need to look at your foot. You’ll be fine, Steve. He probably just wants to….”         

Anger continued to grow inside of Nyght while the Willis’s continued to go back and forth.         

Raymond grabbed Nyght’s hand, noticing her anger growing more and more.  “Relax,” He told her.  “Who’s hungry?” he asked the other couple, hoping for a better result.         

Nyght shot a dirty look at her husband.  She didn’t want to spend another minute with the Willis’s in her house.         

“Hey,” Raymond told her, “it keeps them from arguing.”         

“Yes.” Mrs. Willis replied.  “And again, I am so sorry about my husband.”

 

          

In the dining room, Raymond and Nyght sat on the side of the table which had their backs facing toward the kitchen while Steve and Wanda sat across from them on the opposite side of the table.  They had finished eating and just relaxed, letting their food digest.         

“Let me tell you,” Raymond spoke, laughing, “it feels like me and Nyght have been traveling since the Black Death.”         

Everyone, except for Nyght, laughed.  Her distaste for the new neighbors only grew stronger.  The woman was annoying and the man didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.         

“Oh man. So, Nyght,” Mr. Willis asked, “do you enjoy traveling with your husband?”         

“Oh, honey, she can’t talk,” Mrs. Willis whispered.         

“What do you mean she can’t talk?” Steve asked in disbelief.  “Of course she can talk.  Everyone can talk. Should everyone talk?  I think not.”         

“Honey, she’s a mute. She can’t speak at all.”         

“So you’re like a mime?”         

The question was offensive toward Nyght.  She wanted the man to shut up or for Raymond to go ahead and give her permission to slaughter him and his wife already but knew that neither was going to happen. 

“No. She was in a bad accident that damaged her voice box.” Raymond began to answer.         

“Wait…. She was in a bad accident that damaged her voice box and you’re a doctor but you can’t fix her voice box?”         

“Well it’s more complicated than....”         

“You can’t fix your wife’s voice box but you want to look at my foot to see what you can do about it?” 

Raymond kind of looked at Steve with confusion.  The man had put words into his mouth.         

Nyght, on the other hand, looked away while her anger became worse.         

“He never said anything about looking at your foot and I’m sure that he’s doing everything he can to fix her voice box,” Mrs. Willis concluded.  “Am I right?”         

Raymond nodded.  “Yes. It’s kind of hard to find the tools I need to fix Nyght’s voice box again. I mean I do miss her beautiful voice.”         

Nyght looked at Raymond and kind of smiled.  His words had made her day.  The anger had vanished.         

“Awe that’s so sweet. Now why can’t you say something that sweet to me?” Mrs. Willis asked her husband.         

“Because you still have your annoying, squeaking voice. When you lose your voice for a couple of years then I’ll say something.” Mr. Willis answered.         

Nyght and Raymond dropped their mouths.  They couldn’t believe how a man could just say that to his wife.         

Mrs. Willis eyed her husband for his cruel words.         

“Frankly, the day you lose your voice, I’ll be the happiest man around.”         

“You can’t just say that to me.”         

“Okay, can we talk about something else please?” Raymond asked.  He felt that a change of subject would have been the best way to go rather than to hear Steve continue about how he’d be happy to have a mute wife.         

“Yes please. Oh and sorry for the third time about Steve.”         

“So do you two have any kids?”         

A smile grew on Wanda’s face, almost like she had anticipated the question.  “Oh yes. A little boy actually. What about you two?”         

Nyght stood up and sadness worked its way into her eyes.  She left the room quickly with her inhuman heart breaking at the thought.         

Raymond sighed.  “No actually. I can’t reproduce. We’ve always wanted a little one though. We’ve thought about adoption, but in the end, it’s not the same so we just adopted Rocky.... Our little puppy. He’s close enough to a baby for us actually.”         

Steve and Wanda kind of nodded.  Mr. Willis looked at his watch, checking the time.  “Honey, it’s almost nine.  We better get going.”         

“Oh yes.” Mrs. Willis stood up and turned her attention toward Raymond.  “Thank you again for inviting us over. We should do this again some time.”         

Raymond nodded while a fake smile grew on his face.  “Yea…. That’s a great idea, Wanda. It was nice meeting you, Steve.”         

“Same to you,” Mr. Willis replied, leaving the room.         

Raymond listened to the front door close behind his neighbors while they left.  He stood up and worked his way upstairs were he found Nyght standing over by the window down the hall and walked over to her.  “Good thing we’re not going to have to deal with them for long. Tomorrow…. But you’re going to have more to do on the schedule,” he told his wife, “before you deal with them. Okay, Nyght?”         

Nyght looked at Raymond and kind of nodded.  She was glad the other couple had finally left and that the night was over.

Puppet & Puppet Master

Evlyn, Leanna, and Chris were going over the evidence, trying to find clues.  So far nothing out of the ordinary popped out.  Nothing seemed to be out of place or odd involving the three recent murders along with the robbery.  “Man, still no leads. This is ridiculous,” Leanna stated with disappointment.         

“I think I know who might be involved with the murders,” Evlyn spoke surely it had been obvious to her who the murderer or murders were.         

“Really?  Who?”         

“The new doctor and his wife. It makes sense.”         

Leanna dropped her mouth in disbelief.  She couldn’t believe how Evlyn could make such a horrible assumption without even giving the new couple a chance.  She hadn’t figured either of the Millers as thieves, let alone as deadly or dangerous.  It had been strange that the murders had begun until after the doctor and his wife moved in but she just shrugged off as a coincidence and nothing more.  “You’re just saying that so you have a reason to place them in jail.  I see it as a conflict of interest.”         

“No that’s not why I’m saying that. Although I think that he should be in jail. But no. Think about it, Leanna. It makes sense.  They’re new in town and these murders didn’t happen until they showed up. It fits.”         

“Just because they’re new doesn’t mean anything. It could just be a coincidence.  It could be someone else. Someone who’s tired of living in a small town. Someone like you.”         

Leanna’s statement infuriated Evlyn.  “Oh you better not be saying that I decided to do any of this.”         

Leanna lost her temper in return.  “I said, ‘Someone like you.’ Not you. Why do you have something to hide?  Something like a confession?”         

“What?! You would choose to stand up for two people who you barely know over your best friend?”         

Chris glanced back and forth between the two girls.  Ooo…. This sounds like a catfight. Sweet. “Don’t do anything until I get back with some popcorn,” he told his coworkers, standing up.         

Both of the girls glanced at him with flames of anger raging in their eyes.         

“Good…. Hold that position.” He left the room without another word.

 

          

Raymond stared out of the window in the hall of the second floor and looked out into the starry lit night sky.  The night before with the neighbors had played in his mind.

Nyght stood behind him, waiting.  She was prepared and ready for her job but had to wait for his instructions.         

“Okay, Nyght,” Raymond told her.  “Now’s the time. And remember….”

 

          

Nyght worked her way into the jewelry store while Raymond’s voice played in the back of her mind, explaining what needed to be done.  “First things first,” his voice began, “I want you to go back to the jewelry store.”

 

 

Once Nyght was inside of the dark building with only the moonlight lighting the rooms, Raymond’s words continued in her mind.  “This time I don’t want you to take anything. You break in and make sure the security systems detect you somehow. I know that neither of us release heat like the living anymore but find a way somehow to make your presences known. Then once you do that, I want you to wait. You’ll wait for the police to arrive.”

 

 

         

Evlyn and Leanna continued arguing when the radio clicked on.         

“Calling for back up. The jewelry store is being robbed,” Kiley’s voice spoke.         

“We’re on our way.” Chris answered.  “This might be an answer that we’re looking for. Come on,” he told the two girls who had stopped to listen to the call.

 

          

Nyght stood, listening to the sounds of sirens arrive.  The loud obnoxious cop cars had surrounded the entire building.  She stayed inside of the building, waiting.         

“When the cops arrive,” Raymond’s voice spoke, “you’ll let them arrest you. They’ll bring you to the police station. They’re going to take your finger prints. They’re going to interrogate you. Ask questions, you will do what you can to answer them but whatever you do…. Don’t let them take your mask off to identify you and when you answer questions make sure not to give too much information away. Mostly about the past. Let them know about the murders….”         

The cops stormed into the building, carrying guns and wearing bullet proof vest for protection just in case the woman tried anything against them.  They surrounded Nyght so she had no way to escape if given the chance.  “Drop your weapons. You’re under arrest,” Cormick told the masked criminal.         

Nyght slowly removed her weapons from her swords to the shuriken, dropping them to the ground.  She raised her hands while Kiley rushed over to and grabbed her hands, placing them behind her back and locking them in handcuffs.         

Cormick was kind of shocked, wondering why she had given up without a fight.  That was easy. But why? He couldn’t believe how someone could have been willing to go to jail.

 

          

At the police station, Kiley took Nyght’s finger prints but the result had surprised her.  “Oh my gosh.”         

Evlyn walked over to her coworker and the murderer to see what was so shocking.  “What?”         

Kiley let Evlyn look at the piece of paper.  The result had been something of a shock.  “No finger prints.” 

“That’s impossible. Everyone has finger prints. There must be a trick.”         

“I watched her with my own two eyes. This was the result.”         

Evlyn and Kiley turned their attention to Nyght while she glanced at them.         

“Well hopefully she has a reflection.... Or we’re going to have a real problem on our hands.”

 

          

Leanna and Chris led Nyght into a small dark room with a projector screen in front of a plain light grey wall.  Chris had Nyght follow him to the screen.  He went to pull off Nyght’s mask.  “Okay. Now we have to see….” 

The woman quickly grabbed Chris’s hand, stopping him.

Shock took control of Chris while the woman’s grip kind of tightened around his palm.  The murderer’s hand was freezing cold almost like she had come out of a freezer and her grip was too strong for any human to have.  “That’s a strong, cold grip you have there, missy,” he told her while she released his hand.  “Fine. We’ll leave the mask on.”         

Nyght eyed Chris and Leanna while they stepped back to take her picture.         

“That’s strange. Her grip felt like I was touching a dead body,” Chris told Leanna.         

Leanna looked over at Chris, kind of confused.  She shook it off and turned her attention back toward the masked woman who stood waiting.         

“There’s something strange about this woman.  I don’t think she’s human. Well she’s not alive.”         

Leanna kind of laughed at Chris’s little joke, thinking that he was just trying to psychic her out.  She took a few mug shots while she laughed.  “Good one.”

 

          

Nyght sat behind a small table while Chris and Evlyn stood in front of her.  The room was small with a long pitch black one way window on Nyght’s right.  She couldn’t see out but she knew there were other cops on the other side watching.         

“Okay. So who are you?” Evlyn asked.         

Nyght stared at Evlyn.         

“Answer the question.”         

Nyght tapped on the table.         

“I said, ‘Answer the question.’ That doesn’t mean tape on the table. There is a major difference.”         

Nyght turned her attention back toward the female cop.  She pointed to herself.         

“Yes.”         

Nyght held up her right hand.         

“Maybe this is her way of pleading the fifth,” Chris replied.         

Nyght’s gaze moved from the female cop to the young male cop and she shook her head to answer him. 

“It’s not?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Then why aren’t you answering Evlyn’s question?”         

Nyght pointed to herself again, moved her finger from side to side, made a mouth with her hand, and moved it in a way to make the hand appear like it was talking.         

“You don’t have any sock puppets.”         

Nyght looked at Chris, raising an eyebrow.  Clearly the young man cop had to be more intelligent than he appeared to be.

Evlyn stared at Chris like he was stupid.  “No you idiot. She’s saying she can’t talk,” she replied.         

“Oh.”         

Nyght tapped on the table again then acted like she was writing something.         

“Chris, go get her a pen and paper. That’s what she’s trying to tell us.”         

“Okay.”  Chris left the room.         

“He’s getting you something to write with. So that way you can tell us everything. Got it?”         

Nyght just stared at Evlyn for a few moments then turned her attention toward the table.  It hadn’t take Chris long to walk back into the room and hand the paper along with a pen to the mute.         

“Okay. Now tell us. Who are you?”         

Nyght quickly wrote something down.         

Evlyn read what was written and grew angry.  “Are you kidding me?”         

“What?”         

“She wrote that she can’t tell us…. Next question.”         

“Okay. Then we’ll just skip it and come back to it later.”         

Evlyn sighed.  “Fine. Okay. Can you talk?”         

Nyght wrote something else down and Evlyn read the reply.         

“Okay.”         

“What?”         

“She’s mute.”         

“Oh. Can I ask one?”         

“Yea go ahead.”         

“Are you responsible….?” Chris began to ask, trying to do sign language the best he could.         

Nyght stared at the guy, confused.  She felt that he was talking to her as if she were stupid.         

“What are you doing?” Evlyn asked.         

“I’m talking to her like her people would talk so she can understand me.”         

“She’s mute.... Not deaf. She can hear you. She just can’t speak.”         

“Oh.”         

Nyght continued to stare at the idiot cop.  Apparently he wasn’t that bright which she had figured out earlier.

 

Interrogation

The two young cops continued to question the mute even though she wouldn’t give them the information they really needed.  Nyght could withhold any important information she didn’t wish to share which would make things worse for the cops knowing that she was a mute there was no telling what she knew and was hiding compared to what she didn’t know.  “Are you responsible for the murders that have been happening?” Chris asked.         

Nyght quickly jotted down her response then slid the paper toward both of the cops.         

Chris picked up the piece of paper and read it.  “Yea…. For the deaths of the jeweler and his wife and Miss Kennedy as well?  Or just one or two of the deaths depending on who you killed?” his question was oddly worded but Nyght understand what the young man was asking.         

Nyght jotted down her reply then slid the sheet back toward the cops.         

Chris picked it up again and read it.  “Yes to the first one. I knew it. I told ya so, Evlyn.”         

Evlyn laughed sarcastically.  “Okay.  Why?  Why did you kill them?”         

Nyght wrote a little more on the paper than she had before and slid it over toward them for the third time.         

Evlyn picked up the paper this time and read it.  “Because they’re on the list of people.”         

The two cops exchanged looks then turned their attention back toward the murderer. 

“What list?  How many people are on the list?”         

Nyght took the paper and wrote down the answer at least everything she was a loud to tell them.  When she had finished, she moved the paper back toward Chris and Evlyn.         

Evlyn picked up the paper again and read it.  “The list with people to murder. As for a number I don’t know until he tells me whose next.”  A red flag began to rise in her mind at the written words.  She exchanged another look with Chris, knowing he had the same thought.  They both turned their attention toward Nyght.  “Who’s he?  And why are you murdering these people?”         

Nyght knew she couldn’t give them any more information than what she already had.  The fact she was mute worked to her advantage and she grabbed the paper and wrote down more for the cops.  Once she finished, she slid the paper back and watched Evlyn pick it up and listened to her read.         

“I can’t answer that. What they did wasn’t fair…. It wasn’t right. They didn’t…. They’re getting what they deserve.” Evlyn turned her attention toward Nyght, not only was she frustrated but she was also confused.  “This isn’t making any sense.  What are you talking about?” She turned toward Chris.  “Man, this is ridiculous why do we have to be the ones to question a mute?  She can’t answer us and she doesn’t write down everything she knows. This is ridiculous.”         

At some point, Nyght snatched the paper back and wrote something else down and slid it back.         

Evlyn took the paper and read it.  “It happened years ago. I remember…. I can’t tell you what they did or why. I can’t tell you why I have to get revenge. All I can say is that I’ve been around a lot longer than you two have and I can’t die. You can threaten me if you’d like but I can’t die if you want to kill me.” Her attention moved back toward the mute murderer even more confused than before.  “What do you mean you can’t die?  Everyone dies. What makes you think you can’t?”         

Nyght took the paper for the last time, beginning to grow annoyed by all of the questions the cops insisted on asking, and wrote more down then handed the paper to the young female cop directly.  Evlyn took the paper and read it to herself.         

“What’s it say?” Chris asked.  “Well, what did she write?”         

“She wants me to place my gun on the table.” Evlyn turned toward Nyght, skeptical about taking orders from a murderer.  “Do you think I’m stupid?  I’m not going to place my gun on the table. You’ve been going around murdering people. How do I know that we’re not next on your list?”         

Nyght took the paper for the last time and wrote down a little more then slid it back toward the cops. 

Evlyn let the sheet of paper on the table, kind of growing tired of constantly picking it up.  She leant forward to read what the mute had written.  “Place the gun on the table, the both of you leave the room, lock the door, go to the other side of that window with the other cops, and watch. If the two of you were on the list, then the both of you would be laying on the ground dead. But be thankful that you’re not.”         

“You know…. I may sound crazy,” Chris replied, “but I think that she makes a good point.”         

Evlyn looked over at Chris for a moment then back at Nyght.  She sighed.  “Fine.”  She pulled her gun out of the holster on her belt.  “I’m trusting you. Chris here is trusting you. Don’t try anything. Got it?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Okay.”  Evlyn placed the gun on the table, going against her better judgment.  Her and Chris backed way with their eyes locked onto the silent murderer.  They left the room, closing and locking the door.         

Nyght stood and picked up the gun.  She moved in front of the one way window where all she could see was her own reflection, knowing the cops were on the other side watching.  She closed her eyes and waited.

 

          

Evlyn and Chris walked into the next room where Cormick and Leanna stood, watching.  They had been surprised by the other two’s action to leave a loaded gun with a masked murderous mute.  “Are you crazy?  Why did you leave your gun in there?  She could have killed you two,” Leanna asked, instantly.         

Cormick kept his eyes on Nyght, continuing to watch the woman.  “I don’t think that she has any interest in killing them, Leanna.”         

The three younger cops turned their attention toward the window and watched.

 

          

Nyght stood right in front of the glass, looking into the dark glass and even though she couldn’t see the cops she knew they were watching and waiting.  She held the gun up to the right side of her head and pulled the trigger.

 

          

The cops stared with shock.  Nyght just stood on the opposite of them almost like she was waiting for something to happen.         

“Oh…. My…. Gosh….” Leanna was so shocked with no clue what else to say.         

“That’s impossible. How is she still standing?” Evlyn asked.         

“I guess she can’t die,” Chris answered.         

“Evlyn, Chris,” Cormick ordered, “bring her to a cell. One where she’s alone. I have a feeling she could cause some damage to any cellmate she gets.”         

“Yes, sir,” Evlyn and Chris agreed.  They left the room, quickly.

 

          

Evlyn and Chris escorted Nyght down a long dark hallway with doors on both sides.  They stopped at an empty cell.

         

“After they’re done questioning you,” Raymond’s voice began to play in the back of Nyght’s mind as if she had turned on radio, “let them bring you to a cell. Once in the cell, wait for them to leave.”

         

Evlyn and Chris placed Nyght into the small cell.  Chris removed the handcuffs.  Nyght stood in the small cell and watched Evlyn closed the door and locked it.  She watched the two cops leave through the small window on the cell door.         

“Once you’re alone,” Raymond’s voice continued, “find a way to break out. A window…. A brick in the wall that’s loose. Some way to get out.”         

Nyght looked around.  She noticed a manhole in the cell floor like the prisoners would have found in an older time period.  She grabbed the bars and pulled up then moved the top away.  She jumped into the hole and quickly reached for the top, placing the lid above herself.         

“Once you’re out, sneak back and get your weapons. I know you’re fast enough to get the weapons back without getting caught. And you can be out of the jail house before they even realize you’re gone.”

 

          

Nyght found her way to her weapons without being spotted.  She quickly grabbed everything which had belonged to her then left quickly.

 

          

Evlyn worked her way to Nyght’s cell.  “Okay, look you’re going….” She realized that the cell was empty.  “Oh crap,” she whispered to herself.

 

          

Nyght stood on the top flat roof of a three-story building.  She watched and waited for the cops to make some kind of notion letting her know that they knew she was missing.  She knew the living would figure out soon.         

“Okay. Now once you’re out of the jail house,” she heard her husband’s voice began to play in the back of her mind, “you can go to the neighbors’ and have fun. I know you’ve been waiting for the time to kill them. Oh and make sure they suffer horribly. I think you’ve been kind of slacking when it comes to killing. Honey, I don’t want you to lose interest in your favorite game. You’re an assassin for now. At least until you kill everyone on the list. I love you. Be careful.”         

The sound of sirens began to sound.  She looked down and watched the cop cars race pass the building.  She turned around and ran, knowing that they would have helicopters searching the area soon.  She jumped down from the building, landing on her feet, kind of crouching down.

 

          

She worked her way to the Willis’s two-story house.  She made her way into the house without a sound.  She hid in the shadows.

 

         

Mr. Willis sat in the living of his house, watching TV.  He laid back in the recliner with his feet propped up on the foot rest.  He was comfortable.

 

          

Mrs. Willis made her rounds in the kitchen.  She searched for something, opening the cabinets and looked under the kitchen a table a few times.  “Honey!”         

“What?!” Steve’s voice asked.         

“Did you let the cat out again?!”         

“Why?!”         

“Because I can’t find him anywhere!” Wanda worked her way out of the kitchen and walked into the living room from the hallway which separated the two rooms, unlike Nyght and Raymond’s house.  “I’m going to bed. Can you let the cat in?”         

“Why?  He’s a cat. He can live outside. That’s what his cousins do and they survive. You know the lion and the tiger. He can live out there.”         

“If that cat isn’t in this house by tomorrow,” Wanda replied, annoyed by her husband’s smart-aleck remark, “then you’ll be the one living outside.”         

“Okay. Okay. Fine. Then I’ll bring the cat in. Okay.”         

Mrs. Willis headed upstairs, finally satisfied.

 

          

Nyght waited patiently in the shadows.  She watched Wanda make her way toward the bathroom and waited for the woman to turn her back.         

Once the other woman’s back was facing Nyght, the muter murderer snuck up behind her, pulling out a sharp small pocket knife and stabbed Mrs. Willis in the back a few times then slit her throat.  She quickly went back into the shadows to hide while she waited for Steve.

                                                                               

          

A few hours quickly passed when Steve finally worked his way upstairs.  When he began heading toward the bathroom, he noticed his wife’s lifeless body on the ground, surrounded by blood.  He dropped on his knees on to the tile floor.  “Wanda?  Wanda?  Honey?  Honey?  No. I love you.”         

Nyght snuck up behind the heart broken man and repeated the stabbing and throat slicing like she had done to his wife.  She began to leave when she heard a noise coming from another room.  It wasn’t too loud but she could hear it.  She placed the pocket knife up and pulled out a small dagger.  She slowly worked her way to the room where the noise came from.         

She slowly worked her way into the dark room when she spotted a crib in the pale moonlight.  She continued to move closer toward the crib, holding the knife to prepare for the next kill.         

When she was at the crib, she moved the small light green blanket, ready to kill.  She stopped herself at the sight of a small baby boy.  She went to kill him but stopped herself.  She moved her hand with the knife away from the crib and released it, letting it fall to the floor.  She didn’t have it in her to harm the innocent little life.  She picked up the baby, trying not to hurt him.  She cradled him in her arms.  She wanted to cry but it was impossible for any tears to form in her lifeless eyes.

Mistake Worth Making

During the 14th century in Europe, Nyght held a small baby boy in her arms, rocking him in what appeared to be a small woodened chair.  She sang to the child while she rocked him in her arms.  Her sweet calm beautiful voice sang:

 

                             “Silent night, holy night

                             All is calm, all is bright

                             Round yon virgin, mother and child

                             Holy infant so tender and mild

                             Sleep in heavenly peace”

          

Raymond wondered into the room and smiled.  He stayed near the arch of the door, listening to Nyght sing.  He loved her voice.  He found her voice to be both soothing and lovely.         

“Good night, mummy loves you.” Nyght kissed the baby’s forehead, slowly stood up, and placed him in his cradle.  She turned her attention over toward her husband, smiling.  “He’s so cute when he’s sleeping.”         

“I agree,” Raymond replied, quietly.  “Come on.  I’m about ready for bed. What about you?”         

Nyght turned her attention back toward the sleeping baby.  “I’ll be there in a minute.”         

Raymond walked over to Nyght and the cradle.  “Awe…. Little Ray. He’s peaceful right now but I don’t think he’s going to stay that way.”         

Nyght’s smile grew.  “I know but I don’t want to leave him.  I worry.”         

“You’re supposed to. You’re his mother. Now I’m going to bed.”  Raymond kissed Nyght’s forehead.  “Love ya, honey.”  He turned toward the cradle, bent down, and lightly kissed the baby’s forehead.  “Good night, little guy.”         

“I think he’s going to be just like you, Raymond.  Good night.”         

Raymond looked at Nyght, smiled, and then left the room.

 

          

In America of the year 2011, Raymond listened as the sliding glass doors opened from the kitchen and worked his way into the dining room, followed by the curious little puppy.  “Oh good you’re home.  How was….?” Raymond’s eyes locked onto the little baby, Nyght held in her arms.  “Nyght, please tell me that’s not what I think it is?”         

Nyght looked down at the baby for a moment then turned her attention back toward her husband.         

Anger revealed itself in Raymond’s dark brown eyes.  “No. You didn’t. You’re supposed to steal and kill, not kidnap. He’s one of them, Nyght. He’s going to grow up and be one of them. How can you bring him into this house?”         

Nyght pulled off her mask, keeping the other hand under the toddler.  Her eyes met Raymond’s angry gaze.         

“You kidnapped him. What am I supposed to say?  Yea we can keep him?  Nyght, you’re supposed to kill them. He may be cute to you now but he’s one of them and you know…. He’s not my son…. He’s not your son…. He’s not our son…. He’s not the son they took from us. Look what you done?  You brought the past up without having to bring it up. You didn’t want that to happen and look now because of that you brought it back. And now you’ve added kidnapping to the list.”         

Nyght glared at Raymond, growing furious by his cruel words toward the child.         

“Why?  Why, Nyght?”         

Rocky backed away in fear with his head low to the ground, his ears down, body crunched up, and his tail between his knees while listening to Raymond’s voice raise each time he spoke.  The puppy thought he was in trouble but had done nothing wrong.  Nyght pulled out her dagger.         

“I knew it. I knew it. You’ve gone soft.”         

The woman couldn’t take it anymore and threw the knife at her husband but it hit the wall, sticking into the structure instead.

         

Raymond looked at the dagger.  “Of course so you throw a knife at me.” He removed the knife from the wall.  “First of all, you missed. Second of all, we can’t die so I don’t know why you would even try to kill me.” 

Nyght stood there with anger.         

“Nyght, if you don’t kill that baby then I will.”         

Nyght held the baby closer to her baby, showing that she was determined to protect the child from any harm.         

“Fine. Be that way. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”         

She watched Raymond storm out of the room.  She moved her arms and looked down at the precious little baby.  She began rocking him in her arms the way she had with her child she had lost a long time ago.

 

          

Evlyn and Leanna rode around in a black and white old fashioned police car.  The sirens sounded while the red and blue lights flashed on and off.  Leanna drove while her coworker looked around, trying to spot the criminal and shining a flashlight around the area.         

“This is insane,” Evlyn said, “how do we lose a murderer who we have locked up?  It doesn’t make since to me at all.”         

“I don’t know but it happened. I’m still shocked from when she placed the gun to her head and pulled the trigger,” Leanna replied, “then stood there as if she was waiting for something to happen that never happened. It’s weird. Everyone dies. I don’t think we’re dealing with someone on our level.”         

“What do you mean?”         

“I mean that we’re not dealing with another human. She’s immortal or something. Anything but human.” 

“Leanna, Evlyn, any luck?” Cormick’s voice asked over the radio.  “Over.”         

Evlyn picked up the walkie-talkie which was connected to the car by a long curly black cord.  “No, sir,” she replied, holding down the button.  “What about you and Chris?”         

“Same as you two.”         

“It’s hard to find someone who’s wearing all black at this time of night.”

 

          

Nyght fixed a little bed for the baby, using a few pillows to make kind of like a wall around him.  The pillows created a safe but comfortable place for the child to sleep, seeing that they had no crib for him.         

Raymond walked into the room, still ticked off by the situation.  “You still haven’t done anything to that thing?” he asked, referring to the baby as nothing more than a rodent rather than a human.         

Nyght glared at the man.  If she had a voice, she would have let him have it.  She may not have known the child for long but from the moment see laid eyes on him she knew she couldn’t harm him or leave him for dead.  She had wanted a child for so long that she knew she wanted him in her life.         

Rocky ran over and began sniffing the baby, trying to figure out what Nyght had brought home.  The woman looked down at the puppy and smiled then turned her attention toward Raymond and continued to glare at him.         

“Fine. But I’m not dealing with that baby. You want him. You take care of him. When he gets older, he’s going to want to know why we don’t age. I bet you don’t even know his name.”         

Nyght looked down at the baby.  Raymond left the room and Rocky followed.

 

          

Raymond sat outside with Rocky.  He began thinking out loud, talking to Rocky.  He needed to let his anger out before it consumed him.  “She brings home a baby. Can you believe that, Rocky?”         

Rocky tilted his head.         

“He’s not even my son…. Nor hers. She was supposed to kill him. Not kidnap him. He’s going to grow up as one of them. He’s going to turn against us. But she doesn’t want to believe it. All because she wants a baby. You’re lucky that you get a girl and you never have to see her again after one day.”         

The puppy stared at Raymond, confused.         

“Women.... I love her so much. I hate when we’re fighting. It bugs me when I know she’s mad. Especially when I’m the one she’s mad at. Maybe we should go to back inside. Go and get some sleep.” The man stood up.  “Come on, boy.”         

Rocky stood up and followed Raymond into the house.

 

          

The following day, Evlyn, Leanna, and Chris hung out at a small coffee shop, worn out from the crazy night before.  “Man I am so tired. Up all night looking for someone who blends into the night. One of the worst things to do. I’m ready to go home and hit the hay,” Chris told the two ladies.         

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep with images from last night playing in my head. Gunshot to the head but don’t die. That’s crazy. Or am I that tired that I dreamed that?” Leanna asked.         

“No it happened. Believe it or not. It happened. Something that only exist in movies. I don’t ever want to see that happen again.” Evlyn replied.

 

          

Nyght sat on the bed, holding the baby.  Raymond walked into the room and looked at his wife.  He had regretted everything he had said the night before, wishing he could easily take it back if he could.  “Look, honey,” he began.  “I’m sorry about last night. It’s just I don’t want to have to worry if he’s going to grow up and be like them. Especially his mother and father. They were annoying.” He walked over to Nyght and the baby.  “Can I hold him?”         

Nyght looked down at the baby then turned her attention back toward Raymond.  She knew that her husband wouldn’t stay angry forever and knew his heart would show him that.  She carefully handed the baby to the man.         

Raymond carefully took the child in his arms and held the baby.  “He is kind of cute.”  He began talking to the baby.  “Hi there. You’re probably wondering who we are but I’m Raymond Miller and you’ve met my wife, Nyght Miller. Sorry for yelling last night. It’s not your fault. It’s just Nyght didn’t do her job. We’re going to be you’re new parents.” He kind of smiled.  “Would you like a tour of your new home?”         

Nyght looked at Raymond and the baby, smiling.  The man looked at her and noticed the bullet hole on the right side of her head.         

“Nyght…. Did the cops shoot at you last night?”         

Nyght shook her head.         

“Then why is there a bullet hole on the side of your head?”         

Nyght acted the scene from the night before, using hand gestures to help.         

Raymond was ticked.  “No you didn’t.”         

Nyght nodded.         

“You weren’t supposed to do or say anything that could let them know that we’re not exactly human anymore. Now they’re going to be asking more and more questions. Why would you do that?”         

Nyght just stared at Raymond, without reacting.         

“I can’t believe this. I love you, honey, but you can make me so mad.”

Hopefully Nothing More Than a Nyghtmare

Cormick sat behind his desk, thinking.  The man had been lost in his thoughts.  The murderer was alive from a gunshot to the head and managed to escape the first night they had her locked up.  The man was confused and the events kept rewinding in his mind while he tried to figure it all out and understand what he was missing.  Who are you?  What do you want?  Why are you here in my town?  Murdering people…. People who don’t do anything to break the law. Why? He stood up and worked his way over to the wide window.  You don’t speak. You can’t die. You escaped from my jail. What is it that has you so mad?         

The phone which sat on his desk began ringing like crazy.         

The thoughts collected themselves in the man’s head while he shook it off and walked over to his desk.  He picked up the ringing phone and placed it to his ear.  “Hello…. What?” He closed his eyes for a brief moment.  “I’ll be right there.”  He placed the phone back onto the hook.  You were planning on getting arrested and placed in jail. Why? He closed his eyes again.  What am I missing?  You have a list that means death to people on it. Who’s on that list?  Why is it so important?  And now a baby’s missing. The parents are dead. Who are you?

 

          

Raymond stared out of the window, watching the cops arrive to the neighbors’ house.  Nyght sat on the couch, rocking the baby in a way which seem like she were singing to him.  The woman felt a happiness which she hadn’t felt in a long time while she rocked the child in her arms.         

“The cops are at the Willis’s house now,” Raymond said.  He turned to face Nyght.  “That baby can’t leave this house.  That means one of us will have to stay here with him at all times.  They’ll know something’s up because we didn’t come here with a baby and we don’t have adoption papers to have proof that we’ve adopted him.”  He moved toward Nyght and the sat next to her.  “Are you singing to him in your head?” 

Nyght nodded.  She may not have had a voice anymore but she had her way of seeming like she could speak or sing for a mute.         

Raymond smiled.  “I remember how you would sing to little Ray.” He closed his eyes, letting a memory pop into his mind.  It was a happy little memory dealing with his wife and their beautiful little baby boy.  “I loved when you would sing. You had a beautiful voice. Sometimes, when you were rocking little Ray to sleep, I would stand next to the door and listen.” He opened his eyes; kind of sadden by the fact that it was all only a far and distant memory.  “I miss your voice and I miss little Ray.”         

Nyght smiled at her husband.         

“Nyght…. How are we going to take care of the baby?” Raymond asked.  “He needs food, a crib, diapers, and other things that we’re going to need to get for him. What are we going to do?”         

Nyght’s smile faded, knowing her husband was right.  Neither she nor Raymond had human needs for food and such but the child needed to be cared for more than they could provide for a baby.  She stood up and headed upstairs.         

A loud police knock sounded on the door.         

Raymond stood up, walked over to the door, and opened it.  He made himself seem like a concerned living citizen to make the cop believe that he was a decent human being, knowing otherwise.         

Cormick stood on the porch.  The police officer didn’t want to be there but knew he needed answers even though he hated the fact that he had to bother the new doctor and his wife for such a horrible thing.         

“Hello….” Raymond began.         

“Raymond Miller?” Cormick asked.         

“Yea…. How may I help you?”  The man was putting on a good show with hiding the truth from the cop but from the years and centuries he knew how to act.         

“I’m Police Chief Robert Cormick.” The cop introduced himself, quickly jumping to the point.  “I understand that your wife is a mute and I would like to talk to her. There have been murders, a robbery, and kidnapping recently. We caught the murderer last night but she managed to escape. Like your wife, she was a mute. I’m not trying to say that your wife is the murderer but I just want to talk to her so I can mark her off of the list of suspects.”         

“I see.”         

“Is she home by chance?”         

“Actually,” Raymond replied, lying but spoke convincingly, “she went out to run some errands.  She won’t be back for a while, officer.”         

“Oh. Do you know when she’ll be back?”         

“I’m sorry but no.”         

“Well, sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your time.”         

“Not a problem, officer.”

 

          

Nyght watched through the window, keeping herself hidden from the cop while he walked away from the house and headed to join the others next store.         

Raymond worked his way into the room.  “I was right. He’s one of them. Nyght,” he began, “we’re going to leave for a few weeks. When we get back, I want you to kill him. But right now, we’re going to have to leave. I will tell you when.”         

Nyght looked at Raymond.         

“He wants to talk to you about the murders. He has you as a suspect. He’ll be back to ask you questions. We’ll leave after that so that way we don’t seem suspicious to him and the others. Let me look at the side of your head. I want to make sure that bullet hole is gone.” He worked his way over to his wife and checked the right side of her head where he had spotted the bullet hole.  “Good it’s gone. Next time though, don’t shoot yourself in front of the humans. It tends to raise questions when you don’t drop dead from being shot in the head. And the fact that we don’t bleed doesn’t help either.”

 

          

Leanna and Calvin sat on the long skinny couch in Leanna’s living room.  She tried to stay awake but couldn’t help the fact that she hadn’t slept at all and fatigue was starting to get to her.         

Her fiancé realized that the instant he had walked in but hadn’t said anything.  “Hey, Lea, are you alright?” he asked.         

“Yea just tired. Late night trying to find a criminal that can’t die. It’s hard work.”         

“What?” Calvin was confused by her words.  He didn’t know if it was the fact that she hadn’t slept and was seeing things or if she had watched some kind of movie that might have played with her mind.         

“She can’t die.” Leanna finally passed out.  Her eyes closed tightly while sleep overcame her body.

 

          

Evlyn was knocked out cold, sleeping in her own comfortable bed after the long insane night before.  It didn’t take her long to welcome the world of dreamland when she finally arrived home.  The phone began ringing.  She ignored the sound.  It rang again.  She reached over for the phone and answered it.  “Hello,” Her tired voice spoke softly.         

“Hey, Evlyn, did I get you at a bad time?” Riley’s voice asked.         

“Kind of…. I’m trying to sleep. Stayed up late last night; trying to look for an escaped criminal.”         

“Oh sorry.”         

“Don’t worry about it. I probably should be waking up anyways. What time is it?”         

“Four O’clock in the afternoon.”         

“That late?  Man, I need to wake up.  Hey, can you come over for a bit?”         

“Yea sure.”         

Evlyn smiled.  “Thanks, Riley.”

 

          

Chris had a nice hot cup of coffee to keep him awake, thinking.  Kiley and Jayden walked over to him.  They had been back and forth, trying to figure out how the murderer had escaped the night before and trying to get evidence to help the forensic team to go over.  “Hey, man, what’s up?” Jayden asked.         

“Waking up. Did either of you have any luck last night looking for that mime?” Chris asked.          

“If you mean mute, then no,” Kiley replied.         

“It’s crazy how she just disappeared. It’s as if she turned invisible or something. She just vanished. She vanished into the night,” Jayden replied.         

“I’ve been thinking. She grabbed my arm and her grip felt as if she were dead. You know how when you touch a dead person,” Chris explained, “they feel like they were stuck in a freezer for hours. That’s how her grip felt and her grip felt strong. Stronger than a body builder’s. It’s strange. Ice cold, strong grip. Then she had to shoot herself in the head to prove that she can’t die. That’s not human. That’s not human at all. It’s so strange. I don’t know. What if this is all just a strange dream?”         

“Not a dream…. A nightmare. And besides there’s no way that all of us cops are having the same dream. That’s crazy,” Kiley replied.

 

          

Later that night, Nyght snuck into the Willis’s house, went to the baby’s room, and took down the crib then brought it to her and Raymond’s house.  She made her way back to the neighbors’ house and took everything else they needed, ranging from food to diapers and even grabbed the birth certificate.

 

          

The next day, Raymond noticed the baby’s things and he was kind of confused.  He searched through everything, trying to figure out how everything had gotten there.  “Um…. Honey…. Where did all this stuff come from?” he asked, figuring out that somehow his wife was the reason for it all.         

Nyght smiled, holding the baby in her arms.         

“Did you go shopping?”         

Nyght’s smile grew.         

“You went back to the Willis’s house, didn’t you?”         

Nyght nodded.  Rocky kind of barked almost like he knew what was going on.         

“Of course.”         

Nyght took one hand and revealed a piece of paper.  She handed it to her dear sweet husband.         

“What’s this?” the man asked, taking the paper with curiosity.  He opened it and read what had been typed.  “Stephan James Willis Junior. Mother: Wanda Christine Willis. Father: Stephan James Willis Senior. Of course,” Raymond spoke sarcastically, “he’s named after his father who’d have guessed. So you went back for the birth certificate…. And came back with extra stuff as well. Of course. I’m going to have to fix the crib now too. Thanks, honey.”  He walked over to Nyght and kissed her forehead.  “I’ll go and start working on the crib.”  He began to leave the room.  “Did you grab his stroller too?  We’re going to need it for when we leave for a few weeks and his car seat as well.”         

Nyght smiled while Raymond left the room.

 

Fooled

Evlyn and Riley hung out in Evlyn’s living room.  It wasn’t the smallest room in her house but it wasn’t the biggest room either.  A plaid couch sat against the left wall opposite of the entertainment center and television set.  A small dark red coffee table sat in the middle of the room, separating the couch from the entertainment center.  A red bulgy chair sat slated on the right side of the couch.  The couple shared the couch.         

“Sounds like you had a busy night,” Riley said.         

“Tell me about it.  It was so crazy.  The events keep playing in my head,” Evlyn replied.         

A knock from the front door interrupted their conversation.         

“I’ll be right back.”  Evlyn stood up and walked over to the door.  She opened it and found Bradly standing there with lovely dark red roses.         

“Hey, Evlyn…. I figured you could use some company,” Bradly spoke with a flirtatious tone.         

“Hello, Bradly.”  Evlyn’s voice revealed that she wasn’t amused.         

“These are you,” the young man replied, handing the roses to the girl.         

“Thank you but I can’t accept those.  Especially because my boyfriend’s here….”         

“What?  Boyfriend?  You cheating on me now?”         

Evlyn shot a confused look at Bradly.  “Since when were we ever dating?”         

“You know that night at the…. Um…. One place….”         

“Leave, Bradly.”         

“But, baby, can’t we just work this out.  It’s cool.  We don’t have to be exclusive.  I mean it’s okay if you want to have another guy on the side.  Heck, I’ll have other girls.  It works out for me.  I mean us.”         

“Le-ave…. No-w….”         

“But I---”         

Riley worked his way over toward the other two and wrapped his arm around Evlyn.  “Hey, Bradly, what’s up?”         

“Riley?  Really?  What’s he got that I don’t got?”         

“Please leave, Bradly,” Evlyn replied.         

“Just go, man,” Riley agreed.         

“I hate you now, man.  We are no longer friends.  I gave you a nice Christmas card and this is how you treat me?  You go and steal my girlfriend.  Yea I see how you are.  See if I send you a Christmas card this year, man.”         

Evlyn closed the door.  “Bye, Bradly,” she spoke with sarcasm.         

Riley kind of laughed.         

“Sorry about that.  He thinks that we’re dating.  I don’t know why.”         

“He’ll get over it.  Believe me.  I knew him a long time.  He’ll get over it and he’ll find someone new.”         

Evlyn smiled.  “I hope so because I can’t stand him.  He’s so annoying.”         

Riley grabbed Evlyn’s hand and pulled her closer to him.  They shared a kiss.

 

          

Nyght stood in a small empty bedroom, held the baby in her arms, and watched Raymond work on the crib.  It had taken him hours to work on but time meant nothing to them.  Once he finished, he stood and turned toward his lovely wife.  “It’s different having a baby around again.”  He picked up the mattress and placed it into the crib.  “There.”  He held his arms out.  “Let me see him.”         

Nyght handed the baby to Raymond.         

“Hello.  We’re going to make your stay with us as if you were at home with your real parents.  I will tell you.  You can’t replace the son we lost but we are going to take care of you as if you were him.  We’re going to tell you stories about our past and adventure from Europe to America.  The time periods we lived through.  As you grow, you’re going to think that they’re just stories but believe me there’s more truth to them than to anything else that people would tell you.”  A smile grew on the man’s face while he continued to talk.  “You’re going to grow up and get married and have children of your own.  You’re going to live life until,” his gaze moved to Nyght and his smile turned into a frown while he spoke, “we have to put you in your grave.  Why did you have to bring him here, Nyght?  Knowing that we’re going to lose him someday, just like we lost…. Why?”         

Nyght looked at the baby while sadness filled her eyes.         

Raymond used a hand to lift up her chin.  “I’m sorry, honey.  But we both know what’s going to happen… what’s going to happen to Rocky… what’s going to happen to Stephan… it’s going to hurt.  You and I both know it.”         

A loud thunderous knock from the front door filled the entire two-story house.         

“That must be Cormick again.  Go downstairs.  Open the door.  Invite him in.  And let him question you about the murders.  I’ll be down there as soon as I place the baby in his crib…. Okay?”         

Nyght nodded then hurried out of the room without hesitation.

 

          

Cormick and Leanna stood at the door, waiting for someone to answer.  “Why are we here?” the young cop asked, kind of worried.  “She and Raymond seem so nice.  Why do we have her as a suspect, Cormick?” 

“Because she’s the only mute in town… besides,” Cormick replied, “I don’t want to suspect her as a murderer either but it’s our job, Leanna.  Maybe she’s not.  Hopefully, she’s not but it’s in the job.”         

“I just hate thinking that the new couple in town are the two we have to worry about the most.  It’s not right.”         

The door opened and Nyght stood in the entryway.         

“Nyght Miller?” Cormick asked.         

Nyght nodded.         

“Can we come in?”         

Nyght nodded again and stepped out of the way.  The two cops worked their way in and Nyght closed the door.  The mute had both cops follow her into the living room.         

Raymond walked in from the hallway, wearing a warm welcoming smile on his face.  “Hello, Cormick…. Leanna…. Are you here to search the house?”         

“No.  I don’t have a search warrant and I don’t feel like I’m going to really need one,” Cormick answered.  “I just want to ask Nyght a few questions and that’s it.”         

“Okay well take a seat.  Do either of you want something to eat or drink while you’re here?”         

“No thank you.  I ate before we got here and I’m not thirsty.”         

“I will like some water please?” Leanna asked.         

“No problem.  Honey, would you like anything?”         

Nyght shook her head.         

“Okay.”  The friendly doctor left the room.         

Nyght sat in a chair while Cormick and Leanna each sat on the couch.         

“So, Nyght,” Cormick began, “we understand that you and Raymond are both new to town…. Um…. We also understand that you’re a mute.”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Okay.  Were you…. Hm…. Were you involved in any of the murders?”         

Nyght shook her head.         

“Okay.  Did you steal anything at all from the jewelry store?”         

Nyght shook her head again.  The questions were simple to answer and with her having experience from history she knew how to seem normal and not look too suspicious.  She also knew what kind of movements not to do which could signal to the police that she was simply lying to them.         

“Okay.  Did you kidnap a baby boy from the Willis’s?” While Cormick questioned the woman, he examined her expressions and body language just in case she was lying but nothing seemed off about the mute and she seem to be telling the truth.  There was only one thing that would let him know for show if she was the mute murderer.         

Nyght shook her head for the third time.  Raymond arrived back into the room and handed a small plastic cup of water to Leanna.         

“Thank you,” the young woman whispered.         

“You’re welcome,” the doctor replied, also whispering.         

“Okay,” Cormick spoke, keeping his eyes on Nyght.  “One more before we go….”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Can I see the right side of your head?”         

Nyght kind of glanced at Raymond.  Her husband nodded.  Her eyes moved back toward the cop.  The movement in her eyes was too quick for the human to catch the exchange between the woman and her husband.  She nodded and stood up.  She moved over toward the cop while she moved her hair out of the way.         

Cormick looked at the side of the woman’s head.  “Okay.  Thank you for your time, ma’am….” He stood up.  “Sorry for the inconvenience.”         

Nyght moved away from the man while the young woman stood up.         

“Well we better get going.  It was nice meeting you, Nyght.  Good seeing you again, Raymond.”  Cormick and Leanna left.         

Raymond watched from the window while the cops headed toward a car.  “It’s a good thing that hole from the gun shot healed itself over night because we’d be in big trouble.”

 

 

Cormick and Leanna worked their way toward Cormick’s small black car.  “Well,” Cormick said, “she’s not the murderer.”         

“Really?” Leanna asked, smiling with relief.       

“Yea… I figured that if she was the murderer, she would have a bullet hole in her head.  Remember where the murderer shot herself in the head?”         

“Yea.”          

“Well, she didn’t have a bullet hole in her head.  This just means it’s going to be a while before we catch the murderer though.”

 

          

Raymond and Nyght sat in the living room, waiting for the right moment before they could leave the town for a few weeks. 

Vacation

Raymond placed the small grey car seat in the back seat of the car.  He took the buckle for the seat and used it to keep the car seat from moving freely while he drove.  Once he finished, he stepped out of Nyght’s way and let her place the baby into the car seat, buckling him up.  Rocky jumped into the car, letting Raymond and Nyght know that he was ready to go.  The puppy walked over to the baby and began sniffing him.         

“Aww…. Look at that,” Raymond spoke while he watched the dog, “Rocky’s bonding with the baby.”         

Nyght smiled.         

Raymond glanced around, relieved that none of the other neighbors were outside to notice them leave with the Willis’s baby.  “We better get going.  Do you want to sit with the baby?  Make sure that he’s okay?”  

Nyght nodded.         

“Alright, then get in.”         

The woman climbed into the back next to the baby while Rocky moved over to the other side of the car seat.         

Raymond closed the door for Nyght then climbed into the driver’s side of the car.  He closed his door.  “Here we go.”  He placed the key into the ignition then started the car and slowly backed out of the driveway.

 

                                                          ******

         

At the police station, Evlyn walked in wearing a wide bubbly smile on her face.  Leanna couldn’t help but notice how happy her friend had seemed and wanted to know what had happen.  She raised an eye brow with a questioning look on her face.  “Well someone’s happy.  Why you all smiley today, Evlyn?”         

“Me and Riley had our first kiss,” Evlyn replied.  “I can’t stop smiling.”         

“Aww…. Oh guess what?”         

“What?” Evlyn asked, snapping out of the daze.         

“Me and Cormick were at the Millers earlier today and remember how you said that you thought they had something to deal with the murders?”         

“Yea.”         

“Well you were wrong.  Cormick questioned Nyght and he even looked at the right side of her head and there wasn’t any sign of the bullet hole.”         

“Oh…. Man, I thought for sure that they were working together.  That’s going to take forever, looking for a woman with a bullet hole in her head.  We’re looking for homicide maniac Cinderella.”         

“If the bullet fits, then she’s it.”         

They laughed.         

“You know this shouldn’t be funny.  We shouldn’t laugh.  There’s a murderer out there and we’re making jokes about it.  That’s not saying much about us now is it?”         

“Yea…. That is horrible but we can’t help it,” Evlyn replied.

 

          

Raymond stopped at a red light.  He looked around, waiting.  It took a few minutes for the light to change after the computer system in the lights indicated that there weren’t really any other cars.  “Now,” he began, “we’re going on vacation at least that’s what we’re…. Well I’m going to tell the people we meet.  I want you to figure out how to disguise the baby so that way if the news shows pictures of him no one will recognize him.  It’s important that they don’t know who he is.  I’m going to say his name’s Alex.  If they hear his name that might get them to start asking questions.  Something we don’t need.”  He looked into the rearview mirror, locking his eyes onto Nyght.  “Got it, honey?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Okay, good.”         

Rocky barked and Raymond kind of smiled.

 

          

Evlyn sat down behind her desk.  Cormick walked out of his office and over to her.  She was the person he needed to see at the moment.  He knew about her assumption and figured it was best she knew the results.  “Did Leanna tell you that we talked to the Millers?” Cormick asked.         

“Yea she told me.  They’re clean.”         

Cormick kind of laughed.  “Don’t sound so disappointed.”         

Evlyn kind of smiled at the man’s words.  “Okay, boss.”         

His expression and voice quickly changed to a serious mood.  “Oh and next time you say that someone did a crime they didn’t commit; you might want to keep it to yourself because they could sue you for that…. You know that right, Evlyn?”         

“Yes, sir.”         

Cormick walked away without another word.

         

Chris walked into the building with Jayden, laughing.  They each were switching jokes and stories.  The two friends were taking a break from the seriousness of the situation with the murderer, seeing that they had lost sleep and a sense of reality.  “Oh yea,” Chris said.  “I got a riddle for ya.  Here it is: Early this morning, late last night.  Two dead boys got up to fight.  Back to back, they faced each other.  Pulled their swords and shot each other.  One deaf cop heard the noise, got up to chase the boys.  If you don’t believe my stories true, ask the blind man.  He saw it too.”         

“Man,” Jayden replied.  “That’s so old.  My dad told that to me a long time ago and his dad told him that when he was younger and his dad told him and so on and so on.”         

“Hey, I thought it was pretty good.”         

“It’s lame, Chris,” Leanna told him, catching the little riddle.  “You want to hear a good riddle?”         

“Okay what?”         

“An idiot walks into work without realizing that he stepped in dog crap, what does he do?”         

“I don’t know.  What?”         

“Okay.  Look at the bottom of your shoe.”         

“Wha---?” Chris lifted up his left foot and spotted the sickening mess on the bottom of his shoe.  “Oh crap.”         

Jayden covered his nose.  “I knew something smelled funky.”         

“You might want to clean that up, Chris,” Leanna told him.

 

          

Raymond and Nyght made their way into a hotel room, followed by Rocky.  Nyght carried the baby and looked around.  The room was small but deceit size with two full size beds and a small round table sitting next to the long shade covered window.         

“Good thing they aloud pets,” Raymond said.  “It’s hard to find places where you can actually have your pets with you, unless you’re blind but that’s different.  You might want to give,” he began pointing to the baby, “him a bath.  Clean him up then play around with his hair.  That way they can keep their questions to themselves.  I’m going to bring Rocky for a walk so he can do what he needs to.  Oh yea, you might want to check Stephan’s diaper as well.  He might need to be…. Well if you give him a bath…. Oh whatever…. It’s been a long time since we had a baby, I can’t remember what needs to be done besides feeding him and cleaning him up.”         

Nyght smiled.         

“I’ll be back.  I’m going to bring Rocky for a walk.”  The man briefly kissed his wife’s cheek.  “See ya when we get back.  Come on, Rocky.  Let’s go for a walk.”         

The puppy rushed to the door, excited.  His little puppy tail wagged while he waited for Raymond.  The doctor and the dog left while Nyght carried the baby to the bathroom and turned on the nods to the tub.  She made sure that the cold water was running more than the hot water so the baby wouldn’t get burnt.  She prepared the toddler for the bath and even checked his diaper just in case.

 

          

Later that night Nyght sat on the bed further from the window, holding the baby in her arms.  Raymond walked in with the baby’s play pin.  “I figured he can sleep in this.  It actually is like a crib.”  He placed the folded up play pin on the floor and began to unfold it.  “Do you ever wonder if they…. If little Ray hadn’t…. Do you ever wonder what it would be like if little Ray was with us?  Do you think that we would live in peace?  If we would have actually lived a normal life span till we actually died?  I wonder about what it would have been like if certain things didn’t happen; didn’t take place.”         

Nyght stared at Raymond then moved her gaze down toward the small sleeping baby.         

“Is he sleeping?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Well you can bring him over here and place him in the play pin.  I’m finished.”         

The woman stood up and carried the baby over to the play pin.  She placed him in it carefully.  She didn’t want to hurt him and did her best to lay him down without causing him any pain.         

“Remember when we get back that night your job is to kill Cormick.  He’s next on the list.”         

Nyght nodded.

 

          

Cormick sat behind his desk, thinking.  His thoughts flew back toward the murderer and the crimes she had committed.  This is going to take forever.         

A knock from the door brought him out of his thoughts and helped him snap back to reality.         

“Come in!”         

“Um…. Sir,” Kiley said, opening the door, “Sally’s cat is stuck in a tree again.  Should I send someone to get it down?”         

“Again?” Cormick asked, unsurprised.  “Yea, tell Chris to go.  Oh and tell him that I heard about him tracking dog crap into the building so next time check his shoes before he walks in.”         

“Yes, sir.”

 

          

Raymond and Nyght lay on the bed, watching a movie.  The doctor had his arm draped over his wife.  “This has been a good day, considering the fact that Cormick was interrogating you earlier.”

A Mother's Worse Nyghtmare

In Europe, Nyght stood next to a window, staring outside, waiting.  Raymond walked out of the baby’s room and made his way over to his wife.  “He’s dying, Nyght,” the man spoke with sadness.         

“No not my baby.”  Nyght’s heart began to break at the thought of losing her one and only child.  “Raymond, not our baby.”

 

          

A couple nights later, a loud stern knock roared through the little hut from the door.  The doctor walked over and opened it.  A knight in what appeared to be ruined but usable armor stood at the door, holding his scratched but deceit helmet by his left side.  A handful of other knights stood behind him, also holding their helmets by their side.  “Doctor Raymond Miller?” the leader asked.         

“Yes, sir,” Raymond replied.         

“We’re here for an inspection; looking for plague victims.  How many live in this hut?”         

“Me, my wife, and our one year old son.”         

“I asked for a number; not who.”         

“Three.  Why?”         

“Aurthur told you for an inspection of plague victims,” another knight who stood right behind Aurthur replied.  The knight appeared to be kind of overweight.          

“Kennedy, Cormick, Willis, go check the baby,” Aurthur ordered.         

“No.”  Nyght knew something was wrong.  The knights seem careless and evil to her and she didn’t want them anywhere near her child.  She did her best to stop the knights.  “The baby’s fine,” she lied.  “Leave him.”          

The three soldiers wondered into the house and began searching for the baby, ignoring Nyght.         

“Bats, Brown, Cruise, check the mother.  Evan, Argus, and I will check the father.”           “I assure you.  We’re all….”         

“Honey,” Raymond interrupted, “let them do their jobs.  We have nothing to hide.”         

Nyght stared at Raymond, confused.  He nodded at her. 

The knights checked Raymond and Nyght for signs of the deadly plague.  “You two are good,” Aurthur told them.         

Cormick hurried out of the baby’s room.  “Sir, the baby…. He has the plague.”         

“Bring the baby to me, Cormick.”         

The knight nodded and left the room.  He quickly hurried out, carrying the sick toddler in his arms.         

“Leave him alone,” Nyght began.  “Don’t do anything to my son….”         

Cormick brought the baby to the knight who was in charge.  Aurthur took the baby and quickly checked him.  “We have to do what needs to be done.”         

The knights followed Aurthur outside.  Nyght and Raymond didn’t bother to stay in the hut, wanting to know what the man was doing with their child.  “What are you going to do to him, Aurthur?” Raymond asked. 

“What needs to be done…. Willis, Brown, Bates, Evan, go over to the parents.  Cormick, you know what needs to be done,” Aurthur told the other knights.         

“Yes, sir.”  Cormick drew his sword.         

Nyght’s eyes grew in terror at the sight.  “No!” she screamed, running.  “Get away from him!”         

“Bates!  Willis!  Hold the mother down!” Aurthur ordered.         

Nyght almost reached Cormick but the two knights grabbed her arms, pulling her back.  She tried to fight free but they over powered her.  “Let me go!  Let me go!”         

“You can’t do that to him.”  Rage began growing inside of Raymond while he watched the scene.  “He’s just a baby.  Let him go.”         

“We must.  Brown!  Evan!  Hold the father down before he stats fighting!” Aurthur ordered.         

Brown and Evan, the somewhat over weight knight, grabbed Raymond’s arms.  The doctor tried to fight free.         

“Now, Cormick.”         

Cormick nodded.  He took his sword and prepared to swing.         

“No!” Nyght cried, horrified.  “He’s just….”         

It was too late.  The knight was already pulling his sword back up.  Blood dripped from the blade.         

“Good job, Cormick.”  Aurthur hadn’t shown a sign of compassion for what had taken place.  He had promoted the death defining scene.         

Nyght screamed.         

“You…. You…. You monster…. He was just a baby.  How can you do that to a baby?  How can you murder a child?” Raymond asked, angry and confused.  “That’s inhumane…. You can’t get away with that.”         

Aurthur locked unsympathetic eyes with the doctor.  “I believe I just did.”         

Raymond stared at Aurthur, shocked.         

“Release them.  We have more victims to look for.”         

The knights threw Raymond and Nyght to the ground then left.  Nyght sat up.  Tears worked their way in her eyes.  Raymond crawled over to her and wrapped her up into a hug.  “He’s gone. Just like that. He’s gone. They just…. They can’t do that.”  The woman broke down.  Her heart felt like it had been torn into a million different little pieces.  The pain hurt worse than anything else she had ever felt in her life.         

“They’ll get pay back.”  Raymond kissed her hair.  “Let’s go in and figure out what we’re going to do about the funeral.  This is depressing.”

 

          

In America, Nyght sat up on the bed, looking around.  The baby began crying.  She silently climbed out of the bed and worked her way over to his play pin.  She picked him up, rocking him in her arms.

 

          

The following day, Raymond worked his way out of the bed and noticed Nyght had fallen asleep in a chair, holding the sleeping baby.  He smiled at the precious sight.  I miss moments like this, he thought.

 

          

Cormick sat on the couch in his small little living room.  The TV played but he was deep in thought to really care what was on the screen.  A list…. A silent murderer…. Hm…. This kind of sounds like a story that my father told me when I was younger…. She murders for revenge.  To revenge the son she lost.  She won’t stop until all those who are responsible for his death…. That’s crazy though.  He said that happened back in the 14th century there’s no way she would still be around.

 

          

Raymond and Nyght hung out in the hotel room.  The baby sat in his play pin while Rocky wondered around the room, sniffing everything in sight.  “Anything you want to do today, honey?”         

Nyght shook her head.         

“Okay.”  Raymond locked eyes with his wife.  “You had another dream, didn’t you?”         

Nyght closed her eyes.         

“I remember the hurt.  It was hard watching them come into our home and take our only son and kill him.  I couldn’t believe Aurthur had those knights under his control.  They are paying for the death of our son; one by one.”

 

          

Samual and Bradly hung out near an old building.  Bradly was still heartbroken after seen the love of his life with another man; not just any man but one of his closes and dearest friends.  “Dude,” Samual began, “you gotta get over Evlyn.  She doesn’t like you move on with your life.”         

“Easy for you to say…. You didn’t get your heart ripped out by the girl of your dreams.”         

“Dude, I don’t have a girl of my dreams.  I have girls of my dreams.  See that way I get dumped by one, I have a backup so my heart doesn’t get broken.”         

“What happens when you run out of backups?”         

“I move onto the next town…. Babe city.”         

“I hope you meet a girl who rips out your heart.”         

Calvin wondered over to Samual and Bradly, interested in knowing what his two friends had been up to.  He hadn’t seen them in about a couple of days and was curious to know what had been going on.  “Hey, bros.  What’s up?         

“My heart has been torn to shreds.”         

“Dude, move on.  Everyone else already knew that Evlyn didn’t want anything to deal with you anyways.  It’s probably cause you’re always hanging out with this,” Calvin replied, pointing to Samual, “inconsiderate jerk.”         

“Hey!” Samual acted offended.         

“But we were going to get married,” Bradly began.  “Kids…. A dog…. A nice backyard…. We were going to live in the white house.”         

“You wanted to be president?”         

“No there’s this nice white house on the other side of town.  But now, my dreams are ruined.”         

“Dude, he’s acting like a chick,” Calvin whispered to Samual.         

“I know and he’s really scaring me.”  Samual had to agree.  “If he says that he wants to go home and watch the Disney Princess Collection, I’m out.”         

Calvin nodded.

Pain Never Goes Away

In Europe, Nyght stood in the baby’s room, crying.  She stood in front of the small wooden crib, cradling her arms while she sang:

 

                             “Silent night, holy night

                             All is calm, all is bright

                             Round yon virgin, mother and child”

 

          

She worked her way out of the baby’s room and over to window, staring outside into nothing.  She was lost in a daze while she thought about her dead child.  She lost her weight and dropped to the floor.         

Raymond wondered into the room and noticed his wife on the ground, filled with tears from her broken heart.  He sat next to her.         

“He was just a baby.  How can they get away with that?” Nyght asked through the tears of pain and sorrow sliding down her cheeks.         

Raymond held her in his arms.  He tried his best to stay strong for his wife while he fought back the pain and hurt from the event himself.  “It’s okay.  Don’t cry, honey.”         

“But they took…. They just came in here…. And they….”         

“I know.  It hurts what they did, but just try to calm down.”  He looked at Nyght.  “Look come on, I have to check to make sure you don’t have that plague.  Come on.”  He stood up, pulling the woman to her feet.  He helped her into his little office.  He had her sit down.  He went and grabbed some of his medical tools.  “Okay, honey.”         

“Raymond, I don’t care if I have the plague or not.  I would have rather died tonight then to watch them kill our child.  It hurts how they could get away with such a horrible thing.  Why are they allowed to do that?  Why?”         

The doctor hugged his wife.  “It’s going to be okay.  They’re going to get what they deserve.  It angers me too but there’s nothing we can do about it.”         

“An innocent child…. The world can be so cruel,” Nyght said.         

“I know.  I know,” Raymond agreed.

 

          

In America, Evlyn and Leanna wondered around the town.  They brought their thoughts back to the murders and the living dead murderer.  It had been time for them to get their minds back onto the job.  “This is crazy,” Evlyn spoke up.  “This town has seen a lot of weird things lately.”         

“Tell me about it.  It’s so crazy,” Leanna agreed.         

Samual snuck up on the two girls and draped his long arms around their shoulders.  “Hey, you two.”         

Leanna kind of eyed the guy.  “What do you want, Sam?”         

“Nothing…. Just thought that I’d say hi to two of my favorite girls….”         

“Samual,” Evlyn began.         

“Evlyn…. Oh by the way, I heard that you and Riley are a couple now.”         

“Yea…. So?”         

“I think it’s great.  But my boy, Bradly, he’s really disappointed.  You have him whipped, just haven’t realized it.”         

“He’s a moron,” Leanna replied.  “And you’re his leader.”         

“Hey, you don’t need to speak.  You’ve got my bro, Calvin, wrapped around your little finger.”         

“Yea just don’t tell him that.  I like to make him think that he wears the pants in the relationship.”         

“Ouch!  That’s not good.  You can’t do that because then…. Then you still win.  That’s evil.”         

“So why are you here, Sam?” Evlyn asked.         

“Well,” Samual began, “I was wondering…. Do either of you know what the word is about Kiley?  Because not that it’s any of your business but we went out a couple of nights ago and I’m waiting to call her.  Is there any chance….?”         

“No chance.  She and Jayden have a thing going on.”         

“Really?”         

“Yea,” Leanna agreed.         

“Hm…. So I’ll just have to step up my game then.  Well, I’ll see you two around.”

 

          

A couple of weeks passed, Raymond and Nyght were still in their little hotel room.  Everything they had was packed and ready to go home but it was kind of late for them to actually leave right away.  The dog sat on the floor, waiting to leave.  Nyght held the baby in her arms.         

“Ready to go back to the house?” Raymond asked.         

Nyght looked at him.         

“Ready for the next murder?”         

Nyght kind of nodded.         

“Okay.  We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”         

Nyght kind of nodded again.         

“But we’ll give it a day before you go back to kill Cormick.  Got it, honey?” he asked.  He figured it would be better for Nyght to wait till the day after they arrived home.  He had a feeling that if he let her do the job the day they got back to the house then the cops could make a possible connection to them which he didn’t need.         

Nyght kind of nodded for the third time.         

“Okay.  Good.”

 

          

Chris hung out at the police station with Cormick.  They were going over the files from the murders, trying to figure out if there was anything that could reveal the murderer’s identity.  “Do you think that we’re going to be able to stop that murderer?” the younger cop asked.         

“I don’t know.  If we ever catch her again then we’ll probably have to place her in a straitjacket so she doesn’t escape again.  But after what went on here that night, she’ll probably figure her way out of it.  There’s nothing we can do to stop her.  It’s crazy.”         

Chris nodded.  “I agree, boss.  There has to be a reason for why she did everything she did.  I want to know why she let us place her in jail if she was just going to escape anyways.  Why not just leave at the crime scene instead?  It’s insane.  She’s dangerous and we can’t even kill her.  We’ll wind up dead before she is.”   

“I know it’s crazy, Chris.  This is one of those things that we’ll never seem to understand.”

 

          

At the hotel room, Raymond held the baby in his arms.  He smiled at the child.  He had missed moments like that were he could hold a child in his arms and just feel joy.  “Hello, little guy.  How are you?”         

The baby smiled, trying to reach for Raymond’s face.         

The smile never left Raymond’s face.  “I miss this.  Being a parent; I forgot how great of a feeling it is.” 

Nyght smiled.  She kind of motioned to Raymond.         

“What?  Oh.  You want me to sing to him?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“I can’t.  I don’t have a nice singing voice.”         

Nyght raised an eyebrow.         

“No.  My voice isn’t as beautiful as yours was.  I might hurt the kid’s ears.  I might hurt your ears.  I might hurt Rocky’s ears.”         

Rocky raised his head at the mention of his name, staring at Raymond.  Nyght rolled her eyes then smiled at Raymond, shaking her head.         

“Okay.  If you insist: Silent Night?”         

Nyght nodded.         

“Okay.  It’s your song.  If I ruin it, I’m sorry but it’ll be your fault.”         

Nyght’s smile grew.         

“Okay here I go.”  Raymond began singing:

 

                              “Silent night, holy night

                              All is calm, all is bright

                              Round yon virgin, mother and child

                              Holy infant so tender and mild”

          

Nyght closed her eyes, imagining herself holding the child she had lost to the knights.  Her voice sang:

 

                              “Sleep in heavenly peace

                              Sleep in heavenly peace

                              Silent night, holy night

                              Shepherds quake at the sight”

          

Nyght opened her eyes, wanting to cry.

 

Time for a Break

Raymond and Nyght were back at the house with Rocky and the baby.  It was the day before Nyght had to go and eliminate the cop off of the list.  She looked forward for the following day to come but had patience to wait.  “Painful memories…. Destroying them one by one…. We will win.  The time for revenge is with us and against them.  We will win, Nyght.”

 

          

Leanna and Calvin wondered through the park.  Calvin figured that Leanna needed another break from the case.  “I am so glad to get away from work today,” she told her fiancé.  “It’s been so crazy.”         

Calvin smiled.  “You’re welcome.”         

Leanna returned the smile.  “Hey do you think Evlyn and Riley want to join us for lunch?”         

“I don’t know.  I’m not them.”         

Leanna pulled out her cell and began dialing a number.  “Well, I’m going to see.”  She listened to the dial tone while she waited for an answer.  “I think they’ll join us.  This will be a good way to get mine and Evlyn’s minds off of work.  Hey, Evlyn…. I and Calvin wanted to know if you and Riley would want to join us for lunch.”         

“Oh yea,” Evlyn’s voice replied.  “That sounds great.  What time?”         

Leanna looked over at Calvin.  “What time?”         

“One?” Calvin asked.         

“One?” Leanna repeated to Evlyn.         

“Yea…. Where?” Evlyn asked.         

“Where?” Leanna asked Calvin.         

“You’re choice,” Calvin answered.         

“Grady’s Dinner,” Leanna answered.         

“Yea…. Sounds fun,” Evlyn replied.  “We’ll see you two then.”         

“Okay, bye.”         

“Bye.”

 

          

Chris made his way out of the police department while Samual appeared from around the corner.  “Dude,” Samual began.         

“What’s up?” Chris asked.         

“The sky…. Clouds…. Trees…. Birds…. All of the above.”         

Chris kind of laughed.  “Of course, dork.”         

“Dork?  What?”         

“Sam, have you talked to Bradly at all any?”         

“Yea, he’s really upset that Evlyn’s dating Riley instead of him.”         

“That must be why he hasn’t been to work.  Cormick wants to get a team together to look for that crazy murderer and Bradly’s on the list of people he wants to work.”         

“Oh.  Cormick’s kind of mad about him missing work then.  Huh?”         

“Somewhat but he’s too much of a nice guy to fire him so he might just get a warning like always.”         

“Do you think that murderer chick has a boyfriend?”         

“Yea…. Who knows she might be married so you might want to back off.”         

“I love the bad girls.”         

“And everyone thinks I’m an idiot.  We don’t even know what she looks like.  All we know is that we can’t do anything to hurt her.  It’s strange.”         

“Twilight Zone.”         

Chris laughed.  “Well I’m going to go meet my girl.”         

“When do I get to meet your girlfriend?”         

“Let me think; never.  You might try to steal her from me.”         

“That’s not…. Okay maybe it is.  I’m just joking.  The girl I’ve got my eye on though is Kiley.”         

“Yea, good luck with that.”         

“What’s that supposed to mean?”         

“Nothing.”  Chris left.

 

          

Raymond opened up a window and leaned out of it a little.  “I’m surprised that the cops aren’t at the Willis’s house anymore.  That’s weird.  Hm…. They think they’re going to find evidence but they’re not.”

Waiting

Nyght stared at the clock, waiting patiently.  Ready for the next job but all she waited for was time.  She waited for the right moment to leave.  Raymond walked into the room and noticed his wife was watching the clock.  “The baby’s sleeping.  Waiting to go huh?”         

She turned her attention toward her husband.         

“Of course, you should find something else to make the time fly instead of watching the clock because it’s never going to change.”         

The woman turned her attention back toward the clock.         

“Okay if you find watching the clock to be exciting then go for it but it’s not going to change anytime soon.”         

The numbers on the clock changed and Nyght pointed at it, kind of smiling at Raymond.         

Raymond returned the smile.  “That doesn’t count.”

 

          

Evlyn prepared for bed, thinking about the day while she lay down.  Wow.  Fun day…. But it doesn’t keep the murders from entering my mind.  It’s crazy.

 

          

Cormick worked his way around a small store when Jayden walked in and spotted him.  “Hey, chief, what’s up?”         

“Just getting a snack and a movie to watch…. I’ve been going crazy the past few weeks.  And I need a break from investigating the crime scenes.  It feels like we’re not getting anywhere and it’s aggravating,” Cormick replied.         

“Yea I agree.  It’s crazy.  Has anyone had any luck with finding anyone with a bullet hole in their head?” 

“None at all…. And the only mute in town doesn’t have a hole in her head so we scratched her off the list.”         

“Oh yea; that’s right the new doctor’s wife is a mute.  Well, that just means we have to keep looking until we get more answers after all that’s our jobs.”         

“I just wish I knew who was next on that list so we can get them to safety before the murderer strikes again.”         

“Yea but even if we did know who was next we wouldn’t know when the murderer would strike so we’d have to keep an eye on them twenty-four/seven.”         

“Yea but it would be worth it.”

 

          

Leanna had been at home, stuck on the phone for about an hour or so.  “Don’t worry,” she told the other person, “mom…. Yea I’m fine…. Mom…. Yes, mom…. Yea…. I know…. Mom…. I’m tired and ready for bed…. Yew, mom…. He’s my boss…. And what about dad?  Huh?  What?  Oh, mom…. Okay…. Okay…. Yea…. Okay…. Mom…. I’m going to go now bye…. Mom, I’m tired and ready for bed…. I want to sleep…. I need…. Okay fine…. You give me no choice….” She hung up the phone, tired and aggravated by her talkative mother.  “Sorry, mom, but I need to sleep,” she whispered to the phone.  She lay down but before she could close her eyes the phone rang.  “Are you kidding me?” she answered the phone.  “What?  Mom…. Look I need to sleep…. What?  What are you talking about?  Oh…. Your soap of course…. Mom, it’s just a TV show…. They’re not real people and besides…. I’m just going to let you go…. Okay bye.”  She hung up the phone again for the second time.  She lay down and closed her eyes.         

The phone began ringing for the third time.         

“Really?” she answered it again.  “What is it now, mom?” she asked, tired and annoyed.         

“There was a drive-by,” Evlyn’s voice spoke with fear and worry.         

“What?”         

“Yea…. And little Sally was shot.”         

“That’s horrible.  We better go.  Is the child okay?”         

“I don’t know, just got the call from Cormick.”         

“Do you think that the drive-by has to deal with the murderer?”         

“No.  I remembered she had a lot of swords and ninja stars but no guns.  I find that to be odd.  But yea and not only that but I think she likes to run and not use a car.”         

“That’s true.  We better get down there, make sure little Sally’s okay.”         

“Yea.”

 

          

Cormick watched the ambulance drive away.  The lights flashed and the sirens sounded on the moving vehicle which had picked up speed.  Evlyn and Leanna arrived at the scene, worried.  “How is she?” Leanna asked.         

“Well,” Cormick answered, saddened by the scene, “she’s going to be paralyzed but we got here just in time.  She’s going to live.”         

“That’s a relief.  I mean I wish she didn’t have to be paralyzed,” Evlyn replied, “but at least she survived.” 

“Yea.”         

“Well, Cormick,” Leanna replied, “seeing that you’re here, my mom wanted me to tell you that she has a crush on you.”         

Cormick raised his eyebrows.  “Tell your mom that she’s a nice lady but I don’t want to lead her on and not only that but I can’t do that to your dad.”         

“Oh.  Yea about that, I just found out that my parents are swingers so I don’t think that my dad cares.” 

“That’s awkward.”         

“Tell me about it.  I’m sleepy, anyone willing to drive me home ‘cause I’m going to be falling asleep at the wheel if I drive?”         

“You can ride with me,” Evlyn offered.         

“Cool.”         

“How’d you get here then?” Cormick asked.         

“Oh I just called Calvin to drop me off.  I love him.”

Who's Next?

Nyght prepared for the next kill.  She placed her belt around her waist then the cape around her neck.  She placed each sword in the sheath they had belonged in on her back.  Then she placed the smaller knives in the pouches on the belt along with the ninja stars.         

“I figure that Cormick’s going to be in his office at the police station,” Raymond explained.  “He seems a bit like a workaholic but there’s that chance that he could be at home.  Go to his house first.  If he’s not there then go to his office.”         

Nyght nodded.         

“He seems like he’s the kind of person who lives at his job than his own home.  But it’s still a good idea to check both just in case I’m wrong.”         

Rocky scurried into the room and jumped onto the bed, wagging his tail.         

“Hello, little guy.”  Raymond smiled.  “You want to play?”         

Rocky barked.         

“I’ll take that as a yes.”  The man went to leave the room but waked over to Nyght first.  “Have fun tonight.”         

They shared a kiss.         

“I’ll probably be asleep by the time you get home so I’ll just see you in the morning.”         

Nyght nodded.         

Raymond left the room, followed by the mutt.

 

          

Nyght made her way to Cormick’s house.  She searched inside, making sure that the cop wasn’t home.  Once she knew he was at his office, she left.

 

          

Cormick sat behind his desk, thinking.  “Who’s your next target?” he asked himself almost as if he was talking to the murderer herself.  “I want to know so I can send help to them.”  He looked into his empty coffee mug.  Hm…. I think I’ll have some more coffee.  He stood and then left the room, closing the door. 

Nyght waited for him to walk past her.  She worked her way into the man’s office, leaving the door open.  She hid in the shadows, waiting for the cop to return.

 

          

Cormick walked to the room, noticing that the door was opened.  That’s odd.  I could have sworn I shut the door.  He thought for a moment then shrugged it off.  Oh well.  He walked into the room and over to his desk.         

Nyght watched him, waiting.         

Cyrus Cooperation still number one war weapons inventor, he read, picking up the newspaper which lay on his desk.  Interesting….         

Nyght tried to move without making a sound, knocking over the trash can.         

Cormick’s attention flew from the paper toward the noise.  “Who’s there?”         

Nyght continued to hide.         

“Show yourself.”         

The murderer drew a sword from a sheath along her back.         

“I know you’re there.  Show yourself.”         

Nyght stepped into the dimly lit room, holding the sword in front of Cormick.         

“Am I next on your list?”

 

The

End?

Impressum

Texte: Amber Riel
Bildmaterialien: Amber Riel
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 15.05.2014

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For anyone who loves a thrill ride and bone chilling suspense and to my best friend who's like a sister to me, Jackie Hamilton, because I know how you love suspense thrillers