It happened quick enough. I was still a kid when I witnessed it. This was the first time I also felt blood. My blood. The blood he used to write letters on the walls. I couldn't make out his face so all my memory serves me is a black silhouette and furious red eyes. He was gripping a hot red knife which was apparently burned using our own fireplace to brutally decapitate through both of my parent's flesh as if it were hot butter. I was crying that time but I mustered enough courage to fight back, only to almost allow him to take away my life as well if it weren't for the sound of police sirens coming. The neighbors have called the police to my relief. Like I said before, I could not make anything from his face except that large bleeding scar I left him running through his left eye.

It had happened when I was 9, now I'm 17. I'm not scared anymore to find the murderer. The murderer who left a mystery...

Another group of criminals attack and steal jewelry store, burning it unto the ground and killing most of the employees. The store is revealed to have lost $579,000 in the attack. It reads on Yahoo! News. I'm keeping track of the news here so I can find the criminal that killed my parents. I just want to avenge them.

"Well that's just unfortunate for them." I say, pushing the desk sending me sliding through the floor. I bump into my bed so I slide from the chair onto the bed. Just so you know, my room's not the best in the apartment I'm living on. You know why? Because I live there.
Several newspapers clutter up under my pillow. This renders me unable to sleep well at night. I yawn slowly and pick up a book I just bought using the poor excuse my boss calls, a salary. Hah, I have heard good reviews for this book. It reads on front, "I am Number Four" and there's some kind of gold tribal design. I have read until Chapter 7 of this book and I am quite liking it.
I look at the clock. It's exactly 9:00 in the evening. I should sleep because I have work tomorrow. You might think why a 17 year old kid needs to go to work? Well, I stopped my education when I was 15 and I need to work for my tuition on college. You might think that I'm a hard worker, but actually I'm lazier than you think.


My eyes slowly open up and adjust to the sunlight that is sitting on my face. I wonder what time it is because I should be up by 5:00 so I could have time to prepare to go to work. I look at my clock... my ALARM clock. Damn, I've forgotten to set the alarm clock. See? I told you I'm lazy. I quickly stand up and wet myself using the shower a little. Then I run to get my work clothes and wear my shoes. All in 6 minutes. Oh, I've forgotten to tell you what time it was, well it's 9:05 now and I'm so late. I hurry to the bus station and see the bus about to leave. According to my calculations, there's a great chance of not catching it. I run faster, trying reach the door as the last person climbs the small stairs and the doors slam shut. I'm still fifty meters away when the bus' door shuts and the bus itself leaves. Well, all of my stamina used up in vain. I start to walk up to the bus stop instead.
Minutes later, the bus finally arrives so I go to my job. Now, for details on my job, well I'm a video game tester. Awesome right? Not really. First off your salary's really low, second you'll get fired if you're late for too many times. That's good for me then because I've been late for about four times now and this will be the fifth. When will I get my break?
I reach the office and I enter. I look at the time and see that it's 9:46 now so I hurry upstairs. As I'm running up the stairs I hear the receptionist girl on the front desk say something but all I can make out is a measly "you." I'm hoping that she said either "I love you" or "I like you" because she's pretty hot.
I reach my station among various other stations. They're filled with people already playing games and stuff. I sit down and pick up the controller and start to play the game, "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2."

"Xavier, what took you so long?" Calvin, my best friend who was sitting right beside me with also the same job, asks me.
"I have no idea." I say sarcastically. He snickers and gets back to his game. I also get back on my game but I feel tense. I don't want to be kicked from my job. I'm so tense that every time a person walks past I let go of the controller.

I hear footsteps again. Man, I think I'm the only guy here not wearing headphones. I look up and see that the man who was making the footsteps is my boss, Evan. I can't run now, so I"ll just go look for another job.

"Xavier Klaus! Come to my room!" I hear Evan's voice. I sigh, hear we go. Calvin pats me on the back as I leave. I enter his room and I see him sitting on his chair.

"I'm here." I say. My boss swivels around on his chair with a devious grin pasted on his face. He motions me to come closer, still a smile on his bearded face. He doesn't have a very good build. He has an almost fat but not fat build if you know what I mean. I walk closer to his desk and he gives me an envelope. It's just a plain, white envelope.

"What's this?" I ask, scratching my head.

"Your final pay. You're out." He says. Calmly. This triggers the guards to push me to the door and then literally kick me out of the door.
I land hard on my shoulder. It's raining and I'm out here lying down as if I'm trying to swim in it. I stand up, trying to wipe water off, to no avail. I look like a fool. I start to walk back home and I suddenly remember the money my boss gave to me. I try to feel around my body to see if I brought it, with no luck. Yes I didn't bring it. I turn around to see if I can still get it, but I see that it's completely sunken in a small puddle. Tough luck, I know.
I sigh louder this time. Looks like this is not my lucky day. I turn around and continue to walk back home. A few steps later, I see something that makes this day not non-lucky

Want to know what I saw? Well, I saw him. Him who? The killer who killed my parents. Without hesitation and without thinking, I lunge forward and proceed to knock the person over. He hits the cement paved sidewalk with a grunt. You may ask as to why I had the idea that he was the killer. Well, it’s because he has this large scar over his left eye. Now, please let me finish beating up the guy.

I pick him up off the ground and raise my arm, clenching my fist. First thing I notice is that there are dozens of people around us watching my assault. They’re separated groups that are either screaming, or chanting “Fight!”

“You killed them!” I shout.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He says, stammering, “Please! Don’t kill me!”

“You know what I’m talking about!” I shout. My clenched fist flies forward and knocks the man out cold. Blood gushes from his mouth. I didn’t know I can punch that hard. After I do that, I hear police sirens and a man clobbers me with a stick sending me falling down to the cement paved sidewalk. The man that hit me then grabs both of my hands, and cuffs them together. Well, this is the unluckiest day ever.

“What are you doing?” I ask, resisting.

“We’ll explain once we get to the station.” He responds. He picks me up and literally kicks me into the police car. That’s two kicks so far.

The policeman enters the driver’s seat and we drive off to the nearest police station, it’s just a few kilometres away.

After a series of me bumping and flying around the police car because of multiple turns and me unable to hold my balance combined with the policeman’s driving, we finally arrive on front of the regular looking police station. We get off and he directs me to an isolated room. There’s one, large, square table and two chairs on opposite sides. On top of the table is a small but bulky machine, I think it’s called a lie detector.
He frees my hands and locks the door. After this he hooks me up to the machine and he orders me to sit. He sits as well.

“Now, why did you do what you did?” He asks.

“Because I thought he was the person who killed my parents.” I respond, quickly. What else can I do? In an isolated room, talking to a fat policeman, with a lie detector hooked up to me.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because I left the killer with a large scar over his left eye.” I reply. The man’s eyes widen and he stands up. He runs out of the room but makes sure that the door is locked once he gets out.

After a few minutes, he finally comes back with a brown envelope.

“You mean this killer?” He says, pulling a picture from the envelope, “The serial killer who killed your parents?”
I take the picture from his hands and look at the picture which shows a fuzzy picture, as if taken by a low-end cell phone, of a black silhouette running from a burning house.

“That’s my house!”

“Yes, exactly. Now, how about we talk about him.” He says, hooking me up to the machine once again…

-------------------------

Chapter 3

“What do you know about him?” The policeman asks.

“Nothing, none at all. All I know is that he’s a deranged, killer with a large scar over his eye.” I say.

“Well you’re not of much use.” He says, swaying his head. He takes the picture from my hands and puts it back on the envelope.
He stands up and opens the door.

“Well? You’re free to go.” He says pointing out of the door. I obediently follow and leave the station. It’s dark out here already, so I guess it’s around 7:00 and I’m getting really hungry. I look around for a hotdog stand so I can eat and see one that’s pretty close to where I’m at; I approach it and immediately see Calvin eating, well, a hotdog. He smiles and waves at me, I wave back.

“Yo, X, what were you doin’? Weren’t you kicked from our job?” He greets and asks me. I nod reluctantly.

“I thought it was still work hours?” I ask.

“Well, I was kicked too and my family also kicked me. Said that I should be more responsible and carp.” He says. Turns out he was also late on his job and came to work just a few minutes before I did.

“So, Xavier, I need a place to crash. Can I stay with you?”

“Sure, but you need to pay for half of the bills!” I say. He laughs. I don’t.

“Oh, you’re serious.” He says. This time, I laugh.



After our petty conversation and hotdog eating we quickly get back to my room in the apartment. The apartment isn’t that far either. Anyway, I’m going to fast aren’t I? I better tell you the details of me and the place I live in. I live in the remote island not too far away from the coast of California. We and all the other people call it, New California. You should have a pretty good idea why they named it that and people also shorten the name to just NC. Now for my personal profile, my name is Xavier Abel F. Raureif. Call me Xavier, Abel or even X. My best friend is Calvin G. Rufus who I’ve met a long time ago in school and he knows everything about what happened with my parents because he was my neighbour that called for my relief. Turns out, he was also the one who took the fuzzy picture. Now that all my details are done, I’ll get back now because I’ve been staring at my mirror for quite some time now.


“Hey Xavier! Look at this!” Calvin calls. I go on over unto Calvin and sees that he’s watching TV. I look at the TV and they’re putting on the local TV news.

“Why’d you call me?” I ask.

“Well, a while ago I saw a guy with the long red scar walk behind that girl.”

“So, he just passed, not a big deal.” I say. It was a big deal and I need to find that guy.

“Well, maybe he’ll pass again.” He assures me as I sigh. I sit beside Calvin who is sitting on my bed and stare at the average sized TV. M budget isn’t that big as I told you and my room isn’t a luxury sized one either. It’s just a damp, white painted room with a desk, bed, TV and a bathroom. I need to buy my food because I don’t have a mini kitchen. You might think that, “Wow, a 17 year old can live so independently.” Well I’m telling you it’s not that hard. Calvin is directing his full attention on the TV. Even though sometimes he can be a total airhead, I can still rely on him to keep me company, and now that we live together I’m pretty not alone now. He has nice, dark brown hair which is carefully styled to become spiky and he usually wears his “trademark” dark blue long sleeved shirt with a nice white vest. Back then, he always wears shorts but now he’s wearing jeans with a chain which connects his wallet to his pants and some brown leather shoes.
I direct my attention back to the TV which is now on the Times Circle which is NC’s equivalent of NYC’s Time’s Square which is pretty unoriginal. They’re doing a report on a theft that happened earlier this morning and I’m mainly focusing on the woman who is reporting currently who is wearing glasses, a corporal uniform and her haired tied up in a bun. She keeps on blabbering about the money the bank lost and stuff. Then after a while, I see him once again: a guy with a red scar on his left eye. He has a bald head and is wearing a brown leather jacket. He completely passed behind the woman talking.

“Ugh, I’m getting bored now.” Calvin announces and changes the channel, arrogantly.

“No! Turn it back!” I shout at him. He quickly changes it back and I see that now the man is standing directly behind her but the girl doesn’t seem to mind. I can hear shouts of: “Get away from her!” or “We’re live!”

The man ignores this.

He grabs the woman’s head and twists it around, decapitating her on live TV. He proceeds to brutally beat her up. The New channel stops its broadcast and switches to Spongebob.

Both Calvin and I are speechless.

“Dude, that was brutal.” Calvin describes the scene.

“You think so?” I reply, sarcastically.

“You think it was him?”

“Yep. We need to find him to stop him. He’s still a serial killer at large and I am the only person to see him close up.”

“But, how are we gonna find him?”

“We need to drop by that TV station.”

After a not really good night of sleep because of me finally learning that Calvin is a professional sleep kicker, we wake up and prepare to visit the News station of the news last night. I finish my simple yet awesome getup which consists of a blue and white striped turtleneck and a white T-Shirt over it, making it look like a long sleeved shirt. I also wear my dark gray baggy pants and pair of black Fila shoes that have silver highlights.

“You ready Calvin?” I ask Calvin. He stands up after tying his shoe and responds with a “Yeah.” So we head off. You might think that “Why would someone go to a news station?” Well it’s because if we pick up enough clues, we might find a lead to the scar face man and finally find the man who murdered my parents. We walk to the news station because it is surprisingly near. NC is a large place which looks similar to New York with its tall skyscraper buildings, but combined with beaches and suburbs. It’s pretty large for a remote island and it consists of three main parts: The Suburbs, where people and houses are, the “Domain of Scrapers,” where the tall buildings and shops are, and The Beach, self-explanatory. I live in the second part of the island, in the tall buildings part. It’s where I rent a room and it’s close to my former job. This also makes it close to the news station.

We reach our destination in twenty minutes by walking, it’s that close. The news station of ours which is also the TV station is not that of a marvel. It has a large gate in front and inside is filled with people and local actors. The second level is where most of the technical support is and the third level is the news station. That’s where we’re headed. Calvin and I take the elevator and it’s packed with people. It’s a miracle that it’s not overloading. After the small elevator ride and music we get off and enter the room directly to our front with a large sign on top which says, “BROADCAST STATION.”


The room is a wasteland. There are completely no people in it except for the director, who is fixing up a camera, I approach him.

“Sir, why is there no people?” I ask him. He stares at me for a long while, and then answers.

“They have taken a break. I let them just to ensure their safety. I should ask you, why are you here?”

“I just want to ask if the crime scene is still preserved.”

“It is. Police haven’t come yet either. They’ll begin their investigation at 12:00.” He says. I look at my clock. It’s still 9:30; we have time for our own investigation.

“Alright thanks. I’ll conduct some investigation on my own until the police arrive.” I say. I turn around and see Calvin playing with some kind of camera which he’s not supposed to be holding. Sometimes, he acts so much like a kid.

“Come on Calvin, we need to go.” I say.

“Yeah sure,” He says and turns to the director, “hey, can I have this?” The director nods and Calvin pumps his fist at the air. A camera will be useful for the investigation.

We head off for Times Circle, the scene of the crime. There will be multiple witnesses and the murderer could be there himself. We ride a taxi this time because it’s fairly far off.

The taxi drops us off and we head for the centre of the Circle which has the dead body. There’s no police line or anything yet and there are no people either. So much for witnesses. The body is still frail and untouched, so I’m expecting some fresh blood. What I don’t like is that the body itself has no head. The head is apparently tossed a few meters away. Calvin notices this and starts taking pictures of the head. Yeah, he’s twisted. I look around the crime scene which is basically a beheaded body, drowning in a pool of blood. The blood, as I predicted, is still fresh. You can easily overlook the important spots because of the blood, but I haven’t. I notice that the victim’s pocket has something coming out of it which is the cloth, making it possible that the killer has gotten something inside of it. I can safely assume that it’s a wallet, because a few meters away, drenched with blood, is a wallet. I examine its contents and see nothing but a passport. The killer’s motive is probably theft, but a killing could have been avoided. A killing on live TV could have been completely worthless for theft.

I look at the time. It’s already 10:30. We need to hurry or the police will catch us. I look around the area if the killer could have left any clues or traces of evidence. I look around every nook and cranny and see nothing. I give up, maybe this is the only evidence we’ll get here.

“Hey Xavier! Look at this.” He calls me. I run to him, who is looking at the bushes.

“What? You got something?” I ask.

“Yeah, a body.” He says.

A body? Whose body? Guess I need to check it out. I follow his line of sight to see that he’s looking at nothing but the bushes. Maybe I’m missing something. I go through the bushes and almost trip over. Calvin’s right, it’s a body. The body of the killer.

Yeah it’s true. The scar faced bald man is here in the bushes with blood soaking up the small place. I look around for the cause of death, only look and not touch because I need to preserve this scene too. An autopsy will probably prove what his injury was but from my eyes, I can say that he’s been stabbed at the back of his head and neck. An instant death. An assassination. It could really use an autopsy, but we’ll wait for the police. Calvin proceeds to take pictures and I move from the bushes and unto the main crime scene. The beheaded woman. There are still a lot more holes to cover up, but without proper permission, I will need stop my investigating. I look at the time again and see that it’s 11:33 now. Almost twelve so we need to get out of here. I can find more clues if I have more time, but right now we need to get out. I leave the perimeter and wait at the sidewalk for a bus. As I’m waiting, several police cars run by so that means that they’re ready to conduct an investigation. Alright, great. The bus is here. The door of the bus opens and I step on the first step on the stairs. I get ready to take my other step until I realize.

“Calvin.”

I step down and run to the Times Circle again and see Calvin apprehended by the police. They must’ve suspected him of the killing. I run to his aid.

“You are a criminal. You are the only one here when there are no people around.” The policeman says. I come to Calvin’s side and I speak up.

“No, we’re just passing by.” I say to Calvin’s defence.

“That’s not possible. We found him taking pictures of the killer of this woman.”

“Well, why would the killer take pictures of his victim?”

“You have a good point, but it does not rule out him being suspicious.” The policeman says. He turns around and calls for a person wearing a trench coat. He has a head full of spiky hair and wears glasses. He approaches the policeman we were talking to.

“Hey. I’m the detective for this job. The name’s Brian Einsantz. Pleasure to meet ya.” He says. So he’s the detective for this job. I don’t think he knows about the other body.

“Sir, this guy is taking picture of an unknown body. It is indeed the killer sir. He is the killer. That is our logic.” The policeman announces. Brian looks at the bushes and runs to the body.

“Are you sure about your logic?” I ask him.

“Of course I am. Let’s see if yours is. Come on, prove him innocent.” The policeman is challenging me to an argument. Let’s see if I can get Calvin out of this one.

“Let’s skip the other useless stop and get to the climax. You, Calvin, was it? Ordered the killer to murder the woman. Then you proceeded to kill the murderer himself because he did it on live television.” The policeman proclaimed. I look at his small nameplate and it says “Morris”

“Well, Morris is your name right?” He nods, “Well there are several holes in your argument. One of them is why would he order a murderer to murder, if he couldn’t have did it himself? Second, why would he kill in the first place? And third, I can prove that murder isn’t the only intention of the murderer. But also,” I pick out the blood drenched wallet from my pocket. “Theft. Therefore you cannot accuse him of anything. As we just got here a few minutes ago.” I declare.

“Oh you just got here? Well, this is embarrassing. You’re free to go but we need to meet you again tomorrow. At the police station.” He says, pointing at me. We nod and we head for the bus station.

“Wow X, you’re smart.” Calvin says.

“It’s not intelligence, it’s elementary.” I say as a bus finally comes. The bus that’ll take us home, in where I’m planning to find more about the killer, and Calvin’s camera might just help me.