Forget about me

Murdervictim

Chapter 5

“Good morning Andrea” I said to the secretary at the police station.

“Good morning dear” she answered with a smile.

“The boys are gearing up for a call today”.

“Thanks for the heads up”.

I entered the door to our office. walking briskly through the corridor.

“Well here is our little miss mutant lover. Where's your dog this morning?” a sneering voice said.

“Shut up you toad, why don't you go count coins in the parking meters” I answered, not slowing my stride. That was dear Frank, the police officer that tried to shoot me but missed and hit his coworker instead. Friendly fire is what got written in the reports but he always kept an extra eye on me, convinced (rightly so) that I have powers only a mutant has.

He seemed to view everything that happened as my fault(incorrectly so) and therefore treated me like dirt under his shoe every chance he got.

But he did lose his partner and in some way I can't really fault him too much to want to act out on it. But still.. he's an ass and I can´t let him get away with all kinds of s**t or I would be completely trampled on.

So we continuously insulted each other. The other day I punched him in the nose for calling me a mutant tramp (Yea petty maybe but he asked for it and I'm childish enough to deliver).

I opened the door to my office and put on my protection vest I stored in there. I turned and went out to their office space again.

“Time to kick some asses” I said and smiled a vicious smile.

Most of them smiled back except for Frank who only looked annoyed.

I sat down to wait for the boss to clue us in on what exactly was going to happen.

The night before David and I had jogged to the woods in the evening and he turned to me and said “we need to work on your .. smoke? shadowing? whatever you want to call it” If you want to keep it hidden you need to practise controlling every aspect of it.”

I turned to look at him. I´m not really sure how to do that, usually just a few aspects of it affect my life but I seldom control it entirely, and I can't seem to do very much either.

I tilted my head to the side “but I think it has a bigger effect when I feel stronger emotions.

But that is pretty much hit and miss.” As with that attacker I could´t seem to calm myself enough to blend in and even though I tried he still easily found me.

“There's a reason for that” He answered me. “Some of us who take animal forms get better senses. We rely less on our eyes only so even if he can´t see you he could probably still smell you or hear you moving, Especially if you were bleeding”.

He looked thoughtful “try to do it now”

I calmed my breathing and closed my eyes, I willed myself to relax one muscle at a time, concentrating on my body and then felt myself getting light.

I looked down and saw that I could´t be seen clearly, I was a bit smoky/blurry/shadowy or whatever you want to call it. If someone quickly just went past they would´t see I was here unless they looked closely.

I looked up at him and he kept looking at me.

“The first time you used this on me I pegged you for a normal human, you ticked a group off you probably shouldn't have and then all of a sudden you were not there either.

I was distracted enough to not keep my eyes on you but as long as I keep my eyes where you stood I can still barely see you. Not many can escape me you know”.

He smirked at me with a smoldering fire in his green beautiful eyes.

“Now come back to normal and then do it again”.

Not since I got attacked had he given me any sort of sign showing that he wanted more than we were. I´m not even sure what we are, he is quickly becoming one of my best friends since we do everything together, he has also become my confidant in many things since I confided to him that I do have a power after all. I haven't told anybody else about that (Only my family knows and they certainly don't want to talk about it).

Him and me, we don't talk about it at all and not about us, we just keep on training where he mostly eggs me on or shouts at me what to do. When we wrestle or practise knives we're so up in taunting, bantering and talking techniques that any emotion and closeness that can lead to something more is forgotten or put aside.

I had forgotten about that kiss he gave me once too but when he looked at me like that in the woods I could suddenly remember his soft lips pressed against mine and strong body holding me. In detail.

Even though it lasted maybe only a moment.

David came into the office holding two cups of coffee, he gave me one and sat down on the closest desk behind me staring at Frank.

Frank held his stare for a moment then looked away, blanching.

Having properly intimidated our daily annoyance he happily turned to me.

I gave him an annoyed look, I did NOT need rescuing, I certainly could take care of myself now.

HE taught me most of that after all.

I turned around as soon as we heard “Mr Johansen” aka “boss” exit his office.

“Alright listen up, a team has found a dead man in an apartment above a shopping district. From the  person being teared up with what looks like claws. That's why we suspect a mutant is responsible and why we are being called. The person we suspect is named

He turned to me “what are your suggestions on how we do this”.

I turned my head towards David while I thought. I remembered him telling me over and over “You have to be quick and fast. Most people, if they turn into animals, depending on what animal it is their senses change. But almost all animals have better smell than humans. It's of course not as it is in most movies and books where people get senses better than any other living being. It's not supernatural or magic. It's our bones and muscles rearranging and bending to become something else. It's damn painful and the process can be either slow or fast depending on how much control that person has. What we do have however, is real rapid healing. We have a vast amount of T-Cells in our blood and it´is continuously being pumped out in our blood with what most don't know we have, an extra heart. It sits right underneath the normal heart and mostly beats in sync. But if there´s an extra need for rapid healing it helps get those extra cells out to increase the healing and helps the main heart from failing.

We also have extra bones (mostly around the ribcage when we are in human form) to accomplish the transformation. It makes rapid healing possible but afterwards we need to replenish lots of energy for it to keep working. That's why most of us who can actually change into something else are bigger or taller than the average person.

There are other kinds of mutants too. The ones that have a kind of magnetism that makes earth or water attracted to them, therefore they can control some of those atoms. But what they can't do is create water and earth out of nowhere. But these people are extremely rare and don't have extra bones and hearts to adapt to the rough changes of the body and are therefore more vulnerable.”

“a SECOND heart?!” I said in astonishment.

“That might explain why they are tougher to kill, I´ve heard some of them are hard to kill even with shots in their heart and they are almost too fast to be able to hit good enough to kill them before they get to you”  (see I DO know something).”

“yes” he answered and leaned close so we were face to face “so make sure that you have an alternative when the mutant gets too close,

especially close enough to get your scent. Just like any other cornered animal they hunt with all their senses which makes it harder to hide”.  He tapped his nose and smiled.

David should go with the one that's best at tracking and looking at the body, his senses are better than ours and will make sure together with the tracker that we follow the right trail to find him or her. .. What is the mutant's name?

“not that it matters” Muttered somebody in the room.

I didn't answer, just stared intently at Johansen while he checked the papers, “we believe it might be the victim's girlfriend by name Alexandra Hrabry. Here is a picture. He held it up. Nobody has managed to locate or find her since the victim was found dead. Last known location was the evening the day before at the restaurant around the corner”.

“OK, Frank, Chian and David you´re team 1 and will go to the scene of the crime, talk to the team working there and examine the body and area. Talk to people in the area to confirm where she could have gone. Peppa and Robert you are team 2 and will provide backup if needed. patrol in the area and see if you can find something. In our experience the mutants never go far when they´ve already started the killing. She´ll stay close and find someone else to murder.

Keep me updated.

Anything unclear? Good. Let's get going”

We all grabbed our gear and moved out.

Part 2

I wore pants that sat loose enough to let me move my legs in case I needed to fight or run fast.

A tight sleeveless shirt with a protection vest on top and a belt around my waist that had both a gun and two knives. On my feet I wore boxer shoes since they allowed me to have a good feeling between the ground and my feet if I needed to sneak (yea sneaking around in normal boots is not an easy thing). On top of this I wore a big black trench coat that hides most of what I wore and what weapons I carried. David wore loose fitting dark pants like me but he never had a trenchcoat on, just a normal jacket that could be easily taken on or off incase of problems. The rest had normal police outfits around here. Jeans, with a black belt, a vest on top of their dark blue shirt, a jacket on top with their normal dark blue colour and “POLICE” written on the back in big letters.

Subtle they were not.

I fistbumped David before we took diffirent cars. Rob jumped into the driving seat and waited until the others had left before he started the car.

I liked Robert, he is relaxed and adaptable to situations. He also knows when to back off instead of satisfying his curiosity, unlike most people. He has dark brown hair, almost black with curls, and a light skin tone. He also had dimples which made his face look more like a “baby face” and is probably why people tended to trust him to be a nice person. The good old classic neighbor policeman (well he seemed to be exactly that).

“Sorry about Franks comments by the way” He said to me after a while.

“If you knew him you would understand. Losing a partner is hard and they have been together for quite a while, always being there for eachother. This job has made us feel like we're fighting a losing battle with a lot of crazy”. He looked nervously over at me for a moment.

Forgive me for asking but how exactly did you come to know David and his kind?”

I pondered how much to tell. “Well.. the first time we met he chased me because I stood up to some bullies he was working for. I´m not sure what they told him I did but when he finally caught me I managed to escape right under his nose and that seemed to impress and annoy him in equal measure so of course he decided to track me down. I decided not to  mention me keeping his sister safe when she visited his next job. I think that had more to do with him and me getting along than anything else.

“It's none of my business but are you guys sleeping with each other? I´m sorry to ask but if you are it might cause some trouble when we work.” I looked at him annoyed. “No, it's absolutely not any of your business.. but to ease your mind we´re not” (I´m pretty sure I wanted to have something more than we had though.. maybe).

I quickly changed the subject “so what else do you want to know, while we are on the subject you might as well get it all out and be done with it” I smiled a little at him (play nice with your coworker peppa, it might come in handy to have people at your back that might not hate you.. well Frank might be a lost cause though).

“Oh great! You have two siblings right? your parents are famous for being on the upper circle. How come you didn't join them at the big company?” That was a valid question.

“It's hard to explain most of the reasons but mainly I didn't fit in, I have grown up in a family with politicians. I have plenty of memories of my parents teaching me how to behave and how not to behave in public. Most mistakes I made got discreetly hidden away but I never made too many mistakes (and those I did were quickly forgotten along with my name and face).

I actually have a degree in Law, and social studies. My parents urged me to go there so that I would be able to continue into law as my sister did or handle HR or something alike at the company where my brother works. As soon as I could, I moved out and worked as a bartender instead. Felt like a more honest job anyway. I laughed. Not really what they had in mind but it worked for me”.

I never wanted to stay at that job though, I thought. It was a nice job that did´t have any big responsibilities that I had to work overtime to care about but It felt like I had more to give but never knew where to start to look for something else I wanted to do.

“Oh looks like your time is up! We´re here.” I said. We could see where team 2 had parked and decided to park around the corner.

We went out and started to look around. We walked into the mall and out on the other side, then we strolled around the building trying to keep our eyes open for something unusual.

People took one look at us and kept out of our way. Oh yea.. right, I'm part of the really bad guys that shoot first and ask questions later. It's useful but not a reputation I relish in at all.

When we crossed a darker alley around the corner of the mall entrance someone familiar stood there leaning against the wall. The blonde 13 year old boy looked like he again was all up in mischief. I stopped and gave him a “V” sign with my right hand.

He smiled and tossed the phone in the air only to catch it again. He had a Red hoodie with pacman on the chest.

Robert stopped next to me and watched the exchange silently with one raised eyebrow.

“Yo! What's up?” I asked. Looking at him thoughtfully. He does´t feel like a normal boy.

He met my eyes and gave me a wink. Turned and went into the dark alley. I followed.

“wait!” Robert grabbed my arm. “Are you crazy? We don't go into dark alleys, he could be a mutant ready to murder you in there”. I sighed.

“Robert, not all mutants are murderers, and this is a KID. You can´t keep looking at people and decide they are a threat and start shooting. have you ever tried just calming the mutant down instead of shooting them?”

He looked frustrated “I know you have´t been with us long enough to see how monstrous even the smallest of kids can be”. I looked at him and back into the alley and said “I´ll just take a quick look to see if there's any clues there”.

I turned, grabbed my gun and checked the safety. I started to slowly walk into the dark alley.  After a few steps I could hear Robert behind me and a quick glance showed he had his gun in hand too.

A few meters inside I got swallowed by the darkness so I halted. Waiting for my eyes to get accustomed to the darkness. Then kept walking.  After a few steps more I saw a pool of something dark on the ground in front of me.  I gestured to it so Robert could see, he looked at it and nodded. The blood smeared almost like something had been dragged, a little further and we saw a silhouette of a man lying behind a dumpster. I went closer and checked to see if i could find a pulse while Robert kept his eyes around us. When I got closer the smell hit me, trash, dead, urine and blood caused a stench I´ve never smelled before. I never found the pulse, his throat was sticky with ripped out skin and blood. I gagged and had to pull back. Quickly standing up I tried to focus on the darkness around me. I started to get afraid.

There's one thing to train for something and a whole other to be there in the middle of it. Training doesn't give you the whole experience with smell, touch and sound. I could almost hear my own blood in my ears rushing. Letting the fear distract me from throwing up I walked up next to Robert and thought about what to do now.

“Do you see or hear anything?” I asked after a while. He shook his head. “No”. we need to call in team 2.  “hmm” I said thinking. If I was a crazed woman full of pain and confusion what would I do? Usually when I'm stressed in any way I want to be on my feet and move about, staying in the same position amps up my stress even more (as with most people).

...But seeing herself covered in blood (and whatever else) it would scare her enough to keep her in the dark. If she did´t revel in the kill of course (which I think she does not). Living amongst people in an apartment by a big shopping mall tells me she likes people or likes to be around them enough to not revel in killing everybody at least.

She got to be here somewhere, This alley is long and dark, there's a little more light further forward but right before the light there was a broken window on the left side of the building so I turned to Robert and said I´ll just take a quick look around. I won't be far and that he should scream if anything happens and I'll do the same. He nodded and started to talk into his radio. He reported to team 2 and told them where we were and what we just found.

I walked away from him on light steps only to “go smoke” as soon as he had his back to me.

Now let's see where you went Alexandra!

To be continued ..