Edited by: Kuro and Lille
Thank you certain Ko-fi Supporter for the ko-fi! We are now 50% away from the ko-fi goal. Once it fills up, there will be two bonus chapters for the week :D
When the government agents finally arrived, they took over the entire police station. Caleb was shocked to see so many people raiding their rooms, but luckily, they didn't take over the locker rooms.
Grey and Caleb were called in by the agents, so they were sitting around a conference table. On the screen was a person at their headquarters, probably their technical analyst.
"Mr. Myles, Mr. Caleb, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Agent Freddy, I am the leader of this team." One of the agents introduced himself first. He was a bit shorter than Myles, though he was broader. He had tan skin and no hair on the top of his head, but he somehow had a full beard. He held no emotions on his face while he was introducing himself.
There were four others on his team excluding the individual in the video chat. Every member present was in business casual clothing as if they were working in a company.
The person in the video chat was Agent Ark, the only one in comfortable sweatpants and a hoodie. He was a really skinny man, one who looked like he had never seen the sun or ever slept. He had a head full of black, curly hair. He seemed like a nice person as he always smiled. It was bright and white.
The other agents were Dr. Mia, Agent Yui, Agent Donnie, and Agent Travis. They all had serious looks on their faces like they weren't ones to play games.
It made Caleb really uncomfortable because he was used to Myles joking around here and there. Seeing Myles being serious, made him sit up straighter and more diligent.
Grey could see how stiff Caleb was, but he couldn't really do anything. These people were very rigid and had an oppressive air around them.
"I already looked at the file you all wrote on the case, so let me brief you on ours and how it relates." Agent Freddy pressed a button and various screens of pictures and documents were simultaneously pulled up.
To sum up everything, there had been 10 murders in each of the four cities across the country, not including where they were at. The murders were along a direct path to the city they were in. The agents, upon receiving the reports about the brands and random placements of organs and bones, were able to link all of the crime scenes and the bodies together, making it one of the worst serial killings in the country. For the person to go unnoticed for so long, only made people wonder how powerful and cunning the individual was.
Grey was able to glance at all the locations of the crime scenes/dumpsites and felt his blood run cold. He furrowed his brows as he looked at all the documents. He knew it wasn't a coincidence as the original met up with the killer and his body was never found. How could the original not have noticed it? Was it because he was too detached from his personal life? Or more like he didn't care to make connections between his life and his job? This was probably what killed him.
"Another concerning thing was that with the knowledge of the cameras, we had people check the other sites and none of them showed up beside the ones in this city, so we can deduce that maybe he is targeting someone in this police force specifically."
Agent Yui, a woman in her mid-40s, noticed the look on Myles' face. She was always one to watch people's body expressions and she knew something was bothering him in those documents. "Mr. Myles, is there something bothering you?"
Grey looked up at Agent Yui who he had known was staring at him. He tried to relax his facial muscles but it didn't work, so he just turned away from her and looked over the screen where there were pictures of the victims.
"This isn't a coincidence. I'm the one being targeted."
The whole room went silent for a long time. No one knew what to say to the detective who somehow thought he was the center of the case.
Agent Donnie, the oldest man in the group, frowned and crossed his arms. "What makes you say that?" He didn't really believe the detective. How could there be such a coincidence?
"Allow me to elaborate."
He took out all of the maps of each city including the one where he lived. He then took a pen and made a circle connecting all of the dumpsites. Then he marked the location of the places the original had previously lived at. If one took a ruler, it was a perfect circle with his "homes" in the middle.
"I was an orphan who sometimes jumped from orphanage to foster home and vice versa. In the end, I grew out of the system without being adopted and had to work my way up to where I am now. This city was where I decided to reside, far away from the city where I was abandoned at birth."
Grey pointed at the first city, where in the middle was a building, but it wasn't clear what it was. "This building used to be an orphanage, but after it closed down, the kids were scattered across the country. I was then moved to this city after the orphanage closed down."
He then pointed at the second city. "This was a foster home where I lived, but they had been caught abusing me and not using the money for taking care of me. I was forcefully pulled out of that home and moved to this city."
He pointed at the third city. "At first I was living in an orphanage, but another foster parent tried to take care of me. After a year, they didn't want to take care of me anymore."
He pointed to one of the victims. It was an old man in his 70s who had been skinned alive. His skin was found a few feet away from where his body was dumped. "Sadly, this man and his wife were the ones who had tried to foster me in the third city."
Hearing all of these explanations, Agent Freddy finally showed a facial expression, but he made a scowl.
"Do you know any of the other victims?" He wasn't exactly angry at Myles, but he was angry that he and his team hadn't gotten to this city sooner. The man in front of him was the lead to end all of these murders. His team was busy with the other cities and trying to find connections, but everything was slowly coming into place at the very location he took his time getting to. It was a failure of judgment on his part.
Grey wasn't affected by Agent Freddy's face and looked through the profiles of each victim.
"From the looks of it, not including victim 23, I recall 3 of them. One in each city." There hasn't been anyone he knew in this city, but he was worried. He didn't have anyone he was close to in his personal life, but there were people he enjoyed being around in his work life. Myles didn't want to drag anyone else into this mess.
He pulled out the file of a woman who was in her 50s. She looked much older than her age, probably because of the smoking she had done most of her life. She already had lung cancer and was getting treatment for it before her death.
"The 5th victim was one of the 'teachers' at my first orphanage. She was extremely cruel to the children and she hated her job. From what I remembered, countless kids, including myself, had cigarette and belt scars from her. I guess you can say I had it a bit worse as she always tried to attack me more often than the other kids."
The second profile he pulled out was a man in his 30s. He was just a normal office worker who had a regular 8-5 job. His life was so boring, there was nothing worthwhile about it.
"The 18th victim was an older kid from my first foster home. He was 3 years older than I was, so he made it a point to show me how things were. He had bullied me during my entire stay and his parents did nothing to help me, they even encouraged him. He saw his parents hitting me, so he thought it was okay to do the same. Once his parents got arrested, well, I never heard from him again."
He then pointed at the fourth city as he forgot to mention it.
"I stayed in an orphanage here until I turned 18. There was a kid at the high school who had bullied me for whatever reason. He's the 39th victim."
5th, 18th, 23rd, and 39th.
There was no correlation to the numbers but the way it was randomly done showed that the person took into account trying to make it inconspicuous. If Myles wasn't on the case, they probably wouldn't have found the connections between the victims.
Agent Freddy rubbed his temples. "If you are the center of this case, then it's best you don't get involved."
This was normal but Grey didn't want that. He wanted to avenge Myles who had died such a cruel and unknown death.
"I don't think I should. If I stopped, the person would immediately know I am on to them. They had cameras at every crime scene I was at, which exploded according to the reports if you go near them. I would be placing myself and many others in danger."
"I get where you are coming from. It seems like they are trying to catch your attention, but we don't want innocent people to die anymore." Dr. Mia finally spoke up. She was the youngest on the team but she could be said to be the "smartest." She was the only one with the title of Dr. Even though she knew the pros and cons, the killing had been going on for far too long. It was time to end it.
It was a struggle though, but everyone knew that without Myles, they would never catch that serial killer.
Agent Ark rubbed his chin trying to figure something out. "Maybe we can try putting you under protection." Going under protection was normal for victims or suspected victims. It was a way to draw the killer out as well.
"I can see where you are all coming from but I don't think that would be a good idea. The killer seems to know every aspect of my life. If I go into hiding, it may cause them to lash out and increase the number of people that they will kill. Judging from how well they have handled everything thus far, it will cause more harm than good."
Agent Travis sighed. He was a 30-year-old man with a head full of blonde hair. He had blue eyes and wore glasses. Somehow, he was the shortest of the group. "For now, assigning someone to be by your side until this case is over is the best thing to do. Maybe even putting a tracker on you just in case."
Just in case Myles got kidnapped of course, but no one wanted to jinx it.
Caleb, who had been silent the whole time, tugged on Myles' sleeve. "Myles, I will do my best to protect you! No worries, I won't ever leave your side."
Grey felt warm hearing that but that made him increasingly worried. "I really appreciate you, Caleb, but I'm worried you will get caught up in this if you try to stay by my side for too long. If the person gets jealous seeing you around me so much even when I am not working... I'm afraid to say the worst."
Damn, that was a possibility as well.
"Then we will assign people to watch over you and have them be changed on a daily basis. You will have different people monitoring you every day of the week. As for the tracker, that would be good to put on you. We can put one in your phone and one you can attach to your underwear. Make sure you charge that one every night, but the battery lasts for 3 days. Better to be safe than sorry though."
Agent Freddy concluded the task of protecting Grey.
"Before we end today's briefing, we will be asking you questions about your life to try to find a suspect, if you don't mind."
"Of course not. Anything to help with this case."
Grey knew he had to get in touch with the original's memories. He went through them, but he needed to dig deeper. Maybe there was someone he was missing in those memories. Maybe there was a person that would stand out.
He followed Agent Freddy to another room while Caleb went to go get him lunch. Myles was sitting in the interrogation rooms, but they made sure he was comfortable. The room was very empty besides two chairs and a table in the center of the room. There was a bar on the table for when people would get handcuffed to it. There was a one-way window that allowed people on the other side to see inside the room but not be noticed. The lights were really dim but just enough to be able to see properly.
Agent Freddy sat down in front of him and folded his hands on the table. His facial expression hadn't changed from the usual, but his body was straight and proper.
"I understand this might be a lot to take, but we will need to go through every detail of your life starting from when you were abandoned. Start from where you could remember and try to see if there is anyone who catches your eye as you tell your story."
Grey nodded and closed his eyes. He scanned through Myles' memories and went to the earliest one. The original was only 4 years old, but he remembered a particular incident that made it very difficult to forget. Grey described what he saw in those memories like he was talking about himself.
"My earliest memory was when I was 4 years old. I had lived there since I was a baby, so I was one of the kids who lived there the longest. I wasn't the oldest, but the kids around me really looked up to me. Anyways, someone new came to the orphanage that day and it was my job to show him around. He had a name, different from us kids who had been living at the orphanage our whole lives. His name was Paul, but I didn't know his last name. He didn't speak much and was really depressed after both his parents had died in a car accident and left him behind. He had no family to take him in so he was put in the orphanage. Well, that's what the director had told me at the time.
"I don't know what happened but he died the following week. He was silent most of the time and even though I tried to get him to talk and play, he just wanted to be alone, so I sat with him all week. He didn't mind it and he let me stay by his side. Paul lived in the same room as me and we slept next to each other every night. I was the one who noticed that he wasn't breathing or moving in the morning and I had nightmares for years after that."
Agent Freddy already felt really sad at the start. He couldn't have imagined waking up one day and finding the person next to him had already passed. It must have been traumatizing.
"When he passed, a new lady got hired the following day, which was victim 5. We called her Ms. Amelia. She was always smoking and liked to punish children for no reason. The director didn't really care that she was like that and left her in charge when he left on long 'business trips.’ She liked to burn and hit the children before throwing them in the closet. It was the place we had feared the most."
At this time, Grey couldn't help but frown. Seeing in detail the things she had done to him and the other kids, it didn't seem real but he had all the scars on his body that just seemed to never heal no matter how long it had been. Grey felt so bad for Myles. The protagonist wouldn't be the main character if they didn't have some sort of sob story, but it still hurts.
"There was a particular event that probably changed how she treated me. She used to treat me like all the other kids. It wasn't good but it wasn't brutal. Once, when I had stuck up for another boy and took his punishment, she treated me like I was scum like she wanted me to break and regret helping that kid."
"Do you remember who that kid is? Anything about him? Why did you help him?" Kids had strong attachments to saviors. This was why he asked.
Grey tried really hard but for some reason, it was blurred in his memories, like something was preventing him from seeing that child.
"All I remember was that he was your typical platinum blonde hair and blue-eyed kid. He was older than me by a year, but he didn't act that way. The reason I helped him was that he was being blamed for breaking the plates that we had, but I knew who did it. I ended up getting in trouble instead for being a liar."
In his head, he was conversing with System 225.
'System, why can't I see his face? Usually, I can access these types of memories with no problem. Even the ones that have been buried deep inside and haven't been accessed. Is he the killer?'
[Reporting to Grey, I don't why but the data is not going through like it's corrupted. I'm afraid that... Maybe the Villain System is catching on to us or the world is trying to make things more difficult for you. Be careful, stay vigilant. I will see if there is anything I can do.]
"Do you remember his name?"
"No, he didn't have a name. Well, that was normal, I also didn't have a name until I got into school. Most of us had changed the names we were given. I also changed my name, so he probably changed his name too. It was stupid. All the males were given names with some variation of Bob, like Robert, Bobby, or Robby. Simple names like that."
Myles changed his name when he turned 18. He wanted a name for himself so he randomly picked a name and a last name.
"If you were to see a photo, would you recognize the kid?"
"I might..."
Agent Freddy noted that before continuing with his questions.
"Is there anything noteworthy, maybe something that changed in one of the kids and their attitudes towards you?"
"That same kid I saved followed me around ever since then. We had been living in that orphanage until I was 8 and he was 9. He got adopted by a decent family because the orphanage was closing down. When we were leaving the place, he said that he wanted to be with me no matter what and that he wanted to be with me forever. At the time, I thought he was my best friend, so I said that I also wanted to be with him too but I never saw him ever again."
Grey had a chill go down his back just talking about it. What happens if that kid, turned adult, had been watching the original the whole time? But how would he be able to do that?
"Shit. Sounds like that guy could be our killer, but we can't be too sure. We don't even have a name and you can't remember him."
"I'm sorry. I don't know why but my memory of him is so fuzzy. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been getting enough sleep." For normal people, that was normal and to be expected, but for Grey, it was concerning.
The two went silent for a moment. Grey didn't know what to say so he was waiting for Agent Freddy to ask him something.
The silence was interrupted by a knock. Caleb peeked his head through the crack of the now opened door. He had a smile on his face. "I got your favorite sushi, Myles. Are you good to eat?"
Agent Freddy got up and looked over at Myles. "Take your time eating. I'm going to regroup with my team and see if we can find anything regarding the first orphanage you used to live at."
"Thanks, Agent Freddy."
The man walked out without saying anything else. Caleb stepped out of the way before coming in and closing the door. He sat down in front of Grey and handed him some food.
"Did you all get any clues?"
"Yeah, but it's going to be a little difficult because my memory about some things is a bit fuzzy."
"That's normal so don't stress yourself too much. Once you get some food and rest, maybe it will come to you."
Grey really hoped so. He was also worried about what System 225 said.
If only he could seek comfort from his husband. Grey couldn’t help but wonder, did God System remember already?
kuro_kama: If God System wasn’t the forensic doctor then I would have suspected him first haha…
Lille: Man, the Dr Hannibal vibes I got were wrong then :<<
Grandpa Marky: Surprise! Yeah, the killer is not ML or MC. I saw a lot of people suspecting the bodies they went into and I was glad I didn't pick them. It would have been sooooo predictable. It will be a bit before y'all get to know who the serial killer is. Be patient :D Also, I had an intense fever for the past two days and I'm finally feeling better. So glad I was able to update on Sunday as planned. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter! Byebyee beautiful grandchildren ^_^
