A coffee in one hand, a walkie talkie on the other. Steve just got out of the interrogation room not more than fifteen minutes ago. And now he was walking through the hallway of Raguna Municipal Police Station. And then his walkie talkie crackled from the static noise, then he heard a voice.
"Meet me outside. Over," it was Deputy Lou. His voice was kind of choppy and muffled.
Steve pressed the PTT button on the side, waited one second before saying, "Roger," and then he released it.
"That kid. I wonder what he's doing," he muttered to himself. He was thinking about Derrick who didn't even panic when he was told he's being targeted by a serial killer. He was so abnormally calm that Steve couldn't help but suspect him a bit. "It's not a diversion, is it?"
Deputy Lou was having his third and last cream doughnut when Steve arrived. He took a quick sip from his mocha latte before turning to him. "What do you think about the boy?" He asked, not beating around the bush.
"I suggest we look into him more. The kid didn't even flinch. It's as if… he already knew from the start." Steve said as he lit a cigarette with a lighter, brought it to his lips and sucked the smoke gently, then he puffed it out.
The smoke made their way into Deputy Lou's nose and it made him frown, then he stepped away, making distance between him and his smoking colleague. He always hated the smell of cigarettes. He always does. They give him headaches.
"So you mean you're suspicious of him too, huh."
"Too? Does that mean you—"
"Yeah. Something's misplaced about him. His apartment just exploded and he was being targeted by a serial killer. Any normal person would have been panicking about it already, making a fuss an' all but he's way too calm for his own good." Deputy Lou cut him off.
"I'd like to detain him for further questioning. Unfortunately, we ain't got no warrant for that. We don't have evidence either. Just pure speculation," he added before shoving the remaining half of his cream doughnut into his mouth and washing it away with the mocha latte.
***
At the Derby & Jockey Law Firm, located in Chester Town downtown. It has more or less two hundred fifty lawyers on board in all their offices throughout Mangubat. (Mangubat is the name of their country.) And Chester is just 17.3 kilometres away from the Municipality of Raguna.
Bob Harris was one of the lawyers. He was a Family Lawyer. His job includes drafting contracts and negotiations, writing prenuptial agreements, counselling clients on legal options, and resolving familial disputes. He has about five years of experience under his belt and earns about seventy to ninety thousand kwarts a month, tax already deducted.
He got married two years ago and it's already falling apart. Believe it or not, in their two years of marriage, they only ever had sex once. And that was on their VERY short honeymoon in Straestin.
His wife used to be the clingy type but she was starting to get cold recently.
It was hardly surprising. After all, he works fifteen to eighteen hours a day, six days a week, and sleeps all day on Sundays. Bob Harris was so passionate about his job that he would still go to work despite his tooth throbbing in pain from a deep, infected cavity.
Anyway, he just arrived at his office from meeting with his clients. It was a typical case. Couple getting divorce for getting caught on the act, having sex with another woman. And now they're arguing how to divide their assets.
"But it's obvious both of 'em are cheating though." He mumbled as he turned on the lights, remembering the scenes earlier. And that was when he noticed something amiss. All the things on his table are missing.
He became alert. He swept his eyes across his office, looking for the intruder but he saw none. He was very familiar with this kind of thing. He always saw this in movies.
Where the protagonist would enter his house, in Bob Harris' case, his office. And then the protagonist notices his house is oddly quiet and something seems out of place so he becomes wary. And then the assailant would jump at him, swinging whatever long and hard object at hand, typically from behind.
Then the protagonist would overpower the assailant with the help of whatever plot armour he has, usually with the power of friendship. Sometimes, with absurd physical prowess that he somehow earned because he used to watch martial art movies and got very inspired from it as a kid.
Sadly, Bob Harris isn't the protagonist of this story and he didn't have that sort of plot armour. Just a side character meant to be killed for plot development.
And in that instant, the assailant crept behind Bob. He wasn't inside the office, rather, he was outside. A baseball bat in his hand, riddled with rusty and bent nails. He raised it over his head, then swung it into an arc, hitting Bob at the back of his head.
***
How the assailant got in with all the security is still a mystery. But one thing is for sure. When the sun rises the next day, what happened that night was all over the news.
The famous lawyer, Bob Harris was found dead in his own office. His tongue pulled out, fingers dismembered, and genitals missing; laying spread eagle on his table with peculiar carving at the center. Beside it was the number '13'.
Bob Harris was the thirteenth victim. Motives unknown. Assailant uncaught.
The Derby & Jockey Law Firm was in chaos. Then the word spread all over the country. Some classes were suspended. People became afraid to go out of their house, especially at night.
Whoever this serial killer may be, he surely wasn't normal.
But starting that night, rumours about him spread. A supernatural entity.
Some didn't believe it but the majority did. After all, Mangubat is a superstitious country.
And this marked the very start of this story. The supernatural debunker will arise.
*tap! *tap!
-- DERRICK MUST DO IT TO SURVIVE. DERRICK WASN'T MEANT TO LIVE. HE WOULD HAVE DIED LONG AGO WITHOUT HIS TYPEWRITER.--
Meanwhile, at the Mini Stop Hotel, Derrick felt like his head was gonna explode from the shock and information overload.
"Hahaha…" Then he began to laugh in disbelief, his eyes shaking, veins protruding from his balled hands. "Me? Just a side character in your story who was supposed to die in chapter one? Haha—"
Then he lifted the typewriter, so forcefully that you can almost see him choking a human being, and then he glared at it, as if threatening to throw it across the wall.
"Hoy! What kind of messed up plot is that?"