Shallow Valley

48.Invisible Monster

48.

Invisible monster
Beast that dwells inside my mind
Give up your hold let me take back control
(Dream Theater-Invisible Monster)

"Poor woman, she must have tried so hard to run away from her aggressor. God, who on earth could ever do such horrible things to another human being?" Miller said while watching the corpse on the ground. He was both disgusted and deeply sad by that vision. Knowing that someone living in his beautiful and quiet town could be able to similar acts terrified him. He had never thought that someone so evil could exist.

"Do we know her name?" Pike asked, already guessing the answer.

"Unfortunately not. She had no I.D. nor mobile with her. The only thing I'm sure is that she doesn't come from Shallow Valley, I've never seen her around." Finn explained. Behind him, Octavia shook her head, distressed. It was more than two months since the last homicide and, until that moment, both Anya and she had believed that those brutal deaths were over. Well, apparently they were wrong.

"Those damn federals told us that this nightmare was over." Pike complained.

"We thought the killer to be dead!" Anya retorted. The sheriff glanced at the detective in such a bad way, that she was afraid to be reduced to ashes. She swallowed, scared. Pike stepped forward to her, enough for the woman to smell his breath.

"One day you will explain me what really happened on that damn Saturday." he hissed. Octavia came between them, in order to save her partner from the man.

"You know everything. Agent Birch told you what happened and gave you the report, Pike. We have nothing to hide, it's just a difficult topic for Anya, I think you can easily guess why.". It wasn't totally a lie. They had really thought -or hoped- that Titus or Nia were the reason behind those murders.

"Okay, okay. Sorry Woods, I didn't mean to disrespect you. I'm sorry that something like that happened to you and your family."Pike said, raising his hands.

"Talking about families, Bellamy Blake nine o'clock." Miller noticed, alarmed. Octavia rolled her eyes, while everyone gazed at her, expecting her to do something.

"Good morning everyone!" Bellamy greeted the cops, trying to act as nice as possibile.

"Go away Blake, there's nothing for you here." Pike cut it short. The journalist scoffed.

"C'mon Pike, I don't think so. Another murder?"

"Bell, please, can we talk?" Octavia decided to intervene, walking arm in arm with her brother. They stopped by the detective's car, not too far from Pike and his men.

"O, nothing personal, but I just want to do my job." Bellamy told her sister.

"Me too, Bell. Listen, I can't give you details on this case, scaring everyone is the last thing I want." Octavia replied.

"This town deserves the truth, O. I mean, between the drugs, Madi's kidnapping and these homicides, Shallow Valley is facing so much. It's like everything is falling apart."

"And this is why I can't tell you what's going on, Bell." the detective retorted. "Listen, I don't want to lie to you. You are my brother and I love you, I swear. It's just... There are so many things I haven't told you and I...". Octavia couldn't keep talking. She wanted to open up with his brother and tell him about Jake's death investigation, but she couldn't, she was aware of that.

"You think that this town deserves the truth about what's happening, but the point is that we aren't always ready for the truth, Bell.". The journalist frowned, a bit confused by that statement. "This is why you helped me hiding Lexa's true identity, after all."