Piece It Together - Gavin Reed

26

Walking through the doors to the house, he felt a looming presence coming from the place he called home. Noxious fumes wafted from the dark kitchen, and a figure dressed in black stood looking down at something.

Edging closer through his dark house, he managed to catch a glimpse at the something, or someone, that was being looked at in silence.

H/c locks were splayed out across the floor, blood staining the tips of the strands. Gore bled from her chest, a cavity shaped like a sweet heart showing where the organ should have been. Glossy eyes stared forward, bloodshot with fear and pain while her pupil expired. Tears stained her cheeks that had lost all colour apart from the specks of blood that had splattered onto her face. Devoid of life, the only thing that was still throbbing was his chest as he stared down at the woman he loved in a gruesome state.

Eyes fell onto the right hand of the killer, his gloved hand holding a beating heart. Nausea rose in him as he dared to look further up, locking eyes with a pair of green ones that lacked any sort of remorse for the actions they had just watched occur. The green eyes that bore into his soul had done that once in the past: when they were staring down at him with a knife in one hand and his throat in the other, squeezing his neck to cut off his breathing.

"Tommy-"

Reality hit him like a ton of bricks, shooting upright in his bed as he caught his breath. Clutching at the fabric over his chest, he was desperate for some type of leverage. Beads of sweat covered his forehead and clung to his skin like a parasite, only rolling down his forehead every few minutes.

"Gavin, are you okay?" Looking up, he saw the girl in his dreams. The one who was dead on the floor of his kitchen. Her heart was still in her chest, beating in worry for him. Walking over, she sat down on the edge of the bed, "I heard you yell from my bedroom and was worried."

"I-I..." Moving towards her, he cupped her cheek with one hand, checking her over. Letting him, understanding that it must be something to do with whatever nightmare had occurred, she waited until he finished. "I need to tell you something."

"What's going on?"

"My nightmare: you were dead on the floor like the other three. Tommy had your heart in his hand. I think... I think he's going to try and kill you."

"Gavin, it was just a figment of your imagination-"

"No, you don't understand! Yesterday, I was thinking about the case. Thinking over everything to try and understand or figure out who is behind all of these fucking killings." Pausing for a breath, he continued when he realised she wasn't going to cut in during his ramblings, "It had to be someone who knew my past with girls and knew the girls themselves. Someone from high school who knew about our past. I came to my conclusion that you were a motive a while ago but then I realised that it's not just you. The killer's motive is both of us."

"Both of us?"

"Think about it: this person is killing people I slept with in the past. They know both of us, the girls I slept with, and our past. Those three things point towards anybody that went to high school with us. With that in mind, these attacks have all had something in common."

"The cavity in the chest?"

"Exactly. And it's always shaped like a heart too. Love has something to do with the motive."

"What does that have to do with you then? If you think it's Tommy then why would the motive be both of us?"

"Because I was the guy you slept with after him. He knew I liked you because of my reaction to us falling apart but he also knew that you liked me back because you ran away from anything and everything that would remind you of me: Detroit."

"How did you figure that out?"

"You're really fucking easy to read." Watching her roll her eyes, he continued, "So, with his feelings also in play, he'd feel jealous over the situation. He's targeting you because you left him for another guy and because he wants to hurt me. We are both motives in this situation."

"Gavin, slow down." Taking a breath, she held his hand in hers, "Let's come up with a plan. During lunch, I'll try and lure him here. You can be waiting and if he strikes then you can perform the arrest."

"Fuck no."

"What?"

"I'm not having you risk your life to catch this asshole."

"Gavin, we have no real proof that he's our killer. All we have are some assumptions made by a guy who hates him."

"For a reasonable-"

"Gavin, my point is that we literally can't just waltz into his house and arrest him for a crime that we would really struggle to prove is true since our only base for this is stuff that happened 18 years ago."

"Y/n, I saw your dead body in my dream. What you'd look like if we went through with your plan."

"I'll be careful, Gavin." Cupping his cheek, she stroked it. Feeling the rough stubble beneath the pad of her thumb, she gave him a comforting smile, "I'll keep some sort of weapon on me and I'll have you on standby too."

"Y/n, I-" Trailing off, he looked at the girl. He could tell she was scared. She was strong and could hide anything from anyone but he felt the tremble of her thumb atop his cheek and he could sense the unease in her words. He knew she had thought of something - anything - that would be better than her plan but both of them knew it was worthless. "I'll be there for you, okay? I won't let him lay a finger on you."

"I know you won't." Pulling him into a hug, she held him close and ran her fingers through his hair. Tensing, he soon relaxed into her warm touch. Resting his head on her shoulder, he held a hand on the small of her back while his other hand laced its way into her hair. He melted under her touch, letting any insecurities or walls come down as he inhaled her scent. She wasn't gone. She was alive and in his arms. "You should get back to sleep. It's 4 in the morning."

"Wait..." Lifting his head from her shoulder he pulled away from the hug, "Stay with me for tonight. Please."

"Of course." Feeling his heart skip at her warm smile, he helped her onto the bed as she climbed onto the left side, getting under the covers and warming up. Lying back down, he took a sharp breath when he felt the girl wrap her arms around him and lay her head on his chest. "Goodnight, Gavin. Sweet dreams."

"Night, Y/n."