The Dark Marshmello

Raven Labs a scientific research facility just outside the city, it's well known for its contribution on the generation of artificial stem cells, doctor Astrid Bennard had to work overtime to finish up on the company's latest project, she was all alone in the facility inside her office, suddenly lights went out through the whole facility like there was a power outage, and after a few seconds the power was back on again, her computer turned on displaying a circle with a question mark in it, this symbol on her computer was accompanied by a strange voice coming out of the speakers, the voice was quite strange that it was hard to determine whether it was a man or woman talking, “terminate project Alcatrez" said the voice, doctor Bennard wasn't shocked at all by all these quick turn of events, it was more like this type of thing had happen most of the time, “but we are so close, we can't stop now and what about the kids, what happens to them now" she replied while pushing her glasses close to her eyes using her index finger, “don't worry about them I called in the exterminators, they are on their way as we speak they'll clean up everything" the question mark replied, and all over sudden the computer had a glitch and when the glitch was over the question mark had disappeared from the computer, and the computer was all normal again, she opened one of her drawers on the table and took out a hard drive, she connected it to the computer and started transferring some data from the computer to the hard drive, she made sure that transfer had begun and left the action running, she got out of her office and went into an elevator, she pressed the  button that Indicates floor number nine, when the doors to the elevator opened in front of her was a corridor leading to a single door, she went over to the door and pressed her key card against the right side of the door and the door was opened, inside the door there were fifty cells twenty five on each side leaving a small corridor at the center for someone to pass through, each cell had number on the top and a glass door, inside those cells were small children about six years of age, they were part of the project that doctor Bennard was working on, doctor Bennard moved till she reached cell number four, she opened it and found a little girl sleeping in bed, she woke her up and together they walked out of the room, the little girl was bald and had a tattoo of a barcode at the back of her head and her left wrist, and below the barcode was tattooed a number four, just like the cell she was from, they took the elevator to the ground floor ready to leave the facility, and doctor Bennard realized that she forgot the hard drive up in her office, so she had to go back and get it, she escorted the little girl to a waiting bench and asked her not to move untill she was back, then she went over to her office and took the hard drive since the transfer was complete, soon as she got back on the ground floor she was so shocked to see that there was a different girl sitting at the waiting bench, not the one she left, she looked around for a few seconds to see if anyone was there but saw no one, it was just them, her and the little girl, she went over to the little girl and grabbed her arm by the wrist and turned it over and saw there was number forty eight tattooed below the barcode instead of the number four, she looked the little girl straight in her eyes "how did you get here" asked doctor Bennard while glancing at the little girl's eyes, the girl just looked back at her and said nothing, not a single word came out of her mouth, doctor Bennard decided to leave with girl before the exterminators show up and before anyone sees her stealing the girl, she put the little girl inside her car and asked her to hide untill it was safe for her to come out, she drove out the facility in hurry untill she was a couple of miles away from the research facility, "you can come out now" she said while looking at the girl through the front mirror of her car.
Eighteen years later, in the same city was a late night party of the grand opening of an art gallery, the party attracted a lot of powerful men and women of the city, and just outside the gallery shows up this green Lamborghini, out of the car gets out a young sexy beautiful lady in her late twenties wearing nice and pretty dress that  matched the color of her red heels, she hands over the valet her car keys and with high confidence she heads into the party, at the entrance there were two waiters standing at opposite sides of the door, facing away from the door, each holding a plate full of drinks, she simultaneously took a single drink from each waiter as she passed through the door way, and drank the one on her left hand untill it was over, she handed down the glass to one of the waiter roaming through the party as he passed beside her, she took a little sip of the drink from her right hand and took a little pause, she started looking around at the people in the party, she looked around for a few minutes till she found the person she was looking for, she finished the rest of her drink and again handed the glass down  to another waiter, she then started walking through the middle of the crowd in the party heading towards the person she was looking for, and suddenly she was interrupted by a man hitting his glass with a spoon trying to catch everyone's attention, it took a few seconds for the  room to be quiet and paying attention to him, “over here, please can i have everyone's attention please, thank you" said the man as the people around the party started facing him, “ do I have everyone's attention, okay first of all I'd like to thank all of you for showing up here tonight, it's a very great honour to have you here" he took a little pause as one of his bodyguard got close to him and whispered something in his ear, he whispered back his reply and the bodyguard left, “and second I'd like to thank the man who made this all of this happen, we are gathered here today only because of him" continued the man, " Mr. Bohde Daret" said the man while pointing his finger at the same  person that the lady was looking for, and everyone at the party started clapping their hands applauding Mr. Daret, he appreciated their claps by raising his drink in the air, “he is the one that funded the opening of this gallery" continued the man with a smile on his face while looking at Mr. Daret, “so without further ado, I'd be happy to say that the gallery is officially opened" shouted the man, and soon as he finished the word opened all the curtains were pulled down at once and everyone could see the arts that were behind the curtains, "feel free to wander about, there's art pieces everywhere even upstairs" he added, and people started gathering around the pieces displayed in the gallery,  but the lady kept moving heading for Mr. Daret and suddenly he was approached by one the security guards in the party, they whispered something in his ear and he started following them, the lady had to hide close to one the art piece that was closer to Mr. Daret pretending to observe it so as to avoid being spotted, Mr. Daret and the guards took the stairs and the lady followed them from behind, they took him into a room that was round in shape full, of some the most unique and expensive art pieces, and they left him there to make his pick, the lady was still walking through the stairs as she saw the guards coming back, she quickly turned around and acted natural, and guards passed by her without causing her any trouble, she watched them as they joined their boss the man who was hosting the party, she then turned around and finished walking the stairs till she entered the room where Mr. Daret was, she saw Mr. Daret alone in the room observing an art piece she passed by him and stopped at the art piece that was next to him, she double tapped her smart watch on her wrist and it turned on displaying words “authorize file transfer", she tapped those words and files started transferring from Mr. Daret's phone to her smart watch, the transfer went on untill it reached fifty one percent and Mr. Daret moved to another art piece way across the room far from the lady, and the smart watch displayed words unstable connection so she had to move closer to him, she moved to an art piece a little bit closer to him trying not make it look weird, but still the connection wasn't strong enough and the file transfer couldn't go on, she decide to go to the same art piece which Mr. Daret was observing, “it's a pretty nice piece"she said as she got closer to him,
"I don't know it looks so sentimental and am just not into that stuff" he replied while looking back at her
"Ouch, that hurts" she replied with a smile on her face and her hand on her chest
“sorry I didn't mean to" he replied looking at the picture again, "what's your name" he asked while looking back at her
"Am Lucy" she replied while facing the painting, Mr. Daret looked at the painting and at the left lower corner it was signed the name of the lady,
" Did you do this art work" asked Mr. Daret while pointing the art piece in front of them, it was a painting of a eye with a little tear drop coming out of it, “I've said too much" she replied and left the room, she looked down at her watch as she was leaving the room and saw the file transfer was complete, she walked out of the room with a psychotic smile and got out of the party, the valet brought the car and handed her the keys, she got in and drove for a few miles and then stopped and parked  the car by the side of the road, then she peeled off the artificial fake face that she was wearing. About an half an hour later Mr. Daret was leaving the party by his car, he had bought the painting that the mysterious lady recommended, he was busy examining the painting as the his secretary was giving him his schedule for next day, he wasn't paying any attention to his secretary at all till his secretary mentioned something about doing a delivery for the question mark, “wait let me stop you there" he said while lifting his finger in the air, “I don't want to hear anything about the question mark is that ok" he added, and for the rest of the ride the car was so quiet, “so where do you think I should hang this" said  Mr. Daret breaking the silence as the car was entering his mansion. The Daret mansion was heavily guarded with a lot of men that were also armed, generally Mr. Daret was a wealthy man with a heavy security, he and his secretary got out of the car and he was holding the painting on his arms, some of the guards tried to come and help him but he stopped them cause he wanted to carry it himself, he took the stairs till he reached the door to his office,and his secretary was following him from behind him trying to convince him that he should do the delivery that the question mark was asking, “sir you know if we don't do this delivery, it could mean the end of our company" said the secretary.
“I think I should hang this at the wall the left, it's going to look fantastic don't you think" replied Mr. Daret while placing his finger on the finger print scanner against the door to his home office.
“Sir have you even been listening to me" asked the secretary.
“Yes Robert and I heard you loud and clear" said Mr. Daret while lifting up his painting waiting for the door to open, “and I would appreciate if we don't speak about this anymore" he added as he got inside the office. Once the door to the office was opened few meters away from them were two guest chairs facing each other, a table with a laptop and several documents on top, and also an office chair behind the table facing towards the window and away from the door, Mr. Daret went to the left side of the office to hang his painting, and the secretary went ahead and sat at one of the guest chairs in the office, "there, perfect, it looks amazing, what do you think Robert" said Mr. Daret as he was looking the painting he just hanged, and suddenly a loud thud was heard behind him, it was like someone had fallen down, he slowly turned around only to see his secretary was laying dead on the floor with a bullet to the head, and a woman with a mask seated on his office chair pointing a gun straight at his face, “give me ten good reasons to why I should let you live" said the woman in the mask. Few minutes later the doors to the office open and the woman in a mask is the one coming out of the office alive, she walked along a small path that lead her to the stairs, there she met with two guards that were coming upstairs, confidently she kept walking the stairs and guards try to attack her, she blocked one of the guard's punches and slammed his face against the wall, and the guard fell down the stairs, she blocked another punch that was coming from the second guard and punched him in the face, he was punched so hard he fell over the stairs and landed on one of the tables on the ground and broke it, this alarmed the other guards that were inside the house, soon as she finished coming down the stairs she was surrounded by six guards holding electroshock batons ready to zap her, she held her arms in the air ready to fight everyone of them, one of guard came at and tried to hit her with his baton, but Instead she quickly grabbed his hand that was holding the baton by the wrist using her left hand and reached for his neck with her right hand, using her right hand she broke his neck and threw him away to her right where he ended up landing on other two guards that surrounded her, she dodged away a hit from another guy and punched him in the neck, and he fell down on the floor on one knee while chocking, she hit him on the face with her foot and he fell down, she fought all the six guards and none of the guards could match her fighting skills, so she left the house with them lying down with broken bones and ribs, she took out two guns from behind her waist  and got outside the mansion, there she started a gun fight with the guards outside, she took out every guard outside the mansion, she was almost unstoppable none of the guard could match her speed and sharpness in shooting, in five minutes every guard was lying dead on the ground she got out of the mansion and the green Lamborghini came and picked her up, a big explosion happened in the mansion as the the car left the mansion. Mary woke up in bed next morning very happy cause it was her day off, she worked as a forensic scientist at the police station in the city, she decided that she will take the day off cleaning the house,doing laundry and watching TV, and after a few hours she was done doing laundry and cleaning the house, so she sat down at the living room to watch some TV, when she turned it on there was a sitcom on air, so she crossed her legs on top of a small table in front of the couch and relaxed her back to watch the sitcom, and just when the sitcom just got exciting her phone that was right next to her on the couch started ringing, she looked at it and saw that a contact called pure evil was calling, she sighed in disappointment and then answered call, “what does it take for you to answer the phone" said the caller
“oh please don't be a drama queen Lucy", replied Mary with her phone on her ear
“well this drama queen is about to loose her crown, I called you six times and it kept going to voice mail"  Lucy replied
“oh that was you, I didn't recognise your number" she replied with a sarcastic face
"Ok Mary this isn't time for jokes" Lucy replied
"fine what did you want" Mary replied
“what I want Is for you to get here ASAP" Lucy replied
“no, it's my day off remember, am not coming, so whatever it is deall with it your self" she replied
“have you watched the news this morning" asked Lucy
“i don't know was I supposed to" Mary replied as she reached for the remote and tuned to the news channel
“Mr. Daret is dead" said Lucy
"Wait what" she replied in a shock, she looked at the news headlines at the Tv, and they stated that the Rich and famous icon of the city Mr. Daret was dead due to an explosion at his mansion, the explosion was so big that it killed everyone including whole of his security and the source of the explosion is yet to be confirmed
“Mary, Mary, Mary are you there" called out Lucy who was still on the phone
“yeah am here" she replied while trying to process the shocking and devastating news that she just received
“good, now get here, now or we both loose our jobs" replied Lucy, and hung up the phone. Few minutes later she arrived at the station, some of the people that died at the mansion had their faces burnt because of the explosion, so her job was to identify everyone of them, so that the bodies could reach their families. At the Daret mansion there were several reporters and civilians at the gate trying to see what was going on inside, there were yellow tapes blocking the entrance written crime scene do not cross, a detective had just arrived at the crime scene so he crouched over so as to pass through the tapes, as soon as he passed through the gateway he was accompanied by his fellow detective on his right, “so what have we got" asked the detective
“three bombs, one upstairs and two downstairs, no survivors" said the other detective as they walked into the ruined mansion, inside there were cops gathering evidence and some few reporters taking pictures of what happened in the mansion, there were also white marks on the places where dead bodies were found,
“did you get anything from the surveillance footage" asked the detective as the cop was handing him a pair of gloves and an evidence bag
“still scrambled, but Mike is working on it, it will be done soon" replied the other detective as they were climbing the stairs, they entered Mr. Daret's home office which was all dusty and filled with ashes, most of the things in there were broken and burnt due to the fire last night, the detective looked at his left and saw the art piece that Mr. Daret bought, most of the art piece was burnt so a small part of it was still hanging on the wall, he went over to the art piece, he looked at it for a second and turned around just as Mr. Daret did last night, “hey Claire would you pick that up" said the detective as he was pointing his finger at a small white thing that was cylinder in shape under the broken table, Claire was the other detective that accompanied him as he got inside the crime scene, she went over and picked up the white cylinder thing, when she turned it around she realized it was a helmet with two black eyes and a smile curved on it to make a face, she handed the helmet to the detective, “what the hell is this" asked the detective while taking a look at the helmet, it was quite small that you couldn't put head in it,
“That detective Henry is what we call the white Marshmello" Claire replied while looking at Henry
“a what" he asked while so confused, still holding on to the white Marshmello
“its long story, I'll tell you on our way back to the station” she replied and grabbed the white Marshmello from Henry, she turned around and started leaving the ruined office, Detective Henry looked at the burnt office chair by the window and that's when he camr up with a theory that the killer was there before the bomb blew up, he started fantasizing exactly what the killer did last night by looking at pattern on how the bodies were found, he walked through every movement she did, until he reached at the stairs where he found small fractures on the wall, it was like someone's face was smashed against it, he kept going down the stairs and once he got downstairs he looked at the spots marked by the police where the bodies were found, he then realized that the killer fought with Mr. Daret's security guards, he followed the killer steps in his mind till he reached at the gate of the mansion, he looked at the house on the other side of the road and saw there was camera on the front porch, “we are good, we should go now" said detective Claire as she approached him from behind,
“can we get the footage of that camera too" said Henry as he pointed to the house on the other side of the road,
“sure" she replied.
Back at the station  Mary was doing a very good job identifying the faces of every victim in the bombing last night, she was analysing their face patterns through a big machine that had a shape of an x ray machine, she would lay the body inside and then the machine would provide the face pattern on the computer and then she would find a face that matches the patterns through national database, she was wearing her lab coat and her glasses sitting on her computer when she was interrupted by Claire who entered her lab and handed her the white Marshmello, “could you run this for any finger prints" she said as the she laid down the small helmet at her computer table,
“yeah sure" Mary replied while looking at the helmet, she then continued working on her computer finding a match for the body that was in the machine,
“also almost forgot, the chief need us in the meeting room" added Claire who was already at door peaking inside the door as she was about to leave,
“yeah I'll be there in jiff" she replied while so focused on her computer, soon as Claire left the forensic lab Mary wore a piece of gloves so as to look for finger prints on the white Marshmello, so she lifted the helmet and reached inside, there she found a small piece of paper, she pulled it out the helmet and the paper had random numbers written on it, she looked at the numbers so confused and wondering what they meant, she turned it over on the other side and saw it was empty, the number written on the piece paper were, 13-5-13-5-14-19-15_13-15-18-9, minutes later she went to join the meeting held by the chief of the station Mr. Ethan Carter, she was late since the meeting had already started, she opened the glass door to the meeting room and to her left was a u shaped table with everyone already seated at their spot, on her right was big screen that displayed all the evidence they had on the masked killer, soon as she entered the room the meeting went quite and all the eyes were on her, “am sorry am late" she said, on her hand she had box that she carried with her both hands, in there were documents on every person in the bombing and their identities and the white Marshmello helmet, she looked at the table and there was an empty seat next to claire, she went over and sat down, “its about time you showed up, you were starting to make look bad" Claire whispered as Mary was sitting down
“since when do you get scared" she replied as she was making herself comfortable in the chair
“well it's good thing you are here Mary Allen, cause you were next" said the chief as he crossed his palms together and leaned back on his chair,
“next In what" she replied In a shock and so confused
“we were telling Detective Henry here on what we have on the case" said the chief while holding out his hand towards Henry who was next to him, “and it was you next" he added,
“somebody is getting burned" whispered claire with a smile on her face,
“shut up" Mary whispered back as she got up from her chair, she took a little pause to gather her thoughts “i managed to get everyone's face that was dead from the bombing, and all their identities are in here" she said while pointing both her hands in the box, she took out the white Marshmello helmet from the box,“also I checked this little helmet for finger prints but I found none, so who ever we are dealing with is very professional" she said with Marshmello helmet in her arms, “but who ever the killer is, they left us a parting gift which is more like a puzzle that we have to solve" she added as she took out a the piece of paper inside the Marshmello helmet, “they are probably random numbers but they definitely mean something, I personally think that there's something she is trying to tell us using these numbers" she said and passed on the piece of paper to the next person on her right,  the paper passed through to everyone in the meeting as she kept speaking till it reached detective Henry, he looked at the numbers but he also couldn't tell what they meant, Mary had finished giving her presentation so she sat down and let the chief continue with the meeting, few seconds after she sat down she heard her phone buzzing in her left pocket of her lab coat, she reached down the pocket and took out the phone, she saw it was a phone call from a person she saved Ben, she hung up the phone immediately as she saw the name and continued to pay attention to the meeting, few minutes later the meeting was over and everyone had to leave since it was already dark, Mary left the station so tired walking back home, she sat down at a bench at the side of the road waiting for a taxi, she again received a phone call from the same contact, but she again hung up as soon as she saw the name of the caller.