Douglas rewound the footage on his wildlife camera. He had originally put it up so he could see if any game had shown up on his property in the woods. It was only a few acres so he'd be lucky if he was able to find anything out on his own. A rabbit hopped by the camera and into the grass offscreen. The rabbit reminded Douglas of his daughter, Alice. She'd always enjoyed watching rabbits hop around in their yard either from the kitchen window or on the porch. She had begged him for a rabbit when she was a little girl.
Douglas reached up and grabbed his beer can from the dashboard. He took a guzzle of the beer as he watched the footage. He put the footage at 2x speed. He hadn't seen any deer yet. Just some birds in the trees and the rabbit from earlier. Douglass crushed the empty beer can and set it in the cupholder of his truck.
"What in the hell.." Douglas murmured as he rewound the footage for a few seconds and paused the video. The night vision mode on the camera made it difficult to see exactly what was going on, but Douglas could see clearly enough. A strange man in a mask was just in the view of the camera. He looked like he had a pipe or a crowbar in his hands. Douglass couldn't tell. And he was dragging a.. bag? Douglas slowed down the footage as much as he could and played the video. Why did the bag have.. limbs? It was a person the man was dragging.
Douglas threw the camera into the passenger seat of his truck. His forehead broke into a cold sweat. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and middle finger.
What had he just seen? It had to be a trick. There was no way a strange masked man was dragging a body on his property last night. Gingerly, he picked up the camera and looked at the footage. It was, in fact, a body.
"Good Lord.." Douglas mumbled, exasperated. He squinted at something moving in the background of the video. He could barely make out two other figures that were near the masked man. Three weirdo serial killers. Shit. He needed to take the recording to the police. Douglas reached to get his keys from the dashboard.
His keys weren't there. Panic filled Douglas's body. Where. Were. His. Keys?! Douglas got out of the truck and slammed it shut. He hurried over to where he had set up the wildlife camera. Did he leave his keys over there? He could've sworn that he left the keys on the dashboard of his truck next to the window.
Douglas whipped his head around and looked at his dashboard. His eyes stared at the side mirror of his truck, his eyes were wide open in terror. It was the masked man. He brandished a long, metal pipe in one hand, and in the other hand, which was lifted up high for Douglas to see, were his keys. The masked man jingled the keys in an almost playful way, like they were friends pulling a prank on each other. Douglas tightened his grip on the camera. The man tucked the keys away, then he slowly made his way over to Douglas. Like a lion hunting after a wounded water buffalo.
Douglas blinked multiple times. The realization had finally hit that the man was going towards him. He lunged to get into the truck, but then remembered that his keys weren't there. He broke into a run. His legs carried him as fast as they could. He hadn't run like this since he played football in high school.
"The hell do you want?" Douglas shouted, he was starting to get out of breath. His ribs were hurting and the muscles in his legs were burning. Douglas didn't get the response he was looking for.
"B-bet I can woo- get a bullseye!" The voice sounded more juvenile than Douglas had expected. He didn't dare look back to see who was speaking. He thought the masked man sounded more like.. well a man, not a teenage boy.
"Shut up, Rogers." Snapped an unknown voice. It was lower and rougher, like a man who had spent the last few years smoking five packs of cigarettes a day.
"You sh-shut up! You're the only who- fuck, didn't do their damn j-j-job right! You almost got us c-c-caught!" The juvenile voice shouted. He must've been one of the other people that he had seen on the camera. Douglas needed to call the police.
With difficulty, Douglas took his phone out of the back jeans pocket and dialed 911.
"Hello, 911. What's your emergency?" Douglas recognized the thick southern accent, it was Carol.
"It's me, Douglas I'm out near the creek on my property I-"
Thwack.
Thump.
Douglas's sentence was cut short by a hatchet to the skull. His body collapsed as he dropped the camera and the phone. He had kept up a surprisingly good pace for a man of his age and lifestyle. However, sometimes lives are cut short.
Tim reached down and disconnected the call with his gloved hand.
"Told you I c-could get a bullseye, old m-man." Toby strolled over to the man's body and removed the hatchet from his skull. His shoulder jerked up involuntarily.
"Please just shut up.. I have a headache," Tim grumbled as he removed his mask from his head and rubbed his temples. Toby wiped the bloody hatch off on the dead man's plaid shirt. It reminded Toby of the shirts Tim wore when they weren't "working".
"Get the camera. Put the keys back, Tim." It was Brian.
"And wh-where were you?" Toby questioned as he picked up the camera and handed it to Brian. Brian shoved the camera into his hoodie.
"I was making sure there weren't any extra witnesses." Tim tossed the keys onto the ground next to the corpse's hand. Sirens wailed in the distance. Tim let out a frustrated sigh. Brian cursed.
"Damn it. We'll meet up at our usual spot. We need to split up so we don't get caught. Got it?" Tim ordered.
"Yessir." Toby gave a playful salute with his hand, then he removed his mask and goggles. Brian went north. Tim went east. Toby decided to go west. It was a shame that they didn't have enough time to get rid of the body and loot it. They always took any spare cash out of their victim's wallets. Toby figured that he'd be eating another shitty microwave meal for dinner again.
YOU ARE READING
Her First and Final Case (Ticci Toby x Fem!Reader) UNDER EDITING
Hayran KurguYou move to a small town when you're offered a job as a detective. As a fresh graduate you gladly take the offer. Little do you know you just made the most influential decision of your life. When given your first case as a joke, you are forced to un...