Hear Me

The Man in the Mask

A screaming from down the street interrupts Detective Marinetta's food order. Her and her partner look at each other for a second before running towards it, guns in hand. A man dressed in dark clothing runs away from a store. A woman comes out a second later, pointing towards him and rambling on about being stolen from. The two detectives split off, one to help the woman, and another to chase the suspect down. Marinetta runs after the suspect, turning down a side street. Her partner, who's much faster than her, quickly catches up after determining that no one was hurt. "NYPD!" The detective declares as she keeps after him.

On the other side of town, the Man in the Mask listens to the city from the top of a rundown apartment building. The city seems quiet tonight. Then a woman screamed. He listens more intently, hearing that the police happened to already be there and were working on chasing the suspect. He isn't needed there.

When Marinetta got promoted from a sergeant to a homicide detective, she didn't imagine she'd still be chasing after robbery suspects on foot. Look at where she is now. The man keeps running, keeping a pace ahead of them. It was getting to the point where flagging him down with a stray shot seemed desirable. Her legs were burning and it felt like her lungs were shutting down. A stitch started to form on her side as the man turned into an alley. It was an alley she had known well. A homicide had taken place there a while ago. The victim was trapped after being chased down there as the alley cut off. She wasn't on the case, Detective Hoffman and Blake were on it, but she had kept tabs. It was an unhealthy habit she had.

Her partner and her had slowed down, pointing their guns forward. "NYPD," She relentlessly shouts, "drop all weapons and come out with your hands up." They look down the darkened alley, not seeing anything. Several loud pops sound out and bullets whiz past the detective's heads. They dive in opposite directions, hiding behind the building corners. She returns fire, "Charlie!" She calls out to her partner. He doesn't answer her. Looking over, she realizes that he's down on the ground. After returning two more shots, she ducks and runs to her partner.

The Man in the Mask is needed tonight, he realizes, as he listens to what goes down where he had previously ignored.

As she dives for the corner of the building, a bullet grazes her. She crashes onto the concrete ground and grabs her shoulder. Blood seeps from the wound and it burns but it's not as bad as it could have been. Ignoring the searing pain from her new wound, she turns to her partner. She shrugs her coat off and presses it against the bullet wound in his stomach. "Clara..." He mutters in pain.

She nods, "I'm here. It'll be okay."

The Man hears as the detective reassures her partner, promising to get him out of a situation she knew they wouldn't make it out of alone.

Clara Marinetta has been in a situation like this before. She wasn't about to lose another partner, especially to some small-time crook. She turns her attention to the alley now, trying to find a way out. Sirens were approaching, her partner having called in for backup while they were running. As she prepares for the worst, a loud scream comes from in the alley along with several gunshots. These gunshots, however, weren't aimed at her this time. Screaming and several snapping of bones are accompanied with grunts of pain. After a minute or two, the sounds die down. "Stay here," she whispers to her partner, as if he could go anywhere right now. She approaches the alley with a shaky grip on her gun. Never had she been more nervous in her life. The sirens are louder now as the cars drive down the street they're on. She watches as the Man in the Mask begins to climb up the fire escape. He looks back to her and she nods, letting him go. "Thank you," she whispers, knowing he wouldn't be able to hear.