Gothic Nights

Chapter 1

 The party was in full swing, life was good for one Edmund Seymour; he had gotten a massive promotion in his company only a few hours ago and decided to hold a little celebration soiree. He was hoping to get lucky with that one receptionist- what was her name again? Emma? Emily? doesn't matter- the icing on top of the cake for Edmund was the fact that he had made the party a masquerade ball of sorts. The purpose of doing so was to hopefully entice the other guests to start an orgy. Who could blame him? It was his night and he wanted to splurge out his trust-fund account in the hopes of getting some action. Unfortunately, the night would not go in Edmund's favour as a new guest walked into the concert hall. The individual's presence was so shocking and intimidating that no one dared moved. What made the individual so rough was the blood-red mask that adorned their face.

Noticing the attention of the room shift, Edmund saw the figure in the center of the room and approached them, he was supposed to be the center of attention; it was his party after all. Once upon the new arrival, Edmund noticed that they had no distinguishing features except for their staggering height, by his estimation, Edmund would say this man was over 6ft. As Edmund continued to approach the man, for he was too well built to be anything else, he noticed the wild look in the man's eyes settle upon him, and with a flash, the man had overshadowed Edmund. Wanting to speak but overcome with fear, Edmund decided to run like antelope from a lion. The predator had tackled him to the ground with such brutality that the champagne glass Edmund was holding shattered across the dance floor, making the people around them shout in surprise and fear. Before Edmund could protect himself the man flashed a knife into his stomach with such force it took the wind right out of his lungs.

That was not all poor Edmund had in store for him, however, as his murderer kept striking him with the knife until the pristine tiles underneath had been painted red. Noticing his work complete now the man covered in blood decided to carve the face of Edmund off only leaving the musculature underneath; leaving only a red mask of the once spotless skin. The people with a weaker constitution fainted but those that were still present, seeing their host fall to this demon of a man decided to fight back, but of course, the Red Masque was ready for them slicing his opponent's jugulars without care for the blood splatter. When the screams had subsided, the figure raced out of the concert hall but not before stapling a note onto his victim's chest. Once the police arrived,  the sight before them left many gagging and retching into nearby trashcans.   

                                                                                      ***

The city was alive with noise, so much so, that over the cacophony of noise you could hardly hear your own thoughts. There was the occasional police siren speeding away to chase some two-timing jaywalker,  quite a few car honks and expletives being shouted from driver and pedestrian alike. Then there was Thomas Blake , he had a love-hate relationship with the chaos of New York City. He loved the noise as it deafened him to the inner demons that he warred against in his mind, the chaos was somehow more peaceful than the quiet. But, then of course, Thomas hated it because with a city that never sleeps, that meant that his job was never over. You see, Thomas was a consultant for the police, they called Thomas whenever the synapses in the  desk jockeys  stopped firing. Which tended to happen a lot. Overall, it  didn't really matter as long as the pay was good, and after countless hours of negotiating Thomas was happy to say that the pay was.....mediocre. But, Thomas didn't really do all this for the money or for his name in the paper. He did all that he was doing because, he saw how messed up the world was, how sick, twisted, vile it was. Despite all of that, Thomas made it his mission to save the city from itself.  By whatever means necessary. 

By the time Thomas made it to his office it was 10:45 a.m, he walked into the disorganised space that always smelled of cigarette smoke, even though Thomas never smoked. There were old manila folders strewn across multiple desks, quite a few spiderwebs that lacked the classic spider, and a glue rat trap that only had the leg of one of the vermin taught on the sticky pad. When Thomas looked around, after making his fourth cup of coffee for the morning, he gave a small lopsided smirk. He loved this place, though try telling that to any of his clients and you just might find yourself faced with a disgusted grimace and then a question your mental stability. Anyways, after getting himself settled behind his desk, Thomas opened his worn-out laptop bag and began typing up various emails, reports and the like just for the sake of having something that was organised.  After it was printed off though? Who knows where these pages of words went off too. Maybe a mutated super rat and his teenage turtle sons who live in the sewers  stole them. Focus! After about an hour of doing nothing but contemplate his life choices, Thomas' cellphone began to ring, breaking the silence with a  piercing tone

RING RING RING RING 

Thomas looked at the caller ID and rolled his eyes "Yes Marie? What can I do for you this time?" He answered the person on the other side of the connection. "Thomas, you know I wouldn't have called if we thought we could handle this ourselves. Its all hands on deck. You're one of my hands." the mysterious "Marie"  stated after a baited breath.  Thomas looked around his dirty office thinking that someone was watching him. "What do you need from me?" he uttered in a tone that indicated it was time to get to work.