THE KILLER

Kidnapped...?

The mysterious person dragged Alessi to an abandoned building not far from the scene of chaos. 

She kicked open the peeling door and pulled an unconscious Alessi in. She propped her into a sitting position on the floor leaning on the wall.

She looked at her in disdain, then scoffed. "Well, I dunno what trouble I went through to get this piece of scum, but I'll find a way for my use from her." She whipped around to her assistant. "Well, why are you simply standing there? She's gonna be awake soon. Go get me some tranquilizers!" She snapped. 

The assistant immediately snapped out of his daze. "But I don't even know of any pharmacys around here!" He protested. "It's down the street, take a left turn, and it's the third store on th right. Now get to it!"

Once the assistant left, she rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you can never find good help these days. Aren't you supposed to memorise the layout of somewhere before you attack it?!" She took out a gun and started polishing the barrel.

Meanwhile

"What was that? Did you all hear that?" Luca jumped in his seat, and whipped around his head to look out the window. "It sounded like...a gunshot?" Sofia muttered, and followed his eye out the window. The rest scrambled out of their seats to have a good look at the scene. Other customers also eyed the window comprehensively. Many began moving out of their seats and stepping out to gawk at the damage like ghouls. 

Some people immediately whipped out their cell phones, and instead of calling for help, started taking snapshots of everything. Typical humans. 

"There looks to be some damage done to that car." Sofia mused. " Well, let's hope whoever did this wasn't from our school." Aemilia grumbled. "We don't need another case on our heels." 

"Don't you think this is a bit weird? Moments ago, we just saw Alessi getting out of this shop. How come she isn't on this street right now?" 

"Who cares? Can we just please, get out of this wreckage and go to that pharmacy down the road? I need to get medicine for insomnia. For my mom." Marco said matter-of-factly.

The 8 of them slowly crept down the street, turned a left, and spotted the pharmacy. 

"Wait- where is Patrine?" Julias looked around and didn't see Patrine.

Patrine caught up to them a few seconds later, out of breath and panting.

"I just s-saw something weird and decided to c-check it out." She panted heavily. "Kinda lost track of time."

"What was so interesting about what you saw?" Sofia asked her. "Well, for starters, I heard shouting from a building over that alley. I couldn't detect anything else other than that, but the person definitely sounded angry or something."

"Well anyways, let's go in." Sofia gestured to the pharmacy.

The pharmacy was a clean, dimly-lit space with organized rows of shelves filled with medications and healthcare products. Usually staff members in lab coats moved about, assisting customers, but today it was simply deserted. 

The 8 of them split up and went to explore the pharmacy. "What's there to explore? Can't we just get the medicine and get out of here? There is literally a shooter loose on the streets." Aemilia grumbled. Sofia patted her back. "Don't worry, he won't take long. We just have to wait for the counter guy to come here and we can check out."

The bell at the entrance dinged and a person stepped in.

He was clad in black, and wore a mask that obscured half his face. The two girls who saw him first watched him nervously as he went towards them and turned right to a different shelf.

It was then Sofia recognised his face.