6 Months Later.
"It's getting worse," Clover whispered. "More people are being killed everyday, and there's nothing we can do about it."
Leon rolled his eyes.
"Exactly. There's nothing we can do so stop going on about it for Makos Sake!" Clover cringed at the mention of Makos, but kept talking.
"You know if there was more of us we could do SOMETHING. Instead of just sitting here watching TV and playing video games," she snapped. Leon sighed heavily. He knew she was right but why was it suddenly his problem? He didn't remember signing up to protect people, wasn't that the police's job and if they weren't doing their job right why the hell did it fall on him?
"Clover, please drop it. I'm not a fucking super hero, I don't go around fighting bad guys and saving damsels in distress-"
"Who said anything about an bloody damsels!" She growled, that jealous look crossing her face for the millionth time.
"Don't be like that. Clover I love you, you know that, so stop thinking I'm going to run off with every female who gets mentioned okay? I'm just trying to make you see this is not what I do, you know that. So please stop it," Leon pleaded. He was tired. Tired of all her constant sniddey comments about what was going on outside in the world. Why should he care if people were getting rippped apart by some crazy mad man?
"Fine," She snapped, turning on her heel and marching to the door. "I love you, Leon," She said softly just before she left, her long blonde hair the last thing he saw leaving the room.
"That woman," He breathed as he turned in his chair and faced his computer.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't actually know the details of what was going on out there. It could be anything. It could be nothing, Clover did have a habbit of over re-acting to every little thing. He could just take a look and-
"Not my problem," He said through gritted teeth.
But some small part of him knew he had to at least see what all the fuss was about. Slowly, he typed the name of the local newspaper into his search engine. He clicked on the link at the top and then felt his jaw drop open.
A large picture covered his screen. It was a collage of about seven different picture, although he only knew they were different from the background, if it wasn't for that he'd have thought they were all the same. In every picture, a small body lay sprawled awkwardly on the ground, blood pooled around it's arms and legs, it's head in half. Leon could see in some of the pictures that the persons brain was actually not inside their head. But one thing really made his stomach turn. The top half of every head had on thing in common. They all had a stream of long blonde hair. Every one of the headless bodies were woman. All young. All blonde. All looked like Clover.
It could've been a coinsidence. It could even just have been his brain playing tricks on him. But everytime Leon looked at the collage infront of him he saw seven beheaded Clovers lying in a pool of blood. Alone. Cold. Dead.
Leon turned off the comupter by the mains, not caring what it did to his expensive pc and almost leaped across the room to his phone. He dialed the first number that came into his head, the number that lead to the only person who would help him. Leon glanced back at the dark pc screen as the phone rang and swore he could still see the negative of the collage of dead people there.
"Hello?" A thick rough voice said over the phone.
"Barren? Get over here now!"
++
"Don't tell Clover, okay? I don't want her knowing why I'm doing this, just tell her I changed my mind."
"So why are we doing this exactly?" Barren asked, his deep rough voice filling up Leons office.
Leon shivered, the image of seven dead Clovers flying through his head. After he'd phone Barren and demanded he came over, Leon had shakily went back onto the computer and read the newpapers articale on the murders. Fifteen people had been killed in the last six months, seven of them all being blonde females, the rest were a mixture of male and female with no similarities. It was the seven blondes that everyone was focusing on. And it was only the blondes who'd had there heads sliced in half. The rest had been cut through their stomachs, arms and legs removed and one poor guy was sliced right down the middle. The only reason the rest had been conected to the seven blondes was the "weapon" used to cut every one of them all matched. Unfortunatly it didn't match any known weapon they could find. The newspaper said the police were still looking for alternatives, but Leon knew that meant they were stumped.
"Because the girls that were killed all remind me of Clover and to think of anyone doing that to her makes me sick. Not to mention very angry. She was right, we have to do something. And who better to help me than the great and powerful Barren!" Leon said, clamping his hand down on Barrens thick shoulder. Barren was a big man, all muscle and all strength. He had been know to rip people in half without breaking a sweat. He was dangerous. And one of Leons best friends. Which was another thing that stood out about him.
Barren and Leon were like positive and negative. Barren was dark skinned and dark haired, huge in height and width and boasted a great strength any wrestler would be jealous of. Leon on the other hand was light skinned, blonde haired and small. He was fast and agile which made up for his lack of strength, but he too had also been known to rip people apart, it just took him longer.
These two men had been through alot together. They'd been to hell and back and nothing could come between that. Which was why Barren was there now at five in the morning, standing in Leons office room with a large cup of coffee and a confused look on his hard face.
"So we're going after a crazy ass killer who is dicing up people with a weapon not even known to the police because he killed people who look like your girlfriend?" Barren asked, raising a thick eyebrow over his coffee. Leon shrugged.
"Yes. What of it? We used to do stuff way more dangerous for far less. What's your problem? Not getting old are we?" He sneered jokingly.
Barren chocked on his coffee.
"Hell no!" He shouted, his face losing all traces of being tired.
"Well then, you should have no problem helping me find this bastard then?"
"We'll find him. And then we rip him a new one."
"That's the Barren I used to know!" Leon cheered, toasting his own coffee cup with Barrens.
"So what's the plan?" Came a small voice from the office door.
Both men turned, startled by the sound.
By the door stood a small woman, with a long spear attached to her back. Her brown hair was cut short and spiked out and her big green eyes stared up at the two men who were much bigger than her.
"Megan!" Leon almost squeaked. "I haven't seen you since... well you know," He stopped not wanting to bring up the past in front of her. She hated that.
"I know. Barren phoned me on his way here. Told me what was going on. I'm here to help." She said it firmly and with confidence. It was not a question.
Leon did a double take. "Really? You wanna help? You sure?"
"I wouldn't be here otherwise, would I?" She said with a smile and he knew she was mocking him.
"Okay then!" Leon said, a warm feeling rising in his chest, and turned to his computer, where a map of where all the murders had happened covered the screen.
"I think our best bet is to start here," he pointed to a space in the centre of th fifteen red dots. "Most of the victims were last seen either in or around this abandoned industrial estate. The prick might be hiding in one of the warehouses or maybe just luring them there for the privacy. When do yous want to head out?"
"Now," Came another, darker voice from the door this time.
The three friends turned and their mouths fell open.
It was HIM.
