Undetected

Chapter One

 Like vapor, I appeared behind the pale skinned kid, who was the size of a long thin stick. I canvassed the same escape route that my dream showed, he took. He was about to unload his AR-15 assault rifle on a bunch of unsuspecting, clumsy kids, on skates, at the grand opening of Hotel Del's Annual ice-skating ring.

 I had to hand it to him, without me coming in to change the temperature, the place he picked would have allowed him to take out multiple people quickly. The top portion of the maintenance building, was less frequented than other parts of the hotel, with  a wide-open view of the skating ring.

He had one main target in mind, but for the hell of it, he was going to take down a few more people.

"Don't shot, Drop the gun!" I shouted, as I changed from vapor to human form.

He swung around with his AR-15 aimed in my direction, and a moment of surprise flickered in his eyes when he saw me.

 He did not expect me, none of them ever do. The endorphin rush from the carnage he was about to commit blazed in his eyes like a speed junkie that just injected cocaine into his veins.

Slithering in undetected and murdering lots of people before killing himself, was a thrill I wasn't going to give this little demon today.

I stood about eight feet in front of him, aimed my Smith and Wesson, with its red dot scope, between the triangle of his nose and mouth.

 One of us was going to die. "Drop the gun."

In the split second that he pulled back the trigger, I took him out in one shot. I praised the silencer's quiet magic. As his body fell to the ground like a rag doll, his bloody cerebellum, splattered into pieces around him, while his rifle dropped and circled the floor, searching for direction. The smell of singed leather, from his burned flesh filled the air. My body started to shiver, and a thin layer of sweat rose to the surface of my skin, like it always does when I'm forced to take a life.

My Luminox Evo Navy Seal Blackout watch vibrated against my skin, alerting me that I had one minute to exit. I didn't enjoy killing anyone, but the day was great for a few reasons, without missing a beat, the ice skaters could continue to enjoy the grand opening, I beat my time at a scene by one minute. And most importantly, no one saw me.

 I woke up this morning with a single bead of sweat running down my forehead. January, was San Diego's coldest month, but the chill did nothing to stop the heat from rising to the surface of my skin. Half-awake half asleep, and huddled underneath my comforter, the memory from last night's dream was fresh as morning coffee. The night before, my sleeping brain began to scramble like a puzzle, at lighting speed, with the visual clarity of HD TV. An eighteen-year-old skinny kid, named Patrick Sagan, stood five foot ten, two inches shorter than he wanted to be, with skin the color of dough. His light blue boarding shorts and black hoodie with a picture of the rapper Tupac on it, stuck out in my dream for reasons that weren't clear to me yet. As my mind's eye continued down its path, it showed that he spent a lot of time indoors, even though he lived in a beach front home in Carlsbad. The floor to ceiling windows of his home captured the beauty of the ocean, like a postcard.

Next thing I knew, we were face to face, his dark blue eyes, cold like a sheet of ice covering a lake in the middle of winter, stared deep into mine. I dove deeper into those eyes and saw that his intention was to go to Hotel Del around eleven a.m. in the morning and kill as many ice skaters, as he could.

Knock them down one by one, like pin balls, with an AK-15, that he stole from his neighbors home. His brother, Alex, who was going to be at the ice ring with his girlfriend Chelsea, was his main target. He was going to spare Chelsea. With his brother gone, he could make her his girlfriend. Later, when his parents were both home, he was going to kill them and his shrink too.