Sirens ~Nika Mühl

Chapter 1

Nika Mühl had never in her life seen a dead body. Of course she had seen tons of them on TV and in the horror movies her teammates make her watch. But she was lucky enough to have never come across a real one in her 22 years of living.

Until one unusually cold September morning, that luck ran out.

It was about 2:35 a.m. and Nika had just finished an extremely late night workout. Her recent breakup with her now ex boyfriend was plaguing her mind and hindering her sleep. So she went with the only coping mechanism she knew, shooting basketballs in an empty gym. She had been in there alone for about two hours, working herself past the point of exhaustion. Once she felt a slimmer of satisfaction Nika had stepped out into the frigid Connecticut air when she nearly tripped over something.

As she looked down Nika saw the most horrific thing she had ever laid eyes on. The body was stripped of all clothing and the young woman was cut almost surgically from her sternum all the way to her chin, her insides exposed to the world. Nika threw up almost instantly, as if it was a gut reaction, the bile spilling over onto her crocs. She then backed away from the body in complete shock.

Nika doesn't remember screaming, just the echoes of it that pierced the pitch black sky.

And that brings her to where she is now, hyperventilating and speaking near gibberish to the 911 operator who had assured her probably a million times that several of their best officers were on the way and to stay put and be aware of her surroundings.

The words sounded muffled as all of Nika's senses seemed to stop working. She couldn't move, she could barely even breathe. God she wished she had just stayed home and taken a melatonin or something to help her sleep.

But because she didn't do that, because she just had to come to the gym, Nika Mühl's life would forever be changed in more ways than one.
- -
Cue Jones wasn't even supposed to be up, she was supposed to be sound asleep in bed. She didn't work night shifts anymore, not since she was promoted to detective 2 weeks ago at the age of 21. Youngest ever in the history of Mansfield Police Department. Yet here she was, smoking a cigarette outside whilst leaning against her cruiser, all because she couldn't sleep. Her body was used to being up this late, she couldn't help it.

In her youth Cue smoked a lot of weed, causing her to have a nasty habit of always needing to occupy her fingers and mouth. After she became a cop, weed was no longer an option due to weekly drug tests, so she switched to cigarettes, to satiate her habit and it had been working for the past three years.

As she leaned against her cruiser Cue looked up at the cloudless night sky feeling empty, which was a feeling she could never seem to get rid of. She thought she'd be used to it by now, but emptiness is something no one really ever gets used to, no matter how long it's been.

Her cigarette smoking was interrupted by the comms in her cruiser cracking to life.

"All units we have a dead body spotted outside of Gampel Pavillion, I repeat we have a dead body outside of Gampel Pavillion, a female witness is on the scene and is pretty shaken up, we need all units there ASAP".

Cue reached in through the window of her car to grab her walkie, "Copy that," she responded. She threw her cigarette to the ground, stomping on it before getting into the cruiser, turning the lights on and speeding towards UCONN's campus.

And even though she hadn't seen her cousin in years, she really hoped it wasn't her who had found the body.

- -

Nika was engulfed, surrounded by absolute darkness. The full moon up in the sky provided minimal lighting and this was the first time in her life she was truly terrified. It was just her, the pitch black sky and a dead body.