MR. MANIAC

CHAPTER 10

"You feel up my senses, like night in a forest. Like mountains in springtime, like walking the rain, like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. You fill up my senses, come fill me again."

"Come let me love you, let me give my life to you, let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms, let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you, come let me love you, come love me again."

Dean teared up pretty badly as he sat with his head against the large window on the greyhound to New York. He couldn't get Lucy out of his head, he couldn't stop feeling all the pain he caused, plus the pain he harbored himself, contained anymore. He dared not let out a sob, lest he kill any onlookers out of rage, but let the tears flow freely, and his heart ached freely. He felt the freedom of his pain being out in the open, as if he were being blissfully stabbed. He couldn't get Lucy to stop dancing with him, he couldn't get her to stop kissing him, he couldn't get her away from him, she wouldn't let him be dark, she wouldn't let him forget. He wanted to do just that, forget. Forget he was human, forget he once had love, forget he was Dean Harris. His music drowned out the sounds of the road and the wind smashing against the windows, it drowned out the sounds of shuffling and murmurs, his earbuds drowned out the whole entire world and lifted him up, into the sweet sounds of pain, and his former self. And it burned him, it burned him badly. He loved the memories, but apart of him was simply waiting to fall from that lifture.

∞

Prescott arrived on the scene, a car was burned down. Two women had reported a man kidnapping them that matched Dean's description. She searched the inside of the warehouse they said he kept them at. Shuffling through his things, all of them meaningless, the car itself stolen, he had been living here. Chase came in, solemn faced:

"Prescott, you need to see this. It's good news, and it's bad news."

"Give me the good news first." she said as she walked outside with him

"Good news is we got someone that could possibly give us a lead. The bad news is, it comes in the form of this shit." Chase said as popped the trunk open, Layla instantly clenching her nose in disgust from the smell of rotting flesh.

"Oh my God. We need to perform an autopsy for possible DNA, get those girls and ask them if they've seen her. Montgomery and I need to get a lead on where Harris could've possibly gone from here." she said authoritatively

Prescott took a few hard steps away from the body, trying hard not to tear up. Tug startled her, holding her close.

"Hey, it's just the job. You do that girl justice by catching this prick." He said in a fatherly tone

Montgomery approached them, a grit look in his eyes

"He could've stolen another car, I can have the local police do a checkpoint for the roads leading out of town."

"There's no way he'd still be in California after this. He let two witnesses go. He's on the move. We just gotta find out where to, and how." Tug said bitterly, letting Layla go now

"Those girls said he just let them go, that's not like him at all. Not one bit. What if he's giving up? What if he's done trying to run?" Prescott said aloud, brainstorming the options

"Then why didn't he just stay here and get caught? Why keep running if he's done?" Montgomery asked

"You both could be right. There's always a chance our guy wants to stop killing but at the same time still doesn't wanna go to jail. He's likely to be on the move, trying to lay low." Tug interjected

"He won't stop killing. He can't. He will turn up soon enough. But if he's trying to get away right now, odds are he's gonna get as far away from this as possible." Layla said, starting to get noticeably more and more frustrated as she went on