The Demon King

Chapter 1

    Serena had never heard of such a good story!

    Of course, her brother had specifically told her not to get involved at the crime scene, but how could she resist such a headline?

    So what if he was the lieutenant of the local police department?

    So what if he was a promotion away from taking their father's position as chief?

    She was long voted Saddenville's best, and most talented journalist.

    And such a title was not easily earned.

    Therefore, she had to be the one to write the story before someone else could.

    The drive to the crime scene was a good half hour, and the fact that the house was isolated made it harder to drive there. After awhile, she decided to ditch her car and walk.

    The yard was littered with cops. It was amazing how many people they were able to squish into the small space.

    Serena spotted her brother talking to one of the detectives and decided that she was better off avoiding him.

    After lurking about, taking notes on overheard conversations, and walking around the outside of the house a few times, she finally caught sight of an older couple huddled together at the far side of the yard.

    She sauntered over to them, pen and notepad in hand.

    "Hi, my name is Serena Andrews. I work with the Saddenville Press. Can you give me any information on what happened here?"

    The woman's eyes widened, so Serena instantly knew that she recognized her name. But while the woman looked star struck, the man looked at her with suspicion.

    "Hi, my name is Sharon, this is my husband, Will. We're the owners of the house."

    She nodded her head while she took notes, "So were you the ones who found the bodies?"

    "No, we were out of town a few days. A friend of ours was supposed to come by everyday to check up on the house. He said that he had smelled something putrid one day and called the police. He never said that he had seen them. We were called a few hours later saying that there were bodies found in our bedroom."

    She made sure to take notes whenever she deemed it necessary.

    "Did you see the bodies?" She needed to get a description of the victims before she could write a proper story.

    The man glared at her before answering, "No, we didn't see the bodies. We came back, was questioned by the police, and now we're being questioned by you. Is there anything else you would like to know, Ms. Andrews?"

    Serena had interviewed enough people in her life to know when someone didn't want to answer anymore questions, "No, that's all. Thank you for your time," She nodded her head politely as she walked away.

    "What the hell are you doing here?!"

    It took her a minute to realize that her brother had discovered her trespassing.

    She decided to play dumb with him, "Hey, Ethan! How's the investigation coming along?"

    He was in her face now, "I thought I told you not to come here?"

    "And I thought you would have realized by now that I don't usually do what I'm told," she gave him an innocent smile.

    Ethan ran his fingers through his hair, an old habit that showed he was annoyed, "Rena, listen. This isn't your average 'someone was shot during a robbery' crime scene. Six women were killed here."

    Just to piss him off, Serena took out her notepad and began writing stuff down, "Six women, huh? Any other information that you could give me? The way they were killed? Any identification?"

    Ethan's eye twitched just slightly as he glared at her, "Serena, I'm not kidding."

    "Neither am I," she smiled sweetly at him, waiting for info.

    He sighed, "If I tell you what you wanna know, will you leave?"

    Serena smirked at him, clearly reveling in her victory, "I'm listening."

    As Ethan began telling her about the crime scene, Serena began getting curiouser about the murder. She was euphoric to finally have a story worth telling. In a small town like Saddenville, not many exciting things happened that were entirely newsworthy.

    "Great! This is sure to be front page material! Thanks, lieutenant!" Serena waved to him as she walked back to her car.

    Ethan pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, trying to fight the sudden headache in his temple.

    He was definitely gonna get it from his father when that article prints.