SPLATTER (draft)

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The man grumbled out of bed as his phone went off. He groaned, stretching as his eyes flew opened and instantly darted to his bedside table. After noticing the clock, he shot up in a hurry. He'd overslept! In a frenzy, the man darted to his bathroom. He went about his routine, trying to be quick in the shower, and hurried to get dressed. He chose a pair of black slacks and a long sleeved button shirt, also black. He added tie, black again, to accent the outfit. He pulled on his socks and shoes quickly, choosing a pair of all black chucks to stay somewhat casual.

In his bedroom, the phone was still going off. Alexander raced to grab it, pulling the iPhone 6 to his ear as he hit the talk button. He listened eagerly to the information the other Gazette worker gave him. Another murder, Mayor's Office. Abby was already on her way. "I'll be damned if she gets the story before I do!" He muttered after hanging up the phone. The man shoved his phone into his pocket, grabbed his wallet and keys, and threw a jacket over his arm. He made his way swiftly out of his condo, careful to lock up behind him, and into the elevator.

Like always, the elevator was slow. The male took this time to go over some questions in his head. First off, the victim. Who was it, this time? Did they have a positive ID. Did they have an MO? Was there anything, in this one, to tell them who had done this?

The elevator came to a stop, and Alexander pushed through the peple trying to get on. He hurried into the connected garage building and headed for his car. The black Toyota Prius Hybrid was where he'd parked it the night before, on the first floor of the garage compund. He unlocked it, slid into the driver's seat, started it up, and headed onto the street.

It was busy, probably due to the rain and hour. Maybe even the crime. Had word gotten out already? He scowled, trying to speed up and around the stopped cars. Luckily, a Police cruiser passed through, and Alexander shot behind it, hoping the driver hadn't noticed. It gave him a straight shot to the crime scene.

Officers were on scene.

Alex parked far enough away not to bring notice to himself, and walked the rest of the way. He had pulled his pad and pen from the glovebox of his car, so he was ready. It seemed the crowd was dispersing, due to the police. He slid on his jacket, pulling out the PRESS tag from his top coat pocket. Before he got to close, he spotted Abby, still pushing through the throng of people who were now headed the opposite way from her. He darted up to her quickly.

Alex cleared his throat once he was close enough to Abby. "It would appear there's a small break in people over here." He wanted to get the story himself, but he also was a sucker for competition. He grabbed the female's arm and pulled away from the crowd. "May the best reporter get the lead." He muttered. Of course, he knew they wouldn't get any questions in yet, not if they'd just began pushing back onlookers. They would have to wait for the chaos to die down before either of them would be able to get any answers.

Well of course Abby had tried to push her way through and instead had gotten eaten up by the crowd and pushed around. It wasn't like Abby had a lot of upper body strength, hey, she tried but it just wasn't enough sometimes. Ms. Wilson was trying to stand up on her tippy toes, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening but all she could hear was hollering from the CCPD. She was rather surprised that only one of the Detectives had shown up.

Abigail was about to give up and just let the crowd trample her to death when someone yanked her by the arm. It was quick but gave her enough momentum to pull herself out, the droplets of rain already clinging to her curls damply, as she flailed a little. She knew it, she knew she'd be next for writing those scathing articles.The voice that addressed her though was familiar and with a quick 'ahem' she stood and patted down her dress.

It was her coworker. Fr-enemy, yet fellow respectable writer Alexander. Abby relaxed, tried to compose herself from the slight flail and pushed back a strand of damp hair behind her ear, half-laughed when he pointed out where the break in the crowd was.

"I knew that." Abby lied, "Thank you." She added with a small rub of her chin.

"The best reporter? Ah, Alexander, I might think you're trying to dethrone me. I thought we were friends" Abby chuckled playfully, she started glancing around. CCPD was already evacuating everyone and if that stupid detective found her here he would definitely arrest her. She was about to jab at Alexander again when her eyes caught that filthy, cheap, News Channel 5 Van. With that two cent excuse for a journalist, smiling all perfectly at the camera... And ... Ugh. It irked Abigail to no end.

"Great. The wicked witch is here." Abby about spat, she turned to Alexander and looked around. There had to be something else, something more she could write about. What was she going to do? News Channel Five had the comfort of never having to sit and write anything, just stick some bimbo out in front of a camera and let her yap. But Abigail? Writing was power, it was art. It was a sword, a word to those who cared to read and those who didn't, they were just drones of a tube.

The shorter Reporter looked up at the male Reporter and put her hands on her hips. "Good luck talking to the cops. I quasi-assaulted one of the detectives in charge of the case today..." Abigail confessed with a frown. "I'm going to pick and choose, talk to some people around here. Maybe try and get to the bottom of who found the body, and what time it was found..."