Bones of the Demon King

Chapter 2

The Texas heat was unbearable. Especially on days like this. Days when you had to deal with blood. Lots of blood. Even though he worked in the small town of Ludwig, Detective Jerry Gonzales was never surprised by the crime scenes he encountered. Still, he sure as hell wished killers wouldn't be so messy about them. Forensics was already bagging up evidence and other officers were taking pictures of the crime scene by the time he got there.

"Gonzales!" Jerry turned to see the medical examiner, Mary Johnson, flagging him down and on her way out.

"Hey Mary, what are we dealing with?" Jerry already knew what they were dealing with but he wanted to hear it from her anyway.

As usual, she was straight to the point, "Female. Mid-twenties. Stabbed in the chest. Multiple contusions to the head. She was killed about five days ago." Jerry saw a trail of blood leading into the house and shook his head in disgust.

"Yeah," Mary frowned, "He killed her outside and then dragged her to the master bedroom."

"What a gentleman," Jerry muttered sarcastically.

"More like he didn't want any wild animals to take a piece of her," Mary pointed to the trees in the distance, "This place is so isolated who knows what could've claimed her if she was left outside."

"Well he loves to put his victims on display so leaving her out here wouldn't be an option," Jerry looked down at the blood stained ground. "Damn, it looks like he dragged her out from under the porch. Look at the path in the dirt. It leads right up to the where he probably stabbed her."

Mary nodded, "It must've been a nightmare for her. Poor girl. She probably didn't even know it was the Demon King that had her."

Jerry grimaced, "Don't even say it Mary. Damn, I hate that name. It just glorifies him into thinking he's something better than a killer." Mary shrugged and told him she would see him again at the station. Jerry waved her off as he stepped inside. He was mentally prepared for what he would see but even after being with law enforcement for fifteen years, it still bothered him to deal with so much blood.

"Sucks to be the SOB that owns this house. Can you imagine coming home and finding this in your bed?" Jerry was asked by his partner, Detective David Wilson. David Wilson was handsome, young, and possessed a laid back attitude that Jerry didn't appreciate.

"Yeah. Sucks to be him," Jerry muttered. Really he was thinking, "It sucks to be this poor girl." She was the third victim in two months. Jerry looked at the scene that lay before him. A young girl in a long yellow taffeta dress was on the bed with her hands on her stomach. She was encircled in a shroud of her own blood. As Jerry Gonzales slowly forced his eyes to look towards her head, he saw what he didn't want to see. The girl's face had been skinned. She had been robbed of her features and was only left with her bloody skull. On her skull was a delicate crown of small white flowers. It was then that he noticed something that hadn't been at the other crime scenes.

"Son of a bitch," Gonzales whispered.

Above her on the wall, written in her own blood, were the words, "The search for my queen continues."

~ACROSS TOWN~

Listening to her police scanner in the Ludwig News building, reporter Eva Lewis smiled when she heard there had been another murder outside the city limits. Her hands itched in anticipation because she already knew who the murderer was. It was the Demon King. Her Demon King. Eva smiled. Coming up with the moniker "Demon King" was pure genius on her part.

She didn't condone murder but when it helped her career along, she couldn't honestly say that she hated it either. After finding out that the man behind the murders placed a crown of flowers on the heads of his victims, she thought it would be fitting to refer to him as a king. This coupled with his murders being so grisly and brutal...almost demonic...made Eva come up with the nickname the Demon King. Like a mother naming her child, Eva grew attached to the Demon King. She often reminded herself that what he was doing was wrong and he needed to be caught but a small part of her still considered him hers in a way. "Ugh I'm so twisted," Eva said disgustingly to herself.