The Collector

-Act 2-

"What exactly's the difference between this crime scene and the others?" Faith asked Detective Williams, wondering if coming here was even worth the trouble. 

"Well.. I was looking at all the cases you thought were related and I realized something." He responded.

"Oh yeah, what did you find out?"

"I'll tell you once we actually get there." Faith stopped to stare him down, wondering if he was bullshitting. 

"I've been doubted by the entire force for a couple months now, this entire case has almost cost me my job if not already, if this isn't big then I might as well just leave now." Faith crossed her arms. 

"Jesus Faith, you need to ca-" 

"Calm down? That's what you want me to do after all of this? Unsolved crime after another, ones a homicide, ones a suicide, and I'm trying to connect them all together and actually get somewhere with these cases instead of just sticking them in a box and closing them. After all my dedication, all the doubt that's been on put on me, after a fucking drunk cab tries to kill me, you want to mess with me?"

Detective Williams just stood in silence, looking down at the ground. After a couple of moments of silence, he cleared his throat. 

"...Well, it was gon'a be a surprise, but then again this is a crime scene so, sorry for trying to bring a bit of positive humor into the mix." Faith only rolled her eyes at him. "When I was checking the cases, in some of the reports and pictures I saw small glimpses of satanic kind of ritual-ly stuff. It took a lot of digging, but after talking with some of the cops who were apart of a lot of these cases, they all saw.. 'devil stuff' I guess? Turns out, in this building, there's little of it, but there's signs of satanic belief and ritual items in this house and near the victim. I made sure to tell the cops not to touch anything until you arrived. So uh.. turns out they're might be a connection after all as crazy as it is to admit. "

Faith felt a heavy feeling inside. She should be happy to finally have someone believe her, and on top of that even find a similarity between all the cases, but she wasn't. Maybe she just needed to see the proof for herself. She was anxious to see if this true and where this would lead the case.

".. I'm glad you see things my way now, come on, show me inside."

"Right on!" 

"Never say that again." Faith looked at him.

"What? I'm hip."

"Your lucky that thing still works, you're like, what? 48 now?"

Williams sighed, and opened the door of the old building for Faith. 

"Hmph, nobody in this damn state is positive.." He mumbled to himself, and walked him behind her. "Right up that stairwell in front of us is where the victim is. After you look around yourself, I'll show you to the connections, pretty hard to find actually, but did it for you." He winked. 

"Uh, yeah." Faith looked at the stairwell, then at her surroundings. Everything was dusty, seemed like this place hadn't even been inhabited for the longest. Either the house owner was disabled, or he was brought here. Only explanation for the dust. To her right was just a creepy hallway with two doors in it, and an old vase at the end. She felt very weary of the house already. To her left was just a wall and an open entrance to the living room. 

Williams stepped into her line sight to her left. "Oh no, that's for you yet. Crime scenes up there." He said, pointing his finger up. 

Faith turned to the stairway and and slowly went up the stairs. Each step gave an unsettling creeaaak.