Hiraeth

Prologue

Lil Wayne ft. Bruno Mars- Mirror

The future was never something I gave much thought to. It never dawned me that this is where my life would take me. I had wandered in a haze of depression that never really went away. Despite my long list of shrinks and their endless types of anti-depressants that were supposed to balance whatever chemicals were screwed up in my body. There was never any relief.

Chemicals to fix chemicals, it makes sense. So, why not add my own? Maybe, that's why they never worked. The label does warn against taking the medication with alcohol. One of the two momentarily worked for me at the end of the day. Maybe it was the combination of both. 

How else does one deal with the fact that there are monsters out there who can do monstrous things to innocent people who just want to live? I'm not talking about the Boogeyman or some kind of supernatural entity. I'm talking about people. People who damage others. People who destroy others. People who take the lives of others.

Death and hatred have been a part of my life since I was a little girl. It started with the end of my parents, when I walked through the doors of the state's child protective services, and it followed me through almost every foster home I stepped foot in.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate anyone for what happened or what happens to me. After all, we're all human and victims of our own vices. I'm no Mother Teresa. I solve murders to keep myself from skydiving without a parachute. It keeps me on my toes, keeps me motivated, and gives me purpose. A purpose to do anything other than to stop existing.

It had taken me a month to find one woman. The perfect wolf in sheep's clothing. At the beginning of this case, I had spoken to her. I had brushed her off as just an innocent bystander. Someone who was just caught in the middle of a shit storm. She played me so well during our meeting.

The beautiful English Literature teacher all the kids have a crush on. A predator with the perfect luring technique. Reading assignments, grading papers, parent/ teacher meetings, and murder by night. Quite the schedule for her. She didn't have a pattern, only one of the students that had been killed was part of her class. None of the students were connected, they didn't know one another. In fact, the only thing they did have in common was that they all went to the same school.

Everything always led me to her. The night I finally caught her, she sat across from me looking me dead in the eyes and I saw something that scared me. Something familiar. It was why I didn't see the animal sitting across from me for what she truly was the day we met. I didn't see because I didn't want to see just how alike we are.

"I guess I picked the wrong side to play for, huh?" she asked me as she was being escorted out.

The way she said it. It was like she too had recognized what was in front of her. At that moment, I wished I had taken the open shot I had when I had the chance. Anger boiled up in the pit of my belly and spread through my body aggressively. Like wildfire. I left the station before anyone could try and say a single word to me.

It can't get any worse than that I thought as I chugged down the bottle of cheap vodka. Six kids, slaughtered, defiled, and deprived of a wholesome life that could have taken them to a better place. That's what gets me the most. The reason why most of my nights end at the end of a bottle or in some stranger's bed after some seriously screwed-up life decisions.

"Madison," I jumped at the sound of the chief's booming voice.

I looked up from my desk to see him standing in his office doorway. He motioned me to follow him into his office. I sighed closing the file in front of me. I shoved it into the bottom drawer of my desk with the two other cases that had fucked up my head worse than it already was. I just really want to go home and watch weird horror anime shows for the next week.