The Hybrid Killer

Enter The Detective

    She had just finished examining evidence for another case when the phone rang. Her sleep-deprived feet subconsciously carried her over to the phone mounted on the wall, which was ringing with the most ear-splitting tone the device could've came with. The small screen read "Siriunt Police Station", the same station her father worked at and regularly hired her to work on cases.

    Picking up the phone, voice weak from all the work and tired from the past few days, a programmed response. "Hello, Detective Bria here. What is the situation?"

    Her father's somewhat raspy voice was on the other side of the line. "Bria, I have a case for you to handle. It's a pretty serious one, so better be prepared."

    "Finally! You never let me handle your serious cases! They always get solved before I even get a good look into it. Which case is this? The burglary streams at banks across the city, and the only signs are some shattered glass and those calling cards? Oh, or is it the-"

    "Bria, calm down. No, it's  not the burglary or any of the others you're thinking. I'm assigning you to the hybrid killer case."

    Bria's father must of been able to tell that she was shaken by the news. Her face turned paler than the eggshell-colored walls. The fox tail that used to always be perky and sway side to side lowered and drooped down, her ears flattening against her head.

    "T-the hybrid killer? I-isn't that the guy that-"

    "The guy that killed your mother a few months ago? Yes, I'm afraid it's THAT hybrid killer. There was another murder a few hours ago and, with an incredible lack of physical evidence at the moment to track down the killer, I figured I'd turn to only the best detective around."

    Bria felt her cheeks warming from her father's compliment and responded, "I'll do it. I'll head down to the station tomorrow to look at the current evidence, and see what I can start stringing together and where the major gaps are. Is that alright with you, Chief?"

    The fox girl smiled as her father chuckled slightly at the fact she had called him chief before wishing her a good night. Once the phone pinged to signal the call was over, it was carefully remounted on the base with steady hands, as the phone had a tendency to slip off of the base after it seemed to be mounted.

   Exhaustion sweeping over her, Bria stumbled to her bedroom. Wary from the day's work and thinking solely about the work ahead of her, she collapsed onto her mattress of solitude, drifting away in the silky waves she wrapped around her pale self. Darkness was all that she could feel, while somewhere else not too far away, it was all a youth with blood gone cold could feel.

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    The front door of the station opened with an ear-splitting creak as the young detective forced it to open. The electric circuits in the door had fried earlier that morning before she had arrived, so the door had to manually be forced open until it was able to be repaired.

    Soft yellow lights hung from the bleached ceiling in long rows, illuminating dull blue walls and marble floors, with it's specks of black and gray across the smooth, shimmering surface. A fairly large desk, littered with computer monitors, screens and file holders, was positioned in the corner of the large room that Bria had entered. She walked by some of the officers on her way to gain access to the evidence room, noticing tensions were still around from the previous night's murder, which she had seen in the news that very morning.

    The desk receptionist's voice was somewhat neutral, even robotic. The way she addressed Bria was as if all she was programmed to do was to get people to where they had to be as quickly as possible so she could go back to drinking whatever she had sitting around on a half-broken coaster.

    "Welcome, how may I help you?"

    Bria tried not to focus on the robotic tone and replied, "I'm Bria Stellicus. The chief hired me to work on the current Hybrid Killer case. I'm here to pick up a badge with permission to enter the evidence room."

    After showing her badge to the robotic woman, she received an access pass on a lanyard, which she promptly put around her neck. Walking through maze-like halls and down a flight of stairs that bridged the transition from dull blue wallpaper to cement everywhere the eye could see, Bria noticed the sound of feet behind her.

    With a quick turn, she saw a man about five years about older than her, marking his age at around thirty years of age. He was in uniform, had blond hair and deep green eyes, and seemed to be almost ghostly. The deep eyes of his seemed to have a certain lack of emotion in them, as if someone had merely taken it and stripped it from him in his slumber. Bria paid no mind to it, seeing as it was early in the morning.

    Confused by the stranger, the young officer asked, "Excuse me, miss, but I am going to have to request to see a pass and a badge."

    Slowly, Bria complied, showing him the pass around her neck and her detective's badge. The officer nodded, staring as if he was intimidated at her badge.

    "What case are you here to investigate?"

    "The current Hybrid Killer case." The response was automatic, seeming as if Bria had already known the question was coming and was anticipating the question's answering.

    The officer paused for a moment. "I see... The name's Farai Hart."

    Smiling, the fox detective responded in a friendly voice, "I'm Bria Stellicus."

    "Stellicus..." The voice sounded like contemplation and deep thought personified. "Are you the chief's daughter, then?"

    Bria nodded and exclaimed, "Yep!" There was a brief pause before she added, "Well, I'd best be off now. Have to get down to the evidence room and start piecing this case together. Perhaps I'll see you around, Officer Hart."

    "Yes, perhaps... fate does have a way of bringing those who were meant to meet being placed in the same place numerous times, after all."

    Confusion washed over Bria's face as Officer Hart walked back up the stairs. With a shrug, she resumed her journey and entered a large room surrounded with steel fencing and stuffed full of boxes upon boxes, shelves upon shelves of evidence for numerous cases.

    Upon sliding inside the tight-fit of a gate once she received permission to enter from the guard, Bria proceeded along through small corridors until she came to exactly what she was looking for. A list, attached to a plastic wall, one of the five which encased a handful of objects found during the four crimes. Carefully, the small room of murder tools was lifted off of the shelf and set onto a table in a larger portion of the room.

    Taking a deep breath, Bria said aloud to no one in particular, "Let the closing of a case begin."