Stockholm Syndrome

CHAPTER 1: Tale of the Mist

Another victim has been murdered mercilessly. Every day, I come to the office to see a pile of paperwork. It isn't a big junk of company stats or architectural designs. Each sheet of paper stacked and bounded indicates a summary of the life another innocent civilian lived until he or she dies unknown in this town.

Set in the heart of Epping Forest yet just 12 miles from the center of London, Loughton is now known as the most mysterious place in the South-West of Essex.

Population decreased from 31,106 residents during 2009 and now left with 24,687. Numbers of civilians were missing since the 1970s for no specific reason, the elders still hold onto The Tale of the Mist.

It was part of the culture in town, once you enter and prolonged your stay for more than a week, a knock on your door in the middle of the night will wake your tired soul, with no hesitation you'll force yourself to answer and see that old people are already bombarding your space.

The so-called tale tells that every year, exactly one hundred and thirty people get abducted, and forty-seven of those get killed. Eighty-three people were lucky to escape since the '90s but those who return from the mysterious woods of the Epping Forest remember nothing but the day before they got kidnapped.

It is said that the mist captures anything it feels the need to feast on when hungry, no one ever sees it, feels it, nor hears. If a child was taken, it will take two months for it to return, if it was an adult, the mist consumes four months caging the human.

I rubbed my temples to comprehend the following numbers I see noted by the pile. A dozen deaths in two weeks. Who would do such a thing? That is my job, to investigate such heinous crimes and hopefully bring justice to the people, still.

A knock on the door shook me awake from deep thought "Officer Nate..." I welcome, together, we are assigned to investigate this puzzle pieced case. He sits in front of me and exhales a big sigh.

"Hey, Ash." He acknowledges my presence after a while of rummaging thoughts. We stare at each other eye to eye like we always do.

"Another dead body was found by the lake." He says, eyes still burning with mine, no emotion was given. If he thinks I'll give up so easily. I won't.

"I know, it is a girl at the age of nine coming home from her winning soccer match." He kept his contact with me within minutes... He seemed to comprehend the scenario

and with that, he loses it. "F*cckk!" he slams his fist to the vacant table beside mine.

This is how we share information and it is quite heartbreaking, the first one to move contact loses and gets to pay lunch.

We both decide this kind of exchange to train ourselves, to have a strong mind from the merciless crimes done to these innocent civilians

I finished a degree in psychology even when my parents never supported me. I thought I'd end up in being some school's counselor or a company's employee, life surprises you. I don't call my current state as a victim of "Job Mismatch," I learned to love it ever since I entered this mysterious town for a new start.

Nate studies the cork board I made. Pins, strings, pictures, descriptions of all those people whose death had no justice. There was no pattern... yet.

He sighs again and shakes his head. "I swear I'm going to kill this psycho when we find out..." But we can't. We have no lead or a start... but it's just the beginning of looking more into the case, time is ticking and with each second that passes by, the damn killer might be holding another person captive.

"Then let's find him." I started to get back to the papers laying at my desk waiting to be read. "What?" Nate asks, I furrowed my brows at him. "What?" I asked back.

"You said him how can you be so sure?" oh, he was talking about my chosen sexuality for the alleged mass murderer. I shrugged as an answer.

There is this something in the pit of my stomach saying that this unknown killer is of male species.

The afternoon rolled by and Nate invited me to lunch, of course, his pay since he lost in the exchange.

"So... Where to, now?" We have no permanent lunch-place, he usually drives off and when a store offers food we find worthy of the price, we drive to the place.

But I think the old cafe by the dead end of the road five blocks away was where I'd want to spend my lunch. It has this calming atmosphere and it makes my mind and self at ease.

Nate orders me the usual black coffee and some chocolate fudge cake sandwich. My mind wanders off to how long this case will keep on going? Parents- relatives- of these victims come every day to our office, begging for news and justice. It's somehow frustrating to have almost half the population in town to depend on you.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Nate startled me with my emotional-thinking "more like... a dollar for my thoughts" I rolled my eyes and he laughs. "You're only twenty-four yet you look like a forty-year-old woman with 20 kids dealing with menopause" I snapped my head at him and he continuously makes fun of me.

"Oh yeah? Well, you're 25 and still whine like a baby when the lights in your room are turned off."

"Did you just call me baby?"

Damn this boy.

"Oh, would you please shut up?" Nate shrugs in return and stirs his coffee not having thoughts of drinking it.

His face falls down after mere seconds then he looks up at me. "Why do we have this fate?" He asks saddening. I think about the previous crimes we solved, some won in the eyes of the jury, some also now live with tears, deprived of justice.

I offered him a smile, "Because life is a game of survival and if you don't know how to play with it in your hands, you'll lose all the time."

As we finish lunch, we both decided to stop talking about work while we're outside of it. Nate headed off to the men's CR. As I wait outside of his jet black eclipse, a man came running in on me. Damn Nate for not having me stay inside his baby of a car.

The man seemed like someone was chasing him but there was no one. "Hey... hey!" I shook him wake of the trauma he plays inside his head. "What happened?" I asked cautiously.

The man stood up immediately shaking his head, "I am officer Ashley Keaton and I can help you." My voice came out as soothingly calm. He just shook his head a no, then ran off stumbling.

I ran to the opposite direction and searched for some sign of life indicating the earlier man's shock. I kept walking until the face of a No Road; Dead End sign slapped me to return. On my walk back, I kept being conscious about what is around me.

A sound of rustling came from my right. The gun Nate lets me keep rests loaded on my belt. I kept my senses keen.

As I near the side of darkened trees, a black cat came jumping at me to death. I clutched my chest hard and controlled my breathing.

But only a fool would believe that it was only a tiny little pussy.

My feet dragged me closer to the bundle of trees and I swear I heard someone breathing. My eyes scanned the area.

"Ashhhh!!!" For the second time of adrenaline coursing through my veins, I almost fired the gun to nowhere because of Nate. I took a step back from the darkened place and hissed at him. "Shut up"

When I came back, there was no more. The heavy feeling I had was gone.

"It took you 20 minutes to piss? I thought you left me." I continued to glare at him.

"woaah.. calm down." But I can't.

We walked back to his car, me throwing daggers at his back. I hopped in, without saying a word. An uneasy silence fell between us, as he sped his car off, I saw something that caught all my senses to be numb.

Green piercing eyes watching mine. But it wasn't that that caught my attention.

It was the bloody knife he held in his right hand, his white shirt soaking red and that was the only description I captured with my own eyes.