Stephanie Madonna: Catching a Monster

Chapter 7: You Are Not Wonder Woman

I made it to the address that Sarah Rosemary screamed at me. I parked, checked my gun to see how much ammo I had left, reloaded my weapon, opened my car door, and slowly closed the door. I surveyed my surroundings. I pulled my radio from my waistband, "2243 Kyteler RD. Detective Stephanie Madonna." I put the radio back on my waistband, and turned it off. I did not want my radio to go off, I had no idea who or what was there.

Walking around the streets, I saw nothing but crackheads, local drug dealers who were trying to pretend they weren't doing anything, and kids without parental supervision, it's a sad case in Murderers Row. Even today, Murderers Row has to be the saddest place on planet earth. I suggested to my dad we should do a fundraiser to help the people down here, but he shoots me down everytime.

Saying "Those people can work just like you and me. They don't need handouts. Giving somebody a hand out is giving them a easy way out." Which I find is total bullshit. These people need help from us. It's not their fault they were put in a bad situation. Some of these people never had a chance. Never had a true chance to live a great life like I did. Sometimes I wonder if he really is my father or did my mother cheat on him with somebody else.

"Stephanie ...." I heard my name coming from an alleyway. The voice sounded like it was right behind me. Gave me the chills. I felt something very sinister around me.

"Stephanie ..." The voice called again. I was very reluctant to go down the alleyway without backup. I'll be wasting time if I waited for backup to arrive.

"You missed a dinner date with your husband to be here! Go after that voice!" The voice in my head reminded me. My hands were now shaking again. I started to hyperventilate. The stress and anxiety were getting to me again.

"Stephanie ..." Now the voice sounded right next to me. FUCK! I headed down the alleyway. The alleyway felt like it was four miles long. The longest alleyway I've ever been down. I heard cats meowing at me, bottles being broken, I heard people arguing in the distance, and my heart beat again was inside of my ears.

I heard noise coming from behind the trash can. Sounded like somebody was rummaging through the trash. Probably a homeless guy.

"Whoever is back there, please get from behind the trash can." I said to the person. The noise stopped, and the trash can began to move. "Come out slowly. With your hands in the air."

The person began to walk slowly from behind the trash can. Looked to be in really bad shape. The person seemed to be bleeding from somewhere. I needed to help the person but I also needed to make sure the person wasn't a threat to me.

The person came from the trash can with their back turned to me and their hands in the air, "Tony?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"It's me Stephanie." I said to him in a reassuring voice. I knew Tony when I used to patrol the area. He's a nice guy but he fell onto hard times. He lost his wife and kids in a car accident. He began to drink a lot, and he started to do a wide range of drugs. I try to help him everytime I see him.

"Why do you have a gun pointed at me?" Tony asked as he turned around with a look of fear on his face.

"There's some strange things going on Tony." I said as I put my gun back into my holster. "Are you okay? It looks like you're bleeding."

"Couple of local kids beat me up pretty good. You know, the usual stuff I have to deal with." Tony said with a smile. Tony seemed to be in good spirits around me. "So, Steph, I've been thinking. When are we going to finally settle down together?" I forgot to mention that he also wanted us to get married one day, and have kids.

"You know the drill Tony. You know I'm married with a kid of my own already." I said to him with a smile. "I will take you out for a hot meal one day. Lord knows you need it. Look at how skinny you are now."

"That would be ni ..." Tony eyes grew big, and he pointed behind me. "STEPHANIE WATCH OUT!"

I turned around as I pulled my gun but it was to late. White powder was thrown into my face. My muscle tensed up. I couldn't move anything. Couldn't move my eyelids, my nose, my lips, my eyes, my fingers, everything was frozen. I tried yelling but nothing came out.

"So, you're Detective Stephanie Madonna. You're the one that's been trying to stop me." A fairly deep manly voice said to me from behind. "My mother told me you came by asking about me. How I died? Why they killed me? Those were the same questions I asked her when I picked her, and my father up today. You're probably wondering why you cannot move right now or speak." Damon started to walk in front of me. He was wearing a long trench coat, with a black fedora, with the old fashioned plague mask, a nice turtleneck shirt, nice dress slacks, and long black boots. Damon looked very scary.

"It's a new drug I'm trying out. It's non-lethal. It's sole purpose is to make everything in your body seize up. You basically become a human statue. Now, you're probably wondering why I didn't kill you instead of just freezing you in place. Well, take this warning Stephanie Madonna." Damon said as he touched my shoulder.

"I'm always one step ahead of you. I will always be one step ahead of you. Any, and everything you do I will find out, and I will stop you. I am not coming after you, or your police force. Only coming after the people who knew what my parents did, and did nothing about it. Let's hope none of your friends at the police department doesn't know anything about my case, cause if they do, they will die. Stephanie if you get in my way again, the next time the drug will be lethal and you will die a long, painful death." Damon said as he walked away. "The drug should stop working in a few minutes. See you soon, for your sake, you better hope you don't see me soon."