Rampage - Patrick Hockstetter

Chapter 30

"Honey?" Dexter called, "What are you doing home this early?"

Jay stopped in the living room corridor before running a hand through her hair and huffing, "I- uh- just wasn't feeling the party I guess."

She watched as her dad peered over the rim of his glasses towards her. "Oh okay... well how was it?" He asked.

Hesitating again, Jay glanced to her feet, "It was... fine... wasn't really eventful."

Dexter nodded, peering down at his book again. "While you were gone I got a call from Butch." Her father croaked deeply.

Jay felt her eyes widen and her hands clench the hem of her dress, "W-What happened? Are there any leads?"

Simply shaking his head, Jay sat on the lounge chair next to her father, listening intently. "He didn't reveal too much about it just the part about a missing boy from New York who was found in a sewer drain..."

Furrowing her eyebrows, she watched her father's expression remain the same.

"Alive."

Jay shot up from the couch, stumbling down the hallway to her room. Swinging open her desk drawer, she shuffled through papers before pulling out a composition notebook, snagging a pen from her cup of utensils on the way.

"This is amazing... uh... holy shit, what did he say?" Jay asked flipping to an open page.

Dexter shrugged, pulling his book back to his face, "Told Butch that what he saw wasn't human.."

Jay scribbled in her notebook quickly, glancing to her dad after. "So it is an animal."

Dexter pinched his glasses and removed them, folding them and putting them in the pocket of his shirt. "He didn't say that either."

"W..What could it have been...."

He paused, quietly scanning the room before getting up from the couch and walking over to the kitchen. "Since he's talked to Butch, all he's said is that what he saw... scared the life out of him. He floated up to heaven and God threw him back down."

The house fell silent. The crickets from outside chirped quietly as the wind swung the screen door open and closed.

"So what you're telling me is that t-this... person thing... is terrorizing kids just f-for... shits and giggles?" Jay scoffed.

"What I'm trying to say is that whatever this thing maybe... our job on this case is to find what it is, who it is and why. Why are they targeting thirteen year old children?"

Jay nodded, clutching her notebook in her hand looking down at her boots. "But what are they gaining from any of this?"

"What do they have to lose?"

——

The two pushed through the doors, pacing down the long hallway. Nurses brushing by with stacks of paper and stethoscopes wrapped around their necks.

"Hello... how may I help you two." The receptionist asked. Jay turned to her dad watching as he pulled out his badge, instinctively, she pulled hers out as well.

"Detective Sloan and Sloan, we're here involving a possible kidnapping." Dexter rambled deeply.

The nurse furrowed her brows as she typed on her computer, "I'm sorry but that window has been closed... no one is allowed back there."

"But-" Jay started.

"Dex!"

The two turned as Butch Bowers made his way towards them. "They're with me m'am."