In the Dark

6 A.M. (Chapter 1)

Hi. Yes, I changed tenses, and the eerie foreshadowing present tense voice is over (I'm sorry).

Six in the morning and she hadn't slept a wink.

Six in the morning and she was already back at the police station, writing up report after report of evidence and what went down.

Another murder. Of course there was, there always had to be another murder. Addie grumbled to herself as she slammed her head down on her desk. The night before had been oh-so exhausting, and all she wanted to do was sleep. Or cry.

That sounded nice.

"Morning Myers," fellow coworkers and mutual friends of the lovely law enforcement would say, passing by.

Someone would pour her a cup of coffee and thrust it at her, saying something like, "You have a long day ahead of you, drink up!" and Addie would just grumble and push it to the side. Not even coffee could save her today, so why bother?

She kept replaying the night before in her head. Seeing the mayor of her very own town lifeless on the floor, blood still spewing from his veins. Still alive at first, but barely breathing, barely anything at all.

And an etching engraved in his arm, with a knife, she supposed. The initials carved "CG". Cotheran Gray. He had been responsible for this. But that was no surprise.

She had spent the whole night at that darn house. Talking to the police. The detective. Taking photographic evidence. Observing the evidence. Collecting that evidence. And asking herself every second she could get a breath, why? Why hadn't they worked harder to find Cotheran earlier? Why had they waited this long? Why had it come to this?

Addie wanted to be done. She did this often, of course, but never with someone so important. Important people called for more urgency, and it was disturbing, she had to admit. It really did prove how no one was ever really safe - no matter how successful you were.

It was then that Ella walked up to her, Ella in all her glory, Ella who had insisted Addie have at least one cup of coffee, Ella who scared her to keep her awake, Ella who kept coming back to make sure she was okay.

"Do you not have any work to do?" Addie laughed.

"I do," Ella protested. "The chief wants to see you."

Addie opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it once more, just to say: "Oh."

Chief Darren Rogers, a name she loathed to remember, and so she just called him Chief.

Standing up, Addie saved her computer file and walked to the doorway of the Chief of Police's office.

"Uh...Chief?" she said, knocking on the door frame.

"Myers! Good to see you up," he said, sitting at his desk all supreme-like. "How'd you sleep?"

"I didn't."

"I know," he grinned. "I just wanted to let you know that Bennett is on his way, so get your reports and whatnot prepared to walk him through it."

Shoot. How had she forgotten?

Detective Bennett was going to be Addie's partner for this case, and although he was a nice man, their brief conversation the night before had been tight. The last time they worked together was when Addie was 21, brand new to the job. She had spilled the DNA samples, their best evidence, almost ruining the case. But that was almost three years ago. Things would be different now, right?

Addie nodded. "Thanks Chief."

He looked up at her, making her eyes sting. "How are you doing, Addie?"

Addie.

"What?"

"With all of this. The mayor cared for us so deeply. My wife couldn't sleep last night; she was too busy crying." He sighed. "The only thing I keep telling myself is that someone needs to find Cotheran and end this. For all I know, his next victim could be my wife!"

"It better not! Everyone loves your wife. They would go into a complete outrage if she died. We'd probably all be put out of our jobs," she added bitterly. But the chief didn't notice. He never notice anything she did anymore.

"I'm praying this is the case is our chance. Please tell me you have some good evidence this time around."

"Ha! Well there's no DNA this time, so Bennett won't have to worry about that," Addie said, walking towards the door.

"Hallelujah! Don't put us out of our jobs either, Addie Myers!"

"I'll try my best," she said, and with that, she shut the door behind her. And for the first time that morning, she drank that cup of coffee from Ella and didn't crash at her desk. Bennett would be there any second, and Addie wanted to be ready.

************

HELLO LOVELY HUMAN BEINGS!

I feel like I've committed a horrible crime for not updating sooner, but I procrastinated making any decisions about how I wanted this chapter to go, but here we are. I've done it. *pats self on back* Anyways, have a wonderful day and I'll see you guys soon.

<3 Starlight