Playing With Fire

Original Ending

     "We think it could lead to a higher-up in the ring or, if we're lucky, maybe the Shinigami themselves. We need you down here so you can start analyzing the new information."

     "Understood, sir. I'll be there as soon as I can."

     As soon as I hung up the phone I screeched out of frustration.

     "Are you kidding me! I left a freaking blood sample behind! Three years of this and I go down because of three boys and a cat?!"

     I knew that the blood sample would be heading straight to Forensics. I didn't know how long it would take anybody to show up and start testing the blood, but I knew that I had to be there when it came. I couldn't allow the government to know who the Shinigami truly was. I had to be quick and precise with what I was about to do. I had to switch out the blood sample that they had collected with Lucas, a coworker of mine, who had gotten quite suspicious of me lately. I had collected the blood during a bust that we had both been on where he had gotten shot. I had to be careful doing the switch and avoid people and cameras.

     Walking into the field office I flashed my badge towards the front desk with a small smile. Once I was into the hallways of the office it seemed deserted since most people had gone home for the night. This allowed me to easily slip into the forensic lab.

     When I entered the lab I looked around. I saw the same sterile white floors and walls that were blinding, the same cold metal tables scattered at different intervals with different papers and information on them, the same lighting that gave the room a foreboding feeling. Everything was the same, except for one little table near the middle of the room that had just what I was looking for.

     I walked toward the table. The sounds of my gym shoes making slight squeaks against the floor. When I arrived at the table I picked up the report given to us by the police and started reading it. From the information they gave us, it didn't seem like they had any information on the Shinigami besides the possible blood sample that was found, making my job all the easier. I pulled the second blood sample out of my jacket pocket and replaced it with the original. As I slipped the real blood sample into my pocket Jones walked in.

     God, I hate interns. I really really hate interns.

     "Oh, hi, Miss Hansen. What are you doing here?" he inquired.

     Always so freaking nosy. I have more right to be in here than he does.

     "Just looking at the new evidence that came in. I wanted to make sure we got the same information and see the possible blood sample that is about to take this guy down. What about you? I thought you would have headed home by now. It is pretty late."

     " I just left my bag in here earlier from when I was running errands. What happened to your hand?"

     "I got a new cat. She doesn't seem to enjoy being picked up," I answer with a sheepish smile and a shrug as I start walking towards the door.

     As I'm passing by him he reaches out for my arm.

     "Do you need anything before I leave? Coffee, maybe?"

     Once he grabs my arm pulling me to a stop, the jolt causes the original blood slide to fall out of my pocket. He glances down and looks back to me with confusion on his face as I reach behind me for one of the lab trays.

     "Is that what I think i-"

     He never got to finish his sentence as I pushed my hand, that was now holding a scalpel, into his carotid artery and pulled it out. He pulled his hands up trying to cover his neck but it did little against the spurting wound. I knew I didn't have much time before the forensics team arrived and they saw the footage of me stabbing him so I quickly left the room and as the door closed, I heard his body hit the ground.

     I slipped out through a back exit close to the lab and made a break toward the surrounding trees. All I could do was trust my instincts as I ran through the pitch-black forest. I had to trust them and whatever Gods existed to keep me alive as I tried to stop imagining what was to come. To stop imagining the search teams that were looking for me. The canines that would soon be on my trail; a trail I should've been covering. To stop imagining the endless torture and interrogation that was coming my way. The sensation of blood dripping down my torn skin, an ache following the droplets haunted me. I needed to be focusing on running until my body gave out. I needed to stop thinking and focus on surviving, but the more I tried, the louder they came back. The louder they screamed. They refused to be ignored. They wanted me to know I had been playing with fire.

     And I was finally getting burned.

     I ran and ran until my lungs felt like an inferno that matched the fire in my legs that had finally given out underneath me. I knew that I couldn't go on any further and I would soon be caught. I could hear the barking of the dogs and the yelling of my superior demanding that I be found and pay for my sins.

     I couldn't allow myself to get caught. I couldn't allow the screaming of my thoughts to continue any longer. I needed to get out of this. I needed to silence the voices yelling in my mind. So with a shaking hand, I brought a large vial of Ongezien to my lips and threw it back.

     Soon after, I felt a trail of tears running down my face, their burn the same intensity felt throughout my body. I took a shaky breath and allowed my mind to submit to the darkness creeping up on it.

     All these years I've been playing with fire and I was never prepared for when the match ran out.