If We Only Had A Chance

Give An Inch, They Take A Mile

Warning: some dark threats and more mention of a dysfunctional family

I couldn't tell what time it was when I woke up but the sound of banging resonated within my cell walls when I did. Slowly, I peeled my eyes open to see Agent Olken and Kailo waiting for me outside of my cell. Olken was holding a file filled with paperwork and Kailo looked angrier than normal. I sit up and stretch as I wait for the world to come into focus. I walk to the exit door and when it is opened I am immediately apprehended and cuffs are put on me.

"To what do I owe this pleasure? New leads already?" Kailo grabs my arm and walks me to the elevator to go up to I assume the briefing room. When we're in the safety of the elevator he turns to stare at me carefully. There's something different in his eyes and I can't tell if it's hatred or curiosity.

"Your brother left another clue," He says turning back to look forward. "And another body." Agent Olken holds a picture in front of me. It shows a construction site with what seems like a crater that shouldn't be there. "We'll be going over it today with our unit and you'll be telling us what the note means."

"Can you not figure it out on your own?" I ask as the doors to the elevator open.

"Not when he's appealing to you. He knows you're here with us and he wants to get through to you," Kailo said, dragging me to the briefing room.

"Took you long enough to figure that out. I could've told you that yesterday."

"Why didn't you?" Agent Olken says, confusion echoing in the hallways.

"I don't give information that isn't asked of me. How could I be a successful serial killer if I gave away all my plans without any poking and prodding."

Agent Kailo opens the door for me and guides me to a chair with metal armrests instead of the lovely cushioned chairs everyone else is sitting in. Carefully, he takes off the cuffs and only cuffs one of my hands to the armrest.

"I don't even have a weapon, whatever could I do?" I say sarcastically although we both know I could most likely get out of the cuffs and use them as a weapon if I wanted.

"You don't do anything you don't want to do," Agent Kailo whispers, more to himself than me before going to the front of the room to present. I see him shake his head and I wonder what's gotten into him. He's acting differently.

"Okay so we all know of the bridge that burned down yesterday and the body that appeared with it. The dirt under the bridge also happened to be a part of the sample we took from Dominic Omen's office. According to Phoenix the bodies will be numbered one through ten according to his game." Kailo sets up pictures on a glass whiteboard, one of the bridge, one of the body, and the other of the note. I can't read it from the back of the room but I can already tell what it says. The notes aren't in words but an array of animals that says, "Let's play, Mercy. Phoenix do you know what he's talking about?"

"Can I get closer?" I ask and in the quiet of the room I hear someone murmuring about pushing my luck in this room but Kailo still approaches me and uncuffs me from the chair and then to his hand. He guides me to the front of the room to the image as everyone stares. When I see the image fear courses through me immediately. I was never scared of what my brother did. My brother could invoke fear from just being in the room with him. I hate how much fear he can instill within me by merely a game he plays, by just a few words.

"We guessed he meant mercy as in the game, but we also think it's a play on words for your title as The Mercy Killer. We just need you to confirm."

"You're correct in the sense that he's referring to my title. It isn't just my title though. He's giving us the chance to say mercy and save ourselves the embassrement of not finding him before he gets to ten," I say, staring at the words and remembering hearing my brother call into the echoes of the woods that I could plead mercy. He always got a certain satisfaction when I pleaded mercy.