The Alexandru Chronicles: The Beginning (6 page)

“
Don't worry...I'm not here to get on to you about anything...” when she smiled, he instantly relaxed.

“
I just want some information. Who called you and your partner out about the dead body?”  he nervously looked over at his partner.

Glancing behind her at Officer Gaven, Genevieve noted the disgruntle frown on his face. From his apparent deep scowl, it was obvious that he wasn't happy that his partner was talking to her. Most likely Office Carven would get a lot of heat from him, but that couldn't be helped – she needed answers.

Besides they all were on the same side.

She couldn't understand, why detectives and street cops were always acting as if they had a beef with one another.

Then again, maybe it was just her precinct.

Smiling over at Gaven, she waved to him. After turning back to Officer Carven, she repeated her question, “So..., again..., what happened?”

Giving his partner one last, wary, glance, he pulled his attention back to her. “Around eight, the dispatcher told us to head over here...Supposedly, the landlady, here, wanted to kick one of her tenants out, but she was afraid to go into the tenant's apartment to do so.”

“So, once you got here, what happened?”

“
We went upstairs to the apartment in question and first we knocked...When the tenant didn't come to the door, the landlady opened it for us and we went inside...”

“
And?”

“
That's when we found him...dead...”

“
What made you two come to the conclusion that this was a homicide?”

Officer Carven again looked nervously over at his partner. When eventually he spoke, there was a shakiness to his voice, “Well, that's the thing... After finding the body, one of them...” he motioned over to one of the five idiots, that had earlier accosted her. “Came up to us and told both Officer Gavin and I, about this red head that they had seen the victim with—last night.”

Really this explanation didn't tell Genevieve anything. Yet, she decided that it was best to go on and see if there was anything more that Officer Carven could give her – possibly a clue.

“
Who was the victim to them?”

“
A buddy...they knew him only as the
Sandman
.”

“
When was he seen with the red head?”

“
I don't know...they all weren't sure on the exact time...it could have been around nine or later than that.” when Genevieve didn't reply, he said, “The one thing they all could agree on, was that they all wanted to sleep with this red head...Yet, their buddy was the lucky one to do so.”

Or unlucky one. If he was dead, soon after, then he really wasn't lucky.

“So did they give a description of this woman?”

“
Not exactly...” noting her frown, he said, “They said that there was something unreal about her.”

“
Unreal?”

“
Their words...”

“
Is that it?”

“
Except that they all saw her leaving their buddy's apartment...”

“
I suppose you don't have an exact time for that either?”

“
No...just that when they looked at this woman, again, there was something new about her that scared the crap out of them...”

“
Like what?”

“
I don't know...All they said, was that her face looked different...Anyway after she had left, they all five decided to head over to their buddy's apartment to see him...”

“
And?” she perplexedly looked over to her five wannabees.

“
They claim that they knocked..., but he just wouldn't come to the door.”

Chapter Six

Now

“Ah...Gen..., we're here?”

It was Kyle's persisted voice, that had her preoccupied thoughts yanked back to reality.

She was sitting in her car, staring up at a building that looked more friendly during the day than it did at night. Nervously glancing over at her car clock, she noted that it was already half past one in the morning – she could wait.

Yet, where was the fun in that?

Besides her detective brain was already kicking in, and she had this unhealthy desire to find herself a corpse – her corpse to be more exact.

A stiff didn't just disappear from the morgue.

Possibly it got up and walked out?

Where had that thought come from. No way and hell had that happened.

Rationally speaking—dead was dead.

As much as she tried to rationalize this, though, there was still this nagging feeling that this whole situation wasn't right.

The body disappearing from the morgue, her sitting in her car across from an eery building that appeared to be straight out of a horror movie, and now she had this unhealthy stupidity to get out of her car and enter that eery building.

Yea, you didn't get any more stupid than that.

Possibly she had a death wish.

Or an unhealthy desire to be scared shitless. Her gut told her, that if she was dumb enough to enter this building, she would definitely find either one – possibly both.

Possibly she should consider committing herself to the nearest mental institution. There had to be something in a psychiatrist’s patient study, on being so overly stupid; that it was categorize as insanity. 

Hesitantly glancing over at her partner, she could see that Kyle was looking at the door handle as if it was a poisonous viper – not wanting to touch it.

Come back during the day.

That's what her rational voice, kept telling her.

Yet, instead of listening to it. She found herself unlocking the door and exiting her car.

As she leaned against her door, still half way in the car, she was surprised by how chilly the night air was. They were going through a heatwave, where, during the daytime and nighttime, the temperature outside was practically the same.

As she stood there, trying to get her nerves under control, she noted that the chill in the air wasn't the only thing off. There was this light fog, that had immersed itself around the structure. And it was, right at that moment, traveling over the ground toward them – as if welcoming them.

If the fog wasn't bad enough, there were tons of little shadows creeping from crevice to crevice – as if trying to get a better look at the strangers who had just arrived.

Swallowing down the nervous lump in her throat, Genevieve tensely stared down at her car's welcoming seat.

It was that unbearable urge to jump back into her car, that had her quickly closing the door and hastily taking those first few steps over to that ominous building.

It's just a building.

That's what she kept telling herself, as she walked toward it.

Granted it's scarier than hell, but it's just a building.

When she saw one of the shadows suddenly scurry out of the crevice it had been hiding in, she abruptly halted in her tracks and practically screamed when she felt someone ram into her. Swiftly turning around, she was surprised and, at the same time, relieved, to see that it was only Kyle.

She hadn't been paying that much attention to what he had been doing. So lost had she been in the eeriness in front of her, that she hadn't even noticed that he had gotten out of the car.

In all honesty, she wouldn't have blamed him, if he had wanted to stay in the car. Yet, just knowing that he was there beside her, brought her some comfort. 

As she looked from his disgruntle frown, back to her car, she was tempted again by the idea of getting back inside the safety of her car, and trying this in the day time.

Yet, it was the thought of what the men in her precinct would say about her, - “
Detective Freeman is a coward...Of course she is, she's a woman. What do you expect from a woman? They all cry and scream at the drop of a dime” -
that had her not doing this. 

If she was a man, she wouldn't have to worry about such talk.

As it was, she was a woman working in a male dominate profession; she had to follow through with the task in front of – there was no turning back.

As they entered the building, she felt the fog seep into her clothes and the chill became worse as they ascended up the stairs to the disappearing corpse's apartment.

As they silently walked, not saying a word to each other, Genevieve noted how eerily deserted the hallway was. There were no gang members or drug dealers hanging out of doorways—making snide remarks or snickering at them.  At this point, Genevieve would have been relieved to see a prostitute making inflammatory gestures at her partner.

Where was everyone?

That was the question that kept nagging her. Granted it was half past one in the morning, but still the whole building seemed dead.

Dead.

That was an ominous thought.

Just when she thought that her blood couldn't run any colder, it was the eery sound of music, that instantly had her yanked out of her morbid thoughts.

While the sound of music, itself, had been surprising, it was when they were but a few feet away from her missing stiff's taped off door, that she was able to make out what the music was; which left her even more surprise than that first sound of music.

Sandman, I'm so alone
Don't have nobody to call my own
Please turn on your magic beam
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream...

It was that song and where it was coming from, that had Genevieve so chilled, that she instantly regretted leaving her jacket at home.

What the hell!

Her conscience kept screaming the same thing, over and over again.

What the hell!!!

Nobody was suppose to be in there.

Maybe your corpse is in there.
..
Dancing around in all his decomposing fluids.

She had been reaching for her missing stiff's door handle. Yet, it had been that sudden thought that had her instantly halting; just that image, alone, of her stiff doing this, had her practically gagging.

He could be listening to his favorite song—'The Sandman.'

The sandman is going to get you, baby, you better run. Run little girl, go hide under your bed and wait for a strong man to come and save you.

Where were those thoughts coming from?

Genevieve could hear this eerie voice in her head, but she couldn't figure out who it was. She knew that it couldn't be her conscience – it was too busy having a conniption fit.

Sandman, I'm so alone
Don't have nobody to call my own
Please turn on your magic beam
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream

It was again, those lyrics that had her once more reaching for that door handle – someone was in there.

And no it wasn't a dead man, listening to his favorite song.

It was a flesh and blood person.

Enough with her conscience's bull shit, she was going inside.

She had noticed out of the corner of her eye, that her partner had already removed his weapon.

Swallowing down the nervous lump in her throat, she, putting one hand on her side arm, turned the handle with her other hand.

As she felt the door handle turn, her thoughts swiftly went back to her conversation with Officer Carven.

What had he said was her murdered victim's preferred name?

Oh, yea...
the Sandman
.

XXX

The moment the fighting started, Brian found himself drastically out numbered. He had thought that it was just him and Mister Strange, who he was still having a hard time placing – some how this vampire knew him. Yet, in all Brian's travels, he couldn't remember ever meeting Mister Strange before.

Here he was, standing in front of six individuals who all wanted to take his head off. If this wasn't aggravating enough, his thoughts kept constantly veering to what Cirpian would be doing right at that moment – possibly laughing his ass off at him.

“You've lost your edge.”
that's what the bastard would be saying right about now.

So what if he had.

He still knew how to best even the strongest of enemies.

The first one to come at him, was a pasty face female fledgeling and, it was because of her unhealthy eagerness, that she ended up being the first one that he decapitated.

The others were a little more cautious and preferred a more subtle attack, rather than an actual running up to him.

The second one that decided to meet his sword's acquaintance, was a darker skinned man. It was during their sword play, though, that Brian almost lost his ear.

When the guy came at him, he swooshed his sword so close, that Brian heard and felt the sting of the sword on the tip of his lobe.