Story of a Lifetime Buildingaspaceship X xx0mittens0xx

[MittyMittens]

Darcy was sitting at her desk, leaning back in her chair and chewing on her pencil thoughtfully. She looks up from her laptop and at the cork board on the wall in front of her with all the other news articles about the recent string of homicides. All done in the same exact manner, ripped to shreds and turns to something resembling ground beef. Large animal prints as well as human prints that didn't match the victim's were seen around the murders, sometimes it was just wolf prints, sometimes it was both. It was eerie how there was absolute no witnesses though one would think someone would hear screaming, unless whatever was killing them went straight for the throats or ended up just getting lucky. She shakes her head at thinking at how that must be a horrible way to die. She looks back at the blinking line on her laptop screen and sighs, she had nothing. She looks over at the notepad beside the computer and reviews her notes. She throws her pencil across the room frustratedly before turning around in her chair to look out the window at the night sky. It was nearly midnight she guessed, if she looked at her clock it'd say 11:48pm. She needed to see the scenes, gather information but the police weren't done investigating since no perpetrator had been found, and they had no intention of letting a reporter get their hands in it before they figured out what it was.


She bit her lip as she stared out the window before getting to her feet, finishing her last bit of coffee and puts on her shoes. Grabbing her bag she slips her laptop and notebook into it and slings it over her shoulder. She makes her way out of the office building, though normally she'd be going home she wanted to check out at least one of the crime scenes and decided to choose the newest. She makes her way to the parking garage and soon finds herself out of the suburbs and into the more rural side of the county. Parking her car at the edge of the forest she turns it off, grabs a flashlight from her glove-box, her bag, and steps out. She looks around for anyone who may be prying around and not seeing any signs of anyone and switches on the flashlight. She makes her way into the farm field, slipping under the caution tape. The body was of course long gone but disturbed grass and bloody mess was still left behind. Finding the foot prints she gasps a little in finding their size was larger than she expected. She follows the trail of them, snapping pictures of them as she went.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Dorian cleaned the mud off his clothes while he sat on the front steps that lead up to his small home at the edge of the woods. It was an almost completely deserted area that he lived in, and he lived alone, but the isolation comforted him. He sighed in frustration as he realised that his white shirt was now completely ruined, specks of blood and dirt would never come out of it. He stands up and marches down to the trash cans at the front of his yard and stuffs his clothes into the cans, throwing the lids on top noisily. He sighs again and runs his hands through his dark hair, pushing it out of his face and letting his dark eyes thoroughly scan the area. He walks through some of the weeds of his yard and picks up the backpack that he had slung onto the floor messily, holding it by its straps as he walked inside his home and shut the door, throwing it down onto the wooden floor. He kneels next to it, opening it and turning it upside down as he shook it roughly and emptied the contents onto the floor. Nothing of importance was inside, and he pulls out the wallet from the small pile of things, opening it and checking the ID. None of this stuff was his, but he had taken the backpack with him when he... He didn't want to think about it, and he shoved the money from the wallets into his pocket as he carelessly threw the ID into a small box next to his CD cabinet.


He stands and stretches, before walking over to his sofa and sitting down, picking up a newspaper that he had bought earlier today. He had only bought it to see what was on the front cover, and he slips on his square thickly rimmed reading glasses, then scans through the text. Another person dead, her body ripped to pieces just like the last ones. He breathes out deeply and throws the newspaper frustratedly in front of him. These people were useless at finding evidence and at finding the killers, so far they had no suspects and no leads. He knew exactly what had done it, and he needed to protect this secret at all costs. He grabs the scissors from the coffee table and he picks up the newspaper again, proceeding to cut out the newspaper article.

 

[MittyMittens]

Darcy soon finds herself at a dead end, and lacking tracking skills she had no way to figure out any clues on to wear the tracks might start up again. She curses under her breath. "So much for that" She says to herself and heads back to scene. She looks up briefly at the sound of metal clang like one from a trashcan. "If can hear that you'd think someone would be able to hear a person's screams from here. Maybe it's someone who could've heard something. It's also nearly midnight..... yeah well they are obviously still awake if they're taking out the trash..... And you expect someone to open a door to a stranger at midnight?..." She had a bad habit of talking out loud to the point of arguing with herself. By the time she finished her self argument she was nearly at the doorstop of the house, having followed the slight glow of light from inside. She takes a deep breath and knocks on the door. It was worth a shot wasn't it? She puts her flashlight away and takes out her notebook instead as she waits for an answer, if she would get one at all. She scratches the back of her neck with her pencil nervously, rethinking her plan, she wasn't exactly supposed to be out here in the first place.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Dorian hears the knock at the door and quickly shoves his scissors and his newspaper under the sofa, he would seem related to the crime if he was seen actually showing interest in it. He stands up and walks over to his door, quickly taking off his reading glasses and placing them on a small but high table next to his door, he pushes the remnants of what had fallen out of the backpack into a small pile underneath the table and looks through the peephole of his house, seeing a lady with a notebook. At this time of night? He smooths out his shirt and quickly tries to look as natural as he could for someone awake at midnight. He fumbles with his keys as he unlocks the door, he always locked it with habit so he never noticed it, but he knew that it was locked. He pulls open the door when its unlocked and looks out at the lady in front of him, his eyes flickering over her as he studied her. What was she doing here? What was with the notebook? Why now? Did she suspect him or something? Was she with the police? Questions ran through his head worriedly as he cleared his throat and blinked, "Uh... Hello?" He says awkwardly, chewing the inside of his cheek. He had to try to act normal. Just act like a normal guy who was extremely confused as to why a lady was showing up at his house with a notebook as though he was a suspect in the recent murders? Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard.

 

[MittyMittens]

Darcy gives her friendliest smile, surprised someone his age would be off living alone. Most guys were off to college, getting married, or living the bachelor life, not living like a hermit, but each to their own. "I'm sorry for bothering you so late. I'm a reporter for the local newspaper" She shows him her badge to prove she's authentic "and I'm trying to create an article about the recent string of homicides. I noticed you live rather close to where the latest victim was found and was wondering if maybe you had any information on any strange things you heard a few nights ago or if you happened to know the victim." She glanced down at her notebook, flipping a few pages back. "A uh... Gerald Lewis" She looks back up at him awaiting his answer, at least he didn't seem dangerous. The night could've ended up in a different scenario, her tenacity tended to get her in some sticky situations. None of which she hadn't been able to not handle, luckily.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Dorian runs his teeth over his bottom lip and shakes his head. "No.. No I didn't know him, and uh, I didn't hear anything at all. I wasn't home when it happened anyway, I was out... Is this really necessary? I won't be so much of a help to you." He says, raising his eyebrows and crossing his arms across his chest. Just look angry or something, make her leave, he thinks to himself as he looks anywhere except her eyes. He wouldn't be able to lie as well if he had eye contact. It was true he wasn't home on the night of the killing, but he did know the victim. He lived around the neighbourhood, and in this neighbourhood everyone knew eachother, even if it wasn't so well. "I don't know anything." He states again, he looks at her when he speaks this time, and he tries to stand confidently. He was tired, he had been tired all day, and now he just wanted to sleep, but this nosey reporter...

 

[MittyMittens]

Darcy pouts at his lack of knowledge of the situation and sighs. "I see." She states watching as he refused to look at her until his last statement. But she wasn't the police and had no authority to be here or push questions on him." I'm sorry to bother you. I know it's asking a lot being here so late, but if you happen to think of anything after getting some sleep" She turns and reaches into her bag to pull out a business card, which had her name, number, and job title. "Give me a call if anything comes to mind and I'll buy you a drink to talk it over with." She turns and walks down the steps to leave and head back to her car, deciding this night was a bust. "Biggest thing to happen in years in this town and I don't have anything but a summary of what everyone else has" She sighs frustratedly throwing her hands in the air flabbergastly. "I'll never get out of this town with stupid sugar coated pieces I've been writing" She murmurs to herself, it had been a long unproductive night that was wearing thin on her.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Dorian holds the card between his fingers and flips it over a few times before he shuts the door, locking it, and putting the piece of paper on the same table his glasses were on. He sighs again, maybe now he could get back to sleep, he would even leave his newspaper until tomorrow. He walks slowly upstairs, dragging his feet and yawning. When had he last slept? He knew that he hadn't slept last night, but he couldn't remember whether or not he had the night before. It didn't matter anyway, he was going to sleep now. Dorian walks into his bedroom and walks over to the curtains to shut them, but instead he looks out of the window, the girl was still around, and as he watched her he wondered why, even if she was a journalist, she had a particular interest in this case. Maybe he would take her up on her offer for a drink, but then he didn't want to spend another night under pressure, lying to everyone. He walks away from his window and shuts the curtains, turning off his light and collapsing on his bed tiredly, he was so tired that the second he hit the bed he thought he would fall asleep, but he didn't. He just couldn't sleep.


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[MittyMittens]

Darcy slides into her car, letting her head hit the steering wheel with a sigh before starting up the engine. She runs her fingers through her hair before putting the car in drive and pulls a U-Turn before heading back home. She pulls into the parking garage of her apartment building, grabbing her bag and putting her flashlight back in the glove box. She makes her way to the third floor and to her apartment, placing her bag on her desk and turns on the lights. She heads into the kitchen, feeding her cat and grabs herself an apple to eat before making her way to the shower. After finishing her shower, brushing her teeth, and other nighttime things she crawls into bed, burying her head under her pillow. Even though it was Saturday tomorrow she knew she'd be staring at her computer half the day knowing she'd most likely get nothing more than she already had done on the article and it was due by Monday. Maybe she could just bullshit it. She sighs and manages to eventually fall asleep after another good hour of tossing and turning.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

When he did eventually fall asleep, it was quick and dreamless, and when he awoke he felt more tired than he had before he had slept. He sat up and stretched, cracking his wrists and fingers and standing up, he walked into his bathroom slowly and brushed his teeth, then stared into the mirror for a moment, sighing. Another boring day. Maybe he'd call the reporters number and make up a bullshit story just for fun. He smiles slightly, and decides he will do just that as he grabs a baggy t-shirt and puts it on, walking downstairs and into his living room. He picks up the card that she had given him containing her phone number and he walks with it towards the kitchen, when he gets there he picks up his phone and types in the number, pressing dial on it as he pressed it to his ear and rested it between his ear and shoulder while he poured himself some cereal. Maybe she wouldn't pick up, maybe she would, and if she did he would have to start thinking of a story to tell her. Maybe he could nail two birds with one stone and throw her off in the wrong direction while he was at it.


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[MittyMittens]

Darcy wakes up with a groan, slamming her hand against the alarm clock several times before she realized it was not her alarm clock going off. She moves the pillow off of her head and looks over at the end table at her cell phone seeing a number she didn't recognize appear on it. Hoping it may be someone with some information about the murders, after five of them, someone just had to know something. She reaches over for it and answers it with a sleepy "Hello?" She clears her throat at realizing she did indeed sound like she just woke up. "Darby McNabb, reporter for The Beacon speaking" She sighs a little, hating how that rhymed, especially when she said it fast as she usually did. She slips out of bed as she waits for a reply and makes a bee-line for her coffee machine, setting it to brew before leaning against the counter while waiting for it to finish. She looks down at her cat rubbing against her legs and bends down to pet it before getting her some food from the pantry, filling her bowl back up.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"Yeah this is that guy from the middle of the night, you know the one." He says as he pours his milk over his cereal and grabs the bowl, moving with it over to the small dining table. He sets it down and sits down. "The names Dorian Cain, you told me to call you if I had anything for you. And... I think I do, so, I'll take up the offer for that drink?" He begins to eat the cereal, trying not to be too noisy as he places his phone on the table and hits speaker, waiting for Darcy's reply. He knew just what he would tell her, maybe he could do this investigation for her story with her, and if she asked why then perhaps he could say that he wanted to get this person off the streets, which wasn't specifically speaking true. He looks up at the clock, it was only around 9 am, he was up early by his standards, he usually slept in until around 1pm, at which point he would stay awake for a full day and then crash again the next night. His sleeping pattern was royally and truly messed up.


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[MittyMittens]

Darcy laughs to herself at him saying "that guy from the middle of the night" it wasn't exactly a normal introduction, even if it was true. She could dance with joy at him saying he had information, finally something. Who knew a random knock on a door in the middle of the night would actually lead up to something, even if does end up being something minor. She grabs herself a cup of coffee once it had finally brewed, adding some sugar and cream to it before stirring it as she made her way into her office to sit down at her computer. She opens up her schedule, glancing over it briefly, a few telephone calls and errands but not terrible. "Well I suppose it depends on your schedule we could do a lunch meeting at White Terrace Cafe at about 2pm or just simply do drinks at Honey Bee's at 9pm. Whichever suits you." She leans back in her chair awaiting his reply to which one he chose, glancing out the window frowning at the sight of a busy city. She'd much rather be out in the open country rather than in a stuffy apartment, but it was more convenient for work this way.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Dorian knew that his choice of timings here would reflect on him as a person. If he chose 2pm, he would probably seem much more... Well, sophisticated he presumed, whereas the later timing could show him to be a much different person. Drinks, or lunch? "Honey Bees at 9pm sounds great to me." He says as he reaches over for a small piece of paper and a pen set on the table, quickly writing down 9pm, HB, in messy hand writing. Dorian could never say no to a drink, and he much preferred the comfort of night either way. With the sun out he felt drained, watched. But the moon, oh that was a completely different story. He smiles to himself, before he finishes the rest of his cereal. He knew exactly what he was going to say to this girl, that the killings each occurred exactly one week apart from the last, and they were all done in the same way. These were things that she would already know, but there was more that he could possibly tell her if he managed to phrase it right.

 

[MittyMittens]

"Perfect. See you then!" She hangs up and punches the time and place in her phone. She was glad the later time was chosen, it wasn't as stiff and professional than a luncheon. Plus, more than one drink wasn't frowned upon and after this week one was definitely not going to cut it. She leans back in her chair staring at the window thoughtfully, finishing her coffee. She goes about her day, phone-calls, some short articles, and housework until time was up for the meeting. She gets her shower, changes into this, and heads out.


At Honey Bee's she was sitting at a stool at the end of the bar, her legs crossed, drinking a vodka soda while reviewing her notes again on the murders. She looks up briefly towards the door seeing Dorian still hadn't arrived, though she it was only 8:50, she wanted to get there early to review some things. She had decided not to treat this as an interview but rather just friendly banter, she didn't want it to feel too serious since it was already a serious topic. She half wondered why he didn't say anything last night but not most people are willing to speak let alone go into an in depth conversation about grizzly murders in the middle of the night.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Dorian jumps awake, had he fallen asleep? He groans, and pushes his hair out of his eyes as he glances over at the time. 8:50. He had somewhere to be in ten minutes, and he was supposed to have spent the day brainstorming ideas for his story. Why had he fallen asleep? Stupid sunlight making him lose his energy. He stands up and stretches, before grumbling to himself as he walked upstairs out of his living room and into his bedroom, over to his wardrobe. He pulls on a pair of black slightly tight jeans and a grey t-shirt, before looking in the mirror at himself. He'd do. Who was he dressing up for anyway? He walks down the stairs and grabs his black jacket as he runs his hand through his hair, leaving the house and locking the door behind him. He sighs and begins the walk to Honey Bee's. Thank God it was kind of close. His car had been in repair for a few weeks now, it looked like it would never get fixed, and he didn't have the money to buy a new one. The walk to Honey Bee's is cold, and silent. No one was on the streets with a murderer around now, and that was fine with him, less hassle.

 

[MittyMittens]

Darcy looks at the clock, watching the minutes slip past 9 o'clock and frowns as she takes a sip of her drink. She looks back down at her cell phone, no new messages to tell her the guy had cancelled or running late. She hoped he hadn't ditched. She sighs, tempted to call but didn't, after all he was doing her a favor bringing the information in anyways, not to mention it wasn't that late just yet. She couldn't even make up questions she was going to ask since she had no idea what he could possibly know, just one of the victims or the killer itself. There's another reason to live in the city, hardly anyone sees or hears anything in the country. She orders another vodka soda, stirring the straw in it idley while waiting, looking around the room people watching.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

He realises how late he must be and he begins to jog to the bar instead of walk, he didn't want her to leave because she thought he was rude. As he bursts through the doors he apologetically smiles at a woman a little older than him who gets startled and he runs past her, spotting Darcy at a stool at the bar. He quickly slips onto the stool next to her, almost panting, it was a good job he was physically fit or else this could have been more embarrassing than it had to be. He takes a deep breath and looks at her, "I'm really sorry I'm late, I fell asleep and I had to walk here." He explains as he runs his hand through his hair, shoving it out of his eyes. He orders a beer and when its given to him he drinks quite a bit, thirsty from the jog. He usually ran miles, and he was strong too, but he was having trouble today, with his sleep and with his energy. He had had a long day yesterday.

 

[MittyMittens]

She looks at him in surprise as he sits down next to her, breathing heavy and trying to catch his breath. She smiles at watching hm run his hand through his hair before clearing her throat. "It's quite alright. I'm just glad you showed up. After all you're the one doing me the favor by talking with me. So thank you for meeting me" She takes another sip of her drink letting him catch his breath and settle in before getting down to business. Her foot that was crossed over her leg bounced slightly to the music. She picks up her pencil. "So what is it that you know and please, don't spare any details." She bites her lip in anticipation, the curiosity of this meeting had been itching at her all day.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"Well, I know that the attacks are a week apart. But that's not what I'm going to tell you about. Sometimes they're animal prints, sometimes they have male prints too, right?" He says, he raises his eyebrows and places his beer down in front of him as he looks at her. "It doesn't add up and it doesn't make sense. In honesty, I don't have a fucking clue what's going on, and I don't know anything. But I want to. So I'm going to help you. I wanted to make up some story today, and find out what you know, but I think working together with this would probably benefit me more. Us more, sorry." He speaks fast, and he doesn't move his gaze away from her while he speaks. "You want to write the story on this, and I want to..." He looks away from her for a moment. "I want to find out who did it." He couldn't lie to her face, he was never a great liar.


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[MittyMittens]

"Right" She says as he continues on and her shoulders drop a little when he says he doesn't know anything. She takes another sip of her vodka at that, setting her pencil back down. She does however raise an eyebrow at his proposition to join her on trying to figure the murders out. She sighs and knew she should probably say no, but she was desperate at this point. "Or who's doing it. We still don't know if they're finished with the murders and there doesn't seem to be any significant pattern other than the time between and the way they're killed, but the victims themselves seem random..... Alright Dorian you can join along but I have to warn you, my methods aren't exactly always........ well legal. And to warn you I usually don't work with others so I don't know how good I am at it. I've always been more of a loner, never really minded though."

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"I live alone at the edge of the woods, in an almost empty street. You could say that I'm probably a loner too, but... Don't worry, my methods are usually illegal too so it doesn't phase me what we do to find this sick fuck." He takes a sip of his beer and them sets it back down on the table. "I don't think they're finished with these murders, I think they have only just started. If the murders have a pattern between times, like these have the week apart, it usually suggest that the killer, which in this case would appear to be male, because of the footsteps, is only just beginning to get into a routine. The killer has... Obsessive compulsive habits." He says, looking straight ahead, not at her. He didn't know why he was helping her considering his situation. "And look, the killings? They always happen at night, always."


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[MittyMittens]

Darcy stirs her drink with the tiny straw as she listens to Dorian. "Well yes, most people don't kill by day unless they're absolutely desperate" She furrows her brows together thoughtfully. "My question is; are they just killing for the hell of it or are they killing people for a particular reason? And my guess with the dog-man thing is that the man sets his dog loose on them but it just freaks me out that the footprints of one lead into the other. I don't know if it's just coincidence or well.... I don't know another option. I mean it's crazy to even say a werewolf or something out of the like, I'd sound like a crazy person writing that in an article." She shifts her weight on the stool, uncrossing her legs and shimmies off her leather jacket, getting up for a moment to place it down to sit on. She leans forward against the bar, moving some of the crime scene picture and some of her own into view to examine the scenes more closely, maybe a second set of eyes would help. A bar might not have been the best place for this but she was caught up in the heat of the moment of talking to someone about it other than her boss or investigators. "This was the first one and this is the most recent one" She points at each picture representatively as she speaks about them. "And they both look exactly the same, in terms of the way of being killed" She was looking at each picture almost like a family album, none of the gore seen upon them bothered her one bit. She always had an iron stomach for things like that, perhaps because she could mentally detach herself from the situation.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

He chuckled slightly at her dismissal of werewolves and shuts his eyes while he grins. His smile fades and he adopts a straight lined face as he tries to not look crazy, or related to the murder in anyway. It was hard. And if only she knew that perhaps writing a werewolf in the article would, though make her seem crazy, be true. Dorian looks closely at the pictures, the gore not disturbing him, he smiled slightly but then wiped his face clean into a stone as he realised he was with company. "It's not as insignificant as you may think that the murders are done at night. In most cases yes, at night for more cover or disguise. But it's not always the case." He scratched behind his ear slightly, and looks closely at a photo of the tracks, the animal prints leading into a mans. He looks closely and he points to something. "Hand prints. Well. Not hand prints but there are five prints at either side of this pair of wolf tracks, deep into mud. So, finger prints but without the crucial evidence. It's like he bent down to touch the ground, but there are no mans footprints there."


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[MittyMittens]

"Well why do you think he kills at night them? I definitely agree with you with the suspect being male, the prints are too large and heavy to be female. Besides some of these victims would seem like they could overpower a female." She looks at the picture he points out leaning forward to get a better look.. "How queer..." she says thoughtfully while examining the prints for a long moment before looking back up at the victim and tilts her head a bit. "What an adrenal rush it must be... to kill someone." She blinks at realizing that made her sound a little crazy. "Well I mean for them, they obviously enjoy what they do. It's cases like these I wish I was sleeping with an investigator to get my hands on some true evidence" She huffs looking at her sorry pile of clues, letting her head rest on her hand with her elbow on the bar. "I'm sure they have hair samples, I'd like to know if they had just human hair or just animal hair or if it's unrecognizable. Some people are saying it's just an animal, but the pattern and timing are just too weird, some people say it's some crazy man leaving dog prints over his own but you'd think he'd make a mistake somewhere with that...."