《Andromeda's Tears》 Prologue - Jillians Awakening Prologue In a dark and decrypt place that reeked of must and other more malodorous stenches, a solitary lamp lazily swung from the ceiling, being held aloft by nothing but a pair of thin wires. The dim light provided by the lamp was barely enough to make out the old brick walls of the empty room with some pieces of plaster stubbornly hanging on in some places. The old rotting wooden floorboards looked like they would give way if anybody dared to take a step on them. What used to be white ceiling tiles were now the same shade of yellow of the teeth of somebody who had chewed tobacco for years and there were stains on them that indicated that the roof above the ceiling was no longer water proof. This run down remains of what once used to be a house was now empty. Empty that is , except for the one solitary occupant. Directly beneath the swinging lamp was the only piece of furniture in the room, a large wooden bed. A woman lay on this bed, but she was obviously not here of her own free will. Her arms and feet were restrained by rope that was tied up to each end of the bed. Her once beautiful red hair that was usually carefully styled into waves and curls by a hair dresser was now in total disarray as the woman desperately thrashed around trying to free herself from her bonds. Her crystalline blue eyes darted in every direction, desperately seeking a way out of the situation that she had found herself in. Prosecutor Jillian Reed would have been a beautiful woman if she wasn''t covered in small cuts and bruises. Even as badly hurt as she was, there was something intensely attractive about her that could not be denied. Her body, which was barely covered by the tattered remains of her black dress, was not the skinny almost anorexic look that models preferred these days. Instead she had enough meat on her bones that her hips flared out alluringly and her chest jutted out impressively. In fact she was so beautiful that she was asked to be in several movies and commercials, she had politely refused. Jillian didn''t care about much in this world except for the single mother who raised her. Growing up she had seen her mother struggle to make ends meet as her no good father lived the high life because he had better lawyers that were able to get him out of paying child support for one reason or another. This event had a deep impact on Jillian and when she graduated from highschool, she had immediately enrolled into law school. Jillian dedicated herself to making sure that the voiceless were heard. She took cases that no one else dared to touch. She went against drug dealers, crooked politicians, and hardened criminals. She stood up for the people and she was damn good at her job. Unfortunately she lived in Andromeda city, one of the most corrupt cities in the world. More often than not the criminals she would try to put in jail would walk free because of some misplaced evidence or a mysteriously biased jury. And now one of these criminals, a psychopaths that was freed only a week before because of ''improper procedure in gathering evidence'' had kidnapped her. She was in her office and she was supposed to be protected by a detail of cops but she could only watch in horror as the psychopath calmly walked up to them and handed them wads of cash before he entered her office and knocked her out. She eventually woke up in this horrible place, battered and bruised. She tried to free herself but the ropes were just too strong. She continued to struggle until she heard the squeal of a door opening and creaks on the floorboard. She turned to see her tormentor , Bruce McAllister. Bruce was a white supremacist. He wore a white tank top to proudly display the symbols of Aryan ideology and the neo-nazi slogans tattooed all the way up and down his arms. He was a typical skinhead with a shaved head and to top it all off he had a swastika tattooed in the middle of his forehead. There was a glint of madness in his cold wintery gray eyes that promised a lot of pain to come. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Bruce had been accused of the rape and murder of sixteen African american women. There was indisputable evidence that should have landed him in death row or at least life in prison but Bruce was from the Macalister family. The Macalister family was one of the oldest and most influential families in Andromeda. They literally owned a third of the land in the city and as a consequence had a lot of money. That money had changed the indisputable evidence into improperly handled evidence which was promptly thrown out by the judge and Bruce was set free. He chose to use his freedom to go after his prosecutor, Jillian. "Did you miss me?" His high pitched voice that didn''t belong in such a heavily muscled man echoed in the empty room. Jillian attempted to scream but it only came out as a barely audible muffled noise because of the dirty rag that Bruce had stuffed into her mouth. "Do you know that this is the first time I have ever done this to a white chick? But you don''t really count Jillian. Is it Okay if I call you Jillian? Anyways, you aren''t really white Jillian. You are one of those bleeding heart sympathizers. You have betrayed your own race for the negros , Mexicans and Chinese. You might as well be a negro." Bruce approached Jillian with a predatory look on his face. He was literally salivating at the thought of raping Jillian, he had saliva coming down his chin to drop on the ground. As Bruce was roughly palming and massaging one of Jillian''s breasts , the rope holding her right hand suddenly snapped. As fate would have it there was a loose nail on the bed where Jillian had been tied up on and when she had struggled the loose nail had gradually cut the rope so that it finally gave way when she gave it a particularly hard yank. Jillian quickly used her free hand to grab Bruce''s bald head and with a strength born from fear and an iron strong will to survive , she slammed his head to the short post where her left hand was still tied to. Bruce was surprised by the attack and was unable to react in time to save himself. His head slammed against the post making him feel dizzy and disoriented, but Jillian didn''t stop there. She continued to slam Bruce''s head against the post again and again until there was nothing left but a misshapen ball of flesh where Bruce''s face and head used to be. Jillian finally lay back on the bed, exhausted. As she lay there , breathing heavily and covered in Bruce''s blood, her fear slowly gave way to relief. But relief wasn''t the only thing she was feeling, she also felt satisfaction. As she stared at her blood covered hand, the same hand she used to smash Bruce''s head in, a thought blossomed inside her mind. For years she had seen murderers, rapists, and other scumbags slip through the fingers of justice but today she had used her own hand to administer justice. She hadn''t relied on a corrupt and rotten system that worked for the criminals and not the people. For years she had felt powerless as she watched criminal after criminal buy their freedom, but today she finally felt powerful as she put an end to an evil man. She stared at her hand, which was slowly dripping blood onto her chest , and smiled. Chapter One - Birth Chapter One For nearly a whole minute , Jillian just lay on the bed and watched rivulets of blood run down her fingers like small streams until they collected on her finger tips where they would turn into fat droplets of blood before eventually their own weight pulled them free of her fingers and they fell down like some macabre version of a spring shower. For those few seconds she was riding the high of her adrenalin rush and was happy to just stare at the almost hypnotic dripping of her attacker''s blood ,but the adrenalin high didn''t last for much longer. It started with a light tremble of her hand which disrupted the hypnotic rhythm of the dripping blood. Jillian tried to steady her hand but for some reason her hand just wouldn''t comply. Then she noticed that her feet were also twitching lightly, almost imperceptibly. She looked back at her hand and saw that the light tremble had transformed from a light tremble to an all out shaking. She felt stinging in the corner of her eyes and her vision blurred slightly as tears began to flow freely from her eyes. Jillian was perplexed by her body''s strange behavior and was wondering what was going on when her delayed emotional reaction hit her like a runaway train. When Jillian had been assaulted and brutally beaten up, her body had reacted to the emergency by flooding her system with adrenaline and putting her in a fight-or-flight mentality. Even as her heart had started to race and her body labored to supply her with as much energy as possible, her subconscious had suppressed all her emotions and numbed her from feeling pain, both physical and psychological. Once the emergency had passed, the adrenalin and other endorphins had slowly started to fade from her system and like a dam bursting under the pressure of a great river , all the emotions that were suppressed a moment ago, the weight of all the pent up fear and horror crashed down on her until she could do nothing but curl up and start crying. Jillian wasn''t a very violent person, in fact quite the opposite was true. She was a very caring and gentle person who didn''t have a violent bone in her body, so when she finally realized that she had reduced the head of a living breathing human being into a lump of misshapen meat, something within her snapped. She just couldn''t comprehend let alone accept the horrible thing she had done. Even as she tried to rationalize her actions as self defense, guilt started to tear her up from the inside like a spinning razor blade. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. But beneath all the anguish and guilt that she was feeling something dark and sinister festered, a seed that had been planted as she reveled in the defeat of her enemy when she had been free of the guilt and riding her adrenalin high. And with her mind in disarray and her soul crying out in pain, this seed of darkness found the perfect place to plant itself, to germinate, and even to thrive. It fed on her pain and anger, it fed on her guilt and doubt , it fed on her anguish and suffering until it could feed no more. The flower of darkness blossomed and like a parasitic vine it wrapped around Jillian''s soul and sent spikes of hate and spite deep into the core of her pure and noble heart. Jillian didn''t cry anymore. No, her expression was serene and a small smile graced her bloody and swollen lips as she calmly untied herself from the bed. She didn''t even bat an eyelash as she roughly turned over the mangled corpse of her attacker so she could reach into his pocket and fish out his cellphone. She felt perfectly fine as she wiped her hand on his jeans so that she wouldn''t get any blood on the fancy touchscreen phone. No, Jillian wasn''t crying anymore because Jillian wasn''t in control anymore. In the dark confines of that decrepit and derelict house, something dark and sinister was born. Something that would change the city of Andromeda forever, something that would cause untold pain and destruction on a scale that the city had never seen before. Something that wore the face of Prosecutor Jillian Reed. Chapter two - Just a Nightmare Chapter two Jillian woke up the next morning with a mind numbing headache and fuzzy memories. She turned over to see the time on her old fashioned radio alarm clock and nearly jumped in fright when she saw that she was nearly an hour late for her job. Jillian scrambled out of her bed, rushed through her daily toilet related rituals and threw on some random clothes before she rushed off to the small kitchen in her one bedroom studio apartment to make herself some breakfast and more importantly some coffee. On the way to her kitchen she noticed that the little red light on her answering machine was blinking so she picked up the wireless handle of her phone wedged it between her shoulder and her right ear so that she could listen to her messages while turning on the coffee machine and pouring out some cereal. The first message was a check up call from one of her colleagues, a sweet old man named Jeff who should have retired long ago but was unable to because all of his savings and his retirement plan had been wiped clean by a crooked investment banker, something that was quite common here in Andromeda city. "Congrats kiddo, you finally grew a spine and decided to ditch work for once eh? Well , don''t sweat it. The Anderson case has stalled and there is nothing major going on today so we can hold down the fort without you. Take the day off kiddo, might be good for your health, maybe find yourself a man...." The second message wasn''t as upbeat. "Are you okay kiddo? We are hearing some shit from the cops and things are getting ugly out there. The Macalisters and the Manellis have started a war. The story from the cops is that Bruce Macalister is already dead, his head smashed to pieces. His father has completely lost it and has declared open season on anybody related to the Manellis. He has put up a bounty for each and every member of the Manelli family. We''ve heard that there are some casualties from the Manelli''s side already. I''ve also heard that the cops that were supposed to be protecting you were taking bribes from Joseph Manelli''s men. I''m a little worried Jill, please call me back when you get this." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The third message was not from Jeff, it was from the police. "Ms Reed, this is Detective Edward Briggs from Andromeda P.D. We would like you to come to the station as soon as possible to answer some questions regarding the disappearance of the two officers assigned to protect you yesterday. You are not under arrest, hell you aren''t even a suspect at this point but your cooperation during the investigation would be greatly appreciated. We are a little swamped right now so we can''t really investigate this case properly right now but please make time to come to the station the moment it is convenient for you." Jillian was so shocked when she heard the messages that she forgot to pay attention to the amount of milk she was putting in her cereal and she accidentally let it overflow out of the bowl and onto the kitchen counter. She tried to remember what had happened the previous day but all she got for her trouble was a head splitting headache and fuzzy images of being clobbered by the butt of a gun. She also remembered the faces of two offices begging for their lives before their heads were blown off by a shotgun. Jillian wasn''t sure what had happened but she was sure that she had witnessed the death of the two officers so she abandoned her breakfast, grabbed her sweater and the keys to her mini cooper before leaving her apartment and heading for the police station. Chapter three - Briggs Chapter three Jillian zipped through traffic in her little mini cooper to try to get to the police station as quickly as possible, she even found herself driving a little above the speed limit, nothing that could really get her into trouble but her own recklessness surprised her. Jillian knew herself very well, she was the most straight laced person on earth. In fact she was such a ''by the book'' person that she didn''t really have any friends. She didn''t drink, she didn''t smoke, she has never been arrested, she has never been late for work or missed an appointment, she didn''t go to the cinema because she would rather curl up at home with a good book and she doesn''t like to go out of her house unless she has to. Her colleagues at work call her robot Jill and wet blanket Jill behind her back when they think she isn''t listening but she didn''t mind. She knew who she was and she was happy with who she saw in the mirror, that was why she felt that it was bizarre that she had suddenly become more adventurous and the moment she noticed her momentary slip, she immediately reduced her speed to the legal speed limit and drove carefully until she reached the police station. Jillian parked her little car, adjusting it repeatedly until it was perfectly positioned between the lines in the police station parking lot in a textbook perfect way. She got out, locked her door and headed towards the door. When Jillian went inside the police station, she was met by a familiar sight of a security checkpoint. Andromeda city was an extremely violent city and had the highest rate of gun violence in America so all government buildings and even some privately owned ones have these security checkpoints set up at their entrances. The security checkpoints consisted of a metal detector and a couple of armed guards with metal detector wands. Jillian didn''t wear any jewelry so she just put her keys in the tray that was used to put personal items that contain metal and walked through the metal detector without a problem. The guards looked at her with strange expressions when she passed through but they waved her inside without saying anything. Once inside, Jillian clipped the ID that identified her as an official Prosecutor of the city and headed towards the interior of the building. Because her job involved working with the police so much, she was very familiar with the police station. Andromeda city had a large well funded police force that was housed in a rather large ten story building with five wings that radiated from the central building like the five petals of a flower when seen from above. Each of these ''petals'' were big enough to be separate buildings, they even had their own separate helipads complete with a helicopter resting on top. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The building layout was a little confusing but since Jillian knew the way, she walked through the hallways without hesitation but as she continued to go deeper into the building, she was surprised to see that there were very few police officers in the building, much fewer than the amount of officers that she usually saw when she came to the station because of her job. The whole place was almost completely deserted and the officers she did see were rushing about like their asses were on fire, not even taking a second to glance towards Jillian. She was wondering if it had anything to do with the war that old man Jeff had told her about when she reached the entrance to one of the wings of the building, the ''petal'' of the flower that was entirely dedicated to homicide. Jillian had just made it through the door, still deep in thought about the war between the Macalister family and the Manelli family, when she ran into an equally absent minded man and fell down on her ass. The man she had run into was rather large, his well defined muscular body clearly visible through the white shirt he was wearing. He had a close cut military style haircut, handsome features and usually had a friendly smile on his face but it was absent today. Instead he looked exhausted and had a haggard expression on his face. He had dark semi-circles beneath his eyes, dark enough that they were clearly visible even though he had dark brown skin. His brown eyes, which usually shone with vitality, looked dull like the eyes of a doll but after the little accident, the man looked up from the file he was reading and his haggard look vanished as he noticed Jillian on the floor. He immediately knelt beside her with a look of deep concern plastered on his face. "Jillian, is that you? What the hell happened to you ? Jesus, if I had known you were in such a bad shape, I wouldn''t have asked you to come." The man Jillian had ran into coincidentally turned out to be the man she was looking for, Detective Edward Briggs. Chapter Four - Trauma Chapter four Detective Edward Briggs was a rather unique character in the Andromeda police force. He was one of the very few African American officers in the whole city and one of only three African Americans to be promoted to detective. Not only that but he also managed to do all this without getting his hands dirty in the dirty politics of Andromeda city. He wasn''t known to be affiliated with any of the groups that run rampant in the city, he never accepted bribes and executed his job flawlessly. His record was not only exemplary but also absolutely spotless which placed him in a rather interesting position inside of the police force. There was no such thing as a good cop in Andromeda. All of the policemen were working for one group or another and everybody was aware of who everybody else worked for except for Detective Briggs. He was completely clean, so clean that there weren''t even any rumors about him. Everybody in the police force knew where their allegiances lie so alliances and enemities were formed accordingly but nobody knew how to treat Briggs. Nobody actually believed that he was just an honest hardworking man, something that was rarer in Andromeda than unicorns, nobody was really that perfect so that led people to believe that he was backed by a group so powerful that he was always able to come out of any situation smelling like roses. Andromeda city has many powerful groups whose names are famous but it also had groups whose names are only whispers in the night, groups who only operate in the shadows. Everybody believed that Briggs was in one of these organizations so all the different factions treated him with respect and more than just a little bit of fear. Even his superiors didn''t dare to give him trouble. Everybody treated him like a bomb that could go off at any second or like a poisonous viper that could strike at anytime except for one person, Ms. Jillian Reed. Briggs had worked with Ms. Reed a couple of times, in fact he was the one who arrested Bruce Macalister. He thought that she was an interesting blend of timid and courageous. He had worked with her enough times to know that she never broke any rules and never stepped a toe out of line which indicated that she had a timid personality but when it comes to her work, she was completely fearless. It was actually a little awe inspiring. Jillian never hesitated to take a case, she didn''t give a damn about connections or identities, give her enough evidence and she would prosecute God. She also never treated Briggs any differently than she treated any of the other cops. She was always formal and a little cold but at least she never treated him like he was radioactive. He didn''t know if she heard the rumors about him or not but she acted like she didn''t and that made him secretly grateful towards her. Overall he had a very good impression of her and thought that she was good people so when he heard about the death of the two officers that were supposed to be protecting her, he was worried that something bad had happened to her. The timid little lady was one of the few people he liked and the whole situation made him uneasy so when Briggs ran into Jillian , he was relieved that she was still alive but after a second the relief was replaced by shock and worry as he noticed the state she was in. Her pretty face had been mangled beyond belief. She had bruises all over her face and neck and she had small cuts that looked less than a day old. After Briggs had accidentally knocked her down, the cuts on her lips had reopened and she had started to bleed. Briggs immediately forgot about the file he was reading and knelt down besides Jillian whose face he could barely recognize. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. "Jillian, is that you? What the hell happened to you ? Jesus, if I had known you were in such a bad shape, I wouldn''t have asked you to come." "I''m fine detective. It was just a little tumble, nothing to be worried about." Briggs looked at her incredulously, "Jillian, I''m not talking about the fall you just had. I''m talking about all of your other injuries." Jillian looked confused and tilted her head quizzically,"What injuries?" Briggs looked closely at Jillian''s green eyes and noticed that they were somewhat unfocused and slightly dilated. He started to fear that she was suffering from some sort of brain trauma. He carefully helped her up and started to lead her back the way she came. Briggs''s actions surprised Jillian since she knew that his office was in the opposite direction, "What are you doing detective? Your office is that way and you left the file you were holding on the floor." "The file can wait, I''m taking you to the hospital." "What? Why?" "Jillian, you are covered in cuts and bruises, you look like you have been badly beaten up, and the fact that you haven''t even noticed your own condition means that you might have a head injury." Jillian was shocked when she heard what Briggs said but slowly she started to notice that her mind wasn''t quite focused. She felt like she was seeing the world from a slightly different perspective. It was hard to put in words but it was as if everything was somewhat tilted but not tilted at the same time. That combined with the fact that she could not remember what had happened the previous night finally made her believe Briggs and she listlessly followed him to his car. Chapter Five - Dr. Gupta Chapter Five "I''ll be honest, I''m surprised you came here on your own two feet and not on a gurney. You were lucky enough to avoid damage to your bones but as far as I can tell that is the only part of your body that hasn''t been injured. This wasn''t just some random beating, it was thorough and efficient in its brutality. This was obviously done by somebody who knew what they were doing. There is heavy bruising and small cuts on over forty percent of the surface of your skin, most of your muscles have sustained enough blunt force trauma that they look like a piece of grade A meat that someone has tenderized to make steak and your tendons and ligaments are on the verge of snapping like threads. Luckily you have sustained minimal injuries to your internal organs except for your brain. You did however received a heavy blow to your head and you do have a concussion. Things to do with the brain are always complicated but I am cautiously optimistic about your case but for now you should be under constant supervision, you should not fall asleep for the next twenty four hours." The little Indian man in blue medical scrubs with a tag on them that said Dr. Gupta stood in front of Jillian who had changed into generic blue clothes that all patients wore and rattled off a list of her injuries like a grocery list but Jillian was barely paying attention to him because she was too busy experiencing the pain caused by the injuries he was talking about. Jillian''s mind had slowly recovered on the ride from the police station to the hospital. While that might sound like a good thing, it meant that she now felt every cut and bruise on her body and as Dr. Gupta had pointed out, there were a lot of cuts and bruises to feel. The good doctor had given some pain medication to her and it had helped a lot but since she had a concussion, he was unable to give her the really good stuff so she was somewhat distracted as Dr Gupta continued to speak. Briggs was also in the room but he wasn''t paying attention to the Doctor''s words either. His eyes kept involuntarily drifting towards Jillian''s back which was visible because the patient gown she was wearing wasn''t properly fastened. Every time his eyes would drift towards her, he would remind himself that she was injured and tried to stop himself from staring but eventually his eyes would find their way back to her again. He couldn''t really help it, he had always thought that Jillian looked pretty but he had never thought that beneath all of the thick sweaters and unflattering clothes that she usually wears hid a body that could make any man''s imagination run wild. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. He finally managed to get a hold of himself and turned away with great difficulty only to find doctor Gupta looking at him with a knowing smile. "I don''t know what happened and I don''t know the nature of your relationship with this woman but I''m going to have to report this to the police and you are going to have to answer a few questions before I prescribe some pills for her and only then can you leave." Briggs nearly chocked on his saliva when he heard the doctors sly insinuations, even Jillian who was in a painful haze suddenly straightened up and stared at the doctor. Briggs quickly took out his badge before saying, "I''m a cop so that won''t be necessary. You can give them my badge number when you report this and I''m sure they will be happy to confirm it for you. As for the other thing.... I work together with Ms Reed. We don''t have a relationship of that nature." "Is that right? So I am assuming you can''t help look after Ms Reed for the rest of the day? Then Ms Reed, is there anybody that can keep an eye on you for the next twenty four hours? The hospital is very busy right now with the current wave of violence that has just broken out so we can''t really spare a bed or a nurse to take care of you." Jillian tried to think of anybody that would be willing to help her but all she drew up was a blank. Her mother was in Ohio with her step father and step brothers, she hadn''t been in a relationship since she divorced Sam Wilkins from their play marriage in second grade, and she wasn''t really close enough to anybody to call them for something like this. Briggs saw the difficult expression on Jillian''s face and stepped forward, "It''s okay doc, I''ll do it." Jillian was very surprised when Briggs suddenly volunteered. She had a good opinion of Briggs but they weren''t very close. They knew each other in a professional capacity but that was it. "Are you sure Detective Briggs? I am already very grateful that you have taken me to the hospital, I don''t want to take up anymore of your time." "No, I insist. Plus I need to talk to you anyways. It is a good opportunity to ask you questions about what happened last night." Jillian thought that Briggs was acting a little strange but she didn''t sense any malicious intent from him and she didn''t really have any other options so she accepted his offer. Chapter Six - Driving Ms. Reed Chapter six The atmosphere inside of the car as they drove to Jillian''s house was exceedingly awkward, the cloying silence only rarely being broken by the announcements that periodically burst out from the car''s police radio. Eventually Briggs couldn''t take it anymore and he shut off the the radio and tried to make conversation. "So, how are you feeling Ms Reed?" Jillian was a very solitary person. The silence might have been cloying and awkward for Briggs but for Jillian it was perfectly normal, in fact she sometimes spent entire afternoons doing nothing but sitting down in absolute silence just thinking about some things. Jillian was comfortable in the silence and so she wasn''t used to making inane conversation because she felt that it served no purpose. Ultimately Jillian was judged to be awkward, unfriendly and antisocial with her strange behavioral quirks but deep inside she was a very kind hearted and polite person so she tried to smile without grimacing in pain and answered, "I''m feeling much better Detective Briggs. Thanks again for taking me to the hospital." Briggs almost sighed in relief when he saw that Jillian was trying to be sociable. Jillian was famous in the station for being a no nonsense kind of woman. She had been asked out by many of the cops but she had flatly rejected all of them. Eventually they even started a betting pool to see who would bag ''the frigid crusader'' as she was known in the station, last time he heard that the pot had reached thirty three grand without showing any sign of being collected anytime soon. Jillian was always professional to the point of being standoffish, flattery rolled off her without phasing her, trying to flirt with her would only result in her tilting her head and looking at you like you were speaking in a foreign language. She was unattainable which made her even more attractive. Briggs imagined what would happen if they found out exactly how devastatingly sexy she was when she wasn''t hiding her body and he couldn''t help but shiver when he envisioned the frenzy it would cause. His eyes involuntarily peeked towards Jillian whose body had once again been wrapped in layers of clothing and he remembered exactly how she looked with only a thin layer of cloth covering her. The image was almost literally seared into his mind, he knew that those ridiculous curves that would give any formula one racer a headache were going to keep him up for many a night. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Eventually he realized that he hadn''t looked at the road for a dangerously long period of time so he hurriedly shifted his attention back to driving and spoke while trying to give the off the impression that he wasn''t flustered and that he was as cool as a cucumber,"I''m not really working right now, please call me Ed." Jillian didn''t know what was going through Brigg''s mind. She did know that some people found her attractive but she had never understood such things. Sure she understood the underlying biological ,psychological, and physiological principles underlying the whole reproduction thing but she never believed in "falling in love". She does find some men sexually attractive but that was about it. She also knew that her attitude probably stemmed from the fact that her father had abandoned her mother making it difficult for her to trust men in that way but she did want to fix her attitude. She didn''t even see it as a problem. To her, love and romance were unnecessary. She got sexual urges now and then but she could take care of those on her own with the help of the appropriate equipment. Jillian had long discarded useless things that had to do with male female relations so she didn''t realize that Briggs was trying to get more familiar with her by getting on a first name basis. When he asked her to call him Ed , she responded without thinking, "Alright Ed, you can call me Jill." She had automatically wanted to extend the same courtesy he was extending her and thought that it was the polite thing to do so she didn''t understand why Briggs had a big grin on his face for the remainder of the trip. Chapter Seven - gingerbread house Chapter seven The first time Briggs saw Jillian''s home, he thought that he was seeing a gingerbread house. The simple brown structure that had walls that looked like they were made of cookies looked completely out of place amongst the more modern looking houses surrounding it. The house was actually the only thing that Jillian''s father had left when he abandoned her and her mother. After her mother had remarried and moved away from Andromeda city, she had left the house to Jillian. Jillian originally wanted to demolish the house to build something similar to her neighbor''s houses but she eventually decided against it because the house wasn''t just a momento of her failure of a father but also contained some of the happiest memories she had of growing up. Jillian led Briggs into her house through the kitchen door. She felt strange leading a man into her house. Her house was her personal domain, her own private space where other people rarely enter. It was her sanctuary from the outside world and she felt both excited and scared to let Briggs inside. The act felt strangely intimate. Briggs went into the ginger bread house filled with curiosity. He was already shocked that the woman who was known for her chillingly cold attitude lived in a house with so much character. He was dying to see what the lair of ''the frigid crusader'' actually looked like. Once inside he noticed that the house was immaculate. The kitchen was spotless. The floral tiles on the floor were so clean he was afraid to actually step on them. Everything was carefully put away and arranged properly. The only discordant tone in the whole room was a bowl of cereal that had been left out in the open, uneaten. The living room was also very different from what he expected. There was a giant antique coffee table at the center of the room and surrounding it were old looking leather sofas and a couch. Briggs had seen a small television in the kitchen but surprisingly there wasn''t one in the living room. Instead there was a fireplace and an old fashioned gramophone. Jillian pointed to the couch and politely said, "You can sit here Detective. If you''re thirsty I can get you some tea or lemonade." If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Briggs stopped looking around like a bewildered tourist and replied, "It''s okay, I''m not thirsty but if it''s all the same to you I would like to talk to you about what happened last night?" "To be honest, I don''t remember much. I do have flashes of memory but everything is fuzzy. I remember getting hit by Bruce Macalister who I have been trying to prosecute in court for the last few weeks. He was the reason that the two officers were assigned to guard me in the first place." Briggs took out a small notepad and started taking notes,"So you think your injuries were caused by Bruce Macalister?" "I''m not sure but I think so." Briggs was confused. He knew what kind of person Bruce Macalister was. He was very much capable of the beating that Jillian had received but he wasn''t the kind of person who let people walk away after a beating. He was a ruthless bastard who killed all that opposed him. In addition to that, Bruce was found murdered and dumped in the suspiciously overfunded Andromeda Hospital biohazard disposal facility. His head and face were so badly damaged that they had to use his fingerprints to identify him. Records show that he had made a call to the Manelli pizzeria around the time of his murder. Combine that with the fact that he was dumped at the Andromeda Hospital biohazard disposal facility which is mainly bankrolled by the Manellis and the fact that it was the place where the Manelli family usually dumps their victims made it look like he was killed by the Manelli. And then there was the murder of the two officers who died in a parking lot behind a strip club. They were both shot at close range by a shotgun. The coroner had estimated that their time of death was around two hours after that of Bruce Macalister. The two officers were also suspected to be on the Manelli''s payroll. Were these two cases connected? The story just didn''t add up and the only witness that could help had Amnesia. Briggs wasn''t sure what to do next but he felt that he should do it fast before Andromeda was ripped apart by the war between the two powerful families. Chapter eight - wild theories Chapter eight Briggs was wondering how he was going to clean up this monumental mess when Jillian spoke again. "Actually, I have another memory but it is fuzzy. I can''t even be sure if it is from what happened last night or just a fragment of a nightmare." Briggs straightened up eagerly, "It''s okay Jillian, tell me even if you are not sure. At this point we are desperate for leads and even your nightmare is better than nothing. Who knows, maybe a clue to the truth is hidden in your nightmare" "Well, I have the memory of the two officers getting blasted by a shotgun but it feels wrong like I am remembering a movie not something that happened in real life." Briggs froze in shock. There was no way that Jillian could have known that the two officers were shot dead with a shotgun. The timeline was all wrong. Briggs tried to organize his thoughts and get all his eggs in a row. What did he actually know? He knew that Jillian was kidnapped by Bruce meaning that he had gotten to her while the two officers were still guarding her. Combined with the fact that the two officers were corrupt scumbags, Bruce probably bribed them to get to Jillian. Everybody must have been alive at this point. Then what happened? Bruce probably took Jillian somewhere quiet so that he could torture and murder her and normally he would have been successful but this was where things got weird. Jillian, the one who should be dead was still alive but the one who was supposed to be the predator was now dead. His head was smashed in and his body was dumped at a medical waste disposal facility. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Did someone save Jillian? Did she have some sort of guardian angel? But if Jillian did have a guardian angel then it was an angel of vengeance because the two cops who had sold her out had their heads blown away a few hours after Bruce died. The question was how did Jillian know about the circumstances of two officers deaths? Was she really there? For a moment Briggs had a theory that could fit all the facts. What if Jillian was the culprit? What if she was the one who killed Bruce? What if she was the one who killed the two officers? What if she used Bruce Macalister''s phone to call Manelli''s pizzeria to make the entire situation unstable then dumped Bruce''s body at the same spot the Manellis usually used to set the whole thing off? Briggs looked at the heavily bruised, petite woman shivering in front of him like a frightened chihuahua and scoffed at himself and his overactive imagination. Jillian an evil mastermind? If that was true then he would quit the police force to work as a go go dancer who moonlights as a gigolo. Jillian was getting uneasy because of Briggs''s sudden long pause and the many expressions that were flying across his face like clouds on a windy day, "Detective Briggs, are you okay?" Briggs smiled at Jillian to comfort her when he saw how nervous she was, "Sorry Jillian, I sort of zoned out for a second and I thought I told you to call me Ed?" "Alright Ed. " Briggs couldn''t help but smile again when he saw that Jillian looked adorably bashful and blushed furiously when she said his name. Chapter nine - Que Sera, Sera Chapter nine Time passed slowly as the seconds turned to minutes and the minutes turned into hours. Briggs and Jillian chatted about inconsequential things and just hung out with each other. At noon, Jillian made a simple lunch of instant noodles and they ate while they listened to some music on her Gramophone, other than that nothing really happened. Eventually day turned into night, Jillian and Briggs ordered some takeout pizza for dinner. After that Jillian decided to take a shower just like she does every day. She went into the upstairs bathroom after getting clean clothes and towels from her bedroom. She lined up all her soaps and shampoos and made sure that she had all the required toiletries. She then took off all her clothing and pulled back the shower curtains to jump into the tub but instead of feeling the smooth ceramic bottom of her tub, she felt something cold and cylindrical beneath her right foot. Jillian looked down to see what she had stepped on and she couldn''t help but scream when she saw what it was, a double barreled wooden stocked sawed off shotgun. Briggs was sitting down reading one of Jillian''s books when he heard Jillian scream. He quickly ran up the stairs two steps at a time and reached the closed bathroom door as fast as he could, "Jillian are you okay in there?" Jillian was going to answer him truthfully when a voice from inside her head interrupted her. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Briggs was outside the door getting more and more worried that something had happened to Jillian. He really was about to break down the door when he heard Jillian''s quivering voice. "I''m fi..fine. Sorry for worrying you but I screamed because I saw a spider." "Are you sure Jillian? Can you let me in to check if everything is okay?" "No! Umm...I''m already naked in the tub, you can''t come in!" That made Briggs pause for a second as he imagined Jillian naked but he quickly shook those thoughts away, "Alright but I have another concern. I just realized that I can''t keep an eye on you in there like the doctor ordered." Jillian was getting frantic, why wouldn''t he just leave? "I''m okay Detective Stud- I mean Briggs. It''s just for a few minutes. I''ll be alright." "But what if you pass out in there? You do have a concussion after all. I get that you are shy so how about this, you keep talking to me through the door as you take your shower or maybe you could sing? As long as I can hear your voice then I''ll know that you''re fine." Jillian thought about it for a moment and agreed. She took the shotgun out of the tub, turned the shower on and started to sing Dorris Day''s Que Sera, Sera while googling ''safe way to handle shotgun'' on her cellphone. The disturbing part was that she found the exact same search in her browser history. Chapter ten - checkmate Chapter ten Jillian tried to disassemble the stock and barrel of the gun so that it would fit into the old water heater in the bathroom but her hands were shaking so badly that she kept dropping the gun again and again. Eventually the voice in her head got impatient and decided to act. <*sigh* I guess doing this little thing was too much to ask from you. I was planning to lie low for a while until the heat died down before I acted again but it seems that I am being forced to act early because of little Jillian''s incompetence. *sigh* Fine, I''ll just modify my plans a little bit . Go to sleep little Jillian, I''ll handle this. Just go to sleep and let me take care of everything.> As the voice spoke, Jillian''s eyes fluttered and became blank. Then her blank eyes were filled up again but there was an imperceptible change in their depth, the person looking out from her innocent blue eyes had changed and a slightly sinister glint could be seen before it vanished without a trace. Jillian''s trembling hands suddenly became rock steady. She looked at the instructions on her phone then she smoothly disassembled the shotgun and threw it into the old broken down boiler without any hesitation. She quickly entered the shower to make her hair wet and toweled herself off methodically, making sure to leave herself damp. She put on the satiny tank top and short shorts she usually wore as underwear when she slept but completely ignored the ratty cotton bathrobe she usually wore over them. She then stood in front of the mirror above the sink to see how she looked. Satisfied with how the previous dampness had made her tank top slightly see through, she opened the medicine cabinet beneath the sink and retrieved a medicine bottle before walking out of the bathroom. In the hallway outside of the bathroom, Briggs was leaning against the wall and marveling at how beautiful Jillian sounded as she sang, when the bathroom door suddenly opened without warning. Briggs stood there gaping like a dying fish, his entire body frozen and rigid like ten thousand volts of electricity was coursing through his body robbing him of his ability to speak, move or even think properly. His eyes that were opened wide like saucers were glued on Jillian who had just walked out of the bathroom like a heavenly vision. She was wearing a skimpy red outfit that showed off her delicate neckline, her ample chest, her sexy curvy body and her long slender legs. Even though patches of purple bruises could be seen where she had been assaulted, her creamy white skin was still a treat to the eyes. Water slowly dripped down from her wet red hair, slowly meandering down the contours of her face and neck before disappearing into her cleavage. Her damp tank top was semitransparent and Briggs knew without a doubt that she was not wearing a bra. Briggs was so distracted by Jillian that she had to call him three times before he noticed. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Ed! Are you alright detective Briggs? Ed?" When he finally noticed that Jillian was talking to him, he noticed that her voice had become husky from singing for so long and the way she called him Ed made him blank out again, he completely missed the tiny victorious smile at the corner of Jillian''s lips. By the time he returned to his senses, the smile was gone and all that was left was a look of concern. Briggs cleared his throat in embarrassment after he unconsciously loosened his necktie and gulped, "Sorry about that, I was thinking about the case and I drifted off." Jillian nearly burst out into laughter but she managed to get control of herself, "Is that so? You are such a hardworking man. Maybe you should relax a little? I know! I have a nice bottle of French white wine that I bought in case I had to entertain guests. Let us have a glass of that and play some games. Maybe cards, chess, or maybe something else." Jillian''s seemingly innocent words sent his imagination soaring but eventually he came to his senses,"I don''t think you should be consuming alcohol when you have a concussion." Jillian pouted cutely at him and looked at him with large disappointed eyes, "Please? I''ll only have one glass! I promise!" Briggs buckled under Jillian''s assault and five minutes later he found himself back in Jillian''s sitting room, sipping a glass of white wine and playing chess. "Hmm...this wine is very good. It has a very interesting aftertaste." Jillian smiled mysteriously and moved one of her bishops carelessly without even looking at the chessboard,"I have my own secret ingredient." Briggs moved one of his rooks to take Jillian''s bishop,"Is that so? By the way, why aren''t you playing carefully? You are just giving away all of your pieces." Jillian moved one of her knights, "Because I know that I have already won." Briggs yawned and used his bishop to take the knight she had just moved, "What do you mean by that? Clearly I am the one who is winning." Jillian just smiled again, "You think you are winning but that makes you careless. You think I am being lax so you subconsciously let down your guard allowing me to do this," Jillian placed one of her last remaining pieces beside Briggs''s king, hewing it in and trapping it, "Checkmate detective." She looked up to see that Briggs had already fallen asleep. She took a blanket and pillow and made sure that he was comfortable and warm. Once she was sure that he wasn''t going to wake up, she went upstairs to return the bottle of sleeping pills into her medicine cabinet and retrieved the shotgun from the old water heater tank. She changed into jeans and a warm jacket before leaving her house. It was time to go out and play.