Plot: In a quiet and peaceful town, where every day seems monotonous and predictable, a series of brutal murders suddenly begins. A mysterious maniac, calling himself the "Angel of Death," starts his hunt for sinners, turning the peaceful existence of the residents into a real nightmare, and a shadow of fear covers the streets. In this thrilling thriller about friendship, betrayal, and the fight for survival, the characters will have to find out who is hiding behind the killer's mask and, importantly, manage to stop him.
In this story, you are a police officer who must uncover the killer's identity. Get ready for a tense game of survival.
Warning: violence, brutal murder, insult, blood.
P.S (English is not my native language, so I apologize for any mistakes.) A male reader!
"My poor, little girl! What a bastard did this to her," cried a middle-aged woman with dark hair, wiping away tears with a handkerchief that wouldn't stop flowing down her face from grief and resentment.
"Honey, calm down. They will definitely find this scum, and he will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. I promise you," said the woman's husband, hugging her, trying to comfort her somehow, but he himself was barely holding back tears and a tremor in his voice.
"What if they don't find him?!" said the dark-haired woman, who was already on the verge of hysterics.
"Hey, Tina, go get Miss Howard some sedative, or she'll have a breakdown. At her age, it can have a very bad effect on her body," the black-haired girl asked her assistant as she sat down on the floor, taking fingerprints from the shards of a broken vase.
"Okay, Emma," said the red-haired assistant, quickly walking away.
"Who did you cross so badly, sweetie," the gray-eyed person muttered almost inaudibly, looking at the fingerprints taken from the shards.
"Work in full swing?" a male voice suddenly asked, which Emma knew very well.
"Hey, Y/N. Late as always," said the girl with a slight smile, getting up from the floor and looking at the (h/c)-haired guy in front of her in a police uniform, "working until dawn again? You have such dark circles, you can't even see your eyes~"
"We're not here to talk about my sleep schedule," said the police sub-med-criminalist in a serious tone, "report, what happened?"
"What am I supposed to tell you? There, your buddy will tell and show you everything now," Emma said, pointing to a tall guy in a uniform with ashen-brown hair, who was coming down the stairs.
"Hey, Y/N!" Tim greeted, shaking his friend's hand, "you're just in time~"
"I'm never not on time. You know it yourself," the (h/c)-haired guy joked, who, together with his work colleague, went up to the second floor of the house, after which he entered the first open door, which was a bedroom, and clearly a female one, that was completely trashed and where distinct traces of blood could be seen.
"How awful," the (e/c)-eyed guy glanced around the room.
"This is just the beginning…the real fun is here," Tim said and led his friend to the bathroom.
"Lindsay Howard, 17 years old. Our police officers found her at 2 a.m.," Wright said calmly, closing his eyes slightly, seemingly unable to look at the dead body of the young girl.
"Our police officers? What were they doing here?" Williams asked, in slight bewilderment.
"A call came from her phone that there might be someone in the house. Several cars were redirected here, and within 15 minutes they arrived. But there was no one to save already," the detective replied in the same tone, "our experts are working. Maybe someone could have left some kind of evidence. But honestly, even I don't understand what this poor schoolgirl could have done to be tortured like that…"
"A motive, if necessary, can always be found, even if it seems like there isn't one," said the (h/c)-haired policeman, who left the bathroom and approached the room's window.
"What are you talking about?" Tim asked, raising an eyebrow, unable to understand the point of his friend's words.
"How do you like this motive?" Y/N asked, who pushed back the red curtain drapes, and on the window in scarlet, large letters was written "LUST", and on a small windowsill lay a white rose.
"Wow, how did we not notice this inscription?" Williams muttered with slight shock in his tone, coming closer.
"The curtains turned out to match the color of the letters, and only if you looked closely could you see the inscription on the other side of the window," explained the (h/c)-haired policeman.
"This case is getting more and more interesting with each passing second…"
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"I hacked into the victim's phone and reviewed all the messages and calls she made last night," Emma said, walking over to her computer, followed by Tim and Y/N.
"Kitten? Who is that?" Tim asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion, placing his hand on the back of the criminalist's chair.
"Jake Lewis. Her classmate and, as far as I understand, also her boyfriend. Well, judging by the correspondence I found on her phone," the dark-haired girl replied. "From the messages I read, I gathered that Jake had a fit of jealousy, but then they started discussing it all in a phone call…"
"He couldn't have killed her out of jealousy, could he? That's too extreme," Tim said, expressing his opinion on the matter, crossing his arms.
"There's something else. Shortly before her death, Lindsay was corresponding with a certain 'Angel of Death.' He openly threatened and insulted her and then sent these photos," Swan continued, explaining her findings, showing photographs where the murdered girl was in the company of older men. "I tried to figure out who it was, but I couldn't. It seems this person doesn't want to be found…"
"Could that not be the motive? Let's say Jake found out that Lindsay was having affairs with older men for money. He clearly became enraged by that and decided to take revenge on her. Then the inscription 'lust' justifies the fact that he labeled the girl depraved in that way," Tim suggested a possible theory about who the killer might be.
"But even if that's the case? It would be stupid to have that jealous correspondence with her and then kill her. Suspicion would immediately fall on him," Y/N said, countering his friend's suggestion. "In any case, let's go talk to this guy, and also to her friends. Maybe some more information will surface…"
"Emma, are you with us?" Tim asked the criminalist, approaching the door.
"No, I'll keep digging through the messages. Maybe I can find something else," the gray-eyed girl refused the offer, returning to her work, upon which her two colleagues quietly left the confines of her office.
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"Hey! Wait! Ivy!" Elizabeth exclaimed, trying to catch up with the girl walking ahead.
"Huh?" Ivy said, taking off her headphones. "Eliza?"
"You're so fast… I've been trying to catch up with you for 15 minutes. I was shouting and shouting at you," the blonde said, trying to catch her breath and putting her hands on her knees. "I don't even need the gym with you. I burned like 700 calories…"
"Huh? Sorry, I just didn't hear you because of the headphones," Blake said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly with a slight smile. "For your wasted calories, I promise to buy you a pastry to replenish them~"
"Haha, sounds good," Hill said, laughing slightly, after which she straightened up and held her textbook tighter to her chest. "Where's your sister?"
"Miyuki? Probably at home. She'll get up in about 15 minutes, realize she's late, and start getting ready in a hurry," the green-eyed girl replied calmly, walking along the sidewalk towards the school with her friend. "You have such dark circles under your eyes. Didn't you sleep?"
"Huh? I was writing a romantic confession of feelings in English yesterday," Elizabeth replied convulsively with a somewhat sad tone.
""Confessing this terrifies me… because I understand how strongly, how sincerely I want to love you… all those who were in my life before never evoked such feelings. I still hope that one moonless night you will whisper those cherished words with tenderness. I await them like parched earth awaits a cold drop of rain…,"" Blake said, closing her eyes with a slight smile as she walked through the school gates, holding onto the strap of her backpack on her shoulder.
"…Did you come up with that yourself?" Elizabeth asked Ivy with some shock and delight. "It's very beautiful and touching…"
"The main thing in romantic letters is being touching and as sappy as possible to touch a person's soul," Ivy said, putting the book she had been holding in her black backpack, after which she and Eliza entered the school building.
"You don't understand anything about real romance. It's wonderful when someone falls in love, butterflies flutter in their stomach, and the soul is like a violin and begins to play a love symphony, touching every string," Hill expressed her opinion on the matter.
"Oh, those romantics," the blonde muttered with a heavy sigh, rolling her eyes.
"What's that crowd by the stairs?" Hill asked in bewilderment, noticing the 7 people who were standing next to the stairs leading to the second floor of the school. Approaching the small crowd, which was already slowly dispersing, both girls saw a small table with a framed photograph of Lindsay and a black ribbon. Several flowers lay around it, a candle was burning, and next to it was a small sheet of paper with the inscription "We remember, we love, we mourn." - Lindsay…"
"Hey, girls," Terry suddenly greeted the shocked girls, his head filled with only notes of sadness. "Did you come to say goodbye too?"
"What happened to her? She was alive and well yesterday," Ivy asked, confused by what was happening.
"Today, well, how to say today? Yesterday around 2 a.m. she was found dead in her own house. Stab wounds and… I don't think it's for female ears. When I heard it myself, my legs buckled," Richardson replied, as if picking the right words.
"How awful. Whatever she was like, no one deserves that," Elizabeth said, again turning her gaze to Lindsay's photo, to which Ivy only gently stroked her back as if trying to comfort her, although she herself seemed to have a hard time accepting such news.
"Please forgive us," a male voice suddenly said, attracting the attention of all three. "My name is Tim Wright, and this is my colleague Y/N Williams. We are investigating the murder of Lindsay Howard. We would like to know, where can we find her classmate Jake Lewis?"
"He's most likely behind the school. He said he needed to let off some steam," Terry answered the two men's question, putting his hands in his jeans pockets.
"Let off some steam?" Y/N asked again, rais
ing an eyebrow in question.
"He often punches walls. He said it helps him calm down. The death of his beloved girlfriend clearly affected him a lot," Elizabeth explained with a slight tremor in her voice.
"Well, thank you for your help," Tim said, nodding slightly, after which he and his friend went off to find the guy, and almost immediately after, the bell rang for the first lesson.
"Good morning, class," said a woman around 30-35 years old, entering the classroom where the students were already sitting and standing next to her desk. "Many of you probably already know about the sad news that happened to one of our students. If anyone doesn't know, I'm informing you that Lindsay Howard was brutally murdered last night. The police are currently working to identify and apprehend the killer, and until he's found, please notify your parents. Don't walk home alone. Close all doors and windows. We don't know if this was an isolated incident or if there's a maniac on the loose in the city. It's better to be safe for a while than to mourn one of your friends and loved ones later…," the geography teacher said in all seriousness.
"Isn't that strange?" a female voice suddenly came from somewhere behind, to which the entire class immediately turned around.
"What are you talking about?" asked one of the students, who, like everyone else, was confused by the redhead's words.
"I'm not accusing anyone, of course. I just want to mention, by the way, that no sooner had two new people appeared at the school than a corpse was found. What an interesting coincidence," Jenna said with a certain sarcasm in her tone.
"Are you crazy to say something like that?! Why would they kill Lindsay?! They didn't even know her," Daniel stood up to defend his classmates.
"I agree, Ivy and Miyuki couldn't have done that," Elizabeth said, followed by half the other people in the class.
"Besides, everyone knew that Lindsay was quite the slut. Maybe one of her sugar daddies ordered her killed," Drake said unexpectedly, causing everyone in the class to immediately fall silent and look at the tall guy who was sitting at the back desk.
"Ahem, silence! Write down the lesson topic and prepare for the homework check," the teacher's voice suddenly rang out, clapping her hands to attract the students' attention. And so, one lesson flew by unnoticed, and then several more. For some, time dragged on, while for others, it flew by unnoticed.
"It was very sweet of Drake to stand up for you today," Eliza unexpectedly brought up the incident that occurred during the first lesson while Ivy was putting something in her locker, and Miyuki, who was standing nearby, was engrossed in reading a manga, paying attention to nothing else.
"He probably just put in his two cents to show how cool he is," the blonde said calmly, closing the blue locker.
"Well, if you don't take into account the fact that he hadn't stood up for anyone before," Elizabeth said with a sly smile, winking at her friend, to which she only rolled her eyes, "besides…"
"Hey, Eliza!" exclaimed the all-too-familiar voice of a fair-haired guy who ran up to the three girls, although his attention was mostly focused on his old acquaintance. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Miyuki and I still have things to do, so we won't disturb you," the green-eyed girl said with a slight smile, grabbing her sister's hand and leading her somewhere to the side, leaving the "couple" alone.
"Is something urgent, Terry?" Hill asked with some concern, looking into the guy's eyes.
"Well, it's not known yet whether the police have caught the killer or not, so it's not safe to walk around the city right now, especially for a fragile girl," Richardson said with a slight embarrassment, awkwardly running his hand over his neck and looking away.
"…Thank you, of course, Terry. That's very sweet of you…, but, sorry, I've already agreed to go with the girls. It would be inconvenient to refuse them," Elizabeth replied to the guy's offer with some uncertainty and confusion in her tone.
"Then let me escort all three of you home. I'll be like a knight in shining armor, and knights have been saving and protecting princesses since time immemorial," Terry said with a wide smile, putting his hand on his chest, which made the girl's eye almost twitch.
"You just need a horse to complete the picture," the blonde muttered almost inaudibly. "Okay, knight without a horse, I'll allow you to escort us to our castles~"
"I promise that I won't let you down, my princess," the blue-eyed guy said, bowing jokingly, after which he waved goodbye to Hill and ran away. She just sighed heavily as her gaze immediately began to search for Ivy and Miyuki.
"And we also have a cheerleader club! Don't you want to join them too? We have a red team and a blue team! Gosh, I still need to pick up and hang up posters for the upcoming fair! You've completely talked me to death! Okay, see you later!" Helen said in an energetic tone to Ivy, who was standing nearby and only occasionally nodded, trying to catch every word of the class president, who hugged her goodbye and ran off in an unknown direction.
"I talked her to death?" the fair-haired girl asked aloud in slight shock.
"My brain is boiling. She talks so fast that I couldn't understand everything," Miyuki muttered, leaning her head against the wall.
"That's how we live," the green-eyed girl said with a heavy sigh, as her gaze fell on her friend, who calmly approached them.
"Looks like you weren't bored," Eliza said with a slight chuckle.
"That's an understatement," the brunette said, squatting down. "And how are your romantic affairs with that handsome guy? Why did he turn so red?"
"Nothing like that!" Hill replied convulsively, waving her hands in front of her face. "He just offered to walk us home. It's not known if this was an isolated murder in our city. It's not safe to walk alone yet…"
"That's true. The city has become quite unsafe now. So, it's better to stick together so as not to tempt fate," Ivy said calmly, putting her hand to her chin.
"Well, that's right. And it's much safer to walk with a guy," Miyuki agreed with her sister, putting her hands in the pockets of her black hoodie. "That's the first rule of horror movies: always stick together and don't split up~"
"And the second?" Eliza asked with some interest.
"You can't trust everyone, and you always need to be on your guard," the green-eyed girl replied, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder. "Okay, the bell will ring soon. We'll sit through the last lesson and go home with a clear conscience…"
"Oh, come on! Why do they teach us things at school that won't be useful in life? How am I going to use math to escape a maniac? He's waving a knife at me, and I'm like: 'the cube root of 729!' Or 'the formula for calculating the area of a truncated pyramid?!'" the brunette exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips.
"Let's be honest, you don't even know that yourself," Ivy said, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder, after which Eliza let out a slight chuckle.
"Well, that's… not important," Blake muttered, trying to get her bearings, when the bell rang for the last lesson, and everyone went to their classrooms. However, the last lessons were canceled for all students due to the tragic death of one of the students, and it was decided to let everyone go earlier. Quickly gathering, Elizabeth, Miyuki, Terry, and Ivy left the school together, and then also left the territory of the institution. Everyone was having an engaging conversation. Especially Eliza and Terry, who immediately found a common topic for conversation. Although the basketball player assured them that he would escort everyone home, at one of the forks in the road he simply left the two girls, continuing to talk to his friend, without even noticing.
"I think we were lied to when they said they would walk us home," the Brunette said, squinting her eyes, looking at the two disappearing figures. "Knight to me too…"
"Well, in fairy tales, the princess is always alone, and the prince is obliged to save only her," the brown-haired girl explained with a slight smile.
"So, we're like commoners to you and don't need to be saved?" Blake said with even more indignation, looking at her sister.
"I didn't say that," the green-eyed girl said, calmly continuing to walk along the sidewalk.
"But you thought it!" the brunette remarked, and so, in such a conversation, the sisters continued their way home, just the two of them.
"You're fired! You're nothing but a liability!" shouted a dark-haired man, around 30-35 years old, at a young bartender.
"Please, don't fire me! My mother is sick! She needs medicine!" the guy pleaded with his boss, almost crying, ready to fall to his knees in frustration.
"I don't care about your problems! I'm fed up with your tearful stories! I've been patient until the very end, but my patience has run out! Get out of here, so I don't see you!" exclaimed the blue-eyed, imposing man.
"But…" the former cafe worker tried to say something in his defense, but the boss was unrelenting and glared at him with contempt. Taking off his apron and badge and placing them on the counter, he then slowly walked out of the building, getting caught in a downpour.
"I need to tell Emily to look for another sucker," James said, lighting a cigarette, after which he flicked his hand to extinguish the burning match. Exhaling the smoke, the lights in the room went out as if by a snap of the fingers. "Damn it, the power tripped again!" the man said раздраженно, going to the storeroom door and opening it. He was met by a small staircase and a dark room. Relying on his memory, James approached the circuit breaker and, opening it with a key, raised the lowered switch. At the same time, everything was illuminated with light. "How many times did I tell that idiot electrician to fix this damn switch! I'll have to poke him like a cat so he knows that…," the dark-haired businessman was saying with the same discontent when his phone vibrated with an incoming message. Taking the device out of his suit jacket pocket, the man hoped that Emily had written to him, but the message was from a completely unknown number.
"Who are you, and how did you get my number?"
"Don't get so worked up. I'm just a simple well-wisher :)"
"And what do you want from me, well-wisher? If you're a philanthropist or someone else, then look for another sucker with money who's willing to spend money on all sorts of crap."
"I wasn't hoping for your generosity, Mr. James. You've never been particularly known for it.
I'm writing to you with one purpose…
Tell me about the most terrible sin you have committed."
"Are you some kind of cultist? Have you completely lost your mind?! You smoke all kinds of crap, and then you interfere with normal people living!"
"As you said, I am a philanthropist. But my philanthropy consists of ridding our rotten world of sinners like you. You still have the opportunity to confess to what you did 9 years ago! You remember it perfectly."
"Do you even know who you're writing all this to?! Do you know who I am?! One phone call, and you, you freak, will be found, and then all your teeth will be counted, and your bones broken!"
"Mr. James, I'm giving you a chance to go to the police and publicly confess to what you did 9 years ago. To confess the sin you committed. But if you refuse, a completely different trial will be conducted on you…"
"You don't seem to understand the first time! That's it, I'm calling my guys, and you can already book yourself a place in the next world!"
The man was about to dial the familiar number of his bodyguards when he received a new message.
"Bastard, who does he think he is," the dark-haired man in an expensive jacket muttered angrily, quickly climbing the small staircase to the door, exiting into the main hall, but as soon as he stepped out, boiling water was splashed in his face. From the agonizing pain, the man howled at the top of his lungs, dropping his phone. Then, a person in a neon mask hit the man with a chair, causing him to fall behind the bar counter.
"You won't get away with this!" James said with all his might as the masked killer grabbed something from the table. "No, please! I'm rich! I can give you a lot of money! How much do you want, just say it!" the man began to beg, but the stranger only pierced the businessman's hands with two blades with a swift movement, thereby nailing him to the floor, and then raised something heavy.
