His eyes narrowed, he sighed softly, then closed his eyes for a moment, focusing… listening.
Then…
A barely visible transparent thread dangled from the top of the alley. And suddenly… an inverted human body fell onto it from above.
Luna hung by transparent ropes, head down, swaying slowly before him, like a puppet of the dead. Her bright yellow eyes gleamed with a thirst for murder, devouring him with their gaze. Her long black hair faded to a fiery red at the ends, swirling like flames. Her scent? It was something between a corrupted floral perfume and the sharpness of blood-stained iron.
Luna (whispering softly, full of madness):
"It's her… I want her… Give her to me…"
She laughed, then suddenly, lunged with a knife from her waist directly at his eyes.
But Aiden deftly pulled back, a single step, as if he knew she would attack.
She landed on the ground before him, like a cat, and launched herself at him in a frenzy. Her movements were unexpected, jointed, twisted, as if her muscles defied human laws.
Then, from a strap on her leg, she pulled out a small chrome pistol and aimed it at him. Her gaze widened… like an animal that had just caught its prey. Her laughter intensified as she fired. Bullets flew in every direction, some hitting the walls, one tearing through the shoulder of his uniform.
But he vanished from before her.
A moment of silence.
Then…
She felt the cold muzzle of a pistol at the back of her head.
Aiden (in a very low voice):
"Game over."
She laughed, turning with surprising speed as if swimming in the air. The pistol fell from her right hand, and in the other, she pulled out a new knife, plunging it into his arm with a twisted force.
The screech of flesh and steel was shocking.
They froze.
Then she murmured in a dead voice:
Luna:
"I want you… to bleed."
Aiden looked at her with eyes that had lost their warmth, and said in a cold, almost whispered tone:
"If I weren't a cop… You'd be a cold corpse now… I'm just… playing around."
Strands of his hair covered his face, making his eyes appear like the shadow of a drowned moon. He muttered as he pulled the knife from his arm:
"Don't make me… go insane."
He gripped her wrist tightly, quickly and precisely restrained her, then threw her to the ground.
He sat before her, looked into her insane eyes, and said:
"Luna… you made me want to kill you. You're a formidable opponent."
Then, hearing his men's footsteps approaching, he leaned in and whispered in her ear:
"Next time… play with someone else. I… barely controlled myself tonight."
He handed her over to his colleague, then returned to his motorcycle. He put on his helmet, pressed the ignition button.
The roar of the engine tore through the silence of the night, and he sped off like an uncatchable shadow, cutting through the city streets, racing its fading lights… and a new memory of blood.
The hour was approaching ten in the evening. The living room lights were dim, emanating from modern built-in ceiling fixtures, casting their warmth over the elegant furniture and calm wall colors.
On the large screen, an old movie played, its sound low, interspersed with the rustle of popcorn in the large bowl on the table.
The mother was seated among the sofas, a small pillow behind her back, gazing at the screen while taking popcorn kernels with a comfortable monotony.
Mother (without turning her gaze):
"So, Reena… what happened between you and your fiancé on your last date? Any news about the wedding?"
Ellen, leaning on the edge of the sofa, exchanged a quick look with Seera, then smiled mischievously.
Ellen (in a teasing voice):
"See, Mom? She's afraid we'll ruin her love life, so she doesn't tell us anything!"
Reena smiled shyly, then replied in a quiet tone:
Reena:
"We didn't talk about anything important… just normal things. He's still looking for a suitable house, and hasn't found one yet."
Seera (leaning forward with curiosity):
"And where will you live? Here or in our old city?"
Reena (after a moment's hesitation):
"We don't know yet… but I want to stay close to Mom. She's my world."
Ellen clapped her knee, laughing:
Ellen:
"And when your children grow up, you'll leave them to Mom to spoil them more than my children! I'll tell my kids: your grandmother doesn't love you, don't even ask her for a glass of water!"
Mother (laughing):
"Really, you chatterbox? Don't worry, I'll love them all… maybe to varying degrees!"
Laughter filled the room.
Seera (with a playful smile):
"Ellen, what about that guy in high school? Did you like him?"
Ellen (indifferently):
"He was handsome, yes. But I haven't found a guy worth taking my breath away yet."
Mother (with feigned astonishment):
"Whaaaat!?"
Everyone laughed, and Ellen reached out and gently pinched her mother's cheek:
Ellen:
"Just kidding, beautiful! I just wanted to see your reaction."
Seera (looking at the popcorn bowl):
"We're not watching the movie as much as we're having a battle over this bowl."
Mother (smiling tenderly and holding her hand):
"That's because we're a real family… we share everything, even popcorn."
Silence for a second… then suddenly.
Seera stopped.
Her eyebrows rose, she tilted her head slightly.
The faint but familiar sound of a motorcycle engine drifted through the wide glass windows.
She suddenly stood up, her face a mixture of tension and surprise.
Seera (stammering):
"I'm going to the bathroom, just a minute."
She rushed towards her room. She closed the door behind her, then hurried to the wide glass facade. She didn't turn on any lights. She knew where to step.
With a touch on the smart panel, the elegant glass balcony door opened quietly. She stepped out onto the round balcony with its transparent railing, and the city stretched beneath her like a sea of light.
Below, beside the sidewalk… was Aiden.
He parked his motorcycle, then slowly removed his helmet. His black hair, with a bluish tint, fell over his forehead. His hand… was covered in blood.
Seera gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. Her wide eyes filled with terror.
Then Aiden got off the motorcycle. When he raised his head… their gazes met.
The whole world stopped. Between the balcony above and the bleeding man below, the truth emerged from the silence of the moment.
"Their gazes met for a long time, enigmatic looks that neither understood, nor sought to interpret. They were silent, yet heavy, as if telling what words could not convey. They merged between the deep black of the night and the faint blue of the sky, hanging on a fragile hope named Seera.
In that moment, blood flowed in horrifying silence from the wound, a thick red line slowly tracing down the white arm, then branching at the wrist into delicate threads, like tiny arteries clinging to life. It collected at the trembling fingertips, then began to drip one after another, hitting the ground rhythmically, leaving a dark red stain… as if counting every passing second that would not return."
Seera didn't utter a word, but from afar, her brown eyes whispered, as if her gaze was calling him: "Stop… don't go."
Aiden lowered his head, and strands of his hair spilled over his face, hiding some of his features, but they couldn't hide his eyes, which remained fixed on the dripping blood. It was as if he suddenly felt the wound, as if the pain wasn't just in his arm, but somewhere deeper.
Seera took a step forward, as if about to run to him… then retreated, bound by something unseen.
In contrast, he began to walk steadily towards the entrance, without looking back. He left behind the stillness of the moment, and Seera's eyes that followed him with a mixture of surprise and worry.
At that moment, inside the interrogation room at the police station, the silence was tense, like a taut thread between two discordant minds. Across the table, Luna sat, her hand cuffed, her back slightly hunched forward, but her eyes… they were something else.
She laughed.
A muffled laugh at first, as if creeping from the depths of a contaminated soul, then it escalated into hysterical whimpers, a broken sound like glass shattering under a child's foot.
Detective Tia, despite her strenuous attempts to remain composed, gripped her pen between her fingers like someone holding onto a lifeline. She said in a firm tone, trying to coax words from Luna's mouth:
"Where did you hide the rest of the bodies, Luna? Speak!"
But Luna wasn't quite there.
She was in her own world, her head tilted slightly, strands of her long black hair, some ending in a fiery red, hanging over her face like an insane curtain. In her eyes, a deadly, cold-blooded glint… as if she was watching a bloody scene no one else could see.
She whispered, her smile widening:
"Aiden… terrifying… Aiden… terrifying…"
Her repetition of the name was a demonic melody, engulfing the room in a suffocating atmosphere. Then, suddenly, her laughter erupted, loud, booming, like an echo within empty walls. She slowly raised her head, her gaze appearing like a predator who had smelled prey.
She said in a voice saturated with desire:
"I want to dismember him… to play with his limbs… to see his blood splatter… everywhere…"
The detective's hand trembled, and he slammed the table violently, making the overhead lamp shake and swing, casting moving circles of light like specters over their faces.
He shouted angrily:
"Where are the remaining nine bodies? Where did you put them?!"
But Luna tilted her head again, and smiled a smile that chilled the bones, then said in a tone laced with deadly sarcasm:
"You don't want to know… your mind won't handle it… Bring Aiden… I promise I'll tell him…"
The detective unconsciously took a few steps back, as if those words had weighted the air.
Meanwhile, in her head, Luna repeated in an internal voice as if chanting an incantation:
"They said… prison? Huh… insane? I'll be out soon… they'll let me out, no one knows how I play." Then she returned to her laughter, but now it wasn't laughter… but a mad scream tearing through the silence.
Upstairs… inside the elevator.
Aiden's phone rang, abruptly cutting the silence of the moment. He raised the device and answered in his deep, confident voice, outwardly calm like a sea before a storm:
"What happened?"
The detective's voice came through:
"Sir… she requested to see you. She said she'd confess… only to you."
A short silence ensued, then Aiden's reply, in a cold yet fiery tone, his voice like the friction of hot metal on ice:
"Why does she want me?"
The detective said with embarrassment:
"Sir… Luna… she says she'll talk only if you're present."
Aiden pressed his lips together for a second, before replying decisively:
"Put her on a lie detector. She's playing games. An empty game."
Then he ended the call.
He slowly lowered the phone, and his gaze stopped at his reflection on the glossy elevator wall. Aiden's black eyes, surrounded by a faint blue like a dark sky on the verge of rain, became like two slits of dormant hell.
He muttered, barely hearing himself:
"I… I'm afraid I'll lose control in there… I barely held myself back last time."
Shadows danced around his features in the elevator light, as if they knew that when he arrived… something inside him might be unleashed.