text: [Themes: mystery / thriller, romance, RPG, serious, drama, horror]
  
  The alarm clock was blaring but you were already awake. Sitting straight up in bed, you silenced it and pulled the covers off of your body running to the bathroom to get ready. You hadn't been this excited for anything in a very long time, but there was no containing your enthusiasm. Not today. Today was to be your first day at work since being promoted to detective. It had been a long road to get here, trying at times, impossible at others, but here you were. Just try not to blow it, you reminded yourself as you pulled your hair into a ponytail and put on the power suit you'd picked out the week prior. It was a simple outfit, blue blazer, white camisole, very sleek, professional. It was feminine but in a way that commanded authority. You grinned as you saw your reflection in the mirror and new that today was going to be a good day.
  
  You'd made the drive down to the police station hundreds of times, but there was nothing routine about the way your car glided down the pavement today. The whole aspect of this day was shrouded in magic, and there was nothing that was going to bring you down from this high. You strode into the building with as much purpose as anyone had ever had in their strut before. Strode right to the office of the Chief of police and knocked ever so slightly.
  
  "Come in" The familiar gruff voice beckoned and you complied.
  
  "Good Morning Chief Blaire." you said in a chipper voice. He glanced up from his stack of papers ever so briefly before returning to what had him so captivated.
  
  "I'm afraid not, detective Harrison." he answered in a voice so solem it knocked the smile right off of your face.
  
  "Has something happened?" You asked, a twinge of nervousness nagging on your heartstrings.
  
  "Yes, something has. Go ahead and take a seat." You did as you were told, worry creeping in on you as every second of silence felt like a year. Your palms began to sweat and you anxiously began to tap your foot as the Chief read over the papework containing what was apparently dire information.
  
  After what felt like an eternity, he spoke again. "Detective, I have for you, your first case. It is unlike any we have had in this area for quite sometime."
  
  "What is it, sir?" you prodded.
  
  "It would appear we have a serial killer on our hands, Harrison. And he's just getting started."
  
  You felt your heart drop. A serial killer? A mix of excitment and agony washed over you. This was the stuff of movies, you weren't even a homicide detective, you were told you would start off in property crimes and work your way up.
  
  "I know this may be a little overwhelming, but I think we need your perspective on this. Of course, you will not be alone, I'm assigning you a partner. Detective Ross Murtaugh, are you familiar with him?"
  
  You shook your head and the chief continued. "He's a stern fellow, but good at what he does. Perhaps that is what has made him so stern over the years. This job...." he trailed off for a moment. "It's cases like these that can change a person, Harrison." You nodded your understanding. "Anyways, I've known Ross for what feels like a lifetime. He's a good soul, and a better detective. I'm sure you'll make a fine team. He's out in the bullpen now, I've instructed him to take lead, as you can imagine, on this case, so it goes without saying that you'll need to respect his decisions. That being said, he can be a bit stubborn, and you are a very bright capable young lady, don't be afraid to speak your mind. I have great faith in your abilities Harrison, I know you have it within you to be a great detective. You're in the big league now, understand?'
  
  "Yes, sir."
  
  "Good. Ross has a copy of the case file you can review. Best of luck on this one."
  
  "Thank you, sir." You excused yourself from his office and took a moment to compose yourself. A serial killer? This was the last thing you'd expected when you'd accepted the job. There hadn't been many murders in Seattle the past five years you'd been a street cop, let alone serial killings. You walked onward to the bullpen, lost in thought, when you suddenly collided with someone passing you by. The force knocked you both to the ground, and sent papers flying everywhere.
  
  "Hey! Watch where you're walking will ya?" A deep agitated voice said.
  
  [Author's Note: This is a story game where you play as a detective assigned to the case of a serial killer who has claimed the lives of five victims. The man you are looking for lures them in claiming to be a masseur, but darker things await his clientele. There are many different outcomes that can happen here, the best being catching the murderer and having an overall good relationship with your partner. You can also die in this story, so be careful with your choices.]
  
  > Apologize
  "I'm so sorry, here let me help with that.." You groveled stacking up papers half hazzardly and handing them to the man in front of you who was still on the floor.
  
  "Give me those." he snatched them away and shoved them back in the manilla folder where they had been previously. "What are you an intern or something? Should you even be down here?"
  
  You raised your eyebrow in irritation but shrugged it off. He was probably just having a rough day. You raised yourself to your feet and offered your hand to help him up. "Detective Alison Harrison, I go by Ali." He looked at you in shock and allowed you to pull him to his feet. His hand felt rough in yours and he hovered over you slightly when he was upright. You pegged him for about 6'2, mid thirties. He had dark hair and deep blue eyes the color of a pepsi can, you noted.
  
  "You've got to be shitting me." He answered.
  
  "Excuse me?"
  
  "You mean to tell me that you're who I'm partnered up with?" he chuckled to himself softly. "Eric must be going senile."
  
  You'd never heard anyone call the Chief by his first name, or imply that he had a mental disorder for that matter.
  
  "You must be Detective Murtaugh then."
  
  "Great deduction kid, must be why you got the job." He handed the folder to you and walked on past you.
  
  > follow Him
  "I'm told this is your first case?" he promted and you nodded in affirmation. "I'm sorry." He sat down at his desk and motioned you to take a seat yourself, which you did.
  
  "Sorry that I'm only on my first case, or sorry that this is what is going to be my first case?" I asked.
  
  "Both I guess. This isn't the type of thing a newbie should handle, to be frank, I don't know why the Chief put you up to this. But that's out of my hands. I just hope you don't crack under pressure."
  
  "I think I'll be okay." You replied and he smirked. "Care to fill me in on what we're dealing with here?" You opened up the file he'd handed you in the hallway and gasped slightly. There was a gruesome crime scene photo of a dismembered body. Grotesquely mutilated and bloody.
  
  "Five victims. All female. All blonde, same body type, same age range. Beyond that, these girls didn't have much in common. No overlap in proffesions, and even in demographic." He flipped through the pages until he landed on a map. "See this here?" he pointed to a cluster of red circles all in a generalized area of North Seattle. "These are all the locations in which we found the bodys. But all the green? That's where these girls actually lived."
  
  "One of them lived all the way in Olympia?" he nodded."Well that must mean...."
  
  > The killer lives there too!
  "What? No." Oh. You felt your heart drop. You really thought you were on to something there. "No. See the other four dots, how they're kinda spread out too? That means that either the killers comfort zone is enormous and he has no problem traveling far to hunt these girls, or that they were all for whatever reason, lead to Northern Seattle the day that he took them."
  
  "Took them? You mean he didn't just kill them?"
  
  "Each of these girls were reported missing five days before their bodies were found."
  
  "Five days? These markings..." you flipped back to the crime scene photos. "Were any of them ante mortem?"
  
  "That's a question for the coroner. Let's go."
  
  > head to the coroner
  Morticians had always freaked you out. You'd had limited dealings with them as a street cop, but you had a feeling this wouldn't be your only visit to the creepy basement rooms in your detective career. The moment you stepped inside you were already shivering.
  
  "Ross!" an ME whom you vaguely recognized but hadn't made a firm impression with shook Ross's hand enthusiastically. Haven't seen you in a while!"
  
  "Yes, I've been...out."
  
  That was weird. Chief Blaire hadn't mentioned that Ross had taken any time off recently. You wondered what all that was about but was interupted by the sound of your name being introduced.
  
  "I belive we have already met, but I was unaware you'd made Detective, Alison, that's commendable."
  
  "Thank you," you scanned his jacket for a source of identification. "Damion. It's a very exciting step forward for me."
  
  "I'm sure. I take it you two are here about the Galliger girl?" Ross nodded. "And the others, as well, of course. Her body is the only one that I still have locked up down here. The rest were transported after the autopsies were completed, you see."
  
  "What can you tell us about the bodies?" you asked. He answered by unlocking a side door and pulling out a long steel table. You grimaced when you saw what was on top of it. It was a leg.
  
  "There were various lacerations and other injuries consistant with torture on all of the victims, all inflicted ante mortom. This however, was unique and according to my calculations, the first thing to be inflicted." You and Ross both took a step forward to examine the leg. You leaned in, eyes scanning the cold, discolored skin.
  
  "He branded them." You noted and felt a queasy feeling in your stomach, suddenly thankful that you'd missed breakfast that morning.
  
  "So he did." Ross concured. The marking was unusual, it was circular in shape, but there were letters inside that you couldn't quite make out.
  
  "Do you have a magnifying lense or something, I can't quite read this." You said, and Damion excused himself to go get it.
  
  "What do you make of this?" Ross inquired
  
  > You're not sure...
  "To be honest, I'm a bit out of my element here. My hunch was right, unfortunatley. He did torture these women. But why?"
  
  "That is the magic question. It's not so much about what these guys do or how they do it. It's the why that matters. Figure out the why and you can catch them."
  
  "I can't think of anythign that could drive a person to do something like this."
  
  "I can think of quite a few things. Each sicker than the last. The branding is interesting though and backs up a particular reasoning. He views them not as people, but as possessions. THings that he owns, things that he has complete control over. The torture in and of itself didn't point to sexual devience neccessarily, but this leads me to believe that he might be getting off on this."
  
  Damion returned then with the magnifying lense.
  
  > examine the branding
  You peered over the appendage and your eyes scanned over the damaged flesh. There were intracate symols that you still didn't understand.
  
  > It's in another language
  "Maybe Chinese?" You suggusted. Ross peered over your shoulder to look at the markings and his sudden proximity made your heart leap.
  
  "I think you're onto something here." Ross took out his notepad and copied what he saw on the leg down on his pad. "I'll see if I can get this translated. Good eye."
  
  "Thank you."
  
  "Damion, was there any signs of sexual assault?"
  
  "The bodies were so badly mutilated, it's hard to know for certain. The genitals were not spared from his torture, unfortunatley, as you can see from the photos," He handed you a stack of photographs from the autopsy, and it made your stomach flip.
  
  "Was there anything else you can tell us about the bodies?"
  
  "There were no hesitaion marks on the victims."
  
  > He's done this before
  "Normally, with killers first victims, there are hesitation marks. The lack of them here implies that he's killed before. Who knows how many others are out there."
  
  "You're right, Alison. It is very likely that he's killed before. This could just be him perfecting his craft."
  
  > Is there anything else?
  "I'm afraid there isn't much more I can tell you that wouldn't be in the autopsy report. The cause of death for all victims was exsanguation. There was skin flakes underneath all of their fingernails, it's being run through DNA recognition software as we speak, however there's no guarentee that will come up with anything."
  
  "At the very least it tells us that our killer will have defensive wounds on him. These girls put up a hell of a fight." Ross speculated sadly.
  
  "Pity it wasn't enough." You added and Damion slid the leg back where it was resting locking it into place.
  
  "What's our next move?" You asked Ross after leaving the morticians office.
  
  "We should interview the family and friends, figure out what may have lead the girls to northern Seattle on the days they went missing. They already gave their initial statements, when they reported them as missing, but this will be the first time they are being questioned since learning the girls have died."
  
  "We're going to question friends and family of all five of the victims? How long is that going to take?"
  
  "Probably all day," Ross admitted.
  
  "Do we have that kind of time?"
  
  "If the killer stays true to his current pattern, we have a few days before he takes his next victims, and five days more until he kills her. Let's hope he won't get that far, alright. But in the meantime, there's not a lot more we can do."
  
  Six hours later and there handn't been any significant clues uncovered as to why the victims would have been in northern seattle the day they went missing. The only thing the interviews had accompished, it seemed, was shattering your heart. The sobs of the mothers who had lost thier daughters in the most tragic of ways is something that will probably haunt you for the rest of your life. Their fathers, looked broken. They were less audible, in generally, but their eyes....you could see that they were missing something. Missing hope, missing happiness. They were absent in everything except absolute misery. What had happened to them was a parents worst nightmare, and no matter how much you assured the family and friends of these women that you'd do everything you could- everything in your power to bring this killer to justice- and no matter how much you truly believed that you would... it didn't seem like enough.
  
  > call it a day
  Heartbroken and exhausted you stagger off to bed. No matter how much you tried, however, you could not fall asleep. Everytime you shut your eyes, you saw mutilated corpses. All you could hear was the shaky voices of those that you interviewed. You tossed and turned but all you could muster were a few hours here and there of nightmare plagued sleep.
  
  > The Next Day
  "I got that marking translated. It was in Chinese. It says "They asked for it."
  
  "That's....unsettling." You sat in the passenger seat of Ross's car as he drove you to the dumpsite of the first victim. "He's dillusional? Or mocking them? Or mocking us?"
  
  "Could be all of the above. Hard to tell this early on."
  
  "So we've still got nothing to go on? Great."
  
  "We know he speaks Chinese." Ross commented.
  
  "So why chinese? Could he be Chinese?"
  
  "It's possible, sure. But it could also be for other reasons. Maybe something about the culture resonates within him. It's rare that killings cross racial lines, and since all the vics are caucasian women, it stands to reason that our killer is also caucasian."
  
  "He branded them in the leg, maybe that has some relevance with Chinese culture?" you suggusted.
  
  "I mean...maybe. Kinda seems like a stretch though."
  
  "I know." You admitted. "I just want something, ya know. After talking to those families, i need a win today."
  
  "I know what you mean." He stopped the car and you both exited. You were in the middle of the woods,as far as you could tell, and there was a path leading deeper in.
  
  "Follow me." Ross said and you complied.
  
  It was a gloomy day, nothing abnormal for Seattle though. You'd grown accustomed to the general overcastyness of the city. It wasn't raining at the moment, but it was definetley in the forcast. There was something spooky about being in the woods though, you couldn't quite put your finger on it. Something seemed off...wrong. Dangerous even.
  
  > tell Ross how you feel.
  "Stop." Ross did and turned to you inquisitivley. "Something...something doesn't seem right to me."
  
  "What do you mean?"
  
  "I'm not sure. I feel like....I don't think we're alone out here."
  
  Ross tentativley traced his fingers along his holster. "Trust your instincts." He said in a lowered voice. "If you sense danger, you're probably onto something. We're getting close, stay alert." He lead you cautiously through the woods even deeper.
  
  As you inch closer to the spot where the victim was found you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You grab Ross's arm and he sees the expression on your face and nods. Slowly he peers out and into the clearing. He visably tenses up and pulls out his firearm. You follow suit and try to steady your breathing. You sneak a peak into the clearing and see a man kneeling there in the center, he has a gun, and is not wearing a shirt. His back heaves with every breath he takes. Ross signals for you to move left and you do so silentley. You both raise your weapons towards the mans back.
  
  > Fire
  You pull the trigger. The gun recoils in your hand, you hear the bullet impact the man in the clearing and see him fall to the ground, limp.
  
  "ALISON WHAT THE FUCK?!" Ross screams out and runs to the mans lifeless body. You got the killshot, right in the back of his head. "He's dead. He's fucking dead! What did you do? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
  
  The next few days are a blur.
  
  There wasn't enough evidence ever found on the man to connect him with the killings. There was enough evidence, however, to connect you to a killing. His. You were tried and found guilty of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prision. You know what they do to cops in prision? Nothing compared to what they do to cops who kill innocent people.
  
  You have failed.