Nick sits on his couch in his small dark apartment and turns on the TV creating the only light in the room. He stares as the TV screen fills with the face of a local reporter
~The breaking news tonight is the finding of yet another body accredited to the serial killer who has been stalking the streets of New York for the past two weeks. The body was of yet another young female who had shoulder length brown hair similar to the other four bodies that have been found. Also like the other previous fur victims she was strangled with either rope or wire. The New York police Department has made its main priority as of lately…~
Nick turns off the TV and the small room once again fades into blackness. He stands up from the small couch and walks over to the window looking out at the street.
Nick lived in a small apartment with one bedroom, a bathroom with bad plumbing, a small kitchen and a small living room. It was enough for him though. It was partially clean because he didn’t want any more roaches camping out with him there. He had lights, but he didn’t use then a lot. He would rather save his money that he would be paying for the electric bill to buy an air conditioner since New York was going through a heat wave. The buildings being so close didn’t help either.
Nick leans out the window and stress down at the street. The warm orange glow from the street lamps was the only light on the streets and they were completely empty except for two people walking probably back to their homes. No sane person would go out on his street this late at night anyway. They end up dead in a gutter somewhere or hanging from a lamppost.
“Well I can’t drive on my block and I can’t have no picnic. The sun don’t shin, but still it’s hot and they’re telling me stop trippin. When you look outside to see the view of a world that’s so so beautiful. Oh good God, good God,” a voice sings floating across the street up to Nick’s window as a person comes out of the apartment building across the street.
Nick stares and shakes his head as AJ comes out of his apartment building down the steps onto the sidewalk. He looks up at Nick and nods in acknowledgement and Nick waves slightly back to him before AJ continues to walk down the block. Nick watches him as he continues to walk down the block and he turns the corner disappearing out of sight. AJ was going to get himself shot, again, if he wasn’t careful. Of course AJ was the weird one.
Nick pulls his head back inside the window and walks down the small hallway and into his bedroom. He turns his head to the left and then the right cracking it slightly before pulling off the t-shirt he had on wincing slightly. After taking off the t-shirt he walks back out of the room into the bathroom turning on the small light in it. He frowns as reaches up to his chest and touches to small marks.
“Damn stun guns,” he mumbles to himself touching them gingerly before walking back out the room and turning off the light.
He sighs walking back into his throwing on a tank top and a baseball hat before walking back to his living room. He makes his way over to his front door and gets half way there before he trips over something and falls flat on his face.
“Damnit,” he mutters kicking away the rope that is tangled around his feet, “I gotta remember to pick up when I get back,” he says to himself standing up and walking over to the door.
He had a club he needed to get to.
AJ walks out of his apartment building confidently singing to himself as he walks down the steps.
“Well I can’t drive on my block and I can’t have no picnic. The sun don’t shin, but still it’s hot and they’re telling me stop trippin. When you look outside to see the view of a world that’s so so beautiful. Oh good God, good God,” he sings and then looks up at Nick who is leaning out his window nodding in acknowledgement.
AJ continues walking down the block turning the corner and pulling out a cigarette. He lights it as he turns his head to look at a person walking past him the other way. He reaches up with his free hand and touches a small lock that is hanging on a chain around his neck. The lock held the chain together and he had no key to it, so if it was ever going to come off he would need to cut it. Of course he could never do that because that was risking being killed by the other members in the Locks gang.
AJ had belonged to the Locks gang since he was sixteen. They offered a sense of protection and loyalty that is hard to find around the streets sometimes. Living in a bad area and having to hit rock bottom there were not a good combination for AJ. He did joints every once and a while, but a big drug habit was too much to pay for. His gang was in to selling some drugs, but they weren’t big on drug dealing. They stool every so often and of course they got into the usual street brawls with other gangs and people.
AJ flicks his cigarette away and turns a corner onto a small alleyway then walking into a small building. A group of guys were gathered around the back of the building talking and smoking. A few heads turn to look at AJ and nod in acknowledgement as he walks up to the group.
“Hey man,” a tall black guy dressed in all black says to AJ patting him on the back, “What took you so long?”
“Hurt my hand yesterday and I had to tape it up,” AJ says showing them his right hand, which was taped and bandaged around his palm, “It’s all scratched up and shit.”
“Sloppy. Sloppy,” he says smirking.
“I know,” AJ says frowning, “So where are we planning on going tonight?”
“There is a club we wanna hit, the Den.”
“Alright,” AJ says, “Just don’t get me in trouble this time.”
“Alright deal,” he smiles.
“Thank you Conrad,” AJ says, “So we leaving now?”
“Yup, just waiting for you to get your slow ass over here,” Conrad says turning and walks toward the door out of the building as the others follow.
It was going to be a long night.
Kevin walks into his Park Avenue row home and straight up the stairs to his room where he begins to pull off his suit and tie immediately getting ready to change into an outfit that was already laid out on his bed.
Hello Mr. Hyde.
Kevin worked as a stock trader on Wall Street and had made all of his money by his business and using the stock market himself. He was one of the wealthiest bachelors in New York City and his name was known all over the city if not the country. Of course there are two sides to every story. A Mr. Hyde to every Dr. Jekyll.
And that was what Kevin did every day and night. Every day he would work in a suit and tie on Wall Street talking about paper work and stocks with fellow workers while every night he would go out o clubs and hot spots that he co workers probably never even heard of. He would get home and change into his street clothes grab something to eat and then go out.
Today wasn’t any different. He was changing into black pants, a black t-shirt and a black trench coat that was made of leather. Kevin had an obsession with the under world of New York City. It probably came from the fact that he had grown up in a rich family and now that he was on his own he only increased that fortune. He had everything he could ever want, but he always wanted more. He never did drugs, but for him going out at night was like a drug to him. It was a side to him that no one else saw that came out. Then every morning he would stumble in around three in the morning drunk and fall a sleep only to wake up the at eight that morning with a serious hang over and no recollection about what happened that night.
Kevin finishes getting changing tying his Dr. Martins and then heads back down his stairs through his front door, making sure to lock it, and then down the block. He never took his car out when he went out. The thing would end up stolen or stripped of its parts. Instead he hales a cab and takes it to his desired spot. Tonight he was heading for one of his favorite spots and that was the Den.
Sometimes Kevin wondered if he was a schizophrenic or if he had some kind of chemical in balance in him that made him want to be two different people, but it probably all came down to how he was raised and brought up. Of course that was a different story completely.
Kevin looks out the window as the streets get darker and darker and the shops become more spread out until there are almost none left. Glass windows with displays are replaced with boarded up windows until finally the cab comes to a stop outside a building that only has a small neon sign hanging above the door saying The Den with a steel door below it. Kevin gets out, pays the cab driver and walks over to the door opening it and then walking inside.
One. Wild. Night.
Brian stares around his dorm room and sighs. His paper was not coming along like he wanted it to. He was so sick of learning this and that he was ready to explode. His brain was telling him that it couldn’t take any more information that he needed to become a doctor. He was on his last of seven years in college for his degree. His head was killing him and he swore if any one interrupted him there would be hell to pay.
The pressures from his parents were weighing him down and now his teacher had high expectations for him because so far he was the top in his class. The pressure on him was enough to make him think about just standing up and screaming in the middle of his class. Of course if he did that then his stupid roommate who was studying to be a psychologist would want to talk to him about how he feels. Sometimes he wondered if that rumor about if your roommate dying then you would get straight As was true. If it was he wondered if Seth’s death would affect him enough to get him straight As.
“Hey,” a guy says walking in and smiling at Brian.
“Seth, please be quiet,” Brian says.
“What’s wrong with you?” Seth asks.
Seth was a few inches taller then Brian was bright blue eyes and brown hair, which was dyed green on the tips. He wasn’t your typical psychology major in college to say the least. He also just seemed to be naturally smart, which pissed Brian off to no end. Seth would over a few things, take a few notes and then would be set for the big test the next day. On the other hand Brian hand to spend the week before the test studying his ass off to retain information. Seth always got good grades. Brian wanted to strangle him sometimes.
“Nothing is wrong with me,” Brian says to Seth, “I just have to get this paper done.”
“I thought you said you didn’t have to hand it in until two days from now?”
“I do.”
“Well take a break man.”
“Seth, you can take breaks. I can’t. If I do then I loose my train of thought and the whole paper goes down the hole.”
“C’mon Brian live a little,” Seth smirks.
Brian just stares at him as he turns his chair around from the computer screen. He was so close to just bursting out and saying go to hell too.
“I’m going out to a club tonight wanna come?”
“Not really.”
“Come on Bri.”
“No.”
“Brian, it will be fun I swear.”
“No.”
“Alright fine,” Seth says, “But when I see Leigh Ann there an she asks about you…”
“Leigh Ann is going.”
“Well see I don’t know if I should tell you,” Seth says opening the dorm room dorm, “I mean you don’t wanna go,” he says walking out of the door.
“Wait! Wait up Seth!” Brian says getting up from his chair and running out of the dorm room shutting the door behind him.
Howie scans the room and shakes his head. Why the hell was he here now? His boss had assigned him to do an undercover investigation of the Den because they had been tipped off that the owners were keeping two sets of books. So now he was stuck here with all the punk rockers and the Goths being slammed into people while drinks are spilled on him. He was in his own private hell.
His head was echoing with the pounding of the music around him and from what he could see there was nothing out of the ordinary. His eyes would drift to a group of guys that had entered the club a few minutes ago every so often though. They all wore the same sign of the Locks gang around their necks in the form of a chain and a small lock. Their leader Conrad was walking around the club with a skinner lankier man talking to people, but from what Howie could see they were all just having a good time talking, dancing and drinking. There was a tall blond kid standing against the wall watching everyone walk by him with wide eyes nursing a drink at the same time. A tall brunette man wearing a black trench coat was sitting at the bar watching everyone and talking to anyone who sat next to him. Something about him seemed out of the ordinary to Howie. On the other hand two guys who had just walked in were out of the ordinary. Both were dressed in khakis and t-shirts the shorter one with dirty blond hair and blue eyes seemed to be afraid of venturing too far off from his friend.
Within a few minutes though he could see the short dirty blond man walk off somewhere into the back. Howie watched as a young blond woman dressed in a dark blue sundress walks by him and into the back of the club somewhere. Howie looks around a few times and then also walks into a back of the club. He walks past a group of people that were made up mostly of Locks gang members and out a back door into the back alley of the club.
An hour after closing the bartender for the Den named Scott drags a trash bag full of empty bottles and glasses out the back door of the club and into the back alley heaving it into the dumpster. He begins walking back towards the door when he notices something curled up in a corner where the dumpster touches the wall.
“Hey,” Scott says, “Hello?” he says before walking up to the figure and touching it, “You know you should be home by now,” he says touching the body as it falls over to the left.
There was a sound as Scott screams and begins running back into the club tripping over his own feet before finally reaching a phone and calling the police.
Another toothpick in the pile.
