Story [Issue 55] Bloodshed - Completed

[Night-Sisters 2,139]

 

Chapter One: Dubiety 

by @Daniel898

 

“I swear I didn’t do it!”

 

I suspect that he isn’t telling the truth, and neither do my fellow officers.

 

Maximus selected his pen on the table beside him, and eyed the notepad carefully. “Stefan, you claim that Juniper did not access the office.” He pauses abruptly and commences to speak again. “But later, you declared that she waved at you upon leaving the office. I’m uncertain how this is possible. As you can see, this situation is unattainable. Someone cannot wave to you if they never arrived at a visual position to do so.”

 

“I didn’t do it! I didn’t kill anyone, and I-”. Stefan roars across the table like a hungry lion, only to be hindered by the stale, calm voice of my colleague.

 

“As recommended by our lie detector, you haven’t been telling the truth. You slaughtered your co-worker Juniper. You have been charged of second degree murder and you will serve 10 years of-.”

 

Stefan screams in outrage, and lunges his body across the table. He begins to suffocate Maximus with his handcuffs. With Maximus’s neck hooked onto links of the handcuffs, Stefan swings him across the chamber, his head slamming onto the impenetrable stone wall and his body dwindling to the ground. He’s unconscious.

 

I explore my pocket and feel for my gun. Crap. I thought. I left it with Randy outside. I speculate hastily and screech at my other colleague Liam. “Shoot him!”

 

Stefan has obtained the key to his handcuffs from inside Maximus’s pockets and opens the lock with the key with his teeth. Liam begins to draw his gun. Stefan surges toward his legs and Liam capsizes. I observe in panic as his gun descends to the floor. Stefan clutches the gun and shoots Liam. I scream.

 

I lift a chair and catapult it at him, knocking him over. He targets me with his gun as I flip the table over to sustain the charge. I gasp at the puncture holes inside the table. I launch another chair, and another. I pick up the last one and Stefan looks down. I gaze. He starts to chuckle, louder, until he shrieks at full volume.

 

I drop my chair in fear. “W-wha-.” I begin.

 

“I was there.” Stefan murmurs. His body shudders, I take a step back.

I’m befuddled. He was there? “What do you mean, you were there?”

 

He continues to grin. “Oh? You don’t remember. So you don’t know that your memory was-.”

 

“It was what?” I demand, as he edges even closer.

 

Before I could react, he jabs at my gut. Stefan lifts me up and baseball heaves me chest first to the wall. I feel my ribs shatter as I scream in pain.

 

“You’ll never live to know about your memory.” He smirks, and aims the pistol at me. I prepare myself for the end of my existence.

 

Abruptly, the siren blares. I hear voices outside, orders to sprint to room A5 hastily. This room. Stefan lowers his pistol, opens the door and sprints down the hallway.

 

I cry out, seeing blood on my hands. But then, I see nothing.

__________

 

Chapter Two: Hallucinations

 by @Lethal_Injection

 

    I slowly regained my consciousness. The pain in my chest was excruciating. I didn’t want to know how many of my ribs I had broke after Stefan had threw me against the wall.

    Darn it! Where’s Stefan? I thought, my vision still blurry. Suddenly, the building went dark, but just for a moment. The emergency red lights flicked on and a siren blared through the hallways. 
    “Prisoner break from interrogation chamber A5!” a frantic voice cried over the intercom. “Fugitive is armed and ruthless, request immediate backup!”

    My brain was overloaded with stimuli. The pain, the alarm, the dim, ominous, flickering red lights, the footsteps of guards sprinting towards the equipment room. I remembered then the emergency medical pack that was always kept in each of the interrogation rooms. I crawled over to the corner and ripped out the morphine, injecting myself immediately. The pain relieved, I crawled over to my fallen comrade Liam. I felt his neck for a pulse. Nothing.

    Guards and a medic then burst into the room. They surveyed the scene, and ran over to check Maximus. It was about then that I once again slipped into the realm of unconsciousness.

 

    I awoke again. Only I was not awake, that much I was sure about. The fugitive, Stefan, was standing right in front of me.

    “It’s true, you know, that I murdered Juniper,” he paused, letting the confession sink in. “Who cares anyway, she was annoying as hell. One could never get any work done with her in the adjacent cubicle.”

    “Monster!” I lunged at him, but my legs would not obey. They were stuck in a surreal muck, invisible shackles holding them in place.

    Stefan chuckled. “Fool! You shall never catch me!” He pulled out the pistol that he stole from a guard and pointed it at me.

    I struggled against my invisible restraints. “One day, mark my words, you will atone for your crimes. For it is not only Juniper you killed. My friend and comrade Liam is dead by your hand, and I shall make you pay!”

    “Such noble words you speak, my friend,” he paused. “However, such ignorance you still continue to display. You are equally as guilty as me, you know.”

    “What you said about my memory… what did you mean?” But I never received an answer.

 

    The next thing I knew, I was lying on a bed in the prison’s infirmary, bandages generously swathed around my abdomen. I sat bolt upright, sweating at my subconscious encounter, and then shrieked in pain.

    “Stay down. You broke three ribs in your encounter with the fugitive. You also kinda overdosed on that morphine, you were probably hallucinating for a bit.”

I looked up and saw my commanding officer standing beside me.  “Commander! How is the situation? Where is Stefan?”

The commander gritted his teeth. “Stefan has escaped the facility. He was not alone. He had an accomplice among the staff.”

    “Do we know where Stefan is and who his accomplice was?”

    “Police have set up a 10-block perimeter around the prison. Stefan can’t get far. As for the accomplice…” He trailed off. “Our primary suspect is your friend Liam.”

__________

 

Chapter Three: Evanescent Memory  

by @BlackPanther101_XXX

 

My heart pounded hard against my splintered ribs as the answer slowly sank in. How could Liam be the accomplice? I had known him for at least 6 years, and we had bonded like brothers.

                I held a hand against my chest to staunch the bleeding. “Commander, I think you have made a mistake, Liam would never do such a thing! You have it wrong!”

                My commander looked at me with a strange light in his eyes. He hesitated briefly, and then spoke. “There is sufficient evidence pointing toward Liam, and also, there is support that you are suspect number two.”

                My wrecked body and mind could no longer function as these two blows, like Stefan’s brute force, hit me like a tidal wave. The infirmary bed once again swallowed me, and unconsciousness took me.

 

                When I opened my eyes, I knew that again I was still dreaming, because instead of Stefan in front of me this time, it was Liam.

                I tried to moved, eager to talk to him again, thinking that he still might be alive. I looked at his face, and he seemed oddly calm, quite the opposite of Stefan.

                 “Liam, I know that you know something about what happened with Stefan. Can you help me get the answers I need so his deed will not destroy both of our names?”

                Liam walked forward. “You have the answers inside you, but yet you fail to comprehend. Do you not remember? We three were there at the time of Juniper’s death.”

                I frowned at him. “Liam, we were not! All we were doing was…” To my surprise, I did not know what had happened at that time, or even where we were at.

                A gentle smile broke over Liam’s face. He looked me in the eyes, and said five powerful words, “Your memory has been modified.”

                Before my mind could react, he spoke one last time, “ I will give you one word, and you must do the rest: poison”

                My mind jolted. “What?! What do you mean about my memory? Poison?!” I shouted at him, perplexed. Suddenly, my chains vanished, and for one horrible second, everything became clear.

                Terror gripped me and clawed at my heart. Anguish and grief swam through my mind. Then I fell into a deep cavern of my own thoughts, falling, falling, falling…

 

                “You have been in a coma for the last three days.” My commander said dryly, looking at me as I opened my eyes groggily.

                I leaped up like a thunderbolt, ignoring the fire-hot pain in my ribs. Purpose burned in me; I had to tell him what had really happened.

                I struggled to sit up, blurting out words as they came, “Commander, I gave Juniper the cup of coffee that contained cyanide! I did not know, but Stefan handed it to me and told to give it to her. I did not remember beforehand; Stefan wiped me and Liam’s memory with a drugged needle, and then his own to hide the evidence! Comm-“

                “Captain”, my commander said calmly. “This we already know. Stefan was captured and under the influence of Sodium Pentothal confessed and revealed everything. Do to much of the confusion and deaths, you and Liam have been determined not guilty, and Stefan has been charged with multiple accounts of manslaughter and battery and has been placed on life sentence.”

                I laid myself back down on the cool white sheets again, feeling a quite relieved, but sad. Everything made sense now, Stefan had been caught, my name had been cleared… but Juniper and Liam were gone.

                “Do not grieve Captain. Juniper and Liam will receive full honors, and Stefan is now jailed. Justice has been served, and as your commanding officer, I now order you to rest and heal properly. You need to move on.” Saying this, he left the room, leaving me with a new day, grief, and finally, the truth at last.

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2017 by Hexed

[BlueDragon_tamki 3,204]

Nice story :p

[AlphaandOmega_tanker 0]

Well, that story had my heart pumping when I was reading it. It's a very great story, not counting the fact that it's a bit short.

[bloodshedbrothers 54]

read the  beginning of my name 

[Ninja 10,468]

read the beginning of my name

You should write a follow up called 'Bloodshed by bloodshed'.

[scralnax849 19]

Really good story, I hope to get a chance to write some stories if I ever get on the newspaper team :D

[scralnax849 19]

You should write a follow up called 'Bloodshed by bloodshed'.

LOL

 

Totally would read

[sre123 595]

Chapter one is just... simply amazing!