Death & Tequila [mxm]

24. Drinking Roses

****Graphic/violent scenes depicted in this chapter****

When Jaiden entered the room, his jaw clenched, and his eyes turned cold. There was a seriousness about him that couldn't be touched. In order to survive mentally while investigating murders, you needed to adopt different personalities.

Nate would resort to sick jokes, trying to dissociate from the situation. Others leaned on each other, utilizing chatter and conversation to distract them from the horrors before them. And finally, some people would shut off their emotions entirely.

And this was Jaiden's default setting—cold eyes, a tight jaw, and an asshole personality who only focused on work.  He needed this to be his default because he had seen it all. Beheadings. Mutilations. Executions. And Jaiden had seen their atrocities up close.

It didn't matter where you went. The border, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque all had their different monsters.

But these weren't the stories that your abuela would tell you to keep you in line. It wasn't the la Llorona or el cucuy. This was another breed of monsters that kept you up at night. 

The thing that committed this murder was human... or at least wore the skin of a human.

Each body was becoming increasingly worse... and Jaiden felt horror creeping in when wondering what they would witness when the next body they found.

The room was practically red with blood, and the original posing of the body seemed to be an afterthought. The killer was wrathful with this specific victim and had let go of their inhibitions. This crime scene was a show of malevolence running wild.

Jaiden didn't know where to look first because too much was happening in the room.

The walls were splattered with blood like someone had flung cans of paint around. Still, he could make out words scrawled across the walls as is a child had written them. A crucifix was thrown to the ground, leaving it chipped and broken. And finally, a bible was ripped up and scattered about the floor. The pages had long turned red from the blood.

His eyes seemed to avoid looking at the body subconsciously. He had to force himself to look.

Every victim has some decency with their clothing still intact, but not this man. He was bare and laid across the dining room table.

Jaiden and Toni placed plastic coverings on their shoes and entered the room. Where to fucking start?

Jaiden took a deep breath and approached the table, the alcohol placing pressure in his chest and throat. He fought down the potential vomit and focused on the scene before him, trying to pick out the details one by one instead of looking at the body as a whole. Looking at the pieces made it easier not to think that what was laid before him was a butchered human.

Like the other victims, his hands were cut off and his wrists were bound by barbed wire. Another pair of hands rested on his chest that was obviously not his. The hands were holding on to something larger than the usual figurine, but the blood and carnage were too much to get a clear picture because Jaiden was still keeping a distance from the body.

He steeled his nerves and stepped closer to the body.  He glanced over the hands for a moment and internally winced when he saw that the victim's throat was cut so deep that it was almost detached from his body. His eyes were stabbed out with such vicious stabs that his face couldn't maintain its original shape anymore. 

The worst part was his stomach. It was ripped open barbarically and was exposed for all to see. His intestines were pulled out and replaced with something else. His organs were laid around him as if they were supposed to replace the halo usually made of blood.