The Hangman's Game - A 'Perfect' Town Murder Mystery

Chapter 11: The Hangman's Next Kill

I bolted up awake, coughing as Matt and Monty were with me. "Hey Andrew, you okay? Did you have another vision" Monty asked as I nodded. "Y-yeah", I explained what was happened as Matt hugged me. "It's alright", he said as I hugged back. 

Monty then got a phone call from another officer. "Yes...Wait, what?... We'll be right there," he ended the call. He then spoke, "We've got an attempted murder" We both went to the crime scene, which was Nikki's hair salon; we went inside and saw the murder site, with Andrea standing over the unconscious body, shaking with terror. 

Nikki was unconscious on the ground, blood spilling out of her head as she breathed slowly. Paramedics were called to take Nikki to the hospital since she was still alive. 

"Holy shit, what happened here?!" Reagan shouted as Andrea stammered, "I-i don't know! I came over to apologize for everything and hope we could become friends, but the next thing I saw was Nikki unconscious on the floor, there were death threats, but I swear it wasn't me!" She exclaimed as Monty narrowed his eyes; one of the forensic crew members grabbed some evidence and showed it to Monty. "Sir, we found something," he said as Monty took the note in an evidence bag. 

The note said 'YOU'LL BE NEXT BITCH', the message looked to be written by Andrea, but something didn't seem right. It seemed far too obvious. 

"Hold on, it seems very suspicious that this just happened and look at the signature on the note; it's a noose which means the hangman was here," I said as Monty sighed. "Andrea, where were you before Nikki's attempted murder," He asked as Andrea answered, "I was walking down the street to apologize to Nikki, and then I saw her unconscious on the floor, so I called for help! Also, people saw me!" She said as an officer came in. "It's true, sir, there were witnesses" Monty nodded. "Thank you", he said as the officer nodded and left. 

"Okay, was there anyone else that hated Nikki apart from you, Andrea?" Matt asked as Andrea thought about it. "I don't know!" She felt tears run down her face as I looked over at Monty. "It wasn't her; we should get the note tested for handwriting analysis," I said as Monty nodded and had the note tested; we took pictures of the crime scene and interviewed everyone. 

We returned to the office and looked at the case file of Nikki's attempted murder, which was very suspicious but nothing we couldn't handle. So we started questioning everyone, including Nikki's co-workers, but they told us all the fights Nikki and Andrea had before Nikki's attempted murder. 

Meanwhile, Andrea got sent to court because the handwriting analysis matched hers; the judge started the court case. 

"Alright, let's start with opening statements," The Judge said as a lawyer said, "Your honour Andrea attempted to Nikki in a rage! She's guilty, and you know it!" 

"Oh, cut the bullshit. She isn't guilty. The handwriting was a forgery! And there were witness statements." 

"Oh, stop fucking lying; the evidence came back as a forgery! Those witnesses could have been forced into saying they were there! She could have threatened them." 

The lawyers kept arguing as the judge banged his gavel. "Order in the court!" He shouted as the lawyers kept presenting their cases as the jury deliberated and returned with a verdict. 

The judge looked over at the foreperson and said, "Okay, Foreperson, what is your verdict?" 

The Foreperson stood up. "We find the defendant Andrea Thompson not guilty." 

"thank you, jury; you may go now; thank you for your service." 

Andrea shouted, "SEE, I TOLD YOU IT WASN'T ME! YOU SADISTIC FUCKS, HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW, HUH?! NOT SO POWERFUL NOW!" She left the courtroom with a smirk while everyone just stayed silent as they didn't feel as powerful anymore; she saw us and said, "Thanks for believing me; I hope you find out who did this." She said as we nodded as she left back to her house

Matt and Monty were still looking into the death threats as I returned to the hotel to work on the witness statements. 

A few hours later, I was sitting on my bed, taking a break from looking at all the witness statements, when my breath slowly turned cold, and the lights started flickering; I knew the pastor was haunting me. "Stop! Please come on!" I screamed as Matt and Monty returned a few hours later; the door opened, Matt and Monty then saw me freaking out. "Uh, Andrew, are you okay?" Matt asked as I shouted, "STOP FUCKING HAUNTING ME!!" The lights flickered faster as Monty frowned, "Son have you slept? No-ones haunting you." 

"I AM BEING HAUNTED. CAN'T YOU SEE THE LIGHT'S FLICKERING!" I shouted, eyes twitching as Matt looked around the room. "Andrew, the lights are fine," Matt said with a worried tone. 

"Son, come on, you need sleep." 

"I DON'T NEED SLEEP; I NEED FUCKING ANSWERS!" 

"Alrighty, son, we're gonna get you to sleep." 

"NOOO, I DON'T NEED SLEEP! I NEED TO STOP BEING HAUNTED BY THE FUCKING PASTOR!" 

Monty called over a medic who was helping Nikki, "Yes, sir?" He asked as I was rambling on incoherently.  Monty whispered, "Can you give my friend here something to help him sleep?" the medic took out a syringe with a knockout serum as he went towards me "this will help you relax", he said calmly as I kept screaming ", NOO PLEASE I-" The medic injected the serum into my neck as I suddenly felt dizzy "Please....don't...do-" I then felt my vision fade to black as I passed out on the bed snoring softly. 

"I am very worried about him," Monty said, eyeing me on the bed sleeping. 

"Me too," Matt said worriedly. "I'm worried he might be on a pyschotic break; this case is making him go crazy." 

I could hear what they were saying, but I was too drugged to comprehend what they were talking about, I then realized it was about me, but I just stayed asleep. 

A few hours later, I could hear the distant calling of my name. "W-what happened..." I muttered as I slowly woke up. 

"Dude, you started screaming about being haunted." 

"W-what?" 

Monty explained everything as I freaked out. "I-really?" I said as Matt nodded. "Yeah, we're gonna go question Nikki now; why don't you freshen up," He said as I nodded; I got up and went to get changed and came out of the bathroom wearing a white buttoned-up shirt, black trousers, boots and a black sweater vest and a black blazer jacket as I  looked like a student at a fancy school or academy. I also wore a watch as we went to interview Nikki. 

Nikki was in the hospital with cuts as Monty said softly. "Hey Nikki, how are you feeling?" he asked as she said, "A little better, thanks." 

"So, do you remember what happened?"

"Well, I was cleaning my salon when some guy came in and tried to kill me; I heard that Andrea was framed for my attempted murder but was innocent." 

"Yeah," Matt said, writing everything down. 

"So, did you see the person's face?" I asked as Nikki shook her head "No they wore a mask; I couldn't see much, but they did speak to me but they had a voice distorter" She said as Monty asked "Right what did they say" Nikki thought about it and said "They said 'you will never stop me, you will regret your sins" I wrote this down as we left the hospital to let Nikki rest. 

We went back to the sheriff's office and started looking into the whole fiasco and tried to understand the whole 'sin ideal', which got me thinking, was this person religious? or was their past full of religion? was this the hangman? did he have a religious upbringing? 

This was going to be tough but we had a witness, we just hoped Nikki wasn't going to be the next victim, and I hope that my powers wouldn't go out of control again.