Teeth and Bone

Chapter 2

London wasn't the most crime ridden city but it had its own share of darkness, many cases that required Detective Daniel Reeves contribution in order to be resolved. Most recently, he was welcomed home from his latest international assignment by not one missing persons case, but seven. 

This in itself was an anomaly - numbers that high were normally accompanied by an abundance of death certificates rather than a missing stamp on their files. It didn't help that the only thing the victims had in common was getting into the wrong taxi at the wrong time. 

After weeks of no leads from the CID departments 'best', Daniel had finally been called in, just too late.

He had successfully managed to lead them to an old warehouse situated at an abandoned factory close to the mouth of the Thames, a site Daniel thought should have been checked far earlier simply due to its nature. His and his team's steps were almost silent on the gravel while they crept closer to their target, not really surprised there wasn't more security around the building. When they finally reached the door and Daniel gave the all clear, they couldn't help but take a sharp breath. The scene that had greeted the small team was one that was all too familiar, hitting too close to home for Daniel. The bodies were close to comatose, all of them suffering from starvation and dehydration with rivulets of blood staining their sunlight-deprived skin. Sitting in front of them all was the person, skilfully spinning a knife in their hands, the same knife that had caused the patchwork of cuts the victims wore. Despite specialising in tracking, Daniel had been trained to the national standard much like all of the other high level detectives to carry a firearm, one he quickly pointed at the sadist in front of him.

Daniel's training kicked in, snapped him out of his ruminative stupor.

"Drop the weapon and put your hands behind your head. Now."

The person in front of him turned and looked at him, smiling a toothless grin. His voice was soft, sounds spluttering out of his deformed mouth.

"The time for retribution has arrived."

That was all the warning he had before knife was thrown at one of the unmoving bodies. He acted quickly, running and tackling the madman, gripping his wrists tightly behind his back. He looked over to one of his team who was checking on the unlucky victim of the knife. 

She looked back at him and shook her head with dark eyes. 

Daniel grit his teeth and pushed his knee harder onto the killer's back. "What was the point of all this?" When he got no reply, he squeezed harder. "Hmm? Tell. Me."

The man let out a deranged cackle, one that made the Daniel's skin freeze and his shoulders tense. "They were chosen for divine purpose."

Another crazy believer. 

"And what was this so called purpose?"

"To give life."

And that was all he would say. 

Daniel's line of questioning was quickly interrupted by a a sharp intake of breath and the body below him falling limp. 

Knowing he hadn't put enough pressure on him for the man to fall unconscious, Daniel got up and turned the body over, grunting in surprise at the strange sight. The man's eyes were black, dark veins spreading out around from under his eyes with his mouth open in a perfect 'O'. 

He gestured over to his team to have a look, intrigued by the lack of shock on their faces.

"There have been others like this, haven't there."

They all nodded sharply, a quick movement that told him all he needed to know.

He groaned and ran a tired hand down his face. He looked back over to the people watching him in obedience. Perks of being well-know, he guessed. "I want to be sent reports on the damage inflicted on those people and files about the other occurrences. This wasn't the first, I doubt it will be the last. I want to find out who's behind this all."