12 | The Demon's Crime

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After years of being a detective, the job never became easier as time drifted on. The world was always brought into a different light, a new perspective to investigate. Detective Aaron Regils thought he had seen it all. This Halloween night had something very different in store for him, though. Something insanely different.

Perhaps this was the strangest case. A murder that had not happened. The culprit? They were in the custody of the jail cell. And the murder? It happened at the exact time that was mentioned.

To make sure, Aaron made a call to the station to make sure the person they had in custody was still there. Surely enough, the answer came back that they were. Then who was this person in front of him who had the same appearance, mannerisms and, seemingly, memories as the former. It was strange to say the least.

Whilst looking at the crime scene (a woman mutilated beyond recognition, blood oozing all over the crime scene, painting it crimson) he found very little to identify the murderer and their connection to the doppelganger in the police station. All that was different at the murder scene was an orchid flower painted upon the wall with blood, a circle surrounding it as though it were a symbol of some kind.

Out of all the graffiti tags that Aaron had seen, this struck him as weird as it didn't seem like the normal tags he had spotted across the city. Anyway, it was right by a murder scene. That was good enough for him for it to seem even the littlest bit suspicious.

Examining it further, he noticed the little splotches of blood where whoever had drawn it paused before continuing with their tag. The blood was still drying, streams dripping down the wall and leaving a puddle at the foot of it. There was no doubt that this blood came from the victim that was currently being hauled into the ambulance, a blanket covering their body, very much dead.

Aaron watched, thumbing the rim of his fedora as he made his way through the crime scene, alone. The symbol had been tagged at various places, including where the body had been found. Beside it was a table with a piece of paper upon it, crumpled and caked with blood at the edges. He read it, looking over the Latin words which he translated in his mind:

'For the stroke of midnight on Halloween.

Travelling mindlessly through darkness, alone and angry,
The monster below is calm and is deadly,
He craves a body, so I give my own,
Two minds combined and two bodies split,
Then the monster will walk when the building is lit.'

Aaron read the words over before placing the evidence in his pocket. Turning away, a whistle weaving into the air as he sauntered off, he made his way to his car parked across the road. Then he heard a sound, but he dismissed it as being just the wind. 

Word count = 498 words 

Written for the Crime prompt for the Halloween Vault 3D

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