• The phone rang near my ear and I tossed it across the room. Then my cell phone rang and I picked it up, “ Hello,” I said.
    “Jesus Christ, Bautista you sound like s**t, had a rough night?”
    “Thanks Donny, everyone wants to wake up to that comment, why are you calling?”
    “We got a double homicide, so get up don’t want to be late for your first day as detective do ya?”
    “Yeah, yeah I’m getting up” I grumbled. I slid out of my bed and looked in the mirror and stared at myself I had started to grow some stubble and pulled out my razor and began to shave, I looked up and saw someone else staring back at me I blinked and he was gone. I opened my cabinet and looked for a prescription bottle. It said vicodin and I popped a couple for some relief for my arm. When I got to the scene it was crawling with cops and media. I sighed and walked under the yellow tape and up the set of stairs, Donny was standing over what looked like s girl or at least what was left. “Jesus Christ what is that?” I said when I looked at the corpse.
    “That corpse is one of our two vics, this one is Jasmine Ortiz age 27 and the other is male a Jonathan Aguilar only 18.” Donny replied.
    “What could’ve done this?” I asked “I mean this is another level of sick.”
    “No one knows by the time the cops got here she was dead.”
    I turned and saw Brian Murphy, our lead detective. Donny and Brian greeted each other and engaged in conversation about the crime. I went over to the second victim, Jasmine, and examined her it looked like an animal mauled her and ate her but with the size of the bite marks it looks like about the same size as a humans? “Donny, does wildlife service have any records of previous animal attacks in the area?” I asked him.
    “Hmm… No there isn’t even a report about anything bigger than a coyote, but a coyote wouldn’t do this?” he answered.
    “What if it was starving?” I said
    “No, coyotes aren’t this strong, she was dragged from her home then killed here, almost 9 feet away.”
    “Hmmm…” I wandered away from the scene unable to be around the stench of death and pain. I walked over to the other vic and saw he was in the same condition . I saw one of the C.S.I.s looking on the computer “ Find anything ?” I asked
    “Yeah, I think you might be interested in this” she answered “ It looks like our vic was a writer, and the most recent thing he was working on was a story where he inserted himself in as a victim of an animal attack”
    “What??” I asked and as I read the story it seemed so much like the crime scene. The story even mentioned all of my conversations. Even the part of my shoulder pain and as I read I realized that everything was right in the story a lighter was next to the body the last song played on iTunes was an alternative song. I kept reading and was interrupted by Donny. “Donny you have to see this, it looks mentions everything that’s happened until now.” I said in a concerned voice.
    “Let me see that, why do you look so anxious?” he said looking at the file.
    “ Read the second to last paragraph of the file and you’ll see why.” I said ominously
    As Donny is reading the file his expression changes and says “ It’s just a coincidence”
    “ How could that be a coincidence, it mentions every detail even now read it!” I shouted
    “ Whoa, whoa calm down!” Brian said as he pulled me off the scene.
    Donny read the file aloud “ As Brian escorted an angry Ricky Bautista off the scene Donny read the file aloud and knew Ricky was right” he looked up and wondered as he continued reading “ as Donny made his way to his car after a long day of blood and agony for the people that lost their loved ones he was about to put his key in the car door he was taken down by a large creature and as he turned to face it, it looked exactly like the story’s description and before Donny could pull out his weapon the creature descended on him without any mercy or remorse” Donny stopped reading and once again labeled it as fiction and pure coincidence.
    After Brian and I went to get a drink. “Any ideas?” Brian asked me.
    “None.” I answered as I was staring at my drink. What would make someone do this to another human being? Brain got up to leave “ Don’t stay to late Ricky we still need to work on the case tomorrow.” he said as he was paying for his drink. Several glasses of bourbon later I stumbled out of the bar and walked home. The street was dark and the street light flickered as a breeze brought a chilling tingle up my spine. I saw something in the dark, it looked like a large dog and as it approached me it stood up and started to growl. I pulled out my gun and fired once, twice, and then a third time. The animal fell and as I approached it I saw its face in the dull light of the moon. It looked hideous almost like a human but with a snout and teeth a pale yellow color and fur as dark as the night itself. I turned away and was about to call for back-up when I heard a growl and turned around only to be hit with a paw that knocked me unconscious. I thought I was dead then I heard a gun shot then another, as I opened my eyes I saw Brian rushing over to me pointing his gun and firing at what I knew had to be the beast. He stopped firing when he got next to me “ Jesus Christ what was that thing bullets didn’t even seem to stop it.” he panted and pulled me to my feet.
    “ I’m not sure but thank god you were here I thought that I was gonna meet my father in hell” I said
    “ Huh??” he looked at me questioningly
    “I’ll tell you about it some other time” I said. I picked up my gun and holstered it “ Come on lets call for back-up” “ by, the way how did you find me?”
    “I heard gun shots really loud ones and I figured it must be that cannon you call a pistol.” he said pointing at my gun.
    When we arrived at the station we learned that Donny was attacked in the parking lot down the block and that he was mauled like our two vics from the double homicide. “Wait, when did Donny die?” I said
    “ Around 11:30, Why??” the coroner asked.
    “ Because the same thing attacked me at maybe 11:45 or 11:47 pm, which means this thing can get from one side of the city to the other in less than 20 minutes.” I said
    “ That’s pretty fast” said Brian
    “It is considering that we were at least 13 miles apart” I mentioned
    “ Maybe you got the time wrong” said Brian.
    I shook my head “ I doubt that”
    “Why??” Brian asked
    “Because the bar we went to closed early on Sundays it closes at 11:50 and I was already gone before the bartender finished closing up” I answered.
    “Welcome to the Monday morning news on channel 5 at 7 o’clock the top story today is the murder of Donny Matthews an LA detective working on a double homicide involving Jasmine Ortiz age 27 and Jonathan Aguilar 18 and a college student attending UCLA. Police say that he was mauled by an animal, but an animal in a parking garage? Tune in at 10 o’clock to learn more as the crime unfolds.” I walked over to the tv and turned it off.