When April Henson woke up from a scattered sleep, she was still groggy but almost immediately noticed something she thought was quite odd. Her phone had 17 unread messages from someone she didn't even know. Her previous night was tumultuous to say the least. She and her boyfriend had a huge fight. They could not resolve their issues, and broke up. She knew it was coming, and was not extremely heartbroken about it though. Still, she thought maybe these messages were going to turn out to be from him and just did not want the hassle. So, she got up and took a shower and got ready for the day. She was not worried about it being much else, as she is a police detective for the Craven Falls police department in Indiana. Still, she just kept convincing herself not to pick up the phone.
There was an incident before she became a detective, as a regular police officer. A dangerous rapist/murderer, a sick-minded turd by the name of Jasper Phelps, had somehow gotten her personal phone number, and began harassing her after he was released from jail on a technicality. He became infatuated with her. She was just his "type", with auburn hair down to her shoulders and a fit, yet voluptuous figure. She has beautiful features with her mostly Spanish-German lineage. Anyway, this went on for almost a month after his release until it escalated further one night. He climbed into her home through a back open window after learning where she lives. He didn't know the house at all and bumped into something, making a fairly loud noise. This gave April ample time to grab a Colt .45 revolver she had stored behind the couch cushion just to the right of where she sat. The bullets to the gun were in the drawer of a table to her left. She put the two together, and waited.
When he came around the corner, she immediately knew who he was, and what he wanted to do. He was even carrying his rape tools with him. "Never again, you dirty, useless prick!" She screamed at him, and with that...BLAM!
Her case was ruled self-defense. Given the knowledge of what the guy had done to his victims in the past, there was no question as to what his intentions were with April. She was even promoted in the force, and continued to step up the ladder to homicide detective.
She did a few chores around the house, as she had some time before she HAD to be going to work. The place was in a bit of disarray, but after some light pickup and scrubbing here and there everything was back in order. "It is crazy", she thought to herself, "how quickly this type of stuff can get so behind when you just do not have the time for it." She decided she even had some time for bacon and eggs with her usual coffee-only breakfast. It seemed to be a pretty leisurely morning. "So what will go wrong to mess up this, so far, good morning?", she thought. She was in the middle of eating her food when she got a call that made her hurry to work a bit earlier than she had planned. Her partner told her they have a big breakthrough in a case they are investigating. A high-profile suspect has been seen going into a dilapidated building in a seedy area of town by a trusted informant. He is still there waiting for the detectives to show up, as he knows the suspect never came out. In her haste, she considered checking her messages like she had planned to do, but decided against it again. She did take the time to slap the remaining bacon and eggs on some bread to take with her though.
April's partner of 8 years, Juan Gomez, happens to have his car in the shop for repairs at the moment, so she goes to his house to pick him up, and they head to the police station to pick up their official unmarked cruiser. Time is of the essence it seems, so they gather what they need for the field. They are both confident this is the day they will finally collar this elusive suspect in at least seven murders, who has come to be known as "The Craven Falls Slicer". If they have proper DNA samples, they may be able to link him to even more. Again having no time to check her messages, and also wanting to be somewhere more private when she does just in case of personal issues, they speed off to the location their suspect was said to be last seen.
When they get to the location they see their known informant waiting, and give him a slight nod. He looks at them and nods, and then to the location of the building and slightly nods again. April suggests moving the cruiser back a block or so, and walking in just in case so they don't make their suspect aware of their presence. They do this, and going back up to the building, Juan signals the informant that he can go and will be rewarded for his tip.
At the stoop, they sensed a horrible rotten smell emanating from the structure. Could they have even found the very place the guy operates, so to speak? April converses that possibility to Juan, who confirms that same thought is going through his head too. Never had they felt as close to finally closing in on this sadistic criminal as they did in that moment.
After they got in and started looking around they would face another startling realization not too far in. A room was set up with various mechanical looking devices and gadgets. There were decaying human remains on one of the tables, and blood was sprayed and splattered all around the room. Another body was laying in a corner, not long dead. April recognized her as a missing person who disappeared over four months ago. "What the hell is going on?", April asked Juan in a whispered voice. Before he could answer, they hear a faint moan from the back of the room. They walk toward the sound, careful not to make any noise of their own. When they get to the source, their gruesome discovery leads them to a much darker realization.
On the mutilated, barely alive body of the man on the table, a sign is carved representing a serial killer called "The Torturer". "What is this? The Torturer hasn't been active for almost seven years. He just vanished after killing 32 people over a nine year period.", Juan says to April, who is not sure how to handle what is going on. "I don't know, but we have literally discovered the whereabouts of two missing people and we've only been in here 15 minutes.", April tells him, "We have to try to find more, and see if anyone is alive before we go after...WHOEVER is here."
"Just be careful. We have no idea what we are getting ourselves into.", Juan tells her.
They split up, hoping to cover more ground, and to uncover a few clues as to what is going in this place. It was just a couple of minutes after they split when Juan came across some stairs to the second floor. He decided to go up and look around, while she covered the ground floor. When he reached the top of the stairs, Juan was met by a quick moving shadowy figure that moved by him and tapped him on the forehead with something so quickly the detective didn't know what had happened. He looked around for a moment, then the blood trickled down his face. He realized too late he had a twelve inch blade sticking deep into his forehead. At that moment, the shadowy figure steps out. As Juan is dying, he realizes he has just been killed by The Torturer. It is not much longer until April comes across a room with mannequins and wax figures dressed in various styles of clothing. She is observing the oddities around her when she realizes at least one of them is a real person. She turns to run and find Juan to tell him they need to call for backup. She feels a light touch across her throat. She starts to walk before realizing her throat was just slit. The real "mannequin" sprang to life before she knew what had taken place, delivering the blow that would end her life. As the blood trickled down her throat, she slumped to the floor. She wasn't sliced enough for it to have killed her instantly, so she knew this would be an excruciatingly painful choking death.
In those last moments, she happened to remember her unchecked messages from the unknown stranger. She pulls out her phone with what strength she has left, and dials her voice-mail. She hits the speaker just in time, and the phone falls lightly from her hand.
The first message begins to play. It is from a mall in a nearby larger city that April liked to frequent. It is informing her that she is the grand prize winner of the Super Savings Sweepsstakes, which she signed up for as a joke. She has been awarded 2.5 million dollars, and needs to come in within 30 days to claim her prize.
Upon hearing this, she musters up the strength to utter one last word. "FUCK!"
Then she was dead.
THE END
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