Midnight Mayhem

         Midnight at the Boston Harbor is an eerie place for a person to find themselves lingering. When a rat crosses your path and the mixture of garbage and the ocean stench almost makes you pass out, you know the bottom is not far from reality.
         Officer Jon Hampton hates the graveyard shift. He wouldn't be here at two in the morning but a call came in about a disturbance at the pier. Unfortunately, his partner, Tim 'Nelly' O'Neill is home with the flu. The fog is in his bones as he approaches the corner. He feels something sinister in the air. If only he wasn't working with Internal Affairs on a drug smuggling case inside the Boston PD. His contact, Drew Maggarity, warned him of the dangers but figured he'd be safe in a tourist site like the Boston Harbor. Someone was behind it all and he was going to find out who, even if it killed him.
         As he walks around the corner, the street light illuminates the fog on the cold March night. He hears what appears amazingly like a wolf. A fog horn blows in the distance. He spots what appears to be a homeless man lying under a plastic garbage bag as a makeshift blanket. Ever cautious, he approaches warily.
         It's what he doesn't see that will become a problem. Officer Hampton bends to lift the edge of the bag. Something flashes in the night. He hears a whispering in the distance and rises, grabs his gun, and spins toward the sound. Nothing appears to be around except for the harbor rodents. He resumes investigating. When he lifts the edge of the bag, the streetlight reflects off a steel-edged knife. The so-called transient sits up and slits his throat from left then right slicing clean through Officer Hampton's neck. As his body falls to the ground and bounces, his head rolls over the perpetrator as it leaves his body and rolls several feet before finally coming to a stop. The slice had cut almost completely through though now you couldn't tell the difference except for the jagged skin of his neck. The pool of blood surrounding Officer Hampton's body follows a trail leading to his head leaving a path of blood. The killer rises as if nothing happened, tosses the garbage bag aside, and stands. He lights a cigarette strolling along the warehouses and hailing a cab, as if he didn't just kill someone.
         Unbeknownst to the killer, someone is watching. The entire scene seemed surreal yet the silence in the Harbor is appropriate for the circumstance. Seagulls fly away and distant fog horns blare as Officer Hampton's remains wait at death's door.