A Killer's Blue

John glanced over his shoulder paranoid and jumping at his own shadow. His keys clanged loudly against the silent corridor as his trembling hand fumbled with the rusted lock of his rundown apartment. After hearing the merciful click of the lock he shouldered his way through the door, immediately locking it behind him.

He hadn’t always been this way, seeing monsters in every shadow. John had been normal, he had once studied criminal minds and helped identify and lock up criminal. He once had a wife and a daughter. That had all changed over a year ago.

It had been January and he had been helping track a serial killer who’s M.O. had been cops families. Not being a cop John didn’t think that his family could be target. He had been devastatingly wrong. He had caught the killer, but not before John’s wife and daughter had been caught in the web of the killer’s depraved mind. The guilt and grief had overwhelmed John. He had immediately resigned. The department had offered to give him a leave with pay and his spot open when he decided to return. John had refused, he never wanted to deal with the constant reminder of how he had utterly failed the job, failed his wife and daughter.

It was a month ago when the department had called him. He normally screened his calls and refused to answer any numbers that may be connected with that life. Except for this one time he had slipped. There was another killer seeking out cops families. No one was able to get any leads on the killer until it was too late, and another family had fallen victim to him. They had said they need him, that they needed the best in the knowledge of criminal minds, but what they really needed was someone who didn’t have a family to lose. John had given in and took up the case.

It wasn’t long after that when the nightmare started again. For several months after his loss john had been overran with nightmares of his wife and daughter. His grievance counselor had prescribed him sedative to provide him with dreamless sleep. They had work up until he decide to take on this case. Now new nightmares broke through his drug induce blackness. He’d stopped sleeping all together. Even with a new dose of sleeping pills. Nothing had helped. Only times he found refuge was when he finally blacked out from exhaustion. John could feel a black out approaching. It had been four days since he last slept and he could feel exhaustion pushing heavily on his mind. Tonight it wasn’t the nightmares that fed his fears of sleep though. It was the new evidence found in the case, the first major and most terrifying lead.

A witness had been found, a lucky victim. They said the killer must have been spooked before being able to complete the ritual that would give him his killing high. When interviewing the witness the only description she had been able to give the cops was that he was male and his eye color. The killer had been masked, but the woman said she would never forget those eyes. “ A killers blue.”

Fortunately she was able to give more about the killer than his description. She had said he had kept going on about specific dates and incidents. When the department cross referenced them, what they found froze John’s heart. All the incidents had been cases that john had personally been on. The dates were of the previous cop killer that had robbed john of his joy.

John trembled at he thought as he checked every window and every shadow of his apartment, assuring that he was alone and locked in. it seemed that this new killer had found his obsession and it was John. After studying the killer’s victims more closely they had realized that each kill was done in the same style as the previous killer. They had a copy cat who wanted to rob john of what was left of his life. Yet with all the new knowledge the killer still seemed to be a step ahead; always eluding them.

John tried to shake the unwanted thoughts from his mind. He was fighting the oncoming darkness. Normally he would have welcomed the sleep, but not now. Not when he was being stalked. John found his way to the bathroom sink and fumbled with the faucet. Turning the water as cold as it could possibly go. He drenched his face hoping the cold would shock his senses. Still it was no use. Exhaustion was upon him.

He stared at his reflection. Water was dripping from his chin. He stared as if he could will himself awake. He watched as exhaustion took over his features and as the blackness took hold of his mind. He watched as his green eyes changed to a killer blue.