3321 Chapter 2

The front door burst open and Ryan, visibly shaken, stumbled inside, quickly swinging it shut behind him. The chair in the hall seemed to move away from him, the hallway stretching before his eyes as he tried to reach it, visibly shaking with wide, fearful blue eyes. He finally caught up to it, however, and dropped into the seat, breathing heavily.  The hallway continued to visibly stretch either way he looked, and the skin on his right hand was still tingling, but whatever it was that was after him seemed to be gone now. He closed his eyes and held his head in his hands as he tried to calm himself down, whispering words of reassurance under his breath. It is gone now. It is all over. He escaped.

Heaving a large sigh, Ryan tried to shake the sensation from his right hand, but it would not go away. He could not remember catching it on anything, though through his frantic escape, it could have been possible that the adrenaline told him to ignore the possible injury he sustained. It was too dark for him to see anything on it and so, getting up from the chair, and with one more look at the front door, he made his way into the kitchen at the other end of the hall and flicked the lights on.  His heart rate, having calmed down since returning home, suddenly started pounding again. His hand was not tingling from some injury. There was something crawling on it.

With an array of frantic curses, he desperately tried to brush the dark something off, but it would not move; he could not touch it. The dark mass continued to squirm on the back of his hand, having no regular shape, like a shadow stuck to his skin. He could not move it, could not touch it, could not feel it, and when Ryan moved his hand closer to his face, could see his skin on the other side. He tried to wash it off in the sink, but to no avail. Whatever this was, whatever the Pursuer outside gave to him before he escaped, was stuck with him, and for how long? And what was it doing, is this squirming shadow alive? Is it dangerous? Helpful? Both or neither? Questions continued to flood Ryan’s head, and again he sought out a chair and slumped into it.

Then there was the matter of the Pursuer, whatever it was.  His brain felt scrambled, and he could not remember if he ever got a clear look at it, especially with painfully bright lights that lit up him and his truck while he made his way home from work. As far as he could remember, it never stopped him, just followed him, chased him; and now this thing was on his hand.

And it was growing.

“No no no no!” Ryan sprung to his feet, watching hopelessly as it spread to cover his whole hand, then travel its way up his arm, across the shoulder, towards center of his chest and back, traveling slowly and eerily quiet. Ryan was fully panicking, sobbing uncontrollably as it spread across his skin,  rising up his neck and sinking down towards his waist. It had no true feeling, he realized; the tingling was all in his mind, caused by his brain assuming something was touching him. He looked up and watched in the reflection of the kitchen window, as it covered his face, slowly and eventually reaching his eyes.


“What the hell happened here?” Agent Laich (Pronounced "Like") crinkled his nose at the stench of what remained of two bodies before him, splattered across and drenching part of the Palms Motel parking lot. Traffic beyond the roped off area was beginning to grow as the sun prepared to make its appearance over the horizon. The Motel, however, was completely vacated once the local police arrived, and now that Agent Laich was here, not even the local authorities themselves were allowed beyond the yellow tape roping off the perimeter. The only other person currently allowed near him, was his colleague, Agent Albano.

“You think this is our guy?” She asked him, looking down at the mangled bodies. Agent Laich stroked the stubble on his chin.

“Possibly…Our only witness’ description of the incident matches what we have on file.” As he spoke, the two of them turned to look at a middle aged woman, who was sitting in the back seat of their unmarked Taurus. Even through the moderate tinting of the window, they could still see the color had not yet returned to her skin, and the look of fear on her face had not changed since their arrival moments before.

“Interesting thing about her,” Agent Laich continued, “Is that she didn’t stay the night here.”

“What do you mean?” Agent Albano asked, looking at him.

“She called in from the BP over there.” He pointed across the street, where, sitting on the opposing corner of a nearby intersection, was a small gas station. Detective Albano stared at it for a moment, her hazel eyes calculating.

“...Well, considering  the light traffic at the time of night and the angle of this motel and parking lot, she would certainly have had a clear view of the whole thing.”

Agent Laich nodded. “Thing is, she reported seeing the whole complex coming out and witnessing the whole thing…so why didn’t any of them call in?”

“Have we talked to any of them?” His colleague asked, looking around.

“None of them are here. The cops said this place was deserted by the time they arrived.”

Agent Albano turned away from the gas station and visually inspected the rooms around them. The building, only one story, was built in an L shape, with the office situated on the smaller leg. Agent Laich scanned the area as well.

“How can fifteen rooms of people, plus the manager, just disappear?” He slowly thought aloud.

“Maybe none of them wanted to get involved with the investigation?” Albano suggested. “Especially after not doing anything to stop our guys from slaughtering these two?

“Maybe.” Laich replied shortly, though his mind, tuned from over five years as a detective before this job, was thinking about something more.

Albano returned her attention to the remains before them. All that was left of the two victims were bits and pieces of limb and clothing, all drenched in blood. “How many do you think were involved in this?” Laich looked it over as well, his keen eyes searching for some evidence. It did not take long to point something out. Two pairs of ribbons on the asphalt that faded from red –closest to the bodies- to black.

“Two cars.” He said, crouching beside one of the tire tracks, running a hand over it. “Definitely cars, maybe midsized; that could mean anywhere between two and ten people involved.”

“Ten people out to hunt down two?” Albano questioned, still looking over the remains. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were no humans involved in this at all.”

Laich quickly looked at her, confusion briefly rising up before he remembered what he was now a part of. A faint memory of his introduction to the Foundation replayed in the back of his mind.

"Nothing you come across from this point on will be normal…"

“What are you saying?” He asked nonetheless.

She simply shrugged with a grin, getting up and walking over to the shattered window of the motel room. The glass was glinting in the rising sunlight, and the carpet had two large bloodstains on it, with two red paths converging at the door and leading out to where the remains were. As Laich got up to follow her, he watched as she pulled out a pair of latex gloves, put them on, and knelt down to pick something up. Then, heading inside, she picked up another object off the floor. She turned to him as he approached the window and began examining it from the outside.

“Two bullet casings.” She announced shortly, holding them up in her hand briefly before putting them in a plastic bag. “Both from a .44 caliber handgun...maybe a revolver? Should get some prints off of at least one of these.”

“Good to know at least some of this shit is familiar.” Laich grumbled, looking at the lower sill of the window. “So that means there was at least one person involved, right?”

“Possibly.” She responded vaguely, looking at the bloodstains on the floor. They continued to collect evidence from the area, looking over every single room, every little detail, even crossing over to the gas station to see things from the witness’ point of view. The sun had fully risen above the tree line by the time they made their way over to their car. The woman that had witnessed the event slowly looked up at them as Laich opened the door. Albano opened the trunk and leaned in, fumbling with something.  Laich smiled warmly at the lady.

“Thank you for your help.” He said softly, “We’ll make sure whoever did this gets taken down before anyone else gets hurt.” She replied with a stiff nod, as Albano returned, holding a Styrofoam cup.

“Here, we always make sure to have coffee at hand.” She said kindly, handing the cup to the woman. The woman took a sip with shaking hands, both agents watching her closely.

Then her eyes, once full of fear, suddenly went blank.