Chapitre 7: Trojan
After my latest theory, I wasn't at all comfortable keeping the shirt on my person.
If I said it was my blood covering it, the police wouldn't believe me until they had it properly checked out; and even then, it would raise the question of where it even come from. I had no visible injuries after all.
It was unexplainable.
If I said it was Angela's, there was a chance it would be confiscated for evidence; then leading to them finding the blood was mine anyway.
No; this was not a can of worms I wanted to open now, or later for that matter.
I still had a cover to maintain though, shit. How could I go about looking for spare clothes without looking suspicious.
I was really starting to regret not searching the entire place when I had the chance.
Just as I was brainstorming what to do, there was a loud knock on the door.
'Your're shitting me. Already?' I swore furiously, standing stock still as Judy got up to answer it.
'So quickly? This is bullshit, the NCPD can't be as incompetent as she made them out to be if they had this fast of a response time. Its been what, two minutes?'
She opened the door, revealing a young man in classic police uniform standing outside. His messy, brown hair was neatly tucked into his cap; while his gray-blue eyes scanned the room silently.
Oh? By the looks of it, someone competent had arrived.
"The name's Judy, thanks for comin'."
While the tone she used to speak was lighthearted; her body language gave away how she really felt about the man.
Judy's eyes were cold and unimpressed, and she had brought up both arms to cross them defensively as her figure stepped backwards into the apartment.
"Hello Ma'am, my name's Richard." The officer said brightly, equipping a sunny smile to his face; all while ignoring her blatantly unfriendly demeanor.
After introducing himself, Richard followed Judy into the apartment, the door automatically sliding shut behind them.
"Now I believe my colleague said something about a homocide?" He asked the room at large, clarifying if his information was correct.
'I was right, he is competent.' I thought silently, looking on at his ever active eyes and somewhat weak facade; all of which seemed to be picking apart the room as he looked around.
I say somewhat weak because my own expertise in pretention was far greater.
'Seriously, adopting a fake-ass smile halfway through the conversation is amateur work.'
I was just as, if not more unimpressed with him than Judy was; especially after he had showcased such pathetic acting skills.
The voice of Pride surfaced to talk at me animatedly; his presence triggered by my unhindered feelings of superiority.
'I think we should blow this poor; walking, talking incarnation of mediocrity away with another one of our stellar performances, what do you say Judas?'
…
I was really tempted too do as suggested, proven by the fact Pride could actually speak undaunted by my repression.
Well then again, Pride was one of the more harmless voices anyway; my guard was not up so tightly around him as it was the others.
This wasn't good though, my competitive side was beginning to flare up; and it was an emotion I found it particularly hard to control at the best of times.
I quashed it, ever so slightly.
It was more like gently placing the voice in a gilded cage to continue viewing my actions from afar rather than beating it down into submission and ignorance with brute force.
Pride went into this metaphorical cage willingly, just like he always did; we both knew he only surfaced when he knew I'd do as advised.
"Yeah thats right, She's… The body's in the shower." Said Judy, her face darkening.
"Alright, I just need to confirm they're deceased; I'll be right back." The officer noted her downcast expression, frowning discontentedly. He then turned and walked towards the indicated area.
A few moments later and we both heard a sharp intake of breath as Richard discovered the state Angela was in.
He returned shortly afterwards, a hand held up to his ear; the optics he had installed glowing a light blue. He was doing something with an implant of his, what exacly that was however, I had no idea.
"Judy did you say your name was? Can I please get the victim's name and occupation please?"
The young woman uncrossed her arms, gesturing with one as she talked.
"Sure, full name was Angela Straffod; she worked at a place called Lizzie's bar."
The officer faltered visibly, before nodding in understanding.
"Ah, alright then. The last thing to take care of would be-"
"Wait, wait. Whaddya' mean the last thing to take care of?"
Judy bristled, interrupting the guy; her temper rising as she glared at Richard questioningly.
Funnily enough, he continued on as if he hadn't been interrupted; his eyes glinting maliciously as he looked down at me.
I wanted to laugh, that kind of strategy wasn't going to work on someone as brash and headstrong as Judy was.
"Ahem, as I was saying; The last thing to take care of would be custody of the child, he isn't yours I take it?
'Oh,' I thought. 'No chance to act then, he didn't even ask me anything.'
I was pleased with this nonchalant attitude the officer had taken; the less he cared about this case the less he would bother questioning me.
Judy on the other hand was having none of it.
"Fuck d'you mean thats the last thing to take care of. There's been a goddamn murder here and you aren't going to do anything about it?"
"Listen Ma'am, I can understand your grievences but calling in a whole investigation over some joytoy that's been a little roughed up is a waste of police resources."
'Puhahaha.' Pride burst out laughing, failing epically to contain his mirth.
It took all of my current willpower not to join him in laughter; although the more I thought about it, the more suspicious I got.
'He doesn't care, at all. Surely that isn't normal in a cop; even in NC. Does her being a joytoy change the investigation that much or is there something more to this?'
'Not worth police time our Angela, and look at poor Judy; isn't she adorable when she's mad?' Pride chimed in cheerily, interrupting my monologuing with more of his staple satire.
I refocused on the situation, watching Judy positively shake with rage as she stormed up to the man.
"A little- A little roughed up?! HER HEAD'S NEARLY SEPARATED FROM HER GODDAMN BODY? WHAT DO YOU MEAN A LITTLE ROUGHED UP?"
She grabbed his shirt, shouting straight in his surprised face.
Richard's left temple throbbed in badly concealed anger, and he brough up a fist to sock Judy straight in the jaw. She yelled out in pain, dropping to the carpet beneath her.
My heart stopped for a second, not expecting this kind of development in the slighest.
There was no fucking way the NCPD were like this, what the hell kind of psycho did we call over?
The blow was powerful, and strangely enough; her words left an expression akin to desparation on Richard's face.
'A psycho huh. Say Judas, when did you get so… slow? Mentally I mean.'
Pride was fucking with me on purpose, probably relishing in my confusion.
If he had the knowledge to make any kind of connection between Richard and something else we had seen, then I did too; all I had to do was think.
'Think harder then, or are you incapable of something so meager?' Smirked Pride, and I felt his amusement grow at my apparent incompetence.
'Wait… Did he say psycho? Hang on, what the fuck is this guy doing?'
I looked up just in time to see Richard straddling Judy's waist, reaching for a holster strapped to his side.
'If I don't do something soon this guy is going to execute her in front of me. Shit.'
I sprinted to the washroom, intending to grab the knife from where it lay on the floor.
My right hand grasped it and I darted back into the main room where I was just in time to hear a gunshot go off.
Richard had missed, barely.
'Close call Judas. Now put him in the fucking ground, this lowly bastard is killing our easy way into this world.'
Pride's snarling voice echoed in my mind, and we both saw Judy fighting desperately to keep the firearm away from being pointed at her face.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" He roared, pinning her arms down to the floor as she managed to smack the gun out of his hands after punching him in the groin.
I watched them struggle, silently stalking towards Richard from behind.
"I'M GONNA KI- agh' His yelling was cut off as I flipped the blade expertly in my hand to a reverse grip and stabbed it down viciously into the back of his exposed neck.
"Not again. You aren't taking from me again." Pride and I spat out, my free hand raised upwards before striking onto the pommel of the blade.
This latest impact made the knife sink past his outer layer of muscle, slipping in between his veterbre and severing the spine. It went straight through his throat and out the other side, the tip barely visible to the helpless woman underneath him.
I slowly pulled it out, dark red blood splattering down onto Judy's horror-struck face.
"Y-yo-u, all this trouble because of a fucking whore." He choked out, his words mixing with his own blood. Falling sideways onto the ground beside Judy; his voice slurred as he tried to cover the grevious wound I had inflicted with both of his hands.
It was a futile effort.
"Judas?" She stared up at me, unblinkingly; shocked out of her mind.
Judy pushed herself up, shakily looking down at the now dying man laying on his back beside her.
'Excellent; the fun is over now so I'll take my leave.'
I felt Pride recede into the back of my mind, his voice fading as he did so.
"H-hey, I d-id good right? Tell m-me I did good." My voice trembled as I dropped the knife to the carpeted floor.
I buckled my knees purposefully, falling backwards onto my ass, my eyes shaking violently as I gazed at the twitching corpse between us.
This act humanized me enough in Judy's eyes, lessening the shock factor of my suddenly lethal moveset.
"Yeah, you did good."
I started crying out of relief, my facade so grateful that he hadn't been rejected by Judy for what he had done to protect her.
"Fuuuuck, now we have a dead cop on our hands; the NCPD will not let that go. Why the hell did he try to shoot me?"
She stood up, stepping carefully over the body and dragging me to the washroom.
"Quick, we need go wash this shit off us and go before the rest of them get clued in."
Her voice was frantic now, wrenching my hands up to the sink and washing them for me thoroughly.
She then bent over and leaned her face under the running tap, drenching it entirely.
A brief moment of scrubbing later and she was completely clean; if a little wet from the water.
'On the bright side, I guess her makeup isn't totally fucked anymore' I mused; now it was just gone entirely, washed away with the evindence of our misdeeds.
Judy ran up to the apartment door, quickly jamming the open button with an outstretched finger and running out; all while pulling me along for the ride behind her.
Well, this turned out to be a shitshow; at least she couldn't abandon me now.
After all, me and Judy were now partners in crime.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
WanderingCritic
WanderingCritic I have a confession to make. Writing this is getting extremely difficult. Why? Because all I can think about is the glorious ending I have in store. This is one of those stories where the beginning and end are already planned and all that’s left is to fill out the middle.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone