The neighborhood was distinctive with its red lantern all above the road and various seller either by building or stall readied on the both side of the street.

"Three steamed buns: 2 sweet beans and 1 meat."

A person with a high and lanky stature stood in the front of a stall that leaked out a puffy smoke the moment its seller opened its transparent case and fished out a white colored and firm looking food.

"Here you go, that would be 6 Yuan," the seller flashed out his smile while brought forward the package for the guy, his hand roughly dived into his pocket and he dropped down a 10 Yuan paper which the seller quickly gave the exchange.

Afterward, the guy sauntered the street while munching the steamed bun in his right hand, he paved the path while his eyes glued on the interface of his phone and left thumb scrolled down the display, he chuckled or sneered at certain point.

"LOL, the headmaster is a gay? Get real loser!"

"Dark Lord had a son? Pfft, as if that could happen."

The guy was deeply amused himself with the trolling thread inside the forum of his favorite wizard movie, he barely tasted the sweet bean of a steamed bun that melted inside his mouth. He meandered and pa.s.sed by a series of shops without even giving a slightest glance on any of them.

*Thud!*

There was a dark pa.s.sage sandwiched between two tall structure beside him, the small portion of the pa.s.sage's entrance was the only visible thing that anyone could see.

The tall guy couldn't care more about the fancy and well shaped decoration of the building beside him, much less about a narrow and creepy looking path.

G.o.d knows what currently happen or what sort of r.e.t.a.r.d inside there, perhaps someone was being stabbed repeatedly.

Normally he shrugged it off, but somehow a strange noise like something dull hit the ground pique his ears and froze his steps.

"h.e.l.lo?"

The guy called, he wasn't sure if there is a person or people ahead but it's not like any harm would come to him for just calling out.

Long time without response, then when he thought it was nothing, he heard a heavy breather whispers.

"H... h... help..."

It was hoa.r.s.e and so low, he failed to discern it is a voice of female or male.

"Are you OK?" the guy's heart tightened, somehow deep inside, there was a surge of a fearful notion. Gooseb.u.mps slowly made way toward the hair on his skin.

"..."

He heard no more, the guy contemplated whether the voice before was just his imagination or actually a real deal, that means someone was in dire need of an a.s.sistance.

Of course, he wouldn't be as stupid as barging in and checked on him or her, what if it was a trap of some shady people or criminal?

"d.a.m.n it, I couldn't see from here," the guy squinted his eyes. He brought up his phone and activated its flash, yet it only reached so far.

"Hey, answer me..." he gulped since he still hadn't receive any response. He glanced to left and right, and the path right now was strangely devoid from any other people.

It's ridiculous, yes its night now but certainly not so late, where are the rest of pedestrian?

Since the building that trapped the dark pa.s.sage forbid people from placing their stall to sell in the front of their entrance, thus it's no one else that stood there aside from him.

The guy contemplated for a while, then he decided to take few steps, if he couldn't spot a thing then he considered the previous sign of distress as an illusion.

First step... second step...

The light from his phone surveyed through the area, it spot a trash can, trash bag, a peel of banana, half eaten apple, left over canned soda, a hand, other bunch of plastics, a bottle of c.o.ke and beer.

...

The guy's expression instantly froze, he swept back the light and focusing it on one spot, one specific spot.

It's a hand...

One hand lied among the junk dispersed course of the dark pa.s.sage, it was positioned upside down where the palm faced the sky and spots of reds filled its surface.

His voice got caught in his throat, eyes stretched and the hair on his back stood up. The guy felt his power as if seeped away from every spore of his body.

He s.h.i.+fted the light and followed the length of that hand, continued onward to the arm, then he saw a short hair, messy and dirty, then finally... the face.

"Wha... wha..." the guy dropped his plastic bag of steamed buns and took a step back, no he retreated until he almost fell flat onto his a.s.s.

The face belong to that hand... was something he never expected... or at least the condition of that face. It skin was pale, almost drained from every single blood that poured right on the center of that face.

Right... it's a mess of blood, exactly above the face's thick mouth that gaped like a hungry tiger. It's hard to describe given the lack of illumination but the guy was sure that area above the face's nose... was flat.

As if... whoever this person was... his entire nose either had blow up or had ripped off from his face.

"D-Dark Lord... it's... it's... it's Dark Lord!!!" the guy couldn't contain his voice and lashed it out loud if not could break the gla.s.s around.

The nose less face's feature this person had resemble the main villain of the wizard's fiction he liked, which is why he suddenly terrified and his imagination went wild. He didn't even check on the other part of this person's figure, not even care to think whether he still alive or dead, thought the colors on the pair of eyes had lost their colors, it lack of lights any normal person possessed.

It's either he was dead or he just fainted, the guy didn't care, he quickly called an emergency number and contacted the authority.

(***)

Several minutes later, Cheng Hai district swarmed by police cars and ambulances, officers and yellow line could be seen before the dark pa.s.sage between the furniture's shops and KTV, in fact some of the officers actually come and go from the private karaoke building.

"Chief!"

A car stopped on the road in the front part of the KTV's building, and a woman with blue uniform and black skirt, completed with a pair of long stocking stepped out from the pa.s.senger's seat. Her apricot green eyes looked weary but they still brimmed with fierceness. She walked slightly heavy toward the building's entrance and greeted by salute from the officers that stood in guard.

Cai Yan waved her hands in response and she proceeded inside.

Happy Tune KTV is a two story building with the first floor consisted of the lobby and other department things that related to the staff such as the building's management and the kitchen. The second floor is consisted of a lot of private rooms where the customer and lover, family or friends could sing a song till the due time they had paid for.

The building's interior design didn't come off as much as impressive, though it embodied a mixture between urban and modern theme.

Her destination laid in the room at the second floor, she groaned at the sight of the stairs but put on brave front so her subordinate won't think less of her. Cai Yan rested her hand on the guard rail and helped herself climbed the twenty about steps.

She sweats a lot by the time she arrived at the top and felt so pathetic at this moment.

Disregarding the pain around her ribs, she strutted forward, accompanied by her subordinate on the side. The hallway before the many rooms stretched far to the right and left, and each rooms size not equally the same, or at least several portion of them did.

The room she headed was apparently one of the small compartment this KTV's facilitated and the gate toward it barred by a single yellow line.

"Chief!" another respectful tone yelled out from the officer before the gate. This time Cai Yan just nodded her head in response, it's not that she had anything against this fellow, she just don't have the patience to properly attended the gesture.

She ducked bellow the yellow line that had been brushed up by the officer, and she huffed by the time she raised from it.

"!"

The sight before her almost churned the dinner she ate, and not just because the effect of the current predicament but a flash within her memory brazenly kicked out in the open.

It's the same red all over place, the same meat scattered across the room.

"Urgh!" Cai Yan fell to her left but she quickly leaned her hand onto the wall so she didn't slump to the ground.

She gasped for breath, her mind felt dizzy. She could hear the voice of her subordinate but it felt so distance. It's like an echo of whispers from the faraway horizon.

Her heart beat madly das.h.i.+ng, like a hoof of horse in the circle of race.

That crazy grin, the strong black thing that coiled around her waist, the reverberation of the desperate scream.

"Delicious... delicious meat..."

"Chief, run!"

"Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!"

"Chief!"

"Huh?"

Cai Yan snapped wide her eyes, beads of sweat had drenched her forehead and trailed down her temple, she glanced to the side and caught her subordinate's eyes were worriedly staring at her.

She looked around and found other also observed her condition with questioning stare.

"So-sorry, it must be something I ate before, hahaha..." she forced a laugh while rubbed the back of her head, everyone glanced to each other then decided to focus on their own work.

"C-chief, are you OK?" her subordinate seemed doesn't buy her excuse.

"Yes, not need to waste time by worry about me, what's the situation?" Cai Yan took out a deep breath and a.s.sumed the stern expression, although she still glistened by the cold sweat.

"R-right," the subordinate hesitated before she averted her eyes from Cai Yan then she called out the officer who inspected the crime scene.

"The Report came from someone who found an injured person in the dark pa.s.sage beside the KTV, and luckily the medic could arrive in time thus the victim's life still could be save, although the last report from the hospital said he was in deep coma. The officer at the scene checked the surrounding area including inside this KTV and that's when they found two dead bodies and one fainted woman.

The cause of dead although different but no sign of the use of any weapon, the first dead body had severe fracture on his skull from the back part of his head crumbled to pieces and the second dead body had ruptured on his carca.s.s that seemed heavily injured his lung thus died from the inability to maintain his respiration system. Other than several injury on other part of their bodies, the body still perfectly intact.

As for the fainted woman..."

Perfectly intact?

Cai Yan startled then she snapped her eyes toward the surrounding area.

...

There was no horrible scene... No blood splattered around the room, no chunk of meats loitered on the ground, the pungent rotten smell infected the environment. The room's furniture even still positioned perfectly on their place, no single broken things could be found.

What is this? What the heck she just saw before?

Is she went insane?

Cai Yan patted her head with a bitter sigh, perhaps she should consider the doctor's suggestion for her not to be active at period of times.

No... human is not that fragile... I am not that weak.

She chased away her delusion and quickly sorted out several instruction toward her officers.

"What's the lobby attendant's statement regarding any suspicion person, or about the victims?" she said as she crouched beside the corpse of a man with a tall stature yet quite skinny.

"The attendant said there were quite a people this night but nothing out of sort, there were indeed few unfamiliar face and we already sent a team for checking out the footage's cameras. It's unfortunate there were no single one in the karaoke's rooms so we could only pin point from several available spots.

About the victims, they were apparently a regular customer, came at least once a week, either in a large group or just a few of them.

They didn't have a primary job and mostly s.h.i.+fted between many contracts, a freelancer," the officer said while glancing at the paper within his hands.

"What is their last job?"

"It still undergo an investigation..."

"How about this 'large group'? Any connection with the victims? Are they all coworker?"

"According to several staff who got into conversation with any person in that group, they said they are part of firm who hire people for a contract job and it has a quotation or batch for each of a.s.signment, so they are not necessarily an acquaintance but still worth an investigation."

"The woman who previously fainted, what we gain from her?"

"Hmm, that is where it was strange Chief, she said she hear a knock on the door and they thought it was the staff, one of them got up and went to open the door, but... that's all she remember..."

"What? was her brain got injured somehow?" Cai Yan crossed her arms and wrinkled her eyebrows.

"No... we couldn't even sure what is the cause of her blackout, there is no sign of any physical injury so it might be come from a psychological shock," the officer had a troubled expression.

"She didn't have amnesia, right? How her emotion state?"

There was a case when someone witness a horrible event that was too horrifying for them to handle, their mind became unstable and it was suffered an amnesia to protect themselves from remembering that accident.

But such trauma usually caused them to depress over the course of time, thus although they couldn't remember the case, they still affected by it.

"We told her about the incident, although she showed a sign of terrified but not significant enough to refers to a trauma..."

"Keep in check with her, told her to come to the station at once if she remember something, and a.s.sign two officers to guard her in case the killer would return," Cai Yan tapped on her elbow while she went to the other body.

She talked a bit with her subordinate before surfing around the room once more, the s.p.a.ce was quite s.p.a.cious at least 15 people could rest inside, there were three black sofas surrounding a round table in the right side of the room while left side, right in line with the entrance's doorstep, a 46 LCD TV was positioned with several karaoke's instrument.

At the end of the wall, further back beyond the spot of that LCD, there was a single window, perhaps only 36 half inches wide.

Cai Yan strolled over to the window and leaned her head out, the sight greeted her only a dark environment and another wall, a creepy abysmal looking alley laid down on the ground far ahead.

Hmm... did the comatose victim escape through here?

But why? If he could just escape to the hallway, surely he could ask for help or at least yelled out for help.

Or at least there be people would who witness the perpetrator.

Cai Yan asked for a flash light, then she inspected the surrounding dark area, she searched inch for inch and not a single spot of dirt even missed by the watch tower.

And she stopped at certain spot, not the ground below, not the trashed stuff at the side part of the pa.s.sage, but on the wall... a few feet from her, halfway toward the ground, there is a small crumble, well more like a fracture on the wall... it was as if something hard hit it in a quite force.

Why? Why that specific spot had fracture on it?

It's not short enough for anyone to give it a punch, or unless that person was beyond 2 meter tall.

And it's seemed unlikely that anyone would throw something dull to hit that specific spot.

...

...

Throw?

Cai Yan's expression went absentminded, her eyes grew widened slowly by seconds.

The comatose victim, was thrown out of the window?!

She leaned back and retreated several steps away, her eyes frantically scanned the layout of the window and the wall around it.

It's fine, no single thing out of ordinary, in fact the gla.s.s on the window had been not harm at all.

That mean it was opened.

But the room had central Air Conditioner, it's understandable if there were too many people here but if only three man and one woman, she didn't think it's necessary for any of them to open it.

Cai Yan frowned for quite sometime, then she yelled out, ordering her subordinate to check on the window.

She was exhilarated, her heart filled with hope if her guessed would be right.

After few minutes later, the officers finally reported back to her, it was the response that lit up her green eyes.

"Chief! We got finger prints!"