As the sun set, stars began to scatter across the sky, one by one, as if watching the city from afar.
In his apartment, he stood before the mirror, meticulously donning his police uniform. He then instinctively fastened his pistol to his hip before heading out.
The roar of his motorcycle pierced the night's silence, fading gradually down the wet street, as the streetlights reflected on the water in a silent, cinematic scene.
Sera, from her window, watched what unfolded without uttering a word. Then she whispered again, a sound only the stars could hear:
"Aiden…"
The alley was long and winding, its ground wet with rainwater, strewn with broken wooden crates and shattered glass plates. The scent of mold seeped from the dilapidated walls. A single lamp swung overhead, its faint light flickering as if dying.
Aiden stopped his motorcycle at the alley's entrance. His black helmet reflected the dim lamp light, then he slowly removed it, as if taking off a mask of silence. His long, bluish-black hair fell over his face, and his eyes lit up with that enchanting blend of clear blue and mysterious black, like night waves mingling with moonlight.
Police officers began to spread out in a deliberate silence, each taking a corner, like ghosts preparing to capture a killer's shadow.
Aiden drew his pistol from his holster, loaded it calmly, and pressed the trigger to secure it. The metallic click echoed between the walls like heartbeats in a dark room. Then he began to walk.
His steps were measured, heavy, accompanied by an intermittent echo, as if knocking on the doors of danger.
Suddenly, a muffled, broken female laugh was heard, as if taken from a damaged tape. Laughter escalated from all directions, as if the walls themselves were mocking their presence.
Luna (a voice echoing from nowhere): "I wanted you… the second victim…"
Silence, then a sharper, hysterical laugh.
"But now… you're number tweeeeeelve…"
Aiden stopped. His eyes became glowing embers under the shadow of his hair. He didn't speak. He didn't flinch. He just slowly turned his head, as if hearing something he couldn't see.
Luna (from nowhere, in a voice closer to a whisper): "It's fine… Only ten difference, there are still two…."
Her laughter was deeper now, more like a choked sound, then she said in a voice as if coming from the depths of madness:
"Aiden… I'll get you… I'll get her… your eyes… that captivating blend of night black and sky blue… I want them… mine… I am… Luna."
His eyes narrowed, he sighed quietly, then closed his eyes for a moment, focusing… listening.
Then…
A barely visible transparent thread dangled from the top of the alley. And suddenly… a human body fell upside down from above.
Luna hung by transparent ropes, head down, slowly swaying before him, like a dead puppet. Her bright, yellow eyes gleamed with a thirst for murder, devouring him greedily. Her long black hair faded to fiery red at the tips, swaying like flames. Her scent? It was something between a decaying floral perfume and the sharp tang of bloodstained iron.
Luna (in a soft whisper full of madness): "It's her… I want her… Give her to me…"
She laughed, then suddenly, lunged with a knife from her waist directly towards his eyes.
But Aiden deftly pulled back, a single step, as if he knew she would attack.
She fell to the ground before him, like a cat, and ran towards him madly. Her movement was unpredictable, disjointed, twisted, as if her muscles didn't follow human laws.
Then, from a strap on her leg, she pulled out a small chrome-colored pistol and aimed it at him. Her gaze widened… like an animal that had just caught its prey. Her laughter intensified as she fired. The bullets flew in all directions, some hitting the walls, one tearing his uniform's shoulder.
But he vanished from in front of her.
A moment of silence.
Then… He felt the cold muzzle of a pistol at the back of her head.
Aiden (in a very low voice): "Game over."
She laughed, turning with a sudden swiftness as if swimming through the air. The pistol fell from her right hand, and in her other hand, she pulled out a new knife and plunged it into his arm with a twisting force. The screech of flesh and metal was shocking.
They froze.
Then she whispered in a dead voice:
Luna: "I want you… to bleed."
Aiden looked at her with eyes that had lost their warmth, and said in a cold, almost whispering tone:
"If I weren't a police officer… you'd be a cold corpse now… I was just… playing around."
Strands of his hair covered his face, making his eyes look like the shadow of a drowned moon. He muttered, pulling the knife from his arm:
"Don't make me… go insane."
He gripped her wrist tightly, quickly and accurately restrained her, then threw her to the ground. He sat before her, looked into her mad eyes, and said:
"Luna… you made me want to kill you. You're a formidable opponent."
Then, hearing his men's footsteps approaching, he leaned in and whispered in her ear:
"Next time… play with someone else. I… barely controlled myself tonight."
He handed her over to his colleague, then returned to his motorcycle. He put on his helmet and pressed the ignition button.
The roar of the engine ripped through the night's silence, and he sped off like an uncatchable shadow, cutting through the city streets, racing its faded lights… and a new memory of blood.
The time was nearing 10 PM. The lights in the living room were dim, emanating from modern, integrated ceiling fixtures, casting their warmth on the elegant furniture and calm wall colors.
An old movie played softly on the large screen, interspersed with the rustle of popcorn in the large bowl on the table.
Their mother sat amidst the sofas, a small cushion behind her back, watching the screen while routinely picking up popcorn kernels.
Mother (without shifting her gaze): "So, Rina… what happened between you and your fiancé on your last date? Any news about the wedding?"
Eileen, who was leaning on the edge of the sofa, exchanged a quick glance with Sera, then smiled slyly.
Eileen (in a mischievous voice): "See, Mom? She's afraid we'll ruin her love life, so she doesn't tell us anything!"
Rina blushed shyly, then replied in a calm tone:
Rina: "We didn't talk about anything important… just normal things. He's still looking for a suitable house, and he hasn't found one yet."
Sera (leaning forward curiously): "And where will you live? Here or in our old town?"
Rina (after a moment of hesitation): "We don't know yet… but I want us to stay close to Mom. She's my world."
Eileen clapped her knee, laughing:
Eileen: "And when your children grow up, you'll leave them to Mom to spoil them more than my children! I'll tell my kids: your grandma doesn't love you, don't even ask her for a glass of water!"
Mother (laughing): "Really, you chatterbox? Don't worry, I'll love them all… perhaps to varying degrees!"
Laughter filled the room.
Sera (with a playful smile): "Eileen, what about that guy in high school? Did you like him?"
Eileen (indifferently): "He was handsome, yes. But I haven't found a guy worth taking my breath away yet."
Mother (with feigned astonishment): "WHAT!?"
Everyone laughed, and Eileen brought her hand close to her mother and gently pinched her cheek:
Eileen: "Just kidding, beautiful! I just wanted to see your reaction."
Sera (looking at the popcorn bowl): "We're not watching the movie as much as we're fighting over this bowl."
Mother (smiling tenderly and taking her hand): "That's because we're a real family… we share everything, even popcorn."
Silence for a second… then suddenly.
Sera stopped.
Her eyebrows rose, and she tilted her head slightly.
The faint but familiar sound of a motorcycle engine seeped through the wide glass windows.
She suddenly stood up, her face colored with something between tension and surprise.
Sera (stammering): "I'm going to the bathroom, just a minute."
She rushed towards her room. She closed the door behind her, then hurried towards the wide glass facade. She didn't turn on any lights. She knew where to put her feet.
With a touch on the smart panel, the elegant glass balcony door opened quietly. She stepped out onto the circular balcony with the transparent railing, the city stretching beneath her like a sea of light.
Below, by the sidewalk… was Aiden.
He parked his motorcycle, then slowly removed his helmet. His bluish-black hair fell over his forehead. His hand… covered in blood.
Sera gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. Her wide eyes filled with terror.
Then Aiden got off the motorcycle. When he raised his head… their gazes met.
The whole world stopped. Between the balcony above and the bloody man below, truth emerged from the moment's silence.
Their gazes met for a long time, mysterious glances neither understood, nor sought to explain. They were silent, yet heavy, as if telling what words could not convey. They merged between the deep black of night and the faint blue of the sky, clinging to a fragile hope named Sera.
In that moment, blood flowed in chilling silence from the wound, a thick red line slowly tracing down his pale arm, then branching into delicate threads at the wrist, like tiny veins clinging to life. It pooled at his trembling fingers, then began to drip one by one, hitting the ground with monotonous regularity, leaving a dark red stain… as if counting every second that passed irreversibly.
Aiden lowered his head, and strands of his hair fell over his face, hiding some of his features, but they couldn't hide his eyes, which remained fixed on the falling blood. It was as if he suddenly felt the wound, as if the pain wasn't just in his arm, but in a deeper place.
Sera took a step forward, as if about to run to him… then retreated, bound by something unseen.
In turn, he began to walk steadily towards the entrance, without looking back. He left behind the stillness of the moment, and Sera's eyes that followed him with a mix of surprise and concern.
At that moment, inside the interrogation room at the police station, the silence was tense like a taut string between two conflicting minds. On the other side of the table, Luna sat, her hand restrained, her back slightly hunched forward, but her eyes… they were something else.
She laughed.
A muffled laugh at first, as if creeping from the bottom of a defiled soul, then escalating into a hysterical moan, a broken sound like glass shattering under a child's foot.
Detective Tia, despite her strenuous attempts to remain composed, gripped her pen between her fingers like someone holding onto a lifeline. She said in a firm tone, trying to coax words from Luna's mouth: "Where did you hide the rest of the bodies, Luna? Speak!"
But Luna wasn't entirely there.
She was in her other world, her head slightly tilted, strands of her long black hair, ending in fiery red, hanging over her face like a mad curtain. In her eyes was a cold, deadly gleam… as if she was watching a bloody scene no one else could see.
She whispered, her smile widening: "Aiden… scary… Aiden… scary…"
Her repetition of the name was a demonic melody, shrouding the room in a suffocating atmosphere. Then, suddenly, her laughter erupted, loud, booming, like an echo within empty walls. She slowly raised her head, and her gaze appeared like a predator smelling prey.
She said in a voice saturated with desire: "I want to cut him up… to play with his limbs… to see his prayers scatter… everywhere…"
The detective's hand trembled, and he slammed the table violently, making the hanging lamp on the ceiling shake and swing, casting moving circles of light like ghosts over their faces.
He yelled angrily: "Where are the remaining nine bodies? Where did you put them?!"
But Luna tilted her head again, and smiled a smile that froze the bones of faces, then said in a tone imbued with deadly sarcasm: "You don't want to know… your mind won't handle it… Bring Aiden… I promise I'll tell him…"
The detective unconsciously took steps back, as if those words had weighed down the air.
Meanwhile, in her head, she repeated internally as if chanting a spell: "They said… prison? Heh… insane? I'll be out soon… they'll let me out, no one knows how I play." Then she returned to her laughter, but now it wasn't laughter… but a mad scream tearing through the silence.
Upstairs… inside the elevator.
Aiden's phone rang, sharply breaking the moment's silence. He raised the device and answered in his deep, confident voice, outwardly calm like a sea before a storm:
"What happened?"
The detective's voice came through: "Sir… she requested to see you. She said she'd confess… only to you."
A brief silence ensued, then Aiden's reply came, in a tone both cold and fiery at the same time, his voice like the friction of burning metal against ice:
"Why does she want me?"
The detective said nervously: "Sir… Luna… she says she'll talk only if you're present."
Aiden pressed his lips together for a second, before replying decisively: "Put her on a lie detector. She's playing. An empty game."
Then he ended the call.
He slowly lowered the phone, and his gaze stopped at the reflection of his shadow on the shining elevator wall. His eyes had become like slits of still hell.
He muttered, barely hearing himself: "I… I'm afraid to lose control there… I barely held myself back last time."
Shadows danced around his features in the elevator's light, as if they knew that when he arrived… something inside him might be unleashed.
Sera emerged from her room with hesitant steps, as if her feet refused to move forward despite the short distance. When she returned to the living room, she was greeted by the family's gazes, mixed with curiosity.
Her mother raised an eyebrow, frowning slightly before saying in a firm tone, not without tenderness:
"Why were you so long in the bathroom? It's very late, Sera."
Rina interjected before Sera could reply, crossing her arms and looking at her with a mischievous gaze:
"You were on your phone, right?"
Sera flustered, lowering her gaze to the floor, then slowly raised her hand to caress a strand of hair behind her ear and whispered:
"Uh… yes, I was on it for a bit."
Her mother sighed, running her hand over her forehead, then said in her usual tone:
"Good job. How many times have I told you girls: don't take your phones to the bathroom?"
Eileen suddenly laughed, raising her eyebrows and saying, gesturing in the air:
"True, you've said it a thousand times… but the app itself, I don't know why it makes me laugh so much!"
Rina also laughed and shook her head:
"The phone has become a part of our soul."
Their mother quickly looked at the clock, then exclaimed in a serious tone:
"It's past midnight. Come on, everyone to their rooms."
Sera quietly turned and left without a word. She entered her room and closed the door softly behind her, then approached her circular balcony that overlooked the outside. She turned her gaze to the right, where Aiden's balcony still seemed to be illuminated by a faint light dancing lazily behind the glass.
She stood there for a moment, silently gazing at that light, as if something about it told what could not be spoken. Then she slowly turned, walked towards her bed and sat down, and her cats came hopping around her, touching her cheek with their tails and wrapping around her body, until they fell asleep peacefully beside her.
Sera lay on her back, her eyes fixed on the ceiling of the room. Her face was still, but her eyes held a heavy contemplation, as if searching for an escape from the vortex of her thoughts.
At that exact moment, Aiden was not asleep.
He stood in his bathroom, his body slightly bent as he disinfected a deep wound on his arm. He bit his lower lip, stifling a moan between ragged breaths, while pouring the antiseptic liquid over the wound.
Strands of his hair were stuck to his forehead, clinging from sweat, and the fever did not spare him, making his eyes gleam with a burning brightness, and his chest rise and fall heavily.
Sera's voice did not reach him, nor did her eyes see him, but both were surrounded by the same silence, facing each other between two balconies and two pulses, each lost in their pain, and neither knowing yet… how alive this connection between them had become.