it's sitting next to you. [Bridge]

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    Setting + Blurb


    Another starless night.


    The city streets were ablaze with activity no matter how late the hour. Cars honked horns at each other, club-goers strutted down the sidewalk, chatting with their friends in loud, excitable voices. Inside a bar, a crowd of people jumped out of their seats, roaring at whatever game was currently broadcasting on the TV. Sirens wailed, an ambulance cruising past an open alleyway.


    It passed by a woman, splayed out on her back. Her screams had long died down. Now it was just a soft gurgle, a death rattle. Blood soaked through her jacket, pooled under her back. Her ruined, polka-dot patterned dress lay in tatters, three broad slashes all down her torso. Next to her was a purse, split open in three pieces. Money was scattered everywhere, untouched. A few bills were still crumpled in her hand.


    The thing on top of her didn't care about money. Its jaws were still at her throat, shaking her neck like a toy. Red eyes never left hers. When the monster's mouth opened, it dropped her head back with a wet smack. Sightless eyes watched as it licked its fangs. Whatever it was, it was enjoying itself.


    Sirens wailed, off in the distance. A voice shouted.


    The monster turned its head, half of its face streaked in red. It leaned back on both knees, listening. A deep growl bubbled up from its throat. In seconds, it had scrambled up on two legs, then took off deeper down the alley, disappearing around a corner.


    That morning, when two college students came across what was left, she'd be long dead. The cause of death was ruled as a rabid animal attack, but there were those who knee better than that...


    ---


    "I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad-"


    A faded blue sedan wheeled down the highway, the windows rolled down halfway, just enough for the Gorillaz album playing to be heard from a mile away. Large, sagging trees and ponds passed by in a blur of green and grey. Faolan's fingers tapped the steering wheel, a distant expression on his bearded face as he drove. Didn't have time to shave. His face was haggard from driving so long. Not to mention, he was still thinking of what he'd witnessed that night.


    "I got sunshine, in a bag-"


    That gruesome image remained in his mind. Tangled limbs, a stone pale face. What had killed her? The first claw mark or the deep gouge in her neck? The image had made its way on to the internet almost immediately. Gore sites were quick like that. Whatever had been the case, he'd awakened in his apartment in a cold sweat with one thing on his mind: Get out.


    "I'm useless, but not for long-"


    In less than a week he'd managed to set up a new place. Somewhere called Bridgewater, smaller than what he was used to but according to the website, a "growing town." A solid three days travel from Shelton. Nothing he'd never done before. They had an affordable townhouse already ready for leasing too. And with all of his funds he managed to outbid it extremely quick.


    It only took two calls: First for the lease and second for a moving van. He didn't have a criminal history... Nothing stood out in his record. Not at the moment anyway.


    "The future, is coming on..."


    Faolan sighed, checking his mirrors. He saw the sign coming, and smiled, if reluctantly. He chalked it up to being too hopeful. Maybe this time things would be better. He hated all this running. All this hiding.


    Passing by the green sign, it displayed in large, capital lettering...


    WELCOME TO BRIDGEWATER, POPULATION: 6,250


    The post was edited 6 times, last by Ikayaki ().

    Display Spoiler


    Owen kissed his fiancé as he left for morning, grabbing his keys as he went. Owen, who often was called by his last name, Dawson; walked to the old red and white bronco and climbed in. The old truck or suv was easily as old as him. In fact he had come home from the hospital in this truck. He had bought the truck from his parents when he was sixteen, and had fixed it up giving it new life each time he had money to fix it up. Now, the old truck was hia faithful go to whenever he had to leave the house.


    He started the truck, looking back at the front door to see a small figure waving happily as he pulled from the driveway and down the street. He waved back at the small child as he left them behind. The old bronco creaked and groaned a little as he drove down and towards the Bridgewater Police. It was the start of his second full week as a Detective, just two weeks prior head gotten the news that his application was accepted and he had even had an interview with the Chief of Police. In the end he had gotten the job, a young 25 year old.


    He grew up in Bridgewater, and his parents had come from a state over, moving to Bridgewater before it even was any more than just farm land and a few housing developements. In his twenty five years he had seen a lot of change in the small town. Granted, it was growing daily, and in doing so there were constant new housing developements and various other things. The only thing Bridgewater lacked was the typical small town Mainstreet, however like all High Schoolers of Bridgewater High he had gone to Reedwill's movie theater and Walmart to hang out. He even had gone to Reedwill's mall, which wasn't large but it was something to do.


    He pulled to a stop and watched as young kids drove by clearly on their way to Reedwill Community College (RCC). He had attended the college, and the running joke at Bridgewater High was that going to RCC was going to the thirteenth grade, pretty much everyone went there. He had gone to the Police Academy there fresh out of High School. He had met his fiancé Senior Year in High school, and everything just clicked between them.


    He looked young for his age, or so some told him while others said he looked older. Either way Owen wore black pants, baby blue shirt that seemed to accent his blue eyes, he wore a simple black dress jacket that his Fiancé swore was a Blazer, but he thought it was more of suit jacket. He pulled into the parking lot, and entered the Police Station, heading to his desk, upon reaching the desk he took his badge off his hip and tossed it on his desk as he looked to his partner on the side of the two desks pushed together with a groan of a sigh. "Hope something comes in today, I'm so bored." Owen Dawson spoke as he looked at the paperwork on his desk and started to sift through the mound of paperwork.

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    [fancypost=border-width:0px; width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 125%]Anderson looked up from his own desk, one hand wrapped around a tepid mug of coffee. "And good morning to you too, Dawson." Daniel Anderson was cool as a cucumber that morning. His desk seemed a disorganized mess, but there was a certain level of structure that suggested it was purposefully scrambled with. He wore a white shirt, black pants and jacket and a royal blue tie, all of which had seen better days.


    Carefully, he uprooted a few papers from the pile. He handed them towards Owen with a humorless smile, "Mrs. Ardale called again about the court case. Smith's going to present evidence, so it's out of our hands now." He didn't seem all that amused. And that was normal.


    Bridgewater barely saw cases beyond the odd robbery, mugging or trespassing. Only a few detectives remained in their agency, mainly being made up of officers. Cases ranged everywhere from fraud to identity theft, mainly background checks or narcotics use. Court cases were typically domestic abuse charges. Anderson was one of the few who'd ever worked homicide.


    "There's also been reports of a possible drug dealer in Reedwill working their way into our district. No big leads as of yet on that." Anderson took a sip from his mug. "We also got a dose of crazy from someone out in the Farmlands, called in talking about crop circles."


    ((ooc: The faceclaim for Anderson is Pierre Dager, the face model for the police officer in Resident Evil 7.))

    The post was edited 1 time, last by Ikayaki ().

    "I heard of the drug dealer. Two Detectives stopped at my house yesterday and practically terrified Ash when she opened the door. They had to reassure her that I was fine and told her they had gotten a call from someone on our street saying that they saw a strange guy on the corner for half an hour. She hadn't seen anything as she had only just gotten back from the park with Austin." Owen replied. "If it comes into our jurisdiction then looks like we should have some entertainment other than hanging around." He mused lightly.


    He looked over the file Anderson handed him and nodded, "Hope she gets it all figured out for her." He was the youngest detective, and was only here because the one before him retired. There was a handful of detectives, and Owen had only ever seen six together (including himself), so if there was eight that was a lot.


    However, being the youngest he was antsy and anxious for the first real large case. He had seen detectives on tv series and even heard stories, and alrhough he didn't want a crazy town like those he still had high expectations that the job had to fill. He was sure that any detective started off like this in Bridgewater or another small town. "Didn't you go out to eat last night? Another date or something?" He asked he really wasn't sure. He knew his partner had gone out, but as to whether or jot it was with the same person as it had been the last month or not he wasn't sure. He really only knew a small amount aout his partner, his partner knew of his family, but other than that they were still learning about each other.

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    [fancypost=border-width:0px; width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 125%]"Yeah, actually." Anderson perked up, "An old friend from high school too." She had practically appeared out of left field a couple days prior. With Bridgewater growing so quick, she'd come back and set up a job in a nursing home. "I mean, it wasn't really a date date, but it was nice." They'd enjoyed a coffee trip and catching up with each other. In the end, he'd been given her number, and last night, they'd gone out to The View. "You know, I was surprised she even recognized me. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I was no popular kid, heh."


    Coming back to reality, he asked Owen, "What about you? Haven't seen you resting much since you got assigned to me. Have you been out with your family recent? How're things back home?" Anderson knew his new partner was excited for a case. Anyone who'd just ranked up in the department would be eager to handle something big. Of course, nobody wanted to see a murder. Unfortunately, Anderson had seen many...


    What would happen if they started showing up again? The thought surprised him, and so the memories flooded forth. He took a deep breath, realizing he'd actually started spacing out. Whenever he thought of the killings, no matter how long it had been, he couldn't help but briefly see their faces.


    He took another sip of coffee, trying to listen intently to whatever Dawson's response would be.