In an old, run-down apartment in a tier-3 city, an occurrence had taken place that had happened one too many times before. It was a death, a killing. The police were already on the scene, taking photos, sweeping the area for any chance at some clues.
As for the victims, there were two of them, an adult male and an adult female. However, this wasn't a normal murder like those in the building might have thought. The easiest telltale sign of this was the fact that two members from the White Rose had arrived.
Sadie, a woman with dark red hair, entered the scene, showing her identity to the relevant people, and behind her was none other than her partner, Frank.
"Why is it always the lower-tier cities where stuff like this happens?" Frank asked as he looked at the scene in front of him.
The whole place was trashed, broken chairs, dirt on the floor, rubbish everywhere. From the looks of things, it didn't seem to be a struggle; instead, it was just how the two parents had lived.
"You know it's not the case; Altered cases are more frequent in the higher-tier cities because there are more Altered. It's just that we get less involved in that," Sadie replied. "Did you read the file?"
While asking this question with a pair of white gloves, Sadie picked up a photo. It was of a family of three, a young high school girl and her mum and dad, all of them smiling. Next to it, there were incense sticks.
"Ah yeah, this is quite the complicated one, isn't it? It seemed like the parents had split up," Frank went on to continue. "They had moved apart once in the city of Slough, but when their daughter passed away due to some type of accident, the parents had oddly gotten back together."
"Seems like they were shocked by their daughter's death. They since moved out of Slough and moved to another tier-3 city of Renning."
Sadie then placed the photo down, and they soon moved into the main room, the room where the killings had taken place. It was the kitchen. Both of them were tied up onto chairs, and several of their body parts had been torn, ripped, and were bloody.
Judging from the report, they had eventually died from blood loss, a cruel way to go as they felt every single thing before it, rather than ending their suffering.
"The two of them had drowned themselves in sorrow already; you can tell by the state of the apartment," Sadie stated. "Judging by the markings of torture, it looks like an Altered, and if we were to guess, this wasn't an impulsive thing. Whoever the attacker is either wanted information or wanted these two to suffer."
Frank couldn't wrap his head around it; hadn't these two already suffered enough? Judging from the file they already had nothing. Did they anger someone recently, or get into a bad deal? It was the only thing he could think of.
"I was looking over their daughter's file in Slough. That city, strange things always happened in it one after the other. It's been close to two years now since we've been there. When I was checking over their daughter's death, Stacy, it seemed to be wrapped and involved in some strange things as well. The file was marked stating it was a drug overdose."
"What's so strange about that?" Frank asked.
"It's just strange the circumstances before that. Why did her parents suddenly move from Slough? They lived in a nice area. It's almost as if they were scared of something."
"Are you saying whoever got their daughter might have got these guys as well?" Frank replied.
"I'm saying it is a possibility that the two matters could be related, and might be something we should look into, but I've heard Slough has become a different place entirely now."
The two continued their investigation, but there wasn't really much they could gather just from the bodies. If it wasn't due to the signs of torture, it would have quite possibly been deemed a robbery killing.
The killer could have left no markings, especially if they were an Altered, leaving them to think they wanted to be noticed. After a long, tiring day, with the night sky out, Sadie and Frank decided to head back.
"Things seem to not change with this job at times," Sadie said as she walked down one of the streets in a rough area, hardly any lighting and trash littered on the ground in front of them. It was the typical sight they would see.
"You say this nearly every time we're on a case," Frank replied.
"But it's true, right? No matter how many bad Altereds we catch, the situation here doesn't change. Look at this place; why does all the money go to the top, while the others have to struggle?" Sadie stated.
"You have a point, but do you think it's because of Altereds that this has happened? Otherwise, you're going to start thinking like the Altered Hunters," Frank joked. "I mean, even without the Altereds, things would still be the same; it's just human nature to have things set up this way."
Sadie stopped in her tracks while walking down the pathway, and Frank soon followed. They could see someone standing in the middle of the street wearing a hoodie. He had both hands in his pockets and was just staring ahead.
It stood out to both of them.
"Are you okay, sir?" Sadie asked.
Even if it was a rough neighborhood, with both of them being Altereds, they weren't really afraid.
"Around 2 years ago, in a town called Slough, in a Karaoke bar, three young men had gone completely missing. Their bodies were never found. At the same time, the White Rose were in Slough investigating a possible Altered killer. A man named Billy was your suspect that had been dealt with by the Altered Hunters. But that's not the truth, if the two of you had done your job properly from the beginning and had caught him, then my brother would still be alive."
Walking forward, he took down his hood, and right after, his body started to change.
****
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