Post by The Circle Television Network on Nov 29, 2016 20:12:35 GMT -5
Chapter XVI: The Eyes of an Angel…
Stacey Jordan’s Condo
Madison District, Empire City
Detective Stacey Jordan had never considered herself to be a particularly spiritual person. In her mind…she was more of a realist. She believed only in what was right in front of her face…and what she knew to be true by experience. This is not to say that she got caught up in the same fervor that gripped so many others who flocked to worship the Supers…the Metas…or whatever the hell they were being called these days. She never much bothered to think about what happened when we died. So long as we were the best we could be while we were here…the rest would take care of itself. She never passed judgment on those who believed otherwise…well…not until it had an impact on her personally.
Six years in the military…and then five years with ECPD. She had been on the fast track to success, rising to Detective in near record time. It seemed that she had everything figured out…everything except her personal life. Truth be told, when you spend all of your time focusing on your career, having anything outside it takes a backseat…for a while at least.
Stacey had developed a hardnosed reputation at the station. They called her names like ‘Ice Princess’ and ‘Robo Bitch’…not that it much mattered to her. She did her job well and at the end of the day, no one could argue with results. Besides, what did she care about what people said anyway? Most of the men she worked with were certified assholes who only wanted to get into her pants. There wasn’t a single interesting brain cell between them…coupled with the fact that inter-station dating was pretty much taboo. All the same, there was at least one officer there that caught her eye and tickled her fancy, and that man was her mentor on the force…a man by the name of Brandon Knight.
Lieutenant Brandon Knight had been a legend in the force before Stacey ever joined. He busted drug rings, collared bank robbers, and rooted out killers like no one had before. Add in the fact that he wasn’t half bad looking and you had the perfect cop…strike that…the perfect man. He was the cats meow but he never let it go to his head. Women threw themselves at him, but he was never unprofessional with them…and yet…he never got a rash of shit from the guys when he didn’t take advantage.
One of the perks of having a penis she supposed…men got away with everything…
Be that as it may, she did her best to NOT count herself among his many admirers, though she was quite likely his most ardent devotee. When she had the chance to work with him on an important case, just prior to her promotion to Detective, she was on Cloud Nine. She did her best to hide her affinity for him while she learned all that she could…but attraction always finds a way…especially when it’s mutual.
When their relationship started up it was something that neither of them were proud of since the rules were clear on such things. Maybe that heightened the attraction…the whole forbidden fruit thing. All the same, for the first time in a long time Stacey found a reason to live beyond what she did on the job and she was happier than she had ever been before in her entire life…for a while at least.
Life can be cruel sometimes. It gives us what we most desire…even when we don’t know what it is that we truly want. Then in a flash…it’s taken away. For a long time she wondered if there was anything that she could have done to change what happened, but in the end she knew that there wasn’t.
Brandon was on another one of his high profile cases, hot on the heels of serial killer who was terrorizing the whole of Empire City. No one ever questioned if Brandon would catch him…only when he’d finally get him. Get him, he finally did, but the cost that was paid on that day was a hell of a lot higher than anyone would have wanted to pay…especially Stacey.
The Butcher is what they called him. His trademark was leaving his victims looking like so much meat from the slaughterhouse. It was Brandon who first made the connection that the cuts were too precise for someone who wasn’t schooled in the ‘art’ of butchering animals. It was Brandon who found the first bits of evidence that led to the Butcher’s identity. However, it was Stacey who trapped and cornered the Butcher…finally bringing an end to his reign of fear. The irony of it all? The Butcher wasn’t quite what and who everyone thought he was.
The entire ordeal ended when Brandon and Stacey got a hot lead on the Butcher’s location and they were there to nab him before he could hurt anyone else. The plan was to isolate him from anyone else who was there and then take him alive…but like the best laid plans, they rarely go down without a hitch.
From the outset the situation was bad. They found the location and the Butcher was there, but he wasn’t alone. There was a young girl there and the maniac was actually carving her up right there before their very eyes. The two officers moved right in, foregoing the formality of back-up as they quickly took down the madman. Brandon put a bullet in his brain, even as he sliced up the young girl on the table in front of him. The screaming girl couldn’t be consoled…and who could rightly fault her for it? However, to this very day the sounds of the girl’s screams should have clued Stacey to what was really happening…but it didn’t…not until it was too late…much too late.
The image still haunts her to this day. Brandon carrying the raving and bloodied girl from the room…leaving Stacey to secure the crime scene. Something wasn’t right and she saw it right away, but she couldn’t put her finger on it right away. Perhaps if she did things would have turned out differently, but who could really say.
The Butcher had made a habit of using particular instruments, but none of them were present here. Scalpels…ice picks…razor blades. Nothing like they expected. She looked down at the Butcher and something curious caught her eye. Blood underneath his shirt and not on it…not from the head wound that had did him in. Slowly she pulled up his shirt and her eyes grew wide with surprise. The Butcher had been carved up himself… and not in anyway that he could have done himself. Images of his past victims in old scar tissue, the most recent, freshly carved. The realization came to her all at once and her mouth fell open as she screamed…
“BRANDON!!!”
She ran outside the room and it was as if she were in a dream. The faster she ran, the slower she felt. As she rounded the corner, what she saw made her heart stop. Brandon was down and blood was everywhere…the young girl kneeling over him, a razor sharp scalpel jammed deep in his neck. It happened in slow motion as she saw it. Brandon struggling to hold the girl’s hands at bay…her struggling to slice him even deeper…assuming she had not cut deeply enough already. Stacey raised her gun as she yelled for her to stop…
She turned and looked at her…a young girl…the face of a killer…
Turning back to her dark purpose, she pushed for all she was worth…driving the gleaming instrument into the man she loved…
She didn’t hear the shots…she didn’t feel the recoil of her service weapon…but she did see the girl pitch upward as round after round hit her…five in all…three more missing the mark and hitting the wall behind her.
Stacey rushed to Brandon’s side, his neck was a bloody mess. It spurted out in a great fount and she knew at that moment that she would lose him…she just didn’t know how long it would take. As she held her hand over his wound, he looked at the young girl lying on the floor beside them…her blood mingling with his…her large dark eyes unblinking…
Within minutes an ambulance was there and the paramedics were working hard to save Brandon…but they worked even harder to save the young girl who had miraculously survived, despite Stacey’s best efforts. Both of them were saved and the story was front-page news for weeks…months even.
The story was an incredible one. The Butcher was actually a father and adopted daughter…Robert Parr and Mai Lin. Robert was an actual butcher with a criminal record, a history of violence and abuse. Mai Lin was a child, alleged to have been abused and molested since the age of thirteen, then eventually dragged down into her step-father’s twisted web of torture and murder.
Stacey was by Brandon’s side during her every waking moment. The oddity? He was by Mai Lin’s bedside during his every waking moment. At first, Stacey thought it was sweet of him…but it soon became an annoyance to her. He was obsessing over the welfare of that girl. He made it his mission to save her…not physically…but emotionally and spiritually. He sat and prayed with her…prayed for her…prayed over her until she breathed her last breath. It was then that Brandon turned fully to the ‘One God’ religion…and it was then that he turned away from her.
Was that really right? Did he turn away from her? More aptly…he had found God and she just couldn’t compete with Him. He had saved Mai Lin and he had found God…but he had lost Stacey. She never understood it and she never forgave him, though she never stopped loving him either.
Seeing him again had brought back memories and feelings that she thought were long gone…especially her hatred of the ‘One God’ faith…
Hatred was a strong word…but her feelings were equally strong on the subject…
Nothing had changed her mind, not even the events in Gateway Park several weeks ago and her encounter with ‘The Angel of Empire City’ and the divine hand of God that had lowered her to safety. She had found out the truth about that little incident…the divine hand of God had not saved her, it had been a Meta by the name of Spike Staggs with the uncanny ability to move things with his mind. How she wanted to scream to Brandon and the rest of the world what she had learned, but she knew that they wouldn’t listen, especially with a so-called angel there to bolster their claims. She had said it before and she’d say it again that woman…Anka Jarius…or whatever she called herself…was no angel. She had a feel for people and there was nothing divine about her, something familiar, but nothing divine. Anka reminded her of Mai Lin. She didn’t know what it was…but it was something and it nagged at her terribly.
She worried about Brandon’s safety but he wasn’t the only person here in Empire City that needed saving. There was another…the woman that Spike Staggs had come to her seeking her help to find…Michelle Andretti.
Through the wonders of premonition and stupid luck…they had found out that Michelle Andretti…or more precisely, according to Spike, the Shadow Thing that was pretending to be her would be at Caesars Colosseum at noon. Spike had not been happy about waiting to until the next day, but he had agreed, yet that didn’t ease her feelings that something bad was coming. She had learned to trust her feelings and as the time grew nearer she grew more uneasy.
Stacey checked the time and grabbed her badge and gun. She would meet Spike and together they would try to talk to Michelle. As she walked to the door and opened it, she nearly ran head long into Brandon Knight. For a moment she just stood there and stared at him. It was odd to see him here after she had just spent so much time thinking about him. At once…all of those old feelings came rushing back. On one hand, she wanted to throw her arms around him and on the other…she wanted to punch him in the face and curse him seven ways from Sunday. It was the realization that he was not alone that snapped her out of her own thought processes.
Her eyes focused on the petite woman with who was with him.
Her light complexion stood in sharp contrast to her large dark eyes…eyes that looked like gleaming pools…eyes that had seen too much evil, just like Mai Lin. Stacey put on her best fake smile as she greeted them. “Brandon…and Ms. Jarius…sans the wings I see. Are they a seasonal thing?”
Anka smiled, but didn’t answer. Instead, Brandon was the one to speak up. “Stacey, did we catch you at a bad time? Anka and I were hoping to sit down and talk to you about a few things…apologize to you about not telling you everything after the fire.”
Stacey waved him off. “Ohhh!! The whole thing with the two crazy bitches who tried to blow my ass all over Gateway Park? Noooo!! That is totally forgotten! Think nothing of it!!” She slammed and locked her door behind her. She glared at Anka. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Caesars? You and Superius addressing the masses?” She narrowed her eyes, “Don’t tell me you’re planning on not showing up!”
Anka’s face remained placid, but underneath she was still seething over the return of Empire City’s savior and founding father. Indeed, she was going to Caesars…but she wasn’t going to speak to the masses…she was going to hopefully confront and then kill Superius. Perhaps, maybe that would finally put an end to her suffering on earth.
Stacey rolled her eyes, “You know, you’re not very talkative. Maybe you shouldn’t go to Caesars. Now! If you’ll excuse me…I have somewhere to go!”
Brandon chased after Stacey and grabbed her by her arm. “HEY! Wait a minute!! What’s going on here? What’s wrong?”
Stacey looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Brandon, police work is going on! Remember what that was?” She looked over at Anka, then back to him. “Why don’t you just run along and play with your little angel…and leave the police work to me…okay?!!”
She turned and walked off as Brandon stood there watching her leave. Anka walked beside him. “What a bitch.”
Brandon stared at Anka for a moment, then shook his head. “No…something is really wrong.” He looked at her. “Maybe you should follow her.”
Anka immediately became defensive, “She’s your friend…you follow her!”
Brandon raised his brow curiously. Then turned his attention to Stacey, watching her get into her car. “All the same… I think you should follow her…” He turned to her. “…as a favor for me…”
Anka groaned. That was just it wasn’t it? For him…which really might have meant…for ‘HIM!’ She sighed as her wings reappeared and she folded her arms and stared at him. “FINE! I’ll go chasing after her…but after this…no more! I have other responsibilities, and they don’t all concern your girlfriend, okay?!”
She didn’t wait for a reply as she rose into the air and followed in pursuit of Detective Jordan yet again. Looking after Brandon Knight was becoming quite a choir…one that was being more of an annoyance by the day! The best part about this whole thing was that Stacey was heading right to Caesars…and that meant right to Superius!
Anka could only hope that Gaia would be there as well…but if not…she’d find a way to kill him on her own!
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Father Brandon Knight … Trace VanReardon
Robert Parr … Jack Lance
Mai Lin (Arella) … Orchid
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure
Stacey Jordan’s Condo
Madison District, Empire City
Detective Stacey Jordan had never considered herself to be a particularly spiritual person. In her mind…she was more of a realist. She believed only in what was right in front of her face…and what she knew to be true by experience. This is not to say that she got caught up in the same fervor that gripped so many others who flocked to worship the Supers…the Metas…or whatever the hell they were being called these days. She never much bothered to think about what happened when we died. So long as we were the best we could be while we were here…the rest would take care of itself. She never passed judgment on those who believed otherwise…well…not until it had an impact on her personally.
Six years in the military…and then five years with ECPD. She had been on the fast track to success, rising to Detective in near record time. It seemed that she had everything figured out…everything except her personal life. Truth be told, when you spend all of your time focusing on your career, having anything outside it takes a backseat…for a while at least.
Stacey had developed a hardnosed reputation at the station. They called her names like ‘Ice Princess’ and ‘Robo Bitch’…not that it much mattered to her. She did her job well and at the end of the day, no one could argue with results. Besides, what did she care about what people said anyway? Most of the men she worked with were certified assholes who only wanted to get into her pants. There wasn’t a single interesting brain cell between them…coupled with the fact that inter-station dating was pretty much taboo. All the same, there was at least one officer there that caught her eye and tickled her fancy, and that man was her mentor on the force…a man by the name of Brandon Knight.
Lieutenant Brandon Knight had been a legend in the force before Stacey ever joined. He busted drug rings, collared bank robbers, and rooted out killers like no one had before. Add in the fact that he wasn’t half bad looking and you had the perfect cop…strike that…the perfect man. He was the cats meow but he never let it go to his head. Women threw themselves at him, but he was never unprofessional with them…and yet…he never got a rash of shit from the guys when he didn’t take advantage.
One of the perks of having a penis she supposed…men got away with everything…
Be that as it may, she did her best to NOT count herself among his many admirers, though she was quite likely his most ardent devotee. When she had the chance to work with him on an important case, just prior to her promotion to Detective, she was on Cloud Nine. She did her best to hide her affinity for him while she learned all that she could…but attraction always finds a way…especially when it’s mutual.
When their relationship started up it was something that neither of them were proud of since the rules were clear on such things. Maybe that heightened the attraction…the whole forbidden fruit thing. All the same, for the first time in a long time Stacey found a reason to live beyond what she did on the job and she was happier than she had ever been before in her entire life…for a while at least.
Life can be cruel sometimes. It gives us what we most desire…even when we don’t know what it is that we truly want. Then in a flash…it’s taken away. For a long time she wondered if there was anything that she could have done to change what happened, but in the end she knew that there wasn’t.
Brandon was on another one of his high profile cases, hot on the heels of serial killer who was terrorizing the whole of Empire City. No one ever questioned if Brandon would catch him…only when he’d finally get him. Get him, he finally did, but the cost that was paid on that day was a hell of a lot higher than anyone would have wanted to pay…especially Stacey.
The Butcher is what they called him. His trademark was leaving his victims looking like so much meat from the slaughterhouse. It was Brandon who first made the connection that the cuts were too precise for someone who wasn’t schooled in the ‘art’ of butchering animals. It was Brandon who found the first bits of evidence that led to the Butcher’s identity. However, it was Stacey who trapped and cornered the Butcher…finally bringing an end to his reign of fear. The irony of it all? The Butcher wasn’t quite what and who everyone thought he was.
The entire ordeal ended when Brandon and Stacey got a hot lead on the Butcher’s location and they were there to nab him before he could hurt anyone else. The plan was to isolate him from anyone else who was there and then take him alive…but like the best laid plans, they rarely go down without a hitch.
From the outset the situation was bad. They found the location and the Butcher was there, but he wasn’t alone. There was a young girl there and the maniac was actually carving her up right there before their very eyes. The two officers moved right in, foregoing the formality of back-up as they quickly took down the madman. Brandon put a bullet in his brain, even as he sliced up the young girl on the table in front of him. The screaming girl couldn’t be consoled…and who could rightly fault her for it? However, to this very day the sounds of the girl’s screams should have clued Stacey to what was really happening…but it didn’t…not until it was too late…much too late.
The image still haunts her to this day. Brandon carrying the raving and bloodied girl from the room…leaving Stacey to secure the crime scene. Something wasn’t right and she saw it right away, but she couldn’t put her finger on it right away. Perhaps if she did things would have turned out differently, but who could really say.
The Butcher had made a habit of using particular instruments, but none of them were present here. Scalpels…ice picks…razor blades. Nothing like they expected. She looked down at the Butcher and something curious caught her eye. Blood underneath his shirt and not on it…not from the head wound that had did him in. Slowly she pulled up his shirt and her eyes grew wide with surprise. The Butcher had been carved up himself… and not in anyway that he could have done himself. Images of his past victims in old scar tissue, the most recent, freshly carved. The realization came to her all at once and her mouth fell open as she screamed…
“BRANDON!!!”
She ran outside the room and it was as if she were in a dream. The faster she ran, the slower she felt. As she rounded the corner, what she saw made her heart stop. Brandon was down and blood was everywhere…the young girl kneeling over him, a razor sharp scalpel jammed deep in his neck. It happened in slow motion as she saw it. Brandon struggling to hold the girl’s hands at bay…her struggling to slice him even deeper…assuming she had not cut deeply enough already. Stacey raised her gun as she yelled for her to stop…
She turned and looked at her…a young girl…the face of a killer…
Turning back to her dark purpose, she pushed for all she was worth…driving the gleaming instrument into the man she loved…
She didn’t hear the shots…she didn’t feel the recoil of her service weapon…but she did see the girl pitch upward as round after round hit her…five in all…three more missing the mark and hitting the wall behind her.
Stacey rushed to Brandon’s side, his neck was a bloody mess. It spurted out in a great fount and she knew at that moment that she would lose him…she just didn’t know how long it would take. As she held her hand over his wound, he looked at the young girl lying on the floor beside them…her blood mingling with his…her large dark eyes unblinking…
Within minutes an ambulance was there and the paramedics were working hard to save Brandon…but they worked even harder to save the young girl who had miraculously survived, despite Stacey’s best efforts. Both of them were saved and the story was front-page news for weeks…months even.
The story was an incredible one. The Butcher was actually a father and adopted daughter…Robert Parr and Mai Lin. Robert was an actual butcher with a criminal record, a history of violence and abuse. Mai Lin was a child, alleged to have been abused and molested since the age of thirteen, then eventually dragged down into her step-father’s twisted web of torture and murder.
Stacey was by Brandon’s side during her every waking moment. The oddity? He was by Mai Lin’s bedside during his every waking moment. At first, Stacey thought it was sweet of him…but it soon became an annoyance to her. He was obsessing over the welfare of that girl. He made it his mission to save her…not physically…but emotionally and spiritually. He sat and prayed with her…prayed for her…prayed over her until she breathed her last breath. It was then that Brandon turned fully to the ‘One God’ religion…and it was then that he turned away from her.
Was that really right? Did he turn away from her? More aptly…he had found God and she just couldn’t compete with Him. He had saved Mai Lin and he had found God…but he had lost Stacey. She never understood it and she never forgave him, though she never stopped loving him either.
Seeing him again had brought back memories and feelings that she thought were long gone…especially her hatred of the ‘One God’ faith…
Hatred was a strong word…but her feelings were equally strong on the subject…
Nothing had changed her mind, not even the events in Gateway Park several weeks ago and her encounter with ‘The Angel of Empire City’ and the divine hand of God that had lowered her to safety. She had found out the truth about that little incident…the divine hand of God had not saved her, it had been a Meta by the name of Spike Staggs with the uncanny ability to move things with his mind. How she wanted to scream to Brandon and the rest of the world what she had learned, but she knew that they wouldn’t listen, especially with a so-called angel there to bolster their claims. She had said it before and she’d say it again that woman…Anka Jarius…or whatever she called herself…was no angel. She had a feel for people and there was nothing divine about her, something familiar, but nothing divine. Anka reminded her of Mai Lin. She didn’t know what it was…but it was something and it nagged at her terribly.
She worried about Brandon’s safety but he wasn’t the only person here in Empire City that needed saving. There was another…the woman that Spike Staggs had come to her seeking her help to find…Michelle Andretti.
Through the wonders of premonition and stupid luck…they had found out that Michelle Andretti…or more precisely, according to Spike, the Shadow Thing that was pretending to be her would be at Caesars Colosseum at noon. Spike had not been happy about waiting to until the next day, but he had agreed, yet that didn’t ease her feelings that something bad was coming. She had learned to trust her feelings and as the time grew nearer she grew more uneasy.
Stacey checked the time and grabbed her badge and gun. She would meet Spike and together they would try to talk to Michelle. As she walked to the door and opened it, she nearly ran head long into Brandon Knight. For a moment she just stood there and stared at him. It was odd to see him here after she had just spent so much time thinking about him. At once…all of those old feelings came rushing back. On one hand, she wanted to throw her arms around him and on the other…she wanted to punch him in the face and curse him seven ways from Sunday. It was the realization that he was not alone that snapped her out of her own thought processes.
Her eyes focused on the petite woman with who was with him.
Her light complexion stood in sharp contrast to her large dark eyes…eyes that looked like gleaming pools…eyes that had seen too much evil, just like Mai Lin. Stacey put on her best fake smile as she greeted them. “Brandon…and Ms. Jarius…sans the wings I see. Are they a seasonal thing?”
Anka smiled, but didn’t answer. Instead, Brandon was the one to speak up. “Stacey, did we catch you at a bad time? Anka and I were hoping to sit down and talk to you about a few things…apologize to you about not telling you everything after the fire.”
Stacey waved him off. “Ohhh!! The whole thing with the two crazy bitches who tried to blow my ass all over Gateway Park? Noooo!! That is totally forgotten! Think nothing of it!!” She slammed and locked her door behind her. She glared at Anka. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Caesars? You and Superius addressing the masses?” She narrowed her eyes, “Don’t tell me you’re planning on not showing up!”
Anka’s face remained placid, but underneath she was still seething over the return of Empire City’s savior and founding father. Indeed, she was going to Caesars…but she wasn’t going to speak to the masses…she was going to hopefully confront and then kill Superius. Perhaps, maybe that would finally put an end to her suffering on earth.
Stacey rolled her eyes, “You know, you’re not very talkative. Maybe you shouldn’t go to Caesars. Now! If you’ll excuse me…I have somewhere to go!”
Brandon chased after Stacey and grabbed her by her arm. “HEY! Wait a minute!! What’s going on here? What’s wrong?”
Stacey looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Brandon, police work is going on! Remember what that was?” She looked over at Anka, then back to him. “Why don’t you just run along and play with your little angel…and leave the police work to me…okay?!!”
She turned and walked off as Brandon stood there watching her leave. Anka walked beside him. “What a bitch.”
Brandon stared at Anka for a moment, then shook his head. “No…something is really wrong.” He looked at her. “Maybe you should follow her.”
Anka immediately became defensive, “She’s your friend…you follow her!”
Brandon raised his brow curiously. Then turned his attention to Stacey, watching her get into her car. “All the same… I think you should follow her…” He turned to her. “…as a favor for me…”
Anka groaned. That was just it wasn’t it? For him…which really might have meant…for ‘HIM!’ She sighed as her wings reappeared and she folded her arms and stared at him. “FINE! I’ll go chasing after her…but after this…no more! I have other responsibilities, and they don’t all concern your girlfriend, okay?!”
She didn’t wait for a reply as she rose into the air and followed in pursuit of Detective Jordan yet again. Looking after Brandon Knight was becoming quite a choir…one that was being more of an annoyance by the day! The best part about this whole thing was that Stacey was heading right to Caesars…and that meant right to Superius!
Anka could only hope that Gaia would be there as well…but if not…she’d find a way to kill him on her own!
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Father Brandon Knight … Trace VanReardon
Robert Parr … Jack Lance
Mai Lin (Arella) … Orchid
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure