Untitled (Joseph Stone)

[Cysma]

Joseph Stone had only been on the force for a month now, but he had already taken a case far more bizarre than anything any of his fellow officers, active and retired, have ever experienced. It turns out that these things may have been going on since before he became a full-fledged police officer.
A woman named Mary Davidson claimed to have been stalked, and recently even assaulted by a mysterious man that insisted on calling his victim “Mother”; a strange case indeed. Logically, investigators involved checked her records, only to find that this Mary had no family to speak of. No husband or children, biological or adopted. Mary never even had siblings either. It was concluded that the man attempting to kill her could not have actually been her son, as he claimed, or even a son-in-law. Besides, according to Mary’s description of the suspect, he didn’t look young enough to be her son.
And those are the least surprising features of the assailant. If the witness’s account is even half-true, this man could be identified by his mangled-looking flesh and a massive, would-be fatal wound in his head. Mary also said that her stalker had crimson red eyes that seemed to constantly reflect a blazing fire. You’d think anyone giving a description such as this with a straight face would be mad, but the victim passed every drug and alcohol and sanity test with flying colors.

As Mary remained at the Police station for her own protection, Joseph was at another crime scene in which a doctor had been assassinated in his own home. As Joe pulled up to the house in question in his cab, he noted the police tape stretched across the front gate as well as his fellow on-scene cops holding back an increasingly-restless crowd of curious neighbors. Joe parked next to the other police cars, extending the row of roof-mounted sirens by one more cab.
Once he walked up to the front gate, Joseph was greeted by Officer Paul. “Hey, Stone Joe decided to show up after all!” He said.
“Hello to you too.” Joe replied, rolling his eyes. “What exactly happened?”
“The victim’s name was Mortimer Cadavero. Cause of death was due to severe blood loss from a massive gash wound in his abdomen.”
“You mean they’ve already written up an autopsy report?”
“Nah, the investigators are still examining the crime scene as we speak. But that’s what the report will probably sound like from what I could gather.”
Joseph looked over to the house on the other side of the main gate for a moment to see if there were any broken windows or any clues as to the killer’s point of entry, but saw nothing of the sort. “Is there anything else you can tell me, Paul? Do we have any leads as to a potential suspect?”

“Not likely at this point. Too early to tell.” Paul shrugged as he said this, then remembered something and added, “Morty was a doctor of some sort. Maybe one of his patients disagreed with him?”
Judging by his tone of voice, Paul was apparently trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but Joe decided to give it a try and see if it went anywhere. He returned to his cab and used the radio phone to contact the police station he just left. “Is Officer Dave still in?” He asked.
“This is he.” Came the response on the other end.
“Oh, you’re already there!” Joseph exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. That saved him the trouble of having to call him on to the radio. “I would like you to look through the records for one Dr. Mortimer Cadavero. What can you find out about him? What was the last procedure he did?”
“Way ahead of you, Joey. You think I didn’t consider looking him up already?” There was a pause, then the rustling of papers heard over the radio before Dave continued, “Says that Dr. Cadavero worked at an abortion clinic. The records of his final operation are still locked away in the medical files.”
“Can you retrieve them through a network?”
“No can do, Joe. There’s been a blackout on the block that the clinic is on, and the backup energy on their emergency generators is being conserved for the operating equipment. Power generators don’t come cheap, you know!”

There didn’t seem to be any other leads at the time, and neither Joseph nor Paul were permitted at the crime scene, so they both decided to drive over to the abortion clinic where the victim worked and see if they could find anything.
As expected, much of the clinic was lit by little more than sunlight pouring in from the windows. When the two rookie cops reached the front desk and brought up the name Cadavero, there were given another name: Damien Phobos.
Dr. Phobos was a colleague of Mortimer’s, and had indeed worked with him on his last operation. Damien was on break at the time, so Joe and Paul paid him a visit in the lounge.
“You…you’re cops, aren’t you?” Phobos’ face lit up as he noticed the uniforms. “What a relief!” I thought they would find me before you did! It might not be too late yet!”
“What? Who’s ‘they’? What are you talking about?” Joe asked, but Paul cut him off.
“We’re here for the file on you and Cadavero’s last operation together. Where’s it at?”
Damien led them to a room in the basement, flashlights being the only light source at this point. Shining his light ahead of him, Joseph could see row upon row of filing cabinets, but was quite literally left in the dark as to exactly how large the room was. Damien stopped at one cabinet, unlocked and opened one drawer, and retrieved from it a stack of papers, which he handed to the two officers. The name of Dr Cadavero’s last patient: Mary Davidson.

“Mary Davidson…” Joe though aloud. “She reported to have been attacked by someone…could these two cases be connected?”
“That woman…is a murderer!” A twisted voice cried out from the surrounding darkness. “And I am the victim of her sin!”
The doctor spun around frantically, shining his flashlight towards the source of the voice. The light hit the visage of a man with crimson eyes, glaring straight at Damien, who was now frozen in terror.
“I was to be Mary’s son,” The intruder spoke, “But she did not want me in her womb. My mother rejected me before I was ever born!”
“You’re mad!” Paul exclaimed. “How could you be here if you weren’t even born!?”
“I was sent here by the Bringer of Light.” The man replied. “I am here to bring my killers the punishment they deserve!” As he said this, he pointed to the doctor with his right hand, which appeared to have been horribly mutilated. With his left hand he held up a reaper’s scythe and swung it at Dr. Phobos.
Paul swiftly pushed the doctor out of the way, and the scythe hit the file cabinet behind him. Now in a ready stance, Paul pointed both his flashlight and his pistol towards the attacker. “Stop! Don’t take another step!” The officer commanded.
The man effortlessly pulled his scythe out of where it had been embedded in, and turned to Damien once more, who was now cowering behind Paul. Joseph knew what would happen next. The bang of a gunshot rang loudly though the basement as the barrel of Paul’s handgun flashed.

Nothing changed. The man with the scythe was still standing. He never even flinched. “A wasted effort.” He bellowed. “I have already died.” Paul stepped back as the scythe carrier approached. Another gunshot was heard just as the man made a diagonal slash at the shooter. Joe heard Paul scream as his flashlight fell out of his hands, and then he was silent.
“P-p-please don’t kill me! I’m so sorry!” The doctor whimpered, backing up against a wall in a fetal position. Joseph had to take action.
“It is you that I am after. You have sworn the oath. You are guilty of my murder!” As the horrible man brought up his scythe, Officer Stone drew his gun and fired several rounds of bullets at him. This only made the mysterious man turn to face him. Joe now noticed that the man’s eyes seemed to reflect a raging fire, just as Davidson described.
“Your time here is over. Go back to where you belong.” Another voice rang out. The scythe wielder turned to its source, then fled the opposite direction.
The lights came on; the blackout ended. Joe rushed to Damien’s aid. The doctor was unharmed, but Officer Paul was lying dead in a pool of blood, a massive gash across his torso. A few filing cabinets were riddled with bullet holes, and one was cleaved in two from the top down.
“The stories were true.” Phobos said. “The early doctor Hippocrates sold his own soul to the Devil himself in exchange for his medical excellence. As part of the deal, every unborn aborted by a doctor that has sworn by the Hippocratic Oath becomes part of an army of souls. They are the Unborn Legion.”

“The unborn that Mortimer and I aborted came back from Hell to avenge itself against us as well as its mother, who made the decision to have the abortion in the first place.”
The man with the scythe that Damien seemed to be referring to was nowhere to be seen, but instead there was another man in the room wearing all white. “If you turn from your ways,” He said, “There will be hope for you yet.” He motioned for the doctor to follow him out of the room, and he complied.
“Wait! We may need to take him in for questioning.” Joseph blurted.
“You alone will be the only witness you need.” Replied the man in white. Joseph called for him again just as he was heading out the door, this time to ask for his name.
After getting his answer, Joseph called the station to inform them on what had happened, and then left the basement to check on Damien. He was in his office, packing the contents of his desk into a cardboard box, but the man in white was missing, even though Dr. Phobos insisted that he was still with him.
Within minutes, police cars filled up the parking lot of the abortion clinic, and an investigation team was sent to its basement. Joseph Stone went in for questioning, giving his account of the madman’s attack. After all, a man with a scythe claiming to be an unborn child seeking revenge is simply insane, right?

The next day, Joseph borrowed a copy of the report of the investigation of the abortion clinic’s basement filing room. The team’s ballistics expert analyst was able to determine the path, angle, direction, and velocity of every bullet fired at the scene. If the criminal was indeed standing where Joe said he was at the time of each shot, every bullet would have hit its intended target. Each round should have gone through the criminal’s body. However, no evidence seemed to suggest that the shots passed through anything other than air before becoming embedded in the places where they were found.
Next was Paul’s autopsy report. Joe knew what it would say before he even read it: severe blood loss due to a large laceration on the abdomen.
Joseph compared this with the autopsy report of Dr. Mortimer Cadavero and found many striking similarities. Between the fatal wounds. It was not unlikely that Mortimer and Paul were killed by the same weapon. Finally, investigators could not find any clues regarding the suspect’s method of escape, or even entry for that matter.
Joseph stone had yet to tell anyone about the man in white that scared the killer away, offered to protect the intended victim, Dr. Damien Phobos, and subsequently vanished the moment he left the room. The investigators probably wouldn’t find any evidence concerning him, either. When Joseph asked for that man’s name just before he left, he simply replied, “Just call me…Gabriel.”

 

[Cysma]

Would anyone like to comment on this story? Even "cool story bro" would be appropriate here, though I wouldn't recommend it.