The Deceitful One

98 West 10th Street

In the dark of the night, Kenny carried an unconscious girl over his shoulder and sneakily entered his two-storied, red-colored house.

The girl was wearing a white-colored long dress. She had blonde silky hair and a pretty face. But currently, the right side of her head was bloody. Half of her hair was blonde while the other had been dyed a shade of dark red.

Clearly, Kenny had attacked her on the head and knocked her out unconscious. He took the girl to the basement. The basement was one big room made up of gray bricks and there was a steel table in one corner.

It had four small belt straps on each corner of the table to restrain the limbs of the person on it. Around the table, there was dried-up blood on the floor as well as the walls.

Adjacent to the table, there were all kinds of weapons hung on the wall. There were almost a dozen types of knives of different shapes and sizes, metal forceps, and the most noticeable of them all was a cleaver whose blade was full of dried blood stains.

Kenny walked to the steel table and gently placed the young girl on it. Then he proceeded to tie her hands and feet to the table with the belt straps.

While he was doing this, a gray mist appeared on his handsome face. When the gray mist receded, his true appearance came into view, one that was covered in squirming worm-like pustules.

Kenny smiled widely and licked his lips with his pointy tongue. His mouth started to drool as he said hoarsely, "Hehehe, time to eat!"

…

7 East 10th Street.

Bryan exited the four-storied apartment building with a slightly disappointed look. The suspect he had just interviewed was a 24-year-old man who had lost his parents and younger sister three years back in a train accident.

Initially, when the steam train had just started operating, there were a few times when it railed off the tracks or some other malfunction occurred, causing a lot of passengers to lose their lives.

The man he had interviewed just now was a victim of such an accident. He too was present in the train accident, however, he was lucky enough to survive with just one broken leg.

However, his family had perished. Ever since then, he locked himself in his apartment and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the loss of his family.

After asking a few questions and checking his house, Bryan concluded that a cripple such as him couldn't be the murderer. Maybe it was just him being prejudiced but Bryan had a gut feeling that this wasn't the person he was looking for.

Hence, he left his apartment and called for another public carriage to go to the next location on West 10th Street.

He got onto the carriage and instructed the driver on where to go. Bryan took out his silver pocket watch from his suit vest and checked the time. It was already 10 pm.

'I need to get this over with quickly or else I won't find a public carriage to go back home later.' Bryan sighed as he looked out the window at the night sky.

Compared to the night sky he had seen in his dream, the current one was simply too bland.

After 10 minutes, the public carriage stopped in front of a two-storied, red-colored, slightly dilapidated house. Bryan got off the carriage, paid the driver, and thanked him.

Bryan then walked towards the red-colored house and knocked on the main door twice. After about a minute, he still didn't receive any response.

'Could this guy not be at home?' Bryan thought in his heart. He knocked on the door again. If he still didn't receive any response, he would leave then.

Meanwhile, in the basement of the house, Kenny, who was standing in front of the blonde girl tied to the table, had a twisted expression on his face.

The blonde girl had gained consciousness at some point but she still kept her eyes shut pretending to be knocked out. When she heard the knocks from upstairs, her eyelids twitched slightly but this went unnoticed by Kenny.

Kenny wasn't even focusing on her. He had just heard someone knocking at his door. He wanted to just ignore the knocks and pretend as if he wasn't there. But the voice in his head kept whispering, 'More food! More food!'

He struggled for a long time as the pustules on his face kept squirming incessantly. After a few moments, he calmed down as if he had made a decision.

The gray mist covered his face again, turning him to his handsome appearance. He smiled like a polite gentleman, took a knife hung on the wall, and went up the stairs to open the main door.

Bryan, who had waited for quite a while outside the door, sighed and turned around to leave. Just as he had taken two steps, the main door opened behind him.

He turned back around to look at a handsome man in his early 20s, with black hair, brown eyes, and a thin mustache, looking at him with a smile.

"Forgive me, Mister. I was busy making food. How may I help you?" Kenny smiled politely.

Bryan displayed a fake smile and replied, "Sorry for bothering you so late at night. Are you Mr. Kenny Adams?"

Kenny smiled and nodded, "That's me."

Bryan approached him and said seriously, "Mr. Adams, I'm here on behalf of the police to investigate the recent serial murders that have been happening around in the neighborhood. I wonder if you can answer a few of my questions?"

Kenny's expression didn't change at all when heard the term 'serial murders'. Instead, he gestured for Bryan to come in and replied, "Of course, sir. Please come in. I too want that murderer to be found as soon as possible."

Seeing him cooperate, Bryan nodded his head and entered the house.

After he passed through the main door, Kenny shut the door behind him. He walked a few steps behind Bryan as his lips curled up into a malicious grin.

He slowly took out the knife from behind which was tucked inside his pants. Kenny held the knife in his right hand and slowly got closer to Bryan who seemed to be oblivious to what was happening.

Kenny raised his right hand, about to stab Bryan in the back. Right at that moment, a distressed female scream was heard from the basement, "Help! Help! Somebody help me!"