Rivals

John read the letter he had written to himself seventeen years ago. Tears streamed down his face dropping down on his shirt from his cheeks. He was sitting on the floor with papers and torn books scattered around him. His cigarette had burnt a hole in one of the fat ones. His hands trembled as he put down the letter and held the knife in his right hand against his wrist.

Except for the mess in the corner near the drawers where John sat, the room was quite neat and well lit. The air around him was rank with the smell of cigarettes and dust. The rain outside failed to calm John down. It reminded him of all the things he did wrong and all the people he had the power to mess up. It also reminded him of the times he was happy and how he had hurt the people who made him happy. He was alone. He sat in the house where he had dreamed his family would be, where his friends would hang out, and they all would have fun spending time with each other. It was the house he had hoped to call a home. He was alone and he hated being alone. It wasn't something he thought about consciously but deep inside he knew that everything that had happened was inevitable. He looked around the room. He looked around himself at the scattered papers and books and photo albums. It was everything that he loved and regretted. Accepting this as his final resting place, he decided for the fourth time to end it all.

He clenched his teeth, held back his tears and lightly sliced his already wounded wrist. Drops of blood oozed out of that wrist as he bit his lower lip and tightly closed his eyes. His heart throbbed wildly protesting against the act.

"No." He said to no one.

"No. I have to live."

He dropped the knife and tried to get up with the support of the desk but fainted before he got on his feet. The clang of the fallen knife stayed on his mind. He let go of the cigarette he had in the hand whose wrist he just cut.

The sound of the cigarette falling down was inaudible to human ears. It burned itself slowly and put a brown stain on the paper below it. It's smoke drifted up to the ceiling, then spread around in the room. Some of it escaped outside in the lawn and killed a few organisms. It kept floating away and up towards the dark sky.

Kilometers away, a man with a hood stood over a corpse observing it keenly. He found the noise of the rain hitting against his raincoat annoying as it was hampering his listening ability. Though it was difficult, he tried to be alert and made sure to hear any quick footsteps around him.

Tyler looked down at the bloated corpse they had pulled out from the river. It was a girl, about eighteen years of age. Her eyelids were open and the eyes had been rolled back. She looked beautiful in a way. After watching her for a few more seconds, Tyler moved back towards the two police officers enjoying their tea in the shed while a few other cops inspected the place.
Since a week ago, Tyler had been trailing a guy he suspected to be part of a human trafficking gang. He had estimated that he'd have the whole gang captured within two months. That would help him win Officer Pratter's trust as well.
Tyler always made detailed plans and made sure to consider as many outcomes as he possibly can. The worst decision he had made paled in comparison to the one he was about to make in a few minutes. He had expected a murder around this area. More accurately, he had planned a murder around this area. Tyler had influenced events so as to force the human trafficking gang to murder a man Tyler had hired. As demanded by Tyler, Officer Colsen had called him immediately when they had discovered the body here.
"Tyler! My boy!" Colsen shouted. "You got it right again!"

Tyler went near them and smiled at Colsen.

"It's almost as if you are the one who murdered him." Pratter said with a half-smile.

Tyler ignored the remark and said, "these are dark times, Officer Colsen. I don't have enough evidence but I believe that there's a serial killer around. Please notify me of any more murders."

Tyler walked away from the shed and went out in the rain . A small hill stood behind the shed. Tyler went around it and sat on a wet stone after making sure no one had followed him there. He took out a wet mobile phone from his pocket. He had stolen it from right under their noses. Gracefully, he opened the phone, removed the battery and took out the SIM card which he put in his own phone and then copied all the contacts and the SIM card's number from it. There were just three contacts: Mom, Dad, and Mr. Phantom.

He went back to the shed and swiftly returned the mobile phone with the SIM card back inside it. Officer Pratter was busy shouting at someone on the phone while Officer Colsen was engaged in a conversation with one of the other police officers.

Tyler was curious as to who this Mr. Phantom was. He was sure that the phone he had stolen belonged to the corpse. The girl was clearly strangled to death. He surmised that the girl was thrown into the river in an attempt to hide the body and clear the evidence. He wasn't really interested in the case; it was too easy for him. Crimes of passion were usually the least tricky ones. The murderer almost never plans a good way to hide the evidence. Tyler wanted to confirm his assumptions so he decided to quickly clear this matter and shift his focus back on catching the traffickers. Little did he know that this one would last for much longer.

And so he closed his eyes for a moment and just relaxed for a while.

His heart throbbed as he waited for Mr. Phantom to pick up the phone. He wanted to do it right. Tyler spoofed the caller ID so it'd appear that the girl's phone was used to make the call. After about thirty seconds, Mr. Phantom picked up the phone.

Neither said anything.

"Jane?" Mr. Phantom started, his voice full of melancholy. Tyler also heard a slurping noise.

"Where are you, Jane?" he continued.

"Who is this?" Tyler said, " The owner of the phone has been involved in an accident. Can you say your name and how you're related to the owner?"

"Danish. Danish Grace. I'm her boyfriend." Mr. Phantom frantically said. "Where is she? What happened?"

That was too easy, Tyler thought and doubted whether his first guess: Mr. Phantom was really the killer. He'd have to contact her Mom and Dad as well.

"It's you, Danish. You killed her. What happened? She cheated on you?" Tyler calmly asked hoping to provoke him.

"What are you talking about? Who the hell are you? Where's Jane?" Danish shouted, then took a sip of his coffee.

"By the river you dumped that whore in. Pulichter road. I'm Tyler Smith. Don't worry, I don't care about scum like you so I don't care what you do. The police will find you eventually." Tyler felt something wrong with this one. He expected Danish to be more stressed out than he seemed. He wondered if this one's got a mental disability.

"Tyler Smith" Danish said coldly. "I'll find you. It's Danish Grace. Remember the name." Danish laughed. "I'll kill you all."

Tyler froze. A shiver went down his spine as Danish cackled on the phone. His voice was immediately cut off leaving Tyler alone with his own thoughts.

I like this guy, Tyler thought and smiled to himself.

/* Thanks for reading! :) This story is a part of the series: The smile that was sad.  */