Work Text:
A lone detective Charlie Magne gazed at the computer monitor with narrowed eyes. It was another murder victim, but the case was so odd it got passed to her desk. She was no stranger to odd murder cases, but this one was too different yet too familiar. “It doesn’t make any sense…”
The door opened to reveal her partner and boyfriend, Alastor. They’d been working together for five years and dating for four. They were the perfect team and a locally famous duo that solved cases that seemed near impossible to figure out. They were known as Pentagram City’s power couple and over their five years of partnership, they’d brought down the biggest scum in town and they were damn proud of it.
“What doesn’t make sense my dear?” Alastor asked as he walked into the room and placed his steaming mug on his desk.
“Hey Al,” she waved him over to her own desk, still engrossed in the images on her monitor. “Take a look at this.” Charlie scoot her office chair to the side to make room for Alastor, who pulled up a chair beside her.
Alastor sided up next to his partner and repressed a chuckle when he realized what exactly he was looking at. It was the familiar sight of his latest work. It was about time, it had been well over a week now after all. “The name is familiar. Looks like the abdominal cavity was completely cut open… There are several bruises and cuts all over the limbs and face,” he reached for the mouse and scrolled down, still anticipating what else CSI could have discovered. “The victim was also castrated… Wait, this wouldn’t happen to be the suspected rapist that was acquitted last month, would it?” If he could, Alastor would have applauded his theatrics tenfold. He’d always been a good actor, but it seemed that he was getting better and better at it every day.
Charlie turned her gaze back to the monitor. “It is. He was found in his home last night. We’re waiting for the autopsy for more information, but CSI didn’t seem too hopeful.” She tsked. Her gaze was once again glued to the screen with a determined but thoughtful look.
He gazed down at the shorter blonde. She couldn’t see it, but Alastor’s neutral smile grew into a wicked grin. He felt a rush looking through his own handiwork with his girlfriend and partner. She was completely unaware, as it should be. “So what was the odd part about this case?” He asked with an innocently oblivious tone- a complete contrast to his sinister look.
“There were no signs of another person even being there. No hairs, fingerprints, tools, and with all that blood everywhere… you’d think there’d be bloody footprints all over the place, but no! Whoever did this knew what they were doing. They have got to be very experienced in murder.” Charlie still couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d seen this before, but she’s seen so many cases in her life. She’d have to look back in the archives.
Alastor hummed in response, trying to keep his giddiness down. He loved watching her get so close to his cases. ‘You’re much too perceptive my dear.’ Despite her innocent and naive exterior, Charlie wasn’t stupid. She was so damn good at her job that she had very nearly made Alastor sweat with her perceptive mind on more than one occasion. It was simply exhilarating and he couldn’t help but be drawn to her for it. And not to mention how good of a person she was. To Alastor, Charlie was everything good on this cesspool called Earth and he so desperately wanted to preserve it.
The little detective was on the nose this time. He was a very experienced murderer, though he wasn’t an aimless one. No, he did exactly what he needed to in order to right the wrongs of the world. He needed to punish those who escaped justice thanks to the flawed justice system. He needed to avenge those who have been hurt by monsters, just as his mother had been. He’d seen what the scum of the Earth could do and he needed to purge them for the greater good. Now that he had Charlie, he had something to protect- something to fight for.
Alastor changed the subject, hoping to get his dearest from thinking too hard about the perpetrator. “How do you know the murder was done in the victim’s home? It could have been done elsewhere.”
She scrolled to a specific picture of a bloodied chair. She pointed to the floor between the legs of the bloodied chair and glanced up at her partner. “Yeah, but if you look at the floor, there’s a bunch of scuff marks on the wood directly under the victim’s feet. It must have been from the victim’s shoes kicking and digging into the wood while he was being tortured.” Sure enough, there were scuff marks that were only exemplified by the blood that seeped into the fine lines of the scarred wood.
Alastor chuckled, thoroughly impressed. Since becoming a detective he managed to learn from his mistakes and grew from them. Charlie only sped up the learning process and he was forever grateful for the opportunity to learn from her. “That’s my gal, always so perceptive and quick like a rabbit. Now drink your coffee dear.” He handed her the mug and kissed her temple before getting up from his seat.
Charlie giggled and took the warm mug and watched him walk back to his desk. “Hey we’re at work! What if someone sees?” She glanced around the room’s fully transparent office. She could see several officers and clerks thankfully minding their own business.
Alastor chuckled and looked over his shoulder as he organized the papers on his desk. “Oh I’m sorry detective Magne, are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”
She scoffed and walked past him. “I love you, but you’re an ass sometimes. I just hope my dad didn’t see that, he’d explode seeing fraternization going on in his office.” she joked, earning her a lighthearted chuckle from her partner and boyfriend.
This had been their everyday life for the past four years. Years of teasing, dates and intimacy made Charlie wonder if it was time for them to take their relationship to the next level. They’ve been dating for four years now and they were hardly strangers to each other’s homes, so maybe it was time for them to move in together? She’d have to ask him later when they weren’t working. Talking about moving in together was hardly appropriate in the middle of a murder investigation.
“Yes, well it wouldn’t be the first time would it?” he smirked, remembering the time the police chief caught the two of them holding hands under the meeting table. The two of them got quite the earful from Lucifer Magne. Had they been caught doing anything else, they could only imagine the dire consequences.
Charlie’s face lit up like a police siren. “Shhh! Dad still hasn’t let me down about it.” Alastor only replied with a hum and an amused chuckle before continuing his task, just waiting for Charlie to announce that they were going to review the crime scene themselves. He’d remind her, but wasn’t in a hurry, He had fruitful work to complete at the station, unlike the lost cause he’d created.
“Oh right, we need to head down to the crime scene and check it out,” Charlie abruptly spoke, standing up. She set some papers aside in attempt to organize her messy desk space where there was, in fact, no organization in the slightest. Alastor swore he’d clean it up himself sometime, but Charlie was heavily against it.
After a couple of hearty gulps, Charlie placed the empty mug on the end of her desk and shrugged her coat on. “Come on, Al let’s get to work.”
Arriving at the scene, the place was still taped off and the police were still around to ward off curious eyes. The duo didn’t even need to flash their credentials and were let in immediately. It was a perk that Alastor enjoyed in his years as her partner. It was nice working with a familiar face like the police chief’s daughter. There were simple yet useful perks that really helped them save time as well as grant them access to certain resources.
They approached the house and suddenly Alastor became fully aware of his heartbeat. His heart began to race upon re-entering the home of his latest kill. It still smelled of the blood that he caked the floors and walls with.
The smaller detective stood in front of a particularly bloodied wall. “Looks like our perp is a fan of slasher films.” she commented without much thought behind it. Who would have suspected the bloodied wall anyway? There were no visible clues.
Alastor nodded and pretended to study the wall for anything suspicious. Being the only person in the room that knew why that particular wall remained bloodied excited him. He felt giddy like a child with a secret that was near unbearable to hold any longer. This wall wasn’t just an ordinary bloody wall made by a blind lust for blood. No, what laid beneath the blood and gore were symbols- summoning symbols that promised a soul for a summoned creature’s participation in his gruesome murders. With the offering of his victim, Alastor managed to summon several hellish tentacles to effectively beat, lacerate and castrate his unsuspecting victim. The torture was slow and excruciating, but the tentacles from Hell were efficient and didn’t require Alastor to get his own hands dirty. All he had to do was slice into his victim deep enough to draw enough blood for the symbols and then hide the bloodied symbols with more blood.
“I wonder…” he said, attempting to look lost in thought. After another moment he turned his head to a lone, empty bloodied chair in the center of the living room. As Charlie had pointed out, the scuffs on the floor were superficial, but easily noticeable if one was looking for them. He’d have to take note of his minute mistake for his next target.
He hadn’t noticed that Charlie had left until she came back through the front door. “Have you gotten any statements from the neighbors? Surely they must have heard something.” He asked, though he already knew the answer. He gagged the man before summoning help and from there his anguished screams were muffled by a tentacle stuffed down the man’s throat. He still remembered how the man struggled to breathe, only able to take momentary breaths to prolong his suffering.
Charlie looked down at her notepad with a frown. “Yeah, looks like no one heard anything.” Alastor nearly cracked into a wide grin at the look of frustration on his lovely girlfriend’s face. She was an excellent detective who’d been at it for a few more years than he, so seeing her get stumped at anything was certainly entertaining. Especially when it was his murders that she couldn’t pin.
Alastor took great care to make sure each of his murders were difficult to track and pin to one individual. Each crime scene was wildly different thanks to his methods and his connections to the other side. Several of those murders were pinned to different guilty individuals as well. Thanks to his excellent framing job, he and Charlie quickly rose to fame for putting truly despicable people in the slammer. They may have been innocent of murder, but they were still criminals walkng freely on the Earth. Thanks to his position, his summons and Charlie backing him up, Alastor truly felt like he was making a difference in the world.
Once he murdered a child abuser and framed the abuser’s wife, who was his partner in the neglect and abuse. The children they abused even testified against her in court despite having no information on their father’s murder. Another time he murdered several business men who happened to be partnered with each other and were stealing money from their employees. By the end of it, the last remaining businessman was sentenced to life for the murders of his fellow partners.
But not all of his murders were solved cases. Many of his murders remain open in vain. This new case would end just the same. He hated to do it though. Seeing Charlie so upset when there was nothing to go off on was never pleasant. But it had to be done as there was no one to pin the case on.
He and Charlie had headed several of his own cases and never had she suspected him in the slightest. And when he’d successfully pinned his deeds on another, his dear Charlie would figure it out herself and feel great about putting the scum behind bars. He loved how happy she was when taking horrible people off the streets.
She truly was the purest thing on Earth and he would kill any and all who would dare harm her. He had done so already, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
Mirroring Charlie’s frustrated expression without dropping his slight neutral smile, he looked down at Charlie’s notes. “Impossible, the houses are nearly touching.”
Charlie sighed and looked around the crime scene. “Well I guess it’s possible because no one knew anything. We can look into them further because right now they’re all suspects at this point. Did you find anything here?”
Alastor thought for a moment. Maybe he could pin this murder on someone after all. His dear Charlie seemed to need a pick-me-up, if he looked into his victim’s neighbors, maybe he could find another local scumbag. Then he could plant some evidence for his love to find. “Nothing you haven’t already pointed out to me this morning I’m afraid.” he wasn’t lying. As graphic as the crime scene was, it was a relatively simple scene. It was just how he planned it.
The blonde woman snapped her notebook shut and stuffed it in her pocket. “Okay, well I don’t think there’s much else for us then, let’s head back.” she said as she started back toward their car out front.
Without much effort, Alastor caught up to his partner and sighed. “Not too much hope for the case here is there?”
Charlie got in the passenger’s seat and shook her head. “Nope. This is probably gonna be our third unsolved case in a row.” she sighed and sunk into her seat and coat. Seeing her like this pained him. The last thing Alastor wanted to do was upset Charlie. He’d have to look into those neighbors quickly, or find an easier target to frame a future murder on.
Despite Charlie’s feelings on the matter, Alastor pulled out of the scene of the crime feeling satisfied. He placed his hand in his sulking partner’s hand and squeezed. “Don’t worry love. We can’t be expected to catch them all.”
The rest of the day was uneventful as Charlie attempted to solve the hopeless case. No progress would be made until Alastor found someone to frame so he went straight to work on his own investigation.
It was getting late and Alastor decided it was time to call it for the night.
“I’ll bring you home.” Alastor insisted as he gathered his few belongings from his desk. Charlie would always walk to work in the morning and before she met Alastor, she’d walk home at night by herself. Alastor had been bringing her home nearly every day for the past five years now.
Charlie’s thoughts about moving in together returned once she got into Alastor’s car. She thought about what she would say and how she would bring it up to him. “Hey Al?” She started, grabbing the hand that wasn’t on the steering wheel.
“Yes darling?” He asked. Charlie paused, thinking about her next words carefully. But before she could say anything, she suddenly got cold feet.
“Actually can you drop me off at the corner? I need to pick up some stuff for home.” She blurted, trying her best to sound natural. Charlie felt like bashing her head against the dashboard.
“Why don’t we go together? I’ll bring you straight home after.”
“Nah it’s fine Al. I need to keep moving, you know how I am.” she squeezed his hand back reassuringly.
“Are you sure?”
“Very,” she brought his hand up to her lips and kissed his bare knuckles, sending shivers up Alastor’s spine. “Don’t worry, I can handle myself.”
It was hard to argue with her. She was a fairly capable fighter, but Alastor couldn’t help his concern. “I know.” He replied with a worrisome sigh.
When Alastor pulled up next to the corner Charlie requested to be dropped off at, a familiar figure caught his attention. ‘It couldn’t be.’ He thought.
He reached over and kissed Charlie on the lips. “Be careful okay?” He pressed his forehead to her’s as he spoke.
With a slight blush on her face, Charlie smiled. “Yeah, you too. See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow.” he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
Charlie chuckled. “You miss me already?”
“I miss you every second you’re out of sight.”
Charlie scoffed at his cheesy line and kissed his cheek. “Oh shhhh, you cheeseball. I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you!” She shut the door and already made her trek into the corner store.
Alastor watched her up until she disappeared into the store and drove off, keeping his eyes peeled. ‘I bet your blood’s boiling now that you saw that.’ It was the perfect night to take down the individual that seemed to be stalking Charlie. With an angry stalker, they were more likely to act irrationally and make mistakes.
He pulled into an alley parking lot and began his hunt. He backtracked back to the convenience store on foot, securing disposable gloves on his hands.
Once he was closer, he spotted Charlie leaving the store and heading in the direction of her home a few blocks away. That’s when he noticed the tall figure trailing about a hundred feet behind her.
‘You’ve finally come out you scum.’
Alastor scouted up ahead, looking for a vantage point. Luckily there were several run down areas quiet and secluded enough to execute his plan.
He quickly removed his glove and bit his finger. He whipped out a notepad from his pocket and began drawing symbols with his own blood. “I want that creep apprehended. Alive but unconscious. I offer his soul and my blood for this deed.”
Shortly after, he watched as a tentacle emerged from behind the man, smacking the stalker on the back of the head and knocking him out instantly. Another portal opened below the falling figure and he immediately dropped in front of Alastor. His grin widened in amusement.
He quickly hoisted the man over his shoulder and jumped into the portal the tentacles left open for him. They were always eager to help as much as they could. After all, he fed them with entertainment and the lives of the criminals he cleansed from the world. It was a symbiotic relationship akin to caring for and keeping a pet.
He discovered this magical ability when his mother was murdered half a decade ago. When he had to clean out her home of her personal belongings, he found a notebook full of scribbles and hastily written descriptions of supernatural things. Alastor wasn’t sure when or how his mother got her hands on this knowledge, but he decided it was worth his time to study his mother’s notes.
In the couple of months it took to decipher the notes he eventually figured it out. It shocked him that the deciphered ritual worked and when he summoned a tentacle to do his bidding, he knew exactly what to do. By then he’d already killed a few times before, but it always came with a risk. Now that he had this ability, his secret life of murder only became easier.
The night he figured it all out, he tested his new abilities on his guilty father. He’d gotten away with too much over his lifetime and Alastor was a witness to it all. All the abuse his mother suffered at his hand and the possibility that he had in fact murdered his own wife was too much to go unpunished. Alastor raged when he found out that his father was no longer a suspect to his mother’s murder. The justice system failed his mother, but Alastor made sure that he wouldn’t.
Now, he could get his jobs done faster with his contract-bound friends. That meant he could remove more scum from the planet and keep the love of his life safe.
Tonight, he was killing two birds with one stone. He’d noticed a shadowy figure hanging around Charlie’s neighborhood for a while now. Alastor played the waiting game to flush out the creep and he finally had him. Now he could rest easy knowing that Charlie was safe. All he had to do now was take out the trash.
He tossed the man in the trunk and drove off into the night. “One less piece of trash off the street…” he chuckled lowly. He just couldn’t wait to sacrifice this scum to his friends.