Science, art and murder

This story is for those that want a dark MC without superpowers, cultivation or "Oh I became the world's best assassin when I was 3" kind of BS.

The protagonist is a very smart psychopath, like Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the lambs) without the cannibalism along with a scientific and twisted mind resembling a mix of the Riddler and John Kramer (Saw).

A bloody, gore, twisted, psychological and sick story about how being a mass murderer isn't always easy to hide, unless…

You can expect psychological warfare, mafia conflicts, deaths, murder and all kinds of other crimes !

(I do not support crimes and especialy frown upon rape. Maybe a little murder here and there is good but being a criminal is bad kids.)

Act 1 : The artist

In a small corner cafe in a busy New-York street, dozens of customers could be seen happily entering and exiting the shop, hurrying to drink their coffee before heading to work.

They simply headed to the counter, asked for their beverage and left after paying. Most didn't stay and the few that did were too occupied talking with friends around a sweet breakfast to hear the news shown on the giant television.

"SHOCK NEWS ! Another one of the mass murderer's twisted corpses has been found this morning inside of Bellweather's cathedral of St.James, from the police report we have received it looks like the victim is Bishop Maurice.

Following the previous mode of operation, the killer that has received the nickname "The artist" has set up the victim's body in a horrible display and left a bloody note next to father Maurice's body; we cannot detail the crime scene so as to avoid shocking the audience.

The note that was found in the crime scene reads as follows,

I have overthrown an empire. I have caused wars of greed.

My faith is golden and my soul was freed.

Is God hidden? Locked away?

Backed in the corner of a dark alley, not so far away?

Or is he held by his prayers?

Too engrossed by taxpayers

To help the crying children

To help the starving citizen

The bible only leads to hell

Silver that shines like nikel.

In a purgatory in which dozens fell

You will find the heaven of our dear angel.

…

The investigator in charge of this case is detective Valiente, have you found anything yet Mr Valiente?"

The journalist that talked whilst standing in front of a beautiful gothic cathedral in the middle of a city.

The site was crowded by police and journalists alike as one group hurried to lock the perimeter while the other tried to gain as much information about the events that had happened.

The woman currently on screen passed a mic to the tall man next to her.

He wasn't wearing a uniform and was instead covered by a beige coat along with gray jeans that did little to hide his exceptionally fit build.

You could recognize a hispanic origin within his face and it was clear to the reporters that he wasn't on duty when he was called to the crime scene as his hair and beard were still unshaven and messy.

He accepted the microphone and spoke up to the cameraman.

"First of all, I would like to say that our police force has everything under control. As we have only been informed of this crime twelve minutes ago we have not done any thorough investigations as of yet. My partner Miss. Collins and a few of my colleagues are in the process of searching through the crime scene and solving his riddle. As we have learned from his previous murders the ones he kills often have something to hide that he exposes through his riddle and notes.

Please do not mess with the police force but if you have any lead on the riddles question please call the NYPD hotline. Thank you."

He passed the mic back and headed towards the capital as journalists hysterically screamed for more scoops.

As he entered the building he immediately saw the victim, as it was pretty difficult to miss such a gruesome scene.

The bishop was nailed to the furthermost wall from the entrance by thick metal nails, probably the industrial kind.

The obvious representation was the crucifixion but what was really shocking about this scene was the state of the victim's body and the…things around him.

The closer he walked, the more the detective realized what had been done to the poor man.

His skin was peeled off a little at a time and folded to his sides or ripped off and glued on the wall. The little pieces of skin that turned more and more bloody the further you went formed giant wings of skin glued to the wall behind the Bishop where every little slice of skin formed a feather.

He didn't know what was worse, this artistic display or what he saw next.

The man had his ribs ripped to the side, probably after his skin and flesh were sliced of one piece at a time, and the opened ribcage showed none of the usual organs you would expect from a human.

Instead only a misshapen golden heart laid inside him, laying on the man's liver as if it was a cushion to properly present his piece of art.

"God… He was given the blood eagle, or blood angel AND the Bolton treatment, damn."

"How can you joke around seeing twisted shit like this ? Ugh this makes me sick…"

As he reached the two individuals talking on the crime scene while taking pictures, Valiente sneakily pressed one hand on each of their shoulders.

"BOO !"

"AAAH FUCK ! Fuck you Val!" The woman jumped away in fright and reached for her gun before realizing that it was just a prank from her partner.

"Meh you did it so many times I'm not even scared of it." The other one, a skinny young man wearing a consultant badge around his neck just shrugged from the man's antics.

"Hahaha sorry I just can't help myself. Hey Jack, where did my daughter run off to?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah Ellie headed straight to the door over there after reading the note. If I understood the riddle correctly she probably went to the library." The young man responded, as if bored of the riddles that were too easy for him and Ellie.

"Are you really so bad that you need our help for riddles of this difficulty, old man? How did you even become a detective ?"

A vein appeared on Valiente's forehead.

"Listen kid, I don't want you in my paws either but my daughter insisted that you would be of help."

"And I am, I basically did the entire Cheesecake factory case by myself. You only had to catch that freak afterwards."

"And I broke my fucking elbow !"

"It's not my fault you're getting old."

"I'm not old, I'm still in my thirties !"

"Yeah, 39."

"Come on guys, stop your father and step son bonding moment." Detective Collins stopped the two before their heated argument became worse.

"I would never let my daughter marry a piece of shit like him ! Cough, anyways Collins, is it a confirmed artist kill? Not a copycat like last time or the valentine killer?"

"Yeah, it's him. The same numbing and psychedelic drugs were found inside the body and this kind of chirurgical and artistic precision can only come from him. Anyways, let's join Ellie and see what she found."

The two reluctantly followed her and Valiente even wondered if they should bring down the victim's body from the wall but he silently continued walking around the cold corridors of this cathedral.

"Soo, why the library." Collins spoke up ahead, asking for Jack's reasoning.

"The note talks about a few things, the first line is targeted at the victim, a religious man that believes in christianity, a religion that has caused just as much harm as it has done good.

The second probably has something to do with why he was the target, probably something to do with money, from the word 'golden' and murder from the 'soul was freed' part.

Then the artist talks about the first hints to where the secret is, he talks about a dark alley that isn't far and where there can be prayers, which means that it's inside the cathedral.

An alley here can only mean two things, a row of seats and a row of bookshelves. Probably bookshelves since it would be hard for the bishop to hide anything in the middle of the cathedral."

"That's a little far-fetched." Valiente jumped into the theory.

"It makes the most sense for smart people, now shut up." This earned him a growl from the big man but he let him continue nonetheless

"The next part is pretty explicit, he says that god can't do shit because he's just something humans created for money and control but what's interesting is what comes after."

"JACK !" A shout came from an entrance ahead of them and the group recognized the girl that cried out Jack's name.

"Hey Ellie, have you found it?" Jack smiled lovingly at the girl in front of him, much to the father's displeasure.

Ellie, the beautiful teenage girl with long brown hair wearing some kind of police cosplay stomped cutely as if she was frustrated by something.

"Mehh, I can't find the secret!"

In response Jack laughed and patted her head, roughing up her hair a little.

"Hm it's alright, I guess you've checked around for any bookshelves or books that are silver colored but in bad shape?"

"YES ! The bookshelves are only made out of wood and a quarter of all the books in here have at least some silver on their cover !"

As he looked around the room, Jack realized that this library was really big and pretty dusty as well.

"You must have had such a hard time going through all of this. Why didn't you just check row 47 and bookshelf 28 ?"

"Hmm? Oh the elements!" She seemed to have a flash of inspiration as she rushed off.

"What? Was there some kind of magic in this note? And why that bookshelf? " Collins asked Jack since these numbers came out of nowhere.

"'Silver that shines like nikel', both are in the periodic table of elements and correspond to number 47 and 28 respectively. "

"Ah! Those elements…" Collins finally understood.

Jack then calmly followed Ellie's tracks along with the two adults until they reached the specific bookshelf she was rummaging through.

"Found it!"

She pointed to an average book, while it wasn't the only silver colored or damaged book, this book in particular was pretty worn out and no traces of dust were visible on its surfaces, showing that it must have been used fairly often and recently at that.

Ellie grabbed the book and pulled it out of the bookshelf, pulling with it a wire that she hadn't noticed.

*Click*

A small sound came from within the shelf as the stone wall next to it crumbled into the floor.

Behind lay a dark spiral staircase heading down, below the cathedral.

"The bible only leads to hell, so the book literally leads down, that's a nice line." Ellie thought aloud.

"Stop complimenting that psycho and stay here." Valiente took out his gun along with his flashlight and slowly walked down the steps.

Contrary to his instructions, all of them followed behind him.

"Ugh, what is that smell?"

Ellie was the first to voice out what everyone was going through, as experienced police officers the two adults knew what it was but didn't say anything.

The two teenagers came with them on a few occasions previously and saw corpses and all kinds of gore before.

This definitely didn't earn Valiente a star for parenting nor for responsibility but he wasn't focused on that right now.

A few years ago, a mysterious killer appeared in the US, he quickly became famous for his twisted "art" expositions and Valiente really wanted to be the one to catch him.

He didn't do it for prestige or fame, he just couldn't live with the thought of seeing his baby girl toyed with like a broken mannequin.

He knew that the killer only went against other criminals but what if in that twisted mind of his he suddenly decided to go against normal civilians? What if he or one of his admirers killed his daughter?

So his reason for protecting her basically contradicted itself with what he was doing.

The group silently descended the stairway, their steps only illuminated by the ray of their flashlights. The further they went down, the damper and older the walls became and the stronger the smell of rot permeated the air.

Valiente finally reached a larger space at the bottom of the stairs and he looked around with his old bulky flashlight. He kept his finger on the trigger as he looked through the room, some kind of torture chamber.

He searched for anyone else within the room but wasn't able to look for long as a click sounded behind him.

A flashing light appeared and… the room's LED lights flickered on, lighting up every corner of the room for them to see.

Desks covered in rusted or chirurgical tools, chairs with leather straps, car batteries, water buckets, limb… buckets… a bathtub filled with rotting carcasses, all missing their organs.

"Ugh." Detective Collins was about to throw up but she quickly calmed herself down.

Ellie in comparison was… pretty normal, she snooped around the torture devices like a child that had found a new interesting toy.

"In a purgatory in which dozens fell. You will find the heaven of our dear angel. Yeah that bischop is a freak. Torture, organ harvestin, organ traffiking probably…Heck even rape wouldn't surprise me with the reputation priests have going on."

Jack stayed indifferent as he scanned the surrounding area.

"Fuck he's not here either." Valiente was the only one staying relatively serious.

He holstered his gun and began inspecting the room as well, not for the corpses, he was long used to those, but for any doors or exits that the criminal could have used.

He quickly saw a wooden board leaning against one of the mossy walls, he reached for it and pushed it aside, revealing a small artificial tunnel.

"There's a breeze…This leads outside. Any accomplices or the artist must have long fled then…"

"Hey dad! I found something, it's a journal… Ok, I'll read it.

March 1st, 2031:

Usual clients, a little interogation, torture and some corpse disposing afterwards.

I just noticed but nun Aleisha really has a phenomenal butt.

March 7th, 2031:

The guys from LaSamile asked for another shipment, three lungs and a heart. As usual I'll also sell them the other organs that I harvest in a good state but I need to make sure to find the required organs.

That young mother that recently lost her child comes by pretty often, she's in the perfect state of mind for me to lure and harvest. Looks healthy and doesn't seem to have a lot of friends.

I got her to confess within the booth and tranquilized her with one of the dart guns I bought from the LaSamile. Her breathing stayed stable so she should only wake up in half a day, plenty of time to finish the operation.

I could even have some fun with her before that, it's a shame, I prefer when they scream.

What a beautiful-"

"STOP! Stop… We will let the lab guys take care of everything, put the book back where you found it and… let's head back up." Valiente was furious and disgusted but he suppressed his anger.

The group, knowing that now was not the time to joke around, silently walked back to the cathedral's entrance as multiple officers walked past them to take care of the two crime scenes.

"Go home for today… No need for the two of you to go to school with all of this. Detective Collins and I will continue our investigation some more… I'll probably not be there for diner Ellie, there's some Lasagna in the fridge if you want…"

"Alright dad." She smiled before taking Jack by the arm and running off, the journalists saw tham leave the perimeter but weren't able to follow them as they disappeared in an alleyway.

Later that day the two strolled around the city, buying meat skewers and hotdogs as they enjoyed the spring wind.

Watching a movie in the theaters and playing games in an internet Cafe that became popular recently.

They did all kinds of activities that a couple would do.

"We still need to study for the exams next week, I'll be heading home. Do you want to study with me?" Ellie jumped around as she smiled at her friend.

"Study? You can find a better excuse than that to invite me to your home. We both already know everything they will throw at us in the tests or the SAT's." She pouted at Jack's remark and ran after him when he left without waiting for her.

"Hey! Well… In that case do you want to come? We can still eat some dinner together. "

"Sorry I have something to do. Maybe next time." he responded expressionless as he continued to walk at a steady pace, leaving Ellie behind.

"You said that last time!"

Jack continued to walk forward until he disappeared within a crowd of passersby.

'He always does that! I really wonder what he does so late… He told me he's tutoring someone for a little money but it's obvious he's lying… and he knows I can spot that lie too… Doesn't he trust me? I'm supposed to be his friend! I want to be more than his friend though… Why… "

She put on her Bites headphones and walked into one of the crowded New York buses in the direction of her apartment. Switching between walking and riding public transport until she unknowingly stood before their door.

Unlocking it, walking up the tight flight of stairs to the third floor and into their apartment.

She immediately headed into her room and jumped into the mellow comfort that was her bed.

She didn't do anything except roll around while tightly hugging her pillow until she jumped up.

"Wait, is he seeing a girl!? That would explain why he's out so late! No no no no."

She threw her face into the pillow as she wiggled around.

"No he's mine!" Her muffled screams of anguish went through the soft fabric as she gasped for air after almost suffocating herself.

*Ting! *

She heard a notification from her smartphone and immediately took it out thinking that it was Jack.

[Hey kiddo, I'm held up at the office for a little longer, probably be back by midnight, no need to cook for me.]

"Ughhh." She almost threw her phone in frustration, "I don't want to think about this anymore… Since I'm home alone for a while I can…"

Ellie jumped back up from her bed and locked her bedroom door before taking off her clothes, leaving her in her navy blue underwear.

She reached for her phone and laid down in her bed as she searched through her phone's pictures.

She looked through all of the pictures she took of Jack today, going from the most recent and scrolling back, as she started touching herself.

Picture after picture she continued to stare at them and quietly masturbate in the dark.

Him smiling, eating ice cream, touching her shoulder, putting his arm around her in the theater…

Until the picture switched to a darker background, without Jack.

A bloody, crucified middle aged man was depicted on the phone screen, a very gore and disturbing scene.

But maybe what was even more disturbing was the euphoric and crazy smile the teenage girl had plastered over her face as her lower region started leaking.

She masturbated harder, fingering her pussy and pinching her nipples as she moaned time and time again. Her twisted smile never leaving her previously naive and kind face.

Not a single soul had ever seen her like this, and all of those that did had already been disposed of long ago.

Except for one person, that was watching her, right now, masturbating at him, and his creations.

Seeing her true and false face every day, and every night.

At school and through a camera, hidden behind her makeup mirror.

Hearing her laughter in the park and her sexy or crazy voice for others through her smartphone's microphone.

She loved Jack, it was obvious to him. Her jokes, clingy personality, side glances, pictures… of him, didn't go unnoticed. He saw it all, always.

But Jack wasn't the only one she had feelings for. If he had her full love, then the artist had her entire devotion and admiration.

A genius, a magician, an… artist. His every note, his every art work, his every murder, it not only tingled her lust for enigmas and secrets but also her twisted fascination with the art of murder.

He saw everything, her slow and silent descent into madness, her first kill as she sliced a homeless man's throat, her naked body dancing in a shower of blood, her first tribute to himself…

He enjoyed seeing her warp into the being of a murderer, twist into his follower and bend to his will.

He hadn't contacted her even once for "work" and she had already killed so much for him.

Solved so many of his mazes under the excuse of wanting to help her father.

He saw how her body twisted and shuddered as she touched herself thinking of him.

Whether it was Jack or The artist didn't matter, for she was already his.

And he will make sure to keep it so.

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