Let's Go Back On That Day.

"Detective Gunnar, sir. Glad to have you on the case." The Officer greeted, smiling, though the current case was nothing to smile about.

"Greetings, Officer Will. As soon as I heard this case, I was almost excited to hop on... until the rookie came back traumatized, then I was revving with excitement." The Detective said back in an almost cocky manner, showing his dedication to his job.

"Of course, sir. I imagined you were not appalled by the details."

"Appalled? I see everyone knows me for the Detective that's somewhat of a psychopath. And they're right. I'm a psychopath who loves to catch other psychopaths and solve bizarre, psychopathic mysteries."

"And no doubt you are the best there is. Your detective work is astounding. You were made even more famous for solving the mystery of the disappearance of Journalist Klasky. Not only was that a WILD case to crack, but in your efforts, there was a huge breakthrough in Quantum Physics and aroused many scientists around the world!" The Officer rambled like an obsessed fanboy meeting his role model for the first time, showering him in praise and acknowledgements of his accomplishments. "And you even found the infamous Dr. Dietrich as well! To think he was still alive after all these years."

"Anyway..." Detective Gunnar diverted, as if to quickly change the subject and avoid a certain topic. "...Let's keep our minds on this case. I've read the report and it seems interesting. Also gotten some information from the rookie... before he threw in the towel and left..."

"R-Right. Right. Just this way, sir. Follow me." The Officer directed, the two of them walking through a crowd of Policemen, FBI agents and Forensics.

The scene was an old house, withered and a bit destroyed from decay and water damage, though there were clear signs of life and living within the ruined home. Kitchen items, dirty dishes, opened books, and pictures were laid out in the house as any other house would have. The front door led into the living room, where an old couch and used fireplace were. Coming farther into the house and past the living room was a kitchen, messy and clearly used.

"Right this way. And please, I'm terribly sorry for the smell. Though, I bet you should be use to it." They came across a door at the back of the kitchen. It lead to a garage where they were met with a revolting sight.

The garage was empty but filled with dust. The awful stench was immediately noticeable from the moment they entered the room, the familiar smell of a says old rotting corpse. Upon entering further into the garage, they saw the corpse where the stench was emitting.

"Oh. That is..."

"It's horrible, sir."

Lying there, against the wall, was a dead body rotting in a rather peculiar way. The body itself seemed to decay, but the individual limbs were somewhat fresh. And the face...

"Where... where is its face? The face is... cut off." The Detective said with a slight tone of terror, though he quickly regained composure.

"We don't know. The face is chopped clean off. Because of this, we don't know who the victim is." The Officer replied.

"Fingerprints? Maybe DNA records?" Gunnar asked inquisitively. "Is there anything that we can trace back to some sort of past or Identity?"

The Officer stood dumbfounded, looking quite perplexed. A few "uhms" escaped his mouth before figuring out what to respond with. "Sorry, sir. We got nothing. No records... No identity... Nothing. It's... part of the reason why you're here. We've had strange cases but this is definitely one of the stranger ones. And you, being the Detective that you are, we figured you could help us with this matter."

Detective Gunnar walked up to the body. The corpse had a rather nice suit on and a bizarre, black, bowler hat. Gunnar sighed and immediately went to work, examining the body and checking its pockets for any undiscovered items. Upon examining the body, he noticed there were bruises on each of the limbs. The bruises were akin to the signs of drug abuse, overusing needles.

"Did narcotics get to work yet?"

"No. Not yet." The Officer replied. "You found something?"

"I'm surprised YOU didn't notice it." Gunnar remarked, addressing the bruises. "These might be signs of drug use. Heroin maybe? I want Forensics to do a check on this body for any drug usage. That is, after I'm done searching the rest of the body."

With that said, he proceeded with examining the body entirely. He started with the head, the most interesting part of the body, and upon immediately examining it, he found something strange lodged in the mouth of the corpse. A piece of folded paper. Gunnar put on some plastic gloves before reaching into the mouth to grab the paper.

"Yuck! Detective... you're... bold." Will said in slight disgust. "You found something?"

"Yes. A folded up piece of paper." Gunnar closely looked at the piece of paper-- it had dried blood stains covering it --tempted to unfold it to see what was on the inside, though he stopped himself and paused for a moment before handing it to Will. "Unfold this and see what's inside."

"Wh-What?! Why me?!"

"I have my reasons. After reading that damn book, I'm VERY careful what I read." Gunnar was somewhat forceful and it made Will submit to his command.

"Uhm... O-Okay..." Will reluctantly unfolded the piece of paper. His eyes started to scan the paper. "Uhm... It says, 'Don't let fear grip you for the world will turn against you-- ?!" Will abruptly halted, his face showing concern.

"What happened? What does it say? Why did you stop?" Gunnar questioned.

"It says... 'Gunnar Schmanski'" Will frankly answered.

Gunnar's eyes widened a bit, a wave of confusion hit his psyche. It was like he was trying to comprehend what he had just heard, reviewing all of the possibilities in his head. Reviewing all of the possibilities of HOW and WHY that paper had HIS name on it. But what was most confusing was how they addressed him.

"It has my birth name."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"My alias is Gunnar Schaffen. That's what everybody knows me by. Gunnar Schmanski is my real name. My birth name."

"But... I know your real name." Will said, a bit puzzled.

"Of course you do. Only the Police and Government Agencies know my real name. Because of my past and a major misunderstanding, I had my name legally changed to Schaffen and ALL records containing my previous name expunged. This was to also hide my TRUE identity to the public. With the scary power of the Government and 'rich will,' I was able to erase everything about my real name to the public."

"But if it says your real name here, that must mean..."

"Either two options. Whoever wrote this is either someone in the public who knows about my past OR someone in the Police Force and one of the Government Agencies." Gunnar's shock was delayed after realizing the severity of one of those two possibilities. He slowly grew anxious and disturbed.

"Are you saying we might have a 'mole' in the Police?" Will asked, curious yet immensely disquieted.

"If it were that, that would actually be a godsend. What I'm more concerned about is the former option, because if that's the case, I couldn't think of anybody other than THAT person."

"'That' person? Who is it?"

"THAT person is dead... So..." He stood there, thinking and pondering on every possibility. But the more he thought, the more the anxious feeling grew. "I feel like... someone is watching me."

When saying that, he looked around the garage in an attempt to find someone staring at him. The Agents and Policemen around were busy doing their work around the crime scene but none were looking at him. Gunnar quickly walked towards a button on the wall, pressing it to open the garage door where a car would enter. On the other side was a figure waiting. The figure was dark as the light casting behind them obscured their front. Gunnar and Will jolt back a bit. They tried to discern the face of the figure but couldn't quite make out who it was. Though one thing they noticed was that the figure was wearing a suit and had a bowler hat on.

"Hey! Freeze! Hands up and state your name!" Will commanded, reaching for his gun, but as soon as he did, the figure ran off. "I SAID FREEZE!"

Gunnar stayed still. He couldn't move. It was as if his anxiety turned into a deep sense of fear and horror. His breathing quickened and he started to sweat.

"Come in! This is Officer Will! We have an intruder on the scene, he ran off into the front!" Will screamed into his two-way radio, the other Officers responding and taking action immediately. Gunnar, on the other hand, just stood there, caught in thought and fear.

"Gu-- nnar... Schman-- ski..." A voice was heard coming from the corpse. Gunnar turned towards the sound of the voice, staring at the body, terrified.

"W-- Will? Huh? Where did you go?" He looked around the garage in search of the Officer but the room was now even more vacant, nothing but him and the body within the room.

With the atmosphere of the room quickly growing thin, he exited into the living room area only to find that no one was there.

"What the hell? What... happened to everyone?" His voice shaked with fear. He proceeded to the front door but stopped once he heard something crunch under his feet. It was the piece of folded paper that was inside the corpse's mouth. He hesitantly picked it up and read the inside. It said exactly what Will stated but what caught his eye was that his name was crossed out. After staring at the paper for an unknowing amount of time, he felt a hand grab his shoulder coupled with a deep, grudgy voice, something sounding deathly.

"I... will... have... my... REVENGE..."

Gunnar immediately snapped back, but only saw Will standing behind him, startling Will from snapping back so quickly.

"W-Whoa! Detective? Is everything alright?" Will asked, worried about Gunnar's behavior.

"Y-You... What revenge? Who are you?!" Gunnar demanded an answer.

"Revenge? What are you talking about? Did you find something else about that note?"

Gunnar looked around and saw the Agents and Policemen, that were just gone, back where they once were before. The familiar blue and red flickers of light invaded his sight as he saw the abundance of Police cars in the front of the house.

"I... Nothing. Maybe the smell was getting to my head. I... might be hallucinating." Gunnar said with a bit of doubt in his own statement. "I'll be fine. More importantly, did you catch the intruder?"

"Sorry, sir. He was... too quick. He got away. Though, I can have someone check the surveillance feed and see if we have a clear view on who they were."

"SURVEILLANCE FEED?! YOU'RE--" Gunnar cut himself off and sighed. "You're telling me there were surveillance cameras in the garage and you didn't mind telling me that?"

"S-Sorry, sir! You were just busy and I didn't want to disturb the master at work. But yes, there are cameras all around the house. They weren't set up but any of us so we can only assume that they were planted by either the culprit or owner of the house. We have retrieved the footage from the past year but nothing shows us how the victim was murdered. Actually, something even more bizarre happened when taking account of the footage we found."

"Let me see it." Gunnar demanded.

"Of course. The Forensics team has the file. There's a van outside with one of their tech guys. You can check with him. Just say you're looking for Jerry."

Gunnar hastily makes his way to the van Will directed him to. All the while, that mysterious figure was watching from afar. Observing everything. You see it too, right? You've seen the video feed. We know you did. You wouldn't have written that report if you didn't. We wouldn't be here in this room if you didn't. All I'm asking from you is to tell me what any of them looked like.

Now, let's take a break. I don't want your psyche to deteriorate.