Chapter One : The First Victim

Detective Samantha Blackwood had seen her fair share of gruesome crime scenes, but nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to witness.

The call had come in just before dawn - a body found in an alleyway downtown. When Samantha arrived on the scene, she found a young woman, barely in her twenties, lying in a pool of her own blood. The woman's face had been mutilated beyond recognition, her eyes gouged out and her tongue cut out.

Samantha felt a wave of nausea rise up in her throat. She had seen some horrific things in her time as a homicide detective, but this was something else entirely. She took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves, and approached the body.

The alleyway was deserted, with no witnesses to be found. Samantha knew that this was going to be a difficult case - the killer had covered his tracks well. But she was determined to find the person responsible for this heinous crime.

As she examined the body, she noticed a strange symbol carved into the woman's chest. It was a circular design, with intricate patterns that looked like something out of a religious text. Samantha took a photo of the symbol and sent it to her colleague in the department's forensic lab. Maybe they could identify it, and give her a lead.

As she stood there, in the dim light of the alleyway, Samantha couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. There was something about this case that felt different, almost supernatural. She brushed the thought aside - she was a detective, not a believer in ghosts and ghouls.

But as she walked away from the crime scene, the symbol burned into her mind. She knew that this was just the beginning, that there was a killer out there who was just getting started. And she was determined to stop him before he could strike again.