Chapter 18

New Orleans, 1925

(Alexander's POV)

I've been an officer for a few months now, I wanted and decided to become one after that serial killer arose. They're calling him The Ripper now. London had their Jack The Ripper, and we've had our Axeman, but now we have our very own Ripper.  At first, they thought that the Axeman resurfaced again after four years. It wouldn't be a surprise. The Axeman disappeared for six years before returning again, some just thought this was another long break and that he was back. But that wasn't the case. This killer doesn't chisel out panels of doors and doesn't break into Italian-owned grocers. Not to mention, the way this new killer operates is totally different than that of the Axeman.

Now, this one kills in the middle of the night and strikes any people who might be out wandering, or at least that's what we believe. It doesn't seem like he has a certain target. He kills both men and women, regardless of their race. This killer stabs them, sometimes even taking parts of the body with him. He toys with them too it seems, judging by the way his victims look when he's done with them. It's quite sickening the way he leaves them. I wouldn't be surprised if he tortured them as well. He's also different by the way he leaves the scene. He doesn't leave the murder weapon behind like the Axeman would either. He's not as reckless. There are never any fingerprints so it's clear that he's either very careful or wears gloves, he goes out in the dead of night to commit the act. Whoever this "Ripper" is, he likes to mess with us. He always kills his victims in the most gruesome way possible and doesn't even try to hide the bodies anymore. He wants us to see his handiwork. He wants us to find the bodies. It's some kind of sick joke to him, to play with us. He's left notes in blood before,

"Catch me if you can"

It's a game for that devil. To run around and kill people, some of them, innocent. There have been some that are terrible people, don't get me wrong, that he's gotten rid of. Perhaps he thinks of himself as some sort of vigilante. I certainly don't. I knew one of the victims, Roy Davis.

He was a good friend of mine. Sure, he got roped up with some bad men and worked for some shady people. At first, that's who we thought killed him, some mobster. But the way he was killed, it wasn't sending a message, not one that they'd send. No, it was a message to us by The Ripper.

It almost felt like it was directed towards me, Roy was someone I grew up with, someone I was close to. I had even lent him some cash recently, he was in a tough situation money-wise. But a message to me would be absurd, I'm not even very high up in the force. Despite all of that, though, he was a good man, a good friend. And that killer took him away from me, his other friends, and his family. I went to visit Roy's mother after the fact, to see how she was doing. She told me

"I knew my boy was wrapped up in some strange stuff but he was good, he was a good boy. I don't know why someone would want to do this to him."

It was heartbreaking and made me want to catch this murderer even more. Show him the pain that he's causing these people.

I was outside, it was late. Around 1:00 or so. I've been going out late recently and patroling since it seems like that's when he usually strikes. I started dozing off while leaning on the wall nearby an alley when I heard a muffled scream. It scared me awake. Quickly, I drew my gun. A thud and a weird, squishing, wet sound soon followed the cry.  Still half asleep, I walked over to the alley slowly, careful to watch my movements. That was until I hit my foot and made a noise, I immediately knew that I gave myself away. Despite my heart racing, I walked closer. That was when I saw what looked to be a young lady slumped over with blood covering her body and the alley.

I couldn't see the attacker, they weren't anywhere in sight. I sighed, thinking I had missed them. Also, a little relieved that the killer was gone. Until I heard something behind me, instinctively, I turned my head around. A grave mistake that was.

Before I could even say anything, I felt a blade hit my face. It hit my eye, making it difficult to see. The next blow was straight into my stomach. It felt cold, yet, it felt like it was burning at the same time. A scream left my mouth as I fell over, my gun flying out of my hand. One hand clutched the knife that was embedded in my stomach, and the other placed over my eyes as I tried to halt the bleeding. And in some way, I kind of thought maybe if I held my eye, the pain would stop. It never did, not because of doing that at least. As I did that, I tried to look up at him. I could barely see anything, let alone make out what he looked like. And the darkness hadn't helped either. He towered over me as I lay on the ground.

"All you police do is stick your nose where it doesn't belong. A shame you'll have to die." He said as he chuckled, walking away moment's later. I thought I recognized the voice but that didn't matter. I passed out soon after he left.

The next morning, I woke up in a hospital.

I assumed it was the Charity hospital.

"He's awake!" A voice called out, a nurse's voice.

Soon, a doctor came by to look at me.

"Do you know what happened to you?" He asked.

"Partly."

"You've got damage to your eye and stomach. Fortunately, we were able to patch your stomach up. However, we weren't able to do anything for your eye. I'm afraid you'll be blind in your right eye." He said as I touched the eyepatch they had put on me.

"Do you know who did this to you?" He asked.

"Maybe."

"I'll let you rest for a little longer, maybe then you'll be able to give me a better answer." He said, walking away.

I wasn't entirely sure if it was The Ripper who had done this to me yet. Well, I  thought it was. But until it was confirmed that the woman was one of His victims, then I wouldn't be sure.

I lay in my hospital bed for about an hour, after a while of waiting, some of my coworkers from the station came by to visit. Though, they couldn't stay long. They were called to the alley where a woman had been found dead. I imagined it was the woman I saw last night. Along with them, a few others came to visit me as well. Alastor, Caleb, And Y/n, who I've gotten quite close to these past two years.

"Alex, what happened?" Caleb asked, looking me up and down as Y/n placed flowers on the small table beside me.

"The Ripper, or at least I think." I said.

"The Ripper? He did this to you?" Y/n butted in.

"I believe so."

"Your eye, will you be able to see out of it?" Alastor asked. Up until now, he had just been staring at me.

"No." I said blandly.

"They said I'll be blind in this eye, there's no fixing it." I said, pointing at my right eye.

"That's a shame. I'm sorry Alexander." He said as I started laughing.

"You know what's funny?" I said as he raised a brow.

"I could've sworn that The Ripper sounded like you! Now that's when I knew I was losing my head." I said as he began laughing. Y/n lightly punched his arm with a sour look on her face.

"Al, that's not funny." She said, his laughter ending as he held his arm. Though, I doubt she landed much of a punch, more like a soft jab. She let out a small sigh.

"I know this is kind of a dumb question but, how are you?" She asked as I cracked a smile.

"They said I'll be alright, aside from my eye of course." I said.

"Yes, but how do you feel?" She asked.

"The pain from everything is, well, awful. But it's starting to lessen," I continued.

"I mean, I did that stabbed after all." I said, letting out a chuckle.

"Alex, it's not funny. What happened to you was horrible." She said.

"I'm allowed to laugh! It did happen to me." I said.

There was a few moments of silence before Caleb spoke up.

"What are you gonna do? About The Ripper?" He asked.

"I'll find him, put him to an end. I'll make sure of it." I said.

"You mean like, kill him?" Y/n asked,

"I don't know what I'll do. It depends on where my mind is at that moment. It'll decide whether I play by the book or just take him out myself. I doubt anyone would blame or be upset with me doing so." I said.

"He deserves to die." I added.

"Isn't that true?" Alastor said.

"Anyways, I'm sure they'll let me out soon. Thankfully, the cut to my stomach wasn't life-threatening so I don't think they'll hold me longer than a day or two." I said.

"Hey, when you get out, why don't we all go out to eat together?" Caleb suggested.

"Oh-well I have work so-"

"I didn't even say what time or day." Caleb said, looking at Alastor.

"What day and time then?" Alastor asked.

"Uhh what about 5:30, next Tuesday?-"

"No, sorry I'm busy then. Just so much work." Alastor said.

"You literally get off at 3:00 next Tuesday." Caleb said, frustrated.

"Al, you're going." Y/n said, shutting Alastor up. I couldn't help but laugh.

"That sounds great." I said.

"If you don't mind though, I'm a bit tired. Is it alright if I get some rest?" I asked.

"Of course, we'll check back in later, alright?" She said as I nodded. Before leaving, she gave me a hug. They left soon after.

(Alastor's POV)

I didn't realize it was him that night, I thought it was just a run-of-the-mill police officer out patrolling. I mean, of course I knew that he had a grudge against me-well, The Ripper, but now he really  wants me dead. He's talked about getting rid of The Ripper ever since I killed his good friend. Roy, his name was. Alex speaks fondly of him but he wasn't all that good. He would collect money for the people he worked for, and if those people didn't pay up, he'd kill them. He'd collect on unpaid debts. I suppose I'm no better than him because we both kill. But I do feel bad for hurting Alex like that. Thankfully, I didn't kill him. I guess. If he keeps at this and finds out, I may have to.

When I found out that I hurt him I hoped that maybe it could cause him to stop looking into finding out who The Ripper was and would perhaps prevent him from trying to find me. But it only made his will to find out stronger. I couldn't tell whether or not he was just faking niceties with me, I have no idea if he knows that it was me last night. I just hope that he doesn't.

"I don't got any doubts," Caleb said out of nowhere as we were walking, already having left the hospital.

"Hm?"

"About Alex finding this guy, he's gonna do it, I know he is." He said as Y/n nodded.

"And what makes you two so sure?" I asked.

"He's been chasing after this guy for a bit and-"

"And he still hasn't caught him. Caleb, please. He's not even a detective. As much as I'd like to watch this murderer get it handed to him, I doubt that Alex would be the one to do so. If no detective in New Orleans has found this guy by now, I doubt they're going to." I said, they were both silent for a moment.

"You never know. One of these days, if he's not careful, he'll get caught. And so what if he's no detective, doesn't that mean he can't act like one-"

"Look where that got him! It got him stabbed, leaving him blind in one of his eyes as well. He shouldn't keep posing as something he's not. He's just a police officer, not a detective." I said.

"He should've just stayed working at the station..then that wouldn't have happened," I added, hushedly. No one really said a word after that. Me and Caleb parted ways from Y/n as we went to work she went back to the house.

"Did you really mean that stuff?" He asked.

"I was right, wasn't I? He's in the hospital right now because he wanted to play detective. I understand that one of his friends was killed, but he'll get killed too if he keeps this up. He's lucky he's not already dead, The Ripper doesn't usually spare his victims." I said.

"Maybe he hurt Alex by mistake." He added, a comment to which I promptly tried to shut down.

"I doubt it, I-"

"You and your doubts, why don't you just try and listen for once?" He said as he stopped walking. I stopped too, staring at him.

"Maybe if I told Alexander about my doubts beforehand, he wouldn't have landed himself in the hospital. Hell, maybe he wouldn't have even become an officer! I'm trying to provide a little bit of sense but I suppose you don't want to listen to that." I said.

"No, I don't. You're acting like an ass. I'm trying to come up with ways on how and why someone like Alex-a great person-would be hurt, especially by a monster like The Ripper. All you keep doing is shutting down both my and Y/n's ideas and thoughts. He's in the hospital and all you seem to be able to think about is the fact that he shouldn't have joined the force and that he shouldn't have been out last night, or even trying to find out who The Ripper is." He paused before continuing.

"He's doing more work than these lazy officers ever could. I don't care what you think, I think that he's going to catch this guy, whether it's a sensible thought or not." He said as  I just stood there.

"You realize that I care for him too, right? I just wish he stayed at the radio station and didn't go out looking for trouble. I'm just as worried as you are." I said. He stayed silent for the rest of the trip there.

(Y/n's POV)

It was almost 5:00, I figured Al would be working for a while longer. I thought about maybe waiting until he got done, and possibly going with Caleb as well. But I didn't want to hear them arguing, and I'm sure Alex wouldn't have wanted that either, so I went to go visit Alex again by myself.

~~~

"Alex?" I said as I walked in, he turned his head toward me.

"Y/n! Over here." He said, waving his hand.

"Where's Caleb and Al?" He asked as I walked over.

"They're still working, I hope that's okay?" I asked as he chuckled.

"Of course it is." He said.

"How have you been feeling since this morning?" I asked.

"They've got me on painkillers, so I'm feeling better. Although, my head still feels a bit fuzzy. I just can't stop thinking about.." He trailed off.

"About?" I asked.

"I guess, well, everything." He admitted as I raised a brow.

He continued, "My eye, for one. I mean, I won't be able to see out of it again. I know worse things could have happened to me, I could've died. But I can't stop thinking about it."

"It'll be a big change, that's for sure," I said.

"And The Ripper, He needs to be caught. I-..someone needs to catch him. He needs to be in jail for the rest of his life. I don't like the thought that one of you guys could be next. I'd kill him with my bare hands if he touched one of you." He said.

"I'm sure he'll be caught. It's only a matter of time." I said.

"But we haven't been able to catch him for two years now! He's running rampant while we stand there with our tails between our legs! I'm sick of letting him roam around." He said.

"I could've caught him last night if I wasn't so busy falling asleep. Maybe I could have saved that girl, I'm sure she had her entire life ahead of her." He added.

"If you tried to, he probably would've killed you too! Then there would be two unnecessary deaths. It's horrible what happened to that lady, but I would've been crushed if you had died too."

"Just think of this as a second chance to catch him. You got very close last night, I'm sure next time, you'll get him." I said, his frown slowly turning into a small smile.

"Thanks." He said.

"I mean it, you know," I said.

"I know." He said, his smile still present.

"Oh, there you are!" Alex said as I turned my head around, Alastor came walking in.

"Ah, I thought you might be here. No note?" He asked, placing his hand on my shoulder

"No sorry, I forgot to leave one," I said.

"That's alright, just glad I found you." He said with a smile.

"Soooo, how long?" Alex asked with a smirk as we both looked over.

"How long..what?" I asked.

"How long have you been dating?" He asked as my face started burning.

"Oh, no, we aren't dating. Just friends." I said with a laugh. He gave Al a "Really?" Look, Alastor nodded his head, faint blush dusted his cheeks.

"If you say so." He said.

"Did Caleb come with you?" He asked as Alastor shook his head.

"No, he had to stay back and finish some things back at work. But he said he'd visit you whenever he could." He said.

"I see."

"Well, I haven't been around there, how are things at the station?" He asked.

"Things have been fine, I do miss having you around there though. Now I'm just left there with Caleb." He said.

"Oh don't be like that, he's not all that bad." He laughed.

"You try having him bother you every second of the day!" He argued, laughing with him.

"Alex, I'm sorry for what happened to you." Alastor said as their laughter died down.

"It's not your fault, there's no need for you to apologize." Alex said. All Alastor did was faintly nod, he didn't say anything.

...

..

.

Two days later, Alexander was released from the Charity hospital.

"Glad to see you out of those rags, you look much better in your actual clothes." Caleb said as we walked out of the hospital.

"Thanks." He chuckled.

"Instead of Tuesday, why don't we just go out to eat now? I'm sure you're hungry, and it's my treat." Alastor said.

"That sounds nice, yeah. I don't have to go to work until tomorrow anyways." Alex said.

"They've got you back working again that soon?" I asked.

"I want to come back, help as much as I can." He said as I nodded.

"Just don't push yourself." I said

"Oh! Can we go to the diner down by Fayer Road? I know it's a bit late but it's definitely still open." Caleb asked, Alastor looked at Alex.

"I don't mind, they better have good food though." He said as we passed by an alley. I turned my head to look over at it.

"Al." I said in a hushed voice.

"What is it?" He said, stopping as he turned his head around.

"Do you see that?" I said, pointing to the dumpster in the alley.

"Uh..no I don't. I'm sure whatever you see is nothin-"

"Come with me, I wanna check it out." I said pulling with him me. As we got closer, there was a body stuffed over there. Their organs were strung about, and their face mutilated. The eyes were gouged out, various cuts littered the man's face and body. I'd never seen a real dead body before, not one like this.

"Alex! Caleb! Come here, please!" I shouted, clutching Alastor's sleeve. I looked up at him, he seemed nervous.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"Someone's dead." Alastor said as they both walked closer.

"Oh, shit-"

"We have to go to the station." Alex said, a look of dismay marked his features.

We agreed and followed him to where he worked. After showing them his badge, he briefly explained what we saw and requested to see a certain officer. He explained in better detail after the officer he requested had shown up. Me, Al, and Caleb, had to stay to give a statement even though we didn't see anything but the body. We stayed for about an hour, and Alex decided to stay and help. I walked over to where he was sitting, he had his head in his hands.

"Alex.."

"I missed him, again. Another person is dead because I missed him." He said.

"He had to have been dead for at least a few hours, you were in the hospital at the time. There was nothing you could do! It's not your fault, none of it is." I assured him, he didn't seem to listen to me though. He just got up and walked away. If I have to be honest, I felt a little hurt. I was only trying to help. But I knew he was going through a tough situation so I tried not to take it to heart.

"I take it things aren't going well on his end?" Alastor asked as he walked over to me.

"No, he's not doing so great. I wish there was something I could do." I said.

"He'll get over this, I'm sure. He's strong. You've done all you could." He said.

"It's quite late, why don't we go back home?" He suggested.

I nodded my head and agreed. After all, we did have work the next morning. And I thought about what he said, Alex is strong. I mean, he survived being attacked by The Ripper. If there's anything he can get past, it's this.

I took his hand as we walked out, Caleb had already left a few minutes prior so it's not like he was with us.

"It doesn't make sense why The Ripper would attack Alexander, let alone keep him alive." I said.

"Maybe he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. But he's also a cop, after all, I wouldn't be surprised if he got attacked because of that. The last thing a serial killer wants is to be found out and seen by some cop." He said.

"Well, that part makes sense, but why let him live? Not that I'm complaining at all, of course." I said.

"I have no clue. Maybe He was feeling generous."

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HELLO, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. Chapters will (hopefully) be uploaded more frequently, or at least I'll be trying to.

here's a silly I drew cause uhh yeah

Word count: 3845