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As soon as the phone connected, the breathy, guff voice of Samuel came across. “I hope your visit with the FBI agent went well. Now that our new game piece is here, and the FBI is already here, we have a new rule to our game. No Police. Whatever happens, no police is to be told until afterward. The FBI won’t have any luck finding me, just like you haven’t. When you go inside, you’ll find another present I left you in your office. Keep it on you and answer it when I call, or someone will die. Do you understand?”	Tatiana responded, “Who are you? Why don’t you just meet me in person, and we handle this?” “That’s not an answer to my question, my dear Tatiana” Samuel replied in a slightly annoyed voice. “You’ll do well to answer the questions I asked and not ask your own. Now, do you understand our new rules?”	“Yes. I understand.” Tatiana answered, feeling defeated. “Good. Now go inside and get my present I left for you and remember to answer when I call. Don’t forget, no police from this day forward. This is between the FBI agent, you and our dear friend.” The line went dead.	Tatiana went inside and still had thirty minutes before Calem arrived. She was so exhausted and defeated, she decided to just take a hot bubble bath. Fixing a bath, she added some lavender oil to it and put on some classical music to try to relax. Pulling her hair up, she got into the bath. It must have relaxed her too much because she was awakened to banging at her door and her phone ringing off the hook. She jumped out and quickly dried off through on her robe and ran to the door.	As soon as she opened the door, Calem rushed in asking if she was ok. Holding her at arm length, checking her up and down until he was convinced that she was. He asked, “what took so long? Why didn’t you answer your phone? I thought something happened to you.” He sounded annoyed but relieved at the same time. “Sorry, I took a hot bath and fell asleep.” Calem gave her a big hug that she gave in returned. 	Tatiana then excused herself to get dressed and showed him where he could sleep.&nbsp;	After about twenty minutes, they met back up in the living room and decided to go out to a restaurant to eat and grab a drink. They decided on a little Italian place called Firenze. It had the best authentic Italian food that they both had ever had. They had a couple of beers over dinner, and Tatiana caught Calem up on today's events. Calem sat and listened and asked questions when he needed clarification on something. Calem worked as a criminal profiler. So, pretty much, he was good at getting in the mind of a criminal.&nbsp;	“Hmmm, we’ll get it figured out Tatiana. For now, let's keep playing his game by his rules and see if we can flush him out.” Tatiana sighed in relief that her best friend was here to help. They stood, and she gave him a hug and said, “let's head back to the house.”&nbsp;	Tatiana and Calem had small talk on the drive back to Tatiana’s place. When they got back, they went to their rooms for the evening, but Tatiana would find that sleep wouldn’t come to her that night. As she laid there, staring at the ceiling, memories from her childhood started to come back to her.&nbsp; 																								***** 	Tatiana was maybe three or four when she started having memories. Her parents, Linda and Howard, were always fighting. They tried their best with their kids, but thought love was just buying them everything they wanted. Tatiana woke up from her nap, hearing her parents arguing once more. Her older brother was at school, and they thought she was still asleep.&nbsp;	She didn’t dare to show herself, so she stood behind the corner, and listened to what was going on. She made out most of the words they were saying. Once again, they were arguing about Howard always going out after work, and not there more to help out with the kids. How she is always cleaning, cooking, and rising the kids. His argument back was, he works his butt off every day to provide for this family. To buy us everything we want.&nbsp;	The next thing little Tatiana knew, she heard her dad hit her mom. She didn’t know whether it was a slap or a punch. She covered her mouth with her hand to keep from making a whimpering sound that could give her away. Tatiana was too scared to look around the corner, she was afraid that if she was caught, her dad would hit her as well.&nbsp;Her mom asked, “how can you still hit me after everything? I never pressed charges and even came back when I took the kids and left you.”&nbsp;	Howard replied, “you will always be white trash. How do I even know the kids are mine? I took you out of the ghetto and gave you a house. Don’t you dare speak back to me or accuse me of not helping out enough.”&nbsp;	Tatiana could tell he was angry. She went back to her bedroom quietly so she wouldn’t be caught. As she did, she heard her mom crying and her dad slamming the front door as he left. Hearing her bedroom door slowly open, she pretended to be asleep. Linda was checking in on her to make sure the arguing didn’t wake her.&nbsp;Tatiana heard her mom closing the door quietly. Pulling her stuffed bear closer to her, she cried into the soft fur, wishing she didn’t witness what she did.&nbsp;	At the time, Tatiana was unaware that things wouldn’t get better. She secretly hoped that it would. That she’ll be a part of a loving, caring family that doesn’t argue or hit each other. That this was just a one-time thing. Her dad will return with flowers and ask for forgiveness.&nbsp; 																				***** 	Looking back at that memory, Tatiana sees how naive and innocent she was at that age. She was also wondering why the memories of a forgotten childhood were starting to return to her. Tatiana thought she had forgotten her childhood or, as her therapist once told her, suppressed the memories after a traumatic event. She stopped going to therapy after she got accepted into the police academy. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Something told her that she didn’t want anyone digging into her past. What was there, though? Did it have anything to do with what is going on now?&nbsp;	Around eight am, she heard noises in the kitchen. She guessed Calem was up looking for coffee. Tatiana decided to leave her bed and go assist him since it was her home. Seeing Tatiana entering the kitchen, he smiled and apologized if he had woken her up. She said, “not at all. I see you found coffee finally.” She laughed and smiled at him. He grinned back as if he just won the gold medal.&nbsp;	“Let me fix us some breakfast since you did coffee,” she offered as she moved into the kitchen. Tatiana hooked up her phone to the Bluetooth speaker she keeps in her kitchen and put on some 90s hits that she knew they both would know. Calem started laughing at the choice of music but sung along anyway. The music made both of them feel old. Remembering the good old days of when they went to middle and high school together.&nbsp;	Calem set two hot mugs of coffee on the table as Tatiana danced around the kitchen scrambling some eggs up, and frying some bacon. She plated the food and brought it over to the table. Tatiana couldn’t remember the last time she enjoyed company this much. Having small talk about what’s going on, they finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen. Calem went to his room to check out some things. Tatiana went to her office to look over some of the papers she printed and clipped from the other murders, and told Calem to come up when he was finished so he could take a look for himself as well.&nbsp;	After about ten minutes, Calem came into her home office. She looked up from the folder she was looking at and smiled. She handed him the folder. As Calem looked at the papers inside, Tatiana told him it was the first victim of the killer. It was a simple murder, a strangulation. The killer was waiting in the back seat of the victim’s car, before he could drive off, a cord was wrapped around his neck from behind until he stopped struggling. With red paint, the killer wrote “confess” on the victim’s car hood and disappeared. There were no cameras or witnesses to the event. Not even fingerprints. He was smart in the murder.&nbsp;Calem asked, “what was the motive? Why this person?”&nbsp;	“The police couldn’t find a reason. There’s no connection to the other victims. It seems to be just a random attack. I checked for some kind of connection with the other victims myself. I was unable to find one. It could be where he knew there are no cameras or witnesses, so it’s easy prey to get away with.”&nbsp;	“It could be just random to get your attention like everyone thought, but it just seems too obvious to me.”&nbsp;Calem put down the paper, and asked if he could use a wall to make a web. Tatiana pointed him to a wall he could use. He took one of the photos of the first victim and pinned it to the wall and placed a slip of paper with the name underneath it. This will be the first of many looks at the wall, Tatiana thought to herself.&nbsp;	She picked up the next clipping with the second victim’s information inside. She took a photo from the file and added it to the wall with his name as well. “He died from a blow to the back of the head in an alley. Again, “confess” was written in red paint on the wall above him.”&nbsp;	“Another easy murder with no witnesses or cameras. How many victims were there before he reached out to you?” Calem asked Tatiana.&nbsp;	Tatiana responded, “four victims total. The third victim was pushed from a balcony at their hotel room. The security cameras happened to be under maintenance during the time of the murder. The fourth victim was discovered by a jogger in the park, his throat had been slit. Both scenes had the same red painted word at them.”&nbsp;	Calem placed his thumb and his finger on his chin as if in deep thought. “So he wants you to confess something.”&nbsp;“Yea, but I have no idea what he’s talking about is the problem.”	The phone ringing made both Calem and Tatiana jump, being startled from their train of thought. Tatiana noticed it was the phone Samuel had left her. Tatiana took the phone and went into the hallway. She answered. The voice on the other side said, “It’s time for round two of our game. The second riddle to help jog your memory. I’m not alive, but I grow; I don’t have lungs, but need air; what am I? I’ll give you one hour to answer, or someone dies.” The line went dead.&nbsp;	She went back into the room and told Calem what happened. Tatiana had no idea who would die, how they would die, or where. Calem said, “we should call the police.” “We can’t remember. He said no police until afterward. I could call the FBI though. Now, where did I put Agent Sitka’s card.”&nbsp;

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Mirror’s Edge

Javino

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Jennifer Avino

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