The Titanium City Murderers

Author bio: Noah Rivera lives in Vermont. In his spare time, he likes to play sports and spend time outside.

Blurb: Set not too far into the future, a boy named Darryn struggles through his day after having his best friend murdered. He soon finds himself being targeted by a mysterious person, who he thinks may be the murderer of his best friend.

The news alert hit like a punch in the gut. Darryn had been expecting this headline, but he never would have guessed the full implication of it. The first day of every month, another murder would occur. This had been happening for over a year now, and the Titanium City Police Force still had no leads on who the murderer was.

At exactly 12:00, as it always happened, a student was murdered in their bedroom. It didn’t matter how many locks and safeguards you had in place, or how many guards you hired to keep watch at your apartment door, The killer would still manage to get in. They would manage to slit your throat quietly, paint an X on your wall with your own blood, and disappear before the police could so much as open the door to your building. Nobody knew how it was possible, but kids kept turning up dead, so, unfortunately, possible it was.

However, with a schoolwide population of almost one million, the chances of the victim being you, or a person close to you was minuscule. This is why Darryn was stunned. The recent victim was Harrison, one of his only friends. He had known him since before he could remember, and Harrison had never looked down on people like Darryn.

Darryn muttered a word that his mother would skin him for, had she heard. He slammed his fist into the wall and proceeded to watch red specks of blood appear on his fists. A rush of pain flooded in, and somehow, it was comforting. While this news was awful, Darryn didn’t have the energy to be as devastated as he knew he should be. And he felt awful for it. He had to stay strong though, for his and his Mother’s sake. So, he decided to proceed to school.

He exited his apartment and jogged down the old rickety stairs to the lobby. There was nobody at the reception desk, as his apartment building could only afford to staff it when it was absolutely necessary. He pried open the warped door that served as the main entrance and exit to the Emerson Gray Apartment Building, also known as Brokeville.

As he passed all the upper-class apartments, he slipped into his imagination. He could see it now. His mom and dad would still be together. He would be sitting at a humongous table, inhaling the sweet, beautiful smells of the cooking that his mom dreamed about being able to produce.

Darryn could practically see his spacious, amazing bedroom. He would have posters of his favorite bands, and a shelf full of happy family photos. He smiled then opened his eyes to the harsh reality that was his life.

Darryn pushed open the door to his school and made his way through the chaos. Students were everywhere, whispering, some even crying about the latest murder. Darryn grimaced. These idiots had made fun of the victims in earlier times. They had pushed Harrison and him down, rejected them. Now they were treating it as if they gave a flip about what had happened. He shoved his way through the crowd, making a beeline for his first class.

Suddenly, a foot came out from the mess of people and sent Darryn sprawling to the floor. Darryn winced as his injured fist made contact with the hard floor. He looked up to see Alex and his equally as disgusting goons. Great. Darryn thought. Alex was a popular kid who made a living off of picking on kids who weren’t part of the “in” crowd. Darryn sighed and slowly got back up.

“You know being good at sports doesn’t come with a warranty to be ugly, right?,” replied Darryn with a smirk on his face.

Alex winded up for a punch. Darryn braced himself for the blow, but it never came.

“Boys! Head to class!” One of the teachers shouted.

Alex started to back off, but not before spitting on Darryn’s new shoes.

“Nice shoes, Trailer Park!”

Darryn balled his fists, but he knew that retaliation would be futile.

In class, Darryn wasn’t paying much attention, and he even dozed off in one of Mr. Geoffrey’s math lectures. He dreamed of being of such social status that even Alex would bow down. It was a really good dream, so Darryn was slightly annoyed when he was woken by the sharp beating of a ruler on the back of his hands.

“I said, maybe Mr. Colverton could help us with this problem!” boomed Mr. Geoffrey

Darryn sputtered. “Uhh, uhh, well…” he faked a cough to postpone the inevitable.

“You have to... you have to-” he was cut off by the sound of the bell.

Darryn sighed of relief, as students poured out of the class en route to the lunch room. Darryn was slipping his books away, eager to get out of class, when Mr. Geoffrey tapped him on his shoulder. Damn it, thought Darryn. He had been so close to making a clean getaway.

“Maybe you can join me after school, as you seemed so eager to finish answering the problem,” said Mr. Geoffrey, with a smile plastered on his face.

“Yes sir,” muttered Darryn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Darryn arrived at the lunch room, he looked over to the popular table and saw Alex staring at him with a smile on his face. Uh-oh. That can’t be good thought Darryn, as he returned the smile with an impolite gesture.

Previously he would have sat next to Harrison, but now, he just sat alone. He rather enjoyed the silence he realized, although nothing could beat a good conversation with Harrison.

After lunch, the day continued to crawl by. It seemed to Darryn that every time he looked at the clock, time would go even slower. However, he managed to keep his head low, and not get busted for paying no attention.

He grabbed his bag from his locker and reported to Mr. Geoffrey’s room for detention. He was tempted to skip, but he knew then he would have to make up the detention in double. He arrived in class with one minute to spare.

“Ah, Mr. Colverton. I was worried that you would skip as usual. I’m glad that you finally listened to reason.”

Darryn grimaced. He wanted to retort but decided it best to keep his mouth shut and work.

“Mr. Geoffrey, can I go to the bathroom?” asked Darryn.

“Fine. But be back soon,” sighed Mr. Geoffrey.

He took his time walking to his locker. He didn’t really need to use the bathroom, he just couldn’t stand math. He grabbed his phone and stuck it into his back pocket.

Darryn made his way back to the classroom. He opened the door and gasped. Mr. Geoffrey wasn’t the only one there. He stood in horror as the other figure slit the math teacher’s throat, quick as a flash.

The figure looked directly at him. It was definitely a man, and he had on a black uniform, that certainly must have cost him a fortune. He wore a pitch black ski mask that revealed nothing but his eyes. Eyes which trained directly on him. Darryn was petrified. The man’s eyes were brown and bloodshot. There was a certain hatred behind them that Darryn feared far more than anything he’d seen before.

The hooded figure, without taking his eyes off of Darryn, dipped a finger in the deceased teacher’s throat and drew a ragged X on the floor beside him. Then, almost as fast as he had slit Geoffrey’s throat, flew out of the open window.

Darryn was in shock. He stood there, trying to process what had just happened for what seemed like ages. Thoughts were spinning in his head uncontrollably. This couldn’t be right… there was still a whole month until this was supposed to happen again. He took another glance at the ex-math teacher. Reality hit him like a slap in the face. He couldn’t be found in the same room as the corpse. He had to get out, or he would be suspect #1.

He looked around the room and settled on taking the open window. He made sure not to make direct contact with his fingers, as the last thing he needed was evidence piling up against him. The moment he made it out of the window, he heard his phone ring.

He paused for a moment, then answered the call.

“Darryn?”

It was his mom.

“Mom, you won’t believe what just happened!”

“Oh… I bet I won’t.” The anger in her voice was unmistakable.

“Would you like to explain to me what Officer Henry is doing here? Or should I? ” She inquired in a scarily low voice.

“What are you talking about?”

“He was telling me all about the things that happened today at school. First, you assault a student… Then you assault a teacher? What on Earth has gotten into you!”

Darryn’s blood ran cold. “Mom?”

“You better have a good explanation, young man!”

“You need to get away from the house now!”

“I will do no such thing! You are in no place to be bossing me around, do you hear me?”

“Mom, this isn’t a joke. The man in our apartment is a killer!”

“Officer Henry? He would never kill somebody. He is a poli-” The line went dead.

“Mom!?” Darryn screamed into the phone.

There was no reply.

He had never sprinted faster in his life. The houses flew by almost as fast as the precious seconds he had left. Cars swerved to avoid him, but Darryn paid no mind. The doors burst open to the apartment complex, and he sped up the stairs. Darryn shook and shook the door to no avail. He finally gave up trying to be civilized and rammed his shoulder into the door. For once he was happy the apartment was low-budget.

Darryn entered the living room and observed the mess. Books were strewn about all over the floor. A couple of shelves were toppled. In the center of it all was Officer Henry, the chief of the Titanium City Police Department. He had a knife held to Darryn’s unconscious mother’s neck. There was a deranged look in Officer Henry’s brown eyes. Just like there had been at the school.

He had snapped. Just like they all did when they found out about him.

“Not one step closer!” screamed Officer Henry. “I know what you are!”

Darryn sighed and placed down his schoolbag.

“That was a nice try, what you pulled at the school. Not too well-executed, considering you left an exit open I was able to use without making direct contact with my skin. Still, you almost managed to frame me.” Darryn chuckled. “That’s more than most can say. Although, they are all dead now, aren’t they?” \

“I will kill her. I swear I will!” Screamed Henry, an edge of fear in his tone. “You killed my son, so it is only fair that I kill her!”

“Yeah… about that. Are you sure knocking her out was a good idea? You just silenced the only witness.”

“Witness? Witness to her own murder? I doubt that will be a problem.” Laughed Henry.

“No. Not her’s.” Replied Darryn with a face so straight it looked unnatural.

Now the officer broke out in sweat as he realized what was about to happen.

Darryn’s eyes rolled back into his head as officer Henry desperately pressed the knife into his mother’s throat. Or, well, he tried to. Before he could so much as cut the first layer of skin, Darryn had ripped off his knife-wielding arm and used it to slit the man’s own throat.

Darryn did the honors of carrying Henry back to his home and laying him in his study with a neat little X next to him. Darryn smiled. That hadn’t taken long. He still had plenty of time to study for the test tomorrow. He also had an idea of a certain person who may or may not be the next casualty. Darryn’s only regret was there were another 29 days until he could make the bully pay.