1 Who are you?

He sensed something was wrong. He felt that familiar chill up his spine that always warned him of impending danger, now stronger than ever before.

The night was not normal, it was way too cold. The crickets were not making their usual music. The Moon seemed to have lost its vibrance, having a faded yellow glow and obscured by black grotesque clouds. The wind was howling, it sounded like the muffled wail of a dying animal. Leaves fluttering about in this wind, a very strange autumn night.

He could not sleep, tossing and turning in the bed, the nagging chill in his spine making him restless. He rose and walked to the living room, hoping to get some sleep after warm milk. He heard a door slam. "That's odd, it's way too late at night for anyone to be moving around"

The sound seemed to come from the shed in his backyard. He moved towards the shed in a roundabout way. He stopped, there was a muffled jiggle then the sound of metal hitting wood.

"What's going on in there?!", he yelled. There was silence. 'There's definitely someone in there'

Against common sense, he bolted to the door and kicked it open, crossing the room to the fireplace. The fire was not burning, which was normal since the workers had already been gone for hours. He picked up the poker and kept his back to the wall, looking in every direction for what, or who, made the sounds.

"Anthony Gareth, your trial has begun", a calm female voice came from the shadows.

"Trial?" Anthony was confused "What for?', he asked the voice.

"You will stand trial for your crimes against humanity"

Anthony suddenly felt very nervous. He usually wouldn't be scared in situations like these but that voice was too calm for him to be calm. It sounded like the voice of a psychopath. "This lady must have mistaken me for someone else, I have never even killed a mouse", he muttered under his breath.

As if hearing his comment, the voice spoke "Your crimes are worse that murder. You have done deeds bordering on inhumane"

"What exactly did I do?" Anthony asked, he really didn't understand where this lady got her crazy ideas from. He had always been an honest businessman - relatively. He didn't have too many friends but he also didn't stockpile enemies.

While he waited for her answer, there was a long silence, too long. Anthony was beginning to feel nervous. He was wondering if she would ever reply when the voice in the shadows said, "You are despicable. You demand sexual attention from desperate women who come to you looking for help. Even going as far as threatening your female employees?"

In a swift motion, she knocked him off his feet with a leg sweep, sending the poker in his hands flying out of his range of sight. This made him realise how dark the room was, he couldn't even see the outline of his own hand.

But Anthony wouldn't go down without a proper fight. He rolled over to a crouching position and punched her in the gut. She keeled over and he speared her head with his, causing her to tumble backwards a bit.

Now in a better position, he reached into a closet to grab a shovel. But before he could turn he felt a sting across his back, a blade ripping across him from shoulder to waist. He cried out and swung the shovel around, slamming his attacker on the shoulder, following up with the hardest punch he could muster straight to the ear of his attacker. She wasn't fazed much, though she dropped to one knee. She then slashed upward along his thigh, ripping a tendon at his groin region.

He cried out in pain, feeling blood oozing down his leg. At this point, he knew he needed to get out of here. There was no way he could win this fight. He made for the door of the shed, his injured leg slowing him down, pain searing through his body.

He ran with all he had, bursting through the door of the shed into the cold night air. He continued running, heading for his house, he hoped to get there and bolt the doors and windows before his attacker got there. He knew that wasn't going to keep his attacker out but maybe he could get to fight with more light.

He ran until his lungs burned, the pain was overwhelming and even though his house was barely ten yards away, he felt like he would not make it.

As if in response to his thoughts, he felt a tug on his shirt. The tug was so strong he was pulled backward into the air. It is said that danger always unlocks potential. Anthony couldn't agree more. He didn't know how he did it, but he managed to turn a full 180 degrees in mid air to knee his attacker in the solar plexus. A normal person would probably vomit from the impact but she merely bent over, grabbing her stomach. Anthony grasped the opportunity and kicked her on the head, sending her toppling backwards. He didn't have time to rejoice though. He immediately turned and continued running.

He was almost at the door when he felt it. A knife, through his back. His eyes widened in disbelief. 'She got me' he thought, 'how did she recover so fast?'

The knife wasn't lodged too deeply, but it was deep enough to stop him. It wasn't a fatal blow, if he got medical attention he could still recover. But the pain was excruciating, he could barely breathe. He fell to his knees.

The lady from the shadows walked up to him and held him by his hair. "Anthony Gareth, is this all you are?" she chuckled, an evil one. It was painfully obvious by now that she was in control of the situation from the very beginning, simply giving him hope in order to plunge him into greater despair.

She pulled his face close to her own, they were so close he could feel the warm breath from her nostrils. Indeed, nostrils. Her breathing wasn't laboured. Like, at all. This brought a fresh feeling of terror to him.

"In your next life, or the one after that, remember why you died. Remember your executioner, The Harbinger of Death." She put a blade to his throat.

"No. Please. I'm sorry. I will never repeat my actions" he pleaded. She smiled and slit his throat.

"Well of course you won't" she laughed. His body dropped, blood oozing onto the ground.

___________

"I'm going to demand a raise"

"Josh, don't be an idiot. How many people do you know that give raises to dropouts"

"Kevin, I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I was NOT a dropout, I finished high school" Josh said in reply.

" Yeah, whatever dude. You work on a farm, where do you want to raise to. I don't think--" he stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh my gosh! Mr. Gareth! Josh, call 911"

___________

"Well..."

"Time of death was 7 hours ago. Murder weapons were a cresent knife and a carving dagger. The slashes across the back and thigh were made by the cresent knife. The stab wound on the back, about four inches deep and judging by the shape of the wound was a dagger, the carving dagger. The slit throat was probably to make sure he was dead, the same dagger. No fingerprints belonging to the perpetrator have been found" the CSI said in a mechanical monotone.

The police had made it to the scene in a quarter hour. Yellow tape was everywhere. CSI were coming and going, forensics were all over the place.

"Long story short, Captain, this was professional, probably a hit" the CSI concluded.

"Is there anything about the MO that points to one of the guys we know"

"No, sir. I don't know of anyone who fits this MO. This is the first time I'm even seeing this style"

"In that case, it was a one-off assassination", the captain said, "Okay, let's clean this place up and head to the precinct before those nosy reporters start coming around"

Back at the precinct, records were being pulled out from anywhere possible. Financial records, phone records, everything they could find.

The process was relatively fast, at least compared to ten years ago when they had to send emails and follow up with the companies. Now they just had to go on Goldnet, the federal government's database of intelligence. Very similar in function to the FBI's hard drives. Goldnet had everything on everyone and it was almost unhackable.

There were different security levels depending on jurisdiction.

The precinct searched through everything about Mr. Gareth. They were looking to find any information regarding who might have ordered the hit. The search was not going great. Most of the people who they suspected were eventually discovered to be innocent.

The detectives on the case checked hundreds of phone records and emails. The traced back from Mr. Gareth down to all the people he had been associated with and all the people those people were associated with. It was a relatively long process but with the speed of the computers it came to an end quickly.

The detectives didn't get any leads about the assassination. They were all just dead ends, it seemed like the assassin hadn't been in contact with Anthony before that night. There was no obvious motive.

They were just going around in circles. Nothing was leading anywhere, so they decided to close the case till further evidence surfaced.