1 CHAPTER 1

"Don't!" I yelled at that loser, who was ready to pull the trigger on the Colonel, "We have the girl. Don't kill him, he has got his strike team. Hurry up!" Parker and I headed through a dark and gloomy

pathway from the alley to the warehouse along with the girl we kidnapped. The Colonel wasn't following us. Weird.

To our dismay, when we reached the warehouse, it was in its worst condition. The scattered files, broken furniture and the deadly mess clearly told us the invasion of the cops. It was a trap. The Colonel knew our plan. And that's why he was distracting us. Well played, Old man. But how the hell did he know about our secret warehouse? No idea. We are

doomed. All the evidences and proofs of our kidnapping, drug trafficking, human trafficking and so on has gone into the den of the dragons. "Ugh! You loser! What have you done!? Someone knew. Couldn't you have been more careless?" I lashed out at him, "This means that my money paradise is destroyed."

"All you care about is the money, isn't it? Our evidences are with the Colonel, we might be arrested anytime starting now, you Nuthead!" he raged. He was right. Anything is possible. But there is one more thing. Now we've got to kill the living evidence- The girl. I rushed out telling Parker to set the mess up. I went to pull the trigger.

Yes. You may have wondered about the worst unity we share as the partners in crime. But the truth is that I despise this guy and the other way around. The prime reason I'm involved with Parker in his shady business is only because I get money from it. Parker was called 'Terrible Parker' by the people because of his sadistic activities. He was said to be merciless. He has no compassion for anyone, anything. other than himself.

He is someone who doesn't hesitate to do anything just to get the money into his pockets. But he has always been careful with the evidences which made the mission of locking him up impossible for the cops. But this time turned out to be an exception. Now that we're at the end of the thread of danger, we're left with no option other than to flee.

"Jayden! You don't need a day to shoot a little human, do you?" I can hear him screaming. So I shot her right into her head- Twice. Hearing

the shots he paused his annoying screams. We hurried to flee. I could see his veins popping out of apprehension when he was focused on the

road, driving.

All of a sudden, reality hit us. We were surrounded by the cops with guns. Wow! Now they've known our plan and the route too. Everything was over. We were apprehended. There was no use of trying anything. The cops with the face of pride and satisfaction took us and locked us up. The next morning we are to meet the Colonel whom we almost

killed. Let's expect the worst case scenario. We were locked in two different cells, and so there wasn't any chance for us to plan the forthcoming events.

The night passed. The terrible night.

The next Morning, The Colonel was standing in front of us with a victorious grin on his face. "Finally, we've caught you after days. Do you have anything for yourselves to say, you scumbags?" he said. And

as he called out, someone came from the entrance to testify against us. Who could it be? Our eyes widened when we saw the girl I shot the previous night.

"She is alive." Parker astonished. What? How on earth?

The Colonel smiled, "Well done, Mr. Jayden Maddox."

I stood up. My role play was over. And I extremely enjoyed seeing the pathetic face of Parker. He was speechless when the Colonel began, "Well, meet our beloved Sergeant

Mr. Jayden Alvardo Maddox who just succeeded his undercover mission."

"N-No way!" parker stammered when I interrupted, "Yes way. Before you're gonna to open up your filthy mouth to load me with questions, I'll

answer you, being generous,*wink wink* And it's not like you deserve an explanation though... But anyways! As you could guess, my pals here were informed by the great me about the warehouse location along with the time we were goin' to flee, that is, the two gun shots.

Remember? And the rest is history. Now you are more than welcome to rest there, where you belong. Bye!"

I could see his confused look turn into rage." Y-you!" Before he could say anything, he was taken away. On the other hand, there I was,

standing with a cinematic expression on my face waiting for my turn to be the hero.

But the Colonel turned to me with a blank face, " What? What are you still doing here? Do you want to work the night off?" he asked.

What an arrogant old man!

" Oh, it's nothing. I should have just left Parker shoot you earlier." I told him, annoyed. He just chuckled, annoying me more.

Now it was time for me to go back to my sister. Finally!

It was enlightening to see her pretty face after all the days of fuss. "Jay! You're back. You have no idea how much I've missed you." she embraced me.

Jasmine is my lovely sister. Our parents died a tragic death. Since then I was all she had and the other way around.

After a pleasant dinner along with some chit chats, I went to bed.

I wasn't able to sleep. To be more precise, I had forgotten what a peaceful sleep meant after my parents died. I was traumatized. I was a little kid witnessing the death of his own parents, having no idea what

was going on, in the pool of blood. Everyday, after all these unpleasant thoughts haunt my mind, somehow I manage to sleep for a few hours only to see an old mysterious woman appear in my dreams.

She was called Ralpha. She was a superhuman with abilities of precognition and psychometry. I saw her everyday since childhood.

The only person who knew about Ralpha in my dreams is Odette, my Godmother who raised me as her own, despite the conditions. She was a Prophet.

"My powers are gifted to the kid. He'll gain them through a temporary psychological change. Zor."

These were her verses in my dream. I woke up.That's when I was startled by a phone call. "Jay, this is serious. To the

Groferus field."

I hurried. It was four in the morning. Some officials were standing there numb, and some were running all over the field for evidences and some were rushing the forensic scientists to show up as soon as possible.

Amidst the chaos, was a woman lying on the ground, lifeless. She was beautiful with a chestnut, straight hair. She was wearing a trench coat with wedge boots.

"Katherine Harper; 29; married. She lived in The Osco street and was well known as an active social helper. No possibilities of enemies in and

around. She lived quite a peaceful life with her husband, John Harper, an IT industry employee. While returning home with a surprise gift for

John at around 6.30 at dusk, she had communicated with him through a call, telling him to get ready for the dinner; but never came home. A Security Guard from a local apartment, while returning from the night

shift, found the corpse," stated Zienna Bretten, one of the intelligent officers.

No traces or evidences were found in the field. As the officers were taking her away for the Medical Examination, I noticed something on the heel of her right leg. It was a tattoo of a tick in red and it was

weird. The husband confirmed that she had no tattoos on her body and that she disliked them. Thus, the photographs were snapped and she was taken away.

Just when I was about to lift my leg to take a walk around the field, I felt someone grab my legs, "WAIT!"

I was shocked. It was Zienna.

"Zienna! What the hell are you doing? Ugh! You scared the shit out of me, woman", I screamed.

She pulled me a few steps back. Just underneath the spot the corpse laid, there was a mud carving- a simple one with two letters, 'HM'.

"I think it's the culprit", stated Zienna. "Yeah, most probably. But what kind of criminal carves his initial at the crime scene? Is he nuts?" I

wondered.

Zienna turned to me, with an expressionless face, " More like a psycho. Watch where you're going next time", she mumbled.

" Oh yeah, and you too! Inform before you grab people's legs", I replied.

"Hey, I don't walk around

grabbing people's legs, alright?" she yelled.

"Then what about the little stunt you pulled back there? You could have just told me to step back", I said.

" Are you telling me that you would've listened to me? You want me to believe that? You

would have piled me up with all available questions", she snapped. "Dumb***"

Okay, I'll just pretend I didn't hear that. "Here they go again" said Cole, our mutual pal, walking towards us.

Oh wait. Did I ever mention? Zienna is the definition of the Poker face.

"Hey! I heard that!" she cried. Oh did I just say it out loud? Nevermind.

I walked around.

I had always believed the saying, 'A Criminal always returns to the crime scene.'

In most of the cases, it was true and I was able to figure out the culprits. And thus, at all crime scenes, I would look out around the scene to catch a glimpse, possibly.

Time passed and it was soon 7 in the morning. As I was looking around, I was lucky enough to see a man with a hoodie, lurking around

watching the scene with a guile grin on his lips. His hoodie cap was loose and big enough to cover his face until his nose. I could only see his lips. But his lips.. it seemed so familiar. I have seen those lips somewhere, sometime, more like everyday.

After a few minutes, he turned back to walk away. He didn't realize I was watching him. He took off his hoodie cap as he turned.

I saw him. I saw his face. I was taken back by astonishment. It was the same face as mine. Starting from the eyes, nose, ears, lips and shape of face, everything was same as mine.

Yes, he was my twin. Hayden Maddox. To add more, the owner of the mud carving 'HM'.

***