Borrowed Beginnings

If she had to use one word to describe what walked on the streets she would have to choose: abominations. If asked to explain further she would simply say that they seemed human but were but shells. They walked like humans, spoke like humans, ate like humans, mourned like humans, and had the same disposition as humans but they were not. She refused to acknowledge it.

First of all, they all had almost the same personality save a few randomised traits: either friendly and gullible, or antagonist scumbags; all more than willing to do whatever a greater being told them. Secondly, regardless of what occurred more of the same would meet her when next she ran into any, perhaps even look the same, as if they were just one of 50 or so carbon copies.

Take for example the one she was watching now, some male dressed like a regular hooligan walking the downtown streets unaware of anything, muttering to himself about something or another. Perhaps muttering about one of the meaner variety of his kind.

Thirdly they all seemed to move in an almost uncanny way, she swore if she looked away and looked back their movements seemed to… reset. As if they had been just sliding or teleporting about while she looked away. She rarely looked away though, she could sense them regardless of where they were after all.

He walked down some alley and she followed, still unseen. Anyone she decided to follow never got away. This also concerned her, it seemed as though they intentionally didn't try to throw her off.

The fourth thing that bothered her about these things was how rigid they were. They only lived so long and their souls always went to the same spot for example, that seemed wrong as well, though perhaps she was wrong on that front.

He pulled out a cigarette, this was common among these husks of creatures. Thus shortening their already, from her point of view, short lives. All just to relieve temporary issues like too much stress or overeating a side effect of that stress.

The fifth thing that bothered her about these things were their limited desires. Even if such desires were large a human such as this hooded one could only, for example, smoke so many cigarettes before the desire abated. Her desires had never ended since she was created, and so she had had time to learn to control them, even if she usually neglected to.

He had thrown his cigarette butt on the ground about the time she decided to show herself. He looked confused, but this was normal and she had come to accept this reaction.

The sixth thing about them that bothered her was that regardless of what she did they would still, in time, expire. The best she had done so far in her creations was 100,000 years and that one had been senile the last 1000 or so. Finite things annoyed her.

She had cracked his neck in fractions of a second, about as long as she took to figure out what really bothered her about these things.

What bothered her was that they were humans.

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Alaina stretched her limbs as she shuffled to slam her alarm clock ringing off in the corner. The intense ringing noise resonated out throughout her entire room and pulled her from the blessings of her sleep. Her arm finally found the button to shut the noise up after she was fully out of her bed. The aching bones and muscles were a small hint to the fact that she hadn't gone to bed at an appropriate hour yet again last night, busy working on the long ongoing case occurring in the city.

While her entire body argued against her throes of sleep calling for her, Alaina stumbled out of bed like a zombie. Only one thought was on her mind at the moment...her one true love coffee.

Crashing sounds echoed through her run down apartment as she finally managed to reach her beloved drink. A quick press of buttons on her coffee pot soon released the pure liquid gold, which soon ended up thoroughly inhaled by Alaina's mouth.

"Who in their right minds would pollute god's drink with creamer?" Alaina murmured to herself pouring yet another cup.

Absorbed in her daily morning routine she almost missed the sound of the newspaper being thrown against her front door. Most people would call her old-fashioned preferring to read off of actual paper when all data was accessible with only a few swishes of her finger-tips. Yet Alaina could never get over the smell of paper.

With a few simple movements Alaina fished the newspaper from outside and sat down at her rundown "dining table." The plastic lawn chairs she sat in creaked at her weight. Alaina looked at the front cover of the newspaper and almost spat out her coffee which she held in her mouth.

Choking the liquid down while slamming the cup on the cheap fold-up table in front of her Alaina's fury could be felt filling up the room. The ringing from her pocket alerted her to a call that she suspected had to do with what was angering her so.

"What Hayes?" Alaina said curtly into the phone as she answered.

"Detective Reyes can you believed what happened again?" the masculine voice replied over the phone.

Both chimed in at the same time, "The Carver strikes again."

"How'd you know?" Hayes sounded surprised.

"It says it right here on the newspaper," Alaina slapped her forehead in anger and continued reading the paper, "'This is the fourth murder in the city under the same conditions of a broken neck followed by a carving up of the body into various parts.' Can you believe this goddamn bullshit? I already went to bed at four in the morning yesterday trying to cover this case and in the three hours I sleep the criminal acts up again!?"

"Calm down Alaina. I'll talk to the precinct about any information I can gain from this current murder. The collaboration we have with them is still ongoing, and I'm sure they can use all the help they can get especially when half of their forces are busy trying to calm down the media and the public. I'll see you at your place in an hour, be ready," Hayes said.

The call ended abruptly with Alaina almost wanting to hurt Hayes more than the recent occurrences of "The Carver."

With a sigh Alaina stood up and poured her drink down the drain. "So much for coffee."