Crime Scene

With his mind made up, Alex hobbled out of the alleyway and into the street. Pain continued to radiate throughout his injured leg but he had to keep going or his family's safety would be at risk.

'After all that running I barely managed to go anywhere.' Alex thought as he recognized the street he was in.

Alex was familiar with most parts of the city and knew he would be able to figure out where he was fairly quickly. He was initially a bit disappointed after realizing he had barely run two streets away from Oscar's apartment, but that disappointment turned to relief when he realized the distance he had to walk now was shorter than he was expecting.

Alex trudged forwards, slowly but surely walking along the sidewalk on his way to Oscar's. He was intentionally taking a slightly longer route by avoiding the alleyways as it was the safer option, especially given his condition. If he hadn't felt like his life was in danger the previous night, Alex would never had used the alleyways.

The streets were reasonably busy with a few dozen people passing by every minute or so. 'Passing by' may not be the best way to describe the situation, since everyone who saw Alex went out of their way to cross the street or hug the edge of the sidewalk.

'Is it because I'm injured?' Alex thought as he noticed the strange looks he was receiving. Every time someone would make eye contact with Alex, they would instantly avert their gaze and move to avoid him.

'I've had to walk home covered in blood more than once in my life and people have never reacted like this before. Usually they just pretend they didn't see me and walk past me... I must look so horrible they can't help but actively avoid me.'

Their behavior would have piqued Alex's curiosity any other day but he couldn't spare the time or effort to care right now. His leg was starting to go numb the more he walked, allowing him to pick up the speed a bit, if only slightly.

Upon arriving at his destination, Alex was both surprised and horrified by what he saw. Standing outside Oscar's apartment was a group of at least 30 people, each one straining to see past the person in front of them.

The group was being kept away from the apartment by a few police officers that were creating a sort of perimeter. At the front of the group, and closest to the apartment of all the people gathered, reporters stood with eager expressions, bombarding the non cooperative officers with questions.

Alex walked up to the group of people and listened to the words of the reporters and police officers, trying to see if he could understand what had happened after he ran away.

"What happened to the man who lived here!?" Reporter 1.

"What is the owners name and affiliation!?" Reporter 2.

"Some are saying this is another case of gang violence, is that true!?" Reporter 3.

The reporters questions continued to rain down on the officers as they stood silently with annoyed expressions on their faces. From inside the apartment, a casually dressed woman walked out with another officer following behind her. The woman had a badge hanging from her neck, indicating she was also a member of law enforcement.

The woman walked towards the crowd of people and raised a hand. The crowd went silent as they knew the woman was about to speak and needed them to quieten down before she did.

"I am detective Barnelli and I will be answering your questions. To start with, the owner of this apartment died through mostly accidental means." Detective Barnelli said.

"That doesn't make any sense, detective! Either it was an accident or it wasn't, which is it!?" A reporter shouted back over the confused murmurs of the crowd.

<Sigh>" There were signs of a struggle in the apartment but it seems only the assailant was injured during the incident. The owner wasn't injured or killed by this person who we have yet to identify. As for how the owner died... it seems he slipped, presumably on an empty beer bottle, and hit his head on the kitchen counter." Detective Barnelli said.

"What efforts are you making to track this so called 'assailant'?" A reporter asked.

"We are putting everything we have into-"

Alex didn't wait to hear the detectives reply as he turned and started to walk away. He was only a few meters away from the crowd when he felt a hand grab his shoulder and spin him around.

"Why don't you explain how you got those injuries young man, and better yet, why you happen to be at this crime sce-"

When Alex was spun around, he saw that the man who had grabbed his shoulder also had a badge hanging from his neck, indicating he was also a detective. The detective was looking at Alex's leg and chest initially but brought his eyes up to meet Alex's towards the end of his sentence.

It was as their eyes met that the detective stopped speaking. The color drained from his face and his expression became wary as he released his hand from Alex's shoulder.

Alex felt his heart thumping in his chest, like it might explode from the anxiety he felt. He hadn't prepared for anything like this so he did the only thing he could think of and tried to buy time.

"I just happened to be walking by! My injuries are uh, well... I-I can explain them in detail if need be!" Alex quickly blurted out with all the confidence of a cornered rat.

"That won't be necessary, Sir. I apologize for disturbing your morning." The detective quickly said with a nervous tone of voice as he gave a small bow and walked away.

'What the... Why is everyone acting so weird today? Whatever, I'll question my luck another time. For now I should leave as quickly as possible.' Alex thought as he proceeded to do just that.

'He really died...or did I kill him? It's not like its my fault is it? No, he slipped on his own... but he still died so the gang should be happy with that, right?' Alex thought as the realization that he might be responsible for Oscar's death set in. Of course, Alex was planning to try and kill Oscar again this morning but that doesn't mean its going to be easy to accept that he took somebody's life.

Alex was contemplating if any of this was even his fault and trying to sort out his conflicting feelings when he noticed his own reflection in a window he was passing by. His injuries really did look quite bad, especially because of how bloody his clothes were.

He slowly examined himself from his feet to his head, checking his clothes and injuries and taking in the image was seeing. He eventually reached his head and found himself staring at his own eyes in the reflection.

Suddenly, the strange behavior of everyone around Alex today made sense, but having that question answered didn't help when even more replaced it. The more Alex stared ,the more he was sure about what he was seeing.

'My eyes...are glowing.'