Chapter 5

I looked at Sergeant Connolly, waiting for his call. As much as I have been the one tracking this guy for all these months, I was outranked when it came to this type of situation.

The Sergeant waved us back, indicating for us all to retreat. The SWAT members fan out, allowing us to slowly back away as they covered us from the sides, their guns still raised and trained on The Butcher.

I sighed to myself and looked at my Sergeant. It was not the call that I would have made, but then again, I didn't really care if I got blown to pieces. I see a darkened area just off to my right and I slipped away since everyone's attention was focused on The Butcher.

Quickly the warehouse emptied out and only the two of us remained. The gun was still in his right hand and the detonator in his left.

I walked out of the shadows once I heard the thud of the metal doors closing behind my coworkers. I would have to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why they didn't see me leaving the warehouse with the rest of them.

I could just say that I stayed behind and watched The Butcher leave through a secret door. There was always a secret door in these things, right?

"So, quick question… you don't seem like someone that is willing to blow themselves up… answer honestly, do you even have a bomb in here?" I asked, my gun tucked back into its holster. I started to pay with a black ribbon as I walked towards the killer. Without my coworkers here, I could have a bit more fun.

A little known fact about my particular breed of gypsy: we love ribbons, and they love us. As soft and smooth as the ribbon in my hand was, I could easily turn it into a garrote when the mood struck. It was my weapon of choice if you will.

The Butcher looked startled as I stepped out of the shadows and he quickly waved his gun over in my direction, accidentally firing it off. Luckily, he was smart enough to put on a suppressor so that no one outside of the doors could hear it.

I turned my head to look at the crate behind me. About three feet to the left of my head was a bullet hole.

I then turned back to look at him. "Is this like in the movies where there is a huge firefight between the good guy and the bad guy, but both of them are really horrible shots and no one actually gets hit by a bullet? Cause that shot right now? You missed me by a mile. And if it is a scene from the movies, can you let me know? I don't want to accidentally on purpose hit you," I said as I continued walking towards him. After dying so many times, you really do start to lose your fear of death.

"One step closer and I blow this whole place sky high," he stated, his fear gradually lessening as he thought he had the upper hand.

"Isn't this the part where you tell me about how you killed all those people, where they are buried, and all the other things that the bad guy is supposed to say when he thinks he has won?" I asked, my head tilted to the left. I was still playing with the ribbon between my fingers, getting closer and closer to him.

He looked at me again like I had gone crazy. "You really do have a screw lose, don't you?"

"Nope," I respond, the smile on my lips started to grow. "I just like playing with my food."

"I knew it! You are a fucking zombie! Freak!"

"I gotta say, I take offense to that. I mean, have you ever seen a zombie as beautiful as moi?" I asked as I twirled my hair around my finger. Then I giggled.

"So, no Machiavellian confessions wanting to come out?"

He scoffed and this time slowly aimed for my head, his Glock 21 firearm steady as he took his shot.

The bullet entered my skull, right in the middle of my forehead but got stuck when it tried to exit. I shook my head as blood and brain started to flow from the wound.

One of my thinner ribbons unwound itself from my uniform and worked its way up my head. Darting into the bleeding wound, I felt as it wrapped itself around the bullet, pulling it out.

*tink* The bullet dropped to the ground and bounced once before it rolled around and stopped at the side of my right combat boot.

The ribbon then started to sew the wound back together until only a small line of black thread was left.

I didn't take my eyes off The Butcher throughout the whole process, and I could see his face going from cocky, to stunned, to fearful as he couldn't take his eyes off the bullet wound.

"Now that we have that out of the way, let's try this again," I said as I took another step towards him. He was still stunned and didn't respond to my words.

In fact, it wasn't until I was behind him and whispered in his ear that he reacted. By that time, it was too late.

"You know, you should have just surrendered when my colleagues were here. Now that you know my secret, I'm afraid that you are going to have to take it to the grave."

The black ribbon between my fingers wrapped around his neck like a lover's embrace. He raised his hand with the gun up to touch it, only to drop the gun in pain as the ribbon licked his fingers.

I walked back around to face him as the ribbon continued to tighten. He looked down into my eyes, his face filled with confusion like he didn't understand how things came to be this way.

Slowly and surely, the ribbon continued its job until the last moment when the head fell to the concrete floor.

It wasn't until the process had come to an end that the blood came rushing out. I nimbly jumped back from the puddle of red expanding out along the floor.

Looking down at the body I sighed, contented that at the end of the day, I got my monster.

I turned to look at the heavy metal doors and wondered if there was any way to sneak out without anyone seeing me. I was pretty sure they would have noticed something if I went out the front door.

Noticing a window to the left, I decided to try my luck and slip out that way. It worked and I quickly met up with the rest of my team.

"Nads, we are going to have to put The Butcher on ice for a while and catch him later. We just got information on Number Two on the list, The Specialist. You and Kowalski will go and check it out," my Sergeant said as he handed me the coordinates for the next monster.

I looked over my shoulder at the closed warehouse doors, wondering how long it would take for someone to find the body. I didn't want to wait around to find out.

"Sure thing, Bossman," I said as I saluted. "Come on Kowalski, time to find another monster to dance with."