It was a frigid December night in Chicago, not a car on the road.  The city is pitch black, except for one light in the distance.  This is the office of Francesco Samoli; Private Detective. In the room, smoke hovers low in the air, cigarette butts litter the floor. Frank was working late again.

“I just can’t figure it out! This is the fourth woman this month.”

He mulls over photographs of mangled bodies, and frozen faces.

“There doesn’t seem to be any linking factor in the victims. Last month it was men, this month it is women.”

He rubs the back of his neck, and sighs.

“I just have to go to sleep”

Frank grabs the cot he keeps in his office closet, and lays down. The faces from the photographs play like a slide show through his mind.

“I’ll find you eventually”

Hours pass, and the sun creeps over the horizon. Casting light on the soon to arise Chicago streets.  

“Frank, Frank. Wake up, Frank”

Frank rubs his tired puffy eyes, and looks up.

“Good morning, Bobby”

“Frank, you need to stop doing this. Go home, see your wife and kids”

Frank waves off the comment like trying to swat a fly from his face.

“Last night, I think I found something connecting the murders” Frank says. 

Frank points to one of the photos.

“This murder was about four blocks away from our office”

He points to another, and to another.

“They all are four blocks away from our building”

Bobby shakes his head.

“Get some coffee, Frank. And go home to your wife”

Bobby smiles, and walks out.

“I’m right about this, Bobby. They’re all connected!” Frank shouts down the hallway. 

Bobby shouts back as he walks away.

“Go home to your wife, Frank!”

Frank smiles and shakes his head.

After about three hours of work, Frank decides to grab his coat and head home.

Frank heads outside, and hails a cab. He usually walks, only living a few blocks away, but today is particularly cold and Frank is not in the mood to freeze to death.

“Going home early today, I see” the cabbie says.

“Just heading home from a long week” Frank responds.

“It’s only Wednesday” the cabbie states matter of fact.

It’s been over a week since Frank has been home. He’s been sleeping, and showering at work. He’s lost track of time. 

As the cab stops at a traffic light, Frank looks out the window, men in their overcoats and hats headed back from lunch.

“They don’t even know” he thinks to himself.

Frank grabs his matches to light up a cigarette. The match ignites, and Frank takes a long drag as if the tobacco is providing him with insight. 

“Wonder why Wednesday has a “d” in it?” Frank says exhaling.

The cabbie smiles, “Maybe it’s like debt, some things are just silent”

The cab moves forward again, through the billowing sewer steam.  

A few minutes later the cab arrives at Frank’s house. He pays the cabbie a little extra, and hustles to the door.

“Man, feels like my balls are frozen!” Frank says as he walks inside.

“Took you long enough to get home, Frank”

“Got caught up at work, Mar.”

Martina is Frank’s wife. They’ve been together longer than anyone knows, even them. Her voice is not harsh, but raspy and smoky, like something out of a jazz club. Martina was attractive enough when she was younger, but now a weathered person of about forty-eight. She looks older than her age, but don’t tell her that. She speaks her mind, and gets Frank in trouble for it. 

“You know, sometimes I think I could have left you, and you wouldn’t even notice”

Martina says this often, but she’ll never leave.   

“I love you too, Mar” Frank says in a tone that is both playful and apologetic. 

“Kids are at your brother’s house, I needed a bit of a break.” Martina sighs.

“And thank you for all of your hard work” Frank smiles hoping that is enough.

Martina smiles back.

It’s a good evening. Martina and Frank catch up over homemade pasta and meatballs. She tells him about the gossip around town.

“So, Francesca is cheating on Sam.” Martina says with a slight smile.

“It’s about damn time. He’s been having an affair with Jack Daniels for years now!” Frank says laughing.

Martina hits him in the arm.

They talk for a while, until they are both too tired to think. Then, they head off to bed. 

Hours pass, the sun begins to cut over the horizon, quickly swallowed by deep silvery clouds.  

“Frank, Frank”

Frank feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Frank, wake up”

“Bobby, what are you doing here?”

“Frank, I thought I told you to go home” Bobby says

Frank looks around his office confused.

“I…I.. guess I got caught up again.”

Bobby shakes his head, “Well, get some coffee. Once you’re up there’s something I wanted to show you”

Frank takes some time to brush his teeth, smoke a few cigarettes, and get a cup of coffee. He meets Bobby in his office where a large map of Chicago has been tacked up on a corkboard.

Bobby greets Frank, and walks him to the map.

“Ya see these pins? These are all the murders that have occurred over the past two months in a four block radius around the office.”  

Frank looks at the pins as if they are trying to speak to him.

“Have you guys found any connection?” Frank says

“They’re random, Frank!” Bobby says in a raised tone.

Bobby continues “The placement is random, the methods are random, and the victims are random. The only part that is consistent is that they are all happening within this four block circle.” 

“There’s got to be a link somewhere. We usually don’t have killings like this.” Frank counters.

“Spend as much time as you need in here, Frank. I have to be in court today. Promise me you’ll go home at a reasonable time though.”

Frank stares at the map an ignores the comment.  

“Alright, Frank” Bobby walks out. 

After a long day at court, Bobby comes back to his office to drop off paperwork.

“Frank, Frank. Ya here?”

There is no answer.

Bobby laughs “Good, he must have gone home”

Bobby looks at the map, and notices strings tying all the murders together except for one. He looks at this new pin, and notices the placement. He pulls the dangling strings up with a feeling of dread, and connects them.   

He freezes as if struck by lightning.

“That’s Frank’s place!”

He steps back and sees the crimson strings connecting each murder in the shape of a pentagram. Every murder occurring at the intersection of a line; their office building sitting in the center of this demonic symbol.

Bobby runs out, ready to help Frank put an end to this madness. 

As he races through the glum Chicago streets, he hopes Frank got there in time to save Martina.

“Oh God, Frank. I hope you’re alright too.”

Bobby’s car skreetches to a halt outside Franks house.

There’s a light on inside. It is eerily quiet, and unsettlingly normal. 

Bobby walks up to the door and knocks.  The door swings open.  

“Frank! Martina! Ya guys here? Frank!”

Bobby hears laughing coming from the kitchen. As he walks closer to the linoleum mouth, he feels this demonic weight sitting on his shoulders.  It gets heavier and heavier, like weighted shackles, his breath being sucked away.

Bobby sees Martina’s body first, laying in a pool of blood. Her clothing soaked in crimson red, eyes open and still as a deep black lake. Frank is sitting in a chair behind the kitchen table looking at Bobby as he walks in.  

“Hello, Bobby. Nice to officially meet you.”

“Frank… what’s going on?” Bobby asks still trying to grasp breath.

“How rude of me not to introduce myself, I can see how terrified you are.”

“My name is Dominic, I am a very good friend of Frank’s. I apologize that we have to meet under these unpleasant circumstances. However, the mission must be completed.”

“Mission?…. Frank, what are you talking about?! Martina, is dead! Your wife is dead!” Bobby yells.

Dominic stands regally, but strange as if his bones are made of rubber. His suit saturated in Martina’s blood.

Dominic shakes his head. “Bobby.. Bobby”

“Frank is gone. He got in my way, and he was so weak, like you.”

“Frank, stop. Come back!” Bobby screams

Dominic stares at Bobby through the top of his eyes, body hovering like a marionet.

“I need one more sacrifice for the summon to be complete.”

Bobby turns to run for the door. He tries to pick up speed, but feels as if he’s running through quicksand. He looks back.

Dominic coiled like a snake lunges over the kitchen table, and lets out a satanic laugh.

“Let me feed on your fear, Bobby!”  

Dominic changed into a demonic chimera. Neck stretched out, serpent tongue lapping at Bobby’s heels. Vicious claws ripping up the floor boards as he runs.

“We need you, Bobby”

“.. We need you”

“…. We need you”

Everything black becomes white. The house fades away.

“We need you…Bobby” said softly

“Bobby, can you hear us”

Bobby is sitting in a white room, a woman talking to him.

“Bobby, can you hear us?”  

Bobby yells “I have to get out of here, my friend’s in danger!”

“We need you to take this, Bobby” the nurse says calmly, while moving pills toward Bobby’s lips.

Bobby tries to hit the pills out of her hand, but his arms are detained.  She holds his chin down, and an orderly forces the pills down his throat.

“I know you don’t like them, but they’re good for you”

Two large men untie Bobby, and place him in a white coat confining his arms back tight.

Bobby, drowsy, can still hear the nurses talking as the door closes.

“If he can’t get control this month, we’ll have to get the ice pick.”

Bobby drifts off, and the white world fades to black.