Will knew that when he signed up to become a detective he would be facing some risks, maybe even putting his loved ones in danger, but he never thought he would be seeing something like this. Bluntly put, what would someone do if they had to go to their ex’s house and tell them, “Sorry we haven’t spoken in years. By the way you’re under arrest for serial murder?.” This was the exact predicament facing Will as he stared down Persephone’s photo on the case file.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up to speak.
“Indy, could you- do you think you can handle this one alone instead?”
Will stammered out to his partner, who was spinning in a large chair a few feet away. Indy was a big man, with a hard face and body. To put it in Will’s terms, he was built like a truck. So, of course he was the perfect partner to somebody as small and frail as Will.
“What, can’t go after girls for once, kid?” Indy replied.
“It’s not that- it’s, err…” Will couldn’t explain himself, as usual. He and Indy had already gone through this dance multiple times before though.
“Come on. Just spit it out, you know I won’t judge you, kid,.” Indy said sincerely.
“All right… it’s about the suspect.” This immediately caught Indy’s attention. If there was another thing Indy knew about Will, it was that he had more connections than he ever let on. “Y’see, me and this girl, well, we used to date.” His fingers started to tap nervously on the little desk. “It was just a thing back in college when I still had a band together, but I broke up with her my junior year. I thought I’d never have to face her again, so this is a bit of a bad surprise.” Will admitted and gave a nervous chuckle.
“Ouch, kid.” Indy replied as he spun in his fancy chair.
“So is that a yes to helping me out?” Will asked expectantly.
“No,” Indy laughed, “sometimes you’ve gotta confront these people. Listen, if she’s not an actual killer, you have a chance to talk things out, and if she is a serial killer-”
“Then I’m going to feel horrible and she’ll hate me!” Will abruptly exclaimed.
“Will.”
“What?”
“Sometimes you should really think about your priorities. Just saying.” Indy said standing from his chair, “Now come on, we’d better go before she has to go to work or something.”
“Fine, but we are not shooting her if this gets out of hand,” Will said standing to join him.
So, the two walked to their car and got on the road, Indy lecturing Will about his priorities and problems with women the whole way.
…
After a good half an hour of driving, the pair had reached the seventh district. It wasn’t the worst part of town, but the best of town wasn’t very good either. The large grey apartment buildings you would find in the twelfth district but with the clean walls of a building from the sixth district. The streets here were significantly less empty than other areas too, with it being the general shopping and business district. Indy and Will had been quiet for a while after running out of topics to discuss twenty minutes ago.
“So, kid,” Indy turned his head to Will, “how serious were you two? Did you ever do any of the really serious stuff?”
“We’re here.”
“What? Are you avoiding the question?”
“No, we’re here. Really.”
Will had stopped the car in front of an apartment building, dull grey and monolithic, like every other one. The complex was only a minute away from the highway and right on the corner of the first main street. It actually took the pair a couple of seconds to see how far up it went.
“We never think to look in the less suspicious places do we?” Will said.
“Yeah, it isn’t like they’re the less suspicious buildings or anything.” Indy replied.
“Oh stop it.” Will got out of the car and Indy followed suit, “Who should go in first? Y’know, if it’s dangerous or anything?”
“All right, I’ll go first!” Indy groaned as he lumbered ahead.
“She should be up on the third floor, first door you see.” Will laughed.
So, the two made their trek up the stairs to her apartment. It was apparent to the two that this complex was actually fairly vacant, probably due to the rooms generally being of higher quality than most, only rising with the building’s height.
“What was this lady’s job again?” Indy inquired.
“Not sure about now, but the last time I saw her she wanted to go into pharmaceuticals.”
“Makes sense.”
They finally reached her door, and knocked twice on it. No response. There was a shared look of confusion. Will decided to try the door handle and discovered that she had left it unlocked. The confusion got worse.
“I get that she lives in a nicer part of town, but still, you’d think she’d know to lock her door.” Indy said.
“Well, she’s always been a little weird, so I guess this isn’t too far out.” Will stepped aside from the door, “After you my good man!” He whispered.
Indy grumbled to himself and stepped through the doorway; Will followed Indy shortly after he told him it was safe.
Persephone’s apartment looked fairly different than what Will had expected. The walls were clean and bare, other than some very nice looking paintings and photos for decoration. The floor had nothing on it other than the furniture placed throughout each room and a few very old looking stains. The general sense the place gave Will was… unsettlingly normal, especially for her.
“Well damn,” Will said, “I wish my place could look like this all the time.”
“Maybe your place would look like this if you went home sometimes.”
“Rude. Besides, there’s no way she does all of this on her own, something tells me this place has maids or something like that.”
“Bet you wish you had a maid working at your place.”
“Indy, we’re still working right now, focus.”
“Of course that makes you serious.” Indy guffawed.
Both of them were tense of course. She could be home any second, and they did come in without a search warrant. But that wouldn’t stop them, this was their job after all, and they had to take every opportunity they could. So they searched and searched through the house, looking for any clues they could, but nothing came up.
“Did you find anything in the kitchen?” Will asked.
Indy stepped into the doorway, “Nope, unless if you want to consider stale bread and some old milk illegal. You find anything in the bedroom kid?”
“Nothing important. Definitely nothing that you would want to see.” Will jokingly shivered, “So I guess we can just leave?”
“Yeah, it’s weird though. Your intuition isn’t usually this off kid. You sure you didn’t just want to check in on your ex girlfriend?”
Will was about to speak, but there was an odd creak coming from the hallway. Indy didn’t seem to notice anything but Will moved to go to the front of the house.
“You can just tell me if—”
There was a crack like a hammer hitting a nail as Indy collapsed onto the floor in front of Will. Will couldn’t move, Indy had never gotten hurt on the job. What was Will supposed to do now? Even worse was the blue haired girl standing over him now with a metal bat. Of course it was Persephone. Who else would it be? Will’s intuition was never wrong after all. Before he could do anything though, she leapt at him and struck him down as well.
…
Will awoke to music. His music to be exact. The same music he wrote with his friends in college. It wasn’t the best thing to wake up to, but it did work as an alarm. It was as loud and grating as it always had been. There was Odin, their frontman singing and shouting like there was no tomorrow. And there was Lazlow, plucking away at the guitar as fast as his hands could go. And of course Will was there too, who else could play a bass guitar that damn good. And there were the drums. There was Persephone. Her green eyes were locked onto him from across the table.
“Good morning, dear.” She said.
Will didn’t respond, he simply took a moment to take in his surroundings. It was the same apartment based on the layout, but it was much darker now, so he must’ve been out for a couple of hours. The two of them were seated in her dining room, across from each other at the dinner table. A golden candelabra was lit between them and danced in the light breeze from her air conditioning. The music was still grinding at Will’s eardrums.
“You always had the worst taste in music, you know.” Will said.
“Oh don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“So what, are you giving me a romantic death or something?”
Will had noticed at this point that she had a gun sitting on the table in front of her. Will had gotten used to threats at this point. He knew that he was putting his life on the line taking this job, that’s why he took it after all. Besides, she hadn’t even bothered to restrain him it seems, if he wanted to he could grab the steak knife on the table and rush her with it, but he couldn’t be that kind of man. Will was either going to wait for his chance to get out of her and arrest her or he was going to die here.
“You made my favorite, steak and potatoes, huh?”
“Of course, just for you! You want anything to drink with it? Let me guess bran—”
“Brandy.” Will looked down at his plate and scoffed, “So, can I actually eat any of this? Or is it poisoned?”
“Will!” Persephone put on a pouty face, “Do you really think I’d do that to you?”
“Well you did it to five other people in the city.”
“Yeah, but they weren’t you. Besides, I did all of that to get you here. I knew you’d catch me, it just had to be you! And now that you’re here we can finally be together again!”
“Y-you did all of that for me?”
“Yep, all for you!”
She spoke like she was in a romance, but Will knew that this was a horror. He looked down at his plate and thought about what he had done to her— and to those people— when she came back and placed down his cup. It was in this short moment that he realized that she didn’t disarm him. He still had a gun to protect himself. He would get out of here, he would get Indy, and he would arrest her. But wait, Indy. Where was Indy?
“There you go!” She smiled warmly at him, “Well come on! Eat up! I made it just for you.”
“I… I don’t think I’m going to eat.”
“Whaaaat? Why not?”
“Where is he? Where did you put Indy?”
“Wha- what do you mean?”
“Where is my partner!?”
“W- well, you know… he would have— he’d interrupt—”
Will stood up and they locked eyes for a moment again. There was a moment of understanding. There was a deep sadness in Persephone’s eyes, like Will had betrayed her. That sad, lonely part of Will just wanted to stop and hold her, but he couldn’t. Not now. Not ever. She looked ready to cry, as if she could see right through him. Their eyes separated and they sprang for their weapons. There was a scramble for a second as they got their guns and aimed them. They fired at the same time, right into each other's guts. Persephone stumbled back and slid down the wall. Will collapsed back into a chair. The two of them sat for a moment, waiting for the inevitable.
“Will?” Persephone mumbled.
“What?” Will answered.
“What did I do wrong?”
“A lot.”
Persephone began crawling slowly to Will.
“Persephone?”
“What?”
“What did I do wrong?”
“Absolutely nothing, Will.”
“I see, you’re still as blind as ever.”
“All for you, Will.”
Will lowered himself onto the ground to be with her.
“I’m getting cold.” Will said.
“So am I.” Persephone said.
“I guess we both win now.”
“Yeah.”
Will grabbed her hand and they pulled themselves together. There were police sirens outside now, but that would not wake the two anymore. They had everything they wanted, so now they could rest.