After Dark: Stephanie's Hunt for Justice

The echo of my feet on the cobblestone streets of Vienna was being drowned out by the sounds of laughter, drunkenness, and the occasional yell. The bars were filled to capacity and people were spilling out into the streets. My job was to find one man, a murderer who's been killing young women in the city for months. The fact that he was still on the loose made me angry and I couldn't wait to catch him.

I followed a group of men down a narrow alleyway. They walked slowly, making sure they didn't bump into anyone. When they stopped at an old wooden door they huddled around it whispering among themselves. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I recognized one of them as being a member of the gang that stole from affluent citizens near my house. He looked up at me and his eyes grew wide when he realized that I knew him.

I pulled out my gun, "What are you doing here?"

He backed away from me and bumped into the other men who surrounded him and tried to push their way through the door.

"Stop!" I shouted as I pointed my gun at them, "You're all under arrest."

It took several seconds for my words to sink in but when they did two of them ran past me toward the end of the alleyway but I shot one of them in his leg before he reached the street. The other man fell down right in front of me and struggled against me as I tried to handcuff him. He punched me twice in my face with his free hand before he could be subdued and forced onto his stomach with my foot on his back. With him handcuffed I turned back to the door only to discover that all three remaining men had escaped out the back window while my attention had been focused elsewhere.

The room turned out to be nothing more than an abandoned storage space full of empty crates and boxes that kept falling over whenever someone would walk through it as if something was constantly moving around inside it. It took several minutes for me to realize that there were footsteps coming from upstairs where there was no ceiling above us so whatever was causing those sounds wasn't in this room after all.

I pointed my gun up at the roof and waited for a few moments until one of the men poked his head down from above us with a smirk on his face, "Are you going to shoot us or what? You must think we're stupid."

I raised my gun higher and fired directly at him without hesitation, hitting him directly in his forehead with a loud crack! He fell down behind me with a thud! The remaining two men jumped down from above us quickly with their hands in front of their heads as if they thought I would shoot immediately but when there was no gunfire they cautiously approached me while keeping their hands up high enough so they wouldn't be shot. They were both wearing hoodies that covered their faces with holes cut out for their eyes so I couldn't see either one of them clearly but they both looked like teenagers barely old enough to be adults or even minors yet capable enough to be robbing banks. They also looked very scared underneath those hoodies which amused me greatly because they knew what kind of trouble they were in now that they'd killed an innocent man even though he'd been trying to kill them first by shooting at them without warning first!

"Who are you?"

They just stood there not saying anything so after several seconds I grabbed one by his arm, "Answer me!"

He whimpered softly and shook his head, "No."

I looked over at the other one who also shook his head but slightly, "No."

I pushed both of them against a wall hard enough so that chips fell off from where my hands touched it then looked back at one of them, "I'll ask you again."

The man shook his head again while holding onto my arm tightly, "Please don't kill us."

"Then tell me who you are," I said firmly while keeping him pressed against the wall with my hand on his chest.

He stared at me blankly before asking fearfully, "Why do you want...to know?"

I shoved him against the wall harder this time causing more chips to fall off then pressed myself closer to him so he would feel how angry I was with him, "Because you robbed an elderly couple near my house last week and now you've killed someone who didn't deserve it!"

"No!" he screamed loudly as tears began forming in his eyes, "We didn't kill anyone!"

I glared angrily at him before shoving forward once more causing even more chips and dust to fall off from where we were standing then asked angrily, "WHO DID THIS?!"

He whimpered softly again then yelped loudly when I grabbed him by his hair painfully pulling it up until he yelled out loudly, "We didn't kill anyone! We swear!"

"Then why did you run away after leaving your mask behind?! Why did you hide when you thought no one saw you?! Why did you try to shoot at us? What is wrong with all three of you?!"