Avalon Unravels: A Classic Search for Justice

"The place is smaller than it appears, you know?" Nona said as she made a right turn down an alleyway. She stopped the car and put her hand on the door handle. "There are only so many places a person can hide."

Avalon didn't answer. She had her eyes closed, trying to listen for anything that might clue her in to where the murderer was hiding. If there was one thing she'd learned over the years, it was that killers always make mistakes. They're arrogant, they think they've covered their tracks too well or have planned too much ahead of time. And when they do make a mistake, someone has to find it. That's what she did: found errors and discrepancies in people's lives by putting herself in their shoes. It wasn't something anyone could do; most people couldn't even stomach walking in another person's shoes for a day.

Avalon opened her eyes again and looked at Nona. The detective was leaning out of her police cruiser, peering down the alleyway with both hands on her gun belt. "Do you see anything?" Avalon asked after a few minutes of silence between them.

"No," Nona said, shaking her head slowly. "Nothing. It's like he disappeared into thin air."

It couldn't be true, though; all it took was one tiny mistake on his part, one tiny slip-up that could lead them to him. He'd killed once more tonight, just like last night and the night before that. There were two victims now instead of one, a husband and wife who were both shot dead in their bed late Saturday night while they slept. Their killer hadn't even taken any money from them; he had no agenda beyond killing people dead in their homes. But why? Why would anyone want to kill innocent people for no reason?

"He went somewhere," Avalon insisted after a moment's thought. "He can't have just disappeared into thin air." She opened the door to the police cruiser and stepped out into the cold night air, looking around at all of the buildings surrounding them on three sides with their windows either dark or lit up by flickering television screens inside their homes. No matter how hard she looked, she still couldn't find any sign of movement; nothing indicated that anyone other than herself and Nona were out here tonight at all. They seemed alone in this world full of monsters who hunted humans for food or sport or for any reason under the sun.

Something crunched beneath her feet as she walked forward silently towards the first building on their left: an alleyway leading back to an empty lot behind it that had been abandoned years ago after a landslide had buried most of it under tons of dirt from the hills around it outside of town. Avalon kept going anyway, following the crunching sound until she reached an old wooden fence with its slats missing in several places where various animals had crawled through over time and taken shelter in its walls before moving on elsewhere to make room for others who would inevitably come behind them when they grew old enough themselves to seek new territory beyond their own familiar hunting grounds. She looked around once more, scanning every corner and crevice between every house as though she might find something unusual sticking out that shouldn't be there. Something like a man standing motionless against a wall with a gun in his hand whose barrel was pointed right at her head.

"You're doing pretty well," Nona said as she caught up with Avalon quickly enough to grab hold of her arm and pull her back away from danger's path just before a gunshot rang out loud enough to echo off every surface around them, causing birds roosting high up above in trees lining every street nearby to take flight over their heads in fright. She stood next to Avalon protectively with her gun drawn now as well and turned her head slowly to look over at where the bullet had hit its mark somewhere on its way past where Nona had pulled Avalon back: about ten feet behind them against the first building blocking their view of whoever might have been there earlier. "I mean," Nona continued after taking a few steps forward cautiously towards whatever had been hiding there before disappearing entirely from sight now that he knew he'd been seen by them both, "you've gotten better since I promoted you to my partner four years ago."

"Yeah," Avalon agreed, her voice still reflecting the shock of their close call. "I guess I have." She touched herself lightly on both temples with one hand as though trying to recall some crucial piece of information or knowledge that someone else had told her long ago but which she'd somehow forgotten since then. A critical detail needed if she wanted any chance of surviving this encounter with the madness lurking within the man who had just tried to kill them – a man whose violent ends were deemed too extreme even by those who shared his twisted interests in committing heinous acts against humanity.