# "I’ve Been a Homicide Detective for Twenty Years. I’ve Never Seen a Case Like This" Creepypasta

An episode of [CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1492008134), 17 May 2025, 37 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/66129247/i_ve_been_a_homicide_detective_for_twenty_years_i_ve_never_seen_a_case_like_this_creepypasta.mp3

LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO- SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd... iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... CREEPYPASTA STORY►by Saint Zander Creepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS- ►"Good Places to Start"- • "I wasn't careful enough on the deep ... ►"Personal Favourites"- • "I sold my soul for a used dishwasher... ►"Written by me"- • "I've been Blind my Whole Life" Creep... ►"Long Stories"- • Long Stories FOLLOW ME ON- ►Twitter: / creeps_mcpasta ►Instagram: / creepsmcpasta ►Twitch: / creepsmcpasta ►Facebook: / creepsmcpasta CREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/Myuusic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/incompt ♪ ►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM ♪ This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: I pulled up to the address, engine running long enough
[0:05] Speaker 1: for the radiator to tick and protest. The buildings stood
[0:09] Speaker 1: four stories high. Concrete worn down to a graze so
[0:13] Speaker 1: lifeless it blended with the sky. Cracks ran up the facade,
[0:17] Speaker 1: and narrow diagonal patterns. Someone had patched over the larger
[0:22] Speaker 1: ones with foam ceilant, but the rest looked untouched. A
[0:26] Speaker 1: handful of rusted window units buzzed on the upper floors,
[0:30] Speaker 1: and thin faces hovered behind curtains peering out of the street.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Some disappeared when they saw me in plain clothes, others
[0:39] Speaker 1: didn't bother hiding yellow tapes stretched across the entrance. Two
[0:46] Speaker 1: uniforms stood beside it, looking like they hadn't slept in days.
[0:51] Speaker 1: One of them nodded when he saw me approach and
[0:53] Speaker 1: lifted the tape. Detective Hanley I said, flash my badge
[0:59] Speaker 1: before he could ask. Yeah, upstairs, third floor, Unit three C.
[1:06] Speaker 1: You'll want to see it yourself. I didn't say anything back.
[1:12] Speaker 1: He looked relieved by that. The stairwell reeked of mildew
[1:17] Speaker 1: and detergent cheap industrial cleaner. From the smell of it,
[1:22] Speaker 1: someone had made a half baked effort to mop the
[1:24] Speaker 1: blood trail that leaked from under the victim's door and
[1:28] Speaker 1: ran down to the base of the steps. Rat scurried
[1:32] Speaker 1: and ran deeper into the building. As I made my
[1:34] Speaker 1: way through, Unit three C was open, held that way
[1:40] Speaker 1: by a folding wedge jammed under the hinge. Two more
[1:45] Speaker 1: officers stood inside. They didn't bother with pleasantries. One was
[1:50] Speaker 1: busy writing in a small flip notepad. The other looked pale,
[1:55] Speaker 1: his arms crossed tightly over his chest. I stepped in
[2:00] Speaker 1: and scanned the room without touching anything. The air in
[2:04] Speaker 1: the room was thick and humid. She'd been thrown into
[2:09] Speaker 1: the far corner of the living room. Where used to
[2:12] Speaker 1: be a human body was now a crushed heap, limbs,
[2:16] Speaker 1: neck flattened at an angle that suggested a spine had
[2:19] Speaker 1: snapped half way down, her jaw hung off by the muscle.
[2:24] Speaker 1: This was done by a blunt object. Blood covered the
[2:28] Speaker 1: vinyl floor in white splashes and thick streaks. Some had
[2:32] Speaker 1: dried at the edges, some were still tacky. She was
[2:37] Speaker 1: missing an arm. I kept my breathing slow, and even
[2:44] Speaker 1: the walls were intact, and there was no overturned furniture,
[2:48] Speaker 1: shattered lamps or picture frames. Nothing suggested she'd fought back.
[2:54] Speaker 1: She died exactly where she stood. This didn't seem like
[2:59] Speaker 1: a fight bad, more like a one sided beat down.
[3:05] Speaker 1: Who found her? I asked one of the uniforms. Spoke up.
[3:11] Speaker 1: Neighbors two doors down. She called when she heard screaming.
[3:16] Speaker 1: Time ten twenty six. Front door locked. Yeah, no sign
[3:22] Speaker 1: of fourth entry. The chain was still set when we arrived.
[3:26] Speaker 1: We had to kick it rats. We're in the apartment
[3:29] Speaker 1: when we kicked it down, though. Can't be sure how
[3:32] Speaker 1: much damage they did, but she was definitely dead way
[3:35] Speaker 1: before that. That narrowed things in a way I didn't like.
[3:42] Speaker 1: I moved closer to the body and examined the hands.
[3:46] Speaker 1: The fingers were intact, no defensive wounds. I checked the mouth,
[3:51] Speaker 1: gently lifting a chin with my gloved hands to expose
[3:54] Speaker 1: the teeth. Some blood, but that was from impact, not
[3:59] Speaker 1: from or being gagged. Nothing under the nails, no debris,
[4:05] Speaker 1: no hair or fibers clinging to her clothes, No bruising
[4:09] Speaker 1: on her remaining hand to suggest a self defense attempt.
[4:14] Speaker 1: It was, by all means, just a normal apartment, one bedroom,
[4:19] Speaker 1: open kitchenette, books stacked neatly on the TV, stand a
[4:23] Speaker 1: wineglass drying beside the sink. She had been living here peacefully,
[4:28] Speaker 1: though a fridge looked ransacked. Whoever did this, who was
[4:34] Speaker 1: definitely planned? I stepped back and let forensics take over.
[4:41] Speaker 1: I needed to talk to the neighbors and potential witnesses.
[4:47] Speaker 1: The hallway was quiet when I stepped out, but not empty.
[4:51] Speaker 1: A man in a great tank top leaned against his doorway,
[4:55] Speaker 1: arms crossed. His eyes looked sunken and wet. Sp to
[5:00] Speaker 1: buy him first, You the one who called? He shook
[5:05] Speaker 1: his head. No, that was Flora end of the hall.
[5:09] Speaker 1: But I heard it too, Tell me loud fast. I mean,
[5:17] Speaker 1: there weren't any words shouted, but I think I heard
[5:19] Speaker 1: a silence screaming, but I'm not sure, definitely like thudding
[5:25] Speaker 1: and crashing. Was that normal noise like that? He scoffed. Nah,
[5:33] Speaker 1: she was really quiet. Never even heard her on the phone.
[5:36] Speaker 1: Don't even think she had a partner. Rarely brought people over.
[5:42] Speaker 1: I checked his hands for any signs of bruising, just
[5:45] Speaker 1: in case. I asked him for an alibi. He gave
[5:49] Speaker 1: me a cell phone log with a delivery timestamp. Peta
[5:53] Speaker 1: arrived at ten nineteen. I moved on the next Two
[5:59] Speaker 1: neighbors off similar stories. One woman heard thumping, thought it
[6:04] Speaker 1: might be a domestic fight, but wasn't sure. The guy
[6:08] Speaker 1: across from the victim was out working the night shift.
[6:12] Speaker 1: All of them knew her by first name. None of
[6:14] Speaker 1: them had complaints about her, let alone hated her enough
[6:18] Speaker 1: to kill her. Then there was the older woman on
[6:22] Speaker 1: the floor above. She had a house dress on, bare feet,
[6:27] Speaker 1: and a smell that told me she hadn't done laundry
[6:29] Speaker 1: in a long time. I knew something would happen, she said,
[6:35] Speaker 1: standing halfway behind a door. There's something in the walls,
[6:40] Speaker 1: always scratching, always moving. You mean rats, I asked her.
[6:48] Speaker 1: Eyes didn't change, no worse than that. I nodded, but
[6:56] Speaker 1: I didn't write anything down. I choked it up to
[6:59] Speaker 1: age isolation, a mind that had been left alone too long.
[7:06] Speaker 1: The last apartment I visited was the one directly above
[7:09] Speaker 1: the victim's apartment. He opened the door, still holding his son,
[7:15] Speaker 1: a boy small enough to barely talk, face streeked with tears.
[7:20] Speaker 1: The father didn't look much better. His hair stuck out
[7:24] Speaker 1: in uneven clumps, and his fingers trembled as he lifted
[7:27] Speaker 1: the toddler from one hip to the other the other detective.
[7:33] Speaker 1: He said, they said someone would come talk to us.
[7:37] Speaker 1: Did you hear anything unusual, I asked. He nodded slowly.
[7:45] Speaker 1: It was bad. We heard her scream, I mean really scream.
[7:51] Speaker 1: It was sharp quick. Then there was this pounding, like
[7:55] Speaker 1: it was vibrating up into our bones. He looked toward
[8:00] Speaker 1: the stairs. My son started crying immediately, then it stopped.
[8:07] Speaker 1: Did you see anyone, No, we didn't leave the apartment.
[8:12] Speaker 1: Do you have cameras? No, but I've got a security
[8:16] Speaker 1: cam in the baby's room with audio. It's on loop.
[8:19] Speaker 1: I can send you the clip. I took his info,
[8:24] Speaker 1: got the file, thanked him, and headed back downstairs. Nothing
[8:30] Speaker 1: was adding up. I asked around to see if we
[8:34] Speaker 1: had any footage. The landlord had installed a half broken
[8:38] Speaker 1: DVR system five years ago after a string of bicycle thefts.
[8:43] Speaker 1: One camera pointed at the building entrance, another covered the
[8:47] Speaker 1: third floor hallway, focused on the victim's door. The third feed,
[8:52] Speaker 1: meant to show the stairwell, blinked between gray screens and
[8:55] Speaker 1: frozen frames. That one was useless. I reviewed the footage
[9:02] Speaker 1: from the past twelve hours in silence, running it at
[9:06] Speaker 1: four time speed. Pausing whenever I saw movement. Ten people
[9:11] Speaker 1: came and went through the front door. Four were delivery drivers,
[9:16] Speaker 1: three you were residents I had already spoken with, and
[9:19] Speaker 1: the rest were building staff or uniformed officers who arrived
[9:23] Speaker 1: after the nine one one call. When I finally closed
[9:27] Speaker 1: the laptop and returned to the apartment, the frametic's crew
[9:31] Speaker 1: had already packed up. The room was stripped of evidence
[9:35] Speaker 1: bags and markers. The blood had dried in most places.
[9:40] Speaker 1: I stood in the center of the living room and
[9:43] Speaker 1: let my eyes sweep over the corners, furniture, and ceiling.
[9:49] Speaker 1: Something sat wrong. I didn't know what, only that it
[9:54] Speaker 1: hadn't left me since I first stepped inside. I shifted
[9:59] Speaker 1: back towards the entryway and looked again. Above the living
[10:05] Speaker 1: room center, near the light fixture, something was pressed into
[10:09] Speaker 1: the white stucco. I stepped closer. Among the specks of
[10:15] Speaker 1: blood that had reached high in the walls and ceiling,
[10:18] Speaker 1: next to the ace vent, there was a single handprint.
[10:24] Speaker 1: It stood out from the splatter. It had a clean form,
[10:28] Speaker 1: but it looked to be smudged. The thumb sat at
[10:31] Speaker 1: a strange angle, like whoever made it rotated their hand outward.
[10:37] Speaker 1: I stood there, trying to make sense of it. I
[10:41] Speaker 1: walked over to the far wall, stood on the couch
[10:44] Speaker 1: beneath it, and reached upward with my full height, but
[10:48] Speaker 1: couldn't get within eight inches of touching the ceiling. The
[10:52] Speaker 1: woman who lived here was five foot four according to
[10:56] Speaker 1: a license, she couldn't have left that print even if
[11:00] Speaker 1: she stood on the furniture. I stepped down and stared
[11:05] Speaker 1: at it again. It felt deliberate. Killers who left signatures
[11:13] Speaker 1: weren't new. It was uncommon, but not unheard of. The
[11:18] Speaker 1: FBI maintained the database of those who used them symbols, poses, words,
[11:25] Speaker 1: even objects placed at the scene. There was a chance
[11:29] Speaker 1: this was meant to be a message. I tried taking
[11:32] Speaker 1: the fingerprints from the hand, just in case, but I
[11:36] Speaker 1: knew it would be fruitless. I took photos from three
[11:41] Speaker 1: angles and left a notation in the case file. I
[11:45] Speaker 1: told the uniforms outside that I wanted a patrol unit
[11:48] Speaker 1: to do regular sweeps of the building, especially at night.
[11:53] Speaker 1: No one had seen anything. That didn't mean it wouldn't
[11:57] Speaker 1: come back. As I headed out the door, I couldn't
[12:04] Speaker 1: help but take one more glance at the ceiling. I
[12:08] Speaker 1: spent most of that night at home, glued to my desk,
[12:12] Speaker 1: the lamp's buzz crawled into my ears, and the glow
[12:15] Speaker 1: of the monitor drained the rest of the room in shadow.
[12:19] Speaker 1: Samantha Ortega, aged thirty two, no criminal history, worked day
[12:26] Speaker 1: to entry for a mid size insurance firm downtown and
[12:29] Speaker 1: lived alone. She paid rent on time and didn't have
[12:33] Speaker 1: a boyfriend listed on a tendency records. Social media pointed
[12:37] Speaker 1: to a quiet life. She posted about a cat, pictures
[12:42] Speaker 1: of coffee and the occasional meme. No hungry exes, no
[12:46] Speaker 1: unhinged common threads, nothing that hinted her trouble. I pulled
[12:52] Speaker 1: her work records next. Her supervisor said she was consistent,
[12:57] Speaker 1: kept to herself, and always polite. Co workers said she
[13:01] Speaker 1: skipped happy hours but always brought cupcakes to office parties.
[13:05] Speaker 1: She'd been caught stealing milk from the staff ridge, but
[13:09] Speaker 1: that was the most scandalous thing anyone could offer. I
[13:13] Speaker 1: went through a message records, which yielded more silence. Her
[13:18] Speaker 1: parents had texted her the night before her death about
[13:20] Speaker 1: a recipe. Her father made a joke about finally learning
[13:24] Speaker 1: how to poach an egg. There wasn't a single name,
[13:29] Speaker 1: and a life that raised a red flag. The only
[13:33] Speaker 1: thing I had to go off now was the hand
[13:36] Speaker 1: print left at the scene. I flagged the precinct's patrol
[13:41] Speaker 1: schedule and ensured the forty third Street walk up was
[13:44] Speaker 1: assigned nightly drive bys. Then I closed everything down and
[13:50] Speaker 1: tried to sleep. Didn't get much. A week passed. The
[13:58] Speaker 1: finger prints I attempted to get I turned nothing. The
[14:01] Speaker 1: blood sampled from the handprint was Samantha's. It was early
[14:06] Speaker 1: afternoon when my phone went off. Detective Hanley, the officer said,
[14:15] Speaker 1: we've got another one, same building, Unit four Sea. I
[14:21] Speaker 1: didn't ask any more questions over the phone. I grabbed
[14:25] Speaker 1: my coat and left. When I pulled up to the building,
[14:32] Speaker 1: the entire front entrance was flooded with activity. Two squad
[14:37] Speaker 1: cars blocked traffic. Their flashing lights lit up the cracked
[14:40] Speaker 1: facade of the structure, painting it in bursts of blue
[14:43] Speaker 1: and red. I spotted off as a Gella near the stoop,
[14:47] Speaker 1: holding a bundled infant close to his chest. The child
[14:52] Speaker 1: was shrieking, eyes swollen and face stained with tears. Gella
[14:57] Speaker 1: wasn't built for this kind of thing. I looked more
[15:00] Speaker 1: panicked than the kid. I stepped out and headed up.
[15:05] Speaker 1: I was already getting sick. Inside the building, I was
[15:10] Speaker 1: immediately met by rats again. The rodents seemed to be
[15:14] Speaker 1: multiplying greatly each time I came here, perhaps because of
[15:18] Speaker 1: the bodies a new food source. Regardless, the scene was
[15:24] Speaker 1: already controlled by the time I got there. The door
[15:28] Speaker 1: to for Sea stood wide open, A uniform stationed at
[15:33] Speaker 1: either side, neither looking up. As I passed inside. The
[15:38] Speaker 1: walls held the same stale yellow as the floor below.
[15:43] Speaker 1: The carpet was old, stretched out in places. The body
[15:47] Speaker 1: lay against the bedroom wall. I recognized the man immediately.
[15:53] Speaker 1: He was the one who had entered the door while
[15:55] Speaker 1: holding his son. His neck had been snapped and driven
[15:59] Speaker 1: downward with so much force that it had cracked the
[16:02] Speaker 1: floorboard beneath him. One arm had been dislocated and bent
[16:06] Speaker 1: behind his back, the other stretched outward, twisted at the wrist.
[16:12] Speaker 1: His ribs had been crossed inward. One shoe had come
[16:15] Speaker 1: off and lay across the room. But the worst part
[16:19] Speaker 1: was that his entire head was missing. A second officer
[16:27] Speaker 1: walked over, adjusting his gloves. There were rats everywhere when
[16:32] Speaker 1: we came in. We counted dozens Before they scattered. They
[16:36] Speaker 1: came pouring out of somewhere. We couldn't keep track. Did
[16:41] Speaker 1: you make sure they didn't contaminate the crime scene? I asked.
[16:46] Speaker 1: For the most part, we arrived here quickly, so it's
[16:49] Speaker 1: safe to say the killer is the one who took
[16:52] Speaker 1: this poor guy's head off. The apartment itself was undisturbed,
[16:58] Speaker 1: no forced entry, no sign of struggle, exactly the same
[17:03] Speaker 1: as the other scene. I subconsciously glanced towards the ceiling,
[17:08] Speaker 1: expecting to see a handprint. For this time, I didn't
[17:13] Speaker 1: find one. I made my way deeper inside the apartment,
[17:18] Speaker 1: looking for any clue that might have been left by
[17:21] Speaker 1: the killer. Inside the living room, above the couch, right
[17:26] Speaker 1: next to another ac vent, sat another handprint. This one, however,
[17:33] Speaker 1: wasn't smudged. It was as clean as a bloody handprint gets,
[17:38] Speaker 1: unlike the previous one. I stood beneath it and stared,
[17:46] Speaker 1: my jaw clenched. I hated it. There was something that
[17:51] Speaker 1: felt smug about all of this. It was set there
[17:55] Speaker 1: like punctuation. The sentence had ended, and this was how
[18:00] Speaker 1: they signed it. I wanted to drag a chair over
[18:04] Speaker 1: and scrub it off with my bare hands. I wanted
[18:07] Speaker 1: it gone it felt like a taunt. It was impersonal,
[18:12] Speaker 1: and this confirmed it. These weren't crimes of passion. I'd
[18:17] Speaker 1: stood across from this man days ago. He'd held his
[18:21] Speaker 1: son and tried to stay calm well. I asked if
[18:23] Speaker 1: he heard anything strange. Now his body was broken and
[18:28] Speaker 1: cooling on the floor. If this was the game he
[18:32] Speaker 1: wanted to play, I'd play it. I dragged a chair
[18:39] Speaker 1: over and reached up to the handprint to collect the
[18:41] Speaker 1: blood samples and fingerprints. I stared at it briefly, then
[18:46] Speaker 1: shifted my attention to the vent beside it. The grill
[18:50] Speaker 1: was crooked. One of the screws nearly halfway had the wall,
[18:55] Speaker 1: but it looked more like it was ripped out of
[18:57] Speaker 1: the wall rather than unscrewed. The rest wobbled when I
[19:01] Speaker 1: tapped it. It had been opened. There was no dust
[19:07] Speaker 1: anywhere to be found. Some one had definitely tampered with
[19:11] Speaker 1: it recently. The opening wasn't large. No person was squeezing
[19:17] Speaker 1: through that unless they could fold their ribs, but something
[19:21] Speaker 1: had definitely pushed its way through. I reached up, pinching
[19:26] Speaker 1: the side of the cover with two fingers and pulled
[19:31] Speaker 1: The vent gave with a low pop. A draft of
[19:35] Speaker 1: cold air moved against my face. Inside, I saw darkness.
[19:42] Speaker 1: Thin ridges of metal tubing ran along the bottom, but
[19:46] Speaker 1: nothing else stood out at first glance. I leaned in.
[19:51] Speaker 1: The smell hit me hard, dry urine fur something deeper
[19:57] Speaker 1: behind it fungal where something had been nesting inside the shaft.
[20:05] Speaker 1: My flashlight couldn't reach the bend in the ductwork, but
[20:08] Speaker 1: I could hear movement further in a soft, shifting sound.
[20:15] Speaker 1: I narrowed my eyes, took a breath, and slid my
[20:19] Speaker 1: hand inside. Almost immediately, something bit down. I yanked my
[20:27] Speaker 1: arm back hard. Pain flared from my wrist. My glove
[20:31] Speaker 1: was torn near the edge, and blood welled up in
[20:33] Speaker 1: a thin line across my forearm. Goddamn rats, I mumbled
[20:39] Speaker 1: to myself, feeling stupid for even bothering. I reviewed the
[20:45] Speaker 1: security camera footage, knowing I'd find nothing. I leaned back
[20:50] Speaker 1: in the chair and watched the grainy loop for another
[20:53] Speaker 1: few seconds before killing the monitor. The neighbors had come
[20:57] Speaker 1: and given their testimonies willingly. Now none seems suspicious. Back
[21:03] Speaker 1: at the precinct, I printed both photos of the handprint,
[21:07] Speaker 1: lined them up side by side. I heard some one
[21:10] Speaker 1: knock gently at the open door behind me. One of
[21:14] Speaker 1: the officers leaned inside. That hand print again. He said,
[21:20] Speaker 1: we saw it in the first one too. That one
[21:23] Speaker 1: looks cleaner though. You got the finger prints, the officer asked, yeah.
[21:29] Speaker 1: Waiting for the results, I responded, you think it's a signature.
[21:36] Speaker 1: I didn't answer at first. I pointed to the photos. Look,
[21:42] Speaker 1: I'm not sure what it is, but the first victim
[21:45] Speaker 1: was in three C, the next one in four C.
[21:48] Speaker 1: Now we're looking at two murders, same layout, right on
[21:52] Speaker 1: top of each other, and this sicko keeps leaving a
[21:55] Speaker 1: handprint on the ceiling. Is it supposed to be pointing
[21:59] Speaker 1: toward the next time murder? The officer leaned closer to
[22:03] Speaker 1: get a better look. You think there's a pattern, I
[22:08] Speaker 1: think so, He looked at me, puzzled. I folded the photos,
[22:14] Speaker 1: took them into the case file, and stood, give me
[22:18] Speaker 1: the contact for the tenant in five C. I want
[22:21] Speaker 1: them out by tomorrow. The results from the fingerprints came
[22:27] Speaker 1: back before I could arrive at five C. It was
[22:30] Speaker 1: human female. The software matched it against the national database
[22:36] Speaker 1: and the ID pinged immediately. It was her Somemantha or taker.
[22:44] Speaker 1: The first victim. I sat with a phone in my lap,
[22:49] Speaker 1: eyes forward, staring at the dashboard, but not really seeing it.
[22:54] Speaker 1: My first thought was a mistake, some lab teck mislabeled
[22:59] Speaker 1: a sample, or the swap had been contaminated by the
[23:02] Speaker 1: crime scene itself, But that wouldn't explain the location. She
[23:08] Speaker 1: couldn't have reached that high up on her own ceiling,
[23:11] Speaker 1: let alone another apartments. She'd been dead a week it
[23:17] Speaker 1: started to settle in. Someone had taken her arm and
[23:22] Speaker 1: used it, pressed it into the wall, forced her dead
[23:27] Speaker 1: fingers flat, made the hand print themselves. It had to
[23:31] Speaker 1: have been done shortly before we arrived, too. The detail
[23:35] Speaker 1: in the print the residue. It wasn't from a week ago.
[23:41] Speaker 1: This psychopath was mocking the investigation. I knocked on the
[23:50] Speaker 1: door of five Sea that evening. A tired man answered,
[23:54] Speaker 1: eyes sunken, shirt stained with something brown near the collar
[24:00] Speaker 1: at me and didn't ask why I was there. He
[24:03] Speaker 1: held the door open and said his sister had room
[24:06] Speaker 1: for him and his wife. They were packed in ten minutes.
[24:10] Speaker 1: I didn't have to push base on what had been
[24:14] Speaker 1: happening here. I'm sure he was happy to get out
[24:17] Speaker 1: of the building once the unit was empty. I called
[24:22] Speaker 1: it in, got clearance from the department, told them I
[24:26] Speaker 1: had reason to believe the following incident would happen there.
[24:30] Speaker 1: They gave me approval, said I had a week on sight.
[24:35] Speaker 1: The only things I brought were a note book and
[24:37] Speaker 1: a loaded side arm. I kept the door locked behind me,
[24:42] Speaker 1: left the lights on. I stayed in the living room
[24:44] Speaker 1: with the radio on the counter and my badge within reach.
[24:49] Speaker 1: I didn't know if this psycho would come. I only
[24:52] Speaker 1: knew he or she had come twice before, and that
[24:56] Speaker 1: both times no one was ready. If I were wrong,
[25:01] Speaker 1: i'd waste a week. But if I were right, maybe
[25:06] Speaker 1: I could save a life. All I knew was that
[25:11] Speaker 1: there was some kind of pattern here, a very clear
[25:14] Speaker 1: move vertically, and I hoped I was right. I stayed
[25:21] Speaker 1: up in the chair most of the night, legs stiff
[25:24] Speaker 1: and resting near the grip of my side arm. The
[25:27] Speaker 1: patrol outside checked every two hours, radio brief, no sign
[25:32] Speaker 1: of anything moving in or out of the building. I responded,
[25:36] Speaker 1: each time, short and clear. I watched the door, then
[25:41] Speaker 1: the ceiling, then the door again, every hour stretched. At
[25:49] Speaker 1: around three in the morning, I stood once to stretch
[25:52] Speaker 1: my back and walked to the window, not to look out,
[25:56] Speaker 1: but to move. I circled the kitchen poor a cup
[26:00] Speaker 1: of cold coffee and drank it without tasting anything. It
[26:06] Speaker 1: was right after I sat down again that I heard
[26:10] Speaker 1: the noise. It came all at once, a crash, loud
[26:15] Speaker 1: and sudden, something breaking against the wall, then screaming, short,
[26:21] Speaker 1: clipped human, a voice trying to call out beginning pulled under.
[26:29] Speaker 1: I froze for a second, listened. The ceiling didn't shake.
[26:34] Speaker 1: The hallway was quiet. I leaned closer to the wall
[26:37] Speaker 1: and heard it again, another crash. The screaming had stopped.
[26:43] Speaker 1: Then I understood it was next door. I stood fast,
[26:50] Speaker 1: nearly knocking the chair over my hand, went to the radio.
[26:54] Speaker 1: I pressed the button as I moved to the door,
[26:57] Speaker 1: Unit five D. Movement next door and breaching. I didn't wait.
[27:03] Speaker 1: I unlatched the door and stepped into the hallway. The
[27:07] Speaker 1: air was colder outside the apartment. The hallway lights flickered faintly.
[27:12] Speaker 1: Rats poured from everywhere, but I had too much adrenaline
[27:16] Speaker 1: coursing through me to care about rats. They rushed along
[27:20] Speaker 1: the walls in waves, scurrying across my boots. I stepped
[27:24] Speaker 1: into them and made my way to the unit. Police
[27:29] Speaker 1: open the door, no response. I raised my leg and
[27:34] Speaker 1: kicked at the lock. It gave. On the second try,
[27:39] Speaker 1: the door slammed inward and bounced off the wall. I
[27:43] Speaker 1: stepped through, gun, raised badge, lifted half a warning on
[27:47] Speaker 1: my lips. Then I saw it. It wasn't a person.
[27:55] Speaker 1: The thing in front of me was a shifting mass cans, hundreds,
[28:02] Speaker 1: maybe thousands of them, packed into rough shape, a mound
[28:06] Speaker 1: of matted fir and bone that stood taller than a man.
[28:10] Speaker 1: Their bodies moved and sink, their limbs prushing and pulling
[28:14] Speaker 1: together to mimic the form of a torso arms and legs.
[28:19] Speaker 1: It was a body made from bodies. The head wore skin,
[28:26] Speaker 1: A human face stretched across the front, torn at the edges.
[28:31] Speaker 1: I recognized it the single father, His jaw hung open,
[28:37] Speaker 1: lips sagging from the sockets of his eyes. Dozens of
[28:41] Speaker 1: smaller eyes blinked, each one black and glassy. The right
[28:47] Speaker 1: arm was human, too, pale and thin, bruised at the
[28:52] Speaker 1: shoulder where it had been ripped from another corpse, Samanthas,
[29:00] Speaker 1: who was kneeling on top of the man who lived there.
[29:03] Speaker 1: It struck the man with ridiculous force. The body bounced
[29:06] Speaker 1: beneath each strike. The sound was sickening, bones breaking wetlea.
[29:12] Speaker 1: The floor beneath them shook with each impact. I stared
[29:16] Speaker 1: dumbfounded as it ripped an arm off the man's corpse,
[29:20] Speaker 1: and the rats started to bury themselves inside the arm,
[29:24] Speaker 1: adding it to their sick form. I emptied the clip
[29:29] Speaker 1: into it each round hit, but there was no visible
[29:33] Speaker 1: break in the skin. Instead, a thick black vapor hissed
[29:38] Speaker 1: out from the impact site and drifted upward in thin,
[29:42] Speaker 1: rising trails. It moved slower than smoke should of hanging
[29:47] Speaker 1: in the air, before thinning and disappearing into the ceiling.
[29:52] Speaker 1: Rounds tore through the air and buried themselves in the
[29:55] Speaker 1: thing's mass. Rats split apart and fell some screen. Others
[30:01] Speaker 1: swarmed in to fill the gaps, dragging there, fallen inward
[30:05] Speaker 1: and disappearing into the body again. Its shape shifted and
[30:10] Speaker 1: the face twisted. The mask tilted to look at me,
[30:14] Speaker 1: and the eyes inside the sockets blinked in unison. I
[30:19] Speaker 1: fumbled for another clip. My hands didn't want to cooperate.
[30:23] Speaker 1: My left wrist was still bandaged from the vent bite,
[30:26] Speaker 1: and the blood pulsing through it made my fingers weak.
[30:30] Speaker 1: The magazine slipped clattered to the floor. It moved fast.
[30:36] Speaker 1: One of its limbs swept sideways and caught me across
[30:39] Speaker 1: the upper chest. The force was enough to throw me
[30:42] Speaker 1: sideways into the door frame. The corner caught me behind
[30:46] Speaker 1: the shoulder. My arm went numb, and I hit the floor,
[30:50] Speaker 1: with half my vision fading out. I tried to raise
[30:54] Speaker 1: my head and couldn't tell if the wetness on my
[30:57] Speaker 1: temple was blood or sweat. I stayed like that for
[31:02] Speaker 1: a few seconds. The sound of its breathing had stopped.
[31:06] Speaker 1: I heard its scrape across the floor once, then everything
[31:11] Speaker 1: went quiet. When I lifted my head again, I saw
[31:16] Speaker 1: it at the far end of the room. It slid
[31:20] Speaker 1: and scraped across the floor, more like a tide than
[31:23] Speaker 1: a body. They gathered at the fresh arm, bulging with blood,
[31:28] Speaker 1: twitching in their hold, and now fully made it part
[31:32] Speaker 1: of the mass. It lifted itself with reverence, gripping the
[31:37] Speaker 1: ceiling with Samantha's hand, leaving behind a hand print. It
[31:44] Speaker 1: flowed into the docked work, vanishing section by section. The
[31:49] Speaker 1: last thing I saw before it disappeared was the father's
[31:53] Speaker 1: head pulled upward by the neck as rats vanished behind it.
[32:00] Speaker 1: The patrol burst in seconds later, guns raised, shouting, They
[32:05] Speaker 1: called in others, cleared the room, searched the building. There
[32:10] Speaker 1: was no clue as to where the killer had gone.
[32:14] Speaker 1: The apartment above was undisturbed. They kept me in the
[32:21] Speaker 1: hospital for observation. I was stitched up across the shoulder,
[32:26] Speaker 1: bruised along the ribs, and concussed nothing that needed surgery,
[32:31] Speaker 1: but enough to take me out of the field. The
[32:34] Speaker 1: department put me on leave without asking. Most of my
[32:39] Speaker 1: time there passed in a haze of blood pressure checks,
[32:42] Speaker 1: threescent lights, and voices. I didn't speak when they asked
[32:46] Speaker 1: what I saw? What would all these seasoned officers and
[32:50] Speaker 1: the rest of my colleagues say? Of course, they wouldn't
[32:54] Speaker 1: believe me, regardless, I had guessed wrong about everything in
[32:59] Speaker 1: this situation. The man had died a few feet away,
[33:04] Speaker 1: one wall between us. If I'd been paying attention, I
[33:08] Speaker 1: might have taken more time to figure out the details,
[33:11] Speaker 1: and perhaps I could have acted sooner. I didn't. I
[33:16] Speaker 1: assumed I understood what I was doing. I thought I'd
[33:20] Speaker 1: figured it out. But was there even a way for
[33:23] Speaker 1: me to have figured it out. At the very least,
[33:27] Speaker 1: I had to put an end to it. Now, the
[33:31] Speaker 1: building hadn't been sealed. The neighbors were still inside upstairs, downstairs,
[33:37] Speaker 1: across the hall, families, oldert tenants, students, night shift workers.
[33:44] Speaker 1: I knew he would strike again. I didn't know if
[33:48] Speaker 1: he was following a pattern or choosing randomly, but I
[33:52] Speaker 1: didn't care. I made a few calls until I got
[33:57] Speaker 1: the owner's name. He ran a property with a voicemail
[34:01] Speaker 1: that never got checked. I drove across the city to
[34:04] Speaker 1: a cafe he was known to visit. I waited until
[34:08] Speaker 1: he walked in and blocked his path. Before he could
[34:11] Speaker 1: sit down. I showed my badge, lowered my voice, and
[34:16] Speaker 1: told him the building was a liability waiting to burn down.
[34:20] Speaker 1: I told him pest control records and a few more
[34:23] Speaker 1: outright lies were falsified. Lastly, I told him that if
[34:28] Speaker 1: even one more incident happened at his entire management team
[34:32] Speaker 1: in front of a grand jury. I had no authority
[34:36] Speaker 1: to say any of that, but I said it anyway.
[34:41] Speaker 1: He asked what I wanted. I told him I wanted
[34:44] Speaker 1: the building emptied. He said that would take weeks. I
[34:49] Speaker 1: told him he had Until the morning, tenants were told
[34:55] Speaker 1: there had been a confirmed gas leak. People evacuated, which
[34:59] Speaker 1: on Trey Shore is due to the murder cases and
[35:02] Speaker 1: not the reasons they were actually given. Patrol officers sealed
[35:06] Speaker 1: off the building. A few argued and demanded compensation, but
[35:11] Speaker 1: no one stayed behind. By the afternoon, the pest control
[35:17] Speaker 1: team had arrived. I paid one of the crew leaders
[35:20] Speaker 1: a few hundred dollars out of pocket to keep me updated.
[35:25] Speaker 1: They pumped every floor with fumigant, every room, every vent,
[35:30] Speaker 1: every closet, They opened every crawl space, broke through every
[35:35] Speaker 1: wall that felt hollow. For two days, the building was sealed.
[35:40] Speaker 1: No one went inside except for exterminators in hazmat suits.
[35:45] Speaker 1: On the third day, I got the call. They said
[35:49] Speaker 1: I needed to see it for myself. I met them
[35:53] Speaker 1: at the loading dock behind the building. Two contractors stood
[35:57] Speaker 1: near an open dumpster, their face pale masks hanging from
[36:02] Speaker 1: their belts. Inside weren't dozens of plastic biohazard bags. Instead,
[36:09] Speaker 1: it was one huge bag. Inside was a mass, swollen
[36:15] Speaker 1: disease looking. The stench clung to my nose and throat
[36:20] Speaker 1: even through the mask. They claimed it had a name,
[36:25] Speaker 1: rat king. It was explained to me that a rat
[36:29] Speaker 1: king is a collection of rats or mice who were
[36:32] Speaker 1: intertwined and bound together in some way. They also found
[36:36] Speaker 1: the limbs of the victims of the serial killer in
[36:38] Speaker 1: the rat's nest. Later that week, the local news ran
[36:43] Speaker 1: a segment on the building. They called it the worst
[36:46] Speaker 1: rat infestation the city had seen in years, cited health
[36:50] Speaker 1: code violations. The building was finally clean, However, the murder
[36:56] Speaker 1: case itself sat unresolved. The killer had never been caught,
[37:04] Speaker 1: but I knew better.

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