Dead and Alive

As I step into the dimly lit alleyway, I grimace.
It's bad. Real bad.
I ignore the smell and the stain on the wall, swallow thickly and head straight for the body.
It's a woman this time, her limbs haphazardly arranged. She's leaning crookedly against a dumpster, and I can't help but make the connection that she looks like a thrown doll. There's no identification that I can see, as she's wearing a dress and I don't see a purse nearby.
Besides the GSW to her forehead, blood trickles out of the corner of her lipstick-red mouth. Blood is matted in her hair. I frown and look a little closer. There are bruises on her jaw and throat that look like finger marks.
I shake my head and fish in my pocket for what I need.

After dropping the cooler off to Bryn at her lab, I trekked across the city back to my apartment. It was a small place, but it suited me just fine. I worked a lot, so the sparse furniture was fine by me.
I untied my boots and set them by the door, and threw my keys on the table after locking the door. I didn't bother turning on the lights, as I'd be trying to get some sleep soon, but I sat down on the edge of my bed.
When I close my eyes, every single dead body I've seen flickers just behind them.
I reopen my eyes, and get up to take a shower.

Head pounding. There are sirens in the distance. I open my eyes and look up. The alleyway stretches out in front of me, the bricks melting into each other.
I can't keep my eyes open. Screams echo just down the alley, but it's now the hallway. The lights are flickering.
I try to crawl forward, to get on my knees, to stand, but something is pulling me in the opposite direction.
"No, please…" I gasp. I can't keep my head up…

I groan as I wake from restless sleep to the sound of my phone going off. I wrestle my arm out of comfortable sheets and answer the call.
"What?"
"Carter."
Crap. I sit up.
"Malcolm?"
I hear him chuckle through the receiver. "I believe we have a meeting this morning, correct?"
I look at the clock. It's nine fifteen in the morning. I have a meeting at ten.
I spring out of bed, untangling my limbs from my sheets. "Yes sir, that's correct." My knee twinges painfully as I stumble into the bathroom to get ready. "I'll be there soon…ish." The call has already gone dead.

Malcolm is stroking his goatee and staring at statistics when I walk into his office. He gestures to a box of bagels sitting on a shelf to the left of me. I take one as I didn't have time to eat anything before I left.
As I take a bite, he closes the file and looks up at me. "Bryn said we may be nearing a fourth of the way on our collection."
I swallowed a bite of my bagel and sat down across from him. "Gee, what a mile-marker."
"As far as the construction work, I've been looking into an engineer."
"Found anyone yet?"
"A few. I'm having Damien look into it."
Damien was Malcolm's secretary of sorts. He did all the bookwork and hiring in the company, though you couldn't tell by his figure- he looked like more of the kind of guy who'd be security somewhere than be bookish.
My phone rings, and I answer it. It was another kill.
"This city never sleeps, does it?" I remark to Malcolm.
"Everybody does, at different times." He sets his feet on his desk and leans back in his chair, twiddling his thumbs. "But the city? No. The city lives and dies with the people."

Author's Note

pic by ineedchemicalx on deviantart.com