Effortless Dominion

" ..What? "

Jones was at a loss of words.

A call from the headquarters notified them about a mysterious death of another man, confirmed to be an employee of the system. Another investigation team was departed to handle the case near the city and upon confirmation of the victim's identity, their leader chose to inform Jones first, since she was supposed to handle that case as well.

After all involvement of the system was no longer hidden from the team leaders.

" What is it? " The doctor asked.

" Another case. " Jones added, walking inside the house 311 towards the crime scene.

There was this feeling of dread she couldn't shake off.

The house, clean and well managed was a cozy place to live. The smell of food, fresh and that of burning incense stick mixed to give a peculiar odor.

She entered a room. The scene already inspected by Ross and others. The pool of blood large covering half of the floor, was still fresh.

Upon seeing Jones enter the room, Ross approached her, briefing up their findings.

One glance and she could understand what the doctor meant earlier.

The missing eyes, the shredded muscles at some sites on it's body were indistinguishable from the other corpse.

It was necessarily the work of same criminal. But there was more to it.

The officer had specially checked twice, the other corpse at the market was not a player of the game, but this boy was.

He was a college student and his parents' only child. His identity card revealed that he was in the game programming field, his iris was recognised to be registered in the system and upon questioning his grieved parents, they were unaware of the existence of the game.

She somehow felt unworried about this boy's death. The message she had received did warn her about it, though she didn't know how. But that body in the middle of the market was unrelated and unregistered yet had sustained similar wounds.

So now it's targeting non-gamers too?

Examination of the scene ruled out many causes of death leaving a few in their hands. They had to reenact the crime scene but doubts still remained.

The locals were questioned, street cameras checked and Jones started to inspect the locality, asking the passersby on her way.

As informed by a few of them about a foreigner they hadn't seen around before, she decided to check in the direction they pointed at.

---

Headquarters were active. Several back to back meetings concluded that team leader Ms Ria Jones had to be arrested.

None of them could have prepared themselves for what unfolded before them.

Ross picked up the call. The arrest warrant had been issued.

" What is it? Will you tell me! " The doctor yelled, hostile about their behavior.

Ross looked at the senior officer, urging him to break the bad news.

But none of them took the initiative to explain. The senior officer left the house for a smoke and the doctor followed him outside, still in search of an answer.

" The orders from the chief are to arrest her immediately. " The officer said as a plume of smoke escaped his mouth.

" She seems to be involved in the other murder case, the one near the city. " He added plainly before leaving to look for Jones.

He left the scene immediately to look for Jones. Handcuffs in his pocket and urgency in his steps somewhat made him shudder with fear.

Why?

The same thought troubled Jones over and over again.

" The victim's call records show your number dialed many times this week. That doesn't mean much but the body was...found under strange circumstances. It's enough to raise questions..."

Because it proved her direct contact with him while being assigned a case related to the system itself.

It didn't make sense.

Knowing it could implicate her, why did the officer send the message? Why drag her into it?

She needed answers but all she had was silence.

" There's no way she's involved. " Ross's voice echoed through the empty room. His words unshakable.

"We don't know yet" Another man from the team commented.

" But we don't know if she's guilty either! " Ross shot back at him. " She's leading the case since the beginning, why would she sabotage it? "

The silence was long and detailed.

While the old officer clenched the handcuffs in his pocket, his blood racing inside his veins.

Jones wasn't a saint, but this? This isn't right.

He thought. Something didn't add up.

As he looked for Jones, she had already walked quite far from the scene.

Her watchful eyes examining around while her mind absently diverted to the accusations put on her.

" Hey! " Someone shouted from a distance which she felt like was referring to her.

Huh!?

She looked around but the area was isolated. Not a single soul was seen.

She nonetheless followed the mysterious sound. But there were no more sounds. In fact, the whole passageway was dead silent. Her brief steps were inaudible despite that small heel on her oxfords.

She paused after a few steps. A tall figure stood at the end of the dark passageway.

A figure long and slim, unmoving. The calmness around it, the eerie stillness was deeply unsettling to the heart. There was a subtle change in the way the air became tense and her heart began to race.

The darkness deepened with each step she took. Different shades of black colouring the secluded passage.

Her instincts yelled in a complicated voice which she herself couldn't comprehend.

Run or attack?

There was nothing that distant man did to gain her hostility towards him.

Yet a chill ran down her spine, instincts telling her that the one in front was dangerous, unquestionably.

Should she run or arrest that scum?

She was in a middle of paradox while the little light left was almost gone. Continuous waves of wind flew past her, all but one. That one strong gust of wind travelled past her, with the heavy sound of winds flapping.

And then there was silence once again.

Her sight was obstructed by a thick layer of darkness. She was fine a moment ago but now pain abruptly emerged in her chest and she fell down to her knees. The darkness devoured her completely.

Meanwhile the old officer had been searching Jones for a while now. A call from the higher ups pushed him further, assuming the possibility that she might have run away. But somewhere in his mind, he knew she wouldn't run. A part of him was certain that she must be having her reasons that she just needed to explain, that's all.

At a distance, he saw a pool of blood, again. A body lying listless and no one around.

A strange smell reined the desolate passageway, everything was covered with dust that hadn't been touched for long.

He paused at a distance. Being this close to the body helped him see better, despite the darkness that prevailed everywhere. That jacket, those boots and the ponytail. His heart jumped into his throat.

The metal shutters of closed shops clattered loudly under the force of strong wind. A part of him wanted to run away, rather than face this dead. The hair on his body stood at it's end. He crouched down, his legs shaking under his body weight. He hesitantly grabbed it by it's shoulder, carefully turning it to see it's face.

It was Jones. She laid there motionless, her eye sockets empty, still bleeding as if whatever took them had left a curse behind.

Her face froze in grimace, her lips slightly parted, wanting to say something even after her death.

He choked on his own breath.

"No.....no, no, no--"

His hand trembling, hung over her body unsure where to check for her pulse when she was very clearly gone.

His leader, the strongest among them. Just gone.

His shaking hand searched his pockets for his phone. The handcuffs tangled in his fingers and he in frustration, threw them away.

"Not now....not fcking now.. " He muttered anxiously. He managed to call for backup in a breaking, unstable voice.

The others spread out to chase the killer. The murderer wouldn't have gone far. The small town was filled with the noise of running footsteps, back to back orders from radio and the sharp barking of K9 unit being deployed.

But it was already too late. By the time she reached emergency unit, she had already lost too much blood.

She was declared dead on arrival.

*****