Hector sat in a daze, unable to comprehend the piece of information that had just been passed to him.
His eyes glazed over and became unfocused as the teacher's words kept reverberating in his ears.
"Dante is....dead?" He asked seemingly to no one but himself.
He couldn't believe it. What exactly had happened?
Who had done it?
He had heard the news, it had been aired all over the city's radio.
"The 12th of a long line of serial murders" they called it, except this one happened to be one of the most influential families in Durok City.
He hadn't paid attention, he had passed it off as a failure on the part of the law enforcement and didn't bother to pay it any mind, only for it to be broken to him that the family involved in the homicide was actually that of Dante, his pal since forever.
"Hector..."
"...ctor" the droning voice kept trying to break him out of his reverie to no avail until
"Hector!!!" A yell managed to pierce through his psyche
His unfocused eyes seemed to come back to life to the image of his home room teacher in his face.
"Are you okay, Hector?"
'of course I'm not!!' he wanted to scream but held it in. Only replying with a weak smile and a nod of his head
"Look, I know this might be a lot for you to take in, we all know how close you were to Dante..."
"So how about you take today off and just go home to gather your thoughts?" The teacher proposed
Hector nodded, his brain lagging to form a response. He stood up weakly, grabbed his backpack and shuffled out under the pitiful gazes of his classmates.
It was around 10 in the morning and the streets were busy with vehicles rushing by. Hector strolled out of school, his heavy steps vibrating on the sidewalk seemed to resonate with his mood.
His mind churned, memories were let loose, memories of Dante, of what they had shared. They were brothers in everything but blood and now, now he's dead alongside his family.
The law enforcement agents probably won't let him see his body as they would claim it might interfere with investigations.
A strange anger began to bubble within Hector,
'who were the serial killers...' he asked himself and
'why do they keep killing people?'
With the addition of Dante, there are now 12 cases of serial murders which involved the slaughter of entire families in their homes.
The news had described the victims as flayed and mutilated and there seemed to be no pattern to this throngs of deranged killings.
The law enforcement seemed to be in a dilemma with fear gripping the heart of the citizens of Durok city
Hector steeled his heart. For his brother, he would get to the bottom of this murder and drag out the killer.
Having had that thought, he calmed down considerably before fishing out a few change from his pocket to board a taxi.
The West Wing of Durok city wasn't a place that was particularly appealing to the eye. It was home to vagabonds and degenerate and has always been tagged with a lot of negativity. Hector lived alone in a single apartment in the West Wing with his mom and had always faced criticism from his classmates for that.
Infact, if it wasn't for Dante, he wouldn't be attending a school and would either be doing some menial job or he would have joined the growing numbers of vagabonds.
It was 10 in the morning but the West Wing seemed a little too quiet. The streets were empty, save for the few vagabonds that stared at him with eyes that screamed drug abuse.
Hector scanned the street out of habit before Crossing over to an humongous building situated at the far end of the street. The building had a spacious compound and a large central complex that gave way to a large number of doors that leads to different rooms.
He made his way around the complex with the ease of someone that has been doing it since forever, he stopped in front of a particular door before dipping his hands in his pockets and bringing out a key.
Inserting it into a keyhole, he got a positive feedback as the door gave way to a not so spacious corridor. At the end of the corridor were two doors, one led to his room, the other to his mom's.
His mom was a chef who cooked in the affluent homes of the residents of the East Wing and as expected at this time of the day she was out. That gave Hector the space of mind to start drawing out his plan.
He stepped into the little bath attached to the apartment and took a quick shower to clear his head. He remembered his mom subscribed to the newspaper firm The neighbourhood and she always kept each newspaper delivery for future references.
The series of murder had started about 2 months ago, and so he got into his mom's room using a spare key and began to gather each newspaper that had been dated from 2 months ago to 1 day.
To investigate the chain of murders, he had to get information on the previous ones and try to see what he could get. Of course he would be at a disadvantage, since even the police aren't able to make heads or tails or what was going on but atleast he had to start from somewhere.
And so the search for clues began for Hector as he decided to embark on a naive journey to avenge his friend