I woke up to my dog barking in my living room. I quickly ran outside to see what was happening, and as soon as I walked out of my room, he stopped. As my annoyance was about to explode all over the house, my rational mind has controlled itself and not waking up anyone in the house. I checked my clock, and it was already 10 o’clock in the morning. Although my body was aching and feeling extremely exhausted, I figured that I should not further alter my sleeping schedule. I decided to head to the kitchen and make breakfast.

“ Good morning Andre, how can I help you today.” 

“ Good morning Eli, what is the weather today” 

“ The weather right now is 48 degrees Fahrenheit, it is currently cloudly outside with a 40% chance of it raining later.”

“ Thank you, can you also open the curtains and turn on the TV.” 

I took out two eggs and some bacon and made a salad on the side. As I was focusing on the TV, I heard some footsteps on the second floor. 

“Andre? I did not expect you to wake up this early.” My sister said as she walked down the stairs with her laptop on her hand. 

“ Yeah, I figured that I should probably wake up earlier. What were you doing upstairs?” I asked as I continued to cook breakfast. 

“ Well, I have a ten-page research paper for my research class due in two days so I started working on it last night. I still have around seven pages to go but my head is hurting right now. I should probably go to sleep right now.”

“ Yeah go take a break. Call me when you are up and tell me what you want for dinner.” I said as my partner John called me. John and I have known each other for almost 10 years. We met in the same training program back when were in college. He was the first person I met back then, and we were roommates for our last two years of college. While he was a biochemistry major, I was more into chemical engineering. Yet, we both ended up becoming a forensic investigator. Normally, our working hours are from 12 to 9, so I was surprised that he called me at 10 in the morning. 

“ Andre, get dressed up right now and I will be at your house in 10 minutes.”

“ Wait what? Why?” 

“ I just got a phone call from Felix, he said that someone was found murdered this morning, and he wanted us to be there as soon as possible,” John ended the call, and I immediately changed to my working outfit. I left my room and went into my sister’s room. However, the room was pitch black, and she was already asleep. I gently closed the door and rushed out of the house.

“ Good morning Andre, you ready to go to work again?” 

“ Haha son got jokes, you do realize that I woke up 30 minutes ago. You are lucky that I did not fall back to sleep.” 

“ It’s ok, if you didn’t pick up I will just break into your house and wake you up. I will definitely use the fire extinguisher to help you just like when we were in college.”

“ Don’t you dare to do that again, it literally took me so long to clean everything up.” 

“ Not my problem,” John said with his typical childish voice.

“ Nah you will have to help me. Also, did you bring your briefcase.”

“ Yep, it is in the back of the car.” 

“ Good thing you didn’t forget about it.”

30 minutes later, we arrived at the house. We went under the “caution” tape and got up to the 2nd floor. As we walked through the garden, Felix was already there waiting for us. 

“ Hi guys,” said Felix as he led us in. 

“Hi Felix, tell me what happened.” “This morning the victim’s girlfriend came over to see him but found him covered in blood the victim was found dead in his living room.” “Any signs of anyone breaking in?” “ There are no signs of anyone breaking in but there was a window next to the backyard that was open.” “ Any information on the victim?” “His name is Johnathan Kryschiski. Currently 21 years old. Goes to the Univerisity of Arlington. His lives by himself and both his parents live in downtown. We have already called them and informed them about the situation.” “Isn’t that the same school as your sister?” “Yeah it is. Ok, leave everything else to me and John.” I put the briefcase down and started to look around the room. “ Andre! He was stabbed 13 times from the back and 6 times from the front. The wounds are at least 2 inches deep. There are also bruises on his forehead and right elbow. Seen like he was fighting with someone before.” “His skill is stiff and his body temperature is at 60 degrees. It seems like he was killed at around 12 to 1 am-midnight.” “I will collect all the blood samples in the room, while you go collect all the fingerprints that are in the house.” I looked through the room to search for any useful information, but the murderer seemed to be a cautious person. There were no fingerprints on the door handles, and I can’t even find a single footprint on the floor. A picture on the coffee table caught my eye, and it was a picture of the victim and two of his friends. “John! Come over here. I found this in his pocket.” “ An origami owl?” “ Yeah, does this remind you of anything?” “ Are you talking about the thing that happened near Bellevue Road a week ago?” “Yeah, the autopsy says that the victim was also stabbed 19 times, and each wound is also at least 2 inches deep. An origami owl was also found on the victim’s left pocket. They are also both similar in age and both killed at night.” “ Yeah, tell Felix about it and we’ll get more details about him in the lab.”

John and I performed an autopsy for the victim. We found a small metal inside one of the wounds. From the length and width of the wound, it seemed that the murderer was using a knife that is made with steel, with an approximate length of 2.5 to 3 inches long and 0.2 millimeters wide. The cause of death is the stab on his upper left chest, which cut through the aorta and caused him to bleed to death. From our collected blood sample, all of them belong to the victim. We did found dishwashing soap on the victim’s arm, so it is possible that he was killed when he was cleaning the dishes. Not to our surprise, the wound has a pattern like the X shape, which is similar to the Bellevue Road murder a week ago. I checked on that file, and I realized both students went to the same university and the same major. 

“What do you think?” I asked.

“It seems like the killer is targeting some people, especially the one in that university.”

“I know, some people are just crazy.”

“ You should tell your sister to be careful. Shit happens these days.”

“Yeah, I will,” I said as we packed our stuff and left the laboratory. Since I did not drive today, John had to bring me home. As we arrived, I noticed that none of the lights in my house were turned on. “ Want to come in and have a cup of old fashioned?” “Nah I’m good, I’ll come in and sit for a bit though.” John parked the car in the driveway, and as we are walking in, I found out that the door was unlocked which is not suppose to happen. A sense of insecurity slowly floated up in my mind. I gave a look at John, and he seemed to understand the concern. I slowly opened the door. Inside the house was all dark. The curtains were rolled down, and none of us could see anything. I walked towards the closest light switch and turned on the lights.  We slowly advance to the living room, and the house was quiet, so quiet that I can hear the sound of something dripping. As we walked in, I do not remember what I saw exactly. I saw blood on the walls, and I saw a body laying on the floor. It was my sister.

“ RACHEL!”