Snippet #2438943

The ride to the hospital was mostly a blur for Arey. There were too many thoughts and emotions running through her head, but nothing to focus on. Trying to organize her thoughts at the moment felt like grasping at smoke; it was there, she could feel it, but she couldn’t grab hold. It didn’t take the doctors long to patch her up, considering how superficial her wounds were, and soon she was led to wait in the room with the other girl, who was apparently still unconscious, but stable. She spent the next half hour in a daze, replying to texts from her friends, assuring them she was alright. Probably condemned to wearing scarves for the next week or so, but alright just the same. She’d probably be out on the field again right as rain Monday morning, Arey thought fondly, though she wished she could dismiss the psychological trauma as easily.

It was probably just the stress of the situation she reasoned, or maybe the bloke just liked weird colored contact lenses. Who knew what kind of freaky stuff that guy had been into? The weird vision she’d shared during her hug feast with the brunette from the club however, was a little harder to write off, but she had just been assaulted and emotionally seemed to be all over the map, so maybe it was just a byproduct of the stress? Arey wasn’t left to stew for long however, as the detective she’d been told would want to talk to her arrived.

“Arianna Trescott? I’m Detective Velazquez. I’m here to ask you a few questions about your attacker.” The man who walked in had dark features, and looked vaguely Hispanic, though Arey couldn’t have told you from where. He was also handsome, and seemed pretty young to be a detective. He couldn’t have been older than twenty-five she guessed, but there was also an air of confidence and competence about him that also put her at ease.

“Shoot.” Arey replied quietly, arms crossing across her front. He asked her to describe the attack, and any details about the attacker she could. Arey recounted the story fairly calmly, tossing in her suspicions about the guy possibly drugging his victims as well.

“Her tox screen hasn’t come back yet, but we’ll keep that in mind.” Detective Velazquez said putting his pad away. The rape kit hadn’t been completed yet either, but he was fairly certain this wasn’t their guy. The captain had sent him sniffing on this one, seeing as their perp seemed to have a taste for pretty young college girls as of late. This wasn’t his M.O. though, too sloppy, and he never did his victims in the clubs. Those were his hunting grounds, not his place of action. The brass still wasn’t willing to call him a serial killer, partially due to his choice in victims being all over the place, and partially due to the panic that would ensue. A more concrete pattern was forming though, and that was bad news for the women of New York.

“Need a ride home?” David Velazquez offered the poor exhausted looking girl. The thought of her walking home alone left a gnawing pit in his stomach. Young, blonde hair and big blues eyes, his perp’s M.O. personified not five feet away. The worst part of working serial killer cases, was getting in their demented head space. Everywhere he looked, he saw potential victims, fitting them into behavioral patterns and analyzing the likelihood of them making the cut. It was exhausting to deal with, and more than a little disturbing for the young detective. Perhaps for this reason, David felt strangely protective of this girl. She agreed to the ride, and twenty minutes later, after being discharged, he drove her back to her dorm before calling his boss to give a status report.

Once Arey got home, the first thing she did was take a shower. She still felt numb, but the hot water helped. She felt drained emotionally, too much happening too quickly, and the only thing she felt like doing now was sleeping in, which was what she was planning on doing, falling into a restless sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.