I accidentally witnessed a murder scene from my balcony. The killer had just delivered two solid thwacks to the victim with a baseball bat. He looked up and saw me standing there, sipping boba tea. From a distance, he counted the floors to my apartment, then flashed me an OK sign. Then, right in front of me, he raised the bat high, ready to savor the final blow. And I, casually, pulled out my slingshot. 1 The rain was torrential tonight. The victim was still conscious, struggling to raise a fist into the air. I couldn't hear her, but she was probably calling for help. But that gesture only excited the killer more. My presence as a "witness" added an extra layer of thrill for him. Like a gourmet murder feast cooked to perfection, now garnished with a surprise seasoning. Seeing him deliberately pose for the strike, I knew his dominance satisfaction had peaked. Damn it. He actually made me part of his play. I casually picked a smooth pebble from a flower pot and pulled back the elastic band of my slingshot. 2 Thwack. A direct hit to the killer's wrist. The baseball bat dropped from his hand. I pulled back the slingshot again. Thwack. The second pebble landed by his feet. Then the third, the fourth... He picked up the weapon and tried to run. I slowly pulled the band to its limit, firing three stones at once. The killer went down. I immediately called my best friend, Jane, who lives upstairs, and told her to grab her first aid kit and get downstairs. When I saw the victim's face clearly, I froze for a second. How is it her again? 3 The girl's name is Shay, my downstairs neighbor. Besides being tonight's victim, she's also the sole survivor of another serial killer case. I knew this because I have a hobby of collecting files on major criminal cases. That case happened ten years ago. The killer was a fisherman who targeted teenage girls. He would usually keep the victims on his boat, torture them for seven days, kill them, and dump the bodies at sea. Shay was only eighteen that year. I couldn't find details on what she went through. All I know is that she managed to kill the murderer, drifted at sea for three days, and survived. This girl... she's unlucky, but tough as nails. 4 Currently. Jane shouted twice: "Shay! Shay?!" Shay had lost consciousness. Jane turned to me, panicked. "Eve, she's losing a lot of blood!" Yes, that was the strange part. The killer was holding a baseball bat, but she didn't have many blunt force injuries. Instead, she had multiple stab wounds. The heavy rain washed away the blood, making it hard to find the source. I didn't have time to think. I carried her into the lobby. Once we opened her clothes, Jane gasped. This girl had at least a dozen knife wounds. One was a slash right across her head. In this condition, most people would have passed out long ago, let alone fought back or ran. And she had very few defensive wounds. It seemed she had ignored the knife and attacked aggressively, with considerable skill. She's smart. She knew that if someone is determined to kill you, curling up and defending gives you a zero percent survival rate. I pried open her tightly clenched fist and saw the killer's flesh under her fingernails. She also knew that only by touching the killer as much as possible could she leave his traces on herself. Like this handful of DNA. 5 The rain was too heavy earlier to judge blood loss. Just as we stopped the bleeding from the major wounds, Jane suddenly said, "She's stopped breathing!" I immediately started CPR. Whether she lives or dies now is up to fate. Fortunately, the police and ambulance arrived quickly. Jane ran out into the rain to guide them. Then I heard a scream: "Eve! The killer is gone!" Paramedics rushed in to take over, and I ran out to look. Sure enough, the killer who had collapsed in the rain was gone. Also missing were the baseball bat and the six pebbles I shot. This just got interesting. 6 The police didn't find it interesting. The lead detective, a woman named Jo, frowned so hard she could have crushed a fly. After a brief questioning, she determined the killer might not have gone far and ordered a search. The heavy rain was washing away evidence fast; every second counted. Shay was loaded onto the ambulance, still receiving CPR. When they put her on the ventilator, I knew she would survive. She lived alone, no family or friends seen, so Jane went with her to the hospital. The police came to my apartment to collect evidence, mainly checking the vantage point. Before I knew it, dawn broke. The good news: Jane called to say Shay survived. The bad news: The golden window for catching the killer had passed. They didn't find him. 7 That afternoon, Detective Jo brought people to my apartment to check surveillance footage. Unfortunately, the complex's cameras "coincidentally" malfunctioned last night. Shay worked as a cashier at a nearby convenience store. She was on the night shift. The police pieced together what they could from the store to the complex. 1:30 AM: Store footage showed Shay suddenly running out in terror. 1:41 AM: Complex footage showed Shay running in the rain. 1:45 AM: Shay collided with a man in black wearing a cap. They seemed to clash, he chased her, and they both vanished from the camera's view. Next was me deciding to watch the rain from my balcony at 2:24 AM. The camera there was broken. The whole thing looked strange, like a random violent conflict. But what conflict makes someone determined to kill her? She fought the killer for 39 minutes! Detective Jo asked, "Ms. Eve, is this the man you saw last night?" The cap guy appeared for only 7 seconds. I pretended to check carefully before saying, "I'm not sure." Jo: "Why?" "He didn't have that bat in his hand." Although Shay had knife wounds, I definitely saw a baseball bat. That's not something you just keep in your pocket or find on the ground. "There's no baseball culture in this city. Not even a batting cage." Carrying a knife "coincidentally" is plausible. Carrying a baseball bat "coincidentally" is absurd. This was the killer's "ritual." So, this was likely a premeditated murder. And there were at least two killers. One with a knife, one with a bat. I watched Detective Jo. Clearly, she wasn't surprised, just very disappointed. 8 But if it was premeditated, it's hard to explain why Shay suddenly ran out of the store. There was no one around her, no sound. Jo said, "We're arranging a tox screen and checking for mental health history." A reasonable deduction. But if that's the case, the killer couldn't control when she left the store. I said, "There's something that might help. Shay is a survivor of the 'Deep Sea Butcher' case." Jo stiffened. The "Deep Sea Butcher." Every cop learns about it in the academy. It's famous not just for the case itself, but for the legendary survivor. 9 Jo reacted quickly. That same day, I saw police searching the convenience store extensively. What cameras can't record is smell. As a survivor, Shay's case has been studied to death. She spent 7+3 days at sea with rotting fish and a decomposing corpse. Her file says: PTSD. Intense fear and panic attacks triggered by the smell of fish or rot. Long-term avoidance behavior. Simulating that smell isn't hard. Combined with the rain, one could use water-soluble trimethylamine hydrochloride crystals mixed with a strong base like sodium hydroxide. Reacts with rainwater. I collect case files because I have a secret hobby. I hunt criminals. Now, I'm waiting for the police to finish. I want to see if this killer suits my taste. 10 At 11 PM, Jane was still at the hospital. She called and asked me to check on Shay's pets on the 9th floor. I asked, "Is Shay awake?" She said no, it was Shay's neighbor across the hall, Mimi, who reminded her. "The dog is Bright, the cat is Skip. Clean the litter, walk the dog. Food is in the cabinet under the desk..." I went downstairs while taking notes. Shay's apartment was small, but it took effort to find the pets. They were huddled in a corner of the sofa, terrified. Bright was blind. Skip was lame. Their bowls were full. They hadn't eaten since last night. Jane: "Probably rescues. Shay is such a homebody, being gone for a day must be terrifying for them." I stayed silent.
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