“89, 90, 91...” Gabriel said between heavy breaths. Up and down, up and down as he lifted himself up on a steel pull-up bar hanging in his garage. Shirtless, covered in sweat, with music blaring throughout the concrete floored room. “99, 100.” He finished, dropping to the ground and stretching his arms a bit, shaking them and taking a few steps around. He then dropped to the ground and started doing pushups while his mother, Mrs. Estrada swung the door open and called out his name. The music was too loud though, he couldn’t hear her. She called again but he just continued doing push-ups, until finally Mrs. Estrada turned his music off, getting his attention instantly.

“What is it ma?” Gabriel asked as he got back up to his feet, breathing heavily. He walked over to grab a towel and wipe sweat off, taking a drink of water.

“David isn’t home yet, do you know where he’s gone?” Mrs. Estrada asked.

“I don’t know, probably with one of his friends?” Gabriel shrugged.

“Could you call him for me to make sure he’s safe?” Mrs. Estrada pleaded.

“Of course, ma.” He replied reluctantly.

“Oh thank you.” She smiled as he walked over to his phone resting on a small table in the Garage. He quickly dialed his little brother and put the phone to his ear while his mother watched.

“David? Where are you, it's late and ma is worried.”

“I’m okay, don’t worry. Mendez is going to show me how I can get a new laptop!” David replied excitedly.

“You’re at Mendez’s place?” Gabriel said, his tone changing instantly.

“Oh, what a relief.” Mrs. Estrada said after hearing this, and she left the garage.

“Yeah, it’s awesome here, you should see all the honeys!” David cheered.

“Put Mendez on the phone.” Gabriel replied.

“I think he’s busy right now though.”

“Put him on the phone right now.” Gabriel shouted angrily.

“Aite, chill, one sec. Mendez!” David called out. “Mendez, it’s my bro!”. After this, Gabriel could hear some muffled shuffling sounds as the phone was handed off.

“Whats up Gabe?” Mendez said in high spirits.

“What the hell’s my little bro doing at your place?” Gabriel shouted at him.

“Yo, relax, he came here on his own.” Mendez replied.

“I don’t care why he’s there, send him back now.” Gabriel ordered him.

“I aint his boss, if he wants to stay, he can stay. Maybe you should come too, see what you are missing. We celebratin’ the message we sent Tai’s boys, like you said.”

“Put my brother back on the phone.” Gabriel ordered.

“Aite homes.” Mendez said, followed by more phone rustling.

“You should come, it’s awesome here.” David said excitedly.

“You get your ass home right now.” Gabriel ordered his brother.

“No way man, this party is crazy, I might even get laid tonight!” David shouted excitedly.

“David, ma is worried, you get your ass home this instant.” Gabriel shouted.

“You’re not the boss of me man! Don’t be such a buzz kill. Lemme have some fun for once instead of always tellin’ me what to do!” David replied, and before Gabriel could get another word in, David hung up the phone. Gabriel instantly spun around and hit his punching bag with his empty hand as hard as he could, shouting in anger. He took a deep breath and stomped across the garage in his sweatpants, leaving into the house and heading to the front door.

“Oh, you’re heading out?” Mrs. Estrada asked.

“Yeah ma, I’m going to pick up David, be back in a bit.” Gabriel replied.

“Alright, can you grab some milk on your way back? We’re almost out.” She replied.

“Of course, ma.” He replied as he threw a jacket on so that he wasn’t topless and put on a pair of socks and shoes, then stomped out of the house. He then broke into a jog in the direction of Mendez’ place, running through the suburban neighborhood under the night sky. Though it was late, the streets were still noisy with all sorts of people out on their porches playing music or talking loudly. The houses were worn down and the cars parked around all looked old and bought second hand.

After about 10 minutes of jogging he saw Mendez’ place with more than 10 cars parked in the driveway and on the street. All the lights were on and there was loud music playing, but that was it, no talking, and not a person in sight, or so Gabriel thought at first. It was strange, it made him worried, and even stranger was when he spotted a tall white man standing across the street from the house wearing a black suit and black sunglasses. The man was standing still like a statue staring at the house, looking like some sort of secret agent. Gabriel ignored him for the moment and headed to the house.

As he got to the porch he spotted several people lying on the ground, none of them moving.

“Yo, what happened, you guys alright?” He asked, kneeling down to check them. None of them were bleeding. “Yall pass out or something? The heck is everyone doing?” He said, kneeling next to a guy he recognized and trying to shake him awake, but as he did he spotted a burn mark on his shirt around the shoulder area. The guy didn’t react to being shaken, worrying Gabriel further as he moved his shirt to the side to see under the burn hole, revealing a red burn on the skin of his shoulder surrounded by black marks. He then moved his hand over the guys mouth and nose to feel for breathing.

Nothing. No air was going in or out. Gabriel tried to check a pulse, but he couldn’t find one. He then stood up from kneeling, realizing that this guy was dead. He glanced around more carefully now at the other bodies. All of them had burn marks in their clothing in different spots, all of them completely still. Panic filled him, adrenaline rushed through his veins as he ran into the house, the music still obnoxiously loud. He quickly shut off the stereo while stepping over many bodies of different people, men and women, all completely still, all dead, all with burn marks somewhere on their bodies.

“David!” Gabriel shouted. “Mendez! David!” He repeated. No response, just silence. He quickly but carefully walked around the house, but David was nowhere to be found on the first floor. He then made his way up the stairs, avoiding bodies even on the second floor. They were holding drinks, some of them smiling, eyes open. It didn’t make sense, but Gabriel wasn’t trying to make sense of it, he was desperately looking for his little brother. Then he saw him, laying in the hallway on the second floor. He was holding hands with a tall girl, laying on his stomach on the carpet, eyes opened wide with his face turned towards the staircase as Gabriel reached the top.

“David!” Gabriel shouted, dropping to the ground and rolling over his little brother onto his back. He spotted the burn mark on him as well, on his leg. “David can you hear me?” he shouted, checking for a pulse. Nothing. He quickly pulled out his cell phone as his eyes started to swell up, dialing 911.

“I got an emergency! Everyone’s dead, my little brother, he’s not breathing, I need ambulances, I need a lot of ambulances!” He shouted in panic to the operator as she asked for an address. He quickly gave it, then dropped the phone and put his mouth to his brothers to breath air in, then started chest compressions. He hadn’t been trained in CPR, but he saw it enough times on TV to try it.

He pressed on his little brothers chest a couple times, then breathed more air into his mouth.

“Come on David, come on!” He shouted angrily, pressing his chest again multiple times. Hoping, praying for his little brother to wake up. Nothing happened though, no movement. He glanced around for a moment to see all the other dead bodies around him, then bent down again to breathe air into his brother. Again, he pressed on his chest as tears started streaming down his cheek.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!” He shouted in a rage. “I WAS TALKING TO YOU 10 MINUTES AGO!” He added, pounding down on his chest to try and start his heart again, but it was futile. No matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t revive his brother. He kept trying, over and over, until he could hear the faint sound of sirens from outside the house.

[Jaese - Into the Rabbit Hole]

“Kavricida!” The cloaked man screeched. Jaese couldn’t see him shout it, but he heard it clearly ringing through his ears, then he watched as Chris dropped to the ground in front of him, landing on black darkness. He and Chris were surrounded in darkness now, and the two locked eyes. Chris looked in horror as the chunk of ice stuck out of his chest, he reached his hand out for help, and as Jaese reached out to grab his hand, he vanished, and instead appeared the cloaked stranger.

“Insect.” He shouted, then a chunk of ice appeared and flew straight at Jaese’s head. Just as it connected, he awoke, shooting up in his bed breathing heavily.

“A dream...” he mumbled to himself, hearing a faint sound echoing through his apartment. A light ringing coming from his cell phone that was buried under his uniform he had thrown on the floor. As he got out of the bed to answer it, he felt a stinging in his cheek. It was two nights ago now that he got punched, and he spent most of the previous day at the hospital watching over Chris. He’d survived his second round of surgery, and he only had one left before he’d be out of danger. Thinking this, Jaese felt a bit relieved.

He thought as long as Chris would get up, he’d get answers to what happened. The blood tests they got back on him yesterday only said what he already believed, that there was nothing in his system. Still, he couldn’t explain anything. He couldn’t feel anything but doubt. As he picked up his phone to answer it he briefly checked the display to see it was Arnold.

“What is it?” Jaese asked.

“It’s about Chris.” Arnold replied, speaking in a tone that instantly stabbed into Jaese’s chest.

“What about him?” Jaese asked nervously.

“He uh... He didn’t make it through the night.” Arnold said. Numb, weak, his fingers lost grip on the phone and it dropped to the ground. Arnold spoke more, but Jaese couldn’t hear it. He then dropped to his knees as it sunk into him. He couldn’t believe it, it didn’t seem real. Chris, dead? Chris didn’t die, he was the tough one. All of this stuff happening, it couldn’t be real. All of it had to be fake, just some sort of illusion or hallucination, right? He had to see him, he thought. He regained himself as best he could. He quickly got dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, grabbed his keys and headed out of the door, rushing out of the building to his car, only to see the two officers watching over him get out of their cars and walk over to him slowly.

“Hey, sorry about hitting you...” The aggressive one spoke, but Jaese didn’t respond to them, he simply got in the car and started the engine, driving off to the hospital. When he arrived he parked his car out front and ran inside seeing several officers already there crying, most of them female. He got to the hospital elevator and pressed the button, but it didn’t open. He couldn’t wait, he went to the stairwell instead and ran up to the 3rd floor where Chris’ room was. He ran through the halls.

Just yesterday he was here, he thought. He was here and Chris was alive. So, why should today be different? Why is it different? He spotted Arnold standing with the nurse Kristen in front of the door as two doctors were pulling Chris’ bed out of the room with a sheet over his body.

“No, no no no!” Jaese shouted as he ran at them, though Arnold stopped him from passing. “How! What happened!” Jaese shouted at the doctors as they rolled the bed away. One doctor continued pulling the bed while the other, the same he had spoken to the day before, stepped forward.

“It was a miracle he held on so long with that damage to his heart. It just gave out during the night. I’m sorry, we did everything we could.” The doctor replied. Jaese’s chin crumpled up as tears rolled out.

“No.” He said one last time as he stumbled backward, almost losing his balance before Arnold grabbed him to help him stand.

“Whoa whoa, let’s sit down, over here.” Arnold led him to a nearby chair lining the hospital halls.

“Can I get you anything? Any water?” Kristen asked.

“Water would be good.” Arnold instructed her, as Jaese’ face went blank and the doctor walked away with the bed that had Chris in it.

“I know how you must be feeling, you guys have been partners since you joined the force...” Arnold said, trying to comfort Jaese but getting no response. “He was a good cop, one of the best, he didn’t deserve this. We’ll catch the guys that did this, don’t worry.” Arnold said while patting him on the shoulder.

“Guy.” Jaese replied, expressionless and staring at the wall with tears still forming in his eyes.

“What was that?” Arnold asked.

“You said you’ll catch the guys that did this, but it was only one guy. One guy killed Chris.” Jaese replied as he clenched his fist.

“I know you think you know what you saw, but we’ve gotta go after more realistic leads here.” Arnold replied to him.

“A police officer eye witness isn’t a realistic lead?” Jaese shouted back at him angrily.

“Not when he’s spouting bullshit about it snowing in April and a man shooting ice at people! Maybe if you told us what really happened we could catch the guy or guys that did this!” Arnold shouted back angrily, drawing the attention of several nurses and doctors.

“You think I’m lying about how my partner was killed?” Jaese shouted at him, grabbing his shirt by the collar and pushing him against the wall of the hospital, causing several people to rush over.

“Whoa whoa whoa, calm down.” A doctor said as he and several nurses struggled to separate the two.

“Of course I don’t, I think you need to get your shit together though, so you can give us some real information that we can use. Otherwise we’ve got nothing. No evidence at the bank except for missing money, no bullets fired, no nothing. All we’ve got is 5 dead cops and a living cop spouting crap! By all means, prove your story! I’d love for someone to explain why the hell 5 good officers of mine just fell over dead!” Arnold shouted, showing equal amounts of anger and frustration towards Jaese.

“Oh I’ll do you one better. I’ll catch the son of a bitch.” Jaese said as he shook off the doctors and stomped away from his Captain, back towards the staircase. As he left the hospital and climbed into his car, he felt his emotions running wild. Anger, Sadness, Frustration, everything running through him. He had to take a minute to calm himself down.

“Come on Jaese, think. There’s got to be some way to find out who did this, how this happened. There’s no way he could make it all disappear like some magic trick. Somebody must have noticed.” He said to himself. Thinking for a minute, then starting up his car.

When he turned the engine back off he was in the police station parking garage, and made his way inside to the detective floor. There were several units of detectives working different cases, all looking extremely busy at their desks as Jaese walked between them. As he made his way through the room he accidentally bumped into the legs of a man sitting in a chair against the wall of the office.

“Sorry.” Jaese said, looking down at him to see he was handcuffed to the chair, wearing sweatpants and an open jacket with no shirt underneath.

Gabriel simply glanced up at Jaese, then went back to staring at the ground with a dead, emotionless stare. Not more than 2 feet away was his target, and he turned and gently knocked on the desk of a short but muscular asian man who was focused on some papers on his desk.

“Oh, hey, what is it Jaese? I heard about your partner, sorry.” The man replied.

“No problem, I need your help with something Richard. Do you know who’s working the case?” Jaese asked.

“You’re looking at him. I took it when I heard you were involved, but I gotta tell you, we got nothing. The only lead we have right now is your testimony which is backed by 0 evidence, and 5 dead cops that were shot with, by your words, ice.”

“Well, do you believe my testimony?” Jaese asked.

“Well, it sounds crazy, but the wounds on the officers could be explained by ice. That’s literally all we’ve got though. So if the rest of your story is true, this is some weird houdini magic trick level stuff, I feel like I should be calling in Sherlock Holmes for this one.”

“Well, imagine putting yourself in my shoes. I saw it happen and can’t convince anyone or prove to anyone that it happened.” Jaese said angrily.

“It’s not looking good if you can’t give us something else. Not a security camera in the bank or neighboring buildings gave us anything. No evidence of anyone arriving at the scene or leaving it. But hell, the bank cameras didn’t even record you guys arriving, it’s like the whole thing didn’t happen, like it got erased.” Richard replied.

“These circumstances stand out at least, right? can you think of any other weird cases like this? Maybe you can find a lead that way.” Jaese suggested.

“You mean weird cases where there’s no evidence of what actually happened? If those existed, how’d I know about them?”

“I know one.” Gabriel said from his chair 2 feet away, causing both of them to look.

“Who’re you?” Jaese turned to ask him.

“Gabriel.” He replied, not looking up to them as he spoke.

“What case do you know about?” Jaese asked.

“Mine.” He replied.

“He came in this morning, found in a house with about 34 dead bodies, one of them his little brother.” Richard whispered to Jaese.

“34? What happened?” Jaese asked in disbelief.

“Early report says electrocution, all of them were hit with some powerful electrical charge. We’re still looking into it.” Richard replied.

“I was talking to him. On the phone, I could hear them shouting, having their party. He hung up, so I went to get him. It took me less than 10 minutes to get there, and they were already dead.” Gabriel replied.

“Yeah yeah, we heard it already, Thanks for your cooperation, you’re free to go.” Another detective said as he walked up to Gabriel and undid his handcuffs.

“Wait a sec, what did you see, do you know who might’ve done it, or what might’ve happened?” Jaese stopped Gabriel, walking over to him. He froze in place for a moment, as if thinking deep about something.

“The other guys said it must’ve been some electrical problem with something in the house, only way you can electrocute all those people like that.” Gabriel replied hesitantly.

“And do you believe that? Or do you have reason to believe something else happened?” Jaese asked desperately. Gabriel paused again, turning silently to look Jaese in the eyes as Richard and the other detective watched.

“I believe my brother died for no reason. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was a good kid.” Gabriel said with a frustrated expression, then turned and headed out of the office with a detective escort. Both Richard and Jaese watched him leave before Jaese turned back to Richard’s desk.

“I think its related.” Jaese said to Richard confidently.

“What? Really? Why? I mean I know it’s pretty strange, but its not ‘shooting ice’ strange.” Richard replied with a raised brow.

“Look for more cases like this, unexplained weapons being used to kill people. Ice, electricity, fire, anyone that has died recently to something other than good ol’ fashion bullets and knives. I’m going to go check this house out, what’s the address?”

“Here...” Richard slid a paper to him after writing the address of Mendez’ house on it. “You know you’re not a part of the detective unit, right? Tell me what you’re thinking.” Richard asked as Jaese started heading out of the office.

“I’m thinking someone out there is trying to pretend to be a wizard.” Jaese called back to him.

The house was quite a ways away, it took Jaese close to an hour of driving to get to the rundown part of town that didn’t welcome police cars, but as he arrived at the house there was already quite a few cars setting up a perimeter around the house to hold back onlookers and reporters. Jaese parked his car quite a ways away and was swarmed by reporters asking for details on what happened in the house, but he had no answers and no desire to speak with them. He simply pushed past them and through the crowd of onlookers, some crying from the loss of loved ones. When he got to the perimeter he showed his badge to an officer and was let through. But as he walked up to the porch of the house he was stopped by a man in a suit.

“Hey, this is a crime scene.” The man said, holding his hand out to block Jaese’s path.

“Yeah, I’m a cop.” Jaese replied, flashing his badge.

“I don’t care, I’m a detective, this is my scene. I don’t need anyone else messing with this shit show.” The detective replied. Jaese sighed and reached into his pocket to dial Richard, then held the phone out for the man.

“Here.” Jaese said.

“Yeah? Richard? God damn it this is my case, I- this is the ice cop? How is this related? Oh come on he’s a uniform, he doesn’t know the first thing about searching for evidence. Alr- alright, but if he messes with my crime scene it’s your ass.” The suit said into the phone before handing it back to Jaese. “Don’t touch anything, you see something you like, you tell me.” The detective said as he moved from Jaese’s path, and Jaese walked into the house.

All of the bodies were gone now, just different people walking around taking pictures.

“So what happened? I heard 34 people got electrocuted, but how?” Jaese asked as he started glancing around.

“That, is the question of the day.” The detective replied.

“Any signs of a fight?”

“None, it seemed like not a single one knew what happened.”

“What are these numbers you have everywhere?” Jaese asked, eyeing yellow plastic cards with numbers on them.

“Each represents a body, every one of them had two burn marks on their body except for one.” The detective said.

“Where was the body with only one burn mark.” Jaese asked, glancing around the house.

“Upstairs, I’ll show you, but don’t touch anything, we’re not done cataloging everything up there yet.”

“Got it.” Jaese said as he followed him upstairs into a bedroom, and the detective pointed at a number 34 sitting on the bed. “Why did this guy only have one burn mark?”.

“Richard said you’d be helping me out, not asking questions I’m still trying to solve myself. We’ll know more about why and what sort of electricity killed them when we get the autopsy reports back.” The detective said, sounding annoyed, but Jaese then noticed something strange.

“Because he was the last one to die... the electricity didn’t need to jump anymore...” Jaese said quietly as he looked carefully at the plastic card for 33.

“33 here, 32 here...” He followed the cards out of the bedroom to the upstairs hall, then headed down the stairs. “23, 22...” He continued, the detective following behind him. He followed the cards all through the house, every single room, until he arrived back out front, on the porch.

“3, 2... 1.” Jaese stepped past the last yellow card.

“So it started here, outside, where there is no electricity at all?” The detective asked in disbelief.

“Yeah...” Jaese said as he glanced around the lawn of the house to try and spot some form of evidence, only briefly taking note of all the onlookers shouting as they were held back by the police.

“Let’s say I follow the theory that 34 was last because the electricity was jumping from person to person, how would someone make electricity do that?” the detective asked.

“Not electricity... Lightning.” Jaese said quietly.

“Oh you gotta be kidding me, first ice, now lightning. I don’t know why I listened to Richard.” The detective sighed angrily, turning from Jaese and heading back inside. Jaese ignored him and instead called up Richard on the phone.

“It’s related, I think it’s the same guy.” Jaese said to him as he started pushing back through the crowd to his car.

“How can you be sure?” Richard asked.

“They somehow shot electricity and made it jump between 34 people without it hitting anything else in the house. How would you control electricity like that to jump exactly where you want it to?” Jaese asked Richard.

“I don’t know... Shove a bunch of lightning rods on all of them?” Richard suggested.

“Something like that would work, but it seems unbelievable that someone would be able to stick that on 34 people without being noticed, right? And if you remove them afterwards it would look like you used wizard magic to kill them...” Jaese went on.

“Gabriel said he talked to his brother 10 minutes before getting to the house. That means our guy had 10 minutes to shoot them with his electricity and remove all the ‘mini’ receptors or whatever he used, off of 34 people. That seems a bit much for one guy to do.” Richard replied doubtful.

“Could be more than one working together to pull off these tricks.” Jaese suggested.

“Alright, why kill 34 gangsters having a party?” Richard asked.

“The other officers were killed to rob the bank, when the guy talked he called us insects, like he felt superior to us... In this case, nothing was stolen, so they were killed for a reason. Maybe the gang unit might know. I’m going to go ask Gabriel and see if he might know more than he was saying.” Jaese replied.

“Got it.” Richard replied as he hung up the phone and Jaese climbed back into his car. Holding the steering wheel still felt strange, it was usually Chris that drove. As he thought this he felt sadness seeping in and shook it off quickly, clenching his fingers on the wheel as he started the engine.

“I’ll catch this guy no matter what.” he said to himself, driving off.