winnifred nox | peacekeeper | fin

WINN

He was Nox, thank you very much, or Winn if you were lucky. Anything else, especially calling him Winniford would result in something most unpleasant for the speaker.

He prided himself on not only being a peacekeeper fresh out of the academy, but on being the youngest instructor in the District Four Peacekeeping Academy. He called himself exceptional, and the sad thing was: he was. It was too often that those who fought for what they got were looked at for the good in them when truthfully they were all monsters who had done more harm than good. Yes, the rise to power was always an inspirational story when it was dipped in sugar. The cold hard truth? Person after person was stepped on in order to gain leverage. The only way to achieve power was to use the power one already had.

And Nox never minded climbing over the competition if it meant seeing his own name in shining lights.

A little secret: the case that gave Nox such pull in the industry at such a young age is actually terrifying: haunting in a manner that everyone knows what the truth is but none are brave to say anything.

O C E A N T I M E S
FOUR'S #1 NEWSPAPER

Tragedy struck the district this morning when the body of one woman, Penelope Klardie, 42, was discovered at the Southern Side Beach at approximately 9:42 a.m. Klardie's murder is believed to be the latest installment in the series of murders by the unidentified "Waterboy" killings, as Klardie fits the bill of description. All eight victims thus far have been in their late thirties or early forties. Five of the eight had children, Klardie included. Most were financially fortunate, and all are either widowed or divorced.

Klardie was widowed to Patrick Klardie, who tragically drowned while working six years. With the death of Penelope, daughter Sophie, seventeen, will be living with her paternal grandparents, Jordy and Lester until further notice.

Peacekeepers have issued an official curfew and advise everyone to avoid travelling alone at any time. Waterboy, as we know, binds his victims and carves the date of their murder onto their foreheads before drowning them. The victims have all died from hydro-asphyxiation, however, water found in autopsies revealed a salt content too low for the victims to have been murdered in the ocean, despite all bodies being found near the shoreline.

An autopsy for Klardie will take place later today and results will be shared with the public at noon tomorrow.

He knew it would have taken years to climb the ranks the fair way and, in truth, he wanted his power as soon as possible. His murders were textbook, basically copied from the real-life situations he had been quizzed on for years. He ensured he was assigned the case after the first murder and watched as others all begged for the case when it exploded. "A more seasoned professional would really be more suited," one had even said, and he laughed. He may not have been seasoned, but he was the best one for the case. After all, he practically lived with the killer.

After he dumped Penelope's body, he knew just what to do. It was easy, really. He dumped the same zip-ties he'd used on his victims under a floorboard in his birth father's living room, as well as an ice-pick still fresh with Penelope Klardie's blood, a pair of latex gloves, a black hooded jacket, and sand-covered combat boots. Phony lead after phony lead and eventually he found himself on the doorstep of the man who had left him, his older brother, and his mother when he was only a child. Another man had stepped in and kept them alive. They had changed their last names to his and all the other boring shit no one cared about but Nox never forgot.

Obviously.

After claiming he felt very strongly that the man was very nervous and off-put when he questioned him, he was granted permission to search his home. Oops, he conveniently found all of the items he had placed himself and, well, he wouldn't be able to run away from anyone ever again. That was for sure.

People claimed Nox had potential to run the entire Peacekeeping branch someday. They said that if he kept up the incredible performances, it wouldn't be long and he might even work right beneath the president himself. For the time being, though, he would settle for being an instructor at the very same academy he himself had graduated from only a year before.

Maybe he had a soft spot of the kids like himself, the ones who had been raised from ashes and told they wouldn't ever amount to anything, the ones who were swimming in debt because of their dreams and too prideful to move on and get new dreams. Whatever the case, he actually found himself in a compromising position. He actually aided a young boy in falsifying evidence against another student simply because he knew the student was having a hard time being number one. Brentley Grey, on the other hand, had no trouble being a star student, and for whatever reason, it annoyed Nox to no end. Skip a few months and Brent was unheard of and Mathias was number one at the academy.

He didn't mind stepping on others to get what he wanted, and apparently he didn't mind stepping on others to get people like him to the top either. And it's funny, because no one ever suspected him: short, stalky, with sweet, unassuming blue eyes, chewed off finger nails, and an easy smile: he was not built to be a psychopath. He was built to be a sweetheart, a gentle soul, one of the people other stepped on to achieve their dreams. But somehow, the face beneath those pretty dark locks of hair, a monster had been built.

And he only grew stronger with each passing day.