The Tale Of How Frank Iero Falls for Two Vampires.

Detective Frank Iero, at your service.

People had been dropping like flies for days. The weird thing is, no one knows if they’d actually been “dropping” or what. Just that they were here one day, and now they’re not.

Whether that means they died, or ran away, or got abducted by aliens, I don’t know. I am just the man who reads the paper and watches the news. Obviously I’d come up with all my own conspiracy theories, and that’s the reason why no one would ever want me involved in the case of: “The Disappearing Acts of Newark.”

I laugh at the thought, because this whole scandal doesn’t even have a name. I am just crazy and have a lot of time on my hands. I don’t even do anything like this for a living. I am simply in my first year of college for Forensic Science, but haven’t even decided how far I want to extend that study. I am also on my summer break. Most, if not all of my class definitely would not be spending their free time like this.

My eyes scan the headline for about the fifth time. “Body Snatcher Strikes Again!” So the cause has a name, but the whole ordeal does not. They’re calling the ‘who’ or ‘what’ causing the human race to disappear into thin air ‘Body Snatcher’. Seems very original. I continue reading, having analyzed the first three sentences way too much to have continued much further than that. This one marks five bodies in two weeks, which has caused quite the uproar.

Yes, New Jersey is quite the crime-riddled place, but this is taking it up by at least three more levels than it ever has in my eighteen years of being alive. I’d read stuff and even seen with my own eyes the drug deals and drive-by shootings. So far nothing of a potential serial killer. It was actually a little exciting, I just hoped I wouldn’t become a victim.

I would try my best to steer clear of whatever maniac is causing this. I had dived into every news article, the town gossip, the shaken news reporters trying to remain calm while talking about this dreadful situation, but failing miserably. I have high hopes I could escape the ‘Body Snatcher’ and maybe even catch whatever, or whoever it is myself. I was only a little full of myself.

The sound of the front door opening rang through my ears, I hardly paid any attention as I continued reading.

“Frank? Honey, what are you doing?” It was my mother, she was home from work already.

“Reading,” I didn’t even pull my eyes away from the newspaper. Things were getting spicy. Still no news on who or what the suspect was, but clearly the town was getting livid at how little anyone was doing to stop the disappearances. It was fascinating.

Mom set her keys down on the counter and sighed as she saw the reading material clearly. “Again? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

I shook my head. “No. You won’t let me get a job and all my friends haven’t talked to me since we graduated high school. I enjoy this.”

She was one of those people who got squeamish at this sort of thing. She would shut the television off or throw the paper somewhere where she wouldn’t have to look at it. It was only kept around for me, because she knows that I would get upset if she tossed it in the garbage.

She grimaced, a frown painting her lips. She was uncomfortable, but knew there was nothing she could do to change her morbid son’s mind. “Alright… just don’t talk to me about what you read. You know I can’t stand that crap.”

As we all know. I silently nodded and continued with the article. Nothing new, the same nonsense as every other time. I let out a sigh of disappointment and got up, folding the paper in half and shoving it into the trash. I actually had hope that there would be new information.

Wishful thinking, I guess. I looked over to the other side of the table. I had a notebook and pen sitting there, just waiting for me to come back to them. I’d been writing all my own theories and stories.