Chapter 1: Lakeview Arrival

A tourist sight, a place like no other, this was Lakeview, Oregon. One of the many states inside the United States that looked more like a European country, Lakeview was home to many things, including the Lakeview Mountain, a large mountain that overviewed the lake. The perfect place to retire and be in touch with nature.

A black non-descript sedan vehicle parked just outside an abandoned gift shop, in the middle of the woods. Four doors, clear windows and creme-colored seats and interior. Inside, two people opened each of their doors, leaving the vehicle.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” A woman left from the driver’s seat, with a bob cut and black hair that turned platinum blonde in the tips. Pinkish white skin, and a black shirt, which was under a dark blue jacket. She had black boots on, as it was much better to walk in the woods.

“Not a bad place. I’ve always liked the woods.” A man left from the passenger seat, with brown skin, bald, but with a stubble. He had a similar dark blue jacket but had a proper suit, and matching black boots, at least they looked like it was matching with hers.

“Yeah, Remy. You always liked the woods,” the woman said to him as they walked down to the gift shop, “I know you keep asking to be out here. And turns out, this crap assignment landed like a parachute in our desk.”

“Sure thing, Jess. But I’d like to come down here on my vacation, not for work.” He replied.

As they walked down towards the gift shop, their backs revealed their true allegiance: FBI. Agents on the field looking for something, someone.

Inside the gift shop, a murder scene, and plenty of clues, procedures. Blood on the ground, a body inside a tumbled fridge for cold beverages. The entire place was overgrown, nature was reclaiming what belonged to her at one point.

“Agents Watts and Brightman, FBI.” Agent Watts said to the solo officer inside the gift shop. A male with orangish-white skin, and red hair. Green eyes and freckles. A certified country bumpkin.

“FBI?” The officer asked, confused. “I didn’t think the FBI would come for this guy.”

“Well, we didn’t want to come here either,” Agent Watts said, showing her badge to the officer. “But jobs are jobs.”

“I meant that the FBI wouldn’t come here for a murder in the woods. Don’t you guys have better cases to take?” The officer asked the two agents, unsure why they would bother.

“Serial killer on the loose, doing killings all over the country. MO fits the description, so here we are.” Agent Brightman said to the officer.

“Well, don’t let me stop you two… My name’s Jim Blackburn, but you can call me Jimmy.” Officer Blackburn said to the two agents, and continued talking about the victim. “We got a call 2 days ago, someone that was doing some sort of cheap streaming shit in the woods found the dead body.” The officer said, putting hands on his hips. “No signs of forced entry.”

Agent Watts got closer to the body. “Lacerations in the chest, and a large wound in the abdomen. Probably the cause of death.”

Agent Brightman looked at Officer Blackburn. “Any ID on the victim?”

“Victim is suspected to be a visitor from out of town. We haven’t been able to confirm the ID just yet.” Officer Blackburn replied.

“What about the guy that found him?” Agent Brightman questioned.

“We have him under custody for a few days in the sheriff’s office. You can ask him your questions there.” Officer Blackburn replied again, being pretty straightforward. “Are you two gonna take over the case? My boss really dislikes the feds, so he’ll be pretty mad if you do that.”

“Yeah, it’s under our jurisdiction now. Since, you know, serial killer.” Agent Brightman replied.

Agent Watts stopped looking at the body and looked at the officer. “Get someone to get him to a coroner. Although it’s pretty clear what killed this guy, we still need to examine him.”

“Okay. I’ll get someone to handle the body.” Officer Blackburn turned on his radio. “Amy. We need to get the body back to town.”

The reply came almost immediately, a female voice that was a little unexpected. “Alright. I’ll be there soon, Jimmy.”

“In the meantime, we’ll investigate the immediate area.” Agent Watts said, as she and Agent Brightman left the gift shop.

“So. Murder in the woods? Is this our serial killer?” Agent Brightman asked out loud to his partner, who looked at him with a face that could only be described as ‘are you really asking this?’.

“Yeah, very likely. Probably too likely.” Agent Watts replied.

The two investigated the exterior of the rundown gift shop. ‘Lakeview Point Gift Shop’ was the name in the rundown sign that was on the ground. The immediate area was more or less a rundown parking lot, only a few cars could park at any time, but nature was almost reclaiming it completely. The green was making its way through the wooden walls of the store, and the tall grass covered half the windows. A perfect place to get away with murder.

Agent Watts looked at the parking lot and didn’t find anything useful until her eye locked into a piece of paper. It looked well maintained, which was unlike anything else in this place. “Hey, Remy. Found something. A piece of paper.” She said, and her partner from afar approached her. She used her gloves to grab the paper from the ground. “Looks like a manuscript.”

She decided to read it out loud.

“‘A murder inside the gift shop. A possible serial killer on the loose. These were the facts that stood against the agents. He was there, the victim, lying inside a broken fridge for beverages, now only carrying the faded dreams and hopes of a human. He was no more different than anything else in nature, part of the cycle of life and death. He was murdered, not a suicide.’

‘He wrote this story for them to find, he planned everything since the first day. He wanted to be free but also he wanted to be found. Nothing was gonna stop him, the writer, and now the agents were looking for him, the prime suspect for the murder. He said he didn’t do anything when he was questioned, the dead body was already in that state when he found it.’

This streamer was the type of person that would do some sort of insane chicken-shit stunt, like showing a dead body live to an audience and eventually get millions of views for it. He was taken into custody because he was being stupid. But he had nothing to fear because people that were watching the streamer saved the video, and it could be used to prove his innocence.’

‘In any case, the agents had a new case in their hands. The illogical clues of a manuscript that would lead them into the most complex case of their lives.’”

Agent Watts looked like her brain short-circuited from the information. Was this a manuscript of a story that was written by the killer? By an observer? Maybe by the victim? It was hard to tell as it went back and forth. “What is this?”

“The guy is definitely playing a game here, Jess. Typical serial killer behavior, if you ask me.” Agent Brightman replied.

“Hate to do this but if this is a game, I think we need to find more pages. They’ll give us more clues about this guy, if he’s making us play this.” She said, putting the page inside a bag that was inside her pocket the entire time, just waiting to be used.

The two went back to the car, and drove to the town, Lakeview.

“Didn’t an FBI agent go missing around these parts about 4 years ago?” Agent Watts asked her partner.

“No, that was in Washington, we are in Oregon.” Agent Brightman replied.

“Like that makes it any different. It’s all trees and a fucking road in the middle.” She snarled, angry at the fact the killer was messing with them.

“Yeah, I bet you love the place.” He chuckled, thinking that her anger was enough reason to poke her. “That guy was an ex-agent by the way. He was here on his own. Trying to get a writer.”

“Oh, I heard of that. Big shot writer from the Big Apple, right? Weren’t all his works kinda terrible?” She asked, keeping her eyes on the road that curved more often than not.

“You know what they say. One man’s trash is another man’s pleasure.” Agent Brightman smirked at her. “I’ve read a few. I know some guys that bought the entire sixtology. And hold a lot of contempt for killing the main character in the last book.”

“More like guilty pleasure.” Agent Watts smirked back. “But if this is anything like any of his books, I think we’re screwed. Imagine getting a guy that can only write one style to do another. He’s gonna be suffering for decades.”

The conversation soon stopped as they got focused on getting into town and talking to some townies as well the guy that found the victim. Maybe something would come up. Immediately stepping off the vehicle, Agent Watts stepped on a rock that made her look down. But a few steps away, a page under the vehicle. She quickly grabbed it and read it on her own but headed out to check the town with her partner.

With their jackets with the letters ‘FBI’, they got plenty of looks, but no one wanted to be seen as guilty of anything. It was quite amusing to see a town that was not as bright or sunny as the next one to be damp and moody when the three letters show up.

First things first, they went to the sheriff’s office to question the streamer. The rustic look of the building betrayed its intentions, to house criminals of this small town. Before that, they had to deal with the sheriff.

“Agents Watts and Brightman, FBI.” She said, showing her badge at the main desk. “We want to question the person who found the dead body inside the gift shop in Lakeview Point.”

“Su-” Before the officer at the main desk could reply, the sheriff showed up. Cowboy hat, light gress shirt, jeans, overweight, blue eyes, dark blonde hair and beard, and pinkish-white skin, but most important, a face of contempt.

“What y’all doin’ ‘ere? This ain’t no place for you feds! Town’s clean and serene, ya know? Lakeview is peaceful, nothing ever happens here!” The sheriff said, disapproving and greatly of the agents.

“I understand your con-” Agent Brightman was about to talk but the sheriff talked over him.

“You don’t understand jack-squat, fed. My town is gonna be in the news for this crap and we’ll be getting even more visitors that are gonna ruin my hometown. Y’all presence here is already damagin’ Lakeview.”

Agent Watts was not a woman to be taken lightly so she immediately replied. “So, that means that you’re willing to let a serial killer on the loose? Just because your cute little town can’t survive an investigation of a murder?” She questioned the sheriff and he had no response.

“There’s a reason why only two of us came here and it’s because we, agents of the FBI, the ‘feds’ you so disavow being here, don’t want to cause any more trouble or make it on the news. You probably noticed that the only thing that happened was the person that found the body being a streamer but that means nothing to your town, he was probably a local since you’re not talking about him. Now, if you want the trouble to go away, let us do our investigation and we’ll be on our way.”

The sheriff winced, he couldn’t reply, not to that. “Tch. Fine. Have it your way, feds.” He scoffed at them, and left the main lobby.

“The person that found the body is in a holding cell, downstairs.” The officer at the front desk informed the agents. They headed straight there.

Inside the cell, a man with plenty of tattoos in his arms, a white shirt, jeans and shaved head (but hair was growing back, meaning he shaved it everyday). A mean look as he looked down, sitting as he was certainly contemplating his life choices.

“Agents Watts and Brightman, FBI.” Agent Watts presented herself and her partner to him.

“Oh shit! The feds!” He said, looking up at them. “What do you want? I didn’t do anything!”

“Relax, we just want to ask some questions.” Agent Brightman said, looking and profiling the man.

“Okay.” The man behind bars replied.

“Start by your name.” Agent Watts asked him, but it wasn’t really a question, more like an imposition.

“Name’s Logal Phoenix. Local streamer on ‘yust.tv’. Every Wednesday I do my ‘Walk on Lake Woods With Logal’ stream. I bought a camera from NYC just to do that, you know how expensive it was? And that damn sheriff took it.” He suddenly snapped, but at the sheriff.

“Mister Phoenix, tell me what you saw while doing your stream.” Agent Watts got a pen and paper to write it down.

“Well…” He reminisced…

“I was minding my own business. Usually I set up the camera while I go around, but this time, I did it from my car.”

“‘Hello viewers!,’ says Logal as he talks to the camera, ‘we got at least 100 people and climbing! I’m gonna take you guys and gals on a journey! Today we’re going to the Lakeview Point Gift Shop! It was abandoned in 2009, once the owner moved to Washington. Legends say he left it because it was abandoned and today…’ Logal handles the camera and closes the door of his car. ‘We’ll check it out.’”

“Then I went nearby. I couldn’t smell much, since the woods were kinda windy on Wednesday… And I was a bit more sickly but I was making some money being at ‘yust’. So I headed inside.”

‘Yo, what the hell? Is this…?’ Logal sees the body and checks that it had a large stab wound.

“I immediately turned away and ended the stream, calling the cops.”

“And I’ve been here since Wednesday… At least the lady officer at the front desk gave me some food but I need to go home… And get a shower.” Logal said.

“We’ll see it with the sheriff. We also found a page near the store.” Agent Watts showed Logal the page.

“I didn’t see anything like that anywhere… The cops that were at the place didn’t see anything and I was inside the car the whole time before they took me here. I didn’t see anything on the ground either.” He sounded very apologetic.

“Hm. Alright. We’ll talk to the sheriff.” Agent Watts said, with her partner following her upstairs. She stormed into the sheriff’s room, almost kicking the door open.

“Release Mister Phoenix. He’s innocent.” She said, pretty much without a hint of care for the reply. Agent Brightman soon joined.

“What ‘da ‘ell?! Y’all think y’all can just be bossin’ me ‘round like ‘dat?! This ain’t y’all town!” The sheriff was very much startled seeing she got in uninvited. “Get the eff off mah ‘ffice!”

“If you don’t release him, I’ll make your life a living hell. And I mean it. I get shit down on you from such a height that you think that God himself has crapped on you. You understand?” Agent Watts was beyond furious at this sheriff and it showed.

“Fine! Y’all fuckin’ feds… Always the same! Now get the eff off” He complained, and both agents left the room.

“Nice words…” He was impressed with his partner.

“Thanks, it was from a game I saw my nephew play.” She replied.

The two asked for the officer at the front desk to release Logal from their custody. Soon the man was off the station, and immediately went home.

“We’ll talk to him later, when he’s less stressed out.” Agent Watts said to her partner.

As they were leaving, another officer called them out. A male in his 50s, no beard, plenty of hair still, and somewhat a muscular build. “Agents? Officer Pearson. You two saw my partner at the crime scene, Officer Blackburn. I took the streamer guy here. Guess he was innocent.”

“Not really, officer.” Agent Brightman replied. “People tend to not be in their best state when asked to do things while being behind bars. Letting him rest and take care of himself for a bit will allow us to get more information out of him.”

“Hey, you two are the experts here. Anyways, I came here because I have an ID of the victim. Famous writer Sean Leap. He changed his legal name in 2005 from Sean Booth. Here’s a picture of him.” Officer Pearson said, showing an image of the victim, a bit less dead.

Sean Leap, artist. The mug shot was the victim, brown eyes, brown short hair, no beard, a neutral face expression. “Found this picture of him online after a bunch of searching. It tracks, he said he was coming to Lakeview after being stuck on writer’s block after a few years. He was gonna be in the Motel outside of town. Called the place and front desk says he hasn’t shown up in two days.”

Both agents looked at each other. “Thank you.” Agent Watts said, taking the photo from him. “Let’s ask around if anyone knew or saw him.”

“If I come across anything, I’ll let you know.” He said, taking his leave.

Agent Watts looked at her partner, as both left the station. “Someone here is useful, at least.”

“Yeah, they can’t be all smart-asses, Jess.” Agent Brightman chuckled.