fiction

Mystery, crime, murder, unsolved cases. Contribute your own tales of crime to Criminal.

Hope dies in the end.
“Bennie?” I faintly heard my name being called. I shook myself from the daydream I was in turning my head slightly to look at my partner. “What?” I asked. She threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes. “Were you not listening that whole time?!” My friend and partner Ivana was the chatty type. She was a blond hair blue eyed Russian who was so beautiful that she thought everyone around her hung on her every word. Which to be fair most did. I on the other hand had been her friend for a long time so I no longer fell under that spell. She had been talking about her night and how boring the guy was she had met up with. What was the name she called him? Jim…Joe…Jude… Her friend was still looking at her expectantly. “Of course, I heard you…you had a boring night with a guy you met up with.” Ivana crossed her arms. “What was his name?” I smirked. “You got me there.” I turned back to the reason I was here as I heard her huff. I looked through my scope watching the people on the ground move through their daily lives. There was a man standing in the alley between two building barely in my line of sight selling something to a woman holding the hand of a little girl with pigtails and a pink flowery dress. There was a man sitting against a building playing guitar. While prostitutes milled around nearby. The people, buildings and streets looked far different then the pictures and videos I was shown in school. In the pictures I had seen the people looked more colorful, happy. The buildings were in better shape and the streets were far cleaner. But after the bombings of the country’s financial centers, before I was born, everything had changed. The gap between wealthy and poor grew exponentially. It was a simultaneous coordinated attack by hackers and a militia. The hackers hit the data centers digitally and the militia bombed the buildings with the back up paper copies of all financial transactions. You see the government had passed laws forcing all companies to submit transactions made of any amount to central hubs so the government could keep better track of all money in the country. The laws never received any support until several terrorist attacks happened on weak financial institutes compromising the financial structure. The government thought they could best secure all this information. Which in turn gave them far more power over the people. A lot of people didn’t seem to mind though because it thought it made them more secure. And it worked for a while but as most things go in history people got greedy and started using the information in the wrong way. Once this redistribution attack as they called it happened the rich banded together pressuring the government. The attack had back fired. The government embarrassed and disgraced caved to them. The rich began privatizing everything. From the military and police force to hospitals and schools. The common citizen had to pay for everything now. There were no government hand outs anymore. You got what you paid for. In school, the more you paid the more thorough the child’s education was. Same for hospitals. The government was still allowed to have a standing army, but it was now used more for the security of the borders and a show of force. The police changed the most. Now if you wanted the police out you had to pay. The rich tried to make it look fair so whom ever the guilt party was had to pay the majority of the fee. It was no longer a fight between races but the haves and have nots. A lot had changed in the past thirty years.
By LEE PECK5 years ago in Criminal
Ksi
Anthrax Tower. Sewage is seeping through the manhole covers. KSI et al. drop by Isaac's Deli for an Early Bird Special: a twisted chicken and a quart of deli salad for 50% off. Helmets are supplied free of charge. (Luckily KSI has a friend who works here.)
By Julie Eileen OBrien5 years ago in Criminal
True Cost of A Heart Shaped Locket
Doing his best to avoid the extremely thin and heavily stained mattress he sat quietly on the edge of the metal shelf which served as a bed. He was unsure of what the stains were but he knew they had to have been the remnants of various bodily fluids donated by the many, anonymous previous occupants of the eight by six foot cell. He thought that this jail had been around since before he was born and imagined the list of previous occupants was quite long. He had tried to just stand but gravity had gotten the better of him as his legs tired. He sat in the harsh light filtered by a metal grill over a dirty glass cover. He sat quietly with his arms folded across his stomach still holding his pants up. A guard had taken his belt along with his coat, hat, wallet, keys, and other possessions. They had given him soft slippers in place of his laced shoes. He sat there looking down at the slippers cringing from the thought of why as he listened to the faint sound of weeping in the distance.
By V. H. Eberle5 years ago in Criminal
KILLER DOUBLE
REBA. It was just after dinner. There was a roof-top terrace and the neighbors in our apartment decided to meet there for after dinner drinks. It was April and the weather was mild that evening. There were 8 apartments in our building. 4 married couples and 4 single tenants. I was one of the single tenants. I collected the drinks I would be contributing and headed up to the rooftop, blanket in tow. Sometimes it got a little chilly at night.
By Ann Bloom5 years ago in Criminal
The Suicider
Simon had split from his long term girlfriend and was very unhappy where he was living and decided to move away to a new area where he could forget and start afresh. Simon realised that as he had no ties, he could live anywhere he chose.
By Ray Stuart5 years ago in Criminal
The Hypnotist
Michael was a hypnotist. He entertained many people from all walks of life. His shows were sold out wherever he performed and he relished being on stage, savouring all the gasps and laughter. The audience loved his shows and Michael loved the audience, never ceasing to be amazed at their enthusiasm to participate. A different set of characters willingly made fools of themselves each week, and they just kept on coming.
By Ray Stuart5 years ago in Criminal
The Kidnapping
Brother and Sister known as Tom and Sarah. Both had serious problems. Tom had huge gambling debts and Sarah was having an affair with a married man who was called Alex. .Sarah's boyfriend Alex discovered that Tom was repaying his gambling debts by creaming off the profits from the families building business. Alex knew the parents had entrusted Tom and Sarah with the management of their business one last time. Especially when Tom lost a large sum of money, on one of his development plans. He also knew that the parents, would be devastated to find that Tom, had done it again and had been "cooking the books" to pay back the loss. Alex and Sarah's relationship had deteriorated, and Alex was about to end the affair. But first he decided that he would make a little bit of extra cash. Alex told Sarah that he was going to blackmail Tom, and told Sarah everything he knew. Sarah threatened to tell his wife and call Alex's bluff. Alex then turned nasty. "Tell my wife, that relationship ended years ago. However your parents will still find out what a nasty little man your brother is and that neither of you can be trusted to run the company ever again" Sarah agreed to pay the blackmail money instead of her brother. Sarah knew that if Alex tried to blackmail Tom then he would not pay, Sarah also knew that if their parents found out about Tom's deceitfulness and her affair. This would be the last straw. So Sarah was also forced to use her parents' business profits to keep Alex quiet.
By Ray Stuart5 years ago in Criminal
Firecrackers and Actual Crackers
Silence – dead silence. It is heavenly to most, but to me, it meant getting caught. That didn’t scare me. Nothing scared me anymore. I’m Jax Enzo, a name to be reckoned with. In the heart of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota everyone knows who I am. What makes my life even better? I can go out in public and live a normal life with no restrictions No one knows what I look like. I’m that good. It’s amazing.
By Kayla Ricci5 years ago in Criminal
-Freedom Survivors-
It was the evening of the 4th of July 2022. Faith, or Faye, (as her close friends had used as an endearing moniker), lay in her bed on her back. Staring at the ceiling, she wondered, being awestruck. Her breathing grew tighter as she laid wide-eyed clenching her pillow tighter than before a few minutes ago. She reached by her neck to grab a golden heart-shaped locket attached to a necklace strung snugly around her neck. Her grandmother had given the charm to her on her 17th birthday four months ago. That February, at her graduation party from high school, her grandmother Doris had gifted the item to her so she would always remember that special day. Her grandmother was rather wealthy and well-to-do in her community. She lived in Jasper Alabama on Delaware ave. It was an upscale development where the homes there were mansions. There were also a few homes that were more likened to castles. The fine brick buildings were a thing of the past as to how homes were now being built. Her grandmother would show up to birthday events, special occasions, and weekend shopping getaways where she would go out with Faith and her older sister Jess, (short for Jessica). The golden heart-shaped locket was a special gift Faith received after everyone heard of her recent grades in high school from her mother Cathleen spreading the good news to everyone.
By Brandon Ferris Benedict5 years ago in Criminal
Past Curfew
I shiver as a cold October wind rustles the leaves on the ground in front of me. I don’t really know why I came out here tonight; it’s not like I’m going to find anything. If the police couldn’t find her with all the ridiculous technology they have these days, she’s gone.
By Tris Gray5 years ago in Criminal
Malicious Mechanic
“Trixie did you place that ad on Face Book? Good, good. Make sure you go on all those Rants and reviews pages too. I want to start booking appointments right away. They need to all be booked within a two week span so we are going to work these three counties with three different numbers. Yes, Chuck Chambers aka “CC”, Bobby Boston and Aaron Ackerman. Ackerman will be working in Lake County, Boston in Orange and CC in Seminole County. You already have reviews written up right? Good, good okay, well I will meet you at the spot after I gather these addresses to put on the stationary.”
By Cam Rascoe5 years ago in Criminal
Roses on the moon
My Passion By Patrick Wade I saw these pictures in my head. They would come to me like flashes, I would see these landscapes, and characters, and they would tell stories. In a perfect world I would make movies. This movie is called Roses on the Moon. The film is a romance. I wanted it to make you happy, but in a crisp way. The way that pulls at your heart.
By Patrick Wade5 years ago in Criminal