Prologue
The wind howled through the streets of Paris, and snow swirled in a frenzy around the buildings along the banks of the Seine, frozen into glittering ice sculptures by the frigid weather. A few pedestrians hurriedly pushed their way through the swirling flakes attempting to flea the storm but maybe they were trying to escape from something more. They didn't know that there was more coming after them than the snow.
The cold seeped into the body of the young man, and he shivered as he pulled his coat closer around him. He wished he could have just stayed home but he was needed at The Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont to investigate a bloody crime. The murders hadn’t stopped all week. The corpses kept piling up and even the priests were running out of ideas. All the people who had died during the past month were all different woman in ages spanning from fifteen to twenty five.So far it was seventeen killed this month each sharing similar resemblance with the others.The man sighed as he made his way up the cathedral steps his gaze fell upon the gargoyles on either side of the church doors before continuing up the stairs. He passed under the portico, making a beeline for the entrance of the chapel.
As soon as he entered he knew it was going to be another grim day,the air hung cold and frigid in the chapel as a crowd of priests and police swarmed the chamber. He took a deep breath, his eyes falling to the ground as he made his way over to the front of the crowd. It wasn't long before his eyes came to rest on an old nun who looked like she couldn't possibly be any older then fifty.This made no sense he thought all the victims so far were much younger and none had been sisters serving the church.He frowned, not liking the creeping feeling crawling up his neck he got whenever he looked at her. He felt a strange pull towards the woman and decided to make his way over to the corpse.His attention was diverted from the old nun by the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him. He turned quickly finding a tall pale man roughly about mid thirty something standing beside him. He wore a dark brown cloak with a silver collar framing his face, black gloves covering his hands as well as his face. His hair was slightly longer than he was used to seeing, although not unruly. He stared down at the young man as if judging his worth and when he spoke it was without emotion. “I see you're the one investigating this spree of killings" the young man nodded"Yes sir but I have reason to believe this death is not connected to the others" upon hearing this the older gentleman frowned,his brow creasing as he looked down in thought before answering."And what makes you say that?" "Because," the young man paused taking a breath he continued "I'm pretty sure all the victims so far have been younger women all sharing similar features such as long brown hair while this body is of an older woman in her fiftes."The gentleman sighed "I suppose you may be onto something but with all these bodies piling up in our city the public is becoming increasingly frustrated" at this point the younger male sighed and said,"Then why don't we find the person responsible for these killings along with whoever killed the sister so that the city may be at ease once more" upon receiving confirmation of the young mans plan the older man nodded, turning away from the crowd he walked to a set of double doors. He opened the doors, the young man following close behind him. He was led into a large room filled with various pews. The room was nearly packed with nuns all very clearly distressed.The older man cleared his throat before addressing the room"Everyone this is Inspector Aufroy he will be working on finding the cause of Sister Aimee's death, please tell him as much as you can to aid in his investigation" he paused waiting a moment for the responses of the nuns before speaking again, his voice now holding a bit more authority,"Please remain calm" at this the nuns nodded and the inspector stepped aside allowing the young man to speak first. "Thank you everyone, I want you all to stay together and I expect you all to cooperate with each other"and with that the investigation began.
