Okay, that was an improvement. He wanted to talk. I inched closer to the door so I didn't have to shout and so I could talk about more sensitive issues without giving up the ghost to the other officers.

"Alright Benjamin. Are your parents okay? You okay? Not hurt too bad?"

"N-no. I uh. I couldn't control myself. Hurt people. Hurt myself. I-I'm so hungry, I don't know what to do, man!"

That tracked. Connie's hypothesis was correct then. Guy was hungry and nothing seemed to sate that urge. So he got violent and aggressive. What was the word that the younger folks used when they were like this? Hangry? Benjamin was hangry. God that sounded so weird. Why did I even come up with that analogy? I shook my head to focus on the task at hand. His parents were hurt. He was hurt too.

"How badly hurt? I can get emergency services here on the double, Benjamin. Just say the word. I can get you and your family medical help."

"I-I-it'll be fine, detective cop sir. They'll be fine. They're not that hurt. I-I just want to talk! But people keep thinking I want to hurt them!"

I heard more than a little bit of panic and fear in that last one. Which was understandable; Evelyn and I had gone after him with guns drawn the first time we'd encountered each other, after all. He was being wary, rightfully so. But I hoped he understood that we weren't out to hurt him this time.

"That's not true, Benjamin. We don't want to hurt you. As long as you take in what I'm saying and keep calm, okay? We're going to get through this together, alright? We just need your cooperation. That's all."

"Y-yeah. I guess. I uh. Can we talk? Please? No one's listened to me since all this started."

"Sure, we can talk Benjamin." I replied, keeping myself close to the apartment door so I didn't have to raise my voice. "Let's start from the beginning, man. What happened back then?"

There was another moment of silence as Benjamin took in my words. I could hear him gulp audibly on the other side of the door, his mind no doubt racing back to the Princes.

"I-I was hungry. I always stop by their apartment when I go to work to share a coffee with them. But I don't know what came over me that day. I uh... Everything went blank. All I knew was I was hungry, so hungry... W-when I came to, th-they were dead! I-I had blood all over me, s-so I cleaned up a-and left a-and I was really scared..."

I wasn't quite sure about how that testimony would hold up in court, but at least we had a confession? Whatever it was, we still needed to get Benjamin's parents to safety. I inched a little closer to the door, enough that I could reach for the knob without having to stretch too far but I held off on trying to open it.

"Relax, Benjamin. Try to stay calm. We're not here to hurt you."

My enhanced hearing picked up sniffling coming from back behind the door. Was he crying? At the very least, he was emotional. And if he was getting upset, that meant he was going to get more unpredictable by the moment. But what could I do? What could I say to this scared young man who'd been so suddenly thrust into a world he was not prepared to enter? It felt like a repeat of what I'd been through, except his was so much more violent. Before I could say another word, I heard him mumbling under his breath.

"I'm...a monster... I'm just a monster... I-I need to run, I need to go-"

I heard scuffing coming from the other side that diminished in volume at a rapid rate. He was running! I leaped to my feet and threw the door open only to catch his sneakers vanishing into a back room. I recognised this living room from the last time we were here, but the whole place was trashed. The next thing that caught my eye was an Indian man slumped against one of the nearby walls with Mrs Prasad tending to him. I assumed the man was her husband and dashed into the apartment, my sidearm flying into my hand as I chased Benjamin. But before I left the room, I took a moment to turn to Evelyn.

"Evelyn! Stay with them! I'm going to chase after him and push him downstairs to LT!"

I didn't wait for a reply. I just kept running after Benjamin, following in his footsteps and pushing my way into the bedroom that he'd fled into. Predictably enough, the window was smashed open and I could hear the young man's footsteps running down the metal fire escape stairs, so I gave chase. I leaped through the same broken window and worked my way downstairs, skipping the bottom few steps with every flight and spotting my target through the gaps in the metal steps. As I kept heading down, I pressed a hand to the transmit button on my radio.

"LT! He's on the fire escape, heading down to you!"

"Got it!"

His reply echoed from my radio as I ran down each flight of stairs. He was at least a floor below me at this point and I needed to hurry if I wanted to catch him. I knew Dylan and John were on the ground floor, stationed in the alley between this apartment block and the next, so if Benjamin reached them, he had nowhere to go. And I knew they were stronger than I was, at least. I focused on the run instead; didn't want to trip and break my neck.

I don't know how long it took me to dash down every flight of stairs but I was hot on Benjamin's heels. As I hopped off another flight, I caught sight of him a floor down. He leaped over the bannister and landed on concrete just as John came charging in from one end of the alley. Poor guy though; as strong as he was, Benjamin was faster. I jumped the metal bannister at the end of the fire escape and landed just as our man dodged John's tackle and sprinted for the open alley exit. For the briefest of moments I thought all was lost until I felt air whizz by me as Dylan powered past me and dashed after him.

I knew I had to follow him. Otherwise this would've been all for nothing.

I beat feet, pushing my already tiring body to its limit. I felt my legs burning as I chased after my LT and our suspect across an intersection. Horns blared and tires screeched in loud protest as we ran, cars and bikes braking in surprise while other officers trailed behind us, attempting to catch up to our speed. But they had no chance; we were supernaturally enhanced, after all. We reached the other end of the intersection in no time at all and the chase continued on the sidewalk. I had to bob and weave between pedestrians, all while shouting at Benjamin to stop and give up. My chest heaved as I sucked in breath after breath, trying to feed my body while I kept up with Dylan.

The chase took us into the next block; a power substation a few minutes away from the East River. Not exactly isolated, considering it was surrounded on all sides by apartment complexes and offices, but to Benjamin it must have felt like a safe haven. I watched him leap onto the thick, red metal slats of the vents surrounding the substation and disappear onto the roof. Dylan followed suit and I did too, clambering up the solid slats like they were a giant ladder.

Up here on the concrete roof, there was no real place to run. But there were a lot of vents and low walls to hide behind and we didn't have the luxury of a helicopter above us, tracking Benjamin's every move. So by the time both of us were on the roof, he was gone. Dylan called to other officers over his radio to have them surround the substation while I drew my pistol. A cornered man was very dangerous and we couldn't risk having him bolt again. Trapping him was the only way we could bring him in.

Dylan drew his sidearm and nodded to me as I took up position behind him, my left hand on his shoulder to indicate I was ready to follow him. Then he pointed forwards and we both started walking at a slow, measured pace. I had my gun up, sweeping the area in front of me in a deliberate manner, making sure to check behind every vent that I walked by and around every shed on this roof. We were either going to corner him or force him off the roof and onto the street where other officers were waiting to corral him.

Dylan and I kept walking, making sure to check every blind spot we could. We were just two men, after all. Despite our heightened senses, we were dealing with a desperate young man. Who knew what he would do to try and get away from us?

"Benjamin?" I called out, just loud enough that anyone on the roof could hear me. "C'mon buddy, no one wants all this violence any more. We just want to talk, Benjamin."

No response. Figured as much. He was scared, why would he just give up his location like that? So I kept walking, gun up and ready in case he got violent on us. We reached the other end of the roof after a few minutes, having seen nothing, then turned right to patrol the breadth of it so we could get to the other side. There was a tall walled-off area in the centre of this roof, presumably surrounding air vents

Then I heard it. Past the hustle and bustle of the city around us. Cars pulling up on asphalt. The sounds of birds in the air. Our footsteps on the bare roof.

Someone else's feet adjusting and shifting on the same surface, not in time with our pace. A sharp intake of breath. Fast, shallow breathing. Where was it? I turned my eyes left and right, trying my best to identify where the sound was coming from. As I did so, I held up my fist to let Dylan know to stop moving, which he did. I let my enhanced senses take the fore, trusting my ears and nose to do the tracking for me. I could smell him too; perspiration, faint bit of Indian spices and the copper tang of blood. He was here. I just needed to find him.

Another soft noise. Fabric against metal and the scuff of a shoe on concrete. Around the corner.

I pointed forward with my off-hand, gesturing towards the corner ahead of us. We were close to the edge of the building's roof now, we had to turn to the right to keep going around that huge fenced-off area in the centre and there was a low wall separating our corner from the rest of the roof. But I had a feeling that he was hiding at that blind spot just past the wall.

Dylan caught my drift and advanced forward as I kept watch, creeping closer and closer to the corner until he had the best possible angle to step around it without getting blind-sided by anything behind the low wall. Then he completed turning the corner, aiming at the blind spot I couldn't see.

And that was when a hand shot out from behind the wall and grabbed Dylan's gun!