When I was brutally dismembered, my Brother was watching his other sister walk the runway.

My desperate call for help was met with his contempt, and he promptly hung up. Until my last breath, we never exchanged another word.

That night, the city was shaken by a horrific headless dismemberment case.

As the head of the criminal investigation team, he arrived at the crime scene and quickly deduced the primary location of the murder.

But what he couldn't figure out was that the victim was his most hated and despised biological sister.

——

An elderly scavenger found my dismembered remains while rummaging through trash.

Terrified, he couldn't even think straight. Thankfully, a passerby helped him call the police.

When the report came in, the station immediately dispatched officers.

Detective Matthew Marsden was notified while celebrating with Halle Aniston, toasting her successful runway show.

The night's festivities were abruptly overshadowed by the gruesome murder case.

With a stern expression, Matthew arrived at the crime scene. After discussing the methods and tools used with the forensic team, he ordered a search of abandoned buildings within a 20-mile radius of the park.

Despite his youth, Matthew's sharp intellect and meticulous nature had earned him a promotion to lead the criminal investigations team after just three years on the job.

He was known for cracking complex cases and was now handling this high-profile murder.

The forensic pathologist looked at the dismembered body parts with a grimace, muttering, "This is going to take days, maybe even nights. The killer is exceptionally brutal."

Matthew agreed, his face a mask of revulsion. Even with his extensive experience, this level of grotesque violence was unprecedented for him.

Despite the multiple layers of masks he wore, he couldn't help but gag uncontrollably.

Hovering in the air, I watched the dismembered pieces that were both unfamiliar and hauntingly familiar, a deep sadness weighing on me.

Matthew's visible disgust felt like a knife twisting in my heart.

Even in death, I still repulsed him. I managed a wry smile, my already fractured soul feeling even more fragile.

Soon, the team pinpointed several suspicious locations.

Matthew analyzed the scene and zeroed in on an abandoned slaughterhouse about five miles away.

The moment he stepped inside, a powerful stench of blood hit him.

The floors and walls were smeared red as if the killer had deliberately turned the place into a bloodbath.

Matthew's brow furrowed as he dipped his finger into the blood on the wall and sniffed it. "We'll need to test this blood, but it doesn't smell like human blood."

He was right.

Before killing me, the murderer had cruelly dismembered a sheep in front of me.

The severed sheep's head had been placed on a broken table, staring right at me.

Matthew's eyes flickered with confusion as he noticed a pattern of small flowers on the floor.

My heart skipped a beat.

Could he remember my little quirk?

Every pair of shoes I bought had a small flower pattern stamped in the center of the sole. I'd kept this habit for years.

A junior officer, noticing Matthew's distraction, asked, "Captain Marsden, did you find something?"

Matthew snapped out of it. "No, just take photos for evidence and return to the team."

I thought, Of course, how can he remember?

The brutal murder and dismemberment case quickly caught the attention of the city's top officials.

Since it took time to piece together the remains and the victim's head hadn't been found, identification was still pending.

They could only extract DNA from the body and match it against the database.

The official autopsy report hadn't been released yet, but the forensic pathologist indicated that the victim had endured inhuman torture and mutilation before death. Judging by the wound's cross-sections and blood traces, it seemed the dismemberment had been done while the victim was still alive—an extraordinarily heinous act.

The blood at the scene, however, was confirmed to be from a sheep. The sheep's head was discovered in a nearby forest, but there were no clues about the missing human head.

During a meeting, Matthew calmly outlined the details of the case.

"The victim was a young woman aged between 25 and 30. Death occurred within the last 24 hours. We have no background information, and the head is missing. It appears she was dissected alive.

"There have been no reports of missing persons that match her description. Her identity remains unknown."

The room was filled with frowns and concerned murmurs.

The city officials immediately issued a directive: all available police resources were to be mobilized to support Matthew, with a firm deadline to solve the case within a week.

"We cannot let a monster like this threaten our citizens' safety again!"

After the meeting, Matthew, weighed down with thoughts, headed to a cemetery on the outskirts of town.

When he arrived, he found Halle standing by a gravestone, her face buried in her hands, crying. Her eyes were red, but she forced a smile upon seeing Matthew.

In front of the gravestone was a bouquet of gardenias—his mother's favorite flower.

The tombstone featured a photograph of a happy couple: a man and a woman, both beaming. The man was my father, and the woman was Halle's mother.

Indeed, Halle was my stepmother's daughter, making us part of a blended family.

After paying their respects for a while, Matthew spoke up, "Let's go."

Halle hesitated. "Just a bit longer. On a day like today, she won't miss this."

I saw a flash of intense revulsion in Matthew's eyes as he coldly replied, "She doesn't deserve to be here!

"No murderer deserves to stand before their victim!

"She's nothing but a heartless menace—a real disaster!"

Halle looked down, sniffing as she spoke, "That was just an accident. Besides, we were all so young back then…"

Matthew cut her off sharply, "Don't mention her again. The only family I have now is you."

With that, Matthew led Halle away.

I found myself, as a ghost, curled up in front of my father's grave, crying uncontrollably. "Dad, I suddenly don't want him to keep looking into this anymore!"