SINBOUND: Vision

**Songs listened to and or referenced during the making of this story**

...State Of My Head by Shinedown...

...Wrong Side Of Heaven by Five FInger Death Punch...

...Not Meant To Be by Theory Of A Deadman...

...Better Than Me by Hinder...

.....Wasted On You by Morgan Wallen...

...Blue On Black by Five Finger Death Punch...

...You and Me by Yellawolf...

...Call Me by Shinedown...

...Sidewayz by Crucifix...

...Outside by Staind...

...It’s Been A while by Staind...

...Gone Away by Five Finger Death Punch...

...Angel By The Wings by Sia...

...Stay by Rihanna...

.......Say Something by A Great Big World and Cristina Aguilera......

...The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails...

...Unsteady by X Ambassadors...

Chapter 1

2012

Garland, Texas

....Baylor Scott & White Medical Center….

**...RYLEE...**

*Don’t leave Agent Cody, there is so much more to do. Stay with me Agent Cody, or I’ll double my killing because of you. Don’t leave Agent Cody, or those you love, will die too*!

The words whispered through my mind, insinuating themselves into the darkness, the void of finality as the unsteady beep of the heart monitor in the operating room became one long tone of death before, slowly, it began a rhythmic beat again….

_ _ _ ___ _ ____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Three years later

Garland, Texas

As I gazed at what were at one time lovely roses surrounding the porch, I couldn’t help thinking of how they had become nothing more than overgrown thorn bushes—life long ago leaving them. The porch they had complimented—artistic magnificence en-captured within greenery and fragrance—was hunched, broken, much like an old man unable to stand tall and sure: dejection written in its sad lines.

An odor of age and decay floated on the breeze from the ranch-style house itself, and the overgrown growth within the yard waved, as if hungry for any attention. The whole image was depressing, and our team was preparing to enter into this cavern of neglect. As Crime Scene Investigators, it was our job to figure out what had happened to the victims inside; one male, one female. I knew the exterior of the house well, having passed it every day on my way to school, and I felt saddened at how fast it had deteriorated in the ten years since its abandonment and that it had been abused in this manner: a house of death.

With caution, I stepped onto the porch’s steps, the rotted boards cracking beneath my boots. In front of me, Brice Rowland, my team leader, was already on the porch, carefully inching his way across what remained of the porch's floor. I could hear the boards breaking beneath his steps as chunks of the decayed wood fell to the dirt beneath them. “Watch your step,” he called out. “This shit is like walking on driftwood, it’s powdering out beneath my feet.”

Besides Brice, there were seven other investigators: me, Jordan Courtney, Rick Tanner, Rihanna Naff, Style Benson, Ethan Blair and Ashley Rowland—Brice’s sister, and every one of us trusted Brice’s leadership, and would follow him into any situation without hesitation. However, today, there were just the two of us working the scene, Brice and myself, and I feared he was leading us through Satan’s doorway and into the devil’s domain, and I grew more and more uncomfortable about what awaited us inside.

Heaving a breath, I eased my way across the porch, and as I entered the house, I took in its interior. The inside was much the same as the outside. Neglected. But it wasn’t the condition of the interior that held my attention. It was the words painted on the wall across from the front door. *YOU STAYED WITH ME AGENT CODY, SO I DIDN’T HAVE TO DOUBLE MY KILLING BECAUSE OF YOU! It’s time to be wary, Agent Cody, because I’m coming for you!*”