"Toxin" | Part 1 of 2 | Fiction

Dead bodies have been turning up all over Washington, D.C. Ten murders in ten weeks. All poisoned. All unsolved. And the city is terrified. Police have no leads.

No pattern. No motive. Only one truth: whoever the killer is, he’s clever.

-----

But miles away from the panic, Mia Z. Edwards finds comfort in the night sky. She has always loved the moon, the stars, the quiet mystery of creation. Her father, Dr. Charles Edwards, gave her the telescope she still carries in her purse. Keeping it close makes her feel close to him.They used to watch the stars together when she was a teenager.

Until the night everything changed. Mia was on the lawn, telescope in hand, when she heard her father scream. She swung the telescope toward the sound, and through the lens, she caught a glimpse of a shadowed figure, just before her father’s body collapsed to the ground. Panicked, she ran, straight into the vast woods of Rock Creek Park behind their home. She hid there until sunrise, trembling in the darkness she would fear for the rest of her life.

-----

At daybreak, she walked to the National Parks Office and reported the murder.

When police returned with her to the house, she saw her father’s lifeless body. She cried until she couldn’t breathe.

From that night on, Mia never slept without a night light. And she always kept a flashlight tucked inside her leather tote bag. Darkness reminded her of death.

-----

Mia is an associate professor of Astronomy at American University (AU), brilliant, respected, and gifted with a photographic memory.

But death has followed her again. Another body has been found on AU’s campus. A young male student, one of her own.

Police swarm the grounds. They ask Mia to come to the station for questioning, hoping she can shed light on who he was. She agrees.

At the station, something unexpected happens. The detective’s desk is a chaotic pile of files from the toxin‑murder cases.

While answering questions, Mia’s photographic memory quietly scans every document, every photo, every detail. And then she freezes.One of the photos, one of the suspects, looks exactly like the man she saw the night her father died. Her heart pounds. Her breath shortens. Could it be the same killer?

-----

Night has fallen by the time Mia leaves the station. She returns to campus to retrieve her telescope from her classroom.The AU grounds are dim, almost deserted. “I hate being out in the darkness,” she whispers as she steps out of her Volkswagen Passat.

She hurries into the Kreeger Building, her footsteps echoing in the empty hallway. Inside the dark classroom, she pulls out her small flashlight and scans the desk. That’s when she sees it, a shadow passing by the window. She instantly switches off the light. Her pulse races. She grabs her telescope, extends the tube, and aims it toward the figure outside. The image sharpens. She gasps. It’s him.

The man from the detective’s photo.

The man who killed her father.

He’s here.

Hands shaking, Mia digs through her Calvin Klein tote bag for her phone. She whispers to the 911 operator that the toxin‑murder suspect is on campus. But before she can say more, a hand clamps over her nose. A cloth. A chemical smell. Chloroform.

The world tilts. Her vision blurs. Her body collapses. Associate Professor Mia Z. Edwards is out cold.

-----

(Copyright © 2026 by Mia Z. Edwards. All rights reserved.)