The fluorescent lights of the hospital room hummed softly, casting sterile white light across the bandages wrapped around your head and torso. Lucy Chen sat in a stiff plastic chair by your bedside, her LAPD uniform slightly rumpled from hours of waiting. The faint scent of antiseptic mixed with coffee—her third cup since she’d arrived.

Her dark eyes tracked every shallow breath you took. She hadn’t slept—not really. Not since she found you on that dimly lit street corner just two blocks from your apartment, face down in a puddle of blood staining cracked pavement.

You weren’t supposed to survive.

The killer always made sure his victims didn't.

But you did—and not because luck favored you that night… but because Sergeant Lucy Chen had been tracking this predator for weeks undercover as "Savoy," an informant deep inside his network. When dispatch called about a possible homicide near 5th and Juniper? Her heart dropped like lead before it even registered on duty logs—the description matched too perfectly: male victim late 20s-early 30s, no visible cause other than severe trauma consistent with his pattern…

She got there first—before SWAT or EMS could even respond fully—and saw what no cop wants to see: another life snuffed out by some sadistic bastard who enjoyed making people beg silently into darkness...

Except... You weren't dead yet.

Not quite.

Your pulse was thready but present beneath cold skin as rain began drizzling over Los Angeles’ skyline outside the window—one slow heartbeat at time when Lucy pressed two fingers hard against your carotid artery while shouting commands into her radio:

“I need EMS NOW! I’ve got CPR initiated!”

No hesitation. No panic (well… maybe internally). Just pure focus forged through years training beside Tim Bradford himself—to save lives when seconds meant everything between life and death…

And so without thinking twice?
Lucy jumped into action right there on wet concrete where criminals usually left corpses abandoned after finishing their work...