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I’ve been exhausted from not sleeping when an odd call came. It was only two days after the Hunter ordeal. The cuts and bruises looked better but were still healing. I assumed the call to be for another job, but for some reason I’d been asked to meet with The Hunter that almost took my life.
He was the one who requested the meeting, and I could refuse. Jackalope wasn’t very keen on the fact I accepted, but he didn’t try to stop me from leaving that day. I was swept away to a very plain building where the man was being held. It wasn’t a prison. It looked more like a mixture of an office building and apartments. They didn’t even ask me to remove any metal or dangerous items. Soon, I found myself sitting across from a man who shot me. The room was empty besides a table between us.
His face also started healing up from the few good hits I’d gotten in during our fight. His hands bound with simple cuffs. There wasn’t anyone inside the room beside us, but I knew this meeting was being watched in some way. I learned his name was Sebastian. They did not tell me his last name for some reason.
“Are they treating you well?” I asked unsure of where to start.
He nodded, refusing to meet my eyes. He fiddled with his hands and his foot tapped against the floor. I didn’t have the slightest clue what he wanted to see me about. He chewed on his lip for a while. Just as I was about to leave, he spoke.
“You’re… human, right?” He said in a low voice.
It sounded like he hadn’t been drinking enough water. I worried he didn’t trust the food or drink here. He did think The Corporation was only killing monsters that ate too much, and not for the overall good of the human race.
“Yeah. It’s the reason why your magic sword didn’t work.” I answered.
I wondered what might happen to him now. No one had given me a straight answer on his future. They did want to offer him a job hunting down monsters for The Corporation, but I highly doubted he would accept. There was hope that after he’d been arrested that the mysterious death of the monsters missing organs would stop. He’d only been locked away for a day before yet another murdered monster was found. That proved he wasn’t responsible for the rest of the murders and only killed the werewolf as a trap.
“Why are you working with them?” The man pressed finally looking in my direction.
“I know how you feel about The Corporation. I don’t like parts of it either. A supernatural creature saved my life and it led me down this path.” I started.
He didn’t like the answer and scowled. Shaking his head, his foot tapped harder against the ground clearly annoyed I let him down in some way.
“They set you up. They wanted something and tricked you into being loyal. They just-”
“Jackalope offered his life to save mine. He was willing to die for a stranger. It’s a miracle he’s alive and only lost an arm.” I cut in sternly.
His foot-tapping stopped. Sebastian stared me down with dark tired eyes looking for a lie. When he saw nothing but the truth, I saw gears turning in his head. He didn’t want to admit there might be good monsters out there. He needed to believe that all supernatural creatures were bloodthirsty monsters because he’d killed so many without a second thought. If there was a decent creature, that meant he may have killed a good person at some point.
“I don’t have any proof of what I’m saying. And I won’t sit here judging you for your actions. There must have been a good reason for you to go down the path you choose.” I told him.
He refused to look at me as I spoke. His eyes set on the floor as if he could drown out his thoughts. He dug the tips of his fingernails under each other making me wince.
“I wasn’t wrong. They needed to die. I was never wrong.” He muttered to himself.
“I don’t think you were ever wrong. I’m not angry about what you did. A little on Nessie’s behalf, but… I just feel as if you’re hurting yourself more than the creatures you hunted.”
His tapping stopped again. Soon his shoulders started to tremble as he buried his head into his hands. He looked so worn down and broken at that moment. His body became strong for hunting creatures but the moment he stopped to look at what he was doing, he nearly shattered.
“They killed my daughter. Ate her. What else was I supposed to do?” Sebastian said, his voice hoarse and barely a whisper.
“I’m sorry.”
I fully meant those words. I couldn’t offer anything else. There was no right answer when it came to all of this. Humans and the supernatural couldn’t co-exist without there being causalities. Sebastian was one of them. I considered if it would be better if our two species never interacted. The creatures would starve, but there would be no little girls getting eaten. No Gods killing loved ones. And no need for Agents to give up their arms to the darkness.
A tap on the door signalled the meeting was over. I stood up but told Sebastian we could talk whenever he wanted. I didn’t know if he wanted to ever see me again or disappear back into the frame of mind that kept him going. Everything was much easier to deal with when you thought every monster was a killer.
I walked down the hallway but was stopped by someone. A tall man came in my direction. He barely looked like an adult. His white hair was cut short at the sides and wavy at the front. He wore a baggy sweater that made him appear thinner. Old scars circled his entire nick as if someone tried cutting his head off with a wire and failed. He had a calm smile that overpowered the fear I got when I saw his red eyes.
“Thank you for meeting with him. I’m the one in charge of his case. It must have been hard on both of you.” The newcomer said in a kind tone.
Didn’t Robin mention that The Silver King was the one who would look over Sebastian’s case? I looked him up and down deciding he did not give off the air of an all-powerful creature all others bowed down to.
“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked.
“Well… Therapy to start. Aside from that, it’s up to him. We’ll provide all his needs. I don’t think someone can recover from what he’s been through. He has support from us no matter what happens.” He explained as he brushed some hair from his eyes.
“He was a Hunter. He killed monsters. And there is no way to prove all the ones he killed deserved it. The ones he did wrong are just going to take care of him as if that never happened?” I asked, really hoping that would be the case.
The man paused to think. He had his hands behind his back, and he rocked on his heels for a few seconds.
“A monster killed his family. He killed monsters. If we killed him, that would feed into an endless cycle. Some say it would balance things out but… I hate balanced things. Being balanced isn’t always the right answer. We’ll take care of him. He’s gone through enough, he doesn’t need to deal with more monsters.”
I wanted to respond but he heard his name being called from down the hallway. He was a very busy person. He thanked me again for coming by that day and hurried off to do whatever he needed to. The meeting was depressing, but at least it gave me a break from Jackalope forcing food on me to gain some weight.
By the time my injuries finally healed I was ready to get back to work. The lights stayed on at night, but I still didn’t sleep much. There hadn’t been any sightings of whatever haunted the dark, but I still didn’t want to risk turning off the lights just yet. I wondered if Jackalope was sleeping all right. He acted a bit slower than normal but just said he’d been doing a lot of running at work.
A job request came in and of course, Jackalope said I wasn’t ready to go back. I brushed off his worries. If I stayed inside the house for too long, I may go insane. I quickly found out I didn’t really like any movies or shows on my handful of streaming services. Reading put me to sleep and Jackalope beat me to cleaning most of the house. The only choice was to accept the first job that came my way.
I ended up in a town so small a single police department of three oversaw the entire population. The job was simple. A woman was found dead, and they needed someone to record the scene. They also requested I train two of the officers up on some new databases along with reviewing how to deal with murder scenes. They didn’t have them often and needed a refresher. I would not be working with an Agent which made me nervous. But I was given my CSI jacket that had some mild magic protection.
My jacket also helped with the insanely low temperatures. Cold weather and I did not mix well. I huddled under my jacket shivering. The Corporation provided a rented car and dumped me into a snow-covered town trusting I found my way around. With a lot of backtracking, I found the dirt road leading to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. An officer met me outside. He waited for a long time and was a bit annoyed by how long I took.
He was ridiculously tall. His skin dark and hair black. He didn’t smile but held out a hand for me to shake when I arrived.
“I’m Yates. You’re the FED, right?” He asked after we shook hands. His voice low and raspy as if he had a cold.
My cover story was that I worked with the FBI to recover evidence because the murder was suspected to be part of an ongoing investigation. I flashed the fake badge I’d been given to sell that story a bit better. Yates did not like the fact that someone swooped in to take over a murder scene in his town. He showed a coldness that matched the weather.
“I’m here to help. I’ll gather what I need. I wished I was notified before the body had been collected.” I admitted looking over his shoulder and towards the house.
The body had been found outside, torn apart and half eaten. The blood remained for me to document along with anything else I may find. The front door was open when the body had been found but had since been closed to stop snow from entering the house. Yates gave me the basic rundown of what happened before I arrived.
Another officer named Maggie had been the one to find the poor dead girl. They had been friends so Yates took over meeting me and guarding the scene. Maggie and Yates were the ones who needed the lesson when we got back to the department. He warned me she was very stressed out after what she saw and might not be the best student. I asked him about tire tracks, who walked over the scene, and what kind of wildlife may be in the area.
He provided a photo of the bite marks on the body. I wasn’t aware of any animal that may have eaten half a body in such a way. As I got started on the scene, I didn’t see any tracks in the knee-deep snow of an animal coming from the woods. So far, there had only been some tire tracks, and a path made by an unknown number of people through the snow and toward the front of the house. The lack of tracks from the woods made me think that something not natural was the cause of the death.
Yates did a good job documenting the scene before I arrived. I wanted to get out of the cold wind and snow as soon as possible. My hands shook making it hard to write down notes and keep my camera steady. A gust of wind made me flinch and turn my head away. When I opened my eyes, I stared off into the nearby forest. I could have sworn I saw a set of eyes staring back..
A hot puff of air hit the back of my neck. I knew right away it wasn’t the wind.
“Agent, leave.”
The two words were nothing but a hoarse whisper. I turned as fast as possible to see nothing. Yates stood near his patrol car still, not noticing anything. I wasn’t sure if I imagined the voice, but the fear felt real. I took the words as a threat. I could listen to the warning, or I could finish up my job. Within the hour we were driving back to the department ready to start the training so I could leave.
A blast of heat hit my face the moment we walked into the building. The cold from my face faded within seconds of being inside. If I didn’t take off my jacket, I would have died from a heat stroke.
“Sorry, the heater’s broken. I take it you’re the guy helping us on Laura’s case?”
The only female officer met us by the door. She helped with my jacket on reflex to hang it up by the door. The building only had a main room, an office, and jail cells in the back. The computers looked to be at least fifteen years old. At least they still worked. I introduced myself to Maggie who tried her best to appear upbeat. Her mood was forced which was understandable. She was pretty in a plain way. A round face with messy blonde hair tied back. If she smiled, she would look like the perfect girl next door.
A man came out of the only enclosed office. He also wore a uniform that he kept buttoned up as if he was affected by the heat of the building.
“So, you’re the FED. I didn’t know they came in your color.” He said in a deep voice.
I bristled at the comment but kept calm. The man was the Sheriff of the small town. He looked like any backwoods cop should. Overweight, too old for the job, and a mysterious food stain on his shirt. I glanced over at Yates who gave the man an open glare. I bet he got the same kind of abuse from this man due to his darker skin tone.
“Good thing you’re retiring or else comments like that would get you fired.” Yates hissed in his raspy voice.
The Sheriff crossed his arms, ready for a fight. A handgun was a clear threat on his belt. Thank God Maggie was good at dealing with these two. She quickly brought attention away from the future fight.
“This is Ward. He does like to say things to mess with people. As Yates said, he’ll be retiring soon. Let’s get started on that training so you can hurry on home.”
Maggie guided us to the computer desk and thankfully the two men didn’t get into it again. Ward refused to join us and locked himself away in his office. I didn’t want to bring up the tense work environment. We just focused on getting the computer software up to speed and the two officers caught up on a lot of protocols they lacked. Yates was quiet, but he understood the material. Maggie needed some extra help and acted a bit embarrassed by it. She didn’t have a cellphone until recently, so all of this was pretty new to her. It was taking longer than expected, but I wasn’t upset over that fact. I just would be late for dinner.
As we worked away, I noticed the weather outside had gotten bad. Sheets of snow made the world outside appear to be pure white. The wind blew hard, and I was glad to be inside a warm building. Just as I wanted to wrap things up for the day, an alarm went off. Maggie flew into action and raced towards the noise with Yates close behind.
I smelled the reason for the alarm and followed them. I paused in the doorway that led to the back cells. A small fire started on the beds inside the second of the two cells. Maggie grabbed an extinguisher to easily put out the small flames. We all looked at each other very puzzled over how such a fire started.
I noticed something the others hadn’t. The fire burned an almost perfect circle in the middle of the bed. Something clicked in my head, and I turned on my heels to go to the front door. Maggie asked questions as I left. Ward came out of his office and watched me pause at the front door. My CSI jacket with my cellphone missing with a small fading circle on the hook it had been placed on. I then braved the storm outside long enough to confirm that our cars were missing. Yates grabbed my shoulder to drag me back inside. My clothing was covered in snow from being outside for under a minute.
“What’s going on? Maggie asked confused.
“The cars are gone. Check the phones.” I told her as I went over to the computer.
“Gone? What are you on about?” Ward asked huffing towards the door.
Maggie checked the first phone near her, and when she didn’t even hear a dial tone, she moved on to the next one. The computer screen turned to static, then died the moment I went over to it. Ward didn’t want to believe the cards had been stolen. He was convinced I just didn’t see them through the snow. No one went to force him back inside. He spent the next ten minutes going inside and out in denial.
Yates and Maggie both owned cell phones. They both died like the computer. I’ve seen this before. I made the mistake of bringing along my personal cell phone to a scene with a monster corpse. It was fried in seconds from the magic still in the air.
Someone here started the fire with magic to distract us away from the missing cars, and my jacket being stolen. Whoever did so, was strong enough to be able to control their magic so the computer didn’t die sooner. And they knew who I worked for. But they assumed I was an Agent instead of just a human CSI worker.
“Seriously, what’s going on?” Maggie asked, unable to keep the fear from her voice.
I couldn’t answer her. Someone here wasn’t human and kept us trapped for a reason I wasn’t certain of just yet. Maggie was either very good at acting, or just as scared as I was. I considered Yates, but he hadn’t moved to the farmhouse when I heard that voice. I wasn’t even entirely sure if that voice warning me to leave had anything to do with this case. I hadn’t been sleeping well and could have been hearing things. Ward didn’t seem to be the supernatural type, but he’d acted the most hostile out of all of them so far. I just didn’t have enough information to make the call. All I could do it wait.
“Someone is going to notice they can’t get through to us and come to get us.” I said to Maggie but that thought didn’t comfort her.
“I’ll make some coffee.” Yates announced.
It kept him busy while Ward cursed and swore at our current situation. He yelled, demanding answers. When none were given, he stormed back into his office. He slammed the door so hard I thought the glass may break.
Without anything else to do, I sat down to look over the case I’d been called to document. Maggie settled down with a mug of coffee in her hand. She came over to look over my shoulder. I quickly flipped over the photo of her friend’s dead body and looked up at her.
“I’m sorry for what happened to her. Do you have any ideas on who would do this?” I asked her.
She gave a weak smile appreciating someone cared about the poor girl’s death.
“Not a clue. Everyone loved her. She fell on some hard times money-wise, but she owed money to the bank. No one else. But we think she was ambushed by some animal. After all,… What else would…” She stopped talking, her face pale.
I let her look away but the expression on her face went beyond sadness her friend was killed and then her body was torn up. It was as if she had seen something. I gestured for her to sit next to me unsure of how to approach this topic.
“Are there any urban legends around here? Like dogmen or Bigfoot?” I asked in a hushed tone.
If Yates heard, he didn’t care. Maggie searched through her head but came up empty.
“Nothing much. We had a rumor of a serial killer but nothing that might try and eat a person.” She explained.
As she spoke, I took a piece of scrap paper and acted like I was taking notes. Instead of that, I wrote her a message.
‘Did you see something?’
She quickly read over my question. Face paler than ever. As she kept talking, she wrote down her response in a way no one else in the office would see.
‘Monster. It wore a uniform jacket.’
She handed back the paper and did another check to make sure we weren’t caught passing notes. No wonder she acted so stressed out. When she discovered the body, she saw something eating her friend. A creature that wore the same uniform as herself. I don’t know what happened or how she got away. Maggie acted relaxed and calm around Yates so she must have a reason to not suspect him. But now we were all stuck with a possible creature just waiting to do, what? What did that monster want?
I did consider Maggie might have been lying. If she was the creature, she could be trying to pin her crimes on her co-workers. She knew I wasn’t a normal CSI worker. If she was human, she would see me as her only source of help. If she wasn’t human, she warned me to focus my attention on the other two. This all gave me a bit of a headache trying to think through it.
I let her stand up to get more coffee. The note was hidden in my pocket. As the hours passed, the world outside turned darker. But not completely black due to the snow. I kept trying the phones hoping I could reach someone.
“Shouldn’t your agency be looking for you?” Yates offered as I was trying the phone again.
“No, I’m not that high of a priority. I want to call my roommate though. He must be getting worried.” I answered back knowing no one from The Corporation would be looking for someone like me.
“Roommate…?” Yates asked as if that meant something.
“Just a roommate.” I said back a bit annoyed people kept asking that.
At least he dropped it. Maggie found a couch to try and sleep on. Wards kept going in and out of his office complaining that we hadn’t been found yet. We all knew not to try and talk him down. He would only get more upset if we made any attempts to explain why a snowplow hadn’t come by yet.
“This is insulting! I’m the Sheriff! And my family were the first to be in the crappy town! We build the damn thing, and this is how we’re repaid? Someone should have been here hours ago! And who could even steal our cars to start with!” He ranted while pacing with red cheeks.
“It’s not as if you have too many friends.” Yates said not caring that he would start another rant.
“When you’re a good Sheriff, you make enemies! I get this is all some sort of prank bullshit some kids are playing for their goddamn cellphone videos! If I find out you’re behind this-”
More of the same came out of his mouth for a full hour. Yates only added some fuel to the fire but never enough to make the older man snap. I wondered what he was up to until Ward finally went back to his office exhausted to sleep on a couch. I figured Ward was the type of man that slept at the office fairly often.
Yates wanted to turn in himself. He found a chair big enough to take a nap in but that left me without a place to rest. Maggie already passed out on the couch, and I refused to move her. Yates offered to let me sleep in one of the cells if I held onto the key. I agreed, knowing trying to figure all of this out while tired would be useless. Besides the smell, the cells weren’t the worst place to sleep.
Questions turned in my head. I couldn’t figure any of this out just yet. I did try to get some rest, but my mind refused to stop working. I glanced over towards the doorway to see Yates with his back towards the cells in a chair. He passed out as if that was an easy thing to do. I stayed on the stiff cell bed with my eyes closed to trick my brain into sleeping.