The liason got up from his chair and requested that I follow him. It was a busy morning in the police department. Dozens of officers were in the middle of a shift change and either didn’t realize I was walking out with a strange man in elegant clothes or simply didn’t care. When we stepped out of the station doors, there was a black Rolls-Royce phantom apparently waiting on us.
“If you would kindly join me for a ride, I’ll fill you in on the situation.” the liason said as a chauffeur opened the car door, and he climbed in. I hesitated for a moment. Everything I ever learned in life told me not to get in a car with stranger’s, however I wasn’t crazy about going back to that interrogation room. Besides, I don’t think that nugget of wisdom covers stranger’s with luxury vehicles. I climbed in, and the inside was even nicer.
It smelled very pleasant, like a mix of a new car and some romantic candle. The man handed me a glass of dark liquor, I could tell by the burning smell it was whiskey, a drink I had become very familiar with in the last few months. I wasn’t sure if it was for the traumatic night I had gone through or whatever shit show awaited for me wherever I was being taken to, but I drank that glass of fire without much regret. “You have been summoned by our head investigator, Arthur Quint. I believe you two have briefly met.” He said, expecting me to connect the dots.
” You mean whatever… whoever saved my ass last night?”
” You didn’t think it was Devine intervention, did you? Our department investigates, protects from, and on occasion destroys supernatural creatures. We try to avoid the latter, but as you saw last night, sometimes that’s not possible. Also, our head investigator is a vampire, I know it’s stereotypical, but they don’t like werewolves very much.” I looked at him in complete disbelief, and I was sure I was being punked at this point.
“Right… so about this transfer, what if I refuse?”
“In that case, you are free to remain as an NYPD officer for whatever time you have left.”
“What does that mean?”
If you are not an agent of our department, we can not extend to you our benefits, such as covering up any interaction with supernatural creatures. Before I intervened, you were the only suspect of last night’s multiple murders.”
I got the picture clearly, I either went along with these jokers or I be incarcerated for the rest of my life. I nodded and dossed off for a few minutes. When I came to, we had arrived at a very large, old, but well-kept mansion. We stepped inside, and the place actually looked even bigger. Artificial light illuminated the beautiful staircase and statues that adorned the main hall. There were no windows to speak of.
The liason showed me the way to the main quarters. The room I entered was the most curious thing I had seen. It was like a room lost in time. There were decorations from many different decades, and the record player playing time by pink floyd was very appropriate. I was so distracted that I hadn’t even noticed the liason had not followed me into the room. While I believed I was in an empty room, somewhere in the darkness, a voice announced: “Officer, I’ve been expecting you.”
My heart skipped a beat, I was even more disturbed to see that the owner of the voice was crawling on all fours on the ceiling of the room. “Why are you frightened? I am confident Xavier explained the status of my nature.” He released himself from the ceiling and landed perfectly unharmed on the floor with the grace of a cat. “He did, I just thought he was full of shit.” “If I meant you any harm, I would’ve let the mutts have you.” he said in a dismissive tone.
The man before me was large, wearing dark clothes and dark hair to match. His eyes reflected a sadness and anger reserved for men double his age, for he still had youth upon his face. He walked over to a table that had a cup and an unlabeled bottle filled with red. I didn’t need to use much imagination to guess that it wasn’t wine he was drinking. “I would offer you a cup, but I do not think you would enjoy this particular vintage.” He said, his voice reminding me of Keith David.
“What the hell happened last night?”
“Something unusual. Werewolves are not social creatures and are extremely territorial. They would actually fight to the death if more than one was in the vicinity. Having three work together is not in their nature and would suggest an outside factor is forcing them to.”
“What does that mean?”
“I do not know yet but in my experience, only something much more sinister than a warewolf can make them go against their own nature and if such a thing is the case, I must continue my investigation.”
“What do you want with me then?”
“Even if it was by sheer dumb luck, you’ve managed to survive a very precarious situation many of our agents would not dare imagine. You may be of some further use to this department.”
The next few years were grueling. They shipped me out to a training facility to learn everything there was to know about the supernatural. It wasn’t just countless hours of classroom instruction. The physical training was unlike anything I’ve gone through before. I mastered martial arts and became proficient in almost every weapon under the sun, man made or not. Then, I was taught how to hunt every creature that could hunt me.
Our graduation was a final test that consisted of surviving 3 nights of back to back waves of creatures straight out of your worst nightmares. I almost died countless times, but in the end, I became a skilled member of the supernatural investigations department. After many cases around the world, my latest assignment would bring me back to New York City. Arthur Quint wanted to personally fill me in on the details of the case. I once again found myself in that room lost in time, but I was no longer scared or confused.
“You know, you could have sent me an email, I didn’t have to come all the way to New York City.” I said with an annoyed tone while I had a glass of Whiskey by the fireplace. “I have been alive for centuries but I’ve never taken the time to learn how to send a fucking email.” He poured himself a cup of blood wine and walked over with a folder in his free hand. “I believe you will be most anxious to begin this case.”
He threw the folder on the table top in front of me and a picture slid out. It was of a man I knew too well. “This has to be some kind of mistake, this is DeLeon.” I grabbed the folder and started reading the case details. “I saw him get mauled by werewolves, he should not be alive.”
“His body was not found at the crime scene that night,I had my suspicions but this confirmed it.”
“The address this photo was taken at is only a few blocks from his house.”
“We need him alive for questioning, there’s something going on in the city. Too many attacks, too many creatures stirring up the pot. Your old partner may be privy to some useful information.” I left immediately. I took a squad of agents I had gone through some shit in the past and knew they would make good backup. We got to DeLeon’s apartment by nightfall, I left a security detail guarding the building entrance while I contacted DeLeon’s wife,not really knowing what to expect.
I knocked on the door to apartment 237 and the door cracked open slightly. “Hello Maria.” I said regrettably. “What the fuck are you doing here you son of a bitch?” She didn’t mince word’s, in the year’s between her husband’s supposed death she had blamed me for it.
Maybe I hadn’t done it in her mind, but I sure as hell failed in having his back. The animosity was a possible confirmation DeLeon had not tried to contact her yet. “Maria, we might not have a lot of time, I need you to let me in.” She took a few seconds, enough to make me wait on the inevitable fuck you she would likely throw my way. Interestingly enough, she closed the door and unlocked it for me.
I entered the humble and honestly run down apartment without much resistance from her. “You need to get Joshua and come with me, you’re in danger.” I told her while scanning the room, waiting for DeLeon to come out of a room and interrupt our conversation. “What’s going on Morales?”
“Something is coming for you and we need to get you as far away from here as possible.” The plan had been to regrettably use Maria as bait to lure DeLeon to a secure location and capture him. That plan went out the window when I received a notification to my ear piece from one of my agent’s. “Contact! It’s moving towards the staircase!” We could hear the gun fire from the living room of Maria’s apartment.
I knew DeLeon would make tear his way through everyone in his way, no matter how well trained they were. “Get your boy now! We need to leave!” She rushed into a room while I looked through the peephole on the door. A few moments after the gunshots had stopped downstairs I saw a bloodied animal crawling on the wall on all fours,crawling towards apartment 237. Mary came out of the room with a small child in her arms.
“Take the fire escape and run.” I said while I moved away from the door. “What are you going to do? What’s out there?” She said in a panicked voice, and I wish I had a better answer for her. “Worst case scenario? I buy you some time.”
I pulled my handgun out loaded with special silver bullets, and a syringe filled with rare ingredients that would interrupt a warewolf transformation. The downside to this is that I would obviously have to get close enough to a 8 foot,seriously pissed off lycanthrope for me to inject it. Unfortunately for me, I would have an opportunity to get up and close with DeLeon as he violently smashed the door to get in. Maria went down the fire escape and made it to the ground just in time as DeLeon smashed through the apartment door. He stood at the entrance of the apartment, having to hunch to be able to get through, I could see the chunks of flesh hanging from his fangs and the fresh red staining his black fur.
“DeLeon if you’re in there don’t make me fucking do this.” I pleaded to an old friend,not knowing if he would recognize me or if he would even care. The monster in front of me imitated a smile, showing its collection of razor Sharp teeth as it lunged at me on all fours. I shot off a few rounds, managing to hit him multiple times. That unfortunately wasn’t enough to stop its momentum, it crashed into me and we went through the window Maria had gone out just minutes prior.
We had stopped at the edge of the fires cape and DeLeon wasted no time in trying to bite my face off. The only reason he didn’t succeed is because I used his weight against him,leaning over the railing and both of us fell from the second story of that apartment complex. Somehow I managed not to break my neck on the way down. I counted myself lucky for the next minute as I slowly got up to my feet but realized DeLeon had done the same. I was a dead man and I knew it.
I could barely stand up let alone attempt to stab that mother fucker with the syringe I somehow managed to hold on to. DeLeon slowly made his way to me, the fall had not really hurt him and he was just toying with me at this point. He picked up speed until he was on all fours with a collision course with me. I summoned all my remaining strength and prepared to stab the syringe into him… completely missing.
DeLeon had been intercepted in mid lunge for my throat by Arthur Quint. He had DeLeon by the throat and he was pinned to a wall of the alley we found ourselves in. I quickly swung my hand to stab DeLeon in the chest. It took only moments for him to violently and painfully reverting back to his human form. “Are you unharmed?” Arthur asked as he backed away from DeLeon.
“I just fell from a second floor,but yeah, I wasn’t bit or mauled. I see that as a win.”
“You two won’t be.” DeLeon said while naked on the floor, freshly reshaping his bones to fit in his human frame. “She has returned and she’s a bone to pick with you Quint. In particular you.” DeLeon said while getting some sort of satisfaction from the words. “What is he talking about Arthur?” Quint was visibly shaken, in all my years fighting monsters, I had never seen Arthur Quint afraid. “It’s worse than I thought then. Everything adds up. I should have seen it sooner.” Quint regrettably informed me. “It’s the end of the world.”
Part 1