ARC: Seeds of Calamity

When Becca arrived at Don’s place, it was almost afternoon. He lived pretty far away from downtown, and his house was pretty modest. A building with only one floor, very well put wooden walls, painted white, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, everything over a completely non-suspicious basement. And to top it off, a humble yard all around the place, with trees, a garden, even a swing, yet he had no children. He could not have children, to be more precise. No fence, no guard dog, no nothing to show the least sign of security. However, not a single living being ever dared to enter his propriety, except for Becca. But the girl had his special permission to do so. And by using this permission, she stepped into the garden, feeling the soft skin-like membrane that separated the house from the outside world, falling apart to let her through, just for it to merge back together again, as if never disturbed. “Uncle Don?” Becca shouted,

The phone inside the inner pocket of Becca’s coat rang. It was loud, annoying, one of those old, cheap models, typically used as burners. Donnovan had given the device to the girl right before she left.“I’m gonna contact you only once through this, but when I do, you’ll have the name and the address of the son of a bitch. You smash it and throw it away as soon as I hang up, you understand?” he said, the girl nodding in agreement.And there it was. Four days after the meeting with her uncle, and he already had the answer.Gladly the man hadn’t tried to contact her in these four days, not even once. Which was a bit odd, but fortunate.She heard about blackmailing from her uncle – he dealt in basically any illegal activity one could think of – and according to him, blackmailers usually clung to their victims, always trying to get more and more from them. Yet that didn’t appear to be the case with mister

After the incident with the thing in the alley, Bertrand went home, thinking of, for the very first time in his whole career, getting a decent night of sleep. Even if it came to shoving a whole bottle of sleeping pills down his throat. There simply couldn’t possibly be a way of the things he’d been experiencing to be real, yet his cheek was swollen and in pain. When he touched it, before getting in the car, he saw blood staining his fingers. And there was a mark across his face when he looked in the rearview. I’m going crazy, right? It’s not real... he thought, while driving. A whole day and night of sleep, I’ll wake up tomorrow brand new, and ready for a cup of coffee. But he didn’t. The detective got home to find that something had invaded his place. The lights were off, and he heard movement in his room. Why the fuck don’t I have a gun again? Bertrand asked himself, trying not to get too elated by

The shot echoed through the room, making Jake’s ears ring. It had been a while since he took part in a gun fight inside a closed space, and his tears were too much, and Bert’s movement was too much.And everything was too much...“J... Jake...” he heard Bertrand’s voice, but refused to look. He would snap if anyone ever made him look at what he’d just done.“Jake...?” his partner’s voice, hollow and lost just seconds ago, was filled with surprise and shock. “What... What is...”Jacob didn’t want to listen to the rest.Gonzales called him four days ago, to check on his reports. He was pretty busy with how to put Bertrand’s intel into believable words, but the deputy chief never called him only to check on his reports, so he listened to her, and asked what it was all about.“Did you tell your freak partner about the Face Murder?” she asked, witho

One year later Nezariel was in a hurry.The hoodie she was wearing, covering her entire face, showing only shades of dark, along with a glimpse of her chaotic coloured eyes.Two more hooded figures followed right behind her.The cityscape revealed tons of buildings and crowded streets. It was the middle of the night, yet there were still dozens of people walking by, to get to one of the many bars and restaurants that existed there, and made the living soul of the district.“So you knew that Azazel was here all along?” Nezariel asked angrily.“Yes, I did. So what?” Aamon answered her, on her left. “He may have become a cook. But still, he’s one of the most powerful Archdukes to ever land on Earth. So what did you want me to do? Snitch him to you, so you could go straight forward questioning him? Or even better! So you could try to do the same thing you did to that sack of shit, Jeremy