“Jace, what’s wrong?” Estelle asks, looking quite alarmed, “You paled like a vampire when the receptionist said that name, and I know it’s not your name, but the surname is the same. Did they catch your name wrong? Did you slur it too much when we registered into the room last night?”“I couldn’t have said that name,” I tell her, “That…that would be disgusting and plain weird. Joseph Greyson is my father.”Estelle looks taken aback, “I’m sorry, what?”“That’s what I’m saying,” I reply, “Joseph Greyson is my dad's name and there is no way in hell that I’d give his name to a place like this even if I’m blackout drunk! I mean, I don’t like dropping his name in normal circumstances, why would I do it when I’m trying to score some with a girl?!”“Hey!” Estelle squawks, indignant.“Sorry, sorry, but you get what I mean, right?”“Why are you afraid to talk about your dad?” Estelle asks instead of dignifying that with a response. “Are you embarrassed by him or something?”“No, no, of course n
“You mean to tell me,” Gerald questions calmly, “that you went to a nightclub after getting wasted in a bar, slept with a random girl who wasn’t using birth control, did not think of using protection, somehow lost your wallet, and now you’re afraid that you might have gotten her pregnant?”“Yes, I am,” I sigh, “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”“No, you didn’t,” Gerald agrees, “no one means for stupidity to happen to them, they just walk right into it.”“I wasn't there to sleep with a girl, honest,” I insist, “I just wanted to have a drink and forget everything, okay? I was mad and pissed, and sad if I’m being honest. I was so tired. I just wanted to forget.”Gerald holds my eyes for a moment, and I distantly wonder what he sees there. Does he notice the misery I have emanating from me? Does he notice how fidgety I am? Does he notice how desperately I need a drink so I could get my nerves settled? We’re sitting in a car right outside the bank after coming here to get all my fi
“I’ve got to take this,” I tell Gerald and before he could answer, I take the call, “Hello, Estelle.”“Oh, hello, Jace. For a moment there I was afraid that you’d given me the wrong number, but I’m very glad you didn’t.” Estelle replies with no hesitation whatsoever, “Anyway, did you get the card issue fixed?”“Um, yes,” I say, “it’s all fixed. Just came out of the bank, actually.”“Oh, great, great. Did you have any damage? Did anyone drain you of your accounts?”“Uh, no, nothing like that. Not sure about the actual cash though.”“Oh, good.”“Yeah.”“Awesome.”“Not really?” Is it me or was this getting awkward? And why am I smelling lavender and cream again? Was this phantom memory smell or something? “I mean, this whole thing just kind of sucks. I need to get new identification information too, a new social security card, get a new wallet…you know, all this stuff that I need to exist as a legal citizen here.”“Oh, yeah, right.” Estelle replies, “Well, I called to tell you that I tal
“What?” Gerald asks, clearly flabbergasted, and I pull at his arm, manhandle his person so he could look out of my window, and point at the person I’m seeing.“Look!” I crow, my heart racing in my chest and my mind tries to do all it can to make sense of what I’m seeing, “the guy right over there, crossing the street right into that little lane Don’t you see who that is?”Gerald squints, “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about-oh, god.”“It’s him, we need to pursue him!”“Jace, Jace, stop!” Gerald calls out as I scramble to exit the car so I could chase after the guy, “Jace, we need to call backup.”“We’d lose sight of him if we do,” I yell back, “that fucker slipped away from us once, and he’s not going to do it again.”“Jace, no!” Gerald calls out, but it’s already too late because I’m already up and running after him. I push past the pedestrians walking around, garnering dirty looks and cries of outrage, reminiscent of when I followed this exact person through a busy stree
I think that I will be able to wait a few moments, but as time goes on, I don’t see him coming out. This makes me feel agitated until I finally cannot hold it in anymore. I weigh the odds of probably getting shit in my mind and come to the conclusion that because this is a crowded neighborhood with shops placed so close to one another in a way that the sound of a gunshot would ring and alert everyone in the vicinity of what was going on in the shop, neither Aiden nor the people in the shop would risk it.But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to attack me in any other way.Yet if I allowed Aiden to escape in some way from here, we would lose the first lead we had of him in months, and it was not something we could risk losing, not when we were so close.And so, steeling myself to face anything that happens in the shop, I make my way in.The specialty shops seem to be selling antique furniture and wooden souvenirs of all sorts. The whole place smells like incense and there’s light
Pushing the salesman away from me and disregarding all his protests I start to chase after Aiden. There is a backdoor to the shop and Aiden slams the door behind him, nearly hitting me who is following him right behind, but that does not deter me. There is only one aim in my mind and that is to catch him today no matter what.Aiden springs into a rather crowded street that’s right next to the backdoor exit, the lane that is next to the one we took to follow him into the shop.The chase is reminiscent of the one I did many weeks ago when we realized where the kidnapper was uploading the torture videos from. However, although I made an impressive chase that day, due to the police interference Aiden managed to weasel his way out to later deliver the final blow to Coraline while I was taken into police custody. This time that cannot happen. I make sure that there are no police officers anywhere as I give chase, and make sure not to bump into people just in case one of them calls upon a po
I admit that I did not do much thinking when I jumped at a moving car.Right in the middle of rush hour.Rather there was only one thing on my mind, and that was to apprehend Aiden no matter what it took. I did not have any other thoughts, like is this going to be safe? Will my human body take it and come out from the other side unharmed? Or will I come out from the other side harmed but alive? Will I miss my mark and just splat on the road, only for a car to run over me effectively killing me on the spot? Did people die on the spot when cars ran over them? Will I die if a car runs over me?But that does not happen.Instead, I soar into the air with an inhuman force driving me, and my nails collide with the metal of the roof right above the passenger side door. Was it carbon fiber? I don’t really know, but what I do know is that human nails are not supposed to do what I just did.Because my nails have somehow elongated about five times their average size, sharpened at the end, and emb
Aiden points a goddamned gun at me and without hesitation presses the trigger.For a moment the entire world freeze around me. I see it as clearly as I could see a bird flying or a fish swimming, like I’m in the slow-motion section of an action movie. The bullet is aimed at me, and I could see it coming towards me, tearing through the air It should be faster than this, I realize. I should not be seeing it coming towards me, it should already be embedded in my head, taking my life with it. I should be down on the road with another vehicle running over me because I’m too dead to move. So why am I still alive? Why do I see it coming towards me? It’s impossible for a human being to see a bullet with his naked eyes!The bullet comes closer and closer, and I get over my shock at seeing it. It breaks through the glass of the vehicle window, and the glass shatters. Pieces of crystal flew all around my head and I had to pull myself back not to let them get into my eyes. Eventually, the bullet