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Detective Timothy O'Carter
?Move to a smaller city?, they said ?There's still interesting cases, but no gang wars, and you'll get promoted faster?, they promised. ?They? were right. But what they failed to mention was that in this smaller city, interesting didn't begin to describe some of the cases that we dealt with. Most of them, actually, now that I think of it.
My first case in this town had been a mass baby napping. If someone, somehow, stealing the entire preemie ward hadn't been strange enough; it got even weirder once we caught the guy. Babies were totally fine, mostly asleep, not a scratch on them. The perpetrator, though. He never made it to his bail hearing, even. He wasted away in his cell overnight, the autopsy showing iron based heavy metal poisoning. Luckily, he didn't seem to have any family so no one had sued the city for it Most of our strange cases weren't so large and showy, though.
Like today's fiasco. I worked my way up from a beat cop to Major Crimes. I was an actual goddamn detective. So why was I being sent to deal with noise complaints from a frat party?
?Priska,? I ask my supposed partner ?Whose cheerios did you piss in this time??
?I don't know what you're talking about.? He replies, trying to look innocent before going back to the mountain of paperwork on his desk.
?I'm talking about this,? I put the file for this party disaster on his desk. ?It's nice that there aren't any homicides to deal with today, but this??
?A noise complaint?? He looks perplexed. ?How is there a whole file on a ?? He gets deadly quiet for a few long moments, flipping through the file. I just take the time to finish off my coffee. ?Did you read this??
?What's to read?? I start to get up to find more coffee. ?A frat party has somehow lasted more than one day, is louder than usual, and my partner has pissed off the chief enough - again - that we get to deal with it.?
?What's to read,? he answers me, ?is that it's lasted FOUR days now. And the 12 beat cops who went to shut them down over the last four days aren't back.?
?If we've got officers down, why isn't swat going in? With EMTs?? Now I'm alarmed. This city is strange but they're usually better organized than this.
?Not down,? he clarifies, ?just not back. The last ones to be sent reported seeing at least several of the others trough binoculars before heading in.?
?So? hostage negotiators?? This still isn't our job.
?They saw them dancing, Tim.? He shakes his head. ?They aren't being held hostage; the party is contagious.?
This is our job, and as much as I hate to admit it right now, we're going to need backup.
Vivian May, PI
It was a fairly boring week at my little agency. Nothing much had crossed my desk, just a missing jewelry case that I passed off to my best friend Richard. A werecoyote's enhanced sense of smell is often enough to break that sort of case, but Richard's low level psychic powers shine with this sort of thing, and he's been bored (and broke) too. The big money in my line of work was in missing teenagers. Local cops don't have the budget to look for kids who will probably wander sheepishly home in the morning, anyway, until they've been gone over night. Parents don't usually want to hear that, so a friend on the force usually points them in my direction.
The other sort of big money case I normally handle isn't as exciting, but it is why my usual source of upset parents has dried up. Insurance fraud. It's not flashy, and all kinds of people who normally wouldn't commit crimes think it's a great idea. People like Detective Timothy's soon to be ex brother-in-law, for example. Which is why his sister is staying in his guest room, and his partner (and my good friend) Detective Priska hasn't sent me any leads lately.
When Priska calls me with something so weird that even Timothy is willing to deal with me, my ears perk up. Today might be an interesting day, after all. I talk them into meeting me at the local diner. If I can't get involved enough to warrant a consulting fee, I at least want some free lunch. Shapeshifter metabolisms are no joke, even broke werecoyotes need to eat.
Timothy
I don't like working with Vivian. First of all, even in a town this frigging weird, it's irregular for cops to be working with a PI. If she's so good at sorting out this strangeness, why doesn't she just join the force? Ok, I guess that could be overlooked just because some of our cases were strange enough that we might not sort the out following the rules. But I've got a personal problem with her as well. My damned brother-in-law, well, ex-brother-in-law now? He'd been pulling some sort of insurance scam. My sister wasn't in on it, which is why she ended up in my guest room after the insurance company hired Vivian. I know it's not actually her fault. But, no grown man wants his older sister moving in with him.
Also, she eats our entire petty cash budget every time we take her to lunch. I swear this gal has a hollow leg She's not an amazon at 5'9?, and athletic as opposed to slim but not over muscled. She eats like an ultra-marathon runner carb loading before a big race, though, seemingly every day. I just chalk it up to one more weird thing in this crazy town when she's beat us to the diner, and ordered two huge club sandwiches with salads and fries. At least she already got coffee for all of us.
Vivian
I ought to stop eating like this in front of these guys. They're like most of the normal people in this town, they wouldn't recognize the supranatural unless it bit them. Hell, they might even tell themselves it was a dream or an art student's prank if it did. A normal woman my size wouldn't have my appetite, but using my enhanced werecoyote senses to solve cases without shifting to a coyote in the middle of the city - and getting animal control called on me (again) - took a lot of energy.
Whatever, too late now. I finished my first sandwich and picked up the file they'd brought with them.
?So, what strange nonsense do you have for me today?? I'm making light of it, because often it's horrible.
?Strange nonsense is the only way to put it,? Priska replies. ?We have a frat party that's been going on for four days now,? he raises one eyebrow, ?that has somehow sucked in 12 beat cops who went to try to shut them down.?
?Wait, what?? I put down my 2nd sandwich and pay attention. ?That's strange even for us.?
Unfortunately, there isn't much more in the file to go by. The first few sets of officers didn't even take any notes, just went charging in. By the fourth set, someone assumed it was some sort of sonic attack and wore earplugs, at least. Not that it helped them. The sixth set got an eye on all the rest with their binoculars, and made note of the fact that they just seemed to be dancing, and went to try to talk sense into them. The three of us decide to just stay far enough away to be safe and carefully check it out.
We're still half a mile out when my nose tells me exactly what the problem is. It's a Satyr. Yes, they're real too, try to keep up. Ridiculous goat smelling, party loving, jerks. He'd play DJ for a week if no one stopped him, using his pheromones to pull more and more people in and feeding off their energy as they literally danced themselves to death. Fortunately, strong or not, they're still herbivores. It shouldn't take much for me to send him on his way. I'm turning to tell the guys that I'll handle it when I realize it's too late.
Timothy
For the life of me, I still can't tell you why I went in there. I don't want to dance; I hate to dance. I'm not here to party, I'm here to break it up. I feel possessed. It has to be drugs, that's what we put on the report after so that has to be true, right? There's no other rational explanation. Some aerosol version of a new party drug.
Why it didn't affect Vivian I'll never know, but I'm glad it didn't. I'm trying to keep an eye on her as I dance along with the crowd, just catching snippets of her silhouette between the strobe lights and the fog machine. Those can't have been fangs I saw in her smile when she strode up to talk to the DJ. I must have been seeing things because of the drug. Whatever she said to him, though, worked. He turned as white as a ghost, and suddenly the music stopped.
Someone turned on a normal light, and we were just looking at wreckage. People were collapsing where they stood, having danced for days. My partner and I got our wits back faster than the beat cops. We started calling EMTs, firemen, everyone really. There was something like 200 exhausted kids to deal with and no real answers. Maybe when I finished all this paperwork I'd put in a transfer back to the city, this town gets weirder by the day.
A new carnival approached the city. My friends and I decided we were going to meet there by the Ferris wheel tomorrow. John said he would have to take care of his sister since his parents had dinner night, so I decided I would help him pay the babysitter. He texted his parents that agreed, but he would have to leave with them since they didn't want him doing anything funny with her. Barely did they know. So we agreed that John and I would be the first to go there.
John and I were at the carnival at 5 pm to meet with a few of our friends, when he got a text and said he was sorry, but he had to go back because the babysitter had to leave his little sister but he would try to get back. I was kinda bummed, but okay. Our friends wouldn't come for a few hours.
I started walking toward the rollercoaster. They had built this extremely quickly, so I didn't know if it was safe, but whatever. I entered the line. I was looking at the lake near and blinked. It was night. Weird. I thought nothing of this, not until I noticed that there was no lake. There was snow on the floor, and I had never seen the clothes I was wearing. I went to a guy near me that appeared to work here and approached him.
?Hey man, I know it's your day off, but you still need to wait in the line? What happened to your head?? After he said that, he started calling a guy named John on his walkie-talkie. I put my left hand on my head and when I noticed I was bleeding. I also had a ring. Weird.
?Honey, are you okay?? Wait, John? I turned my head too fast and passed out. When I woke up, I was in a hospital, with just a late-20s guy looking at me.
?Hey, you woke up!? He came and hugged me. He looked and sounded like John, but he was older, so it couldn't be him.
?Who are you? Where am I? Where are my parents?? I started pushing him away when I noticed he was wearing a similar wedding ring. I freaked out. When I was about to scream, the doctor came in.
?Hi, you have a concussion, but your ECT hasn't come back yet, so maybe the damage can be greater. We talked to your employer, and she said that you will stay in town for 5 more days, so we will keep you overnight for observation.? He then turned to the guy and said. ?Your husband was lucky that he had you as a healer. Your magic stopped a more severe loss of blood.?
?Wait, what do you mean by employer and husband? I'm only 18. And what is this nonsense about magic?? I tried to sit up, but I felt dizzy and fell. The doctor then approached me, grabbed a small lantern, and shined my eyes.
?What is the last thing you remember?? The doctor was looking worried at me,
?I was in the line for the roller coaster after my boyfriend John left, waiting for my school friends to come, I blinked, and was in a different place, but in the line for the roller coaster.? I didn't understand their reactions, but the guy was getting freaked out.
?That was 10 years ago, Matt. A lot has happened. Like, a lot.? He came over and hugged me again. Yeah, that was John, with his black curly hair, his dark skin tone, and those lips?
?If this memory loss lasts for over 24 hours, which I think it will, you probably will have a permanent memory loss.? The doctor left just me and John alone
He then talked to me about what happened. His parents had figured it out and planned the thing to confront him and try to get him to conversion therapy, but he ran out back to the carnival to meet me. We found the owner and got jobs there. My parents went along with this, so I still talked to them. We got married 6 years ago.
He also told me we discovered we were witches when we escaped with the carnival. He was a healer, and I was a technopath. So that explains how I always made my cell work. 2 years ago a vampire appeared and revealed the existence of vampires, werewolves, witches, and Furcifers, which are guys who can hide in plain sight, disappearing even from the best trackers.
My parents got here in Albany from the Keys, where they had moved 3 years ago, the next day. It was weird, to say the least. For me, it was like I had talked to them in person yesterday, but it was last Thanksgiving, which was over a year ago.
The next day I was feeling better, so I got discharged. My parents went with me and John since they would leave that day. We got to the carnival and my parents stayed with us for a while and then John drove them to the airport.
I knew I was to be inside the trailer all the time, but I peeked around. I went around and found this weird girl in miniskirts and a crop top. She was pale with black hair. She didn't look anywhere over 23, but because she wasn't purple with the cold, I assume she was a vampire. How she was in the middle of the sun, I didn't know. Her phone rang, and she answered. I kept moving.
I went in the direction of the carnival that was closed due to it still being midday, and some people who were setting up started waving at me. Weird. but I have been living here for a decade.
I took a left turn and saw myself lost. I kept walking and the buzz that I was feeling stopped. And then it got back. I looked in that direction. There was nothing. What was the name of the guys who could disappear? Furcifers, right? I approached, looking in that direction. The buzz went quickly to the right. It was probably his phone. So I can feel peoples' phones? Neat.
I turned back to try to go back when I saw a weird building. I entered, and it was a house of mirrors. I saw myself with my black hair a little bit longer, and the blue eyes looked deeper The skin was still pale. I had dark circles all over my eyes.
I hated these things since I always got lost on them. I kept moving, with an arm in front of me to avoid collisions. I got into an area where I was surrounded by mirrors and a woman with olive skin, channel straight hair, a one-shoulder red dress, and a huge gold necklace.
"Did the bitch curse you too, Matthew? You never get lost here." She looked kinda behind me while she talked. Then I noticed that her reflections were kind of fuzzy. Another vampire?
"No, I have amnesia. What did you do to get cursed?" I was curious but scared at the same time. She then proceeded to come closer and put her hands at my temples and locked eye contact with me.
"Not a spell, but a hard physical impact. Unless you find a really good healer, you will remain like this, hell, even if you find one. And to answer your question, I killed three werewolves, and almost caused a war inside here. I regret it, not because I got trapped here, but because what I did was wrong." She removed her hand and made a sign for me to follow her. I did and she took me to the entrance. There, an old lady dressed in maroon was waiting.
"Matthew, you should've been in your trailer resting. In 3 days we will be parting to Magique. Mehi, I set you free. We will need your help in the future." The old lady said, and the vampire got mad because it was still daytime, but the old lady dismissed her.
"There was a buzz randomly somewhere here. I think it was one of those people who can hide. Also, there was a girl on a crop top and miniskirt looking around. And how did you find me?" She was impressed by me noticing these things, and an almost grieving look took her face for a few seconds.
"You would be a great asset in the war to come, but your recovery is more important. And the buzzing was the phone of one of our helpers who warned me. The girl I have no idea, but she has access to a witch to be walking in daylight. She may not be a foe in this instant, but it raises some concern." We kept walking and got to the trailer area.
"War against who? And where is Magique? And how can that vampire walk when it's in the middle of the day?" She looks at me happy with these questions.
"War against the United States of America. They are planning on passing laws that would make our lives extremely hard. Because a witch enchanted a memento of her life as a human and it is always connected with her. Mehi is almost 3,000 years old, so anything like that would probably deteriorate, or because of time, she would lose the emotional connection." We got to mine and John's trailer and entered. She started and started making coffee.
"About Magique, is a place in Oregon where 5 packs of werewolves decided to create a nation. So a few vampires and covens decided to move there and a few furcifers too. They took their companies there and it caused a huge influx of our people moving there. The last straw was when a nationwide coven called The Witches of Revolution went there, in October last year. Now we are in January and the new laws are about to get voted, and we need to pass the borders before." She said all of that, drank a mug of coffee and then opened the door. She turned to me:
"Get some rest. Tomorrow grab your grimoire and study it. We need all hands on deck." And left.
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