A/N:
I see you are here. Oh isn't it wonderful?
Once again it's Halloween. The time of the year when little kits roam the streets dressed as ghosts and witches and skeletons and pirates.
The one day when they can ask for a treat or can play the mammals who had denied them one a trick.
I͏̻̭̣̩̘̳t̷̬̗͚͎̬̯̝'̧̰͈͇̟̦s̵͔̬͈̱̬ ̝͔̻̭͞t̳̯̜h̨e̝̲̞̘͔ ̷̻̯̦t̢͇̳͖̣i͖m͈͢e͏̳͉ ̬̱̺̻͈͘w̛͇̹͓̣ͅh͏̬ͅe̦n͜ ̫̱̰t̮̘͟he̘̜̱ ̗̱̝ͅs͇̝̰h͇͓̟̪͇̲a̘̞̬̮͚͚̟d̙̯͕o̼̭͎͎w̦͖̬͓s̤̭̖̪͓̟͍ ̫͠g͓̞̤̦͍͟r̴͕͈̻̪̻̼̹ow̹̝͡ ͈̮͉̪͕̘͉lo͈̼͍n͍͟ge͖̺̳r̹̰͝ ͜a̭̣͉̩̫͈̕n̙̫̞̣͖͘d͍ ̰d̖̞e̼͍̗ep͇̗̮͈͝e҉r͈̳.̶̮͔̼̰̤͍̗
̞̹͔̭T̹̫̜̰̯̫̯h͈̯̣̣̜͡ȩ̮͓̜̩̫ ̴̫t̡i̘͍̭̯̣me̪̘ ͉w̞̩̦̩͙ͅh̦͕͎̱̹̜e̞͈̪̞̣n ͇̩̗̳̦͈th͔̪͓̰̥e̢͔̜̳͍̖͎ m̹̗̰͚͟o̙̞̖͎o̹͈̖̠ṉ̜̗͓ ̹̠͘t̮uŗ̰͚̥n͉̕s̻̠̙͙̰̪̖ ̙̮̩͕͈̺͍͢re̜̺͎̰d҉̱̦̭̼̹̤̖ ͉̥̲a̳̹̞̕n͓̙̹̥͘d͖͖̤̬̥ ̣͉̞͈͖̪͡ͅt̠͚̠͇͞h̫̲̮̼͇̙̳e̹̰̭̖̣ ̴͓̳̤̰͔̣̳w͓͘o̱͓͎̙r̝̖ld̞ ͏̳g̩̱͠ͅr͘o̤͚̞͓ͅw̮͇̺̜͍ṣ̼̘̱͖͈ ̧̜t̲̦͔͉h͈͈i̭ͅn̸.̝̦̮̹̬͚
̗͓T̤͈̖h̼̲e͟ ̜͇̮̳͡t̗̘̲i͓̱̥̮͎ͅm̧̗̱͍̦̱̲e̮̭ ͓̰̺͠w̟̤̜̯̹͔ḫ̫̣͙̦͓͙e̱̥̣n̛̥̮ ̥̟̳̣m̸a̢͙͕̣͉m͎͍̰̮̦̱͔͘m̖̯͈͙̪̬͠a͉̻̩l̦̯̯͓̲̞s҉͎̟͔̫͖ͅ ̸̗̫̗̰w̸̮͓̭̰͈͎̟ḙ̣n͔͓̖t̴̤͚ ͖̝ͅm̘͙͕̹ͅį̳s̱̬̝̳s̮̺̯͉i̠̟̳̬͓͕͜n͈͉̬̦͝g̵ͅ ͈̲͚ṇ̺̗͈͓͎e̯̱̭͉v̢̟̰e̷̝̠̥͍r ̤̻̞t̙̣̯͍̗̻̪o̯ ̭̗̩̤b̰͔̘͉ẹ̱̫̤͕ ̠͍̗͎̳s͇͔͙͝e̝e͕̫̳͞n̦̞̭̻̬͉͇ ̩͓̣͝a̯̣̫̱̭̖͟g̹̟a̗̟̼͔͉i͏̻͙̯̼n͖͚̦.͉̮͎̤͞
W̪͈͉̳͍͖̯̬h̺̫e͓̝͇̺͓ṉ͈̮̯̤̠͖̻ ͇̺s̥̖̫̪c͚̠r͇̥̞̙͇̠ͅe̗a̙̼͎͖̹̹̝m̺̣̬̼̹̪͕͍s̤̳̪͙̥̙ ̭͖̱̤̭̲͚̳͕f̲i̹̗l̖̯͔̱̜l̲̩̹͇̼͖̩ͅ ͍̗t̰̖h͔e͍̰̦ ̟̻̖̭̝̤͇͍a͍͕̼͈̙̦͕ͅi̪̗͍r͕͉͔ ̼̲̼̪̲u̺̩̥̝̲̰͔n̬̪t͈͇͔͔̦͚̥̪i̯͎͚͓̤̟͔l̤̝̪̟̭ ̜̟͕ṱ̼̗̘̮̜̮̼h̩̹͈e̟̰̜̰̲̯y̝̟ ̙̤̫̩̘̺̗͓f̥̩a̘͙͍̘͔̭l̥̝l̰̜̭͉͔ ̱̩̬s͕̱̥̦̬i̹͓̦̥l̪e̞̯̳̰̯͍ͅn̦̻̝̙̻͈̭ṱ̘̹̣̘̙͖̟ ̜͕̤̥͍͇ͅf̬̘o̮̣̥͎͉r̦̳̹̯̺͍̭̹e̼̖̰̦̝̰͎v̯̘͎̟ͅe̘̯͙̼̘̯̟̥r̪̣.̻̝͚͈͎̪̙̞
̦͇̫͓O̪̜̘̙̘h̩͍͉ ͓̠̩i̲̩̰̹̫s̙͙n̝̝͙͉'͔̺̰̮̝͎̟̝ͅt̺̮̮ ̦̯̫̣͓̫̞i̹͉͎̤̠͕̣ͅt̲̖̠̻̞̠̥̮ͅ ̼͈̞͔̙͙̲ͅs̭ͅw̤͓̥̤̫̺̫ͅe̹̹̭̹̩̱ͅe͕͖͖̩͓t̖̞?͎̝ ͙̩͍̣̼͚̦T͕̱͕͎̬͉̮h̖̟̲͈̺̗͉e̜̯̱͓̻̭̭͔̰ ͓͚̬̘s̜̪͔̼m̫̞͎e̮̯̲̬l̰̜̥̮l͓̖̦̖͕ ͖o͚͍̗͈̗ͅf̱͎̖̫̣͓ ̠̗̩b̝̺̺͚ͅl͔̮͎o͖̙̥̞̹̦o̻̩̝͓̯̫͓̜d̳̭̩̝̠̲ ̫̪a͈n̻̩d̰̩̱̟̝̙̮̙̠ ͈̫̮̤̟̰̮ͅs̬͕̗͎̯̣̥ͅt͇͖e̜̺͔̱n̬̦͔̲̫c͇̬h̻̞͕̦̖͓̰͚ ̙̭̫̤͔͇̯̱̳o̱͚̗f̜̮̼̤ ̪ͅd̖̱̗̦̘e͙̹̞̞̳͉s͔̤̲̙̰̖̱p͉̺̠a̗̹͓͙ͅi̞r̜̠.̭͔̮̙͖͕
̯͖̣̟͇̻T̤͓̱͖͕̩͚͓̖h̻̜̩͕e͚̱ ̥͇̗͉̰̺̤̼l͕o̲̜̯̠͇v͙̺̟̹̰e̠͔̼͈̝̺͎l̩͙ͅy͇̹̗̦͍ ̜̟s͖͙͙̥͓̯̝ͅc̺̲̦͉͙͙ͅe̪̟͖̯͕͎n͓̬͓t̹̖̣̬͓͎͓͙͖ ̰̭͇͇̙o̦̦͈̘̳͍̖̟̺f͚̼̯ ̳̹f͎̪̩̱̩͎̥e̲a̖̫͎̗r̠̰ ̼̞̱̱̙̦a͕͎̟̣n͉͚͚̲d̝̗͇̬̟̝̜ͅ ͙͔̖a͎͔̝̜͎̥̬̣̞g̥̯̮͔̝͖͕͈̹o͈̺͉̝̼̤n͍̲y͍̙̲͙.̝͇͖͈̭
Ŵ̖̠͕̗̦͌̾͒̍ͫ͋̐͢͢O̲ͩ̏̐̉̂̈́̏̓N̋͐ͭ̐ͥ̈̈́͋͘҉̪̝̫'͚̯̠̗̺̠̉ͧ͛ͦ̔T̶̛̟̬̽ͯ̑̐̋ ̴̨̰̺̩̳̳̣̻͓́͟Y̝̱͈̭̩ͮͬͣͪ̐̌͋́O̡̧̝͛Ụ̬̱̱̉̇͒̆̊̽ ̹̹̂̓̓͋ͨ͟S̢̨̥͖̿ͣŢ̵͕͓̩̝̠͙̇͞A̧̧̰͓̺̻̩̮̟̞̾̓ͤ͊́Y̧̻͎͈̞̺͉̪ͨͬͮ̆͒̉ ̴̹̦̻̽͋H͍̪̖͔̳̥͙̼ͤ͆͗̂̒͡E̶̜̤͈͉̯̫͆ͥͮ͛͢R̶͒ͥ͒͜҉͇̦̝̮̖̹̙Ẽ͒̆ͪ͘҉͚ ̩̝̳͖͍̳̳͔́͆͗̌ͩ͊̄ͭ͘͟ͅW̷͚̯͛ͨ͐̇̿̋I̧̦̠̲͐T̻̺͕̑ͦ͝H̶͕̮̬̮̯̲͎̰̀̍ ̶͙͓͕̭̟͚͎ͨͧȖ̢̡͙̜̏͑̓̅ͬ̕Ş̙͎̺̰̍̂̑͐͝?̢̟̝̈́͒̊̽
Dark clouds had conquered the skies above the city, dying the late evening in deep shades of grey and black. The streets were covered in an eerie twilight, growing shadows in every entrance, every window, and every face.
Mammals hurried towards their destination, wrapping their jackets tighter around themselves while the wind was continually picking up, howling like a pack of demons, stalking around the corners.
In the distance, lightning flashed like strobe lights, leaving an angry cacophony of thunderclaps in its wake that grew louder by the second.
A grey bunny doe stepped out of a building unto the sidewalk of a gloomy Zootopia.
If not for the light-blue umbrella she unfolded at the just setting in rain, her fur, earthy brown jacket, and dark-blue jeans would simply let her blend into the background, causing her to disappear to the unobservant eye.
Gazing up into the dreadful, dark canopy of clouds hanging low above the buildings, she squinted her amethyst eyes shut in surprise when a large drop hit her nose.
Just the perfect weather for Halloween, she thought to herself while a tired smile crossed her face.
The day had been demanding for Judy Hopps.
She had been hurrying from one school to another as part of a public service, teaching young kits to stay close to their parents when going trick-or-treating and reminding older ones who would roam the streets alone to stay away from dark, deserted alleys, not let strangers lure them away with candy, and to be careful with the things they got.
To her disgust, there were still mammals out there who apparently felt a diabolic glee in placing needles and razors in apples, to name one example of the numerous sick ideas deranged minds could come up with.
The phone in her pocket vibrated once and gave off a short 'ding,' notifying her about an incoming message.
Changing her umbrella from one paw into the other, she quickly took the slim device out.
A smile appeared on her face when she read the name of her partner and best friend.
Nick: Hey Fluff, how is it hopping? You already done with teaching kids how to sponge as much candy as possible?
Shaking her head with a silent chuckle she deftly typed her reply.
Judy: Yeah, they liked my 'police-bunny-costume,' too. I just left the precinct and am on my way home.
Judy: How is the party?
A strong gust almost wrenched the handle from her paw, and she decided to close the umbrella and pull her hood over her head, even if the feeling of her ears trapped in the confinements of her clothes was rather unpleasant.
While being busy, her phone had informed her of another message from her favorite fox.
Nick: I'm not there yet. Still on my way. Maybe another half hour.
Her eyes widened in anger.
Judy: Nick! Are you typing while driving?!
Her quick trod through the increasing rain slowed almost to a halt while her gaze was focused on her cellphone's display. Her attempt at shielding the device from the water with her body was only partially successful.
Nick: Carrots, who are you taking me for?
Nick: I'm sitting in traffic here, waiting that this massive avalanche of metal and irritated mammals gets a move on.
Nick: Worst part is that I'm almost there. Can already see the corner of Pteromys and Volans from here.
The bunny took up her former pace with a relieved sigh, wrecking her brain the next moment while trying to place the streets the tod had mentioned.
Judy: That's somewhere in Acorn Heights, isn't it?
Nick: I see you slowly get a grasp on the city's layout. Kudos.
The doe rolled her eyes at his cocky reply.
Nick: And yes, it is. Merely two streets away from Tyto Drive and the hopefully awesome bachelor party.
Judy: I still can't believe Finnick gets married.
Judy: Send him my congratulations.
Nick: I'm surprised you are not miffed you aren't invited.
Judy: Just a tiny little bit sad, but not surprised. I barely know him and I was the one who 'stole' his partner in crime, after all.
Nick: Fair 'nough, I guess.
Nick: Oh, I think I see cars moving in the front. Have to put you away, Sweetheart. cu tomorrow ;-)
Judy: Alright. Have fun *hugs*
By the time Judy pocketed her phone again, the rain had increased into an outright downpour, causing her to pick up her pace.
A flash of light turned the darkness around her into a snapshot of pure white, and in the same instance, thunder as loud as cannon fire set off the alarms of a couple of cars a few streets over.
With a ringing in her ears, she hurried down the stairs of the subway station, relieved to be out of the open. She knew that the chance of being struck by lightning in the city was virtually non-existent. But still, that last one had been too close for comfort.
As if fleeing from the storm as well, a brightly colored plastic bag that looked somewhat out of place considering the doomsday atmosphere outside whizzed past her, carried by the unrelenting air draft that had followed her inside and which was ruffling the little patches of her fur that were still exposed.
Judy approached her platform, trying to avoid the fairly wide puddles that had gathered down here as well despite the drains.
Waiting for her train, she took out her phone to check if Nick had sent her another message. Nothing showed up, so she pocketed it again.
Her ears twitched when she could detect the faint noises of an oncoming subway in the distance. At least she could pick up traces of the metallic rattling between the thunder's unrelenting crescendo that could be heard down there just about as loud as if she was still standing in the streets. The irregular flickering neon light she was situated beneath provided the appropriate optical accompaniment.
If the weather kept this up, her whole effort during the day would be in vain, since she highly doubted many kits of any age would roam the streets like this.
When the train arrived, she stepped into the wagon for smaller mammals.
All carts had the same height but were on the inside designed to accommodate for species of different sizes. Larger ones like elephants and rhinos needed not only more space and wider seats, they were also putting more weight on a specific contact face.
Midsized to small mammals were lighter and not as vertically demanding, making it possible to have two to three levels per wagon, with room for the tiniest like rats or gerbils sitting safely behind cover panels beneath other mammals' seats on the lowest level.
She had known before that the subway would be bursting from the seams and found herself to be not disappointed. Every level was occupied almost to the point that made it impossible to move.
She had barely room to step inside but discarded the idea of waiting for the next one instead. It wouldn't get any better for a while, and she felt bone-tired and only wanted to get home, take a hot shower and crawl under her warm blanket.
While the moving vehicle was trying to lull her to sleep right on her feet - an event that could occur without a problem, wedged as she was between the mammals around her and unable to topple over even if she wanted to - she heard a kit mewling closeby.
Unwittingly, her ears rotated until they were pointing in the right direction, picking up on the little mammal's words above the constant murmuring, coughing, and cursing of her fellow passengers.
"But mommy! I wanted to go trick-or-treating!"
"I know sweetie, but the weather is just too bad for it. You would get sick from the rain and cold, and it's also dangerous."
"Judy Hopps wouldn't be afraid of the weather, and she would smile at danger."
That last part had her ears twitching. Had she really just heard her name?
Getting on tiptoes, Judy tried to peer over the heads of the mammals around her.
Through a small gap between two billy-goats, she glimpsed a dark brown bunny doe with her cream-colored son. The little buck was wearing a police uniform that slightly resembled the one she had worn so many years ago on a small stage in Bunnyburrow. Though it was missing a badge.
"I'm sure Miss Hopps would agree with me if she were here. And even if not, you are you and not her."
The female playfully ruffled the little buck's headfur, eliciting a giggle from him.
"But I'm going to be a police officer, just like her!" he exclaimed, snatching the hat his mom held and energetically placing it between his ears where it sat slightly tilted to one side.
A smile brightened up the grey bunny's face upon hearing the little buck's words, and she silently dratted the wall of mammals that kept her from going over to him and tell him that he should keep chasing his dreams.
An announcement told her that the next stop was hers anyway, so she edged closer to the doors.
"Give me your paw and don't let go until we left the subway," Judy's ears swiveled back towards the mother-son duo.
"Okay."
An idea came to her, and when she stepped out of the cart, she almost laughed with pleasant anticipation.
She waited next to the doors until finally, the two other lagomorphs appeared.
"Your mommy is right, you know?"
Two heads turned in her direction, and she saw how the little bunny boy's eyes widened when he recognized her.
"This weather is quite dangerous. I'm on my way home, too."
The mother's surprise subsided, and she bestowed a grateful smile on Judy.
Going down on one knee, the grey doe pulled her paw from one of her jacket's pockets, attaching a small gold sticker in the form of a police badge to the front of the young one's uniform. It was the second to last from her roll that she had been carrying around since her first day on the job, with Nick being the earliest receiver.
The buck looked down at his unexpected gift, and before Judy knew it, she was hugged by a small ball of fluff.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." The little bunny was almost bouncing on the spot, charming a laugh from Judy.
"You are welcome, little police officer."
He leaned away with a broad smile that she returned.
"Never give up on your dreams," she told him in a soft voice, to which the little buck nodded vigorously.
Judy moved to get up but stopped mid-motion. Squatting down once more, she adjusted the still askew hat.
When she stood, the older female who had put a paw on her son's shoulder chuckled as he did a happy binky.
"Thank you, Miss Hopps. Charlie was really down because we can't go trick-or-treating this year."
"Just Judy, please. And I'm glad I could cheer him up."
With that, the two females said their goodbyes.
Judy turned towards the stairs leading to the exit while the other two bunnies approached another platform, waiting for their next subway.
"Look, mommy, I've got a badge from Judy Hopps," she could hear the excited whisper coming from Charlie.
"She was sooo cool."
A pleased chirr escaped Judy upon hearing this.
That little chance encounter had really made her day.
Before climbing the stairs she turned around once more, catching the little buck and his mother looking in her direction.
With a wave and a smile that both of them returned she made her way back up to the streets, heading for her home.
"Finally," the content sigh left the grey doe's muzzle as she - clean and refreshed after a hot shower - threw herself on her rickety bed, her face half buried in the pillow.
With a free paw, she fumbled around blindly until she found the edge of her blanket, pulling the fabric up to her chin and taking in the last traces of the flowery washing agent she used.
Outside, the storm was still raging. Not as intense as it did right before she entered the subway station, but the thunder was still loud enough to make the glass in the window frame rattle, momentarily drowning out even her noisy neighbors, who were arguing about if they should watch Harewitch Project or Claw since it was Halloween.
Listening in for a moment, Judy determined that Bucky was the one arguing against Claw because the torturing was just too much for him, while Pronk stated it would still be better than dreaming about some creepy, supernatural thing going after you without any means of escaping.
Judy silently shook her head. Horror movies had never been to her liking. Now even less than before she had started working for the ZPD, since she often saw how dark reality could be and needn't more of that when she was just looking for some entertainment in her free time.
Turning over on her side, she reached for the phone resting on her dingy nightstand.
Before she had hit the shower, she had sent her favorite fox another message.
Judy: Hey there partner. How is the party?
But no reply was waiting for her beneath her words.
With a shrug, she put the device away.
Nick probably didn't even realize he got a message. Maybe he finally found a nice vixen and is so lost in his conversation with her that he is blocking out everything else.
Playing around the bunny's lips, a small smile accompanied the thought.
A forced smile that fell soon enough when she felt the familiar pang of pain in her chest.
Rolling over on her back, she watched the shadows on the ceiling dancing back and forth.
The streetlight beneath her window was apparently shaking in the strong wind that was still racing through Zootopia's streets.
Lightning momentarily drenched the room in pure white before it fell into darkness.
The lamp is broken again, she realized without surprise.
Nevertheless, she got up and quickly closed the heavy curtains, knowing that otherwise, she would have a hard time falling asleep. Well, a harder time.
The thunder would be keeping her up for a while.
And the mental image of Nick happily chatting away with a bright-eyed, beautiful vixen wouldn't help either.
"Okay, if he hasn't met someone there I'll ask him out tomorrow. On a date. A real date. Not just some movie night or anything," she promised herself.
That actually raised her spirits.
And made her just the tiniest bit nervous.
"Good luck, bunny girl."
A groan fled her lips when Pronk's voice sounded through the paper thin wall... no, Bucky's voice... whoever it was.
"Yeah, go get her, tiger!"
"Idiot, she is a bunny. Have you never looked at her?"
"Shut up. I know that she's a bunny. That was just a saying. And don't call me an idiot, idiot!"
"How am I supposed to know that it was just a saying? And you are the idiot, so shut up!"
"No, you shut up!"
"No, you-"
Before they were gaining momentum, a scream interrupted their quarrel.
"Holy hell, I forgot I already pressed play."
"Scare me to death, will ya!"
"Shut up and watch the movie!"
"No, you shut up!"
And here we go again.
Ignoring the couple next door, Judy tried to make herself comfortable.
Behind closed eyes, her brain came up with every possible way she could bare her feelings to Nick and ask him out as well as his potential reactions.
"Wow, Judy. You look... horrible. Sorry, there is no other way to say this."
Benjamin Clawhauser - the portly cheetah manning the reception desk during the day's first shift - gave Judy an apologetic look.
The grey doe merely shrugged it off.
"Don't worry, Ben. I have a mirror. I know."
A lopsided grin played around her lips, the deep shadows beneath her eyes betraying her exhaustion.
"Want to talk about whatever did that to you?" the feline offered, putting his afternoon bowl of cereals aside, next to his remaining half dozen glazed and sprinkled doughnuts.
"There is nothing much to say, really. The storm yesterday kept me awake for too long and some stupid nightmare I can't even remember woke me up about two hours before my alarm. I'll survive a day on low sleep."
She took a sip from her unusually black coffee, bare of any creamer.
"It won't keep you running for long, but..." Ben reached for the box on his desk, handing the grey bunny one of his chocolate-glazed treats, "... the sugar will at least help a little."
Judy knew how rare it was for her spotted friend to share his sugary goods with anyone.
Mostly because he rarely had any left.
With a tired smile, she took the doughnut and started nibbling on it, savoring the sweetness that filled her tiny mouth and which stood in stark contrast to the bitter brew she held in her other paw.
"Thanks, Ben. That will keep me alive for a while."
"You're welcome, Honeybunny."
Ben was the only mammal she allowed to call her that, and only because she knew that the friendly cheetah didn't mean ill by it.
"So, what's up with Nick?"
His question shook Judy out of her thoughts.
"Huh? What about him?"
"Well, he isn't here yet, and I thought you of all mammals should know where he is. I mean, you two are practically joined by the hip." He chuckled his high pitched giggle that was one of the reasons many thought Benjamin was gay.
Resting his elbows on his desk, he propped himself up on his paws, giving the doe a knowing smile.
Ignoring the other question in the feline's eyes that she always glimpsed when he implied something was going on between them, Judy took her phone out.
"He didn't send me any messages since yesterday. I don't know, maybe he just overslept. He was at a friend's bachelor party."
The smile on Ben's face faded a little in disappointment.
"Oh, hmm. Maybe you are right. Speaking of being late, you should hurry."
Looking at the time on her display, Judy realized he was right. Roll call would start in about a minute. Her ears twitched upon the sound of the doors of an elevator sliding open, and when she turned in that direction she found that Chief Bogo was already on his way.
"Carrot sticks. Thanks, Ben, I owe you. Have a nice evening."
She gave her friend a short wave with one paw, knowing that his shift would probably be over when she left the bullpen.
Hastily approaching the door before her boss would reach it, she only briefly felt ashamed for lying to Ben.
Well, it hadn't been a lie per se. She really had a nightmare and had forgotten most of it after waking up. What she remembered was that it revolved around Nick. But she could hardly say that her nerves had kept her up half the night because she would finally confess to the vulpine she had been pining after for over a year now.
She loved Ben. She did. But he was the owner of the local rumor mill and would probably give off such a high pitched squeal that half the precinct would go deaf. And she wasn't sure if the ZPD's insurance would cover the breakage of glass for the whole building.
No, better deal with the fallout after she had talked to Nick and knew his answer.
Slipping in right before the cape buffalo, Judy shot Bogo an apologetic grin which the large mammal requited with an annoyed huff and glare before stepping up to the speaker's desk.
"Calm down you lot!" his booming voice reverberated throughout the room after he had granted his officers their daily moment of uproar.
Putting on his undersized reading glasses, Bogo attempted to hand out the files for the current cases but paused when he realized a certain russet-furred pain in his rear was missing.
"Hopps! Where is your partner?"
"I'm sorry, Sir, but I have no idea."
About a year ago the small doe would have felt like hiding under the table when the impressive mammal that was the chief of police directed his piercing gaze at her.
Now her left ear merely twitched while she waited for his reaction.
With a grunt, he looked back down on his case files.
"Parking duty!"
Usually, Judy would be angry at the fox for earning her this specific task that was loathed by most of the officers. Today she was kinda glad that her only job would be to drive around and hand out tickets.
"In his interest, I hope Wilde is sick," she heard the bovine mumble before getting back to handing out cases to the other teams.
Silently, Judy agreed with him.
She began to get a bad feeling about this.
Hours slowly crawled by while Judy roamed the streets in her little three-wheeled joke mobile, how Nick affectionately had named the meter maid car.
It was almost eight in the evening, and no matter how many texts she had sent him, there was still no answer from her partner.
The setting sun gave birth to slowly growing shadows. Long dark fingers reached for the city and strangled it in their grasp. At least that was the impression the grey doe was under while twilight steadily turned into night and the streetlights came to live, fighting against the darkness.
Over the course of her shift, she hadn't even given out a hundred tickets and if she was honest with herself: she couldn't care less.
She slammed on the brakes.
Considering the maximum speed her vehicle was capable of, it was no wonder that she was barely pushed forward in her seat.
Squinting her eyes, she intensively stared into an alley.
"I knew it."
The reason for her sudden stop was a van.
A van with a quite flashy paint job on its side.
For the last four hours, Judy had cursed herself for never asking Nick to give her Finnick's number. Honestly, she never had a reason to do so, but still, having any means to contact the vertically impaired reynard would have helped her finding out what had happened to her favorite red fox. And by chance, she had stumbled across his mobile home.
At least she had always assumed that he was living in there, judging from the insinuations and jokes Nick used to make.
Looking for a free spot, Judy drove down the street another few feet before parking her joke mobile.
In contrast to the previous evening, this day had been warm and dry. Too much so for the first day of November in Savannah Central, anyway.
No trace was left of the downpour from twenty-four hours ago.
When setting paw on the sidewalk, she could feel the warmth rise from the stone.
The only traces left by the storm were the still numerous branches it had torn off and which had been placed at the edge of the streets so city cleaning could pick them up more easily.
Here and there she had even seen smaller trees being snapped off by the squalls.
While approaching the backstreet she had spotted Finnick's van in, the memory of little Charlie and his mom crossed Judy's mind, and she hoped they both had gotten home safely the day before.
The stale odor of mold crept into her nose when she entered the otherwise clean, slightly chilly alley.
Closer to the van her sensitive ears picked up on the muffled sounds of a hard, fast beat and she assumed Finnick was listening to his music with headphones on.
She gave the backdoors a knock and a moment later the music inside subsided.
When nothing else happened for a couple of seconds, she knocked again, so he would realize he indeed had a visitor.
Remembering the last time she had sought him out, she hastily made a step back before the door was flung open, revealing a short, sand-colored fox with a baseball bat ready to strike.
Recognizing the doe in front of him, he lowered his choice weapon.
"Well if it ain't Flopsy the copsy again."
The deep bass of his voice that stood in defiance to his almost childlike statue still surprised Judy.
"Nick has told you about this, huh?" Judy asked, half annoyed, half amused to hear this specific monicker here of all places.
"Ya betcha he did. So, whatcha want, bunny cop?"
Her features, which had momentarily lightened at the gruff vulpine's attempt at humor, fell once more.
"Finnick, I need your help to find Nick."
"Again? Whatcha doing losing this reynard fer the second time? Ya need to put a leash on him, ya hear?"
"I will consider it once I have him back."
"Thought y'already did, seeing as how that son of a gun keeps talking about ya without interruption," he let bellowing laughter follow his own words.
Judy could feel the insides of her ears heat up at the implication Nick was feeling the same way about her as she did about him.
"Seems my chances are good then."
A thoughtful look from the fennec followed her words before he nodded once.
"Hell yeah. I'd say, if ya want him, he's all yours. But," he suddenly bared his teeth at her, "if ya just wanna mess 'round with him a little, stay away. He's had 'nough of that crap in his life."
"I would never do that. Not to anybody. And especially not to Nick. I'm serious about him."
Judy was convinced her ears must be shining like two spotlights in the twilight of the backstreet. But her words seemed to be enough for Finnick.
"A'right. What happened? Whaddaya need me for?"
"I need to know if and when he had arrived yesterday. How long he stayed. When he left. If he had left with somebody else. Who-"
"Waitwaitwait, cool off ya engines there, bunny. Arrived where? What for?"
His questions surprised Judy enough to leave her with an open muzzle and no words for a moment.
When she spoke again, one of her ears was irritatedly standing halfway up while the other was plastered to her back.
"What do you mean 'What for'? Your bachelor party, of course. I only know that he was heading for Tyto Drive but not exactly where you were holdi-"
"Bachelor party?" the reynard interrupted her for the second time.
"I didn't give no bachelor party. Do I look like an idiot who'd get married? I need no ball an' chain, thank ya very much."
And for a second time, Judy was at a loss for words, looking at her opposite like he just told her with all the conviction he could muster that the sky was neon-pink with yellow dots.
"But... but I was standing next to him when he got that message. He was even laughing at the fact that someone finally put a leash on you."
"No idea who that flea-ridden pelt was talking 'bout, but it ain't me."
"It was the last thing we messaged each other about yesterday and the last time I heard from him. After that, I got no more replies whenever I wrote him, and he doesn't pick up when I call. I thought maybe he was just sick so today I went to his apartment to see if he needed anything, but nobody answered the door."
It was too dark by then to see the smirk on the small fox's face, but Judy could hear it in his voice.
"Mabe he had 'nough of playing cops with ya. Just up 'n left, ya know?"
Reflecting the little light that one of the street lamps on the main street casted into the darkness where they still stood turned Finnick's eyes into two shining pinpoints, firmly fixated on her.
"No." That single word she spoke without any doubt. "He would never do that. You yourself told me not even five minutes ago that he is pretty much in love with me."
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion at the silhouette in front of her.
"Show me your phone."
"What?"
"Show. Me. Your. Phone!"
Judy emphasized each word, making sure that it was crystal clear she wasn't kidding about her demand.
She thought Finnick would reach for the baseball bat he had put aside earlier, seeing as how the left half of his face wrinkled into the beginnings of a snarl, one of his pointed fangs glinting in the dark.
Behind her, Judy could hear the rush of cars passing by on the artificially illuminated streets. Mammals talked and laughed merely a hundred feet away.
But no one would be able to help her in time should the vulpine decide to attack her. And his night vision would give him an advantage.
A growl caused her to shift her weight, getting into a fighting stance, hopefully ready to deflect him.
Until she recognized the sound for what it actually was.
The small fox was laughing.
"Ya know, if anyone else would'a talked ta me like that, I would'a bashed their head in fer good."
He handed her the slim device he had produced from his pants pocket.
"But I can understand that ya have ta make sure. Good ta see yer not that naïve anymore."
With a huff, he turned around, retreating a little into his van.
Judy heard the sucking noise of a fridge being opened and the high 'cling' of glass against glass. Finnick opened his beer with a satisfying pop, taking a big gulp before pointing with the bottle at the still somewhat baffled looking bunny.
"Whatcha waiting fer?"
Jerking a little in surprise, she turned her paw to the cellphone.
Skimming through his messages, she found that the reynard had told her the truth. The last exchange between him and Nick had been initiated by the latter, stating that 'her little tuft of a tail is looking so Maid-Marian darned fluffy.'
She silently promised him that once she had found him, he would be allowed to find out firstpaw how soft it was.
In the meantime Finnick had come back and sat down at the edge of his van, sipping on his beer every now and then.
"Thank you." She returned his phone which the small vulpine took without sparing her more than a glance and a grunt.
"And I'm sorry for-"
"Can it!"
His gruff demeanor hadn't changed, but he seemed more relaxed.
"Keep some o'that steel in ya veins. Might need it to get Nick back."
With a nod, Judy made to turn around but was stopped by Finnick addressing her.
"Wait a sec. Gimme your phone for a moment."
The bunny hesitated only briefly before fishing her own device out and handing it over.
With curiosity, she watched the reynard's face lighting up when he turned it on.
The next moment she deftly snatched the phone out of his paw, unlocked it and gave it back.
Wordless, he started tapping away at it. When his cell phone began to ring, he grunted in satisfaction and gave Judy hers back.
"I'll see if I can find somethin' out. See if s'um his old contacts know somethin'."
"Thanks, Finnick."
"Yeah, yeah, just call me Fin, will ya? And now, get goin' bunnycop."
Shit, I really hope she finds that dumbass. Alive. Prolly had hustled someone back in the day he shouldn't have.
He took another swig, watching the grey doe leaving.
Good luck, officer Fluff.
Fast steps carried her out of the alley and back to her wheels.
She had gotten none of the answers she had hoped for, only new questions instead.
But she also got a helping paw in finding her beloved partner.
For a moment she just sat in her tiny vehicle, not moving a single muscle.
Her thoughts were racing, and she desperately tried to sort them out.
With a visible start, she decided on her next course of action.
Turning the meter mobile on she merged back into the sparse evening traffic, swearing under her breath about the almost nonexistent speed she was going at.
It was close to nine when Judy reached the apartment complex Nick was living in.
She hadn't lied when telling Fin she had visited the red fox before. What he didn't know was that her partner had given her a spare key, just in case. A key she hadn't used the last time, not willing to invade his privacy in case he was sick and wanted to be left alone.
But her fears had grown too strong by now, and she needed to know.
After three loud knocks on his door, rewarded with no answer, Judy entered.
The first time she had visited him here had equally surprised and annoyed the doe.
She knew that his former life as a street-hustler had been lucrative, but seeing for herself that the home he could afford that way was at least five times bigger than hers had brushed her the wrong way.
Just a little.
The fact he wasn't shy of rubbing it in all the more.
He wasn't living in luxury, though. Everything from his threadbare couch via the once-white-now-slightly-yellowed fridge - that was maybe humming a tad too loudly - to the wooden tables, sideboards, cabinets, and chairs which had collected an assortment of scratches, varnished over and over again, all spoke of long years of use.
But they had been treated caringly and therefore were in a comparatively good condition.
Not that Judy could see any of that since the lights were off and the apartment shrouded in darkness.
"Hello?" her call died away unanswered.
Her sensitive ears couldn't pick up any sound that would have been a trace of a living creature.
Muffled through the walls, she could hear a tv running next door. But no breath, no muttered word, no ruffling of fur or scratching of claws was audible inside Nick's home.
She turned the lights on and found everything to be almost as it had been when she last visited him three days ago for their weekly movie night.
There on the coffee table still stood his laptop on which they had watched Nick's choice of a movie this week, one with Leonardo DeCaprineo where he turned from mainly a check fraudster into a valuable asset for the ZBI.
At the end of the movie Judy had playfully elbowed Nick in the side, stating with a smirk that he shouldn't start acting like a ZBI agent now... or like DeCaprineo.
Over one armrest still hung her sweater that she had discarded after deciding that cuddling with the fox was warmer. A notion which the mammal in question had obviously shared since he had slung an arm around her and wrapped her in his tail for extra comfort.
She had forgotten to pick that piece of clothing up before leaving, resulting in a slightly shivering bunny when she had returned to her own place.
On soft, silent paws she walked into the kitchen.
But she found no fox there either.
Only two used cups and a plate waiting in the sink to be cleaned.
The small kitchen table sported a bowl with the sad remains of the blueberries she had given him from her parents during her last visit. The two older bunnies had certainly grown quite fond of the reynard after getting to know him a little. It had only been by chance since they had called their daughter while the grey doe had been hanging out with her partner after work.
Regarding the amount of the sweet little fruits that were still left, she could only shake her head in amusement.
Though the tiny smile she wore at that thought was short-lived.
Leaving the room again she followed the floor to Nick's bedroom, passing by the dark doorframe to the bathroom.
All her senses told her he wouldn't be there and yet against them all she hoped she would find him, sleeping peacefully in his bed when she turned the lights on.
Empty, just like the whole apartment.
His sheets were still in disarray, the vulpine apparently too lazy to make his bed in the morning. Well, Judy couldn't blame him. She knew he always had a hard time getting up, especially when they had the early shifts.
Which they hadn't had this week. Not that it mattered right now.
"Nick, where are you?" The hushed question had left her muzzle before she knew it.
The room remained silent, though.
No voice from above answered, least her partner.
With her head hanging in defeat and a sinking feeling she left, checking the door on her way out to make sure no one had tampered with it. But the lock was intact, and neither it nor the wood around it showed signs of someone trying to enter by any means.
Not sure if she should feel relieved about this fact or disappointed since she was still fumbling about in the dark when it came to her fox's whereabouts she finally descended the stairs and drove back to the precinct.
When Judy entered the foyer, she felt drained and ready to clock out for the day.
It hadn't been a demanding shift, physically. Parking duty seldom was.
But she was mentally exhausted, the fear for Nick eating away at her.
"Hopps."
The call interfered with her plan to head to the locker rooms.
Adjusting her course, she approached the front desk that was by now occupied by officer Busk Hoffers - an always somewhat sourly looking caribou who in his grunt demeanor was almost able to compete with Chief Bogo - and a certain timber wolf.
"Good evening, Wolford. Officer Hoffers."
"Not so good if you ask me," the older, slightly greying mammal huffed before the lupine he had been in a conversation with got any chance to slip in a word.
"The Chief wants me to send you up to him as soon as you are back."
The doe felt a knot forming in her stomach that was fighting with the sliver of hope.
Maybe Bogo had found something out about what had happened to her partner?
With a speed her fellow officers hadn't thought her to be capable of after seeing how she had dragged her feet at a slow pace, Judy turned around and flew up the stairs, the elevator being to slow for her taste.
When she reached the bovine's office, she jumped right up to the door handle, pushing it down and rushing inside the room without knocking first.
Still standing in the doorframe, Judy realized her blunder when Bogo's surprised gaze turned into a glare that he was lowering at her. But it fell off in the same instance.
"Close the door and take a seat, Hopps."
Her hope vanished. Hearing the gruff buffalo talking in a for him soft voice was a bad sign.
She did as she had been told, her ears plastered to her back.
"You haven't heard of Nick."
It wasn't a question she ushered. She knew the answer already.
Bogo shook his head.
"I take it Wilde hasn't contacted you either, then?"
The grey doe reacted in turn, her gaze fixed on her feet and nose quivering slowly.
"I see. When was the last time you had heard from him?"
Giving her boss an account of the last twenty-six hours she brought him up to date, also mentioning her encounter with the fennec as well as her visit to Nick's apartment.
"I'll send someone from forensics to his place, just in case. It's good that you didn't touch anything there. Hand me the key. Please."
Reluctantly, Judy handed the little metallic item over, feeling like she lost a piece of her already missing partner.
"Thank you. I'd also like you to contact that Finnick. I trust your judgment in this, but I'd still like to talk to him myself and let the department for cybercrime take a look at his phone. Though, if he really had been able to hide something from you, he wouldn't be dumb enough to bring that phone here."
"I'm not sure he will comply with any of that. You know about Nick's past. Finnick was his old partner and will probably not be willing to come even close to the precinct," she voiced her doubts
Nevertheless, she sent him a message right away.
To her surprise, the answer was immediate, and the vulpine agreed to come by later that night, to make sure no one would see him enter a police station.
He had expected something like this to happen when he agreed to help her anyway.
Bogo wasn't too happy that he was made to wait, but he was aware he couldn't be picky right now.
"A fellow officer of ours is missing," he spoke up, drawing the bunny's attention back to him, "and I'm making this officially a case. You know him better than anyone else, so I'd like you to be the head of this investigation if you feel up to it."
"I do, and I promise I'll find him."
Bogo gave her a small nod, stopping himself from reminding her to not make a promise she might not be able to keep.
"Report anything you find directly to me. I'll instruct every other officer to keep an eye out for Wilde or any clues of his whereabouts. If you need more manpower or equipment, come to me, and I'll make sure to see it happen. Also," he lifted one of his hoofs, "keep me in the loop what you are doing all the time. I'm not going to let another good officer go missing. I want to know where you go and why. Got that?"
"Yes, Chief!"
The energetic response from his smallest officer put him a little at ease.
"Good. What is your plan now?"
"Since I know that Nick had gotten messages from a now unknown source, I'd like someone to contact his provider. They shall send us all the information about incoming and outgoing calls and messages."
"I will put Snarlov to it. He will inform you as soon as he got any news."
Judy acknowledged this with a nod before continuing.
"I also know that he was heading for Tyto Drive, passing by the corner of Volans and Pteromys, so I assume his destination must have been close to that. I'll go there and look around. Maybe his car is still there, or someone had seen it or him. After all, a maroon red 1970 Mewcury Cougar is prone to catch someone's eye."
Bogo made a mental note to include this in the information he would relay to his officers together with Wilde's last known location and destination.
"Your shift is officially over, Hopps, but if you want to go now, take officer Wolford with you. I asked him to wait just in case."
The foresight of her superior made Judy wonder how much of all this he had anticipated in advance.
"My partner is missing, and clues grow older the longer we wait. No, I'm going now," she decided without hesitation.
"I expected you to say this. Officer Hoffers," the bovine pressed a button on his intercom, connecting him directly to the front desk.
"Chief?" the static voice of the older caribou answered immediately.
"Officer Wolford should still be waiting near you. Send him to the car pool. He shall ready a cruiser and wait for officer Hopps."
"Yes, Sir!"
His crisp answer surprised Judy, and she guessed Bogo might be the only mammal in this building whom Hoffers wouldn't reply to in his usual grumpy manner.
With that, the cape buffalo started shuffling through the papers and folders on his desk.
After a moment, he looked up from his semi-mess.
"Dismissed!" he bellowed at the still expectantly looking doe.
At his command, Judy jumped out of her chair and scurried towards the door.
"Hopps."
She turned around once more.
"Good luck."
Determination hardened her features and with a nod she left.
Purpose carried her steps while she took the stairs down two at once.
It was the same kind of energy she always felt when she and Nick had prepared themselves to apprehend a criminal or face another potentially dangerous situation.
The feeling wasn't a good one, adrenaline sharpening her senses and making her nerves vibrate like live wires. But she knew what she had to do now and where to go.
On her way through the almost deserted foyer - if not for one or another officer who wandered the otherwise empty halls - she barely spared a glance towards the reception desk, registering only that Hoffers was occupied with a book and Wolford nowhere to be seen.
Stepping through a door, Judy reached another short flight of stairs she followed down to reenter the subterranean car pool of precinct one.
Letting her gaze quickly skim through the vast, artificially illuminated hall, she glimpsed the grey-furred figure of a canine two rows of cars away, halfway hidden behind a vehicle which could hold almost half a dozen rhinos.
Ralph Wolford turned in the direction of the falling shut door, waving Judy over in case she hadn't seen him before.
"Thank you, Wolford. I know you'd probably rather spend the evening with Fangmeyer, but I appreciate you coming along with me."
At the mentioning of their striped colleague, Ralph's ears flattened against his skull.
"Uhm, how do you know... I mean, it's not that obvi... ugh, you didn't know, did you?"
Shaking her head in amusement, the bunny tried her hardest not to laugh at her somewhat distressed looking companion.
"Nick had a hunch about you and Nadine. Guess I owe him dinner now."
"Well, good to see that you two are making progress in that regard as well, eh? Now come on, let's get your fox back. After all, he owes me twenty bucks."
Being reminded that her partner was still missing erased the small smile Judy wore and brought her back to reality.
The wolf entered their vehicle, Judy following suit with drooped ears.
"Chin up, Hopps. We will do everything to get our favorite vulpine back. As soon as Bogo makes this official tomorrow morning, you'll have eyes all over the city. He will involve every other precinct as well, and we'll have Wilde back in no time."
Ears slightly perking up at the wolf's words Judy buckled up while her temporary partner slowly drove up a ramp and out of the precinct unto the streets.
Only then she realized with mild surprise that Wolford had all but outright told her that he already knew about her feelings for the fox.
On another day, finding out that probably more of her colleagues than she had thought were aware of this or had at least guessed so would have made her shrink in embarrassment. But under the current conditions, all she wanted was getting Nick back no matter if others would laugh, tease, congratulate, hate or however they would react to her kissing her partner senseless.
"Where to, Hopps."
Drawn back from her musings, Judy gave her head a light shake, trying to collect herself.
"Tyto Drive, approaching from Volans Lane."
This time, she had done her homework, looking up the area before to see how long the street is and which of the two others Nick had mentioned previously was leading to it.
She had also tried to figure out possible locations for the apparently fake bachelor party but hadn't found any rentable clubs or the likes.
The whole street was plastered with single-family homes, so they would have to be on the lookout for his car instead.
With their destination clarified, Judy turned her head, gazing out the side window.
Outside, Zootopia flew by like a dark canvas with brighter blotches, dots, and shapes dappled on it by streetlamps, windows, and other sources of light.
With nothing of interest to see, it was also the perfect background for her thoughts to roam.
What could have happened to her partner?
Who would have wanted him to vanish?
And why?
Where could he be now?
Was he even still al-
No! I'm not going there! He isn't dead. I just know it!
Her whole body had tensed up at the uninvited thought.
Her distress must have been evident, since she could see Ralph's reflection turn his head slightly in the window before he concentrated back on the street.
I will find his car. Then I will find out where exactly he went from there. I will find some clues, and with those, I will find out what happened to him. After that, it will be easy to find out where he is and get him back.
Even inside her head, it sounded like nervous rambling.
She tried to relax in her seat.
Failure was not an option and rushing ahead without care could destroy every possible lead she might find.
No, she had to stay focused.
"We are here."
The sudden words almost made her jerk and a peek outside showed her a street lined with small houses. Some were alight, some dark, but all of them looked a little lost, reminding her of kits cowering in the dark.
Or it was merely her mind that forced that eerie impression upon her.
"Make a turn left. That's the short end of the street. If we don't see anything there, we'll turn around and drive all the way to the other end for now."
Wolford nodded in acknowledgment and followed her instructions.
It took the officers only two minutes until they saw the sign indicating that Tyto Drive was merging into Elm Boulevard.
Using a driveway, the canine made a three-point turn and headed back in the opposite direction.
Both mammals were tense while their searching gazes tried to pierce the dark, looking for a particular vehicle. Halfway down to the other end of the street, Judy almost jumped in her seat.
"Stop!"
Her cry caused Ralph to step on the brake, making the bunny next to him - who had jumped to her feet - sway back and forth while she tried to get her balance back.
"What? What is it?"
Looking around his colleague, he checked the cars parking at the side of the road in the strewn about parking bays but found nothing.
He leaned over to glance at Judy's face, following her gaze until he finally saw what had caused her to react that way.
In the driveway of a house, halfway hidden behind a bush that was in need of a proper trimming he spotted the rear of a possibly maroon red convertible. What he glimpsed from the vehicle - sticking out from beneath a carport riddled with holes - could indeed belong to a Mewcury Cougar.
Parking the cruiser in a nearby parking bay, the two officers exited and approached the building and the vehicle next to it.
"That's Nick's, I'm sure of it. He had shown it to me after bragging about it for weeks."
Pulling her cellphone from her pocket, she turned on the torchlight and inspected the inside, looking for any clues and recording it all the while to make sure she wasn't missing anything.
Meanwhile, Wolford was taking a closer look at the building.
He had been wondering how Wilde's car would still be here after a full day when he was blocking somebody else's driveway. But it was evident that there was nobody who could possibly complain and call a tow service.
The house wasn't exactly decayed yet, but rather bedraggled and dilapidated. Vacant.
It's exterior that might have been of a bright yellow in the past had faded, pallid like bones.
Clouded windows gazed upon them like a blind man's eyes where they were not barricaded with wooden boards. The lawn as well had seen better days. Weeds grew in thick patches all around, while the grass itself was reaching just beyond Wolford's knees. He could see yellowed, dry spots of regular shapes where decorations or other objects must have stood in the past.
What he couldn't see was a pathway, though.
"You think he went in?" The question from around his waist pulled the wolf from his musings.
"Not sure yet, Hopps. Give me a second."
He approached the car again, circling it once to reach the driver's side. Leaning down he took a good couple of whiffs to find Wilde's scent. They were lucky it had only been a day since he had been there. Otherwise, his scent would have most likely dissolved by then.
Considering the heavy downpour from the night before, it was still a small miracle any scents had remained at all.
Straightening himself, he followed the trail with half-closed eyes. From the driveway over the grass towards the entry of the building.
"Yep, he definitely went in."
For a moment, both mammals stood and stared at the imposing silhouette that contrasted black against the faintly illuminated background of the city.
"What do you wanna do now?"
The doe pondered the question for merely a moment.
"Have you smelled anyone else?"
A quick shook of his head and a 'no' was all she needed.
"Go back to the cruiser and let dispatch know where we are and what we found. Bogo wants to stay in the loop all the time. After that, come back and keep an eye on the surroundings. I'll go inside and see if I find. Anything."
The short catch in his fellow officer's voice didn't go unnoticed by the wolf, but he turned around to do as she told him. It was going without saying that if he got under the slightest impression the doe needed help, he would rush to her side.
While Wolford returned to their parked vehicle, Judy approached the front door.
Raising her phone with the light turned on she continued her recording from before.
The once white paint on the door was grey and flaking off. The wood felt brittle to the touch, and when she pushed, a sickening, brazing squeaking rose from the hinges, grating her ears and making her grind her teeth.
If any mammal were inside, she had announced her presence to them now.
Before she stepped over the threshold into the small hallway, she let the cone of light from the slim device in her paw wander around.
Cobwebs decorated the walls, hanging up in the corners, heavy laden with dust.
Small particles of the same passed her by, floating in the air while the draft from the opened door caused them to dance in a wild, unpredictable rhythm.
Her gaze fell to the floor, and there in the thick layer of dirt covering the wooden parquet, she found his pawprints.
Ears turning in all directions to make sure no one would sneak up to her unperceived, she followed the trail, passing by a flight of stairs leading to the upper floor and a door to what used to be a kitchen.
She entered an otherwise empty living room if not for the sofa creeping with mold.
That was where the pawprints ended.
Judy blinked once in confusion. Turning around she inspected the tracks she had followed. No, they didn't make a turn right before the room. And neither right after entering it. It was also rather unlikely that Nick had retreated by placing his paws in the exact prints he had left.
So what? she asked herself. Did he just took to the air and flew out a window?
She couldn't help glance at the windows, but wooden boards meticulously sealed all of them.
Letting the light wander around the room she could feel the unnerving darkness around her push against her mind, and she wished she had waited for Wolford to follow her inside. His night vision might have revealed what her senses couldn't.
Her right ear flicked.
She was almost sure she had heard a sound, almost too soft to be audible.
Like a scratching right behind her.
She turned around but found nothing.
There!
Another scraping noise, closer and louder.
Maybe a homeless rodent living beneath the floor.
She had heard of a family of rats that had lost their home and had lived undiscovered in the house of an old couple - a ram and his wife - for years, feeding off crumbs and occasionally stealing from the fridge and similar cases.
"Hello? I'm officer Hopps from the ZPD. I have some questions concerning a red f-"
Like claws tearing at wood, the noise returned, loud enough to make her ears fold against her skull in an attempt to dampen it.
Her paw instinctively shot to her waist, drawing her tranq gun from its holster.
A quick full rotation and she saw nothing. She was still alone, standing right beneath the threshold to the room.
Silence had settled back over the house.
The only sounds were her slightly increased breathing and the beat of her own heart in her ears.
Her fur was about to settle again after it had been puffed out from the sudden event when her gaze fell to the floor once more.
She felt like she was fluffing out to twice her size.
There in the dust was a broad trail like something had been dragged over the ground.
Or someone.
In the middle of the trail were two sets of parallel claw marks, deeply carved into the wood.
With trembling paws, she let the unsteady beam of light follow the trail until reached a corner and vanished behind it.
Weapon still at the ready, Judy approached the corner on legs that felt like they might give out any second and rounded it.
Nothing.
The room simply ended in a small alcove and so did the trail. Right at a wall.
Using the butt of her gun, she tapped it, listening for any signs it wasn't massive but maybe hiding a kind of passage. To no avail.
As far as she could tell, the stone behind the faded wallpaper was solid.
"That's just not possible."
The soft-spoken denial had left her muzzle in a barely audible whisper before she knew it.
She took another look at the trail in the dust to make sure she hadn't missed anything.
But it was gone.
Only her own pawprints led to where she stood.
Otherwise, the dirt on the ground was entirely undisturbed.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, her nose quivering at a mile per second.
The paw holding the phone shook enough that she almost dropped the device when she lifted it to her face. It took her four tries to hit the stop button on the recording and rewind it to the point where she had heard the sound.
With bated breath, she witnessed how the Judy in the video spoke out to the alleged rodent. Mid-sentence she broke off but no other sound than her surprised gasp could be heard. The noise from before didn't get recorded at all.
The video rotated when she had made a full turn, the tip of the t-gun's barrel now visible at the side of the screen.
A few seconds passed before the image tipped forward, facing the floor. But instead of the trail in the dust and the marks in the wood, the video showed nothing out of the ordinary.
Impossible!
The thought raced through her mind over and over again.
Judy started to shake in every limb and heavily leaned against the wall.
She didn't know how long it took her to calm down again, but as soon as she didn't feel like she might collapse any second, she hurried back towards the entrance and left the house that all of a sudden seemed like a living thing, fleering at her.
Wolford wasn't to be seen, but she could hear him sniffing around the corner, probably still searching for clues.
She allowed herself a moment to collect herself before calling out to him.
Reappearing from the yard next to the building, the hopeful look on his face vanished the instant he saw the defeated one on hers.
"Nothing?"
She shook her head in reply.
"Only some pawprints that end in front of the living room without turning back. Maybe he retreated backward in his own tracks for whatever reason."
A contemplative look came across the lupine's face before he headed for the entrance himself.
"I'll go take another look around. Maybe my nose finds something. Keep an ear out for me."
Before she had a chance to come with an argument to keep him from entering, he had vanished inside the darkness of the building, relying only on his night vision.
Minutes passed without Wolford returning, but her sensitive ears picked up his movements and renewed sniffing.
It felt like an eternity to her, but about ten minutes later the wolf's return was announced by his pawsteps approaching the door as well as his light-reflecting eyes reappearing from the pitch-black insides of the building. From his expression, she figured he neither found anything new nor had an encounter with the phenomenon she had experienced before.
"I'm sorry, Hopps. I hadn't had any more luck than you. And I can't say for sure he used his on pawprints to turn back without leaving any fresh ones in the dust. The scent is just too stale to be certain."
Ears hanging limply behind her head, Judy nodded in acknowledgment.
It seemed like they ended up empty-pawed despite finding Nick's destination from the night prior.
"Say, why did you walk over to that one wall, by the way? Did you find anything there?"
"No," the doe shook her head without missing a beat, "I thought I heard something and assumed that behind the corner might be stairs leading down to a cellar or something, but only found a solid wall. It was probably just the old house moaning."
The lie left her lips with ease, a fact her partner would be proud of, had he often teased her to be far too easy to read when she was flustered.
While it made her feel bad, the major part of her mind told her that telling the truth wasn't an option. Who would believe her anyway without her being able to present any evidence?
Also, she had no idea yet what the truth even was.
Had she really heard or seen something?
Maybe she was even more affected by the sudden vanishing of her best friend than she had thought and what she had experienced were only figments of her imagination induced by stress. It sounded like nonsense to her altogether, but it made sense at the same time.
She wasn't sure if she would prefer slowly going mad over some otherworldly phenomenon being involved here. Both seemed poor omens for bringing Nick back.
Over her musings, she barely realized that they had reached their cruiser until Wolford opened the door on the driver's side to get in.
Shaken from her thoughts, she mirrored his action, only briefly glancing back at the silhouette blending into the night.
For but a split-second she thought she saw two eyes looking at her from the still ajar door, reflecting the sparse light from the streets like Wolford's did before.
Or like a fox's would.
Before she had even finished that thought, the two tiny dots were gone and left her with uncertainty, wondering if she had seen anything at all.
"What's the matter, Hopps?"
Jumping into her seat, Judy buckled up. "Just frustrated that this was all for nothing."
Another lie. Great, Judy. Really great.
A comparatively big paw landed on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
"Not necessarily. We now know Wilde actually reached his destination. From here on we can start looking for more clues. Bogo will probably send out a team to turn the whole neighborhood upside down."
"Yeah, you are probably right. It's a start, at least."
She flashed her colleague a small smile before facing out the window like she did when they came here before.
Ralph had meanwhile started their vehicle and was heading back towards the precinct.
The debriefing with Bogo following upon their return was short and somewhat somber. It more or less summed up to what Ralph had predicted.
Another team from forensics would examine the house and Wilde's convertible, combing through the property while officers would be sent to ask neighbors if they had seen anything suspicious or otherwise noticeable.
With that, the both of them were dismissed.
"Hopps!" the bovine called out to her before she reached the door to his office.
Turning around Judy momentarily saw the concern in her boss's eyes before he hid it behind his usual stern look.
"Try to get some sleep," he advised his officer. "I will need you fit for duty tomorrow to continue this investigation. I'll have a file ready for you with everything that we have found out so far."
She wasn't sure if or how well she would be able to rest this night but nevertheless answered with a tired 'Yes, Sir' before leaving.
Scratch that thought. I already know I'll probably not get a wink of sleep, she assumed despite exhaustion pulling at her limbs like lead-weights.
"This doesn't make any sense," the doe exclaimed, placing the file back on her superior's desk.
When she had arrived at the precinct the morning after her and Wolford's trip to investigate the house, Bogo had called her to his office right away, handing her the folder containing all the intel they had gathered so far.
It seemed as if Nick's provider had been fast in his reaction to disclose the information they had been asked to after being confronted with a legal warrant.
The only snag was that nothing showed up around the time the reynard should have been contacted by Fin. No calls, no messages, no up- or downloads of any sorts. And the fennec's phone, which had been examined by cybercrime was - according to their expert - used on a regular base, showing that it wasn't a replacement but also wasn't tinkered with either.
That would have already been enough to throw Judy for a loop, but every other team had similar results to show.
Both forensic teams - the one at Nick's place as well as the one at his last known location - had found no traces of other mammals being present there besides the fox, her, and Wolford respectively. No one had entered his home, and no one had been around the house.
The most confusing part was that there had also been no signs of Nick leaving the dilapidated building again.
Unfortunately, the mammals living in the area couldn't provide them with anything, as well. The storm that had raged that evening and night had caused them to stay inside, and even a look outside the window wouldn't have shown much more than a thick curtain of rain.
"Are we sure Nick had even been there?"
It was the only other option she could think of. That someone had manipulated the evidence to make it seem as if her partner had reached Tyto Drive despite never arriving. Her mind forcefully shot down the possibility of supernatural powers being involved
"Even if we assume that his fur had been placed there to conveniently leave his genetic material, the team had also examined the pawprints. The pattern of the paw pads, as well as the position and calculated angle of the claws, match his, so it is safe to believe he was present."
Deep in thoughts, one of the bunny's ears flopped over while she tried to figure out what they were missing. Under different circumstances, Bogo would have called that scene cute, if not out loud. The way it was, he only gave his officer some time to mull things over.
He had probed the situation from different angles as well but hadn't been able to come up with a satisfying explanation.
A sigh drew the bovine from his thoughts.
Hopps had apparently forfeited her reflecting for the time being.
"Next steps?"
She looked up at her boss.
"I'll call Finnick again to find out if he had made any progress regarding Nick's old contacts. If not, I'll go visit them myself and ask questions. There are also some friends of his I want to reach out to and see if they know anything. It will probably be better if I go in plainclothes since some of the mammals Nick used to associate with might not be too happy to see blue."
Her boss knew about the vulpine's not entirely tame past, though, for his invaluable contribution in solving the missing mammal case and the even more extensive nighthowler conspiracy, he had turned a blind eye on it after making sure Wilde hadn't been involved in something worse than tax fraud. He had even been a little surprised to find that the fox had usual walked a grey area, not breaking any laws and that quite a big part of money had gone from his bank account to one owned by an orphanage in Happytown.
Despite the fox not being involved in any outright crimes, it didn't sit well with him that Hopps wanted to go alone to meet with these former associates of Wilde's.
"Alright. Take one of the unmarked cars. I'll let Officer Damerson know that you have the permission to take one. But Officer Wolford will go with you again. You are not going there without backup. Just in case."
Judy couldn't argue with that, but it would interfere with another unspoken plan of hers.
"Where is he right now?"
"Out handling a traffic accident. But he should be back within the hour, or I'll call him back. If somebody else who is still here at the precinct were available, I would assign them to assist you, but all our officers are out on the streets right now."
Perfect
"In that case, I could contact the non-violent ones first on my own and meet up with Wolford later."
Bogo had the feeling that something was going on inside that lagomorph's head. Something he wouldn't approve of. But he couldn't see anything wrong with her suggestion as long as she actually met who she proclaimed she would.
"Alright. Granted."
A couple of minutes later, Judy parked the small-size, silver-grey Civetrolet Beat at a gas station, pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed a certain number.
The free line signal kept going for several seconds before it was picked up.
"Hello Fru Fru, Judy here."
She listened to the cheery voice of the arctic shrew with the trace of a small smile on her face.
"I know it has been a while since I last called and I miss little Judy, too. You know, I actually call because I wanted to visit you… though more to talk to your father, to be honest."
She listened again.
"Nick is missing."
Silence at the other end of the line.
It kept going on long enough that Judy was worried the call had dropped.
She was just about to call out to her friend when the little female piped up again.
The doe's ears perked up at her friend's words.
"Really? Oh, that is great. Thank you. What? Yeah. Okay. I'll be there. Thank you, Fru. You are the best. I'll write you where he can pick me up."
About half an hour later, Judy was sitting in the back of an inconspicuous black van, driven by one of the Big's polar bears.
"Thanks for picking me up, Raymond."
The ursine looked at her in the rear mirror, giving the doe a smile and nod.
Silence settled over them for the remainder of their way.
While she knew that the large mammal was always sparse with words without meaning any harm, it was a little unsettling, especially given her current state. Without Nick and without any clue about his whereabouts she felt jumpy, restless and anxious.
Luckily, it didn't take them long to reach the Big Estate from the street she had parked in, just around the corner of a fishmonger, a friend of her vulpine partner who had always put aside some of his best choices for the fox. She had indeed chosen this place so the time she would be away from the car would be relatively short, causing the recording of her GPS data from the integrated nav-system to look unremarkable.
When they drove past the impressive iron gates, Judy felt her nerves rising.
It was true that as little Judy's godmother and the savior of Fru Fru she hadn't had much to fear from the crime lord. More than that, she had heard enough about him from his daughter that she knew he wasn't as ruthless and immoral as one would think. He cared about the members of his 'family' as well as their relatives, and under his reign drugs, weapon smuggling and mammal trafficking had virtually stopped existing in his territory.
Yet there was still smuggling of multiple other goods, protection rackets - though the Bigs actually protected the ones they got the money from and gave compensations when they were unable to do so - as well as bloody feuds going on with other gangs.
All of those were facts the ZPD couldn't simply ignore.
It was one of the reasons why Judy couldn't afford to be seen meeting with Mr. Big.
That and the fact every gang member in Zootopia would be after her head just to get to the crime lord.
Walking through the dark oak doors into the arctic shrew's study, Judy's gaze was drawn to the rug that hid the trapdoor leading to an icy death. A quick shudder passed through her body together with the memory of her and Nick's near demise when they first came here.
"Judy, mia cara. It's good to see you. And I'm sorry for the circumstances."
Stepping forward to delicately breathe a kiss on each of the tiny mammal's cheeks, Judy thanked him.
"Tell me what you can, and I'll see how I may be of help to you," the grayed rodent offered.
She gave him a swift recap of the events of the last forty-eight hours, slowly feeling the pressure of time since she had to hurry back to her car and contact Wolford or at least the precinct.
The small mafia boss listened to her with rapt attention.
At the end of her summary, his head sunk a little while he was deep in thought.
"While he worked for me," he spoke up after a while, "Nicholas had never made any enemies I know of. He was more or less only working as a courier for me, delivering goods or messages. I don't think anyone from his time here would have an interest in harming him. But I'll keep all of my eyes and ears open for any sign of or information about him. My reach goes farther into the shadows than that of your little fennec-friend. But," he added after a second, "my dear Judy, I have to tell you that in this city mammals sometimes vanish without a trace, never to be seen again. Maybe you will think of it as the rambling of an old mammal, but there are things in this world which are darker than the darkest heart beating in the cruelest mammal's chest. Things that are simply beyond our comprehension. My dear Gram-mama had seen unspeakable occurrences before her family had left the old world. I pray Nicholas hasn't fallen into the web of such a one."
The words send ice through Judy's veins, the happenings at the abandoned house still vivid in her memory.
"I hope you are wrong about this," her answer came in a raspy voice. "But I thank you for your support."
Both mammals said their goodbyes and Judy apologized for having no time to talk to Fru Fru or see little Judy, but Mr. Big assured her they understood.
When the lagomorph had left his rooms, and the heavy doors had closed behind her, the crime lord started to speak prayers in the language of his old home, praying for the fox's safe return and protection for his granddaughter's godmother.
"Take care, mia cara," he whispered to the now empty room.
When Judy entered her tiny apartment a couple of hours later - exhausted from working overtime while driving all over the city to meet with as many mammals as possible and dejected by the success she had produced or rather a lack thereof - she felt the urge to just crawl into her bed and fall asleep.
Not because she was looking forward to Morpheus' embrace, though.
The faster the next morning came, the faster she could get to back to working on getting her fox back.
In fact, she would have stayed even longer at the precinct to look through all the evidence they had collected so far if not for Bogo who had ordered her to go home. He had done so under the thread of letting someone escort her home and stand guard in front of her place so she wouldn't sneak back into the precinct while no one was looking.
So she had complied, albeit grudgingly.
Her plan to go to sleep early got compromised by two factors she didn't take into account.
"Hey there, bunny girl. Been out late?"
"Maybe on a date?" the voices from next door could be heard through the wall, forcing a groan from the doe. "What are you two talking about?"
"Your boyfriend, of course" came the one's quick reply.
"Haven't you claimed you wanted to ask him out on a date?" added his husband.
Her ears would drop at that reminder if not for the fact that they were already splayed on the pillow behind the lying female.
A heavy silence filled her room for a number of heartbeats before she forced a whisper.
"He's missing."
Still, the walls were thin enough that the couple could hear it.
"You are kidding, right?" Bucky's voice doubtfully sounded from the other side.
"Shut up, you moron! Who would make a joke like that? You know Judy would never say something like this about her fox."
For once there was no retort; none of the usual quarrel.
At a different time, she would have laughed about the unexpected silence as well as about the fact that like a certain vulpine those two only seemed to remember her name in the most serious and somber situations.
But laughing wasn't what she felt like right now.
The same could be said about continuing this conversation, what the kudu-oryx couple seemed to sense, staying quiet for the remainder of the night.
Days turned into weeks and weeks kept accumulating until they marked a month.
That time was torturous for every officer of Precinct One who was even marginally involved with Judy and Nick.
The absence of the ZPD's charismatic first fox officer was hovering like a black cloud above everyone's head, and Chief Bogo seemed more irritable than ever without putting on an act to keep his subjects in line.
True to his word, Mr. Big had used his vast resources to look for the reynard, even pulling some strings to find out if Bellwether and her underlings were involved in Nick's sudden disappearance. But to no avail.
With no new leads appearing, the search for anything that might cause a breakthrough had turned into a grueling task.
More than that, witnessing how it affected their beloved lagomorphic colleague was even worse to Precinct One's officers.
After Judy and Wolford's fruitless investigation of Nick's last known location, the bunny had been determined to stay positive. She was working herself to the bone with an upbeat attitude, smiling too brightly at her fellow officers, and laughing too loudly at any of the - these days rare - jokes while looking more and more like a walking husk. Her slightly unkempt fur seemed dull even considering its natural grey coloring. Her violet eyes missed their usual bright shine, and in contrast to her whole act, her movements betrayed the lack of energy that remained in the doe.
The exhausting twelve-hour-shifts Judy pulled every day were only half the reason for her current state. The other half were the recurring nightmares which haunted what little sleep she got. Nightmares that naturally centered around her missing fox, but which seemed to evaporate every time the moment she woke up, leaving her with nothing more than a racing heart, cold sweat, and tears that were about to spill.
Those tears she held back with a vengeance.
To cry would mean she had given up any hope of finding Nick and she had sworn to herself not to give in until she had him back.
Over the time she had grown more and more irritated by the mammals around her and the attempts they made at convincing her to scale back her efforts - even if just by a little - so she could take care of herself before she collapsed.
It had culminated in a certain call from her parents where they had tried to persuade her to come to Bunnyburrow.
Only for a weekend to put some daylight between herself and all that had happened.
She had never shouted at her family like this before that day.
Not in such a manner or volume.
The two older rabbits had stared at the black screen of the phone after their daughter had suddenly ended the call, leaving both hurt and feeling powerless without any means to help their kit in this dark time.
"Judy?"
The doe looked up from the results of the ground samples that had been taken all around the house where her partner had disappeared, looking for anything she might have missed the hundred times before.
The concerned face of her favorite cheetah was peeking around the wall of her and Nick's shared cubicle.
"Oh, hey Ben. Taking your break?" A tired, alarmingly fragile looking smile accompanied her question.
"Break? Oh bun-bun, my shift is over."
A glance at the time displayed on her computer's screen confirmed that it was past four and Clawhauser was already working overtime.
"I guess I lost track of time. Strange how that happens when you are focused on your work, eh?" Her fake smile faltered and was replaced by an absentminded look that turned into a light scowl the next moment before the smile retook its place.
"Is there something you want?" She didn't ask rudely, but the feline still sensed the impatience that laced her words.
"I just wanted to tell you that there is still a slice of pizza left in the breakroom. I know you don't mind having a little tuna once in a while and-"
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry."
"Jude, you need to eat something if you want to keep going. Or are you aiming to break down by the end of the day?"
The doe didn't even look up from the papers in front of her.
"I already ate something."
"What?"
"A bowl of cereal."
"When?"
"Before I came here today, okay?"
"You have been here before me. That was at least nine hours ago. Knowing you, probably more." He felt the bunny grow more annoyed by the second, but he couldn't help but point it out. He didn't saw the outburst coming, though.
"Well, thank you mom! I fricking know how long it has been! Now can you for cabbage's sake leave me be before I take your round rear and kick it out the door?"
In the blink of an eye, Judy was standing in her chair, paws balled into fists and shaking from anger while her scorching gaze was fixated on a cheetah that suddenly felt like a primitive prey in the sights of a predator.
The momentary fear he had felt left Benjamin as fast as it came and was replaced by sorrow.
Nodding, he turned around to leave the room.
Stopping right on the threshold he spoke up without turning around.
"I'm sorry for interrupting your work. You know that I just care about you."
The door closed behind him without giving his friend a chance to reply.
Nick, he thought, wherever you are, I hope you come back soon. And if you are not alive anymore... at least let us know, so Judy has a chance to grieve for you properly and start to come to terms with it. The way things are now she's going to bring herself to the grave sooner or later.
On the other side of the door, the bunny in question sat at her desk, her face hidden in her paws and her shoulders slumped in exhaustion.
Great! I'm yelling at my friends. I'm yelling at my family. Way to go, Judy, she reprimanded herself.
He's right, you know? You are not helping anybody in the state you are in right now. Just look at yourself!
She dared a glance at the reflective, black screen of her cell phone.
What she saw hit her like a punch.
I look more dead than alive.
The realization was disillusioning.
Okay, a short break and maybe a nap before I continue.
Walking the corridors of Precinct One, she found most of them deserted. The early shift had already left while the late shift was probably out on the streets.
The break room was just as empty, but true to Ben's word there was a slice of pizza waiting on the countertop, next to the microwave, with a little piece of paper peeking out from under the plate reading her name.
Judy wolfed it down after a short reheating, only then becoming aware of the gnawing bite of hunger in her stomach.
Feeling better already she headed back towards her cubicle.
She took a small pillow from one of Nick's drawers on his side of their shared workspace.
A pillow she had playfully threatened to shove where it doesn't belong should he ever use it while they were supposed to work.
The memory should have granted her at least a slight feeling of amusement at the reynard's uncertain expression, trying to figure out if she actually meant it or not.
She only felt his absence even more painfully than ever.
Still, she needed some sleep, if only for an hour.
With a sigh, her head came to rest on top of her desk.
Before Judy could grasp any other thought, her exhaustion and full belly took their toll on her, dragging her into a fitful sleep.
...
Nick's apartment.
She had visited this place often before.
The last time she had been there was on the day after he had vanished.
But she had the strange feeling she had been here a lot since then.
Nothing was out of place.
Everything looked the same as when she had last been here.
And yet, something felt off.
Then she realized what it was.
There was no sound whatsoever to be heard from outside the place. No noise from the streets, talking neighbors or running TVs.
Curious she approached the window to take a peek outside but saw only impenetrable darkness on the other side of the glass.
Could it be...?
The doe turned around and headed for the door.
But the handle wouldn't budge.
A dream.
It was a strange feeling to her to find herself inside a lucid dream all of a sudden.
She had never experienced one before, at least not without waking up the moment she realized it.
The fur on her back and arms stood on end, and it felt like a weight was sitting in her stomach.
No, not a dream. The dream.
She was inside the nightmare that haunted her whenever she closed her eyes.
The one that always slipped away when she returned to the waking world.
There was no reason but a sudden, intense sensation that caused her to spin around on the spot.
"Nick!"
There, at the same window she had stood only moments ago, was the red fox she had tried to find for almost a month.
His fur looked as dull as hers or even worse, and his eyes were tired and strangely dark like night was lurking behind them.
Instead of his usual, hideous Pawaiian shirt and cargo pants, he wore a grey, slightly dirty sweater and simple long blue jeans.
With almost frantic steps she hurried towards him only to stop short just out of reach.
Something kept her from approaching Nick further.
For lack of better words, she would call what she felt an 'eerie aura'.
It took Judy a great amount of willpower to force her feet to carry her closer to her beloved partner and friend, though the closer she got, the more all her senses told her to 'run away!'
"You know," the fox spoke up in a voice - empty and raspy as if he had almost forgotten how to use it - that made her ears fall back behind her and caused her stomach to turn, "you should listen to your instincts for once, Carrots. Running might not help, but it would definitely be better compared to staying here."
She felt her old determination creep back into her bones, and with agitatedly upstanding ears she took the last two steps to stand right in front of him, looking up into Nick's eyes.
"I'm not going to leave Zootopia before I have found you and... and tell you in person that I love you."
The insides of her ears flushed pink while the tod showed the faintest trace of his usual, lopsided grin.
"So I only had to vanish, send my dear partner on a month-long fox hunt and meet back up with her in a dream to hear those words. Wasn't as difficult as I thought, after all."
The next moment, the traces of the old Nick were gone again, and the smile vanished from his face.
Going down on one knee, he looked Judy straight in the eyes.
"Seriously, I've always wanted to hear you say that, but it's too late for that now. You have to go."
"Not without you."
A sigh fled the weary fox's lips.
"It's impossible. You simply can't find me."
"Why? What happened? Where are you?" Judy's voice had risen until she screamed the last question into Nick's face.
He gave her a long look.
"Maybe you'll remember this time."
She only picked up his mumbled words due to her superior hearing.
"On the night when I... no, I have to start differently."
His paw quickly smoothed back his ears.
"Our world isn't the only one. I'm not talking about other planets, but other- I guess you could call them realities? They are always there, right next to us. Normally we can't see them, can't reach them. They are hidden behind a wall… no, rather a thick veil that floats and changes. Sometimes, this veil wears thin at points and rips. And that's when we can catch glimpses of what's usually concealed behind it. The bigger the tear, the more we can see, and the higher the chance that we pass through this veil by accident... or that something passes to our side."
Cold had spread throughout Judy's body while she had listened to the vulpine's words. Dread, because she knew deep down that he wasn't lying.
"So, something came here?"
The fox shook his head.
"No... well, yes, but only briefly. It dragged me through to the other side."
"I don't understand all this! Why did whatever-it-is led you to this house? How did it send you those messages? If you aren't here anymore, how can we talk right now? Why did it had to be you?"
The last question she almost yelled, frustration eating away at her.
Her eyes searched his, trying to make sense of what he said.
Rubbing his forehead absentmindedly with his paw he mulled over her questions for a while, before another sigh left his muzzle.
"I'm really not sure. I don't understand everything right now, but more than I would have ever wanted to. For the why… I feel myself slowly slipping away so I would guess I'm takeout."
The expression on her face made Nick realize what he had just said, turning his lopsided grin into a pained expression.
"I'm sorry, Judy. That's what I meant. I'm not really myself anymore. By the time I'll entirely grasp the meaning of all this... well, that will be the time where you don't want to meet me again. Believe me."
"But I can't just abandon you." Tears gathered in the bunny's eyes and caused the figure in front of her to blur.
When he cupped her cheek with a paw, she flinched from the touch that felt unnaturally wrong. Dead.
And yet against her instincts, she leaned into it, savoring every bit of closeness she could get.
"Yes, you can. This will be the last time we'll be able to talk. Next time, I'll probably do something worse than this."
Before she could ask what he meant, a sharp pain shot through her cheek.
She knew he didn't, but it still felt like Nick had clawed her. The next moment, warmth ran down the side of her face and droplets of crimson fell to the floor.
With a start, Judy woke from her dream.
Looking around bleary-eyed, she tried to grasp at the misty tendrils of her nightmare.
But the memory dimmed and vanished the next moment like it always did.
"I knew you'd still be here, Hopps. Go h... what happened?"
Turning around in her chair she was met with the concerned gaze of her boss.
The disappearing of one of his finest officers, as well as the apparent breakdown of another, had left him with bags beneath his eyes and deep, sorrowful lines on his face that made him look spent and tired.
Only when the bovine stepped closer and inspected her cheek with surprisingly gentle hooves did she realize that the perceived phantom pain from her dream had persisted.
Bogo left with quick steps and returned not even a minute later with a small first-aid kit that was still about half her size.
"The scratches are not deep. Thought it was worse regarding the blood. I'll disinfect them, put a bandage on your cheek and you should be fine."
The doe raised a paw to her face, examining the spot he had just treated.
When she drew it back, a few red droplets glistened in her fur and at her tiny claws.
Something about that image made her breath catch in her throat, but the feeling was gone before she could make head or tail of it.
"What happened anyway?" her boss asked, observing the bunny's reaction while putting the contents of the first-aid kit back.
Jerked from her thoughts, Judy's gaze met his while she wrecked her brain for an answer.
"I had taken a short nap to recharge my batteries. I think I had a nightmare and almost jumped out of my chair when I woke up. I guess I accidentally scratched myself then."
No wonder she has nightmares. She has lost someone who was dear to her.
Regarding the mammal in front of him, it scared him how tiny she looked.
Hopps had always been a small mammal, of course. But she had radiated a powerful presence that spoke of the big soul inside and an even bigger heart beating in her chest.
Now, she seemed lost and forlorn, like a kit.
He stifled a pained sigh and put on the best stern expression he could muster.
"As I tried to say before, go home! It's already late."
For the past four weeks, whenever he had told her to leave the precinct, Judy had argued with him until he threatened to put her in a detention cell to get her away from her desk and force her to get some sleep.
But this time, the doe nodded wordlessly in acknowledgment before starting to sort the semi-chaos of documents occupying her workspace back into their respective folders.
"I'll come back to make sure you have left in about ten minutes."
Another nod accompanied by a sad little smile was her only reaction.
Bogo wanted to say more, but for once he didn't know what and left without another word.
It took her not even five minutes to clean everything up, and with a push, she turned her desk lamp off and made to leave her cubicle, heading for the rectangle of light that led out of the room.
Something moved at the periphery of her vision.
But when she turned her head and stared into the darkness, she saw nothing.
Her ears angled back and forth for a moment, but no sound rose from the deeper parts of the room.
"I really need some rest before I break down," she whispered, dragging herself out the door on heavy paws.
All the way home she got strange looks from mammals, though she experienced everything in a half-daze, her muddled brain barely being able to keep her on her feet. Only when she entered her own four walls and spared a glance at herself in the standing mirror next to the door, she finally understood the stares.
Bogo had treated the scratches on her cheek, but there were still visible stains of blood in her fur.
Deciding that she could shower in the morning, she took a small towel with her to the communal bathroom on her floor and quickly washed her face, careful not to tear off the bandage.
After relieving herself, she returned to her apartment and made a beeline for the bed.
When Judy's head hit the pillow, her nose was met with a slightly sourly smell, and her tired brain tried and failed to remember when she had last changed the bedding... or did the laundry. The doe made a mental note to make good for both coming the next day.
Before she could fall asleep, she picked up her phone and set the timer for the following morning, adding an extra hour in the hope it would help her going back to work at least a little refreshed.
When she was about to put the device back down on her nightstand a familiar series of sounds caused her ears to twitch and rise from behind her.
Taking another look at the screen, she saw the video from the first of November running; the day when she had visited the house Nick had apparently vanished in or around.
How did I manage to start this? Am I really that out of it?
Her paw moved to pinch the bridge of her muzzle, but stopped mid-motion, her eyes half closed.
She was sure that she had seen movement.
Movement that shouldn't have been there and hadn't been there before.
With a quick swipe of a claw, she rewound the video by a couple of seconds.
Intent gaze fixated on the screen, she waited for the event to repeat itself, but was rewarded with the same images she had seen hundreds of times before.
Unsure if she had simply missed it, she started the video from the beginning.
But when it reached the end at five minutes and thirty-three seconds, still nothing out of the ordinary had presented itself to her.
She shook her head in a mix of amusement and exasperation which turned into a creeping sense of dread.
More and more Judy realized that she was cracking up, physically as well as mentally.
Dizziness made her head spin and her vision tilt this way and that way when she looked at her slightly trembling paws, realizing that this had been going on for a while already.
I'm slowly burning out. Or maybe I already did, and this is what it feels like.
In an attempt to force down the rising sickness in her stomach, Judy hid her face in her paws.
I need a break. My parents were right. I should visit them and get away from Zootopia for a while.
Her ears sprung up at that thought.
But I can't just leave. I need to find Nick. I... I...
Since her partner and friend had disappeared, Judy hadn't shed a single tear, telling herself she would find him sooner or later.
But now they gathered in her eyes, spilled and left dark trails on her cheeks before falling down, creating a growing wet spot on her blanket.
He won't come back. He's gone. He's gone. He's...
The words kept repeating themselves inside her head while a wail slowly rose from her throat, growing louder by the moment.
Rolling herself into a tight, grey ball, she tried to protect herself from the cruel realization that one of the most precious and important mammals in her life wouldn't be there anymore.
Her future would not include the red fox.
Sobs shook her whole body violently.
Pained screams echoed in the surrounding, empty apartments, barely muffled by the paper-thin walls.
One floor below, the old Caspian Sea wolf Mister Howlesky sat in his worn armchair, face scrunched up while listening to the sounds of despair.
His cane leaned forgotten against his footstool while memories of his Agnes, which he had lost some years ago, floated behind his closed eyes. He wouldn't pound it against the ceiling or walls today.
His claws dug slightly into the leather of the armrests while a mist spread behind his eyelids.
In the apartment next to Judy's, Bucky and Pronk were holding each other tight, shedding silent tears for the bunny's loss.
Both had known that Nick had gone missing, and both were normally not too shy to keep their opinion to themselves. But now they had no words left for the devastated female, only compassion that wouldn't help ease her suffering.
Hours passed before Judy fell into an uneasy sleep that for once wasn't interrupted by any nightmares.
When she woke up, she was met with a slight throbbing behind her eyes and a dull pain pulsing inside her head.
It took only a moment before the memories from the night before returned, accompanied by an aching heart beating inside her tightening chest.
Fresh tears silently ran down her face. Wiping them away with an apathetic movement of her paw she forced herself out of her bed and over to her cabinet.
Putting on her uniform never felt as much of a burden as it did that morning and dragging herself out of her door was almost too much for her.
The reflection of something white in the mirror made her turn back for a moment, peeling the forgotten bandage from her cheek without paying any attention to the fur she pulled out.
She only witnessed her trip to work like through a thick cloud, her mind numb and eyes fixated on something very far away until she almost missed her stop and barely made her exit before the subway's doors closed again.
When she entered the foyer of Precinct One, she entirely ignored Benjamin who tried to greet her and passed him by without looking at him, heading directly for the elevators which she rode up to the floor where Chief Bogo's office was located.
A weak knock at his door earned her a tired sounding 'Come in.'
"Hopps? What is it? You look even worse than when you left yesterday."
Walking over to the to her high chair in front of the bovine's desk without any of her usual vigor, Judy pulled herself up onto the seat instead of leaping.
In that instant, Bogo understood that a broken mammal was sitting in front of him.
"I know I'm the one who leads the investigation regarding Ni... Officer Wilde, but I want to request leave to-"
"Granted."
The softly spoken word caused Judy to finally look her boss in the face, reddened, bloodshot eyes meeting sunken, tired ones.
Opening one of the drawers he produced a sheet of paper, quickly wrote something down and handed it over to her. Taking it into her paws, she was surprised to find a filled out form that granted her a vacation starting from this day for the next two weeks.
Only her signature was needed.
"If you need more time, let me know, and I'll make it happen."
"Thanks." The word came out muted and choked while new tears threatened to spill.
She wiped them off with one sleeve of her uniform.
"Just hand that form over to Clawhauser on your way out."
With a nod, she acknowledged his words before sliding down to the floor again and exited the room, leaving behind a mammal filled with consternation.
The portly cheetah was deep in thought, listlessly staring at his bowl of cereal and taking up spoonfuls just to watch them dribble back down. When he pushed the dish aside, it was immediately replaced with a sheet of paper, placed on the almost crumb-free surface of his desk by a grey paw.
He needed only a second to recognize the form and when he leaned forward what he saw caused him to shoot out of his chair and around his desk faster than any of his colleagues would have thought him able to.
In an instant he got down on his knees, pulling his friend into a wordless embrace.
Judy hadn't moved a muscle but at that point leaned into the predator's arms and let her head come to rest against his shoulder, slowly soaking his uniform in more tears, momentarily wondering that she had still any left.
"I'm sorry for yesterday," the doe said, her words still muffled through the hug.
"Don't be. I know this is a difficult time for you. For all of us."
Finally breaking the contact, her eyes confirmed what her ears had told her.
The feline was crying as well.
He's leaving such a big hole in everyone's life.
The notion carried new tears with it, but she forcefully wiped them away.
She would have more than enough time to cry later.
But for now, she just wanted to get away.
Away from the precinct.
Away from Zootopia.
Away from everything that could remind her of...
Her brain shut the thought off before it could reach the end.
"I'll go now." With a sad half-smile, she turned and headed for the exit, requiting the barely audible 'take care' coming from her friend with a slight twitch from one of her ears, hanging limply behind her.
The landscape passed her by in the blink of an eye.
The last couple of hours were kind of clouded from the moment she had stepped out of the precinct leaving Judy with a jumbled recollection of memories how she had returned home, packed a bag and bought a ticket for the next possible train heading for Bunnyburrow.
Zootopia had raced by her unblinking gaze.
When she came to the city for the first time two years ago, her eyes had widened in marvel at the beautiful view that had presented itself to her.
After that catastrophe of a press conference had happened and she had decided to leave her job and the city behind, she had been unable to tear her gaze from the shrinking skyline.
And now she hadn't even looked back once.
She would have closed her eyes to shut out any impression the place that had robbed her of something so important could leave, but she was afraid that one specific face would appear against the darkness.
As it was, her mind was already foggy enough to barely let any sensation pass, though.
She felt numb.
Miles of softwood forest flew by, followed by acres of fields. The hours that passed felt like they stretched on forever and yet at the same time they seemed to contract at the one point she would call presence, leaving her feeling detached.
With a shade of a smile, Judy wondered if what she experienced were symptoms of a shock.
Seemingly the very next moment she stepped out of the bunny transit onto the platform of the Bunnyburrow train station.
Since she hadn't informed anyone of her arrival, no one was waiting to pick her up.
She didn't mind at all, though.
Talking wasn't something she looked forward to, but she knew her parents and siblings would ask questions.
Questions she had no idea how to answer.
No, she would rather choose the two-hour walk to her family's farm.
After all, it was sunny and warm despite the season.
It felt wrong.
Dark clouds and rain, thunder and lightning. That would have been the perfect background for her return.
The sun smiling pleasantly down on her made her angry.
But the rage only boiled inside her for a moment before it died away.
What good would it do to be angry at the weather?
Shouldering her bag she moved towards the exit and out of the station heading for the long dirt road winding through fields of golden corn almost ready for the harvest.
Head hanging low, the doe ignored the curious looks of the occupants of occasionally passing by cars.
The one billy goat who stopped and offered to take her along she walked by, merely shaking her head without looking the mammal in the eye.
Only when she finally reached the low wall and hedge encircling the main building of the Hopps property did she raise her gaze to let it wander around.
Realizing that she reached her destination made her stop in her tracks.
Now that she was here, she didn't know what to do next.
Before she could come to any conclusion, a grey doe rounded the corner of the building.
She looked similar to Judy but was a little shorter, rounder and older.
The moment Bonnie Hopps saw her daughter standing forlornly at the boundary of their property, she dropped the basket of produce she was carrying, causing a small pumpkin to fall out into the dirt forgotten, and hurried over to her.
It took Bonnie one look into her kit's eyes to know that something terrible had transpired.
The silent storm whirling behind the amethysts that looked so much like hers made her fur lie flat against her body. The despair she glimpsed was even worse, and for a second she felt like her legs might give in at the sight of one of her kits in so much agony.
But she couldn't allow herself for that to happen.
Wordlessly she placed her paws on Judy's shoulders, leading the doe towards the entrance of their home and inside. The foyer was deserted, but as soon as they descended the stairs leading down towards the main part of the subterranean warren, bunnies seemed to pop out of every room and from behind every corner, staring at their suddenly returned sister.
From one moment to another the two were surrounded by their family members and questions rained down on Judy whose brain was barely able to recognize all the faces that asked her something let alone comprehend what they wanted to know.
"Enough."
The single word - not yelled but spoken in a resolute voice - was enough to silence every mammal swarming the hallway.
"Leave... leave your sister alone for a while."
Understanding slowly dawned on most of them, darkening their expressions like clouds while ears that had stood up in agitation and surprise fell in sadness.
Silently they retreated, dragging along the few that hadn't caught up to the meaning of what had happened.
"I'll let dad know that Judy is here," one doe, a somewhat lanky albino, whispered to her mother while passing her by.
"Thanks, Lily."
With a nod, she had another compassion filled look at her sister before hurrying away.
"Come." Bonnie guided Judy through the warren, who followed her lead like a doll on strings which caused the older doe's anxiety to skyrocket.
A few minutes later and Judy sat down on her old bed, still covered in her favorite ZPD-blue bed-clothes.
"He's gone."
They were the first words the young female had ushered since her unexpected arrival and despite them not being louder than a breath, Bonnie almost jumped from hearing them.
Those two words carried so much sorrow that she felt her own heart painfully tightening in her chest.
She quickly pulled her daughter into an embrace, holding her close while tears Judy had thought she could no longer have after crying so much started flowing anew, filling the small room with sobs.
Bonnie knew that words wouldn't help her daughter and she couldn't think of any that didn't sound empty and useless.
When Judy's tears finally subsided and her suddenly very fragile feeling body stopped shaking, her mother dared to take a look at her just to find the doe to be asleep.
She couldn't even fathom what she had been through since the last time they had talked, but considering the state Judy was in, it was more than a single mammal should have to go through at such a young age... or at all.
Laying her down, Bonnie pulled the sheets up to her chin, softly caressing Judy's cheek and pressing a light kiss to her forehead, unable to stop her own stray tears from rolling down her face.
Your family is here for you.
She knew it wouldn't mean much to her at the moment, but it was a truth nevertheless, and she would make sure to tell her daughter and make her feel it.
But for now, she needed rest.
Turning off the lights, the older doe silently closed the door behind her.
The first day after her sudden return to the farm, Judy holed herself up in her room.
When her mom came to bring her something to eat and talk to her a little, she got no answers at all from the doe buried under her blanket in the dark room.
When she brought supper, the breakfast had remained almost untouched and the same repeated when she brought dinner.
Over the following days, it seemed like her appetite slowly returned, taking at least that burden off Bonnie's shoulders.
The young grey doe was still reticent, though, barely saying anything besides yes or no.
Around the middle of the week, Judy had decided for herself that she needed to get out of her tiny space. She knew without a doubt that Nick wouldn't want her to cut off every connection to the world around her, no matter what.
She would have wanted the same for him if their roles were reversed.
Yet, it felt like an impossible task to go on with her everyday life, the dark cloud of her loss shadowing her every move and thought, weighing her down.
Her family was an immense source of support.
She could see the sadness and sympathy in their eyes, but they tried to engage her in conversations centering around every topic they could come up with that didn't revolve around Zootopia or her partner.
Like the upcoming harvest, the far too hot season, and how little Michelle had found a spot near the river that sported the biggest mushrooms she had ever seen.
When the mass of compassionate souls around her had felt too much, and her head couldn't keep up with her efforts to socialize despite her emotional exhaustion, Judy had sneaked out the warren.
Hours passed while the doe walked around the woods until her racing thoughts calmed down again.
Absentmindedly wandering about had caused her to end up on a hill overlooking the small town and adjacent billowing fields, all dyed in the colors of a setting sun.
It was a serene picture, and she could sense the tranquil atmosphere extend to herself, granting her a rare moment of peace.
A moment that made her almost feel like herself again.
A rustling behind her made her ears swivel around, her head following suit.
But the only movement she became aware of was the idle swirling of mist that had formed without her realizing it, and that was now preventing her from seeing deeper into the woods than a few feet, like a thick veil covering the trees.
Veil
The word echoed through her mind and caused her fur to stand on end from one moment to the next. Cold seeped into her limbs.
Shooting up from her seat on a large rock she raced back towards the warren, her blood pumping in her veins like she had run a marathon and her heartbeat playing a thunderous drum in her ears.
Only when she reached the back door of the main building did Judy finally stop.
Her gaze was darting over her shoulder, yet she had no idea what she was looking for.
But the strange sensation that this one thought had left in its wake remained.
Shaking her head in an attempt to get rid of this feeling she entered the building and headed for her own room, deciding that she had enough for this day.
Over the course of the following days, the word 'veil' kept a front row seat in her mind.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember why it held so much meaning to her and why she dreaded it to this extent.
By the end of the first week, Judy took part in the normal activities and chores around the house and farm, helping with the crops, the dishes, the laundry, and taking care of the kerfluffle.
She knew her mom was worried it would be too much for her to handle, but it helped her to find back to her usual self little by little.
Her dad had mostly kept his distance, mainly because he knew he wouldn't be able to hold back his own tears and didn't wanted to throw his daughter into another dark hole while she seemed to get better.
One thing caught her off guard, though.
After Judy had taken a shower to get rid of the dirt and sweat from working a hard day in the fields, one of her littermates approached her on the back porch.
"Hey there, Jude. Are you feeling any better?"
"After that shower? A lot." The doe stretched in the low hanging evening sun.
When her brother didn't answer to that but only looked at her expectantly, she knew he wouldn't budge from his actual question.
"Better? Yes... at least, I think. I'm still far from good and will probably be for a long time."
She sat down on a bench, gazing into the distance.
The wood creaked a little when Jake sat down next to her.
Silence settled over them for a while. Both could hear the chirping of the crickets as well as the laughing and yelling of the kerfluffle somewhere further away.
"So," it made Judy almost jump when her brother suddenly spoke up again, "have you decided if you want to stay here now?"
The question surprised her, and she had no answer for the blue-eyed buck with the slightly reddish brown fur.
"You know that I have dreamed of living in the big city and working for the ZPD for the main part of my life. When I reached that goal..." a heavy melancholic chuckle escaped her. "I was so, so incredibly happy and proud. I felt like I had accomplished something big and it was so satisfying. But now..."
Her eyes that had traveled to the ground - looking at memories of her time at the ZPA, her graduation, her moving to Zootopia - returned to the horizon as if they were searching for what lay beyond it.
"... now I don't know what I want anymore. Nearly every happy moment I spent there was with Nick."
The vulpine's name came out with a slight choking, and she could already feel the familiar burning behind her eyes.
"I don't know if I have the strength to go back there."
Her confession was barely more than a breath and her vision blurred.
She felt herself being pulled into a sidelong hug and leaned against her littermate while silently shedding tears.
"I'm sorry I have brought this up. I shouldn't... I'm sorry."
The doe shook her head while sitting up, wiping away the last moisture from her cheeks and eyes.
"I know you just care about me. And you are right. I will have to make a decision at one point. It won't be today, though."
The buck nodded in understanding and watched as his sister got up with the faintest trace of a smile before she vanished inside the house.
The question - the uncertainty of her future - lay heavy in her stomach and on her mind.
Skipping on dinner, Judy opted to go straight to her room to try and find some peace in her sleep.
Exhaustion from her day's labor and the emotional strain caused her to be out like a light in mere seconds.
'RUN!'
Judy shot up in her bed.
Her nerves vibrated.
Her heart was racing at a dangerous speed, and her breathing was labored, bordering on hyperventilation.
Every part of her body screamed to flee.
A dream. A dream. Just a dream. Must have been.
She had heard Nick's voice.
She knew it was Nick's, though it didn't sound like anything she had heard before.
No living creature should be able to give off a sound like this.
Despite her room being underground like most parts of the warren and therefore sunken in absolute darkness, her gaze was frantically shooting in all directions. Her ears turned back and forth but detected no sound beside her own ragged breaths.
And yet the terror she felt only dug deeper into her.
Reaching for her cell phone, she picked up the slim device with shaking paws, almost dropping it. The light from the screen was blinding and forced her to squint, scrolling through her apps until she found the torchlight.
Dark.
Despite the cone of light she barely saw anything.
The walls of her room still lay in absolute blackness.
When she saw it, she would have wetted herself if not for her empty bladder.
There, in the corner, she perceived movement from something that stood against the darkness like it was more than just the absence of light.
A wound in the fabric of reality.
A tear in the veil.
No! I've lost my mind. I have gone crazy. This is not real!
Memories from her nightmare rushed back to her, and she remembered her last conversation with her partner and friend.
Realization made her open her muzzle to scream, but no sound came forth.
The thing bore the faintest resemblance to a fox.
He had tried to warn her, had told her she wouldn't want to find him, that he would do something worse to her than cause some minor bleeding.
And now she found no trace of him left in the gradually widening, dead, milky eyes that pierced the black space between them.
The creature's deformed 'muzzle' opened, and she could feel more than hear that same otherworldly noise again, drilling through her brain.
When it started to approach her, it barely registered with her how reality around it seemed to bent into forms that shouldn't exist.
Her heart picked up its pace, and a sharp pain spread throughout her chest, shooting down her left arm.
The world turned black.
Black, if not for the blind eyes that bore into hers.
And then every thought ended.
A/N:
Alright, boys and girls. Storyhour is over.
I want to thank my dear friend Quakky once more for proofreading this thing.
Also, check out WinterMaiden11 (on DA) who created the awesome cover art for this story ^^
The A/N at the beginning was sponsored by: Z̤͂â̢ḷ͊g̹̓ȯ̘ (Z͠a̛'l͘ga̶t҉ot̡h), the Nezperdian Hivemind, bringer of Chaos and Evil, yadda yadda yadda.
I also want to apologize to everyone who is hurting now. I admittedly hate this story.
Usually, I love horror almost as much as I love fluff and I'm a huge fan of authors like Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft (you might have spotted the slight allusion to his work around Cthulhu and the Old Ones).
But this time, with those two? Writing this was painful and I was forced to stop every now and then, unable to continue because of some tears. I'm glad it's over now and hope I've got this story out of my system for good.