Note: Another day, another chapter! What do you guys think so far?
Chapter 3: It's A Sick World Out There
Date: July 3nd, 1958
Before pushing the door open detective Ludwig Beilschmidt glanced at his wrist one last time. It was a quarter past midnight. A breath of relief escaped his lips-the bar would still be open for a few more hours. That would be more than enough time to get some answers about the missing girl. Not waiting another second the German finally pushed open the door leading into the Iceberg Bar. Immediately smooth jazz and drunk chattering filled his ears. The brown floorboards of the bar glistened as professional waiters rushed to receive orders from the drunken customers. The first time Ludwig entered this bar his whole perception of what a bar was supposed to be like changed. Up in the surface the bars would not have fancy waiters, the alcohol tasted cheap and the place always smelled of vomit and god knows what else. But in Bioshock…everything looked like something out of a fairytale. Everyone-well, everyone in these parts of the city-lived like royalty.
The moment Ludwig took a step forward a waiter appeared before his very eyes. The detective slightly jumped in surprise and the waiter chuckled,
"My apologies, sir. May I lead you to your seat?"
Ludwig waved it off,
"Ah-no thank you. Are you using some sort of new vigor? I do not recall seeing any sort of vigor that does that to people."
The young waiter smiled shyly as he scratched the back of his head,
"You must be pretty shaken up. You see, I'm not all that used to using vigors. And yes, this is a brand new one! Helps you teleport within a given distance. Cool huh?"
"Um-sure,"
Ludwig replied hastily before changing the subject,
"Do you know of a Peter?"
The goofy smile on the waiter's face simply widened once he heard the name,
"Aw, you mean the little kiddo? Sure, I know of him!"
Ludwig felt a small smile appear on his lips. Good. Everything seemed to be going his way. Hopefully the boy could give him some useful information about Lily.
"Good. Is he here? I have a few questions for him."
The young waiter frowned and furrowed his brow in confusion,
"Um…did something bad happen?"
The detective reached and pulled out the picture of Lily and showed it to the waiter,
"It has something to do with a missing girl. Her name is Lily. You've seen her?"
"Sure I have. When did she disappear?"
"About two weeks ago."
"I'm afraid I won't be of much help. I was taking a break for that whole week-I had a pretty bad fever. Uh…you could go ask Mathias in the back, he's pretty close to Peter."
After quickly thanking the waiter Ludwig made his way towards the back of the bar. The place was still fairly crowded and the tall man had to swiftly dodge several waiters who were serving drinks and foods. Eventually Ludwig reached a long counter where a handsome blonde man was making beverages. The waiter had spikey hair with wild blue eyes. Once noticing the detective before him Mathias gave him a big grin,
"What would you like, sir?"
Ludwig immediately detected a thick Danish accent. It was so thick he looked at the man confusingly,
"Excuse me?"
The man's grin only widened and asked again,
"What drink would you like?"
Finally understanding what the man was asking, Ludwig blushed in embarrassment and shook head,
"Oh, I am not here to drink."
The Danish man gave Ludwig a weird look and laughed,
"What are you doing in a bar if you are not going to drink? Are you trying to pick up some girls?"
"No. In fact, I am here to see Peter."
Mathias stopped mixing the different alcohols and shouted to the kitchen,
"Lukas, take my place for a quick sec, will you?"
Just like the waiter from the entrance a short young boy appeared next to Mathias. Ludwig once again jumped in surprise but the younger boy simply ignored his reaction and grabbed the glass from Mathias and murmured,
"Hurry up."
Mathias gave him a smile and turned to the detective,
"Follow me, I'll tell you at the back."
As the waiter led the detective to the back door Ludwig immediately felt suspicious. What was the man going to say that needed this much privacy? Slowly, Ludwig's fingers slipped into his trench coat pocket and felt his cold handgun. He could never be too careful. Passing the busy kitchen the two finally exited the back door and entered an empty ally way. The atmosphere was still and Ludwig could notice that something about Mathias changed. With shocking speed Mathias immediately turned around and slammed Ludwig into the brick wall and held him there with an iron grip. The detective cursed in pain as the once cheerful waiter snarled aggressively at him,
"Okay you sick fuck, who sent you?"
Ludwig glared straight back at Mathias and simply warned him,
"Let me go. Or else I will be forced to do something that I will regret."
Mathias's grip tightened and the detective shouted in pain. The waiter snapped,
"I will not. You fuckers have been after Peter for too long. You guys have abused him over and over again! You sick bastards! Who does that to a kid? Leave him alone already! Just because there's no police in this city you people think you own the place! But guess what? You don't! And you have no right to force a child to do those horrible things!"
The detective forcefully pushed the taller man off from him. Mathias stood his ground and stared menacingly back at the detective.
"Look, I have no idea what you are talking about. But I have no intentions to hurt Peter. In fact, I am here to ask him simple questions regarding a missing girl."
Mathias continued to glare at Ludwig suspiciously while Ludwig pulled out a few papers and the picture of Lily,
"See? This is the picture of the missing girl, Lily. She is Peter's friend, correct? These are all the paper works that her parents have done for me to investigate this case. She has been gone for two weeks and the more time we waste the chances of finding her decreases."
After a few moments of silence Mathias rested his back against the wall and breathed out in exhaustion. Ludwig watched in silence as the other man ran his fingers through his spikey hair,
"I can't believe this is happening. First Peter…and now sweet Lily? What a sick world we live in…you got a smoke?"
The German threw a small cigarette at the exhausted man and watched him light it. After a few seconds of breathing in and out the toxic smoke Mathias finally spoke,
"You know this city is not all smiles and daisies, correct?"
Ludwig leaned against the brick wall besides the man and nodded,
"I've seen my fair share."
Mathias shook his head and waved his hands,
"But this is a whole new level of fucked up."
"Where is Peter?"
The frustrated blonde answered,
"He is safe, thank god. He is at his home at the moment. If you haven't noticed detective, most eleven year old boys tend to sleep in during this time."
Ludwig watched Mathias throw the cigarette on the floor and crush it with his heel before asking,
"What exactly happened to Peter?
"He used to live off on the streets in this city. He had an older brother but he left soon after he started using vigors. The boy was a wreck-he was here with Peter in hopes to have a better chance in life. But someone has to sweep the streets-you know what I mean?"
"What was his brother's name?"
"It should be Arthur Kirkland. Peter always called him 'Arty' so I'm not too sure. But I think that should be his name. I don't think you would have much luck in finding him-he's living off in the abandoned parts of the city. Heck, he might even be dead by now! Anyway, once his brother left Peter was left with very little options. One day a couple of sickos came over and…kidnapped him."
He looked up at Ludwig with sadness in his eyes,
"I think you know what they forced him to do…there are a lot of sick people in this world."
Mathias fell silent once again as he waved his hand,
"Could I have another smoke?"
Ludwig obediently placed another cigarette into the man's clammy hands. After puffing out a couple of smokes Mathias continued,
"Eventually, Peter grew sick and was thrown back out to the streets. Berwald and Tino bumped into him and brought the poor boy back here. My god, I had never seen any child so tiny and beaten up like that…"
Ludwig gently rested his hand on Mathias's shoulder,
"Mathias, Peter is likely the last person to see Lily before she disappeared. I need to ask him some questions."
"…Yeah, I understand. I'll give you the address. Just…don't be too harsh on him. He's just a little kid and he's been through enough."
The waiter pulled out a pen and piece of scrap paper from his apron pocket and scribbled the address down before handing it to the detective. The detective took the address as he stood up and nodded his head,
"I will. Thank you for the address."
"Oh, and detective?"
Ludwig raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Mathias. The waiter warned,
"Be careful out there. If the same people who used Peter caught Lily you will have to deal with some very dangerous people. Even though Peter's been thrown out a couple of shady people always seem to crawl back and try to get him-hence why I immediately felt suspicious when you asked for him. You are not dealing with regular people. You are dealing with monsters."
The last sentence tugged onto Ludwig's heartstring. Even though he knew all of this he couldn't help but feel terrible when he actually encountered the dark side of humanity. Turning around he said,
"I'll keep that in mind. Take care."