Interlude: Freedom Oppress
August 2004
Karolina Ostrów hadn't really considered becoming a journalist when she was younger. It was a job that her family held in thinly-veiled contempt, calling them propagandists or just mouthpieces for the state. Growing up, Karolina had realized that in the US, journalists did actually speak against the state fairly openly, so there was some real freedom there, but there were still things they refused to talk about. It seemed to her that most were just the mouthpiece for whatever ideology they were a part of instead of just for the state; they all read their lines a little too well for her to believe they were as capable of the independent thinking as they claimed they were.
Interning at The Midwestern Arcane for the summer had changed that assumption, but not really for the better. It turned out that a tabloid was about as questionable internally as its headlines were publicly. Even so, it had been an…interesting experience so far, even if she had applied while drunk (why did they hire her?). Since the Arcane was a newspaper mostly printing articles about paranormal nonsense, most of the people working there either complained constantly while waiting for their next paycheck, or were extremely strange and actually believed what they were peddling.
Most of her coworkers were relatively pleasant in general, once you got past the whining, but a lot of them were prone to fits of rage, especially about how no one reputable would hire them after working for this kind of paper. Karolina did not really understand that, why wouldn't other newspapers want to hire people with clear experience in making shit up? That was their whole point, wasn't it? At least that's what the boss said.
The boss was really weird. First of all, he looked a bit like an attempted Elvis impersonator, probably going through more hair gel than Karolina could reasonably buy. He also seemed to actually enjoy when people argued with him, and not just because he liked to argue. Screaming fits that would get you fired anywhere else would just get a laugh. One person even got a raise out of it.
Probably the weirdest thing was that the boss was in a constant argument with the editors about letting the writers publish very strange articles as long as they had proper sources or labeled their piece as wild speculation, something about Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech. Karolina had never seen an executive argue in favor of one of his employees writing a blatantly insulting article about him, especially after breaking the punching bag he kept in his office over it. As weird as that was, Karolina definitely approved. Being able to take criticism, not to mention keeping controlled after such a low blow, was a sign of a respectable leader. The inability to stomach criticism was often a sign of being unfit for office whether because of moral failings or incompetence.
To make matters worse, he was also uncomfortably handsome. With slicked back black hair, very expressive green eyes and a face and body that looked like one of those Roman statues come to life, he was very easy on the eyes. That alone might be what was keeping some of the employees at the paper. Jayden was pretty good-looking, but John Joseph Jenkinsen was on a whole different level. It was honestly a little unnerving, how good he looked. Funny that that was the thing that bothered Karolina most about her boss, and not his constant cursing.
That did unnerve some of the other employees though, like Sally, one of the paper's reporters, who was scared enough that she had jumped at the opportunity to foist delivering her ideas to Jenkinsen onto the intern. Karolina, not knowing any better, had delivered the forms for her. After that, a lot of people in the office had decided to saddle the intern with extraneous paperwork.
And as inexperienced as she had been, it turned out that entry-level work didn't actually require much in the way of special skills. Fetching things for the permanent employees and filing paperwork just required being a functioning human. Helping them collect and source information or even helping them write their articles did take some skill though.
Karolina had assumed that more native speakers of English wouldn't need much help writing their own language, but it turned out that even they had trouble keeping track of the inconsistent grammar. Funnily enough, she felt her English had actually improved faster doing this than taking classes, and she was the one being paid for this. Her dad was right, cursing helped you learn.
Great, now her coworkers' ranting habits were rubbing off on her. Karolina shook her head as she reached the door to Jenkinsen's office. She paused as she heard the sound of his wheezing laughter through the door, slightly muffled. Looks like he was in a meeting. But not a serious one, since he was laughing. Probably. It was sometimes hard to tell with him. Well, she needed to get him this paperwork anyways, so Karolina shrugged and knocked on the door.
"Door's unlocked!" Jenkinsen shouted. "Just like it always is!" Supposedly because he had nothing to hide, which was probably just implying that he wasn't dumb enough to keep anything incriminating or particularly valuable in his work office.
Karolina shouldered her way into the door, shuffling awkwardly to avoid spilling the stupid papers all over the floor.
"Oh, and who is this?" a soft, sexy voice breathed, sounding like one of those camera whores popular in various movies. "I don't believe I've seen this cute little thing around here before." Karolina glanced up from the stack of papers in her arms and glared at the new person, before blinking in surprise.
Jenkinsen was a bit too handsome, but whoever this woman was, she was uncanny. Her hair was a pleasant sandy brown, about shoulder length and left loosely framing her face. Her skin was pale and perfect, without a blemish in sight, and her body definitely looked like it came off of one of the big-name actresses, though for some reason Karolina was sure that cosmetic surgery hadn't made this one. As if flaunting her really weirdly perfect beauty, this woman was dressed in a tight-fitting red sweater that barely reached her legs and had a cut out to expose half her chest, complemented by long dark boots with notable heels, one crossed over the other where she sat primly in a guest chair. To top it all off, pale blue eyes flickered impishly with amusement at the interruption. The only people Karolina knew that could match her were Tania or Inari, and they probably wouldn't wear that. Now that she thought about it, the twins were pretty uncannily pretty too, but she'd just gotten used to it.
"Uh…sorry boss, didn't realize you had a callgirl over," Karolina blurted.
"I'm not here for that kind of business," the woman purred, a slight smirk twisting her pink-painted lips. "Though if John is interested in an encounter of that sort…" she eyed her host meaningfully. Karolina wasn't entirely sure if it was teasing or serious.
"It's what everyone would assume anyways," Jenkinsen shrugged, leaning back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. "Could even pretend it was 'consulting' or something, maybe even count it as a business expense!" He grinned, not deterred at all by the other woman's rolled eyes or Karolina's obvious confusion.
The possible call girl sniffed haughtily, tilting her nose up in disdain. "I am not a commodity," she scoffed.
"Of course! You're a luxury," Jenkinsen shot back with a shit-eating grin.
The woman groaned, making a sound that would probably distract Jayden for about ten minutes, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a few delicate and expertly manicured fingers. "Why do I subject myself to your presence?" she grumbled rhetorically.
"I can leave if you two want to continue flirting," Karolina interjected. "I can bring the paperwork later."
"Oh," the possibly-a-whore laughed, "but I always love an audience." While she wouldn't describe herself as a prude, that was just a bit weird for Karolina.
It must have shown on her face, as Jenkinsen laughed uproariously. "Cat got your tongue, Polack?" he snickered. "Come on! I expected a lot more grouching from you."
"What the hell did you want me to say?" Karolina growled. "Shut up and kiss?!"
"Now, now," the woman drawled, "Let's not be too hasty here."
"There you go!" Jenkinsen crowed. "See, I told you I found an interesting intern!" He gestured for her to hand him the stack of papers. Karolina dumped them unceremoniously on his desk.
"One with quite a fetching accent," the annoying and still-not-introduced occupant of the room commented. "I like it." Bitch!
"Karolina," Jenkinsen said, flipping through one page after another, "meet Eileen Dover." He gestured towards his guest. "A not well-known but quite influential mover and shaker."
That couldn't possibly be her real name. Karolina strode over to her boss and dumped the stack of papers on his desk, narrowing her eyes at the woman.
"Believe it or not," Jenkinsen drawled, "she doesn't work in porn."
Ms Dover snorted, nose in the air. "Of course not! I would not subject myself to such tawdry work."
"Though she does have some connections in that industry," the boss noted, narrowing his eyes at one particular piece of paper. "Speaking of which…" He waved it at the two of them. "Looks like Sally's caught on to the same thing you were talking about 'Lean Dover."
"Oh, 'twas nothing," Eileen dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I already had a finger on this pulse months ago."
"What exactly are you getting out of this?" Karolina asked. "Why do you want whatever story this is about to get out?"
"Why, a lady must keep some secrets," Dover smirked, looking smug for no good reason.
"Bah! Ladies don't exist in this country!" Jenkinsen scoffed. "At least not officially. There's no nobility allowed here!"
Eileen snorted, "I'm sure I could convince someone otherwise, but that is neither here nor there."
"Are you going to get to the Goddamn point?! Or are you just trying to mess with me?" Karolina groused.
"Yes!" Jenkinsen declared unhelpfully, sliding a piece of paper over to her and tapping on it. "Sally and Eileen both heard about this poor cursed porn film attempt. Thought it might have been just an excuse to visit a porn set, but check this out!" He pointed out a particular line. "They actually hired an honest to God wizard!"
"My, my," Ms. Dover tittered. "That must be so scandalizing for the old man."
"No, no, get this," Jenkinsen continued. "They hired Harry Dresden, the young, strapping 'wizard' doing PI jobs out of an office like some detective novel."
Wasn't that the name of Tania and Inari's friend?
"Oh my," Eileen mused breathlessly, "the firebrand?"
"Called him to stop the 'curse', I'd bet," Jenkinsen continued. "I know of the guy. Dated one of my best employees at one point. Guy's a total romantic."
"Is that so?" Dover breathed, eyes lighting up like a whore getting an appointment with a rich client.
"Oh yeah," Jenkinsen confirmed. "Susan got so many stories off of him since they were dating." He shrugged. "Too bad about Susan, she managed to find some real good stuff."
"Reporters," Eileen sniffed. "So naive and arrogant, they are. Freedom of Press does not mean immunity to danger."
"I swear," Jenkinsen scowled, "I've got a bunch of vultures working for me looking for some big break to springboard their careers. Don't they realize the irony in that?! How can you be a watchdog if you act just like the people you're supposed to catch?!"
"Yes, yes! Reporters aren't the Press, the Press is print, or TV, blah, blah, blah!" Karolina shouted. "You tell us that at least once every single day!" She threw up her hands in frustration. "I brought you the papers, so you two fuck or whatever. I'm gonna go." She turned and headed for the door.
"Hold on, Karolina."
She paused, turning to look at her boss with a raised eyebrow. He laced his fingers together on his desk, giving her a more serious look than she had ever seen him use before. "I had honestly expected you to blow up about the vulture nest making you do all this grunt work a lot earlier." He smiled crookedly. "But you actually seemed to have made the most of it."
Karolina narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you getting at?"
"I know you don't really want to be a reporter," Jenkinsen continued. "But you've got a decent head on your shoulders, and aren't as lazy as most of the vultures I've got left." He tapped the piece of paper. "This. This is something big." His face broke out into a disgustingly handsome smile and he steepled his fingers over the page. "If Sally is too lazy to hand me this herself, I think it's about time our intern has a shot at things."
"How is this a big story?" Karolina asked skeptically.
Jenkinsen smiled, resting his chin on his hands. "You're smart enough. Figure it out."
"I'm not sure I want to help peddle some dumb shit to get dumb people interested," Karolina muttered. "Not to mention it seems a bit fucking rude to nose around about people that died and ask if it was something spooky."
"Ohoh," Eileen chortled, giving Karolina a teasing look. "Do a few naked actors bother your pretty little head?" The whore shifted her legs indecently again, like a, well, whore.
"I'm sure you'll find that there's more than meets the eye going on here," Jenkinsen assured.
Karolina narrowed her eyes. They were baiting her into doing this. They totally were. She would not give in and give them the satisfaction!
"Just imagine Sally's face," Jenkinsen smirked. "I'll save a picture of it for you if you can get me pictures of that werewolf!"
And that is how Karolina found herself knocking on the door to a porn set. Her parents were going to kill her.
"Lina? What are you doing here?"
"Inari?! What the fuck are you doing here?!"
While she was one of the last people Karolina expected to see on a porn set, it was just like Inari to decide to help out weird people. Apparently she actually saved someone's life! Well, honestly, the people here weren't that weird, they mostly seemed like normal people who happened to do porn. That Bobby guy even reminded her of Jayden a bit.
Suddenly, there were gunshots, screaming and then there were police all over the set, which kind of made trying to be a reporter hard, since the cops kind of took precedence. Oddly enough, while some of them gave her wary looks, most of them seemed pleased with her for some reason. Karolina didn't think she was doing anything worth mentioning, she had just politely asked the officers whether it would be appropriate for her to ask questions. They asked her to wait, but seemed surprised when she did. Why would she pick a fight with people who could shoot her?
Apparently the red haired tramp who had pulled a gun on someone would. She must be dumb. Why would you try shooting someone while wearing almost no clothes if you could avoid it?
Then another woman showed up who apparently almost died the day before.
"So, uh, eventful week then?" Karolina asked her more attractive friend. She hadn't seen Inari as often since they had gone to different colleges, and Mother of God did Inari grow up! Karolina would like to say she wasn't an envious person, but it was a bit hard not to feel any envy. Inari and Tania seemed like they had it all: money, looks, brains, and hell, even personality. But they were a bit too nice for Karolina to resent them, and if she did, Inari would notice and ask her about it, help her work through her emotions, and then Tania would notice and suggest some plan to get her a place where she could feel better about herself. They were…something else.
"Eh, heh, kinda," Inari demurred, rubbing the back of her head. "Yesterday was pretty rough, and this isn't my first choice of places to be, but overall my week could have been worse." She smiled, looking a bit childish for someone as tall as she was, though her bright cheer was…a little dimmer than Karolina remembered.
"That bad, huh?" Despite being a bit of a spoiled rich kid, Karolina had never found Inari to be a pampered princess, so if something was bothering her, it had to be really bad, like that time Tania got jumped. Did they ever catch that fucker?
"It was bad," Inari sighed, before perking up, which made Karolina feel even shorter (she was average height, Goddamnit!) "Though Tania and I did finally get a chance to talk through some stuff we really should have talked about a long time ago."
"What? That both of you kind of have really skewed ideas of what's normal?" Karolina asked, only partially joking.
"Hehe," Inari ducked her head in embarrassment. "Yeah, a little bit of that."
"Oh. Uh. Congrats?" Now Karolina felt a little bad for asking. While it was pretty funny when looking at it from the outside, it couldn't be that comfortable of a conversation to have. Especially if the chatter from the staff about the gunfight outside was true–
"Wait a minute," Karolina began accusingly, "did you get caught up in a gunfight yesterday or something?" Bobby said that Inari had run outside after they heard gunshots, which was a really bad idea, even Karolina knew that!
"A little," Inari admitted bashfully. "I missed most of it."
"How are you so calm about this?!" Karolina barked. She opened her mouth but Inari shushed her with an intense look in her eyes. Karolina complied, shocked by the sudden one-eighty.
"Please don't ask," Inari requested, deadly serious. It was a chilling look, one that even Tania probably couldn't match, as Inari's imperfect mask made the intense feelings it covered leak through threateningly.
"Ok." Karolina replied calmly (she did not squeak in fright). What else could she say to that look?! It didn't help that Inari could probably fold her in half if she wanted to; Karolina was not nearly as fit, and quite a bit smaller…in multiple ways.
"Thank you," Inari shot her a closed eye smile and Karolina shivered, nodding automatically. No one was ever going to believe her if she told them Inari could be more intimidating than Tania.
"What about the…uh, stuff that happened here?" she asked, trying to change the subject as well as at least trying to do her job. "I am kinda supposed to get a story on this."
"Oh, right!" Inari perked up. "You're interning at The Arcane. Congrats again by the way. And well, you definitely have a story here! Did you get hired permanently? I didn't think they'd send interns out by themselves."
"Uh…thanks?" Karolina replied awkwardly, still a bit unbalanced by Inari's familiar barrage of questions—she would make a great reporter. Curious, photogenic, earnest and actually pretty damned good at explaining things. Though… "You really think this movie…thing was cursed?"
"Oh no, the movie isn't cursed." Ah, right, she probably meant the story about people dying— "Some of the people here were cursed."
Wait, what?!
"It's not like a bad luck jinx you see in movies," Inari continued, as if that was the most normal thing in the world, "it's more like a lethal accident gun, someone had to fire it, instead of something that keeps on sticking to someone."
This was not what Karolina expected her to say at all! How did the twins say stuff like this with straight faces?!
"At least Harry seems to have blocked it today, and we were in time to save Giselle and Jake."
Harry? That was the 'wizard', right? Wait, since when did goody two-shoes Inari believe in that stuff?
"Whuh…can you explain all that slowly, and from the beginning?" Karolina asked pleadingly.
Inari nodded. "Well, magic is real and apparently there is a way to shoot a curse at people even if you don't have any magical potential yourself. You just ask some other dangerous thing to do it for you. And that's what probably happened here."
What? "So…if magic is real…do you think the Arcane is actually a serious newspaper in disguise?" Karolina asked hesitantly, not sure what to believe.
"Well no," Inari explained, "the Arcane is a double bluff. Most of the people working there are not told about the real deal so when one of them manages to find something real, it's hidden among the silliness–plausible deniability and all that."
How could she possibly know that?!
Her question must have shown on her face, as Inari scratched her cheek bashfully. "Or at least, that's what Rosalina says."
"The ginger bitch?" Karolina asked. "How the hell does she know?"
"Hey! Rude!" Inari pouted, causing Karolina to mumble an apology (she was the only person able to make her feel bad about cursing). "Alina's hair is more red than ginger!" Wait, that was what she was focusing on?! And bitch, that was her nickname!
"You're…not mad I'm calling her names?"
"Well that's rude too, but Alina likes being called names. And she can be pretty mean sometimes."
"Wait!" Karolina barked, "That's not the point! Stop distracting me!"
"Eh?" Inari blinked, then perked up. "Oh right! Her cousin once removed owns that paper, I think. That's how she knows."
That…now that Karolina thought about it, she could see the resemblance between Jenkinsen and Rosalina. They were both assholes, but assholes that fully expected other people to be assholes back, not to mention unfairly attractive. "I…see." It really made too much sense.
On another note, it was a good thing that Inari only used her information network to help people. Her ability to remember and connect gossip together would be really nasty if put to crueler goals.
Hold on, she was here for a job, not to chatter! Well, her job was to talk to people, but not like this. Not that Karolina cared too much about this job, but she wasn't going to give that bitch Sally something to be smug about!
"So…" Karolina began, hating how her hesitancy made her sound so awkward, "where did you learn all this stuff about the 'Curse' from anyways? And how trustworthy is that information? What about the other people here? Do they know more?"
Inari, naturally, was unfazed by the barrage of questions and proceeded to describe a strange tale about jealous ex-wives worried about being cut off out of a rich man's inheritance when he married again, and instead of doing the reasonable thing of trying to re-seduce their ex, decided to attempt using dark magic to kill the woman the rich man was marrying.
Apparently, because they were stupid, and the rich man was not quite as stupid as he seemed (or maybe just experienced after marrying three gold-digging sluts), they did not know who he was marrying, and instead of doing some basic research, just decided to use process of elimination and kill women around him until they got their target. All of this Inari had learned from Tania, who had figured it out while working with the 'wizard' Harry Dresden, who was also her boyfriend.
Karolina felt a headache growing as she wrote furiously to keep up with her friend. This was all a bit too much. Tania and Inari believed in magic? Bimbo murder witches? Tania had a wizard boyfriend?! What the hell was happening?!
It should be easily dismissed as exaggeration, especially since most of Inari's information about the fantastical stuff seemed to have come from Tania's wizard boyfriend, who may or may not be a fraud. The thing was though…as excitable as Inari was, and no matter how easy it was to underestimate her due to her fluffy friendliness…she wasn't stupid–actually she was quite smart, and more importantly, Inari did not lie.
But if this was a hoax, Inari would have to be wrong, which would mean Tania had to have lied to her, and Tania also rarely lied, and if she did, magical hoo haw wouldn't be what she came up with. And there was no way Tania would go for a man who was a fraud, she would figure him out instantly.
But all that considered…either Harry Dresden had managed to fool both Tania and Inari, so much so that Tania of all people agreed to go out with him…or there was something weird going on.
"Hey Inari," Karolina interrupted Inari's explanation of this Genosa guy's romantic history. "Did Tania start acting weird once she met Harry?"
Inari paused, and Karolina felt a chill creep down her spine at the sad, but intense look in her friend's eyes. "Harry helped her out after something bad happened to her." Her lips quirked up into an impish grin, her cheeks dimpling in a way that made her look childish despite her height. "I think she may have fallen in love!" Inari's eyes sparkled knowingly.
Karolina snorted. Tania, in love? That sounded ridiculous…but she had been around the Super Twins long enough that she had realized that the two of them were more similar in personality than they appeared… "And he happens to have particularly useful skills?"
"Yup!" Inari chirped. "That's probably a big part of why Tania's so taken with him."
"Is being good in bed that particularly useful skill?" Karolina snarked.
Inari shook her head. "That doesn't factor in for Tania. She doesn't know how that works anyways." Huh. She used to be easily embarrassed by this kind of talk.
Karolina snorted. "Right, she'd need a spreadsheet or something to get off."
"Lina!" Inari chided with mock outrage. A mischievous glint sparkled in her eye. "You haven't seen how Tania is around him. She bought new clothes by herself."
"Oh." She might actually be smitten then. Or this Harry could mind control people.
"Yeah. And they look good on her too."
It wasn't that Tania didn't care about her appearance, but she never was that interested in attracting that kind of attention before. Deliberately. Tania attracted a lot of that attention anyways.
"You sure this wizard guy isn't mind controlling her or something?" Karolina asked suspiciously.
Inari let out a sharp bark of laughter. It sounded a bit strained. "Harry's not the one with the mind control," she replied, an odd tone in her voice.
Karolina was going to have to investigate this Harry Dresden person more thoroughly now. Though…didn't Jenkinsen mention he dated one of The Arcane's reporters for a while?
Putting that aside for the moment, Karolina decided to go talk to some other people before she heard more things that made the world feel like it was turned upside down. One of the cops told her that they would make an official statement later, but humored her enough for her to learn that they had no information about any 'magical' misdeeds. Not surprising, but Karolina wasn't sure if she should be glad that the police hadn't been part of a conspiracy to hide stuff like that from the general public or concerned that they didn't know. Or maybe it was too little to work with because it was just one guy.
At first, Karolina was a little hesitant to talk with the other people there because the police were poking around, and the porn people also looked a bit nervous about talking to a reporter, but after she chatted with Inari, they warmed up to the intrusion almost instantly.
It was a little weird. Some of the people, like the red haired Emma and the gangly Giselle seemed to think Inari was some sort of living saint, or something, though given that Inari had saved Giselle's life, Karolina guessed that it wasn't too weird for there to be a bit of hero worship. Also, that was a nasty looking scar…and she had only been cut yesterday?! Something didn't add up here.
Her hand twitched, running a jagged line of ink across her notebook as it flailed her pen with the involuntary motion. She cursed under her breath, trying to ignore the itching feeling along her spine as she found out more and more suspicious things. Magic couldn't be real, but there was definitely something wrong going on here.
Maybe it was the murder attempts, or the crazed red haired telewhore who screamed like a drowning cat as she was dragged out by the police. Or maybe it was Tania and Inari's slightly off behavior. Something fishy was going on here, and Karolina was going to get to the bottom of it, not because she had any journalistic spirit or anything, but because some of her first friends in this country could be in danger, or under duress.
She kept her questions simple, letting the porn people talk most of the time, trying not to pay too much attention to the police watching her. They'd probably take her in for questioning or something, though she hadn't done anything wrong, so she didn't think they could arrest her, but it wasn't as if the police here always followed the law perfectly.
From her inquiries, Karolina found that most of what she heard supported what Inari told her, or at least did not discredit it. Aside from a few people, like Bobby (a weirdly insecure pornstar) and Jake (a less sleazy than expected porn star), most of them didn't say anything definitive about magic, but none of them laughed at her about it, mostly shrugging their shoulders in ignorance. For some reason, a few of them kept glancing at Inari when she asked that question. Karolina had figured out that her friend had saved Giselle's life, and that the lanky girl was well-liked, but the level of deference the porn people gave Inari was weird. It reminded Karolina of the awkward kids at school who absolutely melted under any attention at all from the Super Twins, but that didn't make sense. Porn people couldn't be awkward, right? Their job should squeeze that out of them, if that had any to begin with.
Not to mention that Inari was kind of like supermodel Mother Teresa, and definitely didn't think that pornography was healthy or moral. Oh wait, Inari wanted to become a doctor or a nurse, so it might be that she was asking them about the too-much-information stuff about what being in this job would do to their bodies. That didn't explain the almost reverent attitude though.
What they told her about the Harry Dresden guy was a bit more concerning. Half of them seem convinced that he was a mob hitman pretending to have a day job as a 'wizard' private investigator (maybe he could do magic tricks of making people disappear) who had been hired to protect Inari after some rival gang started putting hits out on the staff for this particular porn movie. Most of the others seemed to think he was a private security guy who was canny enough to try doing some magic tricks to help calm their director down about a curse, and if she hadn't talked to Inari first, that was probably what Karolina would have believed.
But she had, so what Jake and Bobby said refused her attempts at easy dismissal. The two pornstars said that Harry Dresden was some kind of magician or psychic pretending to be a security guy to help catch whoever was jinxing the movie. While neither of them seemed particularly bright, they also didn't seem super gullible either, even if Jake gave some sort of spiel about 'dispersing evil energy.' Jake also mentioned that Dresden knew some level of first aid, and had saved him from being electrocuted by using magic to turn off the lights.
What was this? Some kind of crappy horror film?!
Though…was Tania involved with organized crime? It was always a bit of a joke among their friend group, given how rich and always traveling their father seemed to be…but that didn't explain all this talk about magic.
Whatever the deal was, it involved two of Karolina's closest friends and put them in danger, so she'd be damned if she didn't get to the bottom of it! She even had a useful excuse.
Wait…did Jenkinsen know about all this? Maybe. Karolina would have to ask him about it, especially about this Susan person and especially interrogate him about Dresden. She probably had enough information here for a story, and she had a bunch of sources, even if questionable.
"Excuse me, miss?" She blinked and looked up from her notebook, doing her best not to freeze as she saw the cop looming over her.
"Uh…how can I help you officer?"
"Did you say you were a reporter?" he asked, giving her a curious look. It didn't seem hostile, but Karolina still tensed.
"Not really, I'm an intern at a newspaper," she answered truthfully. "I just got sent here for this story 'cause my boss had some sort of object lesson for one of his reporters or something."
"Was it because your friend was here?" he gestured towards Inari.
Karolina shook her head. "I didn't know she was here until I got to the front door." She frowned. "Am I being interrogated?"
The cop raised his hands placatingly. "Well, we would like to know if you have any information about this mess." He gestured to the notebook. "Not to mention you may be able to help us check if these guys are trying to pull a fast one on us–"
He was cut off as something barked from his radio. "One moment, Miss."
The policemen congregated together and began discussing something, growing gradually more agitated as they talked. Well that wasn't good. Karolina tried to listen in, hoping something fishy wasn't happening.
"–just handed her over?!"
"Always knew–"
"Why a pornstar though, of all people?"
Did the crazy redhead escape? How?! She was almost naked, hysterical and wearing heels!
There was some angry shouting from the front door and Karolina glanced over to see a couple police officers arguing with two very similarly looking people in identical suits. For some reason they reminded Karolina of a Barbie or a Ken doll, fake and a bit uncanny. Weird.
"Excuse me, Ms. Raith, but we should go," a calm, professional voice cut into her attempt at eavesdropping.
"Eh? Antonio?" Inari replied, standing up to greet the man in dark sunglasses and a suit that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. "Why are you here?"
"To get you to safety, of course," presumably Antonio replied. Karolina eyed his right hand, which hovered close to a suspicious bulge under his left shoulder. Ok… Maybe Tania and Inari were mafia princesses or something. Fuck.
Inari frowned. "What do you mean? I'm fine, and everything seems to have been handled here."
"There was a shooting, it isn't safe here," the man insisted. "Come on, you'll be safe back at the manor."
"You didn't come yesterday when there was a shooting," Inari commented. "And the shooter today was caught and isn't here anymore."
Antonio sighed. "We should have come yesterday, but we were otherwise occupied. After last night, your father isn't taking any chances."
"Why are Jane and John arguing with the police?" Inari narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Wait, did she not trust her father? The twins almost never talked about him. Karolina had assumed that he was just absent like a lot of rich people, but was there something more…
"They want to ask you questions about today's events," her bodyguard explained, "but we do not believe that they will be able to guarantee your safety."
"What about all these people's safety?" Inari shot back. "I'm here because they needed someone with first aid experience–Father sent me here himself, so why are you trying to take me back all of a sudden?"
"Well, I assume your father did not think there would be multiple shootings on a film set."
"If there's danger, then I don't want anyone here to get hurt either," Inari said. "Maybe you can help the police keep an eye on things." It was more of a statement than a question.
"I'd be ok with that," Antonio offered, "but your father was insistent."
"Is he calling Tania back to the manor too?" Inari asked carefully, causing the man to blink.
"Not that I know of," he mused. "Which is a little strange. But we still need to get you to safety."
"I'm not going anywhere!" Inari insisted. "Not when someone might need my help here."
Antonio sighed. "That's very kind of you, but now that the authorities have been notified, they should have paramedics en route. Your friends will be fine."
"Why should I trust the police to protect them if my father does not?" Inari accused. "Does he have something to do with this whole murder spree?"
His bodyguard balked. "Where did you hear that?! Come on, he just wants you out of harm's way, nothing else!"
"No." Inari declared, eyes blazing. "There's something else he wants." Karolina stared. It should not have been surprising, Tania was very assertive, so it made sense Inari was capable of doing that too, but she had never acted like this around her friends, instead always playing peacemaker.
Antonio dipped his head in defeat. "I…would not be surprised if that were true, but he did not tell us anything. Perhaps you could call and convince him otherwise?"
Inari frowned, retrieving her phone from her pocket. She started as she flipped it open. "Aw, nuts. It's fried!"
"You can use mine," her bodyguard offered. "But let's head out back, it's a little too noisy in here for a call." He looked meaningfully at the cops distracted by the Barbie hitmen.
Inari stiffened, glancing over her shoulder at the two creepy people in suits. Were they twins or something? Karolina watched her friend in concern as she bit her lip and glanced around. Why did Inari look…scared? There was no way her father would hurt her, was there? Or was it–
Oh.
Karolina shivered. If Inari's father actually was a mafia boss…well the chick who shot up the place she was at was likely not too long for the world. And the people who didn't protect her might get blamed.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why did she come here again?!
Inari's gaze flicked from person to person, lingering a bit on Karolina, before landing back on the mafia suit twins, honing in on the suspicious shapes beneath the cloth on their shoulders. She closed her eyes and exhaled a long breath, clutching her crucifix with one hand. After a moment, she opened her eyes and straightened up, eyes glinting with determination.
"Alright." Inari said. "I'll go."