"Old friends die on you, and they're irreplaceable. You become dependent." - Lionel Blue
6:37
The morning after was one of sensual tranquility.
The fox was the first to wake upon dawn's early rise, merciful beams of sunlight which streamed through the blinds bore down upon his eyes, his natural instincts causing him to awaken from his peaceful slumber.
Like every morning, the first thing he did was turn in the direction of the thing that meant the most to him.
Back when he was living on the streets, it happened to be his favorite pair of shades, which always rested on the ground adjacent to his head as he slept.
But now...
His eyes met with the still dozing form of his mate, who lay beside him, her arms wrapped around his chest, face buried into his shoulder.
The sun may have already risen on the horizon; but to Nick, the main-event was the moment her eyelids opened and revealed her pristine purple orbs to the world.
He feared the day when they would close for the last time, but to prevent himself from going insane, pushed that thought away for later concern: He was in the now.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.
Nick breathed in deeply before exhaling slowly, the air-flow directed at the tip of Judy's long ears, where the longest hairs danced in the temporary breeze.
Life is good! The fox smugly thought to himself.
He then spared a glance at the nearest clock, which was placed on the nightstand to his right.
6:39
Phew... Still got time to sleep in! Bogo doesn't want us to clock in until 8:30... Time to enjoy the moment!
And with that, he closed his eyes once more, and soon drifted off into dreamless sleep.
Another day, another chance.
Two animals in particular were living up to this philosophy. The fox and bunny strode across the apartment room, preparing themselves for their meeting with Bogo. Though they did briefly explain their situation involving the Orin brothers with the Chief last night, Bogo had insisted that they come in once again the following morning to file-in with more details. But now the two of them gathered their things and marched out to the parked Police cruiser, which Judy's jackal friend, Anhur, had dropped off for the two of them to make a quick return to the ZPD head-quarters. Despite the fact that the previous night had been a wonder of intimate passion, and that they had gotten the privilege of sleeping in and enjoying each-other's warmth for a many extra hours, the two of them still had a job to do. The law never takes a break. There was work to be done.
They piled themselves and their gear back into the Police cruiser, and began their journey to the ZPD Head-Quarters. As Nick manned the wheel, Judy glanced over to him momentarily, staring at him as he impatiently tapped his fingers on the wheel while they waited at a traffic light. Nick looked towards her, and the two's eyes met for a few seconds.
Judy smiled. Nick wiggled his eyebrows.
"Oh, you're such a flirt, fox!" Judy said, her face blushing as she tried to hide her scarlet-tinged fur behind her ears. Nick simply smirked before offering his reply.
"Hey now Carrots... I can't help it!"
The light turned had turned green. Nick lightly pressed down on the gas pedal before turning left at the intersection. As the car aligned itself with the lane, Nick saw a large gleaming building not too far off down length of the road ahead: The Zootopia Police Department head-quarters. In no time at all, they reached their intended destination.
Both animals lept from the cruiser and advanced towards the building. It was an almost intimidating one at that: Large in size, with structured points jabbing out almost like horns. But it was their place of work, and was like a second home in their eyes. Many memories had been made beneath the crown of the city's primary police department.
They reached the door within seconds, and Nick ran ahead a bit to open the door for Judy.
"Why thank you!" Judy stated.
"Any time, whiskers." The fox replied.
As she walked in, the bunny ogled at the magnificent interior: No matter how many times she came here, it never failed to take her breath away. Not even once.
The building's large and spacious commons area was always brimming with activity: Cops dragging hand-cuffed animals back and forth, Citizens filing in reports and visiting friends, And of course, everyone's favorite cheetah manning the main receptions desk. He was a joyous and jolly ol' fellow; constantly radiating positive attitude and rambunctious Joy. He was dismissing a group of goats who had wandered in when he spotted Judy and Nick.
His eyes lit up with cheer. "Hey Judy! Heya Nick! Glad to see you two cuties here!"
Judy internally face-palmed when the cheetah slipped the 'C-Word'. She loathed being called cute. Well, by anyone except Nick of course. It seemed that no matter how many times she told him, Benjamin Clawhauser just didn't remember not to refer to her as such. She coughed into her fist and stared at Clawhauser with a disapproving look.
When he noticed, his face scrunched up apologetically.
"Oh, right... Sorry Judy!" He smiled with a satisfied and jovial look on his face, as if that cleared everything up.
He then took a deep breath before continuing:
"Lemme guess... you two here for Bogo, right?" Nick nodded and clicked his tongue while giving him an 'OK' gesture with his left hand.
"Perfect! He's available for briefing as we speak. Go on now!" The fat cheetah responded.
Clawhauser then shooed them away so he could deal with the line that had built up behind them during their encounter. They obliged to his shooing, eager to wrap up with Chief so as to start the days work. They walked towards his office and knocked twice before a large shadow passed behind the hazed window in the door. It opened and revealed Chief, standing tall and contempt as always. He waved his hand in an unmistakable gesture: Come in.
Nick shut the door as he stepped inside the office. The light smell of sweat filled the air, mixing with the scent of Bogo's silly lemon-scented candle that he stashed away in the corner. It was not a good mixture at that, But if Bogo knew, he didn't seem to let on. The Chief fell back in his chair with a sigh of relief before planting his elbows on the table and giving the two tiny officers his classic 'Bogo-Stare' as the other workers had come to name it. Nick bit his cheeks to keep from snickering at the ridiculous nickname. Meanwhile, Judy sat next to the fox with her arms across her lap and her ears held high.
The next few minutes were a rather dreary blur, as they explained to Bogo in further detail about their experience with the Orin brothers the previous day, and the evidence of arson. After some more time spent describing their involvement, Bogo considered the situation concluded: The Orin family was no-doubts guilty of arson, destruction of property, assault (Judy's face still ached from getting smacked with that board), and theft.
With the evidence stacked against them, Judy had a good feeling that her family's rivals were finally going to get what they deserved.
"You two did well with that mess," The Chief began. "I'm proud of you both, but I'm afraid there is still more to do."
Nick's smirk melted. "I thought you said the case was closed? We did our part, didn't we?" He inquired.
Bogo's brow furrowed at the fox's comment.
"I know what I said, Wilde. That case is over and done." The cape-buffalo leaned back in his seat. "When I say there's more to do, I mean that I'm putting you on another task."
Nick nodded while biting his lower lip. "Oh... Well then, whatcha got in mind for us?" The fox asked curiously.
At his new question, Bogo steadily rose from his chair and lumbered over to his filing-cabinet.
"I'm sure you two have heard about the Sleet-Street homicide, no?" He said as he pulled out a case-file from the cabinet and shut the lid with a reverberating thud.
The bunny shuddered. She knew all too well about that mess: Back when Nick was in the hospital, she and a number of other officers had arrived on-scene to a grisly murder sight. The victim was an adult male antelope, and happened to be a forensic photographer for the ZPD sub-section in Tundra-Town; Precinct Two. The antelope was covered in a mess of slash marks and cuts, and his mangled corpse had been dumped in a back-alley trash container on Sleet-Street, almost entirely drained of its blood. Judy herself remembered telling the story to Nick when she had arrived for her daily visitation at the hospital. The story seemed to shake him up a lot more than most of the other horrific crime-cases they've seen over the years, which didn't surprise her. She knew that Nick was a pretty sturdy guy, but even she couldn't blame him for being disturbed by it.
"We sure have, Chief." The fox's voice shattered Judy's thought process.
The rabbit diverted her attention back to Nick, and then to Bogo, who nodded grimly before placing the case-file on the table-top and sliding it towards them.
"As you know, the murder rate in Zootopia is very low. That's something that the ZPD takes pride in. It means we do our jobs well. However, the few times that something like this pops up, it's always a grisly sight. We have a number of other officers working on it thoroughly, but I need the two of you for a more personalized assignment."
He tapped the folder for emphasis before proceeding to slide it across his desk, positioning it directly in front of the fox and bunny, who began flipping through the folder. Nick spotted some of the forensic photographs that the crime-scene investigators must have taken: there were at least a half-dozen pictures of the victim's corpse from varying degrees and angles. There were also a few pictures of the antelope's shattered camera; which was found on the scene, broken, and put inside a nearby garbage can.
"The camera was found on the scene in pieces." Bogo elaborated. "But not completely ruined. I take it you two have seen the photograph before, yes?"
There was no need to finish his sentence. Almost every animal in the ZPD had seen the single photograph that had somehow survived the camera's destruction: One blurry image of the assumed attacker, who appeared to be a large, heavy-set badger. What little of the badger's body had been captured on the photograph appeared to be coated in a black suit with a dark red vest on the inside, like a waiter at a fancy restaurant. The picture was tucked away in the case-file sitting still before them, along with all of the other recorded evidence surrounding the crime-scene. Judy pulled it out from the folder and took a close look before handing it to Nick himself, who had never seen it before.
As the fox peered down at the picture, he couldn't help but think that the badger's face almost looked... Familiar. He shook the thought from his head.
The water-buffalo's gruff voice then demanded their attention once again.
"Only problem is," Bogo continued. "The photo's background doesn't match the site where we found the victim's corpse. Not only that, but the claw marks don't match, either."
Judy and Nick knew what the Chief meant: Badgers had large, rough claws. Great for digging (and the occasional mauling), but not quite good enough for slicing flesh. The cuts in the antelope's body were all very fine and thin, as if administered by a scalpel. The rigidness and depth of the slashes were enough to rule out that scenario though, as it was clear enough that the marks were indeed created with claws: Very long, thin, and effective claws.
"Just two days ago, we received a call from a residence on, uh..."
The Chief trailed off and then looked over at a piece of note-pad stuck onto his office phone. He resumed;
"Boulder-Boulevard, that the same badger in the picture was spotted lurking around near the caller's home."
Judy cleared her throat shortly before asking, "How did the caller know that it was the same mammal as the one in the photo?"
"In case you haven't noticed," Bogo said impatiently. "The media is slobbering all over this case! I can't tell you how many phone calls-" He trailed off, shaking his head and placing his hoofs against his sinuses. He breathed in slowly a single time before proceeding.
"The newspaper asked for permission to put the photo in one of their articles: We let them. All the better for helping track down this murderer... and,"
He then pulled out his mobile-device and began scrolling through it. After a brief few seconds of searching, he found what he was looking for and faced the screen towards the fox and bunny.
"The caller managed to snap another picture. Take a close look at the clothes in both photographs..." He finished.
The two tiny officers stared at the picture on Bogo's phone, which seemed to be taken from a window. The lighting was rather dark, as if it was taken during the night, but the focal point of the whole picture was clear enough for all to see. A large badger, his back to the camera angle, wearing clothes identical to the one in the photograph: A simple tuxedo. But it shimmered with a strange color. It may have been dark in the photo, but upon closer inspection, Judy could tell that the badger's suit was a deep, wine-red pallet, like blood. Judy thought it to be a strange choice of color. She glanced back at the original photograph, and took note of mammal's seemingly identical wardrobe.
"It's our guy. It's gotta be." Nick commented. "But Chief, what exactly is our part in this case?" He asked.
Bogo donned a small grin before turning off his phone and slipping it away back into his left pocket. He then crossed his arms and spoke.
"You two are gonna go on a stake-out in the vicinity of the new photograph's location. We have a feeling that this badger is making roundabout trips, for some reason."
Judy reminisced on his wording. She thought back to the back-drop of the picture. It wasn't anywhere she immediately recognized, which was frustrating, since she'd been pretty much everywhere in the Zootopian mainland and its primary-districts, from Tundra-Town to Sahara-Square. Sightseeing in the city was a common activity to partake.
The rabbit officer thought she knew the city like the back of her paw, by now. She liked to think that there was no where else that she could go.
Except one place... A place that no bunny would ever think of going. A place that was the complete opposite of bright, shiny Bunny-Burrow. She remembered being told stories of the nick-named 'dark-district' back during her childhood. Even now, many bunnies back home thought of the place as a simple myth: That it wasn't even real.
Meanwhile, Nick swallowed and grinned excitedly. He adored stake-outs, as it allowed him and Judy to really get some quality chit-chat time in, and they get paid for it!
"Where precisely is the stake-out location, Chief?" The fox questioned easily.
Bogo placed his elbows on the table and clamped his hoofs together as he stared down the two officers. He wondered if he'd ever see them again...
"One of the most crime-riddled regions in all of Zootopia..." He paused momentarily. "You best bring your flashlights officers: You're going to the Nocturnal-District."
Hey Everyone!
I certainly hope you enjoyed the latest chapter of When Instinct Falls! I had good fun writing this chapter, even though it's kinda short and took ages to actually publish (sorry 'bout that).
But in the end, I am highly pleased with the end-product. After much thinking and planning, I think it's safe to say that I have the remainder of the story laid out perfectly! I have big plans in store for you guys, and can't wait to show you all what I've been working on all this time: I think it's brilliant! :D
That being said, I must address something real quick: Although the majority of the current story revolves around the casual-side of Nick/Judy's relationship and life, the following chapters will delve into more mystery/angst themed ideals. Don't get me wrong, the romance ain't going no where. In fact, alongside Nick and Judy's relationship, there will be some separate, brand new themes involved in the coming chapters. New and interesting characters will be introduced, alongside some major character development on the part of our two favorite mammals... especially dealing with Nick himself! You'll see.
Somewhere though, there is a case to solve. And within it, there will be a villain.
As always, If you liked what you saw, feel free to drop a review and favorite, or perhaps even to follow my story! Every single one is highly appreciated, as there is nothing I find more lovely then the likes of your thoughts and appreciation!
Lastly, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to describe them to me via review or PM. I answer all presented questions!
So long everyone (at least for now), and do stay tuned for the next chapter, comin' your way soon!
'Till next time...
Peace!