Chapter 11 - Community

Feeling slightly anxious, Bo lay down on the couch in Dr. Finola's office.

It wasn't her first session with Dr. Finola, but it was the first time that the doctor felt confident enough to try a hypnosis session with her.

Hope I don't say anything stupid while being hypnotized. Bo reminded herself.

She closed her eyes briefly, but couldn't settle. Rolling on her side, she turned and locked eyes with Dr. Finola's big golden retriever.

The dog rolled over on the floor, lying on her back. She moved one of her paws to cover her eyes, teaching Bo to lie still on the couch with her eyes closed.

Bo chuckled. Now this is a nice spirit companion. She thought. Unlike someone's….

Somehow, Tamsin's arrogant raven immediately came to her mind. She could practically hear him snorting at her.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly closed her eyes again.

She waited for the doctor to give some instructions, something like focusing on her voice, or count down from a certain number. However, the doctor just placed her hand on Bo's forehead in silence.

Her hand was surprisingly cold, and it made Bo shiver. Before that shiver went away, she felt a push. It wasn't any physical force applied on her body. Instead, it was a heavy nudge on her mind.

She fell asleep instantly, haunted by wild dreams.

She dreamed of a house that was airy and empty, where a group of black birds nested inside.

She dreamed of something flickering, something so shiny that she had to avert her eyes.

She dreamed of falling into the icy cold water of a lake, deeper and deeper.

She dreamed of a locked door inside a dark dungeon under a falling tower.

She dreamed of playing on a swing on a cloudy Spring day. Someone was there with her….

She woke up a little dazed. What amazed her was that she was able to remember every detail of all her dreams.

After taking a few sips of water, she started to describe her dreams to the doctor.

The doctor listened to her intently as she documented everything that Bo said.

When Bo described falling into a lake, she paused, looking surprised.

"What's wrong?" Bo asked with a nervous frown.

Dr. Finola smiled and shook her head. "Nothing's wrong. Why don't you tell me about this dungeon?"

"Ummm...it was dark and...cold?" Bo described.

"Were you scared when you were inside the dungeon?"

"A little, I guess?"

"What did you see there?"

"Not much, just…walls made of stone, chained doors, a brazier or two but not lit."

"Were there any windows?"

"No."

"Interesting. Was there anyone there?"

Bo bit her bottom lip. "Yes," she said with a deep breath. "I mean…I don't know if that was a person or-but I heard…heavy breathing and groans, almost like they were in pain."

"But you didn't see this…may it be a person or a…creature?"

"No, I think that…thing was locked deep inside the dungeon."

"Were you scared?"

"I thought I just answered that question."

"Let me rephrase, were you scared of that thing?"

Bo clasped her hands over her knees. "I don't know…I mean, it's like…I knew that thing wanted to be set free."

"Did you want to set it free, though?"

Bo shook her head immediately. Then, she licked her lips and added, "but…I felt drawn to it, like it was…it wanted me to go there and I couldn't help it."

"Anything else you remember about the dungeon?"

"Nah, I think that was all of it."

"Alright, let's move on to the swing. What did you see?"

"Ummm...the sky, cloudy and gray, the lawn...it definitely had not been mowed in a while...I think I saw...a tree. The swing was attached to the tree."

"What kind of a tree was it ?"

"I think it was an oak tree and it was full of new growth."

Dr. Finola nodded. "Did you see anyone there?"

"Yes, I think..." Bo murmured as she forced herself to go through veils of her clouded vision. "I think I saw a woman there."

"Young? Old? Can you describe her?"

"Definitely...not old, I mean, not old old but she was definitely an adult. She had...long hair and she was wearing a...light blue dress."

"Mhm, did you see her face?"

"I did but I just…she was kinda far away. I mean…I was on the swing, and she was standing…a few yards away from the swing maybe."

"Did she say anything to you? Did you talk to her at all?"

"She was…calling my name…" Bo murmured. "Ysabeau, she said, five more minutes of swing time, sweetie."

Ysabeau, five more minutes of swing time, sweetie….

Somehow, that woman's voice rippled softly in her mind, awakening pieces of memories that she had thought were long lost.

Suddenly, she was pulled back to that Spring afternoon.

She smelled the warm, humid air. The cloud was gray and heavy. A storm had just passed, but another was on its way.

She heard the rustling leaves, the whispering wind and the distant music playing on the radio.

She saw the bright blossom of a dandelion, right under her feet. There also grew patches of white clovers and a plant with blue flowers whose name she didn't know.

She was on the swing, flying high. She was laughing. She was happy and carefree. She was loved.

That woman…her voice, it was soft, and caring…it was familiar….

"I think I…I think she was someone close to me," Bo muttered.

"Who was she?"

Bo shook her head. As she tried to remember the woman's face, or anything else she might have known about her, a bittersweet feeling exploded inside her chest.

That woman, she was close to her. She cared for her when she was a child. She offered her love and comfort with her warm embrace.

But, who was she? Bo asked herself. Who was that woman? Who was she?

The answer was right there. It was right there on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn't get it out. It was as if something was blocking that answer.

"I…I don't know…" she eventually replied with her head lowered in defeat.

"It's okay, Bo," Dr. Finola told her. "Sometimes it takes a while to remember things that we thought we forgot. It is not always easy to retrieve distant, blocked memories."

Bo nodded. "Was that…real? Was that really my memory? Something that actually happened to me when I was a kid?"

"You playing on the swing? Definitely yes. The dungeon? Probably not."

"What about the lake?"

"The lake..." the doctor muttered, pondering. "The lake…that is something else…."

"What do you mean?"

Dr. Finola was about to say something, but got interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Therapy in session," she announced.

"I know," Tamsin's voice came, "but I need to grab that patient of yours, stat. She has an assignment, and it can't wait."

Dr. Finola, of course, knew that any Valhalla assignment could potentially wait. However, she thought this was perfect timing for a pause of Bo's session, so she let Bo go.

A little absentminded, Bo exited Dr. Finola's office, and Tamsin was waiting for her in the hallway.

"Having fun sleeping on her couch yet?" The Valkyrie teased.

"I was, until you showed up," Bo grimaced.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "I'd hate to interrupt all that, but we've got a job."

"We?"

"Yes, once again, we are stuck with each other. As you already know, I did not ask for this at all, so the sooner we could finish it, the sooner you could come back and confess your childhood trauma to the doc."

"What's our assignment this time?"

Tamsin cleared her throat and tilted her head at a quiet corner on the side of the hallway.

"Okay?" Bo followed her.

"Two people went missing, a Valkyrie and an Einheri," Tamsin informed her. "Acacia wants us to investigate."

"Missing? Like from Valhalla campus?"

Tamsin cleared her throat again as she scanned the surroundings. She gave a passerby a fake smile and a slight nod, and made sure that person was gone before she explained, "no, of course not. They were sent to this community subdivision where, you know, suburban life is at its best, to investigate Fólkvangr related stuff and then just went...MIA. Anyway, grab your stuff and let's get movin'."

It was a long drive to their destination, but they made it before nightfall. Tamsin pulled her car to the side of the road so she and Bo could take a brief look at the community named "Heritage Hills".

Bo could see the crowd at the clubhouse that was at the community entrance. There was a large pool, and it was full of people too. They were talking loudly, laughing and drinking. Kids were chasing each other, splashing water everywhere.

Inside the community, all the nice looking houses were situated on well-cared lawn with well-maintained flower beds and trees. The entire place looked cozy, clean and welcoming.

"So which house are we gonna move into?"

"What?!"

Bo shrugged. "You know, the classic undercover stuff, moving into an empty house inside the community, posing as one of them, inviting them over for a BBQ party and probing for info."

Tamsin covered her own forehead in defeat. "Seriously, how many dumb housewife shows have you watched?!" She groaned. "We can't just move in like that! Everyone here knows everyone. Not to mention, if any Fólkvangr agent is here, they'd smell us a mile away."

"What? Really?"

Tamsin cleared her throat uncomfortably and turned away. "Well…not a mile away but yes if any Fólkvangr agent comes into close contact with us they'd know we are not normal humans."

"How?"

"It's a pheromone thing. An Einheri could pick up the pheromone of a Valkyrie, and vice versa."

"Really?"

"Have you not noticed that…you could almost always tell the difference between a Valkyrie and a normal human? You could just…notice their presence when they are near you?"

"Well, I don't really know a lot of Valkyries, and I-"

Bo stopped abruptly, and her heart had just skipped a beat.

Notice a Valkyrie's presence. She pondered, a little embarrassed now, because that was exactly what she had been feeling lately.

She was always aware of Tamsin's presence. It was like she had suddenly become conscious of her scent. Whenever Tamsin was in the same room with her, she'd get distracted by it.

Not only that, she was drawn to it. It was…intoxicating….

"Anyway, it is best for us not to be near them," Tamsin warned.

"Sure, of course, then how are we gonna investigate? Hide in our car and spy on them?"

"No! If one nosy old lady sees a parked car that she doesn't recognize here, she's gonna call the police so fast that-what I'm saying is, we have a far better hideout."

"Oh yeah, like where?"

Twenty five minutes later, after Tamsin had hidden her car behind a patch of woods on the side of the community and walked along the property line of the community for a while, Bo found the answer to her own question - an underground bomb shelter built by devil-knows-who right behind the community's wooded walking trail, whose entrance was disguised as an abandoned storm drain.

"How do you even-how do you know there's a nuclear bunker here?" Bo whispered as they entered the shelter.

"Because this community has been on Valhalla's watchlist for a while. After many failed infiltration attempts, someone accidentally discovered this bomb shelter and renovated it into a spy station," Tamsin explained.

Bo nodded along as she scanned the place. It was small, maybe about four hundred square feet, but had everything a small family might need in any end-of-world situations: a separate bedroom with two sets of bunk beds, a water and air filtration system, its own power source, and a ton of storage space. It even had a small kitchen with a sink and a two burner cooktop, as well as a bathroom with a shower.

As she opened the media cabinet in the living area, she discovered a set of monitors with areas of the community on display, and a control desk that could switch between different areas.

"Is this…like the master spy cam hub?"

"Mhm," Tamsin nodded.

Bo shrugged as she went into the kitchen. She looked for a glass but instead she found a cabinet full of firearms and ammo.

"Yeah, the ummm…that Einheri who went missing, Ray, she's kind of a gun nutjob," Tamsin explained. "The Valkyrie, Lyan, ain't much better."

"So…what exactly happened to them? How did Valhalla know that they went missing?" Bo asked as she went though the items on the control desk: a half empty glass with water, a journal book documenting surveillance details, some empty snack bags and a few other misc items.

"Well…two days ago, according to Ray's last check-in, Lyan went out for some food and supplies at night, but never came back. At first she thought Lyan must have discovered something worth investigating but after several hours of not being able to reach her, she notified Valhalla and went out looking for her."

"Then?"

"That was all she wrote," Tamsin shook her head. "Valhalla never heard back from her again."

She paused briefly, before she added, "the two of them were stationed here so they could collect information regarding Fólkvangr activities in this community. Both of them were trained well. They wouldn't just wander off and disappear. Something bad must have happened to them."

"If Fólkvangr agents really are here, maybe they ran into them and…got captured or something?"

"Unless this community has a blackhole that sucked both of them in somehow, yes, that would be my best guess."

"What usually happens to those…you know, who got captured by Fólkvangr?"

Tamsin sighed. "Death," she said simply, "but…in that case, usually bodies would turn up fairly quickly. We have not found any bodies yet, so…."

Bo nodded as she briefly went through the journal book, but nothing in there caught her attention.

"How are we supposed to find them, though? We can't go door to door asking people. It's impossible to walk around here without drawing any attention."

"We can monitor the entire community through here," Tamsin pointed at the monitors. "If Fólkvangr people are conducting weird business here, they have to be caught on camera."

"Stake-out through cameras, real fun!" Bo exclaimed.

Bo woke up from a vivid wet dream, and noticed that her bonding heat was back.

She sat in bed for a while, just to calm her pounding heart, before she headed to the fridge to get her pheromone blocker shots.

With only the night light on, she managed to give herself a shot while fighting her bursting lust. Then, she grabbed a bottle of cold water and slowly downed it.

The heat, although subsiding, was still unbearable, especially since she was inside a small, confined space with the Valkyrie sleeping only a few feet away from her. She couldn't help but let her mind wander back to those heart racing, lip biting moments in her dreams….

She jumped and almost choked in water when she saw Tamsin getting out of the bedroom as well.

The Valkyrie went for a pheromone blocker shot as well, and a bottle of cold water.

"You are having…that, too?" Bo asked curiously.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm having bonding heat as well, thanks to you."

"Why am I blamed?"

"This shit syncs up like fucking period, okay?" Tamsin complained. "Your pheromone is going crazy, so that triggers mine. Didn't you learn that from the training?"

"Right…" Bo swallowed a mouthful of water. Somehow, knowing that Tamsin was having her bonding heat the same time as hers gave Bo a strong flutter inside her stomach.

Suddenly, she wondered if Tamsin was being tortured by the bonding heat just as much as she was. Or if she was having…those dreams like she had. Did she have any longing for her like she had?

Bo gulped and glanced at Tamsin. Those light blue eyes…they were mesmerizing….

Maybe it was the darkness that emboldened her. Maybe it was the faint shimmer in those light eyes. Maybe it was her scent, right here and in her dream….

Bo took a deep breath and leaned in. Placing a hand on Tamsin's cheek, she breathed, "Tamsin…the first time I saw you, it was like…it felt like I knew you before, like…I knew you all my life."

Those words embarrassed her. The awkward silence made her stomach flutter even more. Her heart was racing like crazy. It was deafening.

Tamsin held her gaze. She licked her lips as she fidgeted her pendant. "Actually, I…felt the same."

She immediately turned away, letting out a nervous smile. Then, she turned back and let out a soft sigh.

She leaned in and kissed Bo, with her right hand sliding into Bo's hair and her left pulling Bo close.

Just as Bo was about to deepen the kiss, Tamsin moved her hands to hold Bo's shoulder and pushed her away.

"I can't…we can't do this," she swallowed hard. "We are-this is just our bonding heat."

"Right, of course, I know," Bo muttered and took a step back.

"Well, I'm gonna…go check the spy cams. You never know what kind of crazy shit is happening in this type of community at…3 am."

"Yeah, you do that. I think I'm gonna just…get some sleep and, you know, rest."

With that, Bo fled to the bedroom. She hid under the blanket and held her breath.

The heat of Tamsin's lips still lingered. The places she had touched burnt.

Her scent, it was everywhere. Everywhere.

After a few hours of sleep, Bo got up. Tamsin was watching surveillance camera recordings. Neither of them dared to mention last night.

Bo took a seat beside Tamsin and started to read the journal book, until she noticed Knut walking on the desk with his right wing slightly droopy.

The bird placed a few peanuts in front of Bo and urged with a soft croak.

Bo stroked him and shelled those peanuts for him. And then he brought more.

It quickly turned into a game where Bo would toss a peanut in a random direction while the raven would catch it clumsily while dragging his right wing

"I'd hate to break it to you but…you do know that he's faking it, right?" Tamsin drawled.

"What?" Bo asked in shock.

"Oh, c'mon, it's been two weeks and it was just a graze. He's faking it and you are just too gullible."

Bo turned to the raven and raised her eyebrows at him while holding the peanuts hostage. The bird hissed at Tamsin, before he stood in front of Bo with begging eyes. His wings were perfectly normal now.

Bo chuckled. "Alright, last one," she announced as she tossed him the biggest peanut. The bird reluctantly accepted the fact that the game was over. He ate his peanut, and went to roost in an empty chair.

"Okay, looks like you are finally available for, you know, real work," Tamsin stared at Bo with a fake smile. "What did you find in those journals? Anything at all?"

"Nope, nothing. It's just a journal of regular community activities,things like people helping each other, fixing stuff, babysitters with strollers around the community, neighborhood parties…."

Tamsin huffed out a sigh and placed her feet on the control desk. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and replied, "yeah, these people just love to do things in a group. It's almost like they are having a party every day, pool party, barbeque, potluck. They can't possibly like their neighbor this much!"

"So you think people liking each other is…suspicious? Have you considered the possibility of…hmmm, I don't know, people here actually like their neighbors?"

Tamsin mimicked Bo's tone in a mutter. Then, she pointed at one of the monitors. "Also, look at these damn babysitters."

Bo watched as several teenage babysitters walked with strollers while having a few toddlers following them around. The babysitters were singing joyfully, and the toddlers were squeaking happily.

"What's wrong with these babysitters? Are they just…too happy for you or something?"

Tamsin gave her a big eye roll. "They've been doing that for the past hour now. None of these teenage kids had checked their phone, not even once."

"Yeah, probably because, well, they actually love kids and they aren't obsessed with social media. What you think these teenagers are…faking it so they could….push strollers around while dealing with screaming kids?"

"That's the other thing. These rugrats were loud but they didn't scream at all. None of them had thrown a tantrum, or even cried a bit."

"Alright, so far we have overly friendly neighbors, babysitters who love babysitting and kids who are well behaved. Wow, this is just wrong! We HAVE to investigate!"

Tamsin let out a sigh of frustration. She watched some recordings in silence for a while, before she admitted, "I just don't understand. If something happened to them here, one of these cameras must have picked up something. I mean, they set up the cameras so every corner of the community is being watched."

"You said Lyan went out to get stuff and never came back, right?"

"Yep."

"Was she on camera at all that night?"

"No, I'm sure she avoided going through the community property in order not to run into anyone here."

"What about Ray?"

"One of the cameras did get her, briefly, before she went outside the community property line."

"Is it possible that…whatever happened to them took place outside the community? I mean, if every corner of the community is being watched, then-"

Bo paused and gasped.

"What?" Tamsin frowned.

"What if the spy cam setup has a blind spot?"

"There shouldn't be any blind spots. When they installed the cameras, they made sure that the system would cover the entire place."

"Yes I know, but I also remember a case I worked on once… These cameras…when they are on, they would constantly pan left and right, and sometimes, it's possible that all of them would turn away from a certain place briefly and create a blind spot there."

"Huh…" Tamsin murmured. She pondered for a while, before she printed the satellite image of the entire community. She drew the camera locations on there and marked how far each camera could turn.

After some calculations, Bo pointed at a spot near the community entrance. "There," she announced. "If our math was right, all cameras would turn away from this place for about fifteen minutes every few hours."

After nightfall, Tamsin and Bo arrived at the blind spot - the children's playground.

"You know, I never thought I'd sneak into a children's playground at night at this age," Bo whispered as she made sure that no one was watching.

Tamsin snorted. "Just…look for anything suspicious."

"Well…the climbing dome seems normal."

"Nothing weird at the picnic bench either."

"The swing sets are good."

"Then, that leaves…" Tamsin raised to look at the pirate ship playset in the middle of the playground.

They checked the tube slides that were attached to it, as well as the ropes and the climbing wall.

When they entered the inside of the pirate ship, however, they noticed the hollow sound coming from the bottom when they walked on it.

It didn't take them too long to find a hatch door.

They exchanged a look, before they opened it slowly.

Under the hatch door was a tunnel with concrete walls and a ladder down.

Tamsin messaged Valhalla headquarters, before they climbed down.

In darkness, they found themselves in a corridor that had many exits which led to other passageways.

"What the hell is this place…?" Bo murmured in a whisper as she looked down one of the passageways, but it was pitch dark.

Finding a secret underground structure beneath a children's playground in a suburban community was shocking, but what really bothered her was that this place reeked of a foul smell.

"I have no fucking idea," Tamsin answered, "but I have a feeling that we might find a lot of nasty shit down here, so stay close, okay?"