Since the first day Vagatha had returned to the field, she had made sure to keep a low profile when performing her duties. One advantage of her line of work was that: If you don't see evil, you can do almost no shit all day long.
To her unfortunate luck, and just as she had been warned, she and Arackniss had been forced to stay together on their shifts. If one was seen without their partner they would suffer disciplinary consequences.
For the first time ever, Vagatha was grateful for Arackniss' lack of sense of duty. Since she had returned, they had wasted time visiting Arackniss's friends at various places throughout the city on an almost routine basis.
Or rather, Arackniss was visiting his friends while Vagatha stayed in the patrol car behind a closed window to prevent the stench of the bar she was parked in from making her vomit.
Her current, still in-recover state exacerbated her discomfort and disturbed her ability to relax, as she frequently checked the car's rearview mirror for Charlotte or her matón or whatever criminal Charlotte might hire.
Vagatha's radar alarm should have gone off when central called their radio at exactly five o'clock. Maybe he should stop drinking that morning coffee that could only be drunk in large gulps.
"Central to all nearby units, we need a 11-10 in avenue Moises 1522 over."
"Central, this is X-22, we'll go investigate," Vagatha reported.
She knew that place. In fact, she could see it at the end of the street through her rearview mirror.
An old school left in a decaying state. It had been abandoned for so many years, undergrowth and plants had grown out of control to the point of turning the place into a small jungle. The roots had spread through the walls and between the cracks that the building had.
Vagatha knew that this alert was too simple for anyone to have any business in there. But Vagatha had thought the same of the other alerts she'd received in the two weeks since she'd returned.
The thought of not making anything of course crossed her mind, due to her injury—but her excessive caution told her that she could only use that excuse so far.
She ignited the car's engine and her foot hovered over the accelerator, when she stopped it a few inches above it. Vagatha sighed heavily before opening the car window and pressed her horn.
"Arackniss! Get your ass in the car before I take you out!" Vagatha yelled. A pang made her double over herself as she leaned against the door frame and held her hand against her abdomen.
The longer Vagatha waited for Arackniss, the more noise came from the bar across the street.
It started with heavy footsteps followed by shouts and curses. Shortly after, Vagatha heard glass breaking and tables being thrown into the air. Like the tables, the doors to the premises were flung open and Arackniss was thrown through and tumbled down the stairs.
Half a dozen people in various states of intoxication chased Arackniss down to the car with every intention of getting their hands on him, until Vagatha drew her gun and pointed it at them.
"Back off or I swear I'll blow the heads off of every single one of you, you brainless assholes!" The drunken men seemed to get the message and slowly walked back. Vagatha cocked her pistol and they all ended up running as fast as they could in different directions.
Arackniss got up awkwardly from the ground and reached heavily for the handle of the car, dragging himself to the passenger seat.
Vagatha didn't even bother to comment on the situation and drove away.
"Hey, thanks for, HIP, saving my ass." His head rested against the window next to his seat.
"I did not." Was all Vagatha bothered to say before briefing him of the request central had gave them as she drove to the abandoned school and parked in front of it.
"I'll go investigate, you'll stay in the car in case Central or the sergeant calls —" Vagatha caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye as a drunken Arackniss had every intention of leaving. " Hey! Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" She asked as she tried to sit Arackniss back in his seat while the policeman waved his arms around like a child playing catch.
"Stop-BURP-touching me! I'm going to kick this jerk's ass so hard he'll wish he was never born!"
"You'll only end up getting hurt! You're so frus— ! " Vagatha stopped herself before relapsing into the routine bickering the two of them had. A poisonous sensation burned in her throat as she suppressed the bitter words from escaping her lips.
While Arackniss was busy getting his shit together, Vagatha did the same, discreetly checking the rearview mirror. She could feel her skin crawling at the thought of her police patrol making her an easy target.
"Why…don't you just watch over the place in case the suspect comes out? I'll go investigate and you can…" Vagatha stopped her words when she saw how Arackniss was falling asleep on his seat until his mouth was half open and his body was soothed. "…do that." Vagatha wasted no time in getting out of the carriage and shutting the door as quietly as she could. She look around for a door or opening in the fence surrounding the place.
Vagatha couldn't help but feel like she was walking into a trap. That was not what bothered her, but who had prepared it. She was already beating herself up for falling right into an obvious trap built specifically for her so easily.
Her suspicions were not built without foundation. During the two weeks that she was away from work, dozens of messages had arrived on the phone she received about a week ago.
A buzz disturbed what little peace Vagatha could have for herself in the middle of the night. She was only accompanied by the sound of a fan being turned on in her apartment.
Vagatha checked the phone and saw a message notification on the screen.
Private number: Are you okay? :)
That message and much more were left unchecked. Vagatha had no intention of giving this woman what she wanted.
And yet here she was in that place, doing exactly that.
After exploring, Vagatha came across an old padlocked door covered in rust. She first tried to shake her. When that didn't work, she decided to kick her, when she tried she could feel how the wound in her abdomen wanted to tear itself open. Vagatha doubled over herself again, breathing heavily as she held her wound until the pain subsided enough.
She searched through the brush near the place and found a large enough rock, picked it up and smashed it against the padlock and until it opened and fell to the ground along with the chain on the door.
She was so distracted by her discomfort that she didn't notice the fresh marks in the dirt, caused by the door whenever it was opened. Vagatha adjusted the lock and chain so that they appeared to be intact.
Walking into the courtyard of that abandoned school, Vagatha thought she had entered a horror movie through the playground once full of children and life. She continued exploring until she found the entrance to the school through the playground through a white wooden porch, dirtied by the passage of time and nature, giving it an almost post-apocalyptic aesthetic.
The wood of the white door creaked as Vagatha pushed it open, even with the utmost care she could muster. Her hand was already resting on his gun on his belt as he entered, but she found a desolate playroom, except for abandoned and dilapidated toys, just like the rest of the place. The entire place was shrouded in almost complete darkness, except for the dozens of holes of different sizes in the ceiling, allowing some small amounts of light to filter in. Some so small that only a snake could get inside and a few more, sparse and as big as if a SWAT team had broken into the place.
Her hand left her gun for a second when she heard a flutter fill the room. Vagatha drew her weapon in a quick draw and aimed it directly at the ceiling, only to catch a glimpse of a flock of birds flying from the place.
She sighed tiredly and placed her hand against her forehead. She squeezed her hair between her fingers as she tried to calm down; she could feel all her stress concentrating on her left eye where she still had the scar from the knife—Vagatha swore that one of those days all that stress would make her eye burst.
It didn't take her long to realize that the first floor of the school was filled with nothing but decay. Vagatha thought that perhaps she had seen things where there were none, but as she approached the stairs that would take her to the second floor, she heard notes from a piano and a voice singing.
" They'll never…alive~We'll live like ta-tata ta-ta, they'll…a masterpiece~
Before Vagatha knew it, she was already climbing the stairs. The closer she got, the more she could make out the piano notes traveling through the empty halls and corridors.
Her mounting stress played tricks on her mind and senses, to the point that she could no longer tell where the music and voices were coming from.
Left? Right? Behind her? From the roof?
Vagatha could do no more than wander among the dim rays of sunlight that filtered through the holes in the ceiling. She found to a theater with a few rows of chairs on each side of the room, and at the end of the long room, Vagatha found the source of the sound that was driving her crazy:
At the end of the theater, lit by a large hole in the ceiling, stood a blond woman with tangled hair in garters and a red tuxedo and pants that seemed tailored, as did the black shoes she wore.
Charlotte Morningstar. It was evident that the woman had not noticed Vagatha's presence, for she continued to sing for her own amusement. The imprecise lyrics were accompanied by a set of skilled, almost masterful finger dancers on the piano keys that were their ballroom.
Vagatha approached the particular scene as close as the darkness allowed her without revealing herself. She was absorbed by the astonishing scene that almost crossed the line dividing darkness from light. She was almost drawn to the light like a stupid moth to a flame.
She was barely backing up to a safer point in the dark when she tripped over her own foot and the wood on the floor creaked under her weight.
The music stopped and silence fell on the room as Vagatha's heart dropped to the bottom of her chest.
"Husk? It's that you? Have you finished checking the kitchen? I really don't know how any child is supposed to eat healthy in such poor conditions. Oh! Do you know what that reminds me of? We could do some workshops for that high school that's under the highway. I know you didn't like me the last time we did it, but from those workshops we found that impr— " Charlotte joined the silence and her gaze was lost in the darkness. Her face had a curious infantile calmness as the smallest hint of a smile flickered on her lips before she said:
"Officer? Is that you?" She asked in no particular direction. "I swear I'm not armed this time!" She said using his palms like a megaphone.
"Maybe not, but I am," Vagatha stated. The barrel of her weapon emerged from the darkness, aiming at Charlotte before she did.
"Hello," Charlotte squealed in embarrassment and a nervous smile as she held up her hands.
"Hello," Vagatha replied in a cool tone and cocked her pistol.
"I'm so sorry I shot you! I swear I don't know what happened! I don't know when my finger got on the trigger and I don't even—"
"I don't give a shit about your excuses. You kidnapped and tried to kill a police officer, I'm going to enjoy putting handcuffs on you and putting your ass behind bars for the rest of your life." Vagatha's anger prevented her from catching the slight blush on Charlotte's flushed cheeks, as well as a tiny whisper of something Vagatha didn't catch.
As Vagatha stepped forward to put her hands on Charlotte, a huge arm wrapped around her neck. Vagatha raised her pistol at the burly figure, but the figure acted faster and grabbed her hand to pull the pistol away.
In the middle of the struggle a bullet went off, the birds on the roof flew up in fright, and an Arackniss still sleeping in the patrol car startled, his eyes widening for a moment before falling asleep again.
The fired bullet left a small hole in the wooden beam above the piano Charlotte was sitting at. The hooded figure snatched the pistol from Vagatha's hands and subdued her by seizing both of her arms with one arm, while with his free hand he tucked Vagatha's pistol inside his hood.
Being so close he could see the figure dressed in a large brown trench coat and he could only deduce that it was Husk. She countered by elbowing him in the abdomen taking advantage of the difference in height, but the bodyguard barely flinched at the blows and restrained both of their arms using only one arm.
When Vagatha stopped fighting out of her restraint, Husk forced her to walk up to face Charlotte at the piano.
"I know…" Charlotte cleared her throat. "I know this looks bad, but I really wanted to see how you were after our last…meeting…"
"And?" Vagatha's lie detectors began to go up.
"And…I need to ask you a super duper favor. I wouldn't be asking this of anyone else if it wasn't super urgent."
"You're a loose end," Husk swore.
Vagatha's brow furrowed as the gears in her brain spun. "You want to blackmail me, is that what this is all about, eh?"
Charlotte whimpered in disagreement. "Blackmail is such a strong word. I prefer to say we have 'shared interests'."
"Ha. Too bad you two have nothing that could interest me."
" I'm soooo sorry to say it, but that's where you're wrong," Charlotte put her fingers together and played with them. "You see, your police patrol was reported missing two weeks—"
"I found out when I woke up in the hospital after you shot me."
"Right…well, after 'that' happened, I asked Husk to bring your car to Angel's residence. You know, I couldn't let anyone know what happened to you…and the problem is…we kinda still have it?"
" So what? What do they want for it? Money?"
Charlotte giggled. "No no. Not at all. Money is the last thing we need."
By now, Vagatha was no longer sure what this encounter was about. "You want to return it to save my ass and that I owe you one?"
"No, that's the problem!" Charlotte took one of the chairs in the theater and sat in front of a restrained Vagatha. "I would love to return it to you for the…inconvenience…"
"Bullshit..." Vagatha snarled against Husk's arm.
"…but, the thing is: Who the hell does that in this city!? We can't even just casually leave it lying around as it could link back to us! Ergo, you." Charlotte waved her arm at Vagatha.
"If your father is who you say it is, and if he's so damn powerful...Doesn't he have people who take care of these things?"
"My father doesn't know that our 'meeting' has happened at all. I'd like to keep it that way, and I think you would too. We can help you if you help us."
"And what the hell do you need me for in the first place?"
"It has to do with one of the three V's . I—"
"No," Vagatha shook her head. "I'm not going to do it."
"Could you at least listen to me before you say no?"
"I don't give a shit what it's about or what you need me for! Let! Me! Go! Maldición!" Vagatha struggled to free herself from Husk's hold, but the old bodyguard held his ground.
Seeing that tossing and pulling was going to do little good, Vagatha nudged Husk's leg with her heel, which jarred the hooded man enough that he increased his efforts to restrain her. In the middle of their tug-of-war, Husk's trench coat fell open where she could see the outline of his gun and she pulled it out.
Husk noticed what she had done and immediately let her go as he pulled out Vagatha's gun out of his coat—It was only then that Vagatha realized that she had grabbed Husk's gun.
Police and bodyguards pointed at each other until the former realized that Charlotte was standing in between them like a statue trying to pretend to be invisible by not moving.
Vagatha rushed towards her and pinned her arm against her back while continuing to aim at Husk.
"Drop your gun!" Vagatha yelled. But Husk remained adamant. "I said drop it!"
Charlotte still had one arm free, and she waved her hand at Husk to keep his distance and nodded to him.
Only his pupils moved in his immutable posture towards his boss, who continued to nod fervently. Husk lowered his gun, slow as clockwork.
"Don't try any smartass shit or anything like that. Drop your weapon."
Husk complied, throwing his pistol away from the three of them, falling between the rows of chairs in the theater facing the stage. Vagatha cursed under hear breath, but figured out that was better than nothing.
"Now turn around and get on your knees!" Vagatha ordered, but Husk seemed not to hear her. "I said on your knees!" Husk and Vagatha stared into each other's eyes, not even daring to blink. Vagatha knew exactly what he was doing, he was reading her expression and her emotions to predict her next move. She was doing the same thing and this was a game.
And if Vagatha was honest with herself...
She knew she was going to lose.
Husk stepped back and Vagatha immediately shot the wall behind Husk in retaliation. "Don't try shit, you big sack of…shit! I will not give you a warning shot!"
Despite the oxymoron, Husk tried to move again and Vagatha fired once more.
CLUNG CLING CLANG
Vagatha's bullet ricocheted multiple times off objects and metal surfaces around the theater. The police let the mobster-on-the-rise go to find a place to take cover; she and her bodyguard did the same, finding cover by crouching on the stage stairs.
Vagatha hid behind the piano as the bullet flew all over the place, a great buzz filling her ears .
The three watched with tense attention as the bullet embedded in one of the wooden beams in the ceiling above the piano. As the situation seemed to escalate down, Charlotte was the first to break the silence.
"Oh, thank goodness nothing bad happened. For a second I thought—"
A cracking sound killed the brief silence in the room, coming from the ceiling in the same place where the bullet hit the beam. Cracks spread across its surface quickly until the beam split in two, as the supports broke shortly after.
Vagatha could only see a shadow growing above her head while she was stunned to see the beam fall on her head as if she was seeing the arrival of Armageddon.
"Nooo!" Was all Vagatha could hear before she caught a glimpse of Charlotte's figure. She pushed her out of the impact area before the Beam crushed the piano and smashed the wooden floor in two, as if earth itself cracked in two.
The remains of the piano took the brunt of the blow, releasing a myriad of musical notes in a thunderous wave of sound. Said sound wave and impact shook the building's foundation, and escaped its walls into the nearby surroundings to alert anyone nearby.
Anyone nearby, just like a sleeper Arackniss swayed, arms flailing like a child just awakened from a dream of falling off a mountain. His head turned in all directions searching for the source of the sound until his eyes fell on the abandoned school. His right hand went to his pistol on his belt and he stepped out of the police car.
Meanwhile, inside the school, Vagatha and Charlotte were lying on the brink of unconsciousness. They were in the main area of a library, looking around Charlotte saw that the fall had crushed several tables in the room. Some book pages were flying around.
Charlotte was the first to her feet, but a bruise on her right shoulder numbed her muscle in a jerk. The blonde mobster let out a quick, piercing whimper before falling to the ground again.
She only gasped in pain one breath at a time before gruff hands lifted her off the ground.
"Get up," an equally rough voice rang in her ears. Charlotte could feel Husk put her injured arm around his shoulders. As Charlotte dragged her feet across the floor, she opened her heavy eyes to see Vagatha still lying on the floor with a few pieces of debris on her body and a little bleeding in her hair.
"W-wait!" Charlotte limped in the opposite direction Husk was going, before he jerked her back roughly.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"We-COUGH-we can't leave her like this!" Husk tugged on her arm hard, but Charlotte tugged harder. She limped until she reached Vagatha and found her breathing ever so slightly.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" She whispered between screams. "Officer, please wake up!" Charlotte removed the pieces of debris from her body, but she could only use her left arm. She shook Vagatha from her shoulders while gasping for air.
Husk wearily reached for his boss and saw that his pistol was lying a few feet away from an unwilling Vagatha. Husk retrieved his pistol and put Vagatha's back in his trench coat.
The police opened their heavy eyes and saw Charlotte with her hand gently cupping her face. Vagatha slapped her face and crawled away from Charlotte. Despite her disadvantaged situation, Vagatha refused not to be ready to throw hands if necessary. She saw Husk standing next to Charlotte and reached for her pistol in her belt, only to find it empty.
"Easy, easy. We're just here to help."
"Stay away! I won't warn you twice!"
Charlotte was only a few paces from Vagatha when the library doors were kicked open and Arackniss strode through the doors, pistol drawn, ready to fire.
The first thing he distinguished with his double vision were the figures of Charlotte and Husk next to Vagatha's on the ground. In a second, three bullets flew through the dusty, lightly brushed bookstore, piercing the tense calm Charlotte tried to build.
Arackniss's bullets struck books on the shelves at the back of the library. Books fell from their shelves and frames alike. Husk immediately pulled Charlotte to take cover between the aisles made up of tall and long bookshelves.
Husk forced Charlotte to duck as he pulled out Vagatha's pistol and handed it to her, then pulled out his own. "Stay here. Use it if you have to." He cocked his pistol and leaned out of his hiding spot. Another bullet hit the wood of the shelf. Husk growled and cursed to himself. He went in the opposite direction to the end of the aisle of shelves until he came to a long corridor that connected all the aisles to each other.
The collapsed ceiling prevented Husk from reaching Arackniss using those same corridors. He would have to go through the bookstore and get to the other side, and that would mean exposing himself.
Husk walked to the back of the bookshelf hall, as far from Arackniss as he could get. He stood in the corner of the last shelf facing the central area of the room. He could hear footsteps approaching. "Like duck season." Husk grabbed a book and threw it into the open.
BANG BANG
Arackniss fired at the book, or rather, at the already bulleted wall. Husk noticed how the bullets weren't even close to connecting with their target.
Husk took notice of it and grabbed another book and tossed it the same way. As soon as he heard another shot, Husk countered by firing back, forcing Arackniss to stagger his way to cover. The bodyguard wasted no time running to the other side of the room into the other set of hallways and corridors. Despite his old age he made good and quick use of his opportunity and ran as swift as any man on his thirties.
As soon as Husk got to cover, he fired two more shots to keep Arackniss in cover while he gained ground. As Arackniss walked down the hall/refuge, he knocked several books off their shelves with his stagger, a few of them falling near Charlotte, sitting on the floor in the hall next to Arackniss. Charlotte held Vagatha's pistol in a tight grip with one hand, while the other covered her mouth and breathed hard and heavy.
As Arackniss hid, Husk took the opportunity to get his hands on Vagatha and a chair, dragging the two into a hallway, out of Arackniss's sight; a hallway perfectly aligned with the one Charlotte hid on the other side of the library.
Husk tied Vagatha to the chair and covered her mouth with a rag Husk had in his coat. He readied his pistol pointing at the entrance to the hallway as he heard footsteps getting closer and closer.
His gaze inevitably fell to a sheltered Charlotte, watching attentively his every move. Once she figured out his intentions, she shook her head fervently as she looked at him. Husk cursed to himself and put his gun away.
Arackniss entered Husk's corridor and saw him standing with his back to him.
BANG BANG BANG
Arackniss fired until his magazine was empty. The next thing he knew, a book was heading straight for his face. Arackniss' gun It flew from his hand before his body fell unconscious to the ground after spinning a few times from the blow.
A hoodless Husk dressed in a dark blue sleeved shirt sighed with a heaviness as great as his age.
Husk returned back to the restrained Vagatha in an attempted fetal position as he tried to take cover from the bullets, which missed and impacted around her. Husk took his hat from her head and his trench coat from her shoulders respectively and got dressed again.
"Phew! Good thing that's over!" Charlie heaved a sigh of joy as he came out of hiding and returned to Husk's side while stretching his badly injured shoulder. "Thank you Husk. I owe you one— " Charlotte was severely interrupted as Husk grabbed her arm and forced her to walk beside him. " Aw-aww ! Husk, wait! My shoulder is still sore!"
"This was a bad idea." Husk swore as they walked to the exit; in the distance police sirens could be heard.
Charlotte wanted to stay for at least two more minutes to make sure the officer was okay, but she knew she had already upset Husk enough that day. She managed to take one last look at Vagatha, still tied to the saddle, and her heart sank.
"No, it was not."
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a pink van drove through the poorer and dirtier streets of the city where homeless people and abandoned buildings became the fashion. In its painting was drawn an a symbol of a heart with wings and demon horns surrounded by thorns with black and white tones.
The van pulled up to one of the few decent buildings in the area. A brothel, and a big one on top of that. The van parked around the back and the first person to get out was a woman in her late twenties with multifaceted brown hair streaked with blonde and white tints. His skin was marked by a light, but clear tan. Her off-the-shoulder crop top and skinny pants complemented her truck look, as did the way her group of fans dressed in the van.
One of her hair strands was lit in a tiny little flame, but she didn't pay much attention to it.
The prostitute workers in the place immediately noticed her presence. They all stepped aside as the female leader of the group walked towards the office of the owner of the place. The door to said office was protected by two bodyguards. The woman walked in without bothering to say a word as if it were her house and opened the doors with a big push.
Two people in the office stopped their conversation, one on each side of a desk, there were three chairs, two in front of the desk and one behind. Currently only the owner's chair and one more in front were occupied by a man and a woman. As soon as the two of them recognized who had entered they continued a little further before bothering to pay attention to her.
The man behind the desk raised his top hat slightly from his face, in his hand was a lit cigar emanating red smoke. "How did it go with that big fat pig?"
"Better than expected. Those idiots never knew what hit them. They were already killing one another when we arrived."
The man inhaled on his cigar and blew the red smoke up his nose. "And their leader?"
"Just like you said, he disappeared at the first sign of trouble, us," A mischievous smile spread across her face. "We took every penny. My boys are already unloading the van."
The man at the desk looked through a series of televisions on the wall, each showing a different location of the brothel. He saw the girl's thugs carrying wads of cash out of the van, as many as their arms could carry, into the brothel's warehouse. He noted how all his new money was clean, free of blood—spotless even—he inhaled on his pipe before speaking again.
"That was a quick operation, even with a mole inside."
"Vox is that good." Verosika scoffed, but not as much as she would have liked. "He must be celebrating now. When we arrived he was nowhere nearby and he doesn't answer his phone. The rest of my guys still have plenty of use."
"My guys."
"My. Guys."
The woman sitting in front of the desk spoke for the first time. Her tone was comparable to opening a crypt abandoned after years. The tanned girl spoke her mouth to retort, but refrained from it.
"Yes, Madam Velvet," she said in a weary tone as she lowered her head.
"Atta Verosika!" Her tone brightened and she jumped from her chair to the mattress to sit next to her best henchman. "Isn't she the best, Valentino, my tipsy Val?
"She better is or else…"
"Well of course! She better remains the best or she knows she's going back where she belongs!" Velvet grabbed Verosika's shoulders as if she was playing around. She laughed in a hauntingly innocent tone as Valentino smiled at Verosika , and to her it was as if his face had been deformed into a grotesque dung sack stored in the pretty container that his red suit was. Verosika shuddered under her skin, but she managed to hide it. "Is our oh-so-important-doll-he-couldn't-come-today-prepared?"
"He better be is, too. He requested a stupid amount of money for this operation and he's been busting my balls for weeks. I'll tear his off myself if he messes this up and doesn't get his shit together."
"Oh, believe me, he will." A suppressed but wicked smile spread across Velvet's face as she extinguished the flame in Verosika's lock by clenching her fist in her hair.
Later that night, after all the fiasco at the school and after the reinforcements have arrived, Vagatha and Arackniss wrote up the report of what had happened.
Vagatha lied about today being the first time she had seen the man and woman Arackniss had described. They had not been able to identify them, but they received a search and capture order with a description.
Vagatha's minor injuries had been treated and she was able to go home.
The first thing she did when she got to her apartment was take off her uniform, toss it in the corner of her room, and change into her short shorts and gray tank top. Then she went straight to bed, face down first towards her pillow with all the intentions of forgetting that shitty day, but her mind wouldn't let her.
Everything in her dreams were fleeting visions. All so fast and then so slow, then black.
The beam falling on her. Then her falling.
But she could also see Charlotte running towards her. Perhaps … for her?
Before the beam fell on top of her, Vagatha awoke, her eyes snapping wide open, her skin clammy with sweat.
She reached for her gun under her pillow and pointed it into the darkness in her room and found…Charlotte—sitting across from her bed in one of her living room chairs. Her neat figure was barely visible in the city light streaming in through the window.
The two women startled back slightly and flinched at the other's reaction and it was only after the initial shock that Vagatha realized that her pistol was not in her hand, but in Charlotte's lap.
"Oh, thank God I listened to Angel!" Charlotte exclaimed with her hand on her chest as she took a deep breath and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand holding Vagatha's pistol.
"How the hell did you get in!?" Vagatha fought the urge to pounce on the intruder. Instead he searched blindly through the darkness until her hand came across the switch for the lamp on her nightstand.
"Angel helped me by pushing me onto the fire escape stairs outside the building."
"You do know that it is illegal to trespass on private property!? A police officer's on to top of that?!"
"Angel and I argued quite a bit about the pros and cons of having this arbitration on the way here."
Hearing that name made Vagatha frown as she could feel the familiar pain of a migraine sensation entering her brain. "Is he here? That asshole who called me dead weight?"
"I mean, he's down the street waiting for me, but I swear he didn't mean it. He can be…a bit frustrating when you first know him, but with enough time he can-are you alright?"
Vagatha massaged her forehead in a circle with her fingertips. "It's too early for this shit." She looked at her cloak next to her bed and saw it was 02:12 am in red letters.
"Oh! I thought you'd say that! And that's why I bought you this! You like it black, don't you?" Charlotte grabbed a plastic cup of coffee on the floor next to her chair. She removed the plastic lid and blew out the boiling smoke. "Here, it's still warm." She extended the glass to Vagatha, but the officer stared at him with a suspicious and confused frown on her brow.
"Drink first."
"What?
"Drink first."
"It's not spiked!"
"Then drink first!"
"Alright! Don't have to shout at me!"
Charlotte swallowed a mouthful of her coffee out of sheer courage. Once finished he strutted to Vagatha with a "Hmm!"
"I won't drink it anyway."
"What!? Please! I even bought it from the same place you buy it every morning!"
"How do you know where I buy my coffee?"
Charlotte's face became whiter at the realization she was busted, if that was even possible "I…er, I meant it when I said I wanted to know how you were doing." Charlotte tilted her head avoiding eye contact with Vagatha.
"And the best way to find out was to stalk me?"
"Okay, first of all, stalk is a very strong word. Second: I couldn't just show up out of nowhere and say hi, could I?
"You just did." Vagatha said with a dead tone of voice.
" Okay, that's a good point," Charlotte waved her finger at her. "Counter argument: I didn't come here just to say hi."
"That's not a good argument, or a good idea at all."
"It's better than not having any." Charlotte said in a unexpected reprimed tone. The kind of tone Vagatha knew someone was trying to contain a lot of emotions within oneself. Charlottefought a burning sensation crawling through her body. Her fists clenched and she had to take a deep breath and focus solely on letting them clench.
"Why don't I show you a better argument?" Charlotte grabbed the pistol resting in her lap and handed it back to its owner.
Vagatha grabbed her with some hesitation and care—as if the gun was covered in thorns—nevertheless, she pointed her pistol at Charlotte; not in an act of fear or hate, but because honestly didn't know what else to do at the time. "Why?"
"Because I've been wanting to ask for your help, for two fucking weeks! Sorry if I curse! I don't like t! But I'm getting sick of this city and its shit! Why must it be so hard to give some goddamn help!?"
Vagatha blinked slowly as the gears turned inside her head. "What you said at school. You were serious about that … what? Rebuild?"
It seemed that Vagatha had hit the right nail. At his question, Charlotte seemed to realize her little tantrum and slowly pulled herself together.
"Actually…I prefer the term 'reform'. I know that if I kickstart it, someone well-intentioned will take care of the rest. It's pretty simple, or at least that's what I want to believe."
"And how do I know that you won't abuse those places or something like that in the future?"
"Could I take you on a date if you already know the answer?"
"Wh-WHAT?"
Charlotte laughed openly as if the two were at a sleepover being friends for years and had confessed their crushes . Vagatha could very well have been pierced through the heart. The night shone brighter and her breathing grew heavier as she struggled to hold her position in the moment.
"I figured you'd react like that, and to be honest, it wouldn't be the first time," Ella teased.
" W-how do you say?"
"I-I mean -what I said about reforming. Surely you have already heard in the news about it. It's not like I want to show off or anything like that."
Vagatha's scowl eased as it darkened, and shock was replaced by an odd feeling of shame crawling across her skin. "Actually, I was sent to investigate an anonymous person leaving packages of money in random places around the city, which led me to—"
Charlotte hummed in agreement with her. "Clear. I guess I was getting ahead of myself and stuff like that. Do you mind if I…?" She pointed to the bed, whose owner moved a little to the right to give her space without much opposition.
Vagat expected her unexpected visitor to sit next to her, but instead Charlotte lay on her back looking at the ceiling as if they had been friends for years; for some reason that didn't bother Vagatha.
"It's just…How can I not help when I know I can? When I have proven that I can!" She sighed heavily and turned to Vagatha. "Do you think I should do something different? Something else?"
Having Charlotte so close stunted Vagatha's mind like static on an old telly. Her brain disconnected from her mouth and words escaped her lips with hardly any thought.
"You could send someone else to send to make the deliveries. Patterns are everything for police investigations." The words flowed from her mouth like water from a broken faucet, as if someone else was speaking, someone stupid whose brain was turned off. "Expand your inner circle."
And it kept getting stupider.
Charlotte looked at her with the same eyes she had in the theater before a smile flickered at the corners of her lips. She breathed out a single laugh through her teeth and her smile widened a little.
"Would you like to join?"
"Wha—"
"Before you say 'what' again. Don't worry, I would never ask you to do something you didn't want. You don't need to stop being an officer because of me…although that's more or less the reason why I wanted to ask for your help."
At that moment, Vagatha returned to herself, at the same time that she could feel her defenses bristling. "One of the three V's ."
"Yes," he said heavily. "Vox Hamill ."
"Does it have something to do with the upcoming elections?"
"Chingada madre. This is worse than I thought."
"And it probably gets worse." Charlotte's tone turned heavy for a second. "Something you should know is that tomorrow your sergeant will tell you that you will go to the party that Vox is having in one of their penthouses."
As she had said, the Vagatha sergeant invited her, not to say forced her, to go to the party that Vox was organizing to collect votes. Whether or not a party for that purpose was legal escaped Vagatha's knowledge—in the end though, she figured that didn't matter anyway—the final straw was that she found out that Arackniss was also going along with her.
"That sounds like a lot of important people. I don't even have something decent to wear."
"I'll think of something!"
Later that same night, Vagatha received a "gift" in the same way as she received her new phone.
"This is a embarrassing thing to ask, but do you think you can reply to my messages, pretty please?" Charlotte wrapped her hands together and mustered her most pleading smile.
After she received the package, Vagatha would go to a seemingly random spot in her living room. She was removing one of the wooden floorboards and took out the phone that Charlotte gave her.
"What if someone checks our phones?"
"No one will find anything suspicious in two friends talking. Though, just in case, let's be just a little…ambiguous."
Vagatha watched the parade of messages left unchecked that Charlotte had sent her, which she had saved in her contacts as "Charlie", at her request. All simple enough so that she could understand them, but at the same time cryptic so that any curious person could not understand what their conversations were really about.
At the end of the chat there was a new message sent ten minutes ago. It consisted of a dress emoji, a heart, and a question mark.
Me: what?
Charlie: Did you like my present?
"Okay, I guess, but what is your plan about?"
The next few days flew by and Vagatha was mortified to find herself walking to the entrance of Vox's penthouse .
Vagatha wore a blue dress that left her shoulders bare and exposed and reached almost to her knees. It wasn't exotic or revealing at all and yet Vagatha couldn't help but feel naked. She had pulled her brown hair up into a huge ponytail that looked almost like a mane on its own.
"Where the hell did you get that dress anyways?" Arackniss asked mockingly. He would be laughing at her if he hadn't been forced to come too.
"Not today, Arackniss. And not fucking now."
"I'm still waiting for a 'thank you' for saving your ass before."
"I didn't need you to save me!" She turned to face Arackniss face to face. "And you almost killed me because you couldn't see shit, asshole!"
"Hey! If it wasn't for me, those guys would have sold you to the first pimp they came across."
"You don't know that."
"AND YOU DO!?" He yelled getting too close to Vagatha, who instinctively took a step back.
"Don't make a scene! What the hell is wrong with you!?" Vagatha pushed Arackniss into a less crowded corner to calm him down, but he refused .
"That's none of your fucking business! He pushed her aside and headed straight for the open bar Vox had organized, leaving Vagatha alone until…
"There is something you haven't answered me." Vagatha said. Charlotte asked what it was. "Why do you need me?"
Charlotte tilted her head slightly sympathetically. "I thought I had already answered that."
"No, why me? Why a cop? There's nothing that makes me relevant enough to get involved in all this.
"That's kind of the funny thing," Charlotte giggled and patted her arm repeatedly. "You are a policeman, yes, and you can do so many things that not everyone can. I-I don't mean just because you're an officer. You can do so much even when the world doesn't notice you exist."
"You want to include me because I'm a nobody? If I disappear, who would notice? I'm a nobody that you can use."
Charlotte's nervous smile trembled a little and fell. Suddenly the silence of the night grew in the room, with the urban noise turning into static filling his ears. "I would notice."
"What did you say?"
"I-I said...that's not the way I would put it."
"That's the way it is." Vagatha stood up from the bed with her hand in her hair. "Fuck…I won't be able to sleep anymore anyway, give me that shit." She grabbed the coffee Charlotte had bought her and took a gulp and failed to keep from making a disgusted face.
"Better?" Charlotte asked trying to sound as unobtrusive as possible. "The way I would put it is that I am also a nobody. Almost no one knows that I exist. It's not that I want recognition, or anything like that. In fact, I prefer to remain anonymous. I'm sure you can understand why.
"It's just that…I see you're like me, and…I don't know, I thought you might understand what it's like to want to help even when no one appreciates you. You have it easier than me, they can thank you and even a nice plaque to hang on your wall. I would like to settle for knowing that I could help someone even if they never know me." Charlotte gave a single sad laugh. "Sorry, surely I'm not even making sense."
Vagatha stared at Charlotte with a half-open mouth. No words could come out of his lips.
Would she really consider helping the people she was supposed to imprison? But for one thing, she only had to do it because her job told her to.
Vagatha had seen what corrupt authorities were capable of, but when had she seen another reality? She didn't believe in shortcuts, but what if shortcuts were the only chance for change?
"What did you say was your plan?"
"Looking for someone?" A voice said from behind Vagatha. The officer turned and found a Charlotte. She was dressed in a black tailored shirt with white tones on her chest, her arms rolled up halfway. She also wore thin black pants that hugged her slim, slender figure. Her hair was arranged in a similar fashion to Vagatha's, except that it looked shinier and much better groomed compared to Vagatha's.
Charlotte offered her hand while holding her other arm behind her back. "Will you grant me this piece?"
Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday, dear Sondrox! Happy birthday to me!
Well, isn't actually my birthday, but close enough, this is the third anniversary since I published my first fanfic. Curiously enough, each time I celebrated by posting something, it's been always something about Chaggie. Weird.
Here is Cops and Thugs' second chapter. I hope you liked it. The further I wrote this chapter, the more I realized this story needed to be bigger, similar to the first chapter. I still don't know how much bigger this will get, but I'm sure I'll have so much fun going down that rabbit hole. I'm excited for what I have planned for next chapter! Also me practicing fighting scenes and now shoot outs scenes. Experience will be much needed in future stories, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm looking at you!
That's a mirror.
Oh.
I don't think I have much to say right now, unlike usual. Fav, follow, comment (- please do) It will make my day.
See ya.