"The Fourth Floor"
Detroit Central Precinct: October 31st, 2039 - 06:44pm
It was Halloween Night in Detroit, and it seemed everyone was out in the streets having some fun except for the city's dedicated first responders. The streets were full of energy, colorful lights, glowing candles and echoes of laughter and energetic screams as the Halloween festivities continued well past sundown and into the early night hours. While the trick-or-treating hours had come to an end and the younger children were being taken home by their loved ones and guardians to check through their precious candy loot, the teenagers were heading out to the famous 'Carnival of Carnage' for some late night fun, and the adults went out to their own private parties where they could release some stress and hang out with their own friends and family.
The precinct bullpen had a few Halloween decorations strewn about here and there courtesy of Tina getting into the spirit of the holiday, but otherwise it was still a completely professional setting. A faint aroma of freshly baked cookies and pies emanated from the community breakroom where a few pitchers of warm cinnamon spiced apple cider and a large bowl of candy were the only treats that the on-call officers and detectives could have while still on the clock. That seemed to be the only treats the officers would get all night long.
Connor sat behind his desk with his coin rolling over his knuckles rhythmically while Hank sat across from him picked at a small helping of candy corn with marked disinterest. The deviant had shown some interest in learning more about Halloween, but Hank wasn't as enthusiastic about the holiday. Out of respect Hank did give Connor a quick rundown on the usual Halloween traditions, what people do and why they do it, but he didn't show any interest in doing anything beyond going back home to watch a horror movie or two just because it was Halloween night.
Halloween just wasn't the same for Hank since he lost his family.
Tina on the other hand was trying to liven up the bullpen as she eagerly waited for his shift to end in one hour so she could throw a late night party at her apartment. She always had a party on Halloween night, and she wanted everyone who could join in on the fun to do just that. That of course meant she was trying to entice Connor into going to her party since it was his first Halloween, and she was trying to get him to dress up at least one time just so he could have a proper Halloween experience.
"Check this out!" Tina, who was wearing a pair of black cat ears and painted on whiskers along her cheeks, made her way over to Connor's desk and showed him a special Halloween costume app she downloaded onto her phone. The app was designed to show a person what they could look like under make-up and prosthetics to help them decide a proper Halloween costume in advance. "You'd make a pretty awesome vampire!"
Connor peered at the image on the phone with a genuine curiosity. The photo used was one that Tina managed to snap of Connor earlier that afternoon when she saw him walking into the bullpen to clock-in. Seeing his own visage shifting from his normal appearance and to that of a vampire was a little strange to say the least. The deviant's brunet hair was darkened to black and slicked back out of his face, his eyes shifted from their normal soulful brown color to a vivid blood red hue, his already fair complexion paled to a notable white shade, and the image showed what his smile could look like with fake fangs extending from his canine teeth.
"See? You're tall, you have the slender build that the classic vampire always has, and since you drink your own blood anyway..." The teasing comment elicited an eyeroll from Hank while Connor tilted his head quizzically at the idea. "It's perfect! I can get you a black and red suit, and a cape if you want."
"It's an interesting idea, but I don't think-"
"What about this? Or this?" The image on the app shifted to show Connor with the classic werewolf aesthetics next, then to Frankenstein's monster, a classic decaying zombie, a rotting mummy and even a green-skinned alien. "You can also change your voice, so you could totally get into character with accents and everything!"
"Tina, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I have to decline going to your party tonight." As much as it hurt Connor to turn down a friend's invitation to a party where he could just blend in with everyone else and be treated like an equal, he couldn't bring himself to go to such a social situation. He knew how wild Tina's parties could get and he'd prefer to avoid such a chaotic atmosphere. "Your parties are... legendary. And I'm not comfortable in very large groups of people."
"Aw, come on." There was genuine disappointment in Tina's reaction as she turned off the app and put her phone back into her pocket. "Even just an hour would be amazing. What if I invited more deviants to the party? Would that help you feel more comfortable?"
"Halloween is a holiday that deviants simply don't celebrate." Connor explained sincerely without offending Tina by mistake. "We have no connection to its origins or its active meaning."
"To be fair," Hank finally spoke up as he popped a piece of candy corn in his mouth and gave Connor a knowing look. "most humans don't celebrate Halloween because of its origins or meaning anymore. Humans use it as an excuse to dress up, eat candy," Hank emphasize that particular point by holding up another piece of candy for Connor to see before it disappeared behind his teeth. "get drunk, and scare the shit out of each other."
"I still fail to understand the entertainment of scaring another person." Connor's admission was one that made Hank nod slightly in agreement while Tina sighed and sat down on the corner of Connor's desk. "I can understand the concept of 'pranks' and 'humor', but to specifically scare someone doesn't seem to fit either category in a logical and truly enjoyable manner."
"Some people just have a fucked up sense of humor, kid." Slowly Hank's eyes narrowed at Tina while Tina gave him a coy smile in return. "Am I right, Tina?"
Tina dramatically put her hand over her heart as she feigned her innocence at such a remark. "Are you questioning the merit of my humor?"
"I'm questioning your very definition of your humor."
"I'm not sure if I should be offended or flattered."
"See what I mean?" Shifting his focus elsewhere Hank hoped to keep things in the precinct from getting out of hand. As he caught Connor's attention again Hank's more paternal and protective side came forward as he knew that if Connor had a bad Halloween experience it might deter the deviant from participating in any other holiday or festivity in the future. "Connor, don't do anything or go anywhere you don't feel comfortable with. Halloween can be just another day in the year for you if you want it to be, don't feel bad about it."
"Noted."
"Aw, c'mon, Connor..." Using every power that she had Tina batted her eyelashes at Connor and gave him an exaggerated pouty frown as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "Can you at least go to the 'Carnival of Carnage' with me before the party begins? I haven't been there since I was a teenager."
"Aren't costumes a requirement at such an event?"
"Only if you're on staff." The hope in her voice was almost tangible. "We'd be guests and we'd be going through the haunted house without showing a single ounce of fear from beginning to end!"
"That may be possible." Connor didn't want to promise anything he wasn't sure he could keep, but he didn't want to keep disappointing Tina either. "I'll think about it."
"Yes! Thank you!"
Gavin overheard the comment from the breakroom and let out an arrogant scoff as he walked into the bullpen with half a cookie hanging out of his mouth. The crumbs covering Gavin's chin completely ruined his attempts to appear bold and fearless as he boasted about his own past encounters with paranormal events on Halloween night.
"Seriously?" Using his sleeve Gavin wiped the sugary crumbs from his chin as he chimed on in on Tina's plans for the night. "A cheesy haunted house? C'mon, Ti. You of all people should be begging to check out the precinct's fourth floor tonight."
"The fourth floor?" Tina sounded intrigued while Connor looked confused and Hank looked annoyed. The Lieutenant pressed his palm to his face as he shook head and then swept his hand back over his shaggy gray hair all while Tina took Gavin's bait. "Which fourth floor, and why should I care?"
"There's no way you've been here for two years and haven't heard the story of this precinct's fourth floor."
Hank's loud sigh with a muttering of "Here we fuckin' go..." under his breath went completely ignored.
"Ever wonder why we have four floors in this building but only use three of 'em?" It was clear Gavin knew exactly what to say and how to say it to get Tina thoroughly interested in the most mischievous of manners. "The fourth floor got vacated about four years ago by Captain Fowler himself."
"Gavin," Hank looked at the younger detective with a potentially homicidal gleam in his eyes. "I swear to fuck..."
"What? It's just a story." Ignoring the warning (threat) from his commanding officer, Gavin continued to taunt Tina with the story of the fourth floor. "Anyway, about four years ago we had a situation with a perp who wasn't being very cooperative. This lady was strung out on something special, we're not sure what it was exactly but it's strongly suspected she was high on a mixture of 'red ice', cocaine and pure caffeine powder. At any rate, this woman was NUTS."
Connor was now intrigued as well and was listening in on the details while Hank continued to shake his head with disappointment at what he was hearing.
"She got brought in after her neighbors from across the friggin' street heard this lady screaming like a banshee and tearing down the walls all over her house." The details were still vivid in Gavin's mind as he told the story. "It was me and Lewis who responded to the call, and when we kicked in her door, I would've sworn I was looking at a reanimated corpse!"
"Oh, come on." Suddenly skeptical Tina gave Gavin a knowing look since she knew her friend was just trying to rile her up with spooky details. "I've seen plenty of people strung out on all kinds of drugs. They always look really rough, but they only look like a corpse when they're actually a corpse."
"Right, which is why I said she looked like a reanimated corpse. Anyway," without missing a beat Gavin continued with his story and knew that the rest of the bullpen was discreetly listening to every word he said. "when we got inside the house this lady looked like she walked right out of a crypt. She was that sickly grayish white color you see when a person's heart gives out on them. She had really long, thin, stringy black hair that was so long it reached her knees, at least the hair she hadn't ripped out of her own scalp did. Her eyes were so bloodshot and red that I don't even know what color her irises were, and her eyes were sunken down so deep in the sockets you would've thought she had been assaulted and had her face busted in. There wasn't an ounce or fat or muscle left on her body. She was just a skeleton wearing skin that wrapped so tightly around her bones she just shouldn't have been breathin'!"
As Gavin told his story Tina hung on his every word and Connor began cybernetically checking through precinct records to find a woman who matched Gavin's vivid description from the appropriate time frame that had been mentioned. There were too many case files to sort through, but the deviant would be able to narrow it down soon enough as Gavin continued to tell his tale and give more details.
"When me and Lewis approached her, this lady lunged at us like a rabid dog and tried to claw out Lewis's eyes. I got her with a taser, but she didn't go down, she just kept fighting. After she tore out the taser prongs from her chest she tried to jump on me, but Lewis managed to wrap his arms around her chest and pin her arms at her sides long enough for me to get my cuffs and secure her wrists, then use Lewis's cuffs to secure her ankles too."
"Why didn't you call for back-up?" Tina pressed as she looked for the holes in Gavin's story. "Protocol requires back-up whenever a suspect gets combative, AND if you used your taser on a suspect then the paramedics would need to assess her condition before taking her to the hospital for treatment and observation."
"We didn't want to let up on our grip and let the crazy lady keep fighting back to call for back-up." The answer was as quick as it was smooth, albeit not proper protocol. "And since she tore out the taser prongs we decided to just take her to the precinct, wait for her to come down off her manic high, and then let the medics in the infirmary take care of her. We worked together to wrestle her out to the car, threw her in the back, and sped back here to get her processed and secured in a holding cell."
"Okay, that part I believe. You always hated filing paperwork with the paramedics."
Connor continued to cybernetically sort through the files and had found nearly two dozen case files that could match the lady that Gavin had been describing. Holding his silence the clever deviant waited for Gavin to finish his story before he spoke up.
"True enough." Gavin continued with his tale without even the slightest hint of deception, which in itself made the story all the more enthralling to hear. "By the time we got back to the precinct this lady managed to get her super thin wrists and ankles somewhat free of her cuffs, but me and Lewis were too distracted by her strange shouting and rants to really notice. She kept saying that 'they' - whoever 'they' were supposed to be - were inside her walls and spying on her. She accused us of working with 'them' and conspiring against her. That was the most normal thing this lady did all during her arrest."
That was a detail that Hank couldn't deny. He too had deal with so many strung out junkies that he had become immune to psychotic ramblings of a fried brain.
"After we finally got her inside the precinct," Gavin nodded at the holding cells on the far side of the bullpen to use visual aids to emphasize his story. "we carried her to the cells but she managed to slip her wrists and ankles free of her cuffs. She elbowed me in the temple, kicked Lewis in the balls, and sprinted across the bullpen to get away from us. She slipped inside the elevator just as the doors shut after someone stepped out of it and she went up to the fourth floor to try to hide before anyone could stop her."
"All right..." Tina nodded in approval as Gavin's story began to pick up pace and get really interesting. "Psycho-suspect on the top floor sounds pretty damn exciting."
"Yeah, sure." That wasn't the word Gavin would've used to describe the situation, but it'd do for the time being. "Captain Fowler found out what was happening and put the precinct on lockdown. The elevators were remotely disabled, and both of the stairwells were electronically locked to make sure the crazy bitch didn't slip out when no one was looking."
"Good, good." It was clear Tina was getting truly sucked into the story and wanted to know more. "Smart move."
"Once I got my senses back, I went up the stairwell with Hank. Lewis was too busy icing his gonads to walk anywhere." It was then Gavin realized why Hank didn't want him talking about the incident since Hank had been a part of the unusual case and knew how it ended. "We found her on the fourth floor right outside the elevator, and we had to get the cleaning crew off the floor before she hurt someone during her mania."
"The entire fourth floor was once used for the cleaning crew?" That was a detail that brought up another round of skepticism from Tina. "Why would an entire floor of a precinct be dedicated to just the cleaning crew?"
Hank finally chimed in with the tale and gave Gavin some credibility. "Because the cleaning crew for the precinct and crime scene cleaning crews that go out and clean up the mess after an investigation were willing to play nice and share space just so they could have a safe place to decompress from the rest of us down here in the bullpen. That has since changed."
Attentively Connor checked with the precinct's personal records and was able to locate the exact date in which there had been an incident on the fourth floor of the precinct leading to the cleaning crew being relocated to the ground floor, and the crime scene clean-up crews being relocated to their own private office area just down the block. It was interesting to have some degree of confirmation of what was being told.
"Right, like I was sayin'..." Gavin was enjoying the spotlight as everyone in the bullpen gave him their attention. The other officers who weren't around during the incident were unfamiliar with the fourth floor and were just as intrigued. "Me and Hank got the cleaning crew out of there and found the crazy lady shrieking in the main office used by the clean-up crews. She had tried to tear down the walls up there with her bare hands, then started using a screwdriver and other tools to hack down the wall. She kept screaming about someone spying on her and conspiring against her, but yeah, she was as high as a hippie on Mt. Everest so we knew she was just imagining things."
That was a metaphor that Connor didn't understand. Before he had the chance to ask about it, Gavin continued with the story and finally explained why no one went up to the fourth floor to work anymore.
"We tried to get her to drop the screwdriver, but she was too crazed to be reasoned with." The smug smile on Gavin's face began to fade as he spoke of the high woman's fate. "She started coming after us with the screwdriver in her hand, and after me and Hank both told her to drop her weapon and surrender, we had no choice but to open fire. Since she shook off being tased once before already, I decided to use my gun and get her to drop with a bullet to the shoulder."
Gavin trailed off for a moment and Hank felt compelled to the finish the story.
"It was a good shooting." The Lieutenant confirmed as Tina, Connor and everyone else in the bullpen turned to face Hank instead of Gavin. "The bullet got her in the shoulder, but she didn't drop that screwdriver. Instead, she started swinging the tool around wildly like she was trying to slash us open where she stood even as she started bleeding everywhere. She was moving around so much so neither of us could get in another clear shot, and we didn't want to just put a bullet in her head like she was a wounded animal on the side of the highway. But..."
When Hank trailed off as well Connor gently prodded Hank and Gavin to finish their story. "You couldn't get the woman to calm down. Correct?"
"Yeah." The confirmation left Hank's voice sounding dour and glum. "She was out of control, and we couldn't do anything about it."
"That screwdriver ended up being a double-edged sword." Gavin finally found his voice again and decided it was time to finish the story. "She ended up swinging around so wildly that she ended up falling backward against the same wall that she had been tearing open. The sharp end of the screwdriver ended up finding a few live electrical wires that had been exposed, and uh... Well, it fried her. All the drugs in her system guaranteed that her heart burned out and there was no way to revive her after she got such a powerful shock."
Tina was no longer entertained by the story and looked horrified. "Wait, she electrocuted herself? Here in the precinct? And she DIED?"
"We tried C.P.R. until the paramedics arrived, but she was too far gone." Lamenting anyone's loss always made Hank's blue eyes dull with disappointment. "What really sucks is that we still don't know her name. She's another Jane Doe and no one seemed to miss her when she died."
With those final details Connor was able to locate the file on the incident and confirm that everything that Gavin and Hank had stated was true. A young woman who was arrested for numerous charges, namely disturbing the peace and being in possession of a controlled substance, resisted arrest in the precinct and ran up the fourth floor where she fell deeper into her drug-induced psychosis. The woman was pronounced dead after she accidentally electrocuted herself and passed away on the fourth floor despite being given immediate medical aid after falling into full cardiac arrest.
"The incident was enough to make Jeffrey change a few things around in the precinct." Hank stated coldly as he gave Gavin annoyed glare. "And now the fourth floor is to be used only as storage areas when there's nowhere else to put shit. There's no reason for anyone to go up there, and no one has gone up there without a good reason since the scene was cleared and Internal Affairs watched the security footage confirming that me and Gavin didn't do anything wrong after the incident."
"So..." Now feeling a little uncomfortable knowing that someone died in the precinct, Tina asked the one question everyone was thinking about. "Has anyone been on that floor after Captain Fowler moved the cleaning crews?"
"Just Chris." Gavin confirmed as he anxiously rubbed his palm along the back of his neck. "He went up there to drop off a few boxes of files before he went on his paternity leave last summer. When he came back down to the bullpen, he looked like he just met the Devil himself."
Tina's eyes lit up with renewed excitement at that comment. "What happened when he was up there?"
"We don't know the whole story. He wouldn't talk about it for a long time, and when he finally did tell us what happened he looked just as scared as he did when he came down from the fourth floor."
"You're killing me here, Gav'." The anticipation of learning the details left Tina wanting more. "What happened to Chris while he was up there?"
"Not too much, actually." The abrasive detective sighed a little and recounted what Chris claimed to have witnessed over a year ago on the aforementioned and forbidden floor. "He said when he went up there to drop off a few boxes of files that the entire floor felt icy cold. Since the floor isn't supposed to be used at all, it didn't make any sense to have the A/C cranked up."
Connor silently agreed with Gavin's assessment. It'd be unwise to waste energy on a floor that no one was using during such intense summer temperatures.
"Chris said that he went to put the box of files in the large office near the end of the corridor, the same room where the lady accidentally killed herself, and he said that the wall was still torn open and nasty looking. Since the lady got herself electrocuted the electricity to the floor was also cut off, which made it even stranger that the floor would be cold without any way to power up the air conditioner."
Hank didn't want to hear any more details about what happened on that floor. Seeing such a crazed person who was so out of their mind on drugs getting themself killed was something that he hoped that he'd never have to see again.
"When he put the box down, Chris said he felt like someone was watching him, then smelled burned hair and skin reeking out of the wall. It made him feel sick to his stomach and he tried to get out of there as quickly as he could." Gavin kept telling the morbid story but his amusement was turning into dread with each passing word. "That's when the lights started to flicker above him until one of the bulbs actually shattered."
"Power surge." Tina quickly countered as she tried to dismiss the event as nothing more than an eerie coincidence. "If the air conditioner was running when it wasn't supposed to be, then it seems like there was just an issue with the damaged wiring that didn't get repaired before the floor was abandoned."
"That's what Chris thought, but it didn't explain away that sickly smell of burnt flesh and hair." Gavin countered quickly as he continued to tell everyone of the strange experiences that Chris endured alone on the fourth floor. "After the lights flickered and the bulb shattered, he ran out of the office down the corridor to get back to the elevator, but he said the doors to the elevator started to open and close really fast while the lights inside started flickering like crazy too. He got closer to the elevator and peered at the inside through the doors whenever they were opened long enough to get a good look, and he said he saw a super skinny woman with long dark hair twitching super violently and slamming her hands along the walls inside the elevator."
That was enough of a picture to make Tina tense up. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest and tried to ignore the nervous knot tightening in her stomach.
"Chris said he that he could only stare at the thing in the elevator since he was too scared to move. When she stopped slamming her hands along the elevator car, she looked Chris right in his eyes and started screaming like she was being set on fire! That's when adrenaline kicked in and he ran back down the corridor and down the stairwell to get back to the ground floor. He was shaking so bad when he bolted through the stairwell door we thought he'd pass out."
"Did anyone go up to check on the fourth floor after Chris ran down?"
"Yeah. Me and Hank went up there to take a look, and we found the broken glass from the lightbulb on the floor right where he said it'd be, but nothing else. It wasn't freezing cold, there was no weird smell, and the elevator was acting normal." Gavin looked as if he was unsettled by his own story and cleared his throat a little. "After that, Captain Fowler said that only senior staff could go up to the fourth floor, and that we can only use the stairwell in case the elevator acts up or some weird shit."
"How convenient that no one is allowed up the fourth floor after all that happened." Tina gave Gavin a smug look as she knew what he was trying to do. "It's almost like there's no way to prove or disprove anything you just told us."
"I didn't say no one's allowed to go up there, just anyone who isn't considered senior staff. Which means only detectives and investigators, NOT any officers who haven't earned their five years of service."
"Wait..." Looking at Connor beside her Tina gave the deviant a hopeful look that made Hank understandably nervous when he saw the gleam in her eyes. "Connor, you're considered senior staff because you carry the rank of detective. Care to escort me to the fourth floor so I can put some files in storage?"
"Tina." Hank used his 'dad voice' to quickly get her attention and remind her that she couldn't mess around at the precinct, even if it was Halloween. "Don't do that. You know that Gavin's just messin' with ya'."
"I know he is, which is why I want to go up there and prove that he'd just trying to psych everyone out."
Connor found the entire story fascinating and a part of him wanted to find a logical explanation for what Chris had experienced. Standing up casually Connor just nodded at Hank and volunteered to go examine the floor for the sake of debunking the myth of the ghost supposedly haunting the precinct.
"Allow me to go up and examine the area." To ease Hank's worries Connor reminded him of the potential danger the building could be in if there was indeed an electrical problem within any exposed walls. "The damage caused to the wiring could potentially cause a fire hazard that I can identify and even repair, and I can find a reason behind the strange events that Chris had reportedly experienced. Tina can assist me as well, which will placate her curiosity."
"Or you'll just encourage her to check out every haunted location in all of Detroit and try to start up her own ghost hunting agency 'Scooby-Doo style'."
"What is a 'Scooby-'"
"Nevermind." Hank heavily leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest as he studied Connor's face, then looked over at Tina again as she flashed him a cheesy, pleading grin. He knew that it'd be impossible to keep Tina away from the infamous fourth floor and that she'd be drilling Chris for more details on the floor unless she could see everything for herself. "Here's the deal..."
"Hank, no!" Gavin sounded almost desperate as he tried to head Hank off before he even said anything. "If she gets up there then you know she'll spend every free minute she has looking for ghosts."
"Uh, guys?" Tina rolled her eyes and waved her hand in front of Gavin's face in dramatic irritation. "I'm right here, I can hear you just fine, and I'm not a little kid trying to explore 'Old Man Jenkins Haunted Amusement Park'. I just want to check out an interesting former crime scene and try to figure out what happened. That's all. It's what any good aspiring detective would do."
"Yeah, yeah." Hank resumed speaking and held up a hand to silence Gavin before he had the chance to protest any further. "Tina, you can go up to the fourth floor WITH Connor, and only stay there for one hour max. That's it. Look around, see the fucked floor for yourself, and come right back down within an hour. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!" Her theatrical salute prompted an irritated eyeroll as Gavin put his hands to his hips and peered down at the floor at his feet. "I understand!"
"And Connor," the experienced Lieutenant knew that if anyone would be able to keep Tina from getting in over her head with her own curiosity, it was Connor. "you check the walls and make sure there's no problem with the electricity. I'd hate to have the one place in Detroit that'll still put up with my bullshit burn down."
"I can do that." Determined to handle his new mission, one that was admittedly less legal and somewhat silly, Connor looked to Tina and began walking across the bullpen to get to the far stairwell and access the fourth floor. "Are you ready, Tina?"
"Right behind you, Drac'."
"...'Drac'?" Pausing for a moment Connor waited for Tina to catch up and did a quick cybernetic search for the term. Tina was of course referring to 'Dracula' and Connor realized she was still trying to convince him to dress up as a vampire and join her Halloween party. "I haven't changed my mind about the party."
"The night's still young, my vampiric and very kind, supportive and upstanding friend." It was easy to make Connor blush a faint blue in embarrassment by trying to flatter him and get him to finally agree to head out to her party that night. "Let's make a deal."
"What type of deal?" With a simple press of his exposed plastimetal palm Connor was able to unlock the entrance to the eastern stairwell to begin their long trek up the four flights of stairs to get the precinct's abandoned top floor. "I'm not the type to partake in any bets since I have an unfair advantage in calculating the odds in my favor."
"I admire your honesty but pity your naivety." Sticking close to Connor's side Tina ascended the stairwell with their voices echoing softly off the concrete walls alongside their heavy footsteps. "This is what's going to happen: If we go up there and we find absolutely no traces of any ghostly happenings and can prove that Gavin was just trying to freak me out, then I'll stop asking you to come to my party. But if we DO find evidence of ghosts and other spooky shenanigans, then you have to come to my party in full costume and you have to stay join me with a monster-movie-thon until the party ends. Is that a deal?"
"It's unwise to agree to such a deal before assessing the overall situation."
"I take back what I said about you being naive." As they ascended the stairwell reaching the third floor Tina decided to ask another important question. "Did you do some digging on the story Gavin told us? Like, did this incident really happen, or is he just trying to mess with us?"
"It happened." Connor confirmed in a glum manner that made Tina stumble on one of the steps for a heartbeat. "The story Gavin told us lines up with an incident that happened in the precinct on August 28th, 2035. A female suspect had been brought in for disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, possession of illegal substances, and was considered a high risk to herself and others."
"Seriously? Did she look anything like Gavin had described?"
"Her appearance was identical to the details that Gavin had provided, yes." Once he set foot on the landing at the top of the fourth stairwell Connor held up his palm and allowed Tina to view a holographic projection of the woman's photo that had been taken postmortem. "She was... troubled."
"Jeez, that's putting it mildly." The sight of the deceased woman's face, stressed and angry even in death, gave Tina a reason to suddenly opt out of exploring the fourth floor. "What was her name?"
"She was listed as 'Jane Doe' until one of her neighbors came to the precinct to give their statement on the incident. Her name was then confirmed as Madeline Greene."
"And she didn't have any friends or family to show up and ask questions?"
"Miss Greene was divorced, lost custody of her children, and she was effectively disowned by her family due to her rampant drug addiction. She didn't have anyone in her life to check on her."
"Or miss her once she was gone. That's so sad."
Connor heard the genuine remorse in Tina's voice and knew that she felt bad for asking about the fourth floor and wanting to snoop around after learning of the fate of the woman supposedly haunting that same floor. Like a true friend, Connor offered Tina the chance to change her mind while he checked the wires for any fire hazard without letting Gavin or Hank know that she didn't actually check out the floor.
"Tina, it's okay to not go up there." Connor gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, a kind gesture often showed toward him by Hank himself, as he continued to the fourth floor landing at last. The locked door to the floor was covered in dust and clearly hadn't been opened in several years. "I won't tell anyone that you chose to not examine the area."
"No, I want to go inside." Letting out a small huff of breath, Tina looked surprisingly steeled yet uncomfortable at the same time. "It's not right to talk about someone's death and treat them like they're nothing more than an urban legend. I want to see the floor."
"Very well."
Casually Connor placed his exposed palm on the door's electronic lock and cybernetically overloaded the lock with a single command. The door creaked opened with an echoing groan and revealed a dark floor that smelled of dust, stagnant air, aged paper and mothballs. The air was cold courtesy of the lack of heating and cooling options on that brisk October night, and the air felt like it was so heavy that it'd smother anyone who dared to set foot on the fourth floor.
Being a deviant allowed Connor to see perfectly well in the dark atmosphere while Tina needed to click on the little flashlight attached to her shoulder alongside her radio at any given time. The bright white beam of light pierced the darkness and showcased the dust and cobwebs floating through the air as it became caught in the beam shining from one end of the long corridor to the other.
"I'm beginning to think Chris undersold his experience when he told everyone what happened." Tina whispered her comment as she set foot on the infamous floor to get a closer look at the year's old crime scene with her own eyes. "This place is seriously creepy."
"I agree with your assessment." The deviant detective noticed that despite the fact they were speaking in low voices that their words were echoing loudly off the walls of the mostly empty area. It was unnerving to experience. "I'll check the wiring and then we can leave when you're ready."
"Thanks. I'm going to find the elevator and give it a good look to make sure it's not just a faulty door sensor or Chris seeing something else that he mistook as a ghost when he was already spooked by the shattering lightbulb."
Without saying another word Connor pressed his still exposed palm against the wall and performed a cybernetic scan to determine if there were any residual electrical surges passing through the neglected wires within the drywall. His sincere and righteous concerns over a potential fire hazard made it easy for Connor to walk along the corridor and into each of the vacated offices and storage rooms as he checked for any signs of danger. It didn't take him long to detect an instability in the wiring as he entered the far office where the infamous incident had taken place four years prior.
Connor found himself staring at the floor where his enhanced android vision allowed him to see the long faded outline of a human body that fallen to the floor. The body emanated such an intense heat after being electrocuted that a scorch mark in the shape of that body's final position as they laid dying had become a permanent fixture on the flooring. The small puddle of blood that escaped the victim's body was also visible courtesy of Connor's forensic software. Such a faint sample was still enough to confirm that the victim was in fact Madeline Greene.
The wall that had been torn apart by Madeline's hands had never been repaired. Several electrical wires were visible from where he stood, and Connor could detect traces of electrical charring on the wires and the wall itself. There was a very real risk of fire due to the neglected wires being left unattended.
As if on instinct Connor cybernetically scanned the environment and preconstructed the incident according to both the official police investigation and from Gavin's recently told story. Through a holographic reconstruction that only he could see, Connor watched as the woman's body flailed about with the metal screwdriver in her right hand until the tip of the tool impaled one of the live wires and gave herself an unintentionally fatal electric shock. Even through a digital recreation Connor grimaced at the macabre sight that ended in a disturbed woman's untimely death.
"This is the place, isn't it?" Tina asked as she joined Connor in the office and stared at the still exposed and broken wall on the far side of the office. Her flashlight beam shone brightly in the dark room and landed directly on the damaged wall and the exposed wires beneath. "This is where Madeline passed away."
"Correct." Glancing upward to the ceiling above Connor noticed the remnants of a damaged light overhead indicative of a blown-out lightbulb. "The light above me had been damaged in the previous four years resulting in a shattered lightbulb. The glass has been swept up, but the rest of the bulb had been left behind in the fixture."
"So the shattering light wasn't an exaggeration." As she too looked up at the lightbulb Tina felt a strange chill creep up her spine and felt like someone was watching her. Turning around quickly Tina peered at the opened door of the large office and saw a humanoid silhouette draped in black slowly, silently back away from the office. "Nice try, Gavin! You're not scaring me!"
Connor peered quickly over his shoulder and toward the door as he followed Tina's line of sight. His scanner hadn't detected anyone else roaming the floor and began to wonder if Tina wasn't trying to scare him by attempting to play a strange prank.
"Gavin?" Tina shouted for her friend as she turned her back on the mangled wall and rubbed her hands up and down her chilled arms to try to warm herself up. "We know you're out there, stop trying to hide."
As Tina spoke Connor noticed that her breath was suddenly visible. The fourth floor was far colder than any other place in the precinct, and it was even colder than the chilly October air outside the building. The temperature in the room had dipped down from an uncomfortably cold fifty-one degrees to a brisk twenty-eight degrees in just a matter of seconds.
"Strange." Connor stated as he took a step forward and positioned himself between Tina and the opened office door in a protective manner. "I didn't hear anyone walking up the stairs or using the elevator. I can't even detect another person's vital signs or heat signature."
"You better be messing with me." Sounding unexpectedly nervous Tina stood on her tiptoes to look over Connor's shoulder to stare through the opened door leading out to the pitch black corridor again. "It's not funny."
"I don't participate in pranks."
"Shit, I wish you hadn't reminded me of that." Tina took in a deep breath and stepped around Connor as she clicked off her flashlight before she neared the open doorway. If someone was lurking around, she didn't want to give away her position and let the prankster get the final laugh. "There was nothing weird with the elevator, at least not that I noticed."
"I'll take a look." Despite his perceived naivety and unwillingness to join in on precinct-wide pranks, he was always quick to pick up on cues and understand when someone was attempting to be coy. "After the elevator is thoroughly examined, we can return to the bullpen."
"Good idea. I wouldn't put an electrical malfunction to be the source of all the strange activity reported on this floor."
Walking slowly toward the elevator both Connor and Tina kept their eyes peels for any sign of a prankster hiding in the shadows. Had Connor not removed his L.E.D. after deviating then the little glow of the light from his temple would've given away their positions as they silently crept down the corridor together. Such a glow would've radiated like a star in the night sky as the two detectives explored the dark fourth floor together.
Connor's scanner was unable to detect any other person on the entire floor. He could only detect his own cybernetic signature and Tina's organic vital signs. There weren't any signs of someone else roaming the corridor. Even the dust on the floor had only been recently disturbed by two sets of shoeprints that belonged to Tina and Connor himself.
"We know you're up here." Again Tina called out into the darkness and waited for a response to her words. "Kinda' lame to hide in the darkness just to jump out and say 'boo'!"
There was no verbal response to Tina's suggestion. Instead, a sudden rush of movement down the blackened corridor toward the elevator made Tina jump for a moment as Connor stopped quickly. The deviant wisely scanned the area while Tina scrambled to get her flashlight turned back on to shine down the corridor. The beam of light was trembling courtesy of the fear-induced adrenaline now surging through her veins.
"I saw someone moving very quickly toward the elevator." Connor confirmed as he took a single cautious step forward. "However, my scanner has failed to detect anyone else on this floor alongside us."
"Shut up, you're starting to freak me out."
"My apologies, I'm just stating facts. I can see and hear... someone... moving around, but I'm unable to identify them." The deviant detective's sharp eyes allowed him to see everything that Tina couldn't, and yet he still couldn't truly see what was stalking them from the darkness. "It doesn't appear to be human or android."
"Connor, please stop it." Tina didn't want to admit that she was getting scared by whoever it was rushing around the corridor. "I know you're just trying to assess the situation and keep me in the loop, but it's really starting to get to me in the worst way possible."
"Again, I apologize." Without taking his eyes from the elevator Connor gently placed both hands on Tina's shoulders to convince her to stay still for a minute. "I'm going to get a closer look. Remain here."
"Right, sure." Holding her position, Tina took in a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Watch your step."
Slowly Connor crept forward down the black corridor toward the elevator near the very end of the long walkway. While he had no intention of setting foot inside the elevator itself Connor knew that he needed to check it out and make sure that if there was a prankster running around that they weren't going to get themself hurt by rushing about in the dark. It seemed Connor was more curious than scared as he had never encountered such an entity as the one skulking through the shadows before that night.
From where she stood Tina watched as Connor boldly trekked down the blackened corridor toward his destination. The doors to the elevator were only visible to the stationary officer courtesy of her trembling flashlight beam shining off the metallic doorframe. Seeing Connor approach the elevator without a single ounce of fear was as enviable as it was disconcerting.
Peering at the elevator yielded no answers for Connor as he examined the shadowy area. There was no sign of the elevator doors being recently parted, and there was no sign of a third set of shoeprints in the dust along the corridor floor itself. However, there was a curious detail that Connor noticed as it literally manifested right before his eyes.
At the center of the elevator where the two doors closed to create a single surface, a handprint slowly appeared. The size of the hand, its shape, and the position was indicative of a very malnourished female human of average height. The fingers were so narrow and thin that the impression they left on the door looked more skeletal than one would consider normal for a healthy human being. A faint fog outlined the handprint as if the person who had touched the door had been so cold that they left the very surface of the elevator doors chilled from a single point of direct contact.
"This is... fascinating." Connor whispered to himself as he ran yet another inconclusive cybernetic scan over the enigmatic handprint. The details were lacking and Connor's intrigue was mounting. "It's as if this handprint appeared from the opposite side of the door."
With a need to know what he was seeing, Connor raised his own hand and prepared to press it down atop the mysterious print on the elevator doors when the elevator suddenly 'dinged' and the doors began to slowly shudder as they 'creaked' open without any prompting. Connor stood transfixed and watched as the doors parted at a sluggish, stuttering rate.
After hearing the elevator 'ding' and seeing Connor staring blankly at the moving elevator doors, Tina jogged down the corridor and stopped right at Connor's side in time to see the doors opening and the strange handprint being split in half by the two doors separating from one another. The dim interior of the elevator slowly came into view with the doors suddenly stopping when they were only half-way open. The dull illumination of the overhead lights within the elevator car cast an eerie glow inside of the small space and outlined a humanoid silhouette standing motionless right in the center of the elevator car.
Connor and Tina stared at the figure inside the elevator and took in their barely visible features in the poor lighting. The person standing in the elevator had long, dark hair that was thin, stringy and an absolute mess. Their body was sickly thin; their bones were visible all throughout their body and even under their baggy, thin and torn clothing. The figure's complexion was impossibly white, and their face was void of all features. A faint aroma of electrical smoke, of burnt flesh and of burnt hair began to waft out of the elevator and assault the senses of the investigative duo who had discovered something truly unexpected during their search of the fourth floor.
"Connor..." Tina was nearly out of breath from fear and confusion as she tried to figure out what she was seeing. It was as if the logical half of her brain was in conflict with the emotional half, and they were fighting for control over her perception. "What is that?"
"Unknown." Connor replied honestly as his scanner failed to detect what his eyes and nose were telling him. "What we're seeing shouldn't exist, and I can't-"
The figure inside the elevator suddenly let out a loud, painful, haunting shriek that echoed through the vacant floor as they began to wildly flail about inside the elevator under a rapidly flickering light. The elevator doors began to rapidly open and close in front of the figure causing a nearly strobe-like effect that shone brightly in contrast against the black corridor that held the seemingly cursed elevator. It sounded and looked like the figure inside the elevator was being electrocuted and was attempting to break out of the small space at the same time.
Tina grabbed on to Connor's shoulder and his hand with her own clammy, cold hands as she jumped back in shock. Her eyes were so wide with terror that she was afraid that if she blinked the figure would somehow exit the elevator and end up standing directly in front of her. Too frightened to think or speak, all Tina could do was stare at whatever was inside of the elevator with a sense of absolute dread.
Connor on the other hand was fixated by the sight but strangely enough not afraid. His scanner confirmed that there was nothing and no one actually in the elevator, and that he was seeing a type of ethereal illusion. For a deviant, an apparent encounter with a spectral entity was a moment to be studied and not feared.
"R-Run!" Tina managed to find her shaking voice and pulled on Connor's arm as she began to rush down the corridor and toward the stairwell. "Connor! We need to leave! RUN!"
Although he wasn't afraid of the unusual sight, he was afraid that Tina might accidentally harm herself during her frantic effort to escape the terrifying sight that she couldn't fully comprehend or explain away. Giving the elevator one last glance Connor turned to follow after Tina as she dragged him down the corridor while running at full speed away from the ghostly form thrashing and screaming in the apparently malfunctioning elevator.
If the stairwell door hadn't already been unlocked Tina would've pushed on it with so much force that she could've snapped the door clean off its hinges. The terrified officer ran down the stairwell two steps at a time with Connor keeping pace right behind her. Tina managed to rapidly descend the four flights of stairs in record time while Connor managed to reach the ground floor just seconds after her. Tina burst through the first floor stairwell door with such a commotion that everyone in the bullpen turned to look at the sound of the door being slammed open and Tina crashing into the wall opposite of the stairwell with a gasping breath.
Hank was the first to respond to the young officer's distress and walked over to her just in time to see Connor step through the stairwell door to stand just behind her in a supportive manner. The way Tina was pale, shaking and truly terrified made the man's protective instincts flood forward. It didn't take long for Gavin to take notice of the strange situation and trail behind Hank to get an idea of what the duo had just witnessed.
"Tina, Connor, what the hell happened up there?" Lightly Hank put his hand to Tina's tense, shaking shoulder while Connor took a biometric scan of the trembling officer's vital signs to ensure that his friend wasn't in any kind of danger. "Shit, you look like you saw a-"
"DONT." Tina snapped quickly as she pressed her sweaty palm to her sweaty, pale face. "D-Don't say it."
"Say what?" As he assessed the situation and his preferred word of choice, Hank quickly deduced that Tina had actually seen something on the fourth floor. "No way. You two actually saw a ghost?"
"We saw SOMETHING." Catching her breath Tina managed to finally stop shaking as her adrenaline rush wore off. "Chris wasn't lying when he said that something freaky happened to him up there. And for once, Gavin wasn't exaggerating."
Insulted by the comment Gavin loudly sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "I don't exaggerate, I flourish."
Ignoring Gavin's side commentary Hank stayed focused on Connor and Tina. "What was it that you saw?"
Connor stepped up and showed Hank a holographic image on his palm from his recorded memories to help illustrate what they had witnessed. "This is what we wit- Wait... This isn't right."
"What isn't?" Hank stared at the holographic image of Connor standing in front of an elevator malfunctioning and confirmed that it wasn't anything to get excited over. The sight of the elevator through Connor's own eyes was strange enough, but it wasn't anything that Hank could call ethereal. "The doors got jammed up a little, that's all."
"No, that's not what we had seen while we were up on the fourth floor." Lowering his hand Connor looked to Tina who was watching him over her shoulder with an utterly perplexed gaze. She was just as confused as Connor was in that moment. "There was a figure inside the elevator. One that bore an uncanny resemblance to the woman who had passed away on the fourth floor four years prior according to both Gavin's description and the precinct's official records."
"Yeah fuckin' right." Now laughing Hank just crossed his arms and gave Connor and Tina credit for their very convincing performance of acting frightened and confused when they came barreling down the stairwell together. "Good try though. For a second, I thought you two really-"
"We DID see something." Connor replied sharply as he refused to let the matter pass by as if it was all a weird misunderstanding or coincidence. "There should be a clear image of a person who looked identical to Madeline Greene inside the elevator while its lights were flickering and its doors were malfunctioning. She was screaming, flailing her arms about wildly, and she appeared to be in absolute pain despite no one actually being on the fourth floor with Tina and myself. My scanner confirmed that we were the only people on the fourth floor tonight."
"Your scanner?" While he wasn't the most savvy when it came to android technology Hank did know that if Connor's scanner couldn't detect something then that meant there was nothing that could possibly be discovered. "You're shittin' me. If you couldn't find anyone lurking about, then that there's no possible way that anyone else could've been up there. Right?"
"That is the logical assumption, yes. I don't understand... how this is possible." As if defeated Connor clenched his hand into a fist at his side and he locked eyes with Tina as if silently asking her to support his claim while Hank and Gavin continued to doubt them. "We both saw the apparition in the elevator. ...Didn't we?"
"We saw someone in that elevator, that's for sure. I know we didn't share a hallucination or some shit like that." Tina was much calmer, but she still wasn't willing to go anywhere near the stairwell door. What she had just experienced was still too much to think about and properly process. "And I'm not going to go back up there to get a second look."
"There's no reason for either of us to go back up to the fourth floor." Adamant in his memory and ability to comprehend reality, Connor attempted again and again to replay his memory with the image of the strange apparition in the elevator finally becoming visible, but nothing would appear. "If I had been experiencing an error with my auditory or visual processors, then Tina couldn't have possibly seen or heard what I had witnessed. We did in fact see something unusual on the fourth floor tonight, Hank. I swear to it."
"I believe you."
Tina gave Hank a shocked look and a skeptical scoff while Gavin just rolled his eyes.
"Really?" Gavin just sighed like a disappointed parent as he listened to the strange story being told. "You believe this shit? This is Tina we're talking about, AND it's Halloween, you know. She tells tall tales and tries to prank the precinct every year."
"Yeah. Well, I believe Connor anyway." Hank shrugged casually and patted the deviant's shoulder as he gave Tina a small smirk. "The kid's honest to a fault, and he doesn't do Halloween pranks. Besides, whenever he does try to lie, he sucks at it, and I know it right away. He ain't lyin' about anything you two saw tonight."
"Well, I guess if you believe Connor then that's good enough." Tina sounded offended at the remark as she pulled off her cat-ear headband and used her sleeve to wipe the make-up from her face before marching away from her colleagues back toward the bullpen. "Happy Halloween."
"Hey, Tina, come on..." Gavin tried to stop Tina from leaving but she wasn't going to let anyone get in her way. "Tina! Don't act so-"
"Leave her be." Connor urged as he stopped Gavin from following after his friend. "Tina may enjoying playing practical jokes and seems to truly enjoy Halloween in itself, but she isn't trying to play a prank on anyone. She's being honest. As her friend, you should know that."
"Whatever. She'll be fine." It seemed Gavin wasn't too concerned with Tina's suddenly foul mood. "She's going to throw her party and retell her harrowing story on the fourth floor to anyone who cares to listen."
Connor didn't look convinced at Gavin's statement and instead worried that Tina had been truly offended by her friend not believing her. He knew how it felt to have people doubt his own sincerity and willingness to do right. If his own best friend refused to believe him and essentially called him a liar right to his face, he knew that he'd be just as upset as Tina was now.
"Ah, fuck..." Gavin swore out loud as a group-text to the precinct from Tina was sent out confirming that she had called off her party claiming to be feeling ill. He knew the real reason why she didn't want to have a party, and now he felt like an absolute ass. "Good one, Reed. You pissed off your best friend and ruined her favorite night all in one fell swoop."
"Hank," speaking up softly Connor looked to the man for a little help with the situation. "how can we ensure that Tina knows that we believe her, and not just because I was a witness to the same spectral anomaly? I fear this encounter has soured her perception of Halloween."
"Wish I knew, kid." Hank slipped his phone from his pocket to note the time and patted Connor's shoulder once. "Time to clock-out. Let's get home before the streets get too wild to drive through, okay?"
"Yes, okay."
Walking alongside Hank toward their desks Connor clocked out for the night. He looked over at Tina's empty desk and watched as Gavin attempted to text the wayward officer from his own desk. It seemed as if Tina simply wasn't answering and now Gavin was feeling guilty for dismissing her reactions to what had happened on the fourth floor that night.
"Before we head for home to watch your movie marathon," Connor addressed Hank casually as the man slipped on his dark coat and fished his car keys from the pocket with a smooth motion. "I'll need to make a quick stop and then a detour. It won't take long."
"Uh-huh..." Sensing that something was amiss Hank eyed Connor suspiciously and gave him a crooked grin. "What're you up to, kid?"
Tina's Apartment: October 31st, 2039 - 08:02pm
The modest apartment was still adorned with festive Halloween decorations due to Tina's love of the holiday, but they no longer held any fun for the woman as she decided to skip Halloween at the last minute. Being dismissed and told that no one believed her after she had a very unnerving experience had made it difficult to want to socialize with anyone for any reason. She did in fact love playing pranks and sharing ghost stories on Halloween since she always got in the spirit of her favorite holidays, but she never once said or did anything that should cause anyone to think of her as being deceitful or a liar. Such an ugly label, especially coming from her best friend, made her feel even worse.
As she reached up to pull a long orange and black streamer from above her apartment door Tina heard two knocks right on the door. The sudden and unexpected sound made her jump in fright, then internally scold herself for being so edgy. Sighing to herself for being only human, Tina peered through the door's peephole and then stood back in shock at the sight on the other side of her door. Tina turned away from the peephole as she processed what she was seeing, and soon felt a big grin appear on her face. Finally feeling better after her unusual experience on the fourth floor of the precinct, Tina slipped the chain from the door and unlocked the deadbolt before opening the door wide and welcoming her unexpected very welcome guests.
"So..." Tina greeted her friends with an appreciative smirk as she looked them both up and down. "You chose the vampire costume. Looks good!"
With Hank standing beside him Connor did his best to appear humble as he looked down at himself and smoothed out the blood red vest over his white dress shirt. He was wearing black pants and matching black shoes to really match the usual vampire look. The deviant then fluttered out his long, black and red cape with a theatrical wave of his arms while Tina admired his chosen costume. As he gave Tina an amused grin of his own, he showed her that he had popped in fake fangs over his teeth and then pointed to his eyes to draw her focus to his now blood red irises in place of his usual soulful brown irises. Even his dark brunet hair had been temporarily darkened even further to black to help pull the vampire aesthetic together.
"It seems you were correct." Connor stated with a perfect Transylvanian accent. "Dressing as a vampire for Halloween was an ideal choice."
"Uh... What's with the accent?" Tilting her head a little Tina giggled and looked to Hank standing behind Connor wearing a costume of his own. "Hank, I thought you would've shown Connor the Bela Lugosi classic by now and that he'd be able to mimic the vampire dialect perfectly."
"I did." Hank confirmed as he smoothed out the front of his own costume. The Lieutenant had opted to dress not just as Frankenstein's monster, but as the version of the monster from the legendary comedy 'Young Frankenstein' and he was proud to honor another classic character in his own way. "Apparently Lugosi was speaking in his native Hungarian accent the whole time, and everyone just mistook it for a Transylvanian accent. Ask Connor, he's the one who told me that after he spent the entire time analyzing the movie's details the first time that I showed it to him."
"Oh. Uh... Neat."
Reaching into his vest pocket Connor presented Tina with a handful of candy and nodded in the direction of her apartment. "If you don't mind, Hank and I were hoping that you'd join us for our planned monster movie marathon tonight. May we come in?"
"Well..." Looking at Connor's opened palm holding the various sweets, Tina couldn't stop grinning and accepted the candy offering. "Since you did dress up, AND you brought me some cherry Jolly Ranchers, I think I can make room for you two on my couch. But you still need to do one thing for me."
"What's that?"
"Order the pizza." She pulled her phone from her back pocket to show the dup her display screen. "I've been on hold for ten minutes, and I need my mushroom and jalapeno fix before I starve to death."
"Deal." Connor agreed to the arrangement as he and Hank were invited into Tina's apartment at last. "Would you like some garlic knots as well?"
"Absolutely." Tina had no objections to the offer and patted Hank's shoulder as the man stepped into her apartment right behind Connor to join her for the rest of the evening. "Namely because I want to hear a vampire ask for garlic on Halloween night for my own amusement."
Just as Tina was about to close her door a hand pushed it back open from the other side as Gavin arrived with three pizza boxes and two large bottles of soda already in his arms. The abrasive detective had also taken the opportunity to dress up and was doing his best to make amends with Tina after accidentally offending her earlier that night.
"Uh, hi?" Gavin looked embarrassed yet hopeful as he opened the lid of the pizza box at the top of the stack showing off the very toppings Tina had been craving all evening long. "Got your favorite. And... An apology on the side. You know, if you're ready to accept it."
Seeing Gavin wearing a pair of donkey ears over his hair, a set of goofy over-sized teeth over his upper teeth and dragging a long brown tail with a black tuft of fur at the end that was tied to the back of his belt was enough to make Tina laugh. She knew that Gavin was sincere in his apology and that he wanted to make amends after being so quick to dismiss her earlier that evening.
"Only because you dressed up and brought a peace-pizza, I'll accept your apology. Come on in." Motioning to her livingroom Tina invited Gavin to join in on the impending monster movie marathon. "Another pizza's on the way, so we can start eating now and still have plenty of pizza to last us until the final film."
"Another pizza?" It was then Gavin noticed that Connor and Hank were already sitting on the couch and looking back at him from over the furniture. The moment he realized that he wasn't the only one who had the idea to cheer Tina up that night was both humbling and embarrassing. "What the fuck? When'd they-"
"It doesn't matter! You're staying through the entire marathon, AND you're wearing your costume the whole time." Closing the door with a satisfying 'click' Tina watched as Gavin walked over to the couch and dropped the pizza boxes down on the coffee table. "What're you supposed to be anyway?"
Quiet for a minute Gavin swallowed his pride and answered the question. "...A jackass."
"A what?" Needing to hear it again Tina pulled playfully on the tail dragging behind Gavin and waited for him to repeat himself. "I didn't quite get that."
"I said I'm a JACKASS." Gavin stated louder as he pulled his tail from Tina's grip and dropped down on the armchair beside the couch so that he didn't have to sit next to Connor. Staring at Connor and Hank dressed up as a vampire and Frankenstein's monster respectively made him feel slightly less embarrassed by his own choice of costume. "I thought it was appropriate considering how I acted today, you know?"
"Oh, I know. I just enjoyed hearing you call yourself a jackass." Slipping back on her cat ears Tina sat down on the couch triumphantly next to Connor and gave Gavin a smug look. She knew having to hang out with Connor would also annoy Gavin while it entertained herself. "We're going to start this marathon off right with one of my favorites: 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'."
"Man, you know that I-"
"Yup." Tina turned to look at Connor beside her with a mischievous smirk. "Gavin hates that one of the characters is named 'Tina' in this gore-flick. He also has a thing about nightmares in general, so this is my favorite to watch with him since it makes him squirm."
"Really?" Hank was now intrigued and happily used the television remote to cue up that particular film. "Now I know this marathon is going to be good. Right, kid?"
"I have no objections." The deviant responded in his proper Transylvanian accent. "Perhaps after the movie ends, we can exchange scary stories. True scary stories that we've personally encountered without anyone passing judgement on one another."
"I hear ya', 'Tinman'." Gavin knew what Connor was hinting at had to reluctantly agree with the deviant. "Look, it's not that I don't believe you and Tina saw something tonight, I believe you guys. It's just that... I don't want to believe it. It creeps me out remembering what happened that night four years ago and knowing that what happened will never be forgotten. Hell, Chris never saw that woman when she was alive, but he described her perfectly after his own encounter."
"You dislike the notion of being haunted." Connor deduced without speaking in his Transylvanian accent for the sake of seriousness. It didn't take a detective to realize that Gavin had been frightened by the original incident and feeling haunted by his inability to save the woman at the center of the incident. "Neither do I. We all have our regrets, but we can't pretend that the past never happened."
"Don't get philosophical on me, you plastic dork." Turning away from Connor for a minute Gavin kicked back and removed his fake teeth so that he could at least have some pizza without any problems. "I just don't want to think about a ghost lurking around the precinct. It's fuckin' weird."
"You're not wrong." Hank let out a huff of his own and gave Gavin a sympathetic response. "Being haunted by our mistakes sucks. I think that's why humans tell ghost stories. Myths and urban legends help make our own personal demons seem less imposing. You two," he motioned to Connor and Tina as he spoke with one hand to emphasize his words. "saw something that you can't explain tonight, and no one should doubt you or tell you that you're wrong. When you're ready to tell us what you saw we'll give you our full attention Tina. You have my word."
"You know what?" Flipping open the pizza box atop the small stack, Tina grabbed a slice and took a big bite as she settled in for the night with her friends. "I love that idea; us exchanging ghost stories and talking about our own experiences with the paranormal. In fact, getting together with friends and telling ghost stories will be my new Halloween tradition starting right now. You're all invited to my place every Halloween; costume or no costume, ghosts or no ghosts! Deal?"
"That's a deal." Connor merely nodded as he graciously accepted the offer and cybernetically placed the pizza order as promised. "I'm looking forward to it. By the way, I like your apartment. It's very festive and appropriate for tonight's occasion."
"Appropriate because of all the cheesy decorations that I hoard," Tina asked as she took a big bite of the pizza and chewed on a jalapeno slice. "or because it's full of friends enjoying pizza and horror movies?"
"Actually, I was referring to the fact that your apartment is located on this complex's fourth floor."
At that haunting realization Tina nervously cleared her throat to avoid choking on the spicy topping and quickly grabbed her remote to turn up the volume as the movie began to play. The last thing she needed was a reminder of what floor she had explored and fled from just hours beforehand due to a ghastly encounter with a ghostly apparition.
"Uh, let's just watch some movies and save the ghost stories for later, okay?"
"Okay." Smiling Devilishly at Tina's reaction Connor agreed to drop the subject and pick it up later. "The stories can wait."
"By the way," Tina leaned in toward Connor's ear and whispered so that Hank and Gavin couldn't hear her speaking. Discreetly she grabbed her fingers around Connor's hand and gave him a gentle squeeze. "thanks for squeezing my hand back there when I got scared. Don't tell anyone about it though."
"You have my word."
Without drawing any unwanted attention Connor gave Tina a reassuring nod and proceeded to watch the movie while uploading his memory of his ghostly experience to his personal precinct terminal to be analyzed later. The stubborn deviant detective knew what he and Tina had seen was real, and someday he'd find a way to prove that the ghost on the fourth floor was actively haunting the Central Precinct.
-End of Story-
