What a dull moment to wait for some guys to come into the office. I don't understand how Victoria assigned me with two other guys on an assignment to a mental institute. I have done my share of tedious investigations. I didn't even get the proper information from Victoria when she called and told me two guys would come by my office. We are going on an interview with two teenagers who are locked up in a mental institute. From my point of view, this sounded like the most boring thing to do. I am an investigator, not an interviewer.
The door suddenly opened up, and a guy who was dressed like me in a black suit came in first with a beard and an expression that looked like he was pissed off. Behind him, shackles were heard when a guy who had handcuffs with chains all around him was walking with a long beard and hair. He looked dirty and wore orange clothing; maybe he was a prisoner. I wondered for a second why they would bring a messy person to the office here in the city and not keep him in Paladin Woods. The prisoner walked directly into the bathroom with two white-haired women following him, and they shut the door after them. I was trying to understand the situation, but Veronica told me that other guys would also go on an interview together. The guy with the suit leaned back on the chair and stared at the ceiling.
“Are you Taz Van Polan?” The guy on the chair asked.
"Yes," I responded.
He leaned forward and faced me and said:
"Well, we do share something. I am Zark Van Polan, and I will lead the interviews on this assignment with you and Berk.
"Berk?" I responded with a question.
"Yeah, The guy in orange clothing that was taken to the bathroom to get cleaned up is Berk Van Polan; he is a prisoner," Zark explained.
"Eh...why would Veronica send a prisoner to work with us for an interview? It doesn't make sense at all."
Zark smirked and looked down at the desk before answering:
"Berk was one of the best Private Investigators that the Van Polan organization has ever had. He also has powers that you and I do not have, and he has great fighting skills. One bad part is that he is sentenced to death and will never be released from prison."
Oh my god, I have to work with a guy that is sentenced to death in prison.
"Why is this guy on a death sentence?" I asked.
"Have you ever heard of Valiant?" Zark asked.
"Yeah, but only an explanation of where it is and that it is possible to visit Valiant. Initially, I only understood that it was a world between Hell and Earth. I have never been there, so I don't know if what Victoria told me is true."
"Well, boy! It is true, and it does exist. They also had a very powerful king. The king died, and the last person who was with the king was Berk Van Polan; he ended up in prison and was blamed for the king's death. Nobody knows what happened at the train station, but one thing is certain. Victoria made a deal with the Von Holden family, the rulers in Valiant First World, that imprisonment was the way to go. He is very lucky even to be alive today."
"Wait a minute...So he is a murderer?" I asked Zark.
"In a sense, some believe that, but nobody is sure because there is no explanation except that they were hunting a serial killer."
Okay, that is weird to be teamed up with a murderer who was a really good private investigator once.
"So, if he is a murderer. What makes you an individual that fits in this?" I asked him.
He looked up towards me with a serious look.
"Well, I am the leader of this so-called three-person team. I do all sorts of investigations for the Van Polan organization. Victoria needed a favour and asked me to take responsibility for a young team to interview two girls in a mental institute. I am the oldest, so you should call me Senpai."
Yeah, right, what is next? It is like calling me Toadinator.
"What does Senpai mean?" I asked out of curiosity.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Zark smiled and brushed his hair back with his right hand like he was delighted that I asked the question.
"Well, little brother, it means mentor or someone more experienced or upper-class. From my point of view, it is more like a mentor, so you can look me up more like a big brother and ask whatever you want."
I looked at him, confused because he still looked quite young. Was he maybe in his 30s or something?
"Eh, how old are you?" I asked.
"I am 27 years old," he responded, then asked, "How old are you?"
"I am 20 years old," I responded.
So he was several years older than me. He also behaves a little more maturely than me. After that, we were both silent and were waiting for Berk to come out.
After an hour, some guy came out with short hair, blue eyes, and aura shining up the room. He had a black suit like us, and it was like meeting some guy in a photoshoot.
"Where is the Berk guy?" I asked him.
He looked at me, laughing.
"You are looking at him, pipsqueak," He answered.
Okay, now I get it. If Zark is the smoother one talking and the oldest one, Berk is the bullshitter in the group. So my job is to babysit both of them.
"Let's go!" Zark commented and started to move out of the office with Berk following him. The two women came out from the bathroom and walked out, and I didn't have a choice now but to follow suit. It was still unclear what kind of assignment we had actually.
The car stopped close to a big building in Stockholm's city center; I thought it was weird because there were no signs of a mental institute here. A door opened into a building that didn't have any markings. It looked like all windows were closed shut in complete black protection, so it was not possible to even see into the building; it was only five floors, so it didn’t really stick out in the crowd in the city and being on a backstreet probably made it quite invisible to the normal people.
We walked into the building, and we were told not to press any buttons in the elevator. So we waited like three idiots when the doors closed, and the elevator started to move upwards. I followed the monitor that went up to the fifth floor when suddenly the elevator stopped on the sixth floor. It was really surprising because there was no button for the sixth floor; it didn’t exist in the elevator. The door opened, and it was really dark in the corridor when a door suddenly opened up in the middle, and a lady in a lab coat walked towards us. We stepped out of the elevator, and she smiled at us with her big glasses and shook our hands. So am I in a lab or something now?
“Follow me, please!” she said without even introducing herself. She started to walk in the front, and we just followed her. She opened the door, and a flat-screen TV was in the room with only one chair. She sat down and opened up the TV, and it was a video playing; all three of us leaned towards the wall, and I noticed Berks face facial expression had changed; I think he looked worried.
When the video was playing in black and white, all that we saw was a market outside and different creatures moving around, and it didn’t look like anything special. After a minute or so in the crowd, it was what looked like a young girl walking slowly and stopped in the middle of the crowd. A big flashlight covered the whole screen, and suddenly, she was on her knees with burned clothes and everyone around her was dead, and it was burning in the market. The video cut short, and the next scene was played. However, this time, another girl was walking in the other direction of the market, and she was slow walking like the other girl. A flashlight covered the screen, and everyone around her was dead; she was also in a sitting position with burned clothes and fire around her. The video got cut, and suddenly, there were colours. A camera was pointing to a crying girl in what looked like an interrogation room. I suppose it was the first girl with darker hair, brunette, from the first clip.
“What is your name?” A female voice asked the girl.
“Get Taz Van Polan”, She answered, and the other female tried to get more information, but all her answers were Taz.
She looked innocent, but I got slightly nervous because I had never seen her. Why was she asking my name or even knowing my name? The video cut with the other girl showing up, but she was smiling and looked a little bit like some psycho. While the other girl was nervous, this one was very open but refused to answer her name or any other questions. The only thing she kept saying in the video was:
“I will only talk to Berk Van Polan.” She repeated every question asked.
The video cut again, and Victoria showed up on the screen, and it felt like she started to talk to us:
“As you can see, we have a problem. These two teenage girls will only speak with Taz and Berk, but we could not get the interrogation here in Paladin Woods and had to move them outside the zone to the institute. The citizens in Paladin Woods want to kill them, so we cannot keep them here in Paladin Woods. Interview the girls and find out where their powers come from and what their purpose was in killing so many citizens. There has to be an answer to why they killed and what exactly happened. Be aware that sometimes a red light shines on their chest, and they don't allow us to look inside their shirt and get aggressive. Find out if the power of their source killed everyone around them, whether it was the shining light or something else. I have added Zark to this assignment as your leader, who is responsible for all the decisions in this assignment. Good Luck!” Victoria explained in the video, and I noticed her troubled expression before the screen went completely black.
Me and Berk looked at each other for a moment while Zark was in some thinking mode and smothered his damn beard. The woman got up from the chair and told us:
“The room is yours; both are in the next room after this one on the right.” She opened the door and pointed in the direction she wanted us to go.
She didn’t follow us, and we went down a bit. There was a clicking sound from the door as it got unlocked, and Zark went in first. All I saw was the lamp in the ceiling blinking; the room got black for one or two before the light returned. It looked like something taken from a horror story.