On their way towards the crime scene, Lara took the opportunity to ask Jonathan for clarification.

  “What did Karga mean by that?”

  Jonathan scoffed. “He’s always saying he doesn’t want to get involved, but from what I recall of our time together, he’s the first one diving headfirst into trouble like a glutton for punishment. When he’s drunk he calls himself the ‘Yeti’.”

  “Is the yeti an ‘enraged’ Karga?”

  Jonathan laughed at that. “You have dinner once and it’s like you already know the guy.”

  “It seems like he knows you pretty well, too,” Lara said, eyeing the grimy buildings they walked past. “‘Always getting everyone into trouble’.”

  “I’m escorting you.”

  Lara rolled her eyes and ignored him. “How’d you get the nickname?” She refused to say it out of sheer stupidity.

  “In the badlands.” He answered smugly.

  “I asked how, not where.”

  “Do you even know where the badlands are?”

  “I came from beyond Circa, remember?” She huffed. “But no. No, I don’t.”

  Jonathan’s voice came out with a heavier note. “It’s the area -- most areas, technically -- outside of Circa’s barrier. The badlands are filled with radiation. The analysts say it's made it difficult for people to have children. Probably bastardized aging.”

  She raised an eyebrow, tabling her original question. “Where I worked before I was brought here, I’d spent a large chunk of my time reading what survived.” Lara thought back to the aged texts that’d served as her companions during shifts. “From what I’ve read, radiation usually shortens people’s lifespans.”

  “Simpler times.” Jonathan said, wryly. “The information available to you probably came to a halt after the war. If only we knew then what we know now.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “That nothing makes sense anymore. I’ll be the first to take the stand as ‘Exhibit A’.” He laughed under his breath. “A living relic of the Great War.”

  The ghost of pain shot through her head, and she hissed, stumbling to the side.

  “Lara?”

  She recoiled, taking a step back defensively when he tried to steady her, but hit a wall. “Don’t touch me.”

  He winced at her words.

  “I’m just,” Lara swallowed, shell-shocked.

  Jonathan watched her, blinking before he straightened himself. “I’m sorry. I haven’t brought it up to anyone until now.”

  “Don’t be.” Lara feigned, though she was struggling to remain calm.

  The Great War.

  She tried to dull the mounting pulses in her head.

  1916.

  “I haven’t brought it up to anyone until now.”

  Lie.

  “Neither have I.” A lump hit her throat. She couldn’t afford to lose it the way she had with Knox, but she felt the impending wave.

  “Do you think about it?”

  Don’t lose it.

  “No.”

  I don’t even remember it.

  “How,” His face contorted, struggling to understand. “How could you survive something like that and not--”

  “Look, I don’t want to talk about this right now.” She nearly yelled, overwhelmed. But she reinforced the notion that she couldn’t afford to lose her grasp on the present. “I can’t talk about this now.”

  He stared her down, confusion evident on his face before he shook his head and stretched his jaw. She pushed away the questions threatening to drown her thoughts, blocking them out as she told herself that it wasn’t his fault she couldn’t explain what was wrong with her; that she couldn’t even begin to remember the last…

  Block it out.

  Continuing onward, she left him standing in place. “We can’t talk about this now.”

  He didn’t say anything else.

  Lara tried to listen to the casual chitters of people in their homes from the occasional open window, or even passing conversation, but the words echoed in her ears, and she fought them desperately.

  The feeling only began to subside with an increasing familiarity of the alleyways around them.

  They had reached the same area she and Lethe had been through the night before. Much to her surprise, it appeared significantly less foreboding in the daylight.

  Jonathan took notice of her slowed pace and began to look around.

  They turned the corner, with Lara growing anxious of what she might find.

  But when they faced the alleyway where she thought she’d originally heard the attack, they found it empty.

  “They really cleaned this up,” Jonathan noted, his tone deceptively positive despite their exchange.

  While he observed the area, Lara found herself walking toward a spot in the alleyway.

  She stopped, feeling something on her skin, and rubbed at her arms, but was unable to find any goosebumps.

  Jonathan approached her. “Are you okay?” He asked.

  “I’m fine,” she responded, eyeing the ground. “It just -- it looks almost a little too perfect.”

  Jonathan followed her gaze, then glanced around until he stopped on a building.

  “Hm.”

  Lara looked up at him, and then at the target of his interest. She immediately recognized the marks that had caught his attention.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Are those claw marks?” Jonathan made his way around to the front of the building, leaving Lara hesitating for a moment before following after him.

  “Stairs are blocked,” he said as she came closer, regarding the boarded up entry-way.

  A monotone woman behind them sounded off. “Evacuated; not up to Q2 safety standards.”

  They turned to look at her. Narrowing her eyes, Lara felt a nudging familiarity in the woman’s face.

  “Do you happen to be related to... the incident that occurred here in any way?

  Lara didn’t think it was possible for the woman’s face to become any stonier as she responded. “Who’s asking?”

  Lara responded before Jonathan could answer. “We’re from Quadrant 4. We wanted to offer our condolences.”

  The woman looked them up and down.

  “We’re also investigating the scene,” Jonathan added. “But it looks like we’re late. Everything’s been cleaned up.”

  Despite Lara’s concern, Jonathan’s words seemed to positively trigger the woman, who scoffed under her breath. “I’m Q’s Aunt.”

  Lara blinked, unsure of who “Q” was, but the woman continued. “And yeah; they cleaned it up real good. So much so that I’ve been back here every hour to see the place with fresh eyes in case I missed something they might have left behind. Looking for proof, you see.” She puckered her lips as if she was sucking on something souring. “My sister’s had a long day with the media.”

  “Does your sister have any more information on what happened here?”

  “She’s Q’s ma. If you count whoever found him as the first person on the scene, she was the second.”

  Lara’s suspicions were confirmed; she had recognized her from the image of the mother on tv.

  The woman’s finger circled the area around the alleyway behind them. “Supposedly claw marks everywhere. Blood. Some shiny rubble. She dragged him back home to tend to him and wouldn’t leave his side. She told me what I’d see, but by the time I showed up, cleaners were already on it.”

  “You said you’ve been back here nearly every hour,” said Jonathan. “I’d think coming back this many times would exhaust anyone.”

  “My sister ain’t a liar. But what she described’s the same as the boogeyman out here. One, maybe two people see it. Used to make fun of those, tell ‘em they were imagining things or trying to make logic where logic weren’t.”

  “Now it’s happened to you.”

  She jutted her chin. “Used to be that the victims would just disappear. But this time, it was too messy. They even sent out cleaners. Now you know that means they don’t want us to know. They don’t wanna confirm it.”

  “Don’t want to confirm what?”

  The woman chuckled, “I’ll say the same thing to you that I’ve been sayin’ to everyone all day. I don’t care if I look crazy. But I ain’t gonna sit back and pretend I don’t acknowledge the truth when it’s right in front of me. And that right there’s the truth.” She finished by drawing the same indicative circle around the alleyway the way she had a few moments prior.

  Though Jonathan struggled to understand her meaning, Lara mentally traced over her understanding of why, exactly, this instance had been messier.

  It hadn’t entirely been her fault; by the woman’s explanation, this had happened before. But having been face-to-face with the creatures: Lara knew.

  They’re trained to kill.

  She took a deep breath. There had to be more pieces to this puzzle. But she had one that she couldn’t reveal to Jonathan.

  Not yet.

  She had to ask Zanatos if they’d ever attempted to retrieve the pocket watch before her arrival.

  “I’m sorry.” She said, finally returning to the conversation. “I’d like to extend my condolences to her, as well.”

  “Don’t bother,” responded the woman. “My nephew was hell-bent on taking the wildest way out of this world, and he’s succeeded. The fact that he’s gone ain’t surprising. It’s his mother I’m worried about. News’s already beginning to run her through the ringer as a loon. Add that to the fact that she’s just lost her boy.” The woman shook her head.

  Jonathan took the opportunity to jump in, offering her his assurance. “We will be investigating this.”

  Lara eyed him, questioning whether the guarantee was truly his to give.

  The woman seemed to share the sentiment, barking a single laugh before heading down the street, presumably back to her sister.

  Once she was out of ear-range, Lara turned to Jonathan. “‘The Director’ doesn’t have to worry about red-tape?” She bit, failing to hide her affront at a broken promise in the making.

  “An afterthought,” Jonathan just kept his eyes on the shrinking image of the woman. “We’ll figure that part out when we get back.”

  “Don’t you think before you act?” She reigned herself in, trying to reduce her apparent stake in the matter. “I feel like it can’t be that simple.”

  “It won’t be.” He looked at her. “I’m only in the position I’m in because I was good at stirring the pot just enough to make sure it doesn’t boil over.”

  She puckered her eyes, working through the meaning in his metaphor. “Do you really want to get involved in this?”

  “I haven’t been back around these people for longer than I’m proud to admit; but one thing I do know is that they’re not just going to bury this. Q2’s slapping a bandaid on a wound that’s too deep. The likelihood that it’ll fester is too strong.”

  Lara could feel her pulse growing, anxiety building as he vocalized his thought-process.

  “The real benefit of having been in my ‘ivory tower’ for this long, though, is having a pretty good idea of who I need to get to in order to cut that red-tape.”

  “And who is that?”

  “A man named Wolfe,” he answered, triggering her recognition of the name Evelynn and Penny had briefly mentioned earlier. “There’s obviously a lot more that goes into it than that. I’m going to have to at least put on a show, make an effort with the board, officially get shot down. But, once that’s said and done: he’s the real goal. I’ve just gotta plan this out.”

  “So,” Lara said, unable to resist the opportunity to take a small jab. “You do think,”

  Jonathan chuckled. “Acting on impulse may not have gotten us the meeting we wanted, but it got us a lead. We can work with this.”

  Lara took a double-take. “We?” Her business was finished, her apologies sent. She had no desire to push it with the two women.

  “Well, I need to give them a reason why I was down here, don’t I?”

  “I thought you said you were escorting me? Didn’t you tell anyone on the board that you were coming down here?” When he only returned a smile, Lara failed to contain her horror. “You snuck out?!”

  The perfect way to attract more attention to herself. At this rate, between Zanatos and Jonathan, she would never be able to get back to Champaign to live out the rest of her distorted life.

  As if on queue, they heard a rumbling in the distance. It grew louder with each passing second until a figure on a mount approached them with dangerous velocity.

  “What the--”

  Jonathan's voice was drowned out by the motor of the bike as it came to a halt immediately in front of them.

  The rider removed their helmet, shaking back a ponytail of red hair.

  “Scarlet!”

  Jonathan glanced confusedly between Lara and Scarlet.

  Scarlet untied her hair, re-securing it into a bun. “Hey! I was just passing through and happened to hear you were also in town!”

  Hit by a wave of doubt, Lara’s eyes narrowed. “What were you doing in Gurram?”

  “A little bit of this, a little bit of that,” Scarlet responded, shrugging her off. “But I actually couldn’t find you this morning, and now it makes sense. We had a date, remember?”

  Lara turned her eyes to the ground. “Sorry; Zanatos.” Avoiding eye-contact with Jonathan, she quickly corrected herself. “Work.”

  Jonathan jumped in, directing his question toward Scarlet before she could speak. “Don’t you work under Zanatos?”

  If Scarlet had been startled by the recognition, she didn’t show it. “I am honored to be recognized by your excellence, Director. And yes, I do.”

  “Does he know you’re out here?”

  “Oh, don’t worry, sir,” she answered. “I am but a lowly underling. My work this day has been trivial, yet completed. I do only as he asks--”

  “Er, Scarlet, did you have something you needed from me?”

  “Right!” She rattled, obviously holding back a laugh. “Now that I’ve found you, I was hoping we’d be able to have that discussion we were talking about. I know a place--”

  Jonathan interrupted her. “We were just about to head back for dinner with a friend.”

  Lara cleared her throat. “Your friend,” she corrected. “We still have a bit of time. I’m sure he -- both of you, really, would appreciate some time to catch up while he finishes up the rest of the prep.”

  The corner of Jonathan’s lip twitched downward, giving away his reluctance. “You’re probably right. We’ll discuss this matter further when you get back, then.” He turned back to Scarlet. “Do you need any information regarding the drop-off location?”

  Scarlet handed Lara a helmet as she approached the bike. “I’ll have Lara tell me when we’re done -- thanks, though, your excellency!”

  Lara threw one leg over the side and clutched Scarlet’s waist, ignoring Jonathan’s questioning eyes. “I’ll see you soon, then,” she said to the ground, rather than him.

  And with that, they were off.