Despite her resolve to find some way to complete the ritual with no human casualties, she soon found herself treading the path she had before. In the end she resolved herself to instead investigate ways that she could protect herself, as she had decided that Palotl may not have her best interests at heart, even more so than she had suspected. Keira no longer felt comfortable solely rely on it for her safety. Finding the person responsible for stopping her death would be the best in that regard, but since she didn’t know who, she had decided keeping a close eye on the investigation process and get a little closer to the detectives. It would help to know who to avoid, and that way she wouldn’t have to put so much faith in Palotl.

From what she had overheard from Maxwell, he seemed to have no moral objections to putting her out of her misery if he suspected what she was up to, but he also seemed a little clued into what’s happening. Her hope was that if she got more involved into the case and implied that she was under supernatural threat, then maybe she could get him to spill some ways she could protect herself. And it would help to know who to avoid; that way she wouldn’t have to put so much faith in Palotl. It did involve buddying up to them, which could go extremely wrong if she was found out.

So, that was her first goal today and the reason why she was heading towards the local police station. The second goal was to meet up with Iris and Morgan for ‘friend time,’ supposedly. Keira could probably guess the reason why Iris suggested it.

After Keira and Morgan’s encounter with… whatever it was, she had been a little distant. Not replying to messages as she would, and not responding to questions or remarks in lectures. While it had only been going on for the few days space between the incident and that day, her change in behaviour was drastic enough to warrant concern. At least that was what she had thought. Personally she thought she was handling it quite well. Once the first few nights after her talk with Palotl had ended, she felt like she had built a resilience against the intermittent panic attacks. Now she was a woman on a mission. And that mission was to get Iris and Morgan on the same page. Especially Iris, as she wasn’t there when that thing visited Archer. Keira felt like that would be the most difficult hurdle.

She wasn’t going to the meeting blind though, she had done her research on various mythical creatures, cryptids and local legends before coming to the meeting. It didn’t yield much, to Keira’s disappointment. Many of the more modern and documented cases mostly came from people who were extremely drunk or high. So not very reliable for what she needed. That particular night had ended with Keira debating herself in the mirror, pointedly ignoring the bloodred butterfly that was pinned to the wall behind her. Only in her reflection though. It had ended in the perfectly valid conclusion that she couldn’t decide on anything herself, and that the power of the human imagination is far too strong. Keira did end up with a small notebook filled with small titbits on some of the more prevalent and more documented rumours. In case it ever came in useful.

Keira broke out of her thoughts when she approached the station. Her footsteps slowed, but not of her own volition. There was an increasing itch in the back of her head, one that told her to turn around and go away. She paused then. It would make sense that she felt that way, Maxwell and Marshall might not take too kindly to her presence. While she had been the victim of the crime, they had been keeping her annoyingly in the dark on their plans and suspect list. While she could understand it, it was kind of inconvenient. Hence why she was trying to talk to them now. Hence why having such anxieties now was pointless. Keira pushed through her inaction and stepped into the station with purpose. Only to pause.

It was almost completely empty. There was only one worker who was on the far side of the waiting room, tapping her foot as the kettle boiled. The way she tapped her foot was off though. It seemed like she was doing it out of impatience, but the movement had a sluggish quality to it. For a moment Keira thought that the worker just really needed that coffee, but after a few moments in the station she felt a faint tickling on her inner wrist. Over Palotl’s mark. She looked around the room, but the only things that stood out was the worker and the sound of her foot tapping, intermittently overlapping the sound of the water boiling. Keira decided to approach the woman.

“Do you know where everyone is?” The worker looked at her dully, processing the question before she sighed.

“They got forensics in on the scene. Most are there to help lock it down and avoid further contamination, the rest are out to get the alibi for some of the suspects.” Her voice was incredibly flat, and she wasn’t really looking at Keira. The kettle finished boiling, so she poured it into her mug immediately. Then she downed almost half of the cup. This didn’t seem to do much for her, but she still took the rest of it with her when she speed walked out of the waiting room and through another door. While Keira was disappointed that her plans were so easily foiled, she figured she could just sit in one of the seats until they came back. Even though her mark was acting up again, it was minor compared to the other times, so she figured it mustn’t be anything too serious. Maybe she could investigate the area while she waited. Try and find the source. Before she could go and do anything however, she heard a loud noise from Seth’s office.

Was he in? While she would have thought that the man who questioned her when she woke up would be on the scene of the crime or investigating the alibi, he might have stayed behind to keep an eye on the station though, alongside the worker who had disappeared off somewhere. Keira took a couple of steps towards the door and then found herself hesitating again, like when she was about to walk into the station. There was an increasing sense of wrongness to doing this. Even though she knew that Seth wouldn’t mind her it was becoming physically difficult to approach the door. She took in a deep breath and pushed those anxieties aside. This was important. She began walking the rest of the way towards the door and raised her hand to knock, pausing again for some unknown reason. It was then she noticed that it was cracked open slightly. Through the small opening she could hear small rustling noises and slight murmuring.

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“Where is it… where is it…” She didn’t recognise the voice. It wasn’t Seth or either of the detectives.

Keira pushed the door open a slight more, allowing for a look into the room. The person’s back was to her, even though she could only see his back it did seem at least vaguely familiar. It took her a little longer to realise who it truly was however, as she hadn’t really talked to the man much. But she had seen the local papers and heard the gossip. The man searching the office was Archer Hamilton. It was fortunate that he seemed intent on his search, combing through files on the shelf behind the desk, flicking through a book once he reached it. Whatever he was looking for mustn’t be good if he was going searching through confidential files, and Keira didn’t really want to give anyone more of a reason to kill her, so she slipped away and did a quick sweep for the woman she saw earlier to try and tell her about him. She was gone though.

Instead of standing around and risk getting seen by Archer, she decided to throw in the towel and head straight to the café to meet up with Iris and Morgan. Immediately after leaving the building the faint tickling sensation coming from her mark vanished and the anxiety that had been mounting in her head dissipated. Keira didn’t dwell on it for too long, she turned and started to walk to the café. Just as she was thinking that she might have to go back another day to speak to one of the detectives, she ran into Maxwell Weil and a couple of officers who were holding paper bags and chatting amongst themselves. She needed to tell them about Archer, and also needed to speak with Weil, but she wasn’t sure how to lead into it. So she didn’t.

“Officer Weil! I saw Archer searching through files in Seth’s office.” The officers paused for a moment, blinked and then began to rush back to the station. Which included Maxwell. She panicked and grabbed his arm. “Wait! Could I please speak with you?” Maxwell eyed the others rushing back to the station before sighing and dropping them to his arm. Keira let go.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“About the investigation. I noticed something suspicious about Archer.”

“Aside from the fact that he was going through one of our offices?”

“Yeah. A couple days ago I was walking by his house, and I noticed that he got a package delivered to him. But I didn’t see the woman exit her van, and there was also someone who looked like her sitting inside of it. After she delivered it she just sort of disappeared.” His brow furrowed slightly and the amiable smile dropped.

“Did you happen to hear any conversation?”

“No.” The smile dropped even more. “Should I have?”

“Oh no. It…” He trailed off and seemed to get lost in thought for a little while. Keira had left out the details because she didn’t want to seem too suspicious, but this reaction surprised her.

“Officer Weil?”

“You haven’t had anything out of the ordinary happen to you, have you?”

“I got kidnapped. Does that count?”

“Besides that.” She might have to reveal more than she wanted, she realised. How would she go about it though? Would it be safe to say that she was approached by Gastele? Then Keira might have to get into detail about why she was approached, and about the conversation that followed.

“I noticed a blonde woman in formal dress following me one day. I didn’t want to say because it only happened that day, but it stuck out because I don’t really see anyone in formal dress.” She couldn’t decipher the look that came across Maxwell’s face, but he did give her a longer look before sighing.

“Okay. What I’m about to say is going to sound stupid, but you need to follow these instructions to the letter. Do not say please or thank you. Do not welcome anyone into your house. It doesn’t matter whether or not if they are your friend, your family, if you know them or if you don’t, you do not say those things.”

“Are you encouraging me to forget basic manners?” Keira couldn’t help the vague amusement creeping into her voice.

“I’m not saying ‘be mean,’ in fact I discourage that. But don’t say those things to anyone, okay?”

“Um… sure.” Keira and Morgan had done enough preliminary research to know what that means, but none of it had mentioned to do it with people they already know.

“Good. Is there anything else?” Though she did come here to see if she could get any protection against Gastele, it appeared that she had gotten all the advice she could. Onto the other reason she wanted to speak to him. It would be pushing it, she knew, but after a moment’s hesitation she continued.

“I… Yes. I’ve felt really on edge about everything and everyone, because I don’t know who would do such a thing or why… and it’s just becoming more difficult to trust the people around me. It’s so tiring, being suspicious of everyone… It would help if I knew more about the investigation, I think. So, I know where and who to avoid.”

“I’m afraid that the exact details of the investigation are not open to civilians at this time. We can’t have you going around and interfering with it.”

“That’s fair…” She tried to not look too crestfallen, but maybe the sheer exhaustion from the past few weeks had edged into her expression because Maxwell continued.

“Look. Your friends and family are out of the woods.” Keira felt herself relax even more, but she did have to double check.

“So home and school are safe?” Maxwell opened his mouth and then shut it again. He looked flatly at her. The worker had said that he was out with the other officers to check Naima’s alibi. Did he think that she was trying to get him to say that she was guilty? “You don’t have to answer that. I’m sor-“

“Yes.” He knew that he was confirming Naima’s alibi, and Keira was grateful to him for it.

“Th-“

“Remember what I said.”

“…I feel like I’m safe to th-“

“Doesn’t matter. Get into the habit of showing appreciation another way, at least until we find that woman who was following you.”

“Alright…” Maxwell smiled at her and made to move past her.

“You’ll get used to it. In the meantime, though, I really do have to check that situation back at the station. Would you like my number in case the woman does turn up again?”

“Sure.” It would be useful to have a more direct way of contacting him, she figured. Keira felt like she had gotten a lot out of that encounter, and a little extra in the form of a helpline. Now she could relax into her next activity which meant that she had to meet her friends in the café very soon. She also made notes on what Maxwell said, so that she could bring them up to the group properly when they finally get talking. It was a big hint at what she was dealing with after all, and technical time off was no excuse to become complacent.