Peter Forthright was the new Captain of the police department that Ace worked at, and therefore it meant that it was his time to finally bring down who he thought was a criminal mastermind.
Ace was at his desk, typing away when Forthright came to deliver the news personally, happy, so smug, a year of hard work had finally paid off. Forthright silently placed a stapled packet of papers on his desk, and Ace looked up at him.
He smiled, took the papers, read them, and returned them.
“This is for the wrong person, I think there is a mistake,” Ace said.
Forthright grinned, shook his head no, and gave the packet right back to him. Ace adjusted his blue tie, his white uniform suddenly too hot, too tight, and again, insisted that this was given to him by mistake.
“Acheus, people have noticed, ” Forthright said. “I like you but some people around here don’t.”
“Noticed what?”
“That new watch you have. On your salary? Everyone gets the same pay when they start, you’ve only been here a year and a half.”
Forthright pointed to Ace’s new watch, another gift that he never asked for but kept anyway, because, why not?
“This is a gift,” Ace replied.
Forthright forced a smile, and said, “Sadly it still stands. These people, and their procedures. You know how it is.”
Ace nodded solemnly, and Forthright assured him that it was just a formality. Someone must be out to get him! There was no way possible he was a dirty cop. Whoever was slandering him in the department would be reprimanded immediately!
“I just, I just feel that this isn’t a good idea, especially since next week will be so hectic and-”
“Just see it as getting the entire week off,” Forthright said. “You get to party the entire Week of Night!”
“I mean...yeah…”
A walk of shame was done as he followed Forthright to his office, and then left without his badge and gun. They all knew, his co-workers watched, drinking their coffees, glancing from their screens, and they waved, and Ace knew he was surrounded by traitors.
Or he was more paranoid than Forthright.
He briskly left the department, ignoring the friendly front-desk attendant that always tried to get his attention, and the first thing he did was try to cheat his way around it, instead of admitting who gave him the watch on the form that Forthright left on his desk.
It was still there, inside the building, on the desk, yet Ace was outside, angry and stubborn.
He took out the thin glass screen masquerading as a phone and called the contact labeled ANGRY RABBIT.
“Levi, they suspended me from work, do something,” Ace said.
“Hey...nice to hear from you too,” Levi replied monotonously.
“Sorry. Sorry, I’m just upset, I’ve been framed! Framed,” Ace shouted.
Nearby birds outside the police station flew away, as an unhinged policeman yelled on the phone about how the man kept us all down, how they had it coming this entire time, and he wanted to burn the system.
“Ace I think you’re overreacting,” Levi replied.
“No, I’m not! This is serious! How can I find another job?”
“Ace you’re a cop. You can shoot a guy for no reason in broad daylight off 5th Avenue and they’ll hire you like five towns over.”
“Huh. Oh, yeah. Never mind then.”
“Since you’re free you wanna come over?”
“Mmm, yeah,” Ace grunted.
In the blink of an eye, Ace was at Levi’s apartment, specifically the main hallway. The television was on, loud, blaring, and Ace walked down to the living room, familiar with the layout.
Levi was lounging on a white couch, watching baseball, and he grinned, and Ace grinned back. Levi was about to step out, he had time off work, with the week-long celebration nearby. He had on a swimsuit and smelled of sunscreen and cigarettes, and Ace was very happy that there would be less clothing impeding his way.
Levi mumbled something about his uniform as they kissed on the couch, caught up in each other, the loud blare of the television masking the noise of his wife coming home early from work.
They stopped, the feeling of someone watching, and Mary Jane was there, she had returned home early.
Ace had not seen her in a long time, and it was strange seeing her without heels on, in professional business attire, in her own house, because he started to think it was his own house, his own partner.
He said nothing as she stepped into the lounging pit where all the couches were, the tiny miniature fake fireplace, and no heat. Her eyes turned gold, and no one said a word, as she slowly approached Ace.
She was trying to intimidate him, staring right at him. It was working.
“Hello,” Ace said, his voice cracking. “I like your clothes.”
She was wearing one of numerous white blouses and pencil skirts, a small purse to match. Mary Jane smiled and asked her husband a simple question.
“Levi, do you like meat, ” Mary Jane asked.
Levi said nothing, and Mary Jane repeated the question. He refused to answer her.
With her gaze never leaving Levi’s, she squatted, held Ace’s leg, and pulled.
“Do you like meat, Levi, ” Mary Jane asked.
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Ace screamed, the crowd on the television screamed, the words HOMERUN, flashed on the screen, and she was still squatting, Ace’s blood pouring all over her blouse, her black hair pulled into a bun, and the screaming continued, the couch ruined, the day ruined.
“Do you like meat,” Mary Jane asked.
Levi shook his head no , furiously and Mary Jane smiled, licking Ace’s blood. She shuddered, the sudden influx of iron making her stronger, his pureblood so tasty, and she understood now why she and all the others like her loved meat so much.
Ace was laying on his side, sobbing, pulling himself on the side of the couch.
My leg.
He had lost too much blood to get away, his powers now gone.
My leg.
He fell to the floor and looked back, and Mary Jane grabbed Levi’s mouth. He shook in terror, as she slid one of her small hands into his mouth, and then forced the other in.
The sound of a tree branch cracking, wet and thick while it was raining happened as Mary Jane pried his jaw open. Levi’s legs and arms flailed wildly but his fear overcame him, and Mary Jane, her crime of passion almost complete.
Levi was still breathing, hot tears flowing as she stuffed Ace’s leg down Levi’s throat and-
Ace awoke with a startle, in the ugly break room, bright yellow, a puddle of drool around him, wondering how long he had been out cold. Slowly he sat up straight and without looking down, he rubbed both of his legs, crying, alone in the breakroom.
He knew which one it was, it was the left one because it hurt, the pain went up to the point where the leg broke off, at his upper thigh, and he breathed hard and heavy, confused because it was not the first time.
This one was just much more violent than the first few.
Ace knew there was no fighting it, but there was some avoiding it. He calmed himself, and got a cup of coffee using a mug that said YES! YES! YES! , and went to his messy desk. Immediately, Peter Forthright arrived, giddy to tell him the good news.
He handed Ace the stapled packet of papers, Ace took it, and without looking at it, he said nothing. He took off his badge, returned the gun, gave it to Peter Forthright, and said he was leaving.
“You’re not fighting it,” Forthright asked. “You’re not even going to read the paper? ”
“There’s nothing to fight,” Ace replied. “This was going to happen.”
Peter Forthright was robbed of his moment of glory because Ace had accepted the future. He stood there, with his perfectly gelled hair, furious, his stomach curdling, because he knew he was a criminal. Everyone would know.
Everyone!
Ace was not a criminal, and since he was not a criminal he left the police station, smiling, waving goodbye to the front desk attendant who was happy he had finally been respectful to her.
He sat outside the police station, on a brown bench next to the entrance, and loosened his white officer’s top, the heat still overbearing. He called the contact ANGRY RABBIT and he picked up.
“Hi,” Ace mumbled.
“What's up,” Levi replied.
Ace knew that Levi would not believe him because Levi was the sort of man who needed proof. He would believe anything as long as you could show a report, a picture, even a slight fabrication, but a dream was not proof.
“I don’t have a job anymore,” Ace sighed.
“Yeah, you do. You’re a cop! You can-”
“- shoot a guy for no reason in broad daylight off 5th Avenue and they’ll hire me like five towns over.”
Levi held his breath on the other side of the line and he wanted to know how he knew what he was going to say, but something told him it was another problem that somehow Ace would drag him into.
“I can’t come over today,” Ace continued. “Your wife is coming home early. She’s upset.”
“No, she’s not. She’s not coming back for two more days and then leaving again,” Levi said.
“Okay.”
The acceptance of his answer, the monotone sound, Levi asked Ace if he was fine, as Ace said yes, and that he would see him soon, just not today, or maybe not any time soon, he wasn’t sure if this was a good fit.
Ace blinked home, to his happy dog, and he was still on the phone, listening to Levi telling him that he didn’t know what he was talking about, he never really did. Ace sat on the couch, petting Chewie, and listened to Levi try to convince him to stay, but Ace wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“Let’s just slow down,” Ace mumbled.
“We haven't even done everything, how much more can we slow down, ” Levi replied.
“By not seeing each other.”
Ace hung up the phone without saying goodbye, as he always did no matter the type of conversation he was having, and he did not hear what Levi said.
“I think I want a more serious thing with you.”
The soft ding of the door went off, Levi noticed the call had ended, and Mary Jane had returned early. Levi looked at her, a living ghost, and Mary Jane smiled, a confused smile because he seemed terrified to see her in her own home.
“I came back early, there was a mix-up,” she exclaimed.
“ Oh. ”
“You look like you’re ready to go to the beach. I’m kind of tired but I don’t mind going with you,” Mary Jane said.
Levi nodded, put the phone in his pocket, and rubbed his nose because it hurt, there was a strange pain because this was not quite right. He rubbed the chair, the white chair, and for some reason, a feeling of terror came over him, that something had happened, and he shot up from it.
“What are you doing,” Mary Jane asked.
Levi caressed his couch as if it held the world’s answers to all life’s problems.
“I don’t know, but I think I feel something,” he replied.
“I think you need a nap more than I do,” Mary Jane giggled.
Levi nodded, and they agreed to stay in that evening, and no limbs were lost, and no lives, as well.
Nothing of any particular importance happened that evening. The Rock stayed inside the guest room with the mirror, Levi continued to lie about things he had no reason to lie about, Mary Jane pretended like she didn’t notice, and Ace was afraid to sleep because he wanted to keep his other leg.