A couple of days pass, Solomon spends Sunday, her day off trying to ease her mind. The client, the port… She can’t help being worried for her colleagues and herself. In her mind, however, all of it is overshadowed by the spirals on the backs of her hands. She feels somewhat selfish for that, but she wants to believe that her concerns are justified. Random patterns like this don’t just appear on people, or at least they shouldn’t. And worse, they don’t seem to stop growing. She briefly considers sharing that information with her colleagues, but decides against it. Would they think that it’s contagious? Is it contagious? She has no way to tell for certain, but she has yet to see anyone else have such complaints.
Each night, the same dream, the same nightmare, but with one difference: the figure seems to be ever closer. She can’t move when she’s experiencing it, locked in a staring contest with the thing. She finds it best not to think about what will happen when it reaches her.
Monday starts like every other day, she does her routine and gets to work, not expecting much from such an ordinary day, but staying hopeful in finding answers.
“I regret to inform you that I have yet to get back from our client.” Adelar states right as Solomon walks in. She already knows what this means, more of the same. But maybe that’s for the best.
“I have already been called about a noise complaint.” Adelar continues. “I need someone to take that one on.”
“I’ll do it I guess.” Lisa says in a disheartened tone. “I’m also taking Solomon, she ain’t had one of those yet.”
Lisa’s right, every time there was a noise complaint, Solomon always either had something else to do or just really didn’t feel like going out to what will most likely be two neighbours arguing over something ferociously petty. But if there is a time to do it, she figures this is as good of a time as any. At least she isn’t going alone.
“Sure, let’s do it then.” Solomon affirms.
Adelar gives them the details and tells Durazo and Yaroslav about a different case to work on while Solomon reads the paper. She and Lisa leave by car right after.
“This one called two hours ago?” Solomon thinks out loud later. “We weren’t even open then. Why not just call the police at that point?”
“Maybe they just know Adelar personally?” Lisa guesses. “Thought he’d be more helpful?”
“Fat chance of that.” Solomon scoffs. ”Let’s just get this over with.”
What’s really on her mind is asking Lisa more about the port. Maybe this is a great time to ask, as the wolf looked to be in a good mood ever since they left.
“So… What do you think of this whole port situation?” Saying it out loud, the question feels much more unnatural than she hoped.
“Can’t get it out of your head, can ya?” Lisa shakes her head.
Solomon looks down, figuring that she should not have asked.
“I’ll be honest, I can’t either.” Lisa admits, causing Solomon’s ears to perk up. “It’s all just a bit weird, innit? Like, it seems a little too convenient that these two groups happened to be precisely when and where we were told they’d be. And then they say the same things? I may not get paid to ask, but bloody hell, I can still have my suspicions.”
Before they can continue the conversation, they arrive at the scene. The houses are far apart from one another, Solomon considers just how loud something would have to be to warrant a noise complaint here of all places. In addition to that, she doesn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.
The two get out and walk up to the door.
“Right, just follow me on this one.” Lisa orders, albeit in a casual tone. Solomon feels slightly patronised, she could handle it by herself. Then again, it makes her feel better to have backup.
Lisa knocks on the door, which opens it slightly as she does. The door isn’t even properly closed, let alone locked.
“That’s strange…” Lisa pushes the door open. The house is a mess on the inside, pieces of furniture are tipped over, pieces of broken glass litter the floor in the kitchen.
“This just turned into a wellness check, I tell ya.” Lisa remarks and steps inside, gesturing to Solomon to do the same. Reluctantly, she follows.
The situation is the same in most of the rooms they look inside, but not a soul is seen in any of them. They find nothing but the aftermath of what Solomon hopes is just a rather big fight and not something worse. The bathroom window is broken, likely due to the piece of wood that lies on the ground outside just under it, which looks to be the leg of a chair.
Opening a door to the house’s guest room, Solomon spots something concerning in one of the rooms: a carpet has been pulled away, revealing a trapdoor. Leading to it are claw marks on the wooden floor.
“Lisa…” Solomon says softly, thoroughly uncomfortable with the situation. The wolf turns to look and, to Solomon’s surprise, her eyes open wide as she approaches without hesitation.
“Lisa, what are you doing?” Solomon asks, louder this time, Lisa is already opening the trapdoor.
“Detective work.” The wolf responds bluntly. Behind the door, there is a staircase leading down to a dark basement. Lisa sniffs the air, the look on her face turning ever so slightly less excited.
“Are you sure about this?” Concern is palpable in Solomon’s voice, she finds her hands slightly shaking. The basement of this house in particular is the last place where she’d like to go at this moment.
The wolf looks back at her with a… smile?
“You bet I’m sure!” She says vibrantly. “Listen, a noise complaint, the condition of the house, the coppery smell and now this? Someone clearly needs help down there. So I’m going in, with or without you.”
“Coppery smell? Don’t tell me…”
Solomon would rather do just about anything but go down there, but she feels like Lisa has a point. Someone might indeed be down there, though she would much prefer the alternative.
The two slowly make their way down the stairs. Being a cat and a wolf, they can see in the dark quite well. The walls are made of oak wood, the surface looks old, rough, and unpleasant to touch, which would likely result in more than a couple splinters, not to mention a nail visibly jutting out at one point. The smell is growing increasingly musty as they walk down, Solomon can make out the coppery smell Lisa was talking about.
The stairs creak slightly under their feet. Looking ahead from the foot of the stairs, there is a hallway, around ten metres long, with a corner at the end to the right. Even in this narrow hallway, a couple barrels and pallets are stored, although in a better condition than the walls.
Lisa sniffs the air and recoils slightly.
“That ain’t good at all…” She says softly. Solomon asks her what she means, but Lisa shushes her.
Quietly, or at least as quietly as they can, they make their way to the end of the hallway, Solomon following Lisa closely behind. They look at each other before the corner and take a peek.
Solomon has no time to take in what the original purpose of the segment was, for they are greeted by a scene quite macabre: a white leaf-nosed bat with red eyes is crouched next to the corpse of what they guess is the owner of the house, lying in a puddle of blood, surrounded by four hooded figures. Evidently the scent that Lisa picked up at the foot of the stairs.
Lisa doesn’t stick around for long, she steps back to the hallway almost immediately. However, something in particular has Solomon transfixed. The bat has his sleeves rolled up and on his arms are crimson lines going from his fingertips all the way beyond where his sleeves are. She first mistook the markings for blood, but they are too pronounced, too unnatural, too deep a shade of crimson for that. They are thin and resemble veins, Solomon is sure she could see them shine briefly when she peeked around the corner.
She comes to a conclusion that she hopes is wrong: whoever this is, he bears markings similar to her spirals. She’s not prepared for such a revelation, in fact, she wants to scream, she wants to run, but she simply can’t bring herself to look away. She feels horrified, but fascinated.
“Who is that?” A voice is heard from one of the hooded figures. The others turn their heads and glance to face Solomon, who is still looking in, straight into the red eyes of the bat now, seeing nothing but a strange mix of confusion and anger in his look.
Lisa is about to start running when she notices that Solomon isn’t moving. She pulls her away with her cane, which seems to snap her out of it. All of a sudden Solomon thinks of only one thing: get out.
The two break into a sprint, in her terror, Solomon almost trips on one of the pallets, although managing to balance herself, but not without her right glove getting caught on a splinter, tearing a hole through it. Behind them, she can hear the hurried footsteps of the bat and the figures, which serves as an effective, but unwelcome motivator. Taking two steps at a time, fueled by adrenaline, they finally run out from the basement, Lisa then forcefully slams the door down, not giving their pursuers a chance to catch up.
Practically breaking through the door, they run out the house. Lisa opens the car door on the right, Solomon jumps through it and into the seat. Lisa gets in not a second after, starts the car, and they leave, breaking the speed limit. Lisa takes a moment to catch her breath, Solomon is holding her head, the reality of the situation hitting her just now.
“You know Solomon…” Lisa says eventually. “...should have just buggered off, I’ll give ya that. And now I’m not sleepin’ tonight.” She keeps focus on the road, eyes wide open. She notices the lack of response from her feline companion, however.
“Solomon?” She looks over at her, the cat is looking ahead with a thousand-yard stare. All of this… It’s too much. As if her nightmares weren’t bad enough, she feels like they’ll only get worse now.
Lisa puts a hand on her shoulder, which makes her shudder and look at her.
“You alright, Solomon?” Lisa asks worriedly. The cat turns her head to look ahead and nods, likely not convincing Lisa, to say the least.
After what feels like a sufficient distance from the house, they stop at the side of the road, nothing but a grassy field on each side.
“That’s a report if I’ve ever seen one.” Says Lisa, dialling Adelar’s number as she gets out of the car to breathe some fresh air.
Solomon is slowly calming down, which she herself can hardly believe after seeing that. It’s one thing that she saw the aftermath of a murder, but those crimson markings… They somehow disturb her more.
“They were red… Why were they red? Why are mine green and his red?”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Lisa opens the door on Solomon’s side after pacing around on the side of the road with her phone in her hand, breaking the train of thought.
“Hey, if you’re feeling better…” She sighs. “You saw much more of the scene. If it’s alright…” Solomon nods and takes the phone from Lisa, who then closes the door.
“I want to hear everything, what did you see?” Says the voice of Adelar on the other end.
She describes the scene, the basement, the body, the hooded figures, the bat, and mentions the markings in great detail.
Adelar stays silent for a few seconds, leaving Solomon nervous.
“Are you absolutely certain that’s what you saw?” Adelar asks in a tone which Solomon finds disturbingly calm.
“I’m sure.” The feline replies, hoping for answers.
More silence from Adelar, followed by a response entirely too vague for Solomon’s liking.
“Then I’m afraid this is beyond us. Do not speak of this to anyone. Not even the authorities.”
He then hangs up.
Solomon looks at the phone in utter disbelief and gets out of the car as well, suddenly feeling like she is being… Watched, again. She looks around with a feeling of paranoia, but sees no one other than Lisa. It’s just them and the fields, nobody even drove by them since they stopped.
“That was fast.” Lisa says, looking suspicious as she walks over to a concerned-looking Solomon. She explains what Adelar told her and she’s pretty sure she can see Lisa’s eye twitch. The wolf then takes the phone from her, dialling the same number.
Solomon sits back down and wonders what exactly does the eagle know and why he refuses to share that information.
Solomon can hear Lisa argue with Adelar over the phone, she looks, and sounds, livid.
“The fuck do you mean don’t speak of this to anyone?!” Lisa demands, voice raised. “What’s this supposed to mean, Adelar?”
A long pause from Lisa, during which Solomon hears, but doesn’t understand the voice of their boss on the other end.
“Oh, you know I have to ask some questions now.” Lisa continues. “The least I can do is inform the police. The actual police.”
Another, longer pause follows her statement.
“You really expect us to just sit around while some Jack the Ripper-lookin’ wanker is out there killing people?!”
Solomon hears what sounds like one word coming from the other end. Lisa looks tense and frustrated. The cat has never seen, or wanted to see her like this.
“Do you have any idea-” She stops mid-sentence at Adelar’s response and grits her teeth. “Right. But I will not forget this.” She then hangs up and shakes her head.
“What’d he say?” Solomon inquires, still shaken.
“We don’t have to go back today. I’m supposed to take that as a positive, but I would much rather have some bloody answers.” Looking defeated, Lisa gets back into the car. “I can take you home if you want.”
Solomon would much rather not be alone. Anything but to be alone with her thoughts and that thing in her dreams after all that happened…
“Would you mind if I stayed at your place?” She asks in a gentle tone.
“Not at all.” Lisa chuckles softly. “Can’t blame ya. I’m sorry for all… That.” Lisa looks down at the ground, then back at the cat. “Was kinda stupid in retrospect, wasn’t it?”
Solomon shakes her head.
“You just wanted to help, didn’t you?” She tries to comfort Lisa, despite what they witnessed. “It wasn’t just your playing Sherlock, you couldn’t possibly have known what was down there!”
That remark earns Solomon a short-lived frown from Lisa.
“I guess you’re right on that.” The wolf smiles, her tail slightly swaying. “Let’s go to my place then.”
The drive to Lisa’s house is longer than Solomon would have expected. Still technically in Lanolow, at the other end of the city from the station, with no other house in a 300-metre radius.
“She goes to work all the way from here?”
Her house is on top of a hill and looks old-fashioned, built with grey bricks. The roof is covered with grey tiles. Lisa goes to the front door, followed closely by Solomon.
“Make yourself feel at home.” Says the wolf, opening the door for her friend.
Solomon steps inside. The interior of the house is like going back a couple centuries in time, vintage furniture and antiques decorate Lisa’s house.
Solomon looks around in awe. The living room has a built-in fireplace for heating, a couch for up to three people, decorative weapons, paintings of people she has never seen on the wall and even a phonograph. In stark contrast to that, there is a modern TV a safe distance away from the fireplace.
“Inheritance can sure have its upsides, eh?” Lisa walks to the kitchen which opens to the living room. Soon after, Solomon can hear the distinct sound of a kettle. “Made some changes to the place myself.“
From the living room, there is a set of stairs leading to an upper level, which is made up of a short hallway with a wooden railing overlooking the living room. Below that is just a wall with a bookshelf in front of it and a painting of a snowy landscape above the bookshelf. Solomon finds placing a wall there to be a bad use of space.
On the first floor, she can see two doors along the wall and a third one at the end of the short hallway.
“Upstairs is where the bathroom is, you can also take a shower if you need to. Bedroom’s at the end there. Really wish I had a guest room…” Lisa points up at the doors respectively, then goes back to the kitchen and finishes making herself a cup of tea. “You need anythin’?” She asks as Solomon sits down on the couch.
“No, I’m alright, I think.” The feline wonders what it must feel like to wake up in this house every day, eyeing the phonograph. She doesn’t see any vinyls that would go with it.
Lisa comes out of the kitchen, sits down on the other side of the couch, and sips on her tea. They stay silent for one long moment.
“So does that thing even work?” Solomon breaks the silence, looking at the phonograph. Lisa’s ears perk up.
“I’m so glad you asked.” Lisa gets up, retrieves a cable from her room upstairs, and goes to the phonograph as Solomon shoots her a suspicious look. She plugs one end of the cable into a port on the device and the other into her phone. She then puts on a classical waltz song.
“Yeah, it’s just a replica.” She explains. “I always wanted one of these, but to be frank, I ain’t going to have my music recorded onto vinyl.”
Replica or not, the phonograph works as intended, complete with making the music sound… Older.
Solomon tries not to look weirded out by Lisa’s antics, she admittedly finds the wolf’s interests rather unorthodox, but charming. She has to respect the lengths Lisa will apparently go to support them.
“That’s… Nice!” Solomon says with a smile.
“Song’s special to me.” Lisa says in a softer tone. “Mum told me how she danced to this song with dad when they first met.” Her eyes seem to gleam slightly. “I’d like to do the same with my partner someday… Well, my true partner, rather, whoever that’ll be.” She adds in a bittersweet tone.
“I’m sure you will, mon amie.” Solomon reassures her.
She didn’t come to know Lisa as the sentimental type, as she hardly showed her sensitive side, if at all.
Lisa looks over to Solomon with a grin, her expression then quickly turns inquisitive. She approaches the cat, looking at her hands in specific. Solomon finds the wolf’s sudden change of tone a little strange.
“Say, mate, I know this’ll sound weird, but can I see your hands?” Lisa asks rather bluntly, causing Solomon to look down at her hands, only to see the gaping hole on her glove, the spiral on the back of her hand clearly showing. She instinctively clutches it and turns away from Lisa.
“No. No you can’t. I’m sorry, I just can’t let you…” She lowers her head, her ears drooping.
“Solomon, I really, really need to confirm something.” Lisa attempts to put a hand on her shoulder, only for it to be swatted away.
“No, you don’t understand…” The cat states, worried.
“And what if I do?” Lisa states vehemently. “Let me take a wild guess here. Is it some marking in a colour that has no business being on your fur?” She crosses her arms.
Solomon’s eyes shoot wide open and her ears perk back up upon hearing what Lisa just said.
“Despite somethin’ clearly being wrong, do all the doctors keep tellin’ ya that it’s normal?”
Solomon turns to face Lisa with a look of bewilderment mixed with horror.
“How? How does she know? How could she possibly…”
“And most of all: does it seem to be growing?” Lisa bends down to be on eye level with Solomon, who looks back at her for a few seconds in confusion. She eventually removes her gloves to reveal her spiral-shaped markings.
“...how?” Solomon finally asks, utterly confused. “How do you know this?”
“Not bad for a wild guess, eh?” Lisa stands back up, looking terribly satisfied with herself.
“No, seriously, just how do you know this…?” Solomon demands.
“You wanna know?” Lisa snickers. “Well let me show ya.” She then turns around and takes off her coat, which catches Solomon by surprise. She’s about to ask what she’s doing, but she spots it. There is a thin, jagged, blue line going from her elbow up and beyond the grey shirt she’s wearing. Lisa then lifts the back of her shirt, revealing more of the line, going down her back along the spine. She lifts her shirt more and Solomon can see that the line splits into two at the height of her shoulder and goes to her arms from there. It also splits apart just above the base of her tail.
“Goes all the way down to the back of my knees.” Lisa fixes her shirt and puts her coat back on. “But I ain’t showin’ ya that.” She says with a sly smile.
Solomon is left speechless, staring ahead at nothing in particular, her mind trying, and failing, to connect everything. Lisa waves in front of her face, snapping her out of it. Solomon shakes her head and looks the wolf in the eyes.
“A bit too much for a coincidence, dontcha think?” Says the wolf.
“So she has markings as well… But hers are blue and cover much more than the hands. Green, red, blue… Why?”
“I say we ask the others.” Lisa recommends.
Solomon looks at her as if she just asked her to jump out the first floor window with her.
“Just think about it.” The wolf continues. “We both got hired by the same guy to work for the same pay, which is way too high for what we actually do.” She explains, rubbing her chin. “What if the others have them too? ‘Cause now I think Father’s white pattern looks real bloody unnatural. So I say we ask ‘em. That’ll confirm or deny that for sure.”
Solomon rubs her temples as Lisa makes her suggestion, then lifts her head to face her.
“...and what if they don’t?” The cat asks.
“Well then I’ll admit it, it’s one enormous coincidence.” Lisa shrugs. “But then again, what are the odds of that?”
Solomon looks down at her hands, wondering. Lisa has to be right. The chances of this happening purely by chance is way too low, she has never seen anyone else with a condition like this. And now there’s Lisa and possibly her other colleagues, not to mention that bat…
“So? Whaddya say?” Lisa tilts her head and smiles at the cat expectantly.
A tear rolls down Solomon’s cheek as she stands up and pulls Lisa into a hug. Lisa is almost startled by her, but she returns the hug, her tail wagging as the cat gently sobs.
“S’alright, s’alright…” She pats her back, trying to comfort her. After a long moment, the cat stops sobbing and starts to purr softly, hugging Lisa tighter. Before, Solomon didn’t think she would find someone who has a problem like hers, but not only did she find someone exactly like that, it turned out to be a person closer to her than she would have thought. Lisa… The first friend she made in Britain, one who she’ll treasure and keep as close as she can from now on.
With that pleasant thought, she looks up and slowly lets go of the wolf.
“This is so… Important for me, Lisa. I might get some answers, at last!” She wipes a tear from her eyes. “Yes. Tomorrow, we’ll go and ask them.” She takes out her phone and begins typing a message. “I’ll tell them to be there before Adelar, because I’ll need to ask them something important.” She types away as Lisa unplugs her phone from the phonograph, the song having finished long ago.
“Alright, want me to take you home or you want to sleep here?” Lisa asks.
“Here’s fine. If… You don’t mind.” Solomon looks up from the phone and answers, reluctantly.
“I kind of only have one bed though…” Says the wolf, rubbing the back of her neck.
“The couch is fine.” Solomon says right after.
“I could try to find a spare mattress, sure beats sleeping on a couch.” Lisa offers.
“No, no need for that.” Solomon waves her hand dismissively. “Believe me, I’ll be fine. Although, I’ll need to pick up another pair of gloves tomorrow.”
“If you say so.” Lisa shrugs.
The two spend the rest of the evening discussing how they’ll go about asking their colleagues about the markings. Solomon hopes that what Lisa thinks is right. If not, it’ll be a hard situation to explain. She wasn’t even comfortable with sharing her secret with Lisa at first and now she’s planning to tell two others the next day. Sounds absurd if she thinks about it, but maybe, just maybe, she’ll be closer to figuring out what this all means.
The couch sure felt more comfortable when she was just sitting on it, but she feels that it would be beyond rude to ask Lisa to do something about it now. The wolf is already in her pyjamas, which are light blue, baggy and even include a night cap, going into her room to sleep. Come to think of it, it’s the first time she’s ever seen Lisa wear anything other than that coat and chequered trousers.
“Night, mate.” Says Lisa.
After Solomon wishes her goodnight as well, Lisa closes the door. Solomon then goes to sleep, for once, something other than the figure on her mind.
Same old dream. Same setting. Same figure. Same sense of dread looming over Solomon as she just stares at the figure, like she does every night. She can’t tell if it has come closer to her since last night. She then feels a sudden, overwhelming sense of panic as she sees the figure take a long step towards her.