MONONOKE HIGHWAY, Oregon

The ten page report turned into a twenty page report. With both boy and assistant returned safely, Tao sent the detectives on their way to the port town of Jyr and its Idol Jyrendithrix. Each had been given a mess of the report files from the other corruption-cases that were occurring all throughout the state of Oregon. So throughout the long drive between Renshire and Jyr along the Mononoke Highway, Alex flicked through the hastily compiled reports. Time was of the essence, it seemed even the military was finding itself disorganised in the wake of these disturbances. Eager to piece it all together, Alex thrummed his foot as he swam through continuous waves of information. Connections, slow and slight as they were had begun to already form inside his head. Sure, most would be written off as coincidence, a mistake or happenstance. But it was those few two or three thread that he could use to begin his web to slowly but surely climb his way to the truth of it all. But Naros was starting to make it difficult. She could barely stay focused on the road. Tapping the wheel, changing the radio stations every other minute, going from speeding to what felt like a crawl. Alex could feel her apprehension crawling up his spine. But he wouldn’t have to wait long to find out what was wrong, because they had just past a sign pointed to a gas-station only a few miles up ahead. And Naros was like a moth to a flame at night.

While she pumped gas, Alex retrieved dinner and drinks in the form of scarcely warm hot-dogs and two cans of Foghorns Fragment of Heaven Beer. And a soda pop for Naros. She’d always made it known she thought beer tasted just like gutter water. Soda pop however, was classy. Leant against the Impala, face turned towards the shadows away from him as she always did, Naros ate her gas-station hot dog quickly. Alex thought nothing of it, used to her eating ritual. Despite years of insisting he knew she was beautiful regardless of the disease that plagued her skin, Naros had always been shy whenever she needed to open parts of her suit. Alex had never minded it, but rather relished in the nights they would spend in their apartment with take-away, scribbling on their note-pads and pinboards for whatever case that was paying their rent that month. Drinking her soda-pop with a straw that was wriggled beneath her mask, Alex bumped her side with his hip.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

‘Hey. What’s got you so riled up squish?’ Alex asked, a soft smile on this lips when he called her by a very old nick-name. A creative one, too. He liked to squish her when they hugged, and she squished harder. Thusly, he was squish-squish. Even at that, Naros didn’t even give him a pity-laugh or a bump back. Instead she held herself in the sort of way that made it seem like it was just her. Just her alone against the world.

‘It’s Jyr. Or, rather what’s in Jyr. When I last wrote to Salem…he was in Jyr, Alexander,’ Naros said, looking to him. She was extending an olive branch, here. One that he hesitated to take.

‘You wanna visit him?’ He asked, softly. There was a part of Alex that wanted to, and a part that struggled against even the thought.

‘Yes,’ Naros said, matter-of-factly. She took another sip of her soda. With only a deep sigh, Alex agreed to it. And promptly opened a can of beer.

While Naros slept in the back seat of the car, Alex sat on the hood of the Hard-top. For the last hour, he’d looked out into the hard darkness of the forests edge on the other side of the highway, searching for something that wasn’t there. The bright side a Night-Demon, a creature of darkness as large as the gas station had provided him company in return for a beer. It sat in a squat, barbed tail curled over his clawed feet beside the gas-station. Quietly sipping on the beer Alex had thrown it. They didn’t talk, they didn’t really need to. They just sat in each-others company, happy to drink their beer in silence.

All the while, Alex stewed in the familiar fear of having to see his son.