I’ve heard of this reporter who’s been missing for almost three weeks now. Her name escapes me at the moment, but I’m sure it was the name of a city. She’s got long straight black hair, a nice tan, and green eyes. I’ve been interested in her case for two reasons. She’s a missing reporter, and she’s connected to Tristan’s case. I’m aware that it’s a coincidence, and I’m also aware that I haven’t mentioned my ex’s real name since we split up. I prefer to keep it that way, actually. I’ve got no leads on this reporter, and I’ve tried every website that was featuring her case. So far, nothing showed up, but this is a cold case, so what was I to expect? Cold cases never usually have ties to anything, it’s all put away in a small filing cabinet and forgotten. There’s still the useless tips from conspiracy theorists to consider. I’ve tried anonymously asking for their thoughts, but they’ve already moved on.

I wipe the history clean off of the computer in the library and move towards the exit. Some little girl with blonde pigtails and a gray school uniform noticed me leaving and started towards me at an astoundingly fast pace. “Excuse me!” she called out, but then looked around nervously when she realized where she was. I turned to face her, even though I didn't have any energy to give her a comforting smile. “Will you please read to me?” she asks, stammering a little at the beginning. She holds up a small leather hardcover novel to me, the title shining gold lettering. I take it, noticing the bright neon pink bookmark directly in the middle of the book. It’s surprisingly not a fairytale, and as I scan through the contents until I reach the bookmark, no pictures either. I kneel down, propping the book on my left knee so that it’s flat on its back and open for me to read. I ask softly, masking my voice with a tired sigh, “Where do you want me to start?” She points to a sentence at the bottom of the page, where the next paragraph starts. I look over it before reading it out loud to her. It’s pretty small, and if she was able to read this much, it shouldn’t be an issue for her to read on her own. Nevertheless, I read aloud, “When the setting sun had reached its end, and the stars had come to the rescue to save the people from darkness, the sky erupted with colors of the north. A fiery glow of green and purple spilled across the sky, jumping and dancing in rhythm to the beating hearts of the people.”

I stop, but before I could close the book, the girl stops my hand. “Wait! Just one more sentence, please!”, she quietly begs, again, looking around to see if she had disturbed anyone with her small hushed voice. I wanted to tell this girl that I didn’t have much time, but I knew that she’d make a scene if I didn’t. “Fine. One more.” I reassured, before turning the page to the top of the paragraph. “Light comes in many forms, whether from the sky or from the earth. It can bring warmth, comfort and hope. It can cause anguish, destruction, and agony. But light is a necessity…otherwise…we wouldn’t be able to find our way through darkness.” I slowly close the book, thinking over what I just read out loud. The girl leaves with a smile on her face, pleased to have such an odd book read to by a stranger. I don’t hear her say goodbye or thanks for reading the damn book. All I could hear was that sentence being replayed in my head by my own voice. I guess I didn’t hear the commotion at the entrance either, cause suddenly I’m pushed onto my back by a herd of adults and young children fleeing away.

I’m back on my feet within a minute, just in time to see the herd completely disappear from view and three men in black standing at the entrance. All three had rifles, black face masks, and dark spiked hair. They started walking forward, one shot at the ceiling twice, warning everyone to stay away. “We don’t want any trouble!” shouted the one that fired. The one on his left grabbed and shoved the lady at the desk down before putting a bullet in her head. The sound of the shot was my cue to hide behind a bookshelf, and in doing so, I tripped over a lump in the carpet and fell hard on my knees. The fall was muffled by the screams of the people behind me, but it didn’t stop the rifle men from continuing on their rampage shooting up at the ceiling and pushing bookshelves onto the floor. I started to move slowly towards the edge of the bookshelf, catching a glimpse of the bookkeeper lady’s blood and marrow spattered on the carpet. I tried not to look at it, but the glimpse was now a permanent picture in my head.

I crawl to the next bookshelf, waiting for the men to move forward and I’ll have my chance to escape. I’m not worried about the others, they’ll figure out that there’s an emergency exit by the vending machine aisle. I waited, peaking out to see if anyone was moving. I see one of the rifle men bolt forward towards the small bookstore, by the children’s play area. I watched as he broke the glass door, stepped inside, and started looting the cash register. The other two men walked slowly before the crowd in the far back. “Like I said before. We don’t want any trouble.” said the supposed leader, “We’re in need of assistance.” The man next to him aimed his rifle at the crowd, a few cried as they watched in sheer terror. “We were told to find a certain someone. A young woman, long dark hair, about this high.” He moves his arm up, his palm face down at around the brim of his neck. The man with the rifle pointed at the crowd started to talk just then. “I don’t see her!” he calls out, his voice squeaky with panic, “The damn bitch lied to us! We should just go! Grab the money and go! Forget about her-we need to go, man!” The leader smirked, but when he turned to his partner, his smirk turned into a scowl. “Are you crazy? You crazy man? Suddenly you want to turn chicken? Huh?” the leader grabs his rifle with one hand, then starts yelling. “You are not going anywhere until we get this job done!” He shoves the rifle towards him, and then turns to the crowd sharply. “If you won’t comply with our demands, we will shoot you!” he yells. I watch the crowd hold onto each other, watch the men go closer with their rifles aimed to kill. I couldn’t do anything to stop this, even if I called the cops, it wouldn’t stop the crowd from getting hurt. These men were desperate to find this girl, and even if they found her, there’s no telling if they won’t end up shooting the crowd anyway. I crawled to the closest bookshelf to the exit while the two men talked. I didn’t really hear what they were talking about at most, just some scattered swears. I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone saw me. They were all focusing on the men in front of them, so I wasn’t spotted.

I bolted towards the exit with all my might. My footfalls were muffled by carpet and angry yells that were not directed at me. I was so close to the door, I could feel the cold door handle on both my hands. I pushed it open a crack, just enough to feel the cold breeze from the outside. I pushed it until the door was wide open, and I could take a quick breath of the fresh air. I was almost out, so close to escaping.

A gunshot, and I stop midway in the door. The gunshot came from behind me, and the small pinch on my back came after. It wasn’t exactly a pinch. It felt like someone took a needle and dug it down into my back. Not enough to cause immense pain, but like they were taking blood outta me. I lowered the top of my body, wincing and staggering to turn around. I was gripping onto my left shoulder, the side where I felt the pain most at. I look up and see horrified faces with mouths open, yet no screams. I couldn’t hear anything. Not the yelling men, not the screaming children. My vision was blurry for a bit, and my mouth felt dry. I was on the verge of collapsing when another shot was fired. I felt a new minor pain in my stomach, making me double over and fall to my knees. I could barely keep my only working eye open, and my breath is growing heavy. I can’t get up, my legs are numb. If I was dying, I’d at least like to have died with my vengeance attained. I wasn’t even close to finding him, and the universe decided I’d had enough. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to die this way.

It wasn’t long until I lost all consciousness, my whole body fell face first into the carpet. When I woke up however, it felt like I hadn’t hit the carpet at all. My eye blinked open for a bit, before my vision was clear again. The floor I was laying on wasn’t carpet, but white cement. The walls were completely white, and the whole room looked so stretched out. I sat up and looked around, but there wasn’t anything different. Same white walls that stretched far as my one eye could see. Even the ceiling above me was too high for anyone with two ladders to reach. This room was weird. Not the kind of weird that people who haven’t experienced before. It was more like the kind of weird some people would feel when they can’t place when or where, but they’ve experienced this sort of thing before. What’s the word for it again? “Deja vu, honey.” I turn sharply around me to see the golden figure walking towards me. The woman was tall, her dark curly hair was in a tight bun, and her sharp golden gaze was fixed on me. She wore a tight-fit long sleeve gold dress that reached her knees. Her gold heels clicked and clacked as she made her way across the room, stopping three feet in front of me. Her maroon color lips parted as she said, “Well, at least you remember this place.” She extends her coffee color hand towards me, and hesitantly, I take it. When I’m on my feet again, I open my mouth to ask her several questions. She stops me before I could make a single word by lifting her finger over my mouth. “Uh-uh. Let me talk first.” she says sternly. I shut my mouth, and she lowers her finger. “I’ve made it a point to send those who desire salvation to paradise…and for 4 epochs-give or take-that’s been my job.” She starts to circle me as she continues. “I realize that there are souls in this world that don’t have the desires of paradise or eternal sleep, as you may call it.” She says, “Some would rather remain on earth. Reasons vary, of course, but I think one would help clarify what I mean.” She stops circling and finishes off her sentence, “Revenge.” Her eyes begin to narrow, but her lips curl into a satisfied smirk. “Revenge is second to most reasons why people want to remain on earth.” she says, “It’s what they wanted the minute they sense betrayal. You have felt that it is your job to seek revenge, and be granted the satisfaction of avenging your tragic death along with the death of your parents.” “My dear,” she says, reaching out and patting my shoulder, “What the hell were you thinking in that blonde head of yours?” I shrug her hand away and protest, “I was thinking about my life! How could I just let him get away with this!” “You have no life.” she corrects, “Not anymore. And the only reason why I sent you back was to show you that it wouldn’t be so easy!” She folds her arms across her chest as she explains, “When you first came here, you pleaded with me to let you return. It was a chance I wasn’t willing to let you take, but you were persistent. Going on and on about how it was his fault, and going so far as retelling me your whole story.” “Knowing that you wouldn’t give up, I sent you back. And now here you are, yet again, dead.” She sighs, lowering her head, “I don’t think you understand how much I’ve tried to make ends meet here…if word got out that a dead girl was killed again, and is still walking around the world, I’d lose my job!” “Then I won’t get caught!” I say, “I can still go back, I’ll just have to be more careful.” “Sweetheart, you ran towards the front door knowing fully well you could have snuck out in the back door like the rest of the lucky survivors.” she clarifies. “It was a rookie mistake.” I retort, but this ticks her off even more. “You are too reckless, and damn it all-careful isn’t going to cut it this time!” she says, “And even if you manage to find some shelter from your friends in the black market-which is clearly a huge mistake-I’d rather you just quit now, and save yourself from the hundreds of possible deaths you’d face.” “I won’t die this time!” I plead, “Just let me go back! Please! I won’t do anything else wrong!” “If I send you back again, you won’t return here when you die.” She grumbles, “It’s the three strike rule here too. You die a third time, you ain’t welcome in paradise. You’d be stuck in a place like this without a helpful guide-such as myself-to be there for you.” I held my glare on her, but there wasn’t anything to say. I could yell at her to let me go, but that won’t do anything. Persuasion is an option, though I highly doubt it would work. “If you please let me go back, just one last time! I promise to do something for you in return.” “Do something? For me?” she laughs, shaking her head. “Sweetheart, you are such a sad thing. You really think there’d be something I’d want?” I nod vigorously, trying to fold my hands together in a sense of me begging. She smiles, and I thought she would say something, but she doesn’t do anything.

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Lowering my hands, I’m about to give her one last plea. She moves quickly, and slaps me in the face with her left hand. I stagger back and gasp, looking up at her with a look of shock. “What the actual f-” I gasp but she interrupts me before I say anything else. “You can not disrespect me like that!” she scolds, “What kind of business do you think I’m running? Hmm? Tell me!” She lifts her finger up before I could make out any other words which would not help me at all in this situation. “You better watch yourself miss, cause I’m only going to say this once and then that’s it.” she warns, “I’m letting you go.” I sigh in relief, forgetting all about the slap. “But, this is my final warning. You will not come back here ever again.” she says, “I mean it. And…I think I have a way to prevent that.” She lifts her arms up and motions with her hands for me to step forward. When I comply, she grabs my shoulders and golden light starts to form around us. It fades away after she lets go, and I start to ask her what had just happened. She interrupts my question midway, holding up her right hand as she says, “I just gave you the taste of immortality. From now on, no human power can hurt you. The rest just kind of varies-but no bullets, no explosives, not even poisonous gasses can kill you, though it will hurt a smidge.” “Wait-you’re saying I’m bulletproof?!” I am excited. “Among other things, yes. Again-powers may vary and you can still potentially die.” she explains. “What do you mean? Are you-” I start to say, but she again interrupts me. “All I’m saying is don't get cocky, you little shit.” she snaps, “Now stop wasting time and go. You have a lot to do in order to attain vengeance.” She snaps her fingers, and more gold light starts to swirl around my legs until it consumes all of me. I can still hear her say something while I’m dissolving into the light, she calls out to me saying, “When you do eventually die after killing that bastard, tell God that Adina needs a raise.” When the light starts to fade away again, I’m standing in front of the library I was previously in, while the flames on the inside continue to consume it.

When I start running towards the building, I catch a glimpse of someone running from the back of the library. They were running like a madwoman, and although they were covered in ash, I could see their faces clearly from my view. Moving a little bit closer, I could see Vienna Maoi, the missing reporter, running for her life away from the burning library.

I chase after her, running past parked cars and passers by, but she isn't slowing down. At one point, she turns and runs through an alleyway, making it harder to chase after her with all the twisting and turning to not run into trash cans and puddles of hopefully muddy water. When she runs into a wall, causing her to slide and hit the brim of her nose against moldy brick, she doesn’t waste any time to get away. She looks around frantically to climb onto something and get onto the roof, but I catch her before she gets onto the trash can. Her arms try to grab onto the pipes on the walls as I grab her waist and tug her away. She screams and I yell at her to stop, causing both of us to make so much noise in the alley way that it scares the nearest cat into hiding inside the trash can. “Let go of the damn pipe!” I yell. She doesn’t budge, and at this point, I’m not going to keep tugging her off anymore. “Fine!” I yell, letting go of her, and watching her fall flat on her ass. She begins to get up, but I pull her up and slam her back on the brick wall. “Listen! I didn’t come back here just for you to run off again. I know who you are, and I’m not letting you go until you tell me where he is!” I growl. “I…” she begins, trying to catch her breath, “I…I don’t know what you're talking about.” I push her back against the wall again and growl, “Tristan Jackal is missing, you were a reporter who was trying to locate where he is, and then you end up going off the grid yourself.” She hisses a curse under her breath, and I grab her throat. “You will tell me everything I need to know.” I warn, “If I have to rack it out of your pretty brain to find answers, then so be it. I need to find him, and I’ll kill anyone who’s in my way. So your life is mine now until you tell me what I need to know.” She glares at me, but her glare falters a little as my grip tightens. She nods a little, and I let her go, watching her drop to a hunch as she gasps for breath. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go drama queen.” I say, “You and I can’t be seen, so you better know a place where we can talk.” She rises up and walks forward in the alley way as she says, “I know a place, but it isn’t technically well hidden.” “There better be some good news to that.” I say, she scoffs.

We wind up crossing a few streets in order to get to this pub in the southside of town. In bright neon blue lights, this four story building calls out its name through the smoky town. “JiJi’s” I called out, thinking that the name would sound better if I said it out loud. “It’s a good place to start.” says Vienna, walking towards the entrance. She opens the door and I saunter in behind her. The bar wasn’t incredibly crowded, but it was hard to walk past a lot of people from time to time. I saw a bunch of men gathering at the front of the bar, they didn’t see us, but I avoided walking near them anyways. I followed Vienna past the tables and counter, ‘till we found a spot in the corner in the back, where the lights didn’t shine as bright. “Sit.” She commands me, and currently I comply. When we’re both seated, she leans in a little and starts talking. “What exactly do you want to know?” she starts, “I mean, I don’t even know who-” “You're not going to get anything from me.” I say, leaning back in my chair. She scoffs again, before leaning back in her own chair. “Listen, my information isn’t just ReporterPublic.net bullshit. These are my facts and insights, and I’m not going to just hand it all in a manilla envelope and walk away.” she explains, “If you want the information, and I mean really want it…give me a name to the face. Well, half of the face.” She gestures to my hair covering the left side of my face where my eye was burned and fused shut. I let out an irritated groan and, after some contemplation, said, “...it’s Liv.” At first, I thought she didn’t hear me, but then I saw her small eyes go wide with realization. Before she could say anything, I glared at her to think it over before blurting it outloud. She retracks, and slowly calms herself down. “So you are alive?” she asks, her voice sounding a little eager to ask more. “Alive doesn’t really explain it, but-sure, let’s go with that.” I replied. “So that’s why you’re after him!” she says, like she’s connected the dots, “The classic revenger trying to find her killer-he really killed you, right?” “Yes.” I said, “But don’t get any ideas about going in there with the case solved.” “Why not? This could help you!” she says. “Not when the police are trying to prevent any evidence that makes him a suspect.” I counter, “Besides, once they see me-we’ll both be thrown into the psyche ward.” “Why both of us?” she begins to ask, but then stops herself when she understands it. “Yeah,” I responded, “You and I are fugitives now, and we can’t depend on the police or the public to protect us.”

I lean forward a little and say, “Speaking of which, who exactly are you hiding from?” She shakes her head and replies, “I don’t know what-” I interrupt her by holding up my hand and saying, “Don’t go for the excuse, just spit it out, I don’t have all the facts, but I know for a fact that you’re on someone’s bad side mainly because of what you found out about Tristan.” “I didn’t find him!” she whispers harshly, “All I found was his laptop and some stray papers with weird drawings.” I tilt my head in interest as she continues. “I got a tip from some homeless guy who lives near his apartment saying that there’s a back door where I can go in without being seen by any security guard. I go in and find his apartment door wide open.” She starts to fidget with her hands while she speaks, but remains in eye contact with me. “When I walked inside, and started walking into his room, I found his laptop hidden under a pile of clothes under his bed. I open it, and the whole screen starts to glitch a bit while a bunch of papers fall out. The screen stops glitching and it shows this messenger where he was talking to this guy in a different language. I thought it was Russian or something, so I took a picture of it so I could translate it later.” “Right after that, I dropped the laptop on the bed and started picking up the papers, but just as I was scanning them, someone came into the room and attacked me. I couldn’t see who they were, they had on this black mask with eye holes and a white snake-like mouth painted on it. I managed to get away through the window, and I have a few of the papers I found crumbled in my hand.” She starts looking through her small purse before pulling out three crumpled and ripped papers from her bag. When I take them, I see these weird symbols scribbled all over the paper in ink and in pencil. “What the hell is this?” I mutter. “I thought it was something like a pentagram.” she comments, “But it’s too culturally different to be anything evil we already know. Either way, that shit looks evil.” “It could belong to a cult.” I consider, “That would explain why he was always into watching those scary cult-themed movies, but it’s too much to say that he would actually join one.” “Did he ever have any obsessive interests?” she asks. I look over at her only once, and she shuts up. Looking down at the papers again, I see something scribbled under the image of a rhino horn with blood streaking down it. “Can I see that photo of the laptop?” I say, holding out my hand to her. “Yes, and I also have it translated too.” she says, giving me her camera. I look at the photo and then look down at the words below the image. “This isn’t Russian, or any language that’s considered national-this is either some made up language or the Devil’s hand.” I say, giving her back the camera and the papers. “So where do we go from here?” she asks, “It’s not like we’d be able to go to every single cultist church just to try to locate him.” “No, but we will be able to find one cult member somewhere close by at our disposal.” I say. “Who?” she asks. “I know a guy, and if anyone knows more about weird shit, it’s him.” “Again, I say, who?” she repeats. “His name is Ruther, he’s a friend I met when I joined the black market, and if I present him with this, he’ll figure it out without us having to do anything. On a plus note, he doesn’t ask questions, and he doesn’t charge.” Vienna only nods, but I can see how uneasy she feels. “I don’t know, I never really got this deep into trouble before.” she contemplates. “Bullshit.” I say, “You’ve done way dirtier things than breaking into someone’s apartment to get what you wanted. There’s no way either of us are innocent, and in all honesty, you’d better get used to it because this is your life now.” She glares at me, and I glare at her back. “I want to be sure that I’d survive through all of this so I can live the rest of my life alone.” she says at last, “Once you’ve found him, I’m done.” She gets up and starts walking towards the door, pushing past a few people who were coming in. I sit there for a while and think over what just happened in the course of an hour. “There’s no way I can promise that.” I mutter, as I get up from the table and walk after her. I catch a glimpse of the tv over the bar counter, showing off the news and some sports game being played at the same time on the same screen. While the Spaniards are winning over the French in soccer, the news was broadcasting a warning about a thunderstorm coming in at midnight. I check the time on the clock behind me. It’s 8:35, and to think it was still in the middle of the day when I died again. When I walk outside to meet with Vienna who's holding an umbrella since it was beginning to drizzle, I start to wonder. I wonder if Vienna would believe me if I told her everything. I wonder if Tristan really was involved in some cult mess and I saw it before but forgot about it later because I trusted him so much. Lastly, I wonder if the golden lady Adina was watching me from her golden platinum screen tv while smoking a gold cigarette. Looking up at the sky above me, I decided that whenever Vienna wasn’t looking, I’d shoot the golden lady the finger up towards the sky. I’m pretty sure it’s laughable, but at least she’d know I’m doing pretty okay for a dead girl who's literally walking.