“All it takes is one word for everything to crumble down.”

The harsh ticking of the clock echoes throughout the dimly lit room. File cabinets aligned by the walls clutter the room. Each of their compartments is stuffed with folders containing mounds of paper from old case files. Some of the documents from the cabinets are scattered on the floor, covered in dirty footprints.

In the middle of the room is a large mahogany desk, with paper scattered around its top in messy piles. The dim lighting of the lamp shines upon the sleeping detective, Flint Darvey, with his head burrowed in his arms.

He squirms around in his slumber, ruffling his medium-brown hair. The ticks of the clock ring louder and louder in his ears.

He is awakened by the last loud clock tick, raising his head from his slumber. He has a stern, but tired look on his face. He rubs his black eyes and yawns. He slowly stands up, adjusting his usual clothing: a striped long-sleeve polo with his brown patterned vest over it. He stretches in his office, patting his wrinkled black dress pants and brushing his ruffled hair with his hands.

“Tch slept again.” He mutters to himself.

He looks down at his desk, noticing his drool stain a report he’s been working on. He groans before putting aside the report for the next day. As the report is pushed aside, he finds his silver wedding ring underneath. His hand shakes as he tries to get it. He puts his wedding ring on his ring finger, gripping it tightly to stop his hand from shaking. Flint sighs a breath of relief as his hand stops. He turns off the lamp in his office and exits.

He enters into the larger reception area outside his small office. The darkness covers the plain wallpaper and the carpeted floor, both of which are slightly stained. The chairs are scattered around the room with no clear order or placement.

In the center of the room is a large round reception desk. A lit lamp shines upon the neat piles of paperwork in manila folders, the nice office phone, and office supplies neatly placed in a tray. There is a coat rack beside it, which hangs Flint’s brown hat and trench coat.

Serena, his secretary, is in the middle area, expectantly waiting for him. She is younger than Flint and her glowing visage and bright purple eyes are something that cheer up many people’s days. Her mostly purple attire complements her fair skin: long magenta hair and her purple striped polo shirt, similar to Flint’s, with a simple maroon vest and a long magenta dress skirt on her lower half.

“Why are you still here Serena?” Flint asks as he approaches the coat rack. “It’s late.”

“I couldn’t just leave while you were sleeping in your office. Again.” She replies.

Flint ignores her comment while retrieving his belongings from the coat rack.

“Flint, please get more rest. Your work is clearly taking a toll on you.” Serena tells him.

Flint yawns and stretches as he puts on his hat and coat. He walks to the front door of the office and exits the building.

Serena sighs, knowing that again, Flint will not listen to her advice.

“You weren’t always like this Flint.” She mutters to herself.

Serena begins packing her things away in her bag.

The phone on the desk rings loudly. Serena immediately stops and picks up the phone.

“Hello, this is Dark Eye PI, Serena Miles speaking.” She speaks into the phone.

“Oh, don’t worry it’s not too late. I’ll write it down.”

Serena sits down on her chair. She grabs a blank sheet of paper and a pen. She writes down an appointment dated for tomorrow afternoon with the name, Pres.

“Is that all the information?” she asks.

She expectantly wiggles her pen in her hand, waiting for more information.

“All right then, I’ll notify Flint tomorrow morning. Have a great evening.”

The phone hangs up. Serena sighs and puts the phone back to its holder.

“Another case for Flint…” She mutters.

Serena goes back to packing up her things. She takes her bag and locks up the office for the night.

Flint is standing in his home's entrance hall, putting his coat and hat away in the closet nearby. The only light comes from his kitchen, while the rest of his home is shrouded in darkness. He rubs his head and stretches as he walks into his home.

“You’re late…again.” A voice tells him, coming from the kitchen.

Flint sighs and looks over to the source of the noise.

He finds his husband, Ronlo, standing by the sink with a small window over it and stone countertops on either side, brushing up his medium brown hair and long ponytail.

He has a similar fair complexion to his husband. He takes the kettle from the left side of the sink and pours freshly brewed milk tea into his mug. He puts both of his soft hands around the mug and sips from it, showing off the same silver wedding ring that Flint has. He wears a plain white t-shirt under his warm light brown cardigan. His navy blue jeans are hidden underneath the brown apron he wears.

Flint walks up to him silently, passing by his refrigerator with many magnets holding up his family photos. Ronlo takes out another mug from the cupboard above the sink and pours Flint some milk tea.

Flint quietly drinks from the mug, avoiding eye contact with his husband. Ronlo looks over to Flint and notices this. He sighs and drinks his milk tea, tapping his fingers along the counter.

Ronlo puts his mug in the sink and walks away from him to their room down the hall. Flint stands there in silence as he finishes his tea. He washes the mugs in the sink and puts them in the cupboard.

Flint walks down the hall to the door opposite his and Ronlo’s bedroom. He quietly opens the door and peers in.

On the other side of the door is his daughter’s bedroom. A small lamp light on the nightstand beside her bed shines upon a small portion of her bed and room. She is fast asleep on her bed, curled up under her fluffy covers hugging her Seedling plush, a giant light blue round plush with a cute derpy smile and a stem on its head.

Flint slowly walks up to her sleeping in her bed. He kneels to the level of her bed and leans to her ear.

“Daddy’s home Lily.” He whispers into her ear.

Flint is surprised to see her slowly waking up from her sleep.

“Daddy?” she says slowly waking up.

“Yes, I’m home.” He says, regaining his composure.

She hurriedly pushes off her covers, revealing her wearing pink polka dot pajamas.

“Daddy!” she exclaims.

She jumps over to hug him. He is slightly taken aback, but he hugs her in return.

“Daddy so much happened today! I wanna tell you everything!” she says, wriggling around in excitement.

Flint lets her go from his hug, where she is still energetic.

“Today in school I got an A on my math test, and then later today I hung out with my friends, and then…”

“Easy there Lily, it’s pretty late,” Flint tells her. “You have school tomorrow, so go back to sleep, okay?”

Lily’s energetic mood dies down a bit.

“Aww…but daddy…you’re never around when I want to talk to you…” She whimpers.

Flint closes his eyes and grunts quietly after hearing what she has said.

“Lily…” he mutters.

“I know daddy, you’re busy.” She says before he can finish. “But it must be so cool being a detective!”

Flint sighs in relief before patting her head.

“Sweetie, go back to bed alright? It’s late.” He tells her.

“Okay, daddy.” She replies.

Lily lies down again on her bed. Flint kisses her forehead and tucks her back in bed. He quietly exits the room not to disrupt her slumber. He stands in the hallway lost in thought.

He stares at his bedroom door and then he stares over to the couch, his usual sleeping area as of late. He slowly walks down the hall, but then he pauses his movements. He turns around and returns to his and Ronlo’s bedroom door.

He opens the door slightly and peers in. The room is dark, but one can tell it is significantly bigger than Lily’s room. Ronlo is tucked in and sitting up, reading a book on his side of the bed, which is the side farthest away from the door. Flint slowly enters the room, which catches the attention of Ronlo, who forms a slightly surprised expression.

Flint takes off his clothes and tosses them into the hamper nearby. He then changes into his comfortable sleepwear, a white t-shirt and thin silk pants. Flint gets into bed with Ronlo as he puts his book on his nightstand, both of them lying down and tucking themselves in.

“Flint,” Ronlo says out loud while looking up at the ceiling. Flint turns his gaze over to him. Ronlo continues, “I…I’m sorry for being so cold lately…”

Ronlo takes a deep breath, trying to hold back his tears. “I’d never imagined how lonely it would be having a family. You’re always at work and Lily’s at school with her friends. But, I know how selfish of me if I kept you here to be with me.” He mutters.

Flint grips the comforter tighter but still keeps his gaze on Ronlo.

“But Flint…I can bear being…being lonely.,” Ronlo says, turning his head to Flint. “You and I both know what pains me.”

Flint manages to keep his composure. Ronlo inches towards him and caresses his face.

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“Ronlo…I…”

Flint continues stuttering. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot finish his sentence.

Ronlo inches closer and hugs him.

“Dear, just know I still love you.”

Ronlo kisses Flint, which throws him off guard. Ronlo lets go of their kiss and he falls asleep, still hugging Flint.

“Ronlo…I…”

Flint doesn’t finish his sentence. He tightly hugs Ronlo and slowly falls asleep.

Flint jolts awake, finding himself standing with his usual clothes on. He looks around, only to see a vast dark void surrounding him. He walks forward, still looking around for something else to be there with him in this void.

He keeps walking ahead but almost trips. It takes him a few steps forward to regain his balance. He looks around on the ground trying to find what caused him to stumble.

He stops abruptly when he finds out what caused him to stumble. He sees a shin protruding out from the darkness. His eyes slowly follow the shin up to the rest of the body. His eyes widen when he sees the rest of the mangled shadowy body. His eyes notice another shadowy corpse appear behind it. Then another, then another. He turns around and sees these same shadowy corpses appear.

Then the corpses begin to stack up, one after the other, after the other. The vast shadowy void has become filled with mounds of shadowy corpses that stretch out infinitely and surround the path Flint is on.

Flint does his best to keep calm, taking deep and slow breaths. Flint coughs as his nostrils are bombarded with the rotting stench emanating from the shadowy corpses. He keels over and hacks more violently.

The mounds of corpses close in on Flint. They fall on him one, by one. Their collective weight slowly crushes him once he is fully buried underneath. He is unable to scream, for their stench bombards his lungs and nostrils, suffocating him.

Flint’s eyes jolt open. He breathes heavily, covered in a cold sweat. He looks around and realizes it is still dead of night. He eventually calms down and goes back to sleep. His beloved hugs him tighter when Flint lies back down.

Flint walks into the office early in the morning in his usual attire. He notices Serena and another man both drinking coffee and having a conversation at her desk. That other man is Sercas, the owner of a private security company. He has an office space next to Flint’s.

Sercas is a well-built man, who is taller than both Flint and Serena. He has a security hat over his medium black hair. He has a young and fair complexion and bright blue eyes. He wore a thick blue long-sleeve shirt, with two badge emblems of a chimera on each sleeve and heavy-duty pants. His shirt has a heavy vest made of a mix of Kevlar and metals over it, with his pants being covered with leg armor made with the same material. Along his waist is his holster for his gun and a specialized combat baton.

They turn their direction towards Flint as he approaches them.

“Well look what we have here. Seems like old Flinty is wide awake.” Sercas jests.

“Hey, can it…I ain’t that old Sercas.” Flint replies.

“Well, you don’t act like you are.” He says, chuckling.

Flint waves Sercas off, as he puts his coat and hat on the coat rack. Serena finishes her coffee and notices Flint walking away.

“Well, how’s Ronlo, Flint? How about Lily as well?” Serena inquires.

These sudden questions stop Flint from walking away any further. He stands there in silence.

“C’mon, you don’t have anything else to say?” Sercas eggs on.

“Sercas, I have work to do. I don’t want to be wasting time alright?” Flint bluntly replies.

Flint enters his office, leaving both of them in the reception area. Serena and Sercas look at each other and then at Flint’s office.

“He’s always working so hard…” Serena comments, breaking the silence.

It takes a moment for Sercas to react, but he responds, “Yeah, he has, hasn’t he?”

“Doesn’t that worry you though?” Serena asks Sercas. “He’s holed up in that office from dawn to dusk. I always see him leaving there tired and distressed. It pains me to see him like this.”

“Of course it does Serena.” He replies, “But unfortunately, there isn’t much we could do. If he ain’t letting out anything, then we can’t do anything.” He tells her.

She sighs, silently agreeing with Sercas.

“Anyways Serena, I got to go now. I have paperwork to fill out.”

Sercas slowly walks away from Serena and approaches his office.

“Oh, but if you are that concerned about Flint, his office is always right there.” He tells her, pointing to Flint’s office door.

He walks away and enters his office. Serena sits down in her large reception desk area. She sits there thinking about how to enter Flint’s office because he always tells people to leave while he is working. As she keeps pondering, her eyes look over to her desk. They focus on the sheet of paper with the appointment details she had written for this afternoon.

“Bingo.” She says out loud.

She walks over to Flint’s office door. She knocks on it.

“Flint, may I come in?” she asks.

Flint is silent on the other side. Before he can even respond, Serena enters his office anyway. He looks up, slightly taken aback by her sudden entrance.

“Serena what are you…”

“Sorry for barging in Flint, but I forgot to inform you about an appointment this afternoon.”

“An appointment you say?”

“Yes, the client called last night.”

“I see.”

Flint looks down at his desk and returns to working on his paperwork. Serena still stands there by the door.

“Serena, if you don’t mind, may you leave my office? I’m working.” Flint tells her while he still focuses on his paperwork.

Flint glances up from his paperwork and finds Serena still standing there.

“Is there something you need to say?” He asks her.

“Flint…I’m worried about you.”

Flint stops moving his pen. His body subtly shivers when he looks up at her.

“Look, if you don’t want to say anything, I understand. I just worry a lot, I know. You know, even after all these years working together, I’d never thought I’d be working with a detective like you. You always seemed so passionate back then, but you always seem so worn out nowadays. Flint, we’ve been working together for so long now. Never once during those years have I considered you a coworker. You’re my closest friend Flint.”

Flint remains silent.

Serena sighs and slowly approaches the door. “Flint, when you finally want to talk about it, I will…no, everyone will be here for you. I promise.”

Flint remains silent, but his breathing gets noticeably heavier. Serena sighs, but she is at least satisfied with telling Flint this. Serena exits his office, closing the door behind him.

A tear falls from Flint’s eye onto his paperwork. He takes deep breaths to ease his shivering. After some deep breaths, he finally regains his composure.

“If only…if only they understood…no. They don’t need to understand. They shouldn’t.” He mutters to himself.

He looks down at his desk and engrosses himself in his work, distracting him from his rushing thoughts about the situation that has occurred.

Someone knocks on Flint’s door. Flint keeps his head down as he goes through his paperwork.

The knocking on the door gets louder. Flint sighs and looks up at the door.

“Come in.” He says in a low tone.

Serena enters his office, slightly shivering out of nervousness.

“Something wrong Serena?”

“Flint…your afternoon appointment is here…” She manages to tell him.

Flint nods and motions her to let them in. Flint is confused about Serena’s sudden shyness, but after seeing the man who enters, he understands.

The man who enters his office is none other than the president, Roger R. Rogers. He has a relaxed visage, tanned complexion, and spiky brown hair. He wore a simple black suit. He casually strolls into the room, closing the door behind him as he approaches Flint.

“Hello there, Flint.” Roger greets Flint.

Roger approaches Flint with his hand reaching out to him. Flint stands up from his desk and they exchange a firm handshake. Roger looks around the room to find a seat, but can’t find one.

“Isn’t there a place for a man to sit down?” He asks.

It takes a moment for Flint to compose himself before being able to respond to him.

“It’ll take up too much room to have another seat in here, Mr. President. I still have to work in here.” Flint replies.

“Oh, don’t be so formal around me. How would you like it if I called you Mr. Detective? Just call me Roger.” He asks Flint.

Flint silently nods, conceding.

“This is where you work, eh? It’s a pretty cramped place no?”

“Well, I learned to make do with what I have.” He bluntly replies.

Roger chortles when he hears Flint’s comment. He replies, “I feel you. I had to work in a crummy office just like this to get where I am.”

After his comments, Roger takes out a manila folder, with stacks of papers protruding out of it. He hands it to Flint. Flint takes the folder out of his hands. On the manila folder, “The Romander Case,” is stamped on the front in big bold black ink.

“I’ve seen your work, Flint. This case is something that I know I could trust you with.” Roger tells him, forming a serious expression.

Flint looks up to Roger with a quizzical, but also a knowing expression.

“Trust me?”

Roger’s expression becomes even more serious. He looks around his office, making sure the windows and door are all shut and covered with the blinds. He goes back to where he has stood and looks Flint in his eyes.

He finally speaks, “To tell you the truth, the government has hidden secrets that I cannot allow to be hidden for any longer. I am well aware of the consequences of my request, but I simply cannot hold my country’s people in the dark for any longer. These files contain all the information you need.”

Roger looks up to Flint. He notices that he has gone quiet and is staring at the case file. Flint’s shivering hands betray his stoic expression.

“Flint,” Roger speaks to him.

Flint snaps out of his state and he looks up to Roger. Flint senses an understanding aura from Roger. Roger walks over and takes the case out of his hands.

“Look, I can’t trust any old detective to undergo this task but you. Flint, I know you can reveal the truth to the public. But, it is not right for me to force my dirty work onto you. It is my duty to fix all this mess, not yours.” Roger tells him.

Roger puts away the case file in his jacket. Roger looks up again to Flint, a man he knows who has seen more death and brutality than anyone he has ever known. He slowly approaches the door.

“Wait.”

Roger stops after hearing Flint’s voice and turns to meet him.

“Leave the case here,” Flint tells him. “I’ll tell you my decision later.”

Roger nods and gives him the case file. He also gives Flint a number on a card to call him, should he accept the case. Roger exits his room. Flint is still standing up, looking at the case file. He places the case file down on his desk. He paces back and forth in his office. As he keeps pacing back and forth in his room, his eyes cannot help but draw their attention to the case file on his desk.

Flint goes back to his desk and sits down. After taking a deep breath, he opens the case file. The first thing he sees is a printed statement by Roger.

Michael Romander was a head scientist in charge of operations in CNBR-98, an independent research facility heavily funded by the government. It researched human mortality and spirits. They were researching ways to bring humans back to life and how to make them immortal. Over the years, however, Michael Romander wasn’t satisfied enough with the lab research and experiments. Due to the nature of the subject, he needed to find ways to experiment and test his ideas. At first, he used some of his fellow scientists, but they weren’t producing the results he needed. This led to him kidnapping many people, killing them in morbid ways to see how their souls react. People threatened to spread the word of his heinous deeds, but they all ended up being victims of his morbid research. The department was eventually cast aside, but I know he continues his research there. More information is provided.

The following papers contain basic information such as the location of the facility and more background on the facility’s creation. He skims past this information and comes across a paper separating the next section. It is titled: “Photos.”

Flint flips past this page and his eyes widen. The photos contain mangled corpses with many odd objects that are punctured in their bodies. These photos come one after the other, each more twisted and morbid than the previous.

Flint desperately tries to maintain his composure, but he is unable to. He opens a drawer underneath his desk and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and a glass. He pours the whiskey into his glass and drinks from it. It manages to calm him down, but it isn’t enough. After five glasses of whiskey, he manages to regain his composure. His breath has the strong scent of alcohol.

Flint puts away the glass and bottle of whiskey as Sercas enters his office. Sercas’s nose immediately gets overwhelmed by the scent of alcohol from Flint’s breath.

“Drinking again Flint?” Sercas asks Flint.

Flint ashamedly nods his head.

“I don’t think I drank enough…” Flint mutters.

Sercas closes the door and approaches Flint’s desk. He sits on the edge, which annoys Flint.

“It’s been a while since we last had a drink together. Oh, I remember those days.” Sercas said reminiscing.

Sercas looks at Flint, who is now appearing sleepier after drinking all that whiskey. It doesn’t take long for Flint to fall asleep on his desk, with his head now resting on the case file he has read. Sercas still smells Flint’s overbearing alcohol-scented breath.

Sercas sighs and looks around Flint’s office. Even though he has been in here several times before, it still stuns him how full many of the filing cabinets are. Sercas looks down and reminisces about the good old days.

The days when Flint was a small-time go-getter detective, the days when after work, he, Serena, and Flint, who would sometimes bring his beloved husband Ronlo with him, would go to a bar to have a good time with good drinks and good friends.

“But those good old days are long gone,” Sercas mutters to himself.

He looks over to the drawer where Flint stores his whiskey. He opens it and sees the bottle half full. Sercas can only wish to return to those days when it was Flint and his buddies and not now when it is Flint and his trusted whiskey.

Sercas stands up from his desk and walks away.

“Don’t be a stranger,” Sercas says to Flint, while he is still asleep on his desk.

Sercas exits the room, leaving Flint there to sleep.

Flint walks out of his office at an unusually early hour. He has already looked through the case in its entirety, as the file only contains President Roger’s initial findings which include the morbid corpses and basic background information after he had woken up from his alcohol-induced slumber. There is one key detail he wishes that President Roger could provide, and that’s a photo of Romander. But there isn’t much he can do about it.

He overhears Sercas and Serena discussing the case file as Serena had received another copy from Roger after he exited Flint’s office. They stop talking when Flint is beside them.

“Tell Roger that I’ll the case,” Flint tells them.

His sudden words have surprised them.

“You’re serious Flint?” Serena asks him. “I know the other types of cases you’ve taken before but…”

Before Serena could finish, Flint interjects, “It is my duty.”

Flint then exits the office with his belongings, before Sercas and Serena could interject any further.

“A duty?” Serena says out loud.

Sercas silently nods in agreement. He looks up at the door where Flint has exited.

“So that’s what keeps him going huh?” Sercas says out loud.

Sercas and Serena look at each other. Though Flint has been distant, they wish to aid him in fulfilling his duty.