January 2, 2022

You Have Nothing to Worry About


Previously: Earl Grey, a Prologue

She should've been more shocked.

When you're sitting in your office in a mostly empty high school your very first morning on the job, and you've barely touched your coffee when a shrill, blood-curdling scream suddenly rips through the hallway just beyond your door, it only makes sense that you be shocked.  You're supposed to drop things, clutch your chest, panic - something.

You shouldn't just look up from your desk and think, So...it's gonna be one of those days.

But that was precisely what Dani Reyes did.  After all, that's why she came back to her hometown, right?

To be fair, her heart was pounding a little bit as she rose from her desk and walked out of her office.

Be calm, she reminded herself.  Regardless of what you see, be calm.

As a kid growing up in this town, she'd always resented how adults often lied to children.  But now she was the adult (well, kinda), and it was her turn to lie for the greater good.

A girl was sobbing in the hallway, curled up in a ball in the corner.  Dani slowly knelt beside her remembering to speak with slow, even pacing.

"It's all right," she attempted to soothe the teen.  "You have nothing to worry about."

***




***

"Detective Dominador Ona?"

Dominador's swiveled his chiseled form around to see who was calling him.  To his surprise, it wasn't some young rookie who'd come to pick him up from the Liso Vuelo Airport, but the legend himself.  If one considered the rather infamous likes of Nicolao Daos a legend.

"That's me," he nodded.  The two men were about the same height, with the same deep bronze complexion and stylishly cut hair.  The senior detective gave him a once over; Dominador always found it deeply amusing every time people did this.

"Filipino," he clarified.  "Not Latino."

"I figured," Daos nodded briskly.  He had a somber, pensive demeanor and a hardened edge to his jaw.  "You speak any Spanish?"

"Enough to get by," Dominador cheerfully assured him, as they walked back to Daos's sleek black SUV.  "Originally from Southern Cali, but I've spent the last few years on the East Coast."

 "You'll need it here a lot of the time," Daos said flatly.  "They tell how long you'll be here?"

"They said I'd shadow you for eight weeks."

"They tell you why?"

"Only that I reminded them of you."

Though Dominador may have been imagining things, he could've sworn the corner of Daos's lips teased a a smirk.

"How so?" the senior detective asked.

"Had a run in with a particularly uncooperative perp," Dominador shrugged.  "Backup was taking forever, things got really ugly really fast, so I shot him point blank in the chest.  Dude dropped.  Split second later, he's up and running, and I'm in pursuit.

"I chase him for six blocks," Dominador went on, as Daos drove them out of tiny the airport parking lot.  "Dude's not bleeding, not breaking a sweat.  I don't open fire, 'cause, you know...innocent bystanders.  I corner him finally - or at least I think I do - but then he turns and disarms me like it's nothing and so we fight hand to hand.  And dude's got lightning fast reflexes.  He gets a good shot in, kicks me in the chest, and I fall hard.  Like, I'm gasping for breath; I'm in straight-up agony.  He takes his time, starts talking in some weird language, drawing on the ground with his finger.  Then...." Dominador's voice slowly began to trail, as though he was struggling to remember something his mind wanted him to forget.  "Burst of light, some kind of...door, I think?  I don't know.  I just knew I couldn't lose him, not on my first night out.  He walks through the light calmly, so I jump up and follow him."

Daos raised an eyebrow, eyes still on the road.  "Your first night out?"

"Yeah," Dominador nodded, still his semi-hazy state.  "We exit on the other side of the city.  He's surprised I'm still there.  We fight, he drops me, and when I come to I'm surrounded by cops and an ambulance."

"You're lucky he left you alive."  Warlocks aren't exactly known for leaving survivors, Daos didn't add.  Despite his impressive first night out, this one would still need baby steps.

Dominador shrugged.  "He seemed to be in a hurry."

"Well, I hope you've had your coffee this morning," Daos sighed.  "We've got a case at the high school.  Kid found the corpse of a sixteen-year-old boy stuffed in her locker this morning."

Dominador looked alarmed.  "Seriously?

Next: Baby Steps

7 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. How do you feel about the opening credits?

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    2. It feels like I'm just booted up a new game of Baldurs Gate, and you don't realize how excited that makes me.

      But I'm puzzled that my name is included.

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    3. None of this would've happened if you hadn't told me about Amaya.

      Delete
  2. Okay woah. I agree with JNguyen, I like where this is going.

    ReplyDelete
  3. *Throws wad of cash* Just take all of my money. Seriously though, I adore your writing style and dream casting. It's always spot on. Nothing like people of color at the helm of a supernatural story!

    ReplyDelete

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