Sunny scowled, making the shadows in the room grow darker around them. "Damnation! First, the sex offender this morning, along with the new professor at the academy, who was a mother, and now the three witnesses. That makes five people dead within a single day. Making twelve in total these past three months, and those are the ones that have been reported; only the dead gods know how many more have been murdered."
"Where are they now? How did they leave?" Jet asked with a grimace.
"They were here in the precinct, out in the lobby, but when I went to check on them a few hours before coming here, they were gone. Doreen, that's the name of our receptionist, Soul Reaper. Doreen said she left to get coffee from the break room, and they just vanished without a trace. My patrol officers went out to search for them and three hours later found them in an abandoned factory with their blood drained into buckets and runes painted on the floor with their blood. They couldn't translate them as the officers are mundane." Static held a look of barely restrained anger as he explained. The air crackled with electricity, causing the lights to flicker. He took a deep breath and continued.
"Sunless, I know you can translate runes like you've done in the past. I want you and Soul Reaper at this crime scene."
"What about the dead mother?" Jet asked,
"I have detectives on that so that you can worry about this one." He responded with a sigh.
"If I struggle with the runes, then I know someone who can help me with that," Sunny told them. The person he was referring to was Cassie, who was likely watching through his eyes.
"Good," Static nodded.
"You have a lot of connections, detective." Jet eyed Sunny with a hint of amusement.
"The Dream Hunter is getting bolder and bolder by the day. This goddamn maniac needs to be taken down, which is why I said that I want you two to investigate the murder scene of the witnesses. Whatever you find, you report it to either the sergeant or me immediately and not a moment before." Static growled with anger, not at them but at the situation.
"Yes, sir," Sunny nodded,
"Sure thing," Jet nodded as well.
"Master Soul Reaper, I know you don't work for me, but as his partner, you're under my care, and I'd like for you to make sure this young man doesn't get himself killed every time Sunless makes a break in a case he finds himself in impossible situations and somehow lives to tell the tale." The older man frowned at Sunny.
"It's not my fault, sir; they're just attracted to me, I promise." Sunny gave a slight smile.
"Sure they do, kid." Static rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Jet again. "The same goes for you as well, Master Soul Reaper. I've read your reports, and I know you're one of the most feared masters in existence, but still be careful out there and stick together while on patrol and pray to the dead gods that this is the only creature running around this city."
"Will do, lieutenant," Jet nodded again.
"Take and sign out your issued weapon, Sunless. That's an order." Static told him firmly.
"Yes, sir," Sunny suppressed a frown. He hated using firearms.
"Soul Reaper, unfortunately, I can't issue you one because you're not a police officer," Static said.
"That's fine, I never liked using them in the first place, mainly even when helping take down mundane or awakened humans gone mad." The woman shrugged nonchalantly.
"Alright, good, if you two don't have anything else, then you're dismissed," Static declared and walked out of the room.
Sunny gathered the photos of the crime scenes, pocketed the drawing Mordret made of the recent crime, then put the pictures back where they belonged. Once they were out in the hall, Jet slightly turned her towards him.
"I admit that I'm not the most knowledgeable on this stuff, but don't police officers usually carry their weapons at all times when on the shift? At least the ones I've assisted in the past did."
"We did in the past, but we had an incident several years ago where one of our officers, who was off duty, shot and killed three people, then himself. We had no idea why he did it to this day. The only connections he had to the people he killed were that they were acquainted due to him being a regular at a restaurant he went to, but that was all. We tried to figure out the possible causes, but every lead has been a dead end or didn't make a lick of sense, so the case went cold. Ever since that day, we've had to sign in and sign out weapons," Sunny grimly recalled the event.
"I heard about that on the news. I never knew that it was an officer from here. " Jet slightly frowned at his words.
"Yeah, it was nasty work," Sunny shook his head.
A couple of minutes passed before either of them repeated anything.
"And I take it you think he was one of those reflection creatures? You're no doubt still trying to solve it, and now you're trying to find connections with these recent killings." Jet guessed due to his lack of silence.
Sunny slowly nodded. "Unfortunately, yes, but it's a very far fetch, actually, no, it isn't, now that I think about it, he was a standoffish guy for the most part, then he began to interact with people and be around them more, gods, why didn't I see it?" Sunny's eyes widened.
"And you think that was the reflection's way to make itself stronger by being around people more." She finished his thought, then shook her head when he nodded.
"That's right," Sunny confirmed.
"That's a good theory, detective, but it's as you said, the guy took his own life after killing those people, and you have no evidence that he was one of those things. For all we know, he could have just snapped." She said, helpfully poking holes into his theory, and as much he hated to admit it, she was right. Despite that, Sunny couldn't help but admit that having someone who could cover his back was nice, and it helped that they could relate to each other due to her being from the outskirts.
That made her the second person he knew who was from that place, along with Uncle Jest. Much to his surprise, he learned that when Kai's parents took in Sunny and Rain and Mordret, along with Jest, who was the same rank he is now, came to visit them occasionally, before the prince went into his first nightmare. As a way to help Sunny and Rain deal with the death of their parents, Jest told them that he grew up on the outskirts as well. Of course, since they were only children back then, the older man greatly exaggerated his past to get them to laugh, and it worked.
But it still didn't change the fact that Sunny missed his parents. As he kept reminiscing, he absentmindedly took a turn in the next hallway and stopped at a door, then opened it.
"Here it is," Sunny dramatically opened his arms out lazily.
"Not bad," Jet gave a nod and looked around.
"Yeah, not bad at all," Sunny agreed while grabbing his weapon along with a few magazines and signing it out.
Grabbing a holster for his gun and placing it in, Sunny and Jet left the armory to sign out his vehicle, where a shaken Doreen greeted them.
"Hello, Sunless dear, hello, Master Jet, please watch over this young man and each other, but mostly him. He has a knack for getting himself into impossible situations and somehow walking away unscathed. That doesn't mean you can't be careful while you're out there, too. I have a daughter around your age who reminds me of you, and I think you two would get along great." The older woman smiled at Jet and continued.
"I know you two kids may think it's pointless for old Doreen to worry because you two are young and strong, but still, it makes me feel a lot better if you two promise to be safe." The older woman sniffed, her eyes crinkled in worry, despite appearing to be in her early forties; as an awakened, she was actually in her mid-sixties.
"That's the second time someone has said that about him, but I promise I will." Jet gave Sunny a sideways glance; her eyes held a hint of curiosity mixed with amusement, and she nodded at Dorren.
"We promise, Dorren, be safe and don't walk to your car alone. Have a good night." Sunny said, gently squeezing her hand.
"Thank you, sweetheart." She said, putting her hand on top of his with a watery smile, and squeezed firmly, then let go.
Sunny smiled at the older woman and left the building with Jet. It was near the summer solstice, so the bright sky was still flaunting itself outside. Sunny bathed what the weather provided every once in a while because it was the only warmth that he was going to get in this cold, dark city. The rain was starting to come down again, constantly pouring just enough to wash off the grime from the city streets, but never enough to clean the filth that was the city itself.
He unlocked the car and got into the driver's seat, closing the door, then let out a quiet sigh as he fiddled with the radio and eventually found a song he could listen to while driving. Jet slipped into the passenger side, closed her door, and looked at him with a nonchalant expression, before she could say anything, though Sunny side-eyed her.
"My vehicle, my music," Sunny said, daring her to touch his radio.
"If you say so, detective, just don't be surprised if I change it at some point along the ride." Jet leaned her head against the window.
"Feel free to, but I hope you can live with a few missing fingers," Sunny said with a hint of mirth and allowed a smile to grace his face when he heard Jet let out a chuckle. Chuckling, he set the destination to the factory on his laptop, pulled out of his parking spot, and began driving.
As he was driving, Jet reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, glanced at Sunny, and offered him one. He shook his head and got a shrug from her in response. The woman put one in her mouth, then immediately crushed the remaining pack of cigarettes in her hand and pocketed them.
"What? I've been meaning to quit anyway. But I know for a fact that I'm going to regret that I crushed them later on tonight when I'm bored, oh, and don't worry, I'm not going to smoke in your car, I'm not that disrespectful." Jet said, giving Sunny a lazy smile when he gave a funny look.
"I don't mind, but it's appreciated all the same," He shrugged.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the abandoned factory and stepped out of the vehicle, weary. The patrol car was here, but the officers were nowhere to be seen. Neither were their shadows, as he couldn't sense any inside. Walking up to the building, Sunny slowly opened the door and looked over at Jet, who extended her hand outward, causing white sparks to appear in her palm, and a second later, a luminous memory was in her hand. She nodded and followed Sunny inside. He immediately felt the scent of blood assault his nostrils and clenched his fists in anger. Someone else must've died recently, along with the witnesses.
How the hell is the dream hunter so fast? Was my theory correct in that there were multiple of them? He had hoped not until a darker thought passed his mind. Do we have a spy working for that creature? He wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet, but it was something he would keep in the back of his mind for the time being until proven otherwise.
Moving across the reception desk of the factory, the smell of blood only got stronger until he saw a pool of sticky, red, almost black substance, and he felt Jet tensing up, preparing to strike, even though he made no mention of anyone else being there. Walking closer to the puddle of blood.
Sunny felt something he had rarely felt these days: fear. He found the witnesses stuck to a wall in a web-like substance, and right beside where the bodies of the witnesses were strung up were also the bodies of the patrol officers trapped in the same substance.
The only common factors were the buckets full of thick blood and the pieces of flesh torn off their bodies and the incomplete sorcery runes drawn in blood on the floor with a paintbrush just beside the last body along with the end of the paintbrush stick out of the bucket; these were unrecognizable to Sunny, as he only knew about weaving sorcery, so he would definitely need Cassie to help him with this. The other factor was the calm expressions on their faces before their demise, as if they were okay with it.
"Seems like the dream hunter was in a rush and left in a hurry, look right here, see how the runes start as intricate and detailed, then they become a lot less sophisticated." Sunny pointed out to Jet, who nodded, summoned a memory, and started cutting one of the people out of there, making a grunting noise of effort. Unfortunately, the only result she got was her weapon scraping against it, making sparks fly, as if it were made of a corrupted nightmare creature's skin.
Sunny took out his radio with a grim expression.
"Sergeant, I'm requesting backup to this location immediately."
A moment passed before the radio crackled to life and a gruff voice responded. "Why?"
"We found two bodies of the patrol officers guarding this place, dead and stuck to the wall, along with the witnesses. We're going to move deeper inside the factory, out, and over."
Feeling disturbed, Sunny left his haughty shadow at the entrance in case he needed to shadow-step away from any danger, and motioned for Jet, who looked at Sunny then at the shadow with an unreadable expression, to stay quiet and follow him as they made their way through the desolate place.
As they reached the assembly line of the factory, the smell of death and decay was more present than ever, and Sunny could feel his heartbeat spike as he saw more and more bodies attached to the walls, some with their limbs missing, others with their entire heads. Looking to his right, he watched Jet stare at the bodies with an unreadable expression, but contrary to her beautiful face, he could hear the bones in her hands crack from clenching too hard, piercing her skin, and as a result, blood started to leak from them.
Walking further down the factory, the smell of blood immediately grew strong enough to make him nauseated, and Jet wrinkled her nose in disgust and silently tapped his shoulder and pointed to a door where he saw severed fingers scattered throughout the area.
Suddenly, Sunny heard a faint crunching sound, and he immediately extended his shadow sense into the factory, looking around in confusion when his sense was blocked. It was as if he had suddenly gone blind. Keeping his ears open, he moved to walk further into the factory assembly line when Jet put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.
"Detective," She called out to Sunny with a whisper.
"What is it?" He looked over and moved closer to whisper into her ear.
"There's someone or something else here," Jet said with a frown, pointing down at the assembly line, prompting Sunny to lean back and get a good look at her. His onyx eyes scanned her face for any traces of humor. When he found none, Sunny frowned as well and looked around the area.
"I'll take your word for it." Sunny looked at her again, and his frown deepened because if she could sense a soul in the vicinity while he couldn't pick up anything with his shadow sense, then it must've been what Sunny hoped it wasn't, and he knew exactly what it was.
They wearily looked around before moving deeper into the factory, and Sunny extended his shadow sense to the door again while keeping his attention on where Jet had pointed a moment ago, then slowly opened the door. Suddenly, without warning, he heard rapid scraping sounds on the floor; something was heading their way, moving at inhuman speeds.
Sunny's head snapped towards the hallway where the thing was approaching, and, upon seeing this, Jet dismissed her luminous memory and summoned a somber glaive, looking down the hall with a dark expression.
At the same time, Sunny unholstered his weapon, his gaze piercing the brightly lit hall provided by Jet's luminous memory. Watching and listening carefully, he heard heavy footsteps and soon saw a humanoid figure rapidly approaching them, with killing intent oozing from it; yet, despite this, he still couldn't sense the being or the space around it.
"Stop! Keep your hands where I can see them!" Sunny shouted at the figure, pointing his gun at them, when the creature made no move to stop and instead began running faster. Sunny fired two shots into the creature. He let out a curse, quickly holstered his weapon, and focused on the being.
His eyes widened as he took a peek at its soul, expecting to see a soul full of vile darkness; instead, he saw five dim, dark soul cores and let out a curse, forming his soul serpent into an odachi when the creature didn't flinch. As the creature moved close to Sunny, he grimaced at the sight; it was what Sunny dreaded, a creature of darkness, a natural enemy to a shadow like himself.
"It's a tyrant!" Sunny shouted to her.
As soon as he informed her, the creature of darkness emitted a terrible wail that shook Sunny to his very soul and made him double over in pain with an expression of agony, along with Jet, who stumbled in place with a hiss. Quickly recovering from the soul attack, Sunny quickly yet discreetly wrapped his four remaining shadows around himself and leaped away as the devil shattered the floor and walls around them with a devastating impact at the exact moment Sunny moved away.
"Fallen!" Sunny shouted.
"What?" Jet asked with a shout while ducking.
"It's a Fallen tyrant! At least I think so! It could be corrupted!"
"You think?! That is two different ranks you're talking about, detective, choose one! I'm not even going to ask how you know it's class!" Jet parried a claw from the creature.
"Yes! It's a creature of darkness; they aren't corrupted like nightmare creatures! But I'm positive that it's fallen!" Sunny shouted back.
"You're going to have to educate me on these things whenever you get the chance!"
Jet dashed forward swinging her glaive in a side slash aiming for the devil's chest causing the creature to snap it's attention to Jet and dodge her attack with a snarl, Sunny took the opportunity to slash at its neck, the attack proved somewhat successful as his odachi sliced through its and but due to his shadow sense being completely nulled by the true darkness along with the tyrants shadow, it made shadow dance useless against it and the tyrant leaned away from the slash making what would have been a fatal blow less impactful, this dodge proved ineffective though as true darkness flowed from the wound on its neck.
The darkness was slowing to a stop as the creature began to heal itself with the true darkness surrounding it rapidly, and Jet used this moment of weakness to deliver an attack to its face, but to his surprise, it didn't connect. Instead, as he looked at the creature's soul, he saw a crack appear as soon as Jet hit it. He immediately realized why so many people, including the Saints, feared her and why she earned the title "soul reaper."
The soul attack made the creature stumble. Seeing this, Sunny drove his weapon into its neck, slicing its head off with Jet delivering another attack to its soul for good measure, which served as the final blow when it fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Jet looked at Sunny and nodded, signaling that the spell announced the kill.
Despite that neither of them relaxed and began looking around the rest of the factory, Sunny thought about calling Saint to join the party but he decided against it, it was only the first day of knowing Master Jet and while she already proved herself somewhat trustworthy it was best not to let his bias of the fact that she came from the outskirts as well go against his judgement. Sunny knew that Kai and kind Mordrret would disprove of him falling back into his ways of being weary of people, but he would rather be safe than sorry. Still, his instincts told him that she could be trusted.
***
"Just what is your goal?" Sunny questioned no one in particular.
After all of the events that transpired in a total of twenty hours, from three in the morning to eleven at night, the day ended in another late night of working and staying in his office at the precinct. Sunny stared at the board he had made over the past months, which consisted of pictures of the murders of the Dream Hunter, with red tape connecting each of them as his way of trying to figure out some connection, anything, because as of right now, he was grasping at thin air.
He decided to call it a night as his sergeant didn't like it when Sunny stayed over his shift. He walked out of his office, bid goodnight to the night shift staff, clocked out, walked to his PTV, and then drove home.
After a few minutes of driving, he pulled into his driveway and extended his shadow sense to detect a single shadow in the living room. Sunny wasn't surprised that someone was there; he already knew who it was: Jest. The old man had likely gotten worried and decided to wait until Sunny came back home.
Sunny turned off his vehicle and shadow stepped inside, and his guess was immediately confirmed when he heard a voice speak
"Is that you, kiddo?" Jest called him out from the living room; nothing could escape the senses of a Saint, so it wasn't a surprise to Sunny when Jest felt his presence the moment Sunny pulled into the driveway and shadow-stepped inside. The old man always knew.
"Yeah, where are Kai and Mordret?" Sunny called back, walking out of his room and into the kitchen.
"You look like death, must've been a Late night, huh? I get it. The boys are heading back here soon, Mordret just finished with his meetings and events, but never mind that, sit down, lad." Jest patted the spot beside him with a smile.
"What are you doing here in the first place, Uncle Jest?" Sunny wandered into the kitchen, eyed the cabinet for a moment, then grabbed a mug and a fresh pack of coffee beans.
"You didn't come back the time you usually do, and an old man like me gets worried sometimes, especially when a serial killer is running around, and before you say anything." Jest held his hand up at Sunny, who opened his mouth and continued when Sunny closed it. "I know you have your shadows and your fancy divine aspect, but you're not immortal or invincible, so be careful out there."
"I will, Uncle Jest," Sunny sat down beside him.
"How was the shift? Oh, I don't like that look," Jest said when he saw Sunny frown.
"Terrible, three witnesses were killed, and when my partner and I went to investigate, we found the bodies of the patrol officers along with severed fingers and bodies with missing heads. Then, some creature attacked us. I thought it was some humanoid spider nightmare creature. But it couldn't have been; there was too much madness in its eyes to be an echo, and too much intelligence. So I decided to take a peek, and when I looked into its soul, I only saw four dim, dark soul cores, and realized that it was a creature of darkness, my natural enemy, so I was basically powerless against it." Sunny summarized the events, and Jest was silent for a long time.
"I'm glad you made it back home, kid, and you should know that I already knew about what happened. Cassia told me about it earlier, but I wanted to hear it from you. As for this creature of darkness, draw a picture of it when you have the time and get Cassia too." Jest suggested with a shrug.
"Will do," Sunny nodded.
"Do you think it was the other trying to throw you off course from its real goal? I mean, it knew what your aspect was; it had to, to put your natural enemy in your way, especially. To me, it sounds like it set a trap for you; then again, everyone in the world knows about your affinity for shadows, so I'm not surprised that the other did set a trap. Though it clearly wasn't expecting your partner to be there, so I'll be sure to thank your partner whenever I get the chance. Also, you said that you saw bodies with their blood drained and runes drawn on the floor with their blood. Tell me more about that." Jest observed while rubbing his chin.
"It has to be some sort of ritual, maybe it formed a cult, and this is an indoctrination? You've dealt with those fanatics in the past, right, Uncle Jest? What do you think?" Sunny asked while looking at Jest with creased eyebrows.
"No, the cults I've exiled were crazy but almost always harmless, as they usually kept to themselves and only used the churches for their gatherings and whatnot. This is something far more sinister. I hope that this is just the work of one reflection and not multiple."
"Lieutenant Static said the same thing earlier today," Sunny added,
"So, with that out of the way, what's the girl's name? And no half-truths either, I know you've been with one, brat." Jest grinned at him.
Damnation, Sunny shook his head. He couldn't get anything past this old man.
"Jet," Sunny said, causing Jest's eyebrows to shoot up.
"You mean Master Jet as in the Soul Reaper?" Jest asked, and his eyebrows shot up further with a grin.
"Yes, she's my-" Sunny began,
The old man interrupted him with a laugh. "I didn't think you were into older women, you'll get no judgment from me though, a girlfriend is a girlfriend, well done kiddo! But be careful, Sunny, women like that especially like Soul Reaper, goodness gracious I feel bad for you, she will wear you out!" Jest clapped him on the shoulder with a bright smile.
"What about a girlfriend?" A pleasant voice asked through the door as it opened.
"Your friend found himself a girlfriend," Jest smiled at Mordret.
"That's wonderful, Sunless," Kind Mordret smiled as well, causing Sunny to frown.
"Yes, well done, Sunny! Even though I was sure you and Nephis were going to get together." Kai said as he walked through the front door as well and closed it behind him, locking it.
"I'm not dating anyone!" Sunny snapped, causing the three men to frown.
"What?! Boy, when I was around your age, I had to have a taser on me at all times to keep the women from pouncing on me. Of course, I was much more handsome than you at my age and still am, and this was before I was a sleeper, ha!" Jest pointed at himself with a smug smile.
"You must be going senile then," Sunny scoffed, causing Jest to throw his hands up in frustration. Sunny's communicator notified him of a message. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it; he was surprised to see a text.
The message read:
"It's Jet. Your captain gave me your contact information in case you find something while off duty or need my help with anything. Feel free to contact me, after all, we outskirts rats have to stick together, and just so you know, for the future, if you call me at any time later than 2am, I'll assume it's a booty call and won't answer." Sunny stared at the text in confusion before letting out a chuckle at the last part of the message. He was laughing because, despite being over text, he still detected the humour. Ignoring the stares he felt from his friends, Sunny began typing back with an amused smile.
"Sure thing, Soul Reaper, I'll keep that in mind." Sunny pocketed his communicator as he moved to get up when Jest's cane lightly tapped his arm and brought him back down to the couch.
"You think you get to walk away with a big grin on your face without telling us anything? Spill it, kid," Jest grinned and leaned back into the couch. It was beginning to look like the night was far from being over.
From here on out I have decided to make the chapters longer as compensation for making those who read this story wait over almost a month for an update. I will see you next chapter :)