The Collab...

Chapter 42

By Inu Yasha

Lydon was in a bad mood. His little "talk" with Ven had hurt his ego a lot. After all, Lydon had the reputation to be one of the best detectives in the area, and yet, for no less than two times, he had failed to bring Cisia back into the Core. The sight of himself being promoted faded away in front of his own eyes. He realized this job was way more difficult than he’d admitted at first. His vow to kill Ashley suddenly seemed puerile and insignificant, compared to the thought of what would happen to him when he did not succeed to return Cisia. He’d surely lose his job. Maybe the Ministry would search out all of his actions in the past, and conclude that Lydon had violated the law on more than just one occasion. That he’d killed several people, enemy or not, without any kind of license or permission. So then he’d wind up in prison...maybe in the same cell as his former enemies. Lydon shivered, as he already saw himself in that ugly, striped prison outfit entering his new "home", being looked at by many pairs of eyes - filled with bloodlust and hatred. And then, one of those people, (probably Willy One-Eye, he still had a lot to "discuss" with Lydon) would step forward, pointing his knife to Lydon’s throat, and say...

"Excuse me sir, do you know where I can find the exit?"

Lydon woke up from his thoughts. He looked at the woman in front of him for a few seconds, until the question she’d just uttered was processed inside his skull. "Eh...sure...through that door over there." "Thank you sir." The woman smiled and walked away. Lydon covered his eyes with his hand and shook his head, having the feeling that he just woke up from a bad dream.

"I should really be searching that girl right now," he told himself, as he re-opened his eyes.

As he stepped outside, he realized that it had started to rain. Dark clouds packed together above the gloomy scenery of the city, not letting through a single ray of the sun. The sun? In disbelief, Lydon looked at his watch. It was five-thirty in the morning. Five-thirty...he yawned. It had been a very busy night, but he didn’t think yet of getting any sleep. There was simply too much at stake, and Lydon preferred keeping his job, his freedom, and possibly his life, above having a good nap. "But I’d die for a good cup of coffee right now..." he mumbled. The cool rain poured down on his forehead, his clothes, his shoes. There was nobody on the street but himself.

Some time ago, weeks, months maybe, Lydon woke up in the middle of the night, his heart pounding like crazy. A nightmare of the kind he’d never had before. It started when he saw himself standing in an unfamiliar, vast space. He rubbed his eyes and saw he was inside a cold-storage depot, one of the kind that butchers use to store the corpses of animals. Several hooks hung down from the ceiling, onto which they were attached by long ropes. Some of them had dead cows, pigs, or any other animals hanging on them, and the others had not.

Then he saw a girl standing there, maybe twelve or thirteen years old. She was very pretty, wearing a beautiful long dress and smiling peacefully, which made her look rather odd between all those corpses. Lydon walked towards her, but she didn’t move or say a thing. She just looked at him, smiling, as he grabbed her arms and lifted her up from the ground. She was surprisingly light, he could hold her like this by using only one arm around her thin waist. He touched her face with his free hand, using his thumb to open her mouth. He held his breath, unsure of what to do next. Moments passed.

She didn’t even blink her eyes as the hook pierced through the flesh and the blood poured down from her opened mouth, staining her dress, and making the pool of blood below her grow slowly, but steadily. Lydon caught breath again and stepped backwards. He looked at the girl, with the hook in her mouth, hanging down from the ceiling, and she looked back at him, standing a couple of feet away from her. Her eyes didn’t reveal any emotion at all. Then she started to move her lips, trying to say something, but all Lydon could hear was the sound of teeth hitting metal, and blood dripping on the ground. Other than that, all was silent.

"Don’t speak, girl," Lydon whispered, "don’t try to say anything. It’s all right...everything is all right. I know what you want to say. I know you...you want to thank me for what I just did. I know that you do, I know that you’re grateful. But don’t worry...it’s all right girl, it’s all right..." His voice had been soft and soothing, he had been looking carefully for the right words to say, and he was sure he’d said the right things. Once more, the girl looked down at him, attempting to smile, and he could see some kind of relief in her eyes, as if she agreed with all he just said. Then her face became pale, all of her life disappeared out of her body, together with the red liquid out of her mouth. She was dead.

Lydon drove his car, not paying attention to what happened on the streets, as he knew very well that they were empty anyway. He headed for the police department, not sure of what he was going to do when he’d arrive there. He couldn’t focus his mind. He tried to pretend that it was just his weariness that prevented him to think clearly, but he couldn’t convince himself. The rain kept falling down from the sky, the raindrops were illuminated by the front lights of his car. They seemed to form a curtain, dancing, and playing with the wind, teasing Lydon as he tried to make his way through it. Never did Lydon miss a driver for his car as much as he did now. The movements of the ghost-like spouts paralyzed his thoughts, forcing him to remember that nightmare he had, already such a long time ago. Right now, his dream appeared even more cruel than it did before, but he couldn’t quite lay his finger on the reason of it. The streets embraced him, and his car, swallowing them in the darkness of the upcoming thunderstorm. He knew that it would soon be too dangerous for him to be on the streets, as the bad weather would conceal the other cars. Even though the city was all quiet now, he knew he’d better not taken the risk. He drove his car up to an empty parking space in front of the police department. The first flash of lightning made its way through the clouds, right when Lydon opened the door to walk inside, almost immediately followed by the sound of thunder.