"Well I can tick that off the bucket list," I said out loud. Excitement stirred in her body. "Alex?" She asked loudly, a few people in the gallery stared at her.
"Yes, it worked. And it's weird April. I can feel what you're feeling." She suddenly felt nervous.
"Can you hear my thoughts?" she whispered.
"No, thankfully I'm sure most of them are about being mad at me anyway. Listen, take out your phone and talk into it. You'll look a lot less crazy if people think you're talking on the phone."
She complied.
"Wow, this is really strange, so what now?"
"Well now you go on with your normal routine if he's watching you, he can't know something's up, so no more conversations with yourself okay? Try responding to me psychically. Like, reverse telepathy."
"Okay." She replied by putting away her phone. I could feel the magic surge through her, as she focused on trying to communicate through telepathy. I could feel the power, I could taste the power. It was a rush.
"Wow! Does it always feel like this when you use magic?"
"Yes." She replied though only I could hear her.
"It worked!" I exclaimed excitedly.
The rest of the hour was spent doing some work, which for me was like watching a really, really boring movie without popcorn. She talked about the history of paintings and how the artist struggled to move past his 'signature work' but honestly, some of these paintings looked like they were painted by a four-year-old. Then she went on to explain the painting to the interested party in full detail.
"The way the brush strokes were laid down on the canvas evokes emotion from the viewer. He laid down layers of white, the extreme contrast between light and dark played out like a mystery." She continued on like the next seven paintings. How can one person remember so much crap? Invokes sadness? It's a canvas splashed with colors, the only thing it invokes is anger, anger that this is what the world calls art today.
"Is your job always this boring?" I asked honestly.
"It's not boring when I get my big ass check at the end of the month."
Good answer, she was right, a big paycheck really made the most boring job on earth worthwhile. But I don't think I'd ever give up being a detective for money.
After the last of the people were out of the gallery, she started locking up everything and doing cash up for the day. Who knew so much work went into being a salesperson for a gallery. At this moment I realized I didn't know much about my best friend's life.
Apparently, she had a target she had to reach each month if she didn't reach said target she would most likely be demoted. It was a tough business. Being a detective suddenly seemed much more appealing.
"I'm sorry I don't pay more attention to your outside life, I mean you always know what's going on at work with me."
"Well it's hard not to know if it's in the news, it's fine Al honestly I don't like talking about work. I leave my work life at work and home life at home. Those are the rules." She replied. If I tried to apply those rules to my life I'm not sure it would even work. My work life and home life were so much alike sometimes the lines get crossed on a daily basis.
"Okay, slowly start walking home; make sure to walk through as many dark alleys as possible, we want to make it easy for him to catch you."
"You'll find me right?" She asked, suddenly feeling a little scared. "Not backing out of the plan are you?" I asked, almost smiling.
"No, of course not." She replied. I could feel a little annoyance surge and it was aimed at me.
"Don't worry; this plan will go off without a hitch. I'll find you in no time." I replied reassuring her. Not sure if I even believed myself.
"Speaking of time, what time is it?" I asked. She glanced down at her watch; it was a quarter to seven.
"We have about an hour and a half left before the spell wears off," I announced.
"Here we go," April commented, walking into the harsh winter cold, it was already dark outside. April did exactly as I told her; she slowly approached her first dark alley.
She felt anxious and scared but at the same time, she felt determined to be fearless and brave. I wouldn't admit it now, but I was actually really proud of her. She walked through the dark alley, nothing happened. She continued forward. I'm not even sure if some of the places she ventured through even lead to our apartment.
After walking around in the cold for a half hour, I wondered if April had been wrong to assume he'd come after her again.
"Maybe he decided to move on," I said. She didn't reply; instead she decided to continue walking around.
"April, go home. We'll find another way tomorrow."
"No, would you give up that easily?" She asked, already knowing my answer. But after another half hour passed without anything happening, I could feel April becoming less optimistic.
She was beginning to lose hope and we only had half an hour left before I would wake up.
Out of nowhere he came, he grabbed her; she fought against his hold a bit. Not wanting to be too easy to kidnap. He put a cloth on her mouth and everything went dark. She woke up surrounded by darkness, in a small confined space. Probably the trunk of a car, I could hear the tires of the car colliding with the road.
"Feel around, try and make out something so I can identify the car." Again, she complied while trying to stay calm. She ran her hand over a mug she'd found. I could feel the confusion.
"It's my car." She replied.
How the hell did he get her car? But it didn't matter, what did matter is that I had a way of tracking her.
"Everything's going to be. . ." I was cut off by a strange feeling like I was being ripped away from April.
"Something's wrong," was all I managed to get out before waking up in my own body. It wasn't time yet, I still had time left.
I blinked my vision slowly starting to focus. What was in front of me was horror.
I stumbled back as I took in my surroundings.
Where the hell? What the hell? I wasn't in the apartment anymore.
I looked down at a man, his throat was slashed; blood was gushing from the wound as he was choking on his own blood. I bend down to try and help. I looked down at my hand. I was holding a bowie knife and my hands were covered in blood.
Realization hit. I did this, I slashed his throat.
The man gave out his last bloodied breath.
I sat down on the ground next to him, just stared down at my bloodied hands. I started to shake like I was going into shock. How could this have happened? Was it a side effect of the potion? Or was it something else, the darkness in me? I could feel the darkness, the grief, the guilt seep into me threatening to take over my life.
But then I remember what my mission was. April. Damn, I stood up quickly regaining myself.
Okay, Alex if you don't get yourself together or April will die. The plan failed. I need to find another way. I looked around and I was in a dirty old apartment. I can't call this in, the questioning will take too long and April will die. But what can I do? I have no alibi; I can try selling this off as self-defence but what was I doing in his apartment in the first place?
Every scenario ended with me going to jail for manslaughter. So, I'll get rid of all the evidence that I was here, this was a rather dodgy neighbourhood so I doubt they'd have street cameras.
I quickly cleaned myself in the bathroom and wiped all my prints. I wasn't sure what I touched so I wiped every single surface as quickly as possible. I staged a break-in and took his wallet, phone, and laptop. I destroyed his phone before I left.
I also destroyed the lock on the front door to make it look like it actually was a break in. While I was cleaning my prints, I noticed he didn't have any personal items; no photographs, nothing.
I looked around the apartment, satisfied I decided it was time to leave.
"I'm so sorry," I said to his lifeless body. Then climbing down the fire escape, using the front door wouldn't be inconspicuous, it would be sloppy. All the time I'd taken to cover my tracks had cut into my April time; the Freya's were expecting a call from me giving them April's location. So, I had no time to try and find her.
The grief of what I had done to that man was slowing me down, for now, I couldn't think about what I'd done. He was driving April's car and he abducted her a few blocks away from her work. If I use the traffic cameras to track him, I could find out where he went or at least in what direction he went.
Apparently, my body drove here to this ratty place in my car, weird. I froze for a moment staring at my beautiful 1967 burgundy Camaro, the only thing I kept after Jay died.
Of course, I didn't drive it that often, at work I drove a boring Chevrolet SUV, which I guess was better than a squad car. I quickly snapped back to reality. Why was I so easily distracted? Was it because of that damned potion they gave me?
I drove as far away from the place using back streets avoiding traffic cameras. Damn, I'll have to go watch the traffic cameras for tonight and make sure none of them caught me when my body drove here. Later, I'll worry about that later.
I pulled into a gas station's parking lot and got out my laptop. I also tried to phone the Freya's and warn them that the plan failed, but I couldn't reach any of them. I also tried to phone Darren but got his voicemail.
"Don't these people know we're in the middle of a crisis geez!" I exclaimed loudly. You're on your own so you better not screw up, I reminded myself.
I logged onto the CPD network and quickly located the car, unfortunately, he was smart; I lost him around the time I woke up. He was also avoiding traffic cameras. Plan B. I got out my map of Chicago and the surrounding areas I use for hunting. Nowadays I don't use it that much anymore but it still comes in handy when technology fails. I circled the area in which I lost track of him. Let's hope I'm right and he's in this vicinity. There were a lot of old apartment blocks in the area. Not the best place to torture someone, but he'd most probably muffle out any sound with Magic.
Defeated, I slumbered back into my seat.
"Dammit! Where are you?!" Chicago was a big city but he knew how to avoid the traffic cameras which meant he knew Chicago.
I quickly reached for the stacks of information I'd printed out earlier.
"He used to live here," I said looking down at the map. He used to live in River North which fell perfectly into the circle I drew earlier.
I drove like a crazy person to the location which wasn't that far from where I was.
I quickly got out and entered the building, my Glock ready. Aim for the leg. I reminded myself.
Originally the plan was that the Freya's would block his magic, but without them here it was only me and my gun against a crazy psycho hopped-up on magic.
The apartment he used to live in was empty. "Can I help you, ma'am?" I said peeking out her door, she gasped when she saw the gun. I holstered it and got out my badge.
"CPD ma'am, is there a basement in this building?" I asked the frightened woman.
"Yes, but it's been closed down for years because of safety reasons. Only the super has access to it." She replied.
"Thank you, ma'am!" I said towards the stairs.
A basement that's been closed down for years would definitely give you the perfect space to torture and kill someone.
To my surprise, the basement door was unlocked. I slowly entered.