"Don't bother to even fight that kid you saw!" A voice yelled.
A woman with long blonde hair dressed in white lab coat appeared in the doorway glaring at Drake.
"Leave him alone, idiot, he has nowhere else to go." The woman turned to address Juel, "He's lucky to be alive! Don't worry, we won't let anyone hurt him again. You're safe here."
She smiled and then started to head toward Juel. Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she walked towards him and knelt down to grab the knife off the floor. She took her time examining the damaged metal and carefully placed the knife inside a bag hanging off her belt loop before picking up the knife and handing it back to him.
"Keep Drake in your possession idiot! If he is shattered then his soul is gone forever!" she said sternly pointing to the door, "Get some rest, I'll wake you up when lunch starts."
Juel watched as she left the room. When he knew she was gone, he picked up the knife again and inspected it.
He flicked the metal laughing , "Yeah right! I think I'll make the bastard pay for this. After everything he's done to me, I don't give a shit who knows I'm here." He dropped the knife on the counter as he sat down to wait for something to happen to Drake. "Just like I never cared who knew I was here.
The door banged open and the sound of running footsteps echoed through the corridor. A middle aged woman in a brown uniform ran in panting hard from having run through the hallway. Her breathless gasp for air sounded like the echo of the rain pounding loudly outside.
"We have a job for you, Juel." The woman panted. "I need you to take care of someone for me!"
"Who?" Juel asked curiously as the woman reached him. "And why do I have to take care of them?"
She handed him a piece of paper and pointed at an image of a woman's face. "This is your new partner."
The woman looked very familiar when he realized it was the one he saw walking the dog
earlier in the evening. She looked very beautiful too. She stood in front of a tall building with the word 'Narcotics' plastered in big bold letters above the entrance. A small crowd of people gathered in front. He could hear muffled voices speaking over the noise.
Drake laughed so hard you could hear the metal vibrate the cabinet next to them.
"I like her." He grinned through the reflection of the metal. "What's her name?"
"Shiroi." The woman nodded at him.
"Hmm...Is she new here?" Juel asked.
"Yes. Just arrived this morning. Her name is Shiroi."
"so, where is she at?" Drake grinned.
"Hello?" A woman questioned.
She tapped lightly on the door to have Juel and Drake turn red as they realized what they were both doing. They stared at each other sheepishly with awkward smiles across their faces.
"Come in!" Juel called.
The woman entered and walked around Juel's bed to sit on the end of his bed.
"Are you alright?" Shiroi asked. She held out her hand for him to shake.
"Yeah I'm fine," He responded reaching for her hand.
inside his mind he stopped pausing what he was doing when he realized he should be dead. He couldn't remember ever feeling so light headed before. It made his stomach clench violently in a weird way, but it felt good to move.
"Sorry I was kind of late today." She gave him a warm smile.
"You literally was blacked out at the scene of the crime when Calvin found you," Maeve scolded.
"Ah...right..." Juel muttered nervously.
He remembered he had been stabbed through the side of his head, but couldn't recall anything about being there after that point.
"Anyway," Maeve continued, "Those papers you failed to retrieve would have been the only proof to convict that blackmailer, but doesn't matter much anyways since he is dead so I am not sure why that kid would have stolen them in the first place,"
Maeve explained as she moved to stand up, "We are going to interview witnesses at our station to see if they can provide us some information about what exactly happened that night.
""Wait." Juel spoke abruptly causing her to pause, "I'm going with you? I don't know anyone at that part,"
"Well, duh. We wouldn't bring you along without your permission now would we?" Maeve smirked. "You've always been helpful in investigations and I want you to come because we really need all the help we can get." Maeve sighed, "Also I need to see this kid for myself to judge if he was involved or not. I know Calvin will kill him, but I still need to check him out first. If I find he isn't guilty than that will be enough reason to keep him around."
"Ok…"Juel nodded hesitantly.
He began to blush again thinking about how confident and annoying that kid was who bested him at the scene, but also was…Juel shook his head. It was probably just nerves. No matter how strong the man was physically he would not have been able to overpower that young teenager.
"Wait?! You said you caught him?!" Juel choked. His eyes widened.
"Why are you so red in the face?" Shiroi mumbled.
"I am not!" He protested.
"Well, I guess we better be leaving then," Maeve grabbed her keys, "See you later Juel. Don't forget to drop by the other station later!" Maeve yelled as she stepped out the door.
Shiroi began to laugh at Juel who was still sitting frozen in shock and tried to hide himself under the blankets.
"Relax, it's ok if you are nervous. You might feel better once you talk to him," She blurted.
"Shut up please," Juel grumbled.
Drake was giggling non-stop. His laughter sounded like water flowing down a waterfall. It seemed almost impossible to stop laughing. Drake's laughter filled the room causing Juel to frown at him.
"Do you know what happened to my wallet?"
Drake paused his laughter long enough to answer, "Your wallet? What wallet?"
Juel frowned deeper at Drake's response. He was acting strangely for no apparent reason.
After a couple minutes of silence.
Drake finally said "I didn't steal any money either way. You should ask your friend who came by earlier". Drake winked at Shiroi.
"Oh my god! We are going now, Drake!" Juel shouted angrily.
He swiped his dagger up muffling his laughter as he placed him into his faded leather pouch strapped on his waist. Juel quickly exited the room slamming the door behind him, ignoring the sounds of Drake's laughter following him down the hallway and out of the building.
"Hey, wait!" Shiroi shouted.
She chased after Juel and followed him out onto the sidewalk. "Where are you going?! Why did you slam that door in my face?"
"I'm sorry. You startled me!" Juel apologized quickly.
"But," Shiroi began, "Who are you talking to?"
"You must be very new this company then…I guess you weren't warned about some of the weapons here I see," He said calmly.
He held out the dagger for her to gaze at it confused when she noticed an odd shine to the blade. A smile from a mouth could be seen and then it hit her when a face could be seen inside her minds eye.
A man steely eyes could be seen. She felt dizzy suddenly with anger and fear.
"How dare you? How dare you?! How DARE you?!" She screamed hysterically and punched him in the face knocking him to the ground.
"You are scared…aren't you?" Drake smiled.
She reached down to lift Juel back to his feet. "Don't be afraid, everything will be okay."
"What is going on here? Why is he inside my head?" She shouted.
"Take a second to calm down and breathe," Drake chuckled softly.
She tried to regain control of her breathing. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She tried to focus on her breathing. To try and push away the feelings she felt.
It took a while, but eventually her breathing returned to normal and her heart slowed to an even pace.
She opened her eyes and looked at Drake questioningly, "Why does he look like that?"
"Shiroi, Drake was a convicted felon when he was living, but something and now he is a knife is all you need to know…" He explained.
"Calm down now. That was just a little experiment I was conducting on humans to see how far their powers would go." Drake explained calmly.
"That's not funny!" Shiroi screamed.
"Anyways, we should be getting down to the station," Juel laughed.
"You just want to talk to that kid again don't you?" She grinned.
His whole face turned red embarrassed. He wasn't sure what made him embarrassed more, the fact she knew he had talked to the kid, or the fact she made fun of him for it.
"Come on, let's go," Juel grinned.