"Val!"
"Val!"
"VAL!!!"
She reeled from her desk, groggy and exhausted with an unmistakable migraine throbbing in her head. Where was she? She groaned, rubbing at the bridge between her nose through no added aid of recollection but the fact that it lessened the pain hammering at her disjointed thoughts.
"Awake?" She heard a voice from beside her, a woman? Turning with half lidded annoyance and a resentment she knew naught where it came from, she spoke evenly, slurred and exhausted.
"What..?" The woman stared, soon glaring as a firm hand grasped at her shoulders and hooked into her elbows.
"We're leaving" She pulled herself back, "Let go of me.."
Perhaps it'd been the alcohol, the exhaustion or something else but there was little in the way of resistance that the woman before her found difficult to overcome. She pulled her to her unwilling feet, hooking tightly at her elbows that she wouldn't fall. She didn't like that, was it pity that drove this stranger so far? She didn't like that either, anything but pity, anything but the remorse of another person when she could've done so many things differently.
The vivid display of V'neer's body, hung along the walls of her home painted in her own blood were still fresh and morbidly unforgettable. The fact that not long before she'd practically begged her for help, a demon…
It was so obvious now that she thought of it, such an idiot, a damned selfish idiot she was. Like a cat or some animal, demonic in nature or not would terrify a woman from her own home. So obvious that the damn thing was a person, so obvious that it was a cry for help. Unforgivable..that's what she was, the woman had led her outside and the flush of the world's dimming light and the growing glow of the city's golden image was frustrating to her eyes.
A car door opened and she was laid down in a seat, on any occasion but now, being shuffled into a strangers vehicle whilst mostly unable to do something would've been terrifying but a deep and dark desire found it aptly deserving. Her feet were laid comfortably into the passenger seat as the woman left her there and walked around the length of the car's hood, opening the driver door and retrieving something from the glove box that she urged her to drink.
Again she would've refused, revolted and screamed if not for the fact that she didn't want to. Her hands grabbed for the item in the woman's hands and downed what was inside, it was bitter, harsh to the throat and burned like a straight gulp of scotch.
"Fuck!" She coughed, thrusting the item back as she felt sick. A rising sensation grew from her stomach as she raced for the outside, leaning into the wall and vomiting where she stood. There was a soft mumbling of disgruntled words behind her before the woman called out to her, "Lucid yet?"
She rested her head on her arms, the listless sensation of disjointed thoughts and the difficulty of movement were all gone as memories flooded back in a torrential downpour, "Damn you, Grethe!"
"I'll take that as a yes!"
Flashing lampposts and vivid neon outlines riddled with the occasional billboard flew past the passenger window, the cockpit was silent. The radio in between them both chattered with the boredom of weatherly news and a few odd songs, it was frustrating enough that she'd turned it off completely at some point, opening for an awkward car ride veiled in silence. A few small attempts at a conversation were made but her mood hadn't lifted, unaided by a muddled memory, everything felt so vivid that it was sickening; everything felt as though a gloomy reminder.
There was a sudden shift at the drivers seat as they stopped in between a growing line of traffic and a sigh escaped Grethe's lips, she glanced at her and bit her lip, struggling at something and sagging her shoulders as though having made up a decision over it, "Look.." She began.
For the smallest fraction of a second she wanted not to, scoffing at the idea with mockery for what did she know? With merciless ruthlessness and negligible empathy she'd ignored a woman's pleading words and fed her to the dogs, unfazed and uncaring only to find her dead the next time she woke up. She couldn't though, her better half of judgement brought about by Grethe's mysterious item didn't allow that.
Grethe continued, "Anyone would've done the same thing, there's a dozen reasons as to why and unless you knew what would've happened, you can't keep blaming yourself,"
She frowned, "V'neer had told me exactly what was going on, if I'd— if I'd taken it seriously.."
"She was a half ghoul, anyone in your position would've thought that a damn rat would scare her silly—"
"She lived in damned Lancton, like she hadn't seen a rat there! Like she hadn't seen a cat or a nest of all sorts of critters!" She cried out, suddenly aware of how high she'd raised her voice at Grethe's expression. Ashamed that she'd momentarily thrown her anger onto somebody else, she leaned back into the leather seats and continued in a low whisper, only audible due to the fact that were the only two in the car; "I should've known that much, regardless of it..I should've at least checked, did something…anything at all.."
There was silence again, sighing in response as the vehicle began to move again, Grethe took a glance outside and back at her, "The point of the matter is, you're not her killer. Had you known I don't believe for a second that V'neer wouldn't have been in the safest hands possible that day,"
She scoffed but Grethe continued, "And the last thing you should be doing is sleeping in bars and wallowing in drinks whilst letting whoever did it live amongst us"
"That's the authorities job.."
"And it's your job to have everyone aware of the dangers that can be living with any one of them now" she smiled, a warm radiance of comfort she didn't even know she needed.
"Write on it is what you mean" her head rested against the window, staring into the distance of the sky's receding grey, to the pinkish gold hue that brushed against the edges of everything faced towards it; in a whisper only audible to herself, she asked, "...Is that all I can do..?"
They'd reached the foot of the apartment building of Lancton's now occasionally swarmed entrance, the drama's and news outlets ravenous for a story and starved for a reason of gossip had crowded the complex area like the makings of a post wartime celebrations speech. It was hectic, she remembered it well and by no means desired to relive it. There was an odd sense of irony and perhaps much deserved punishment that came at the end of being swarmed for a word, a statement, a story, for the selfish purposes of newspapering glory.
One tended to realize their own evils pressed against them themselves, today however, the place was silent. At the foot of the apartment building, the usual tenants, now with the boot of their car wide open and a dozen or so boxes thrown into their trunks stood in idle chatter with an enforcer or two. She herself hadn't been questioned on the day's happenings, parts of the event not involving V'neer were blurred and hard to remember, like a broken record with all parts but the one you'd hated the most, left on repeat.
Grethe gave a worried look though quickly masking the fact with a hard nudge at her shoulders, "Nurgle's going to want you back soon, get it together; 'kay?" she half smiled, lightly reciprocated as the car door flung open and she took a step on the familiar ground, terrifying how unwilling her legs were to continue. Walking around the length of the car and towards the door, she took a tentative glance back, briefly before continuing.
If it hadn't been obvious before, it had now, helpers dressed in blue overalls carrying plastic wrapped furniture and scores of boxes shuffling down stairs and out of elevators to where they settled at the main lobby room, sorted in sparse sections so as to avoid confusion. A large majority of the tenants had been shaken, so much so in fact that the apartment building had witnessed the greatest recession of residents in the century, a staggering 63% of residents had or were leaving. The measly 37 that remained, the unfortunate such as herself were stuck here.
Finding the same stout goblin seated behind reception desk as she made for an open elevator was perhaps the only thing good she'd seen thus far, she'd never spoken with the thing but out of weird kinship at being two senior residents of the place, the last few that'd be left after everyone else parting spilled a few words from her, "Not leaving? Goblins get work almost anywhere"
The creature shifted a lazy yellow gaze, contemptuous or simply like that, one couldn't quite tell they weren't so human and readable as their mixed counterparts.
" 'Forcers won't let me go before questionin', stuck 'ere till then" it was gruff and it was brass, straight and sharp as she'd expected though the knowledge that he was only here temporarily longer was a little disheartening.
"Right.., that's to hear..erm.."
"Runt, name's Runt" somehow she felt as though that was meant to be funny and a laugh or a chuckle was supposed to come out of her but it didn't, not because it wasn't but the sharpness of his gaze and the sheer difficulty there was in denoting what kind of emotion was running along his face made it hard to do so without the thought that it might be offensive.
She opted for a smile and turned for the elevator, stopped by a question, "You's ain't leaving miss reporter?" He turned to her slightly, "Strange 'appening's got 'em spooked, no point playin' hero"
She paused, turning with a smile and not an answer. Not playing hero..she'd done that ages ago and here she stood..
The rattling and creaking gears were as annoying to endure as they always were but now they held the fearful nervousness of what laid beyond them, it'd been hours, a day since the murder had happened and whether the authorities were any closer in catching their killer was a question of concerning uncertainty.
The structure stopped and its caged doors reeled open whilst she took a tentative step outside—
"Velgra, dear! Oh I'm so happy you're here!"
…
She shook her head of the thoughts as her steps grew soulless through the hallway of now silent beauty, number 48 now standing lifeless and alone. The doors around it were open and emptied, one of which, across from it was lined in deep yellow tape and void of anything but the blood still smearing the walls.
"Velgra, dear, please! I can't go inside!"
She bit her lip frustratedly and inserted the key unlocking the door, pushing it open as the cramped comfort of her apartment met without warm welcome. If anything she felt cold, slipping off her shoes and tiredly making her over onto anything that'd bare the weight of her exhaustion and still festering guilt no matter how much Grethe sought to lift that from her. Crashing onto a couch as her thoughts slowed to a grinding halt, her gaze couldn't help glancing over the paper she'd been planning on writing before V'neer's death. She grimaced, remembering Grethe's words from a few minutes prior.
A job.., of course it was, of course a lowly dreg like herself could offer the only sense of assistance through words. Her body shifted, interrupted by a hard knock on the door that roused her from self pity. Annoyed at the probability of it being Grethe again, she didn't move and instead called out to the person behind the door, "Who is it!?"
There was silence for a short while till the even tone of a woman resonated from behind the door, "This is Dailey, Central Enforcer Department, I'd like to ask a few questions"
She froze, momentarily stunned till the realization settled in and her body quickly peeled itself from the comforts of her couch, barreling towards the door as she leapt to open it. Of course, of course they'd come to question her, everyone here was a suspect till proven otherwise, Runt hadn't left cause they hadn't gotten to himself yet so why wouldn't they have come to her too? A short moment of solace came with the fact that if an enforcer was here, Runt had most certainly been questioned already, she half wondered if he'd packed everything up in advance and only waited for the questions to come up or simply disappeared right after, she'd heard rumors like that..
The front door opened and with it came the short stature of a woman, dark hair of jet black color and eyes of a deeply waxed silver accentuated all by bronze skin looked up at her whilst fidgeting in the deep pockets of a dirt navy trench coat.
Looking her up and down, the woman asked, "Are you, Velgra Villinava Valentine?" The dullness of her silver eyes were sharp, perceptive and perhaps already suspicious. She awkwardly and nervously confirmed it whilst scratching the back of her head as she responded;
"I'm just Velgra, the rest's a mouthful that even I don't know why my parents gave it to me…erm..do you want to come in?" She stepped away from the door a little in invitation, an opportunity of which the woman didn't miss.
"Apologies for barging in then"
"None needed" She smiled, reciprocated by the woman to which she further noted a small notebook sprung from her pockets that she opened momentarily before deftly closing with a clap of the covers, "Writer, right?"
Slow on the answer, she quickly responded after noting the silence following her question, "Reporter! I'm a..reporter, been one for years now.."
The woman shrugged, "You all write don't you?"
She nearly opened her mouth at the generalization but kept it shut over instead treading over the main issue, "Is this visit about—"
"V'neer Gu'ul Strava? Freak show murder in an apartment building where the crime had only been discovered hours after her death, yes, that case indeed"
She silently nodded, most enforcers were like that, for many plentiful reasons why people weren't so inclined towards liking them. Her personal vices on the matter only lasted for a moment however, caught at the end of the woman's words.
"You were the closest person from her room, is that right?" rhetorical in nature, she still obediently gave an answer.
"That's true, I..I was woken up by my friend, Grethe" The woman didn't spare her a glance, instead turning a sharp gaze over the length and corner of each and every part of her room.
"Another writer?" She nodded with a low response, "Yeah.."
Grethe had roused her from sleep with loud bangs and shouts at her door, another part of her memories still sickeningly vivid, the woman gave a knowing nod, "Partner woke me up halfway through a nap heading past the city, worst times.."
She half chuckled at the intentional joke, "Wouldn't happen to be at the foot of a murder would it?"
The woman let out an amused scoff, turning away from her room as though having completed whatever inner analysis that riddled her thoughts, "When were you in last contact with V'neer?"
Her eyes turned solemn, "Not a few hours before her death.."
"And within that time frame you're willing to give viable evidence that you were anywhere but V'neer's room?" Shocked that the question had come like this, her eyes widened at the insinuation.
"You don't actually believe I killed her!?" The woman didn't answer, opting only to stare her down before a soft sigh left her lips, "Frankly we can't even say it was a murder.."
Her eyes focused on something elsewhere, Velgra's centered over by the sudden statement, "Not a murder?"
The woman glanced back, a tired expression painted along the features of her bronze face, "Cleanest crime I'd ever seen if I saw one, tracks covered, mana residue none existent. Dealing with a person not even there, that's how anyone had described it"
Frowning at the fact, the woman rubbed at the bridges of her nose, "There isn't a person not aware or hadn't told us that you and V'neer had some sort of relationship"
Velgra was quick to defend herself, "She was an acquaintance, I-I wouldn't want to kill her for no damned reason!!" She shouted, the enforcer in question still calm and likely exhausted, she noted her silver gaze lingered over places and receded tentatively before flashing to life though it was even now, even and fair, "I'd like to believe that, I would and I do.."
There was a sense of hesitation, "Then.."
Silence befell them both momentarily, "We can't work with nothing.."
She leaned off the wall where she stood, "Granbell, why am I even telling you this? I've bothered you long enough Miss Velgra, the department will contact you on more serious questioning if need be"
She pocketed the notebook in her hands, veering for the door, stopped only by Velgra who asked, worried and fearful, "What happens if you can't find a lead, evidence, something?"
The woman paused, combing for a proper answer that never came, "The case is withheld until further notice, worst case scenario and it's dissolved entirely if proven impossible to solve" She noted Velgra's paling though already pale skin and smiled reassuringly, "Though it's our job to ensure it doesn't come to that"
And she left, disappearing like a ghost past the hallway and perhaps down a flight of stairs. She had nothing to say, only that she was terrified. Were the enforcers even getting anywhere at all? She wondered about that, stricken by the woman's brief moment of frustration after informing her of further contact en-phone.
"No, No, Demon!!"
She frowned, a stupid thought passing over only for a moment till she grabbed for her own notebook and pen, leaving the room.