Linda looked around the old café with little interest. If it weren’t for the fact that she was in a small town, she would have thought that she’d fallen into some bizarre time portal to the fifties. The café had a very retro look to it, but Linda could tell it wasn’t intentional, and more likely than not due to however the owner was caring very little for it. The paint on the walls was peeling here and there, some of the booths were torn and thrashed horribly, and the windows had a strange, smudgy look to them, no matter how hard you tried to wipe it away.
There were a few people milling about in the cafe, chatting with other customers or with the staff, but Linda saw little importance on trying to listen in to their conversations while she waited. It was just a small town café with small town gossip – she wasn’t planning on staying long, nor in finding out who Jack was trying to seduce this week while Jolene got friendly with his brother.
Truthfully, it reminded her a little too much of her own hometown, and the less she thought about home, the better.
“Can I help you with anything else today, Sugar?” a waitress asked as she approached Linda’s table. The woman looked like she was in her early twenties, with pale white skin that deeply contrasted with her long, curly blonde hair. She even had the cliché outfit Linda would have expected a waitress in the fifties to wear – unlike the rest of the café, however, it actually looked new. Apparently, the owner cared enough to make the employees look “good” for their jobs.
“I could use some more coffee,” Linda replied, smiling easily as she discovered the waitress had brought over a pot of coffee and lots of sweeteners. This waitress seemed to have already memorized how Linda liked her coffee, which she found rather impressive. Linda didn’t want to be in the café, but that was no reason to be rude to any of the people.
“Now sweetie, you really should order something to eat. Girls like us gotta keep up our strength. My mother always used to tell me to keep my figure for the boys, but I always said I ain’t no prize for some boy who’s just gonna let himself go to waste and hound me about keeping my ‘pristine figure’. If I wanted to live like that, I’d have run off to Hollywood like my kid sister.”
Linda couldn’t help but find the waitress immediately likable. She looked at her name tag: Barbara. She’d remember to leave her a nice tip. If she were planning on staying in town longer, she might have even left her number, but Linda didn’t see herself staying past the night. Too much to do, and, she was guessing, too many people would be looking for her here after her business was done.
“Really, it’s fine,” Linda replied. “I’m just waiting on one of my friends. Doing a big road trip before college, and I ate before I got here,” she replied, which was half a lie.
“Well, if it’s because you’re a vegan, I believe they’re called, I can try and get Otis in the back to whip something up for you, my treat,” the waitress replied.
“No, I’m not a vegan, though my own kid sister actually is.”
“Leave it to the younger siblings to be so different,” the woman replied with a smile as she finished pouring Linda’s coffee. “Alright, well, just let me know if you need anything else,” the waitress replied with a smile. “My name is Barbara, if ya need anything else, sug,” she finished with a sly smile, and sauntered back over to the counter to take the other customer’s orders.
Linda turned away and returned to watching the building from across the street through the smudgy windows. Linda wasn’t sure if the issue was with the tint or the window itself, but it made everything outside either look blurred, or like a scene from Victorian England, or both. The sun had been down for half an hour already, which would have made things much more difficult to see, if it weren’t for the occasional tall lamps placed along the street.
She had been waiting for a good hour, knowing that eventually, he had to walk out of the building for his nightly “stroll.” Linda had been in this town for over a week, and she’d spent each waking moment she could monitoring his behavior so she could know when to strike. Only today, when she no longer planned to be around further, had she allowed herself to be so public.
She had to admit, stakeouts were incredibly dull. Granted, this one wasn’t as droll as the last few she’d done, but it was Linda’s least favorite thing to do when taking on a new case.
It was then that she saw the door to the building across the street open, and sure enough, a very pale white man who looked to be in his thirties walked out, wearing shades and a disheveled suit, walking down the street casually. Everyone who he came within a few feet of him immediately moved away, like he was carrying a form of the plague.
Showtime, Linda thought to herself as she dug some money out of her purse and put it on the table. She moved quickly, exiting the diner and following behind the mysterious man at a casual enough distance that he shouldn’t notice, but a close enough distance that if his routine suddenly changed tonight, she’d be able to keep an eye on him.
She’d learned his routine easily enough from watching him for a few days, and she knew that Thursday nights, he always walked alone, versus walking around with his usual entourage. Linda wasn’t afraid of his friends, but the quieter and less messier she could do things, the better, especially when dealing with his kind of people. She couldn’t leave a trail like on her last case.
It was after about twenty minutes of walking, turning, and crossing the street, that the man finally reached the familiar dead end alley Linda had expected him to, and turned down it. Part of her wished she had simply stayed here and waited for him to arrive, but she didn’t want to risk him going off course or sneaking off somewhere else all because she had been too impatient to chase after him.
Linda couldn’t help but smirk at how cliché of a hideout this was for someone, especially someone like him. The alleyway had little lighting, and ended in a dead end. There were scraps of trash, debris, and other items along the ground, and the falls of the buildings the alley lied in between were filled with poorly done graffiti.
Linda looked around, making sure no one else was around, and moved after the man into into the alley fast.
The man was walking towards one of the doors on the back of a building, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket and sorting through them to find the right one. Linda moved soundlessly, closing in a mere few feet away from him.
“So, is this where all your kind like to hide out, or is this place just a little easier to score in than a big city?” Linda said, mere feet behind the man. She could see him immediately stiffen, and as he turned around to look at her, she couldn’t help but feel a little triumphant at the surprised expression he wore.
“Who the hell are you?” the man asked. “You’re not from this town.”
“Gee, what was your first clue? No, of course I’m not, but neither are you,” Linda replied. “You’re name is Bart Roman, isn’t it? You know someone who I happen to be looking for. And I’ve come to ask you a few questions.”
“Get lost, little girl,” the man replied, a grin appearing on his face. “You have no idea where you are, do you? Wouldn’t wanna stay around here, if I were you. “
“Or what, you’ll bite me?” she asked sarcastically, to which the smirk on his face immediately dropped.
“How do you know-”
“Shh,” Linda replied, cutting him off with a flick of her hand. “I’m the one with the questions here, remember? Now, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll comply, or I’m afraid things will have to get ugly.”
At this, the smirk that the man had before returned, and he turned his body around to face Linda directly. There was something extremely smug about him, like he was above it all and too important to be threatened. Linda couldn’t help but get the feeling he thought of this exchange as some sort of game to entertain himself.
“Just because you know what I am, little girl, doesn’t mean I’m intimidated. It just means you’re a fool to be down here. One snap of my fingers, and my buddies will come running,” the man replied. “Go back to whatever city you come from. Maybe stop trying to wear suits like us important men. A guy will respect you a lot more in a tight dress than that mess.”
“One: I don’t dress like this for anybody but myself. Two: not afraid of your little cronies. Three: I know there’s no one around here who likes you, so do you really think they’d help you, especially if you’re threatening a ‘little girl,’ as you nicknamed me? In a small town like this… well, I’d wager that they wouldn’t find that too kindly,” Linda replied, keeping her tone casual and matter-of-factly. “Answer my questions, and I’ll let you go. Don’t, and – well, the night is still young, so you have plenty of time to find out.”
The man immediately reached for his shades and tossed them onto the ground, staring at Linda with a venomous expression only his eyes could conjure. They were all black with sinister, glowing yellow irises.
“You’re messing with the wrong monster, little girl,” he said arrogantly. “I guess I’ll have to teach you some damn lessons,” he snarled, and then rushed towards her, closing the distance between them.
Linda immediately ducked downwards, anticipating his tackle. He soared over her easily, and Linda used the opportunity to kick him while he dangled in the air above her. She felt something crack, and heard a stifled growl as the man landed on the ground carelessly.
Quickly, Linda grabbed her blade from her purse and threw the bag to the side. As she did, the man rose up again, staring at her with surprise.
“Well, you’re more resourceful than majority of the people I have the pleasure of killing. This should be rather-“
Linda slammed the blunt side of her blade into the man’s chest before he could finish talking, moving much faster than he anticipated. Linda wrapped her arms around his left arm and threw him onto the ground in front of her. His body made a loud thud as he impacted with the ground. Before Linda could take another step, however, the man kicked at her feet, sending Linda downward as well.
She attempted to regain her balance quickly, just barely moving in time to dodge another kick from the man as he got up. Linda moved her blade towards him as she stumbled forward, slicing off his right hand, to which he began to yelp loudly. A strange yellow puss began to shoot out from his wound. Linda momentarily felt an instinct to hurl at the sight.
“Look at what you did to me!” he bellowed, opened his mouth wide, and released a supersonic force too fast for Linda to dodge. The blast sent Linda backwards, causing her to collide with a few trash cans lined up against one of the walls.
“Do you know how long it’s going to take for this to grow back?!” He launched himself forward again.
Linda tried to get up and leap to the side, but she was too late. The man’s body collided with her shoulder, sending her back onto the ground. The man climbed on top of Linda, a great snarl on his face.
“You should have never come-“
Linda elbowed him in the nose, causing the man to fall beside her.
“You stupid girl! Will you let me finish a damn sentence!?” he cried, grabbing his nose and writhing on the ground.
Immediately, Linda took advantage of this and tackled him and covered his mouth to stifle his screams. Then, with the hand holding her blade, she began to dig it into his right shoulder as she hovered over him.
“Let me repeat my request again,” Linda replied. “I have questions, and you’re going to answer them. If you do not, then I will be forced to remove another one your body parts. I’ve always been curious to see how your kind could regrow and sustain an injury like that, and I’m more than willing to find out today. So, are you going to comply?”
The man immediately shook his head, the fear clear in his eyes. Linda moved her hand away from his mouth.
“How… you’re just some human girl,” the man replied.
“Mostly human,” Linda replied nonchalantly. “Four months ago, a man came to see you in Los Angeles. His name was Mikael Salazar. After that, there is no further record of him appearing anywhere else. Did you kill him? What did he want? And why was some random human man involved with your kind?”
“So many questions…” the man said with a humorous tone, to which Linda twisted her blade further into him. “Ow! Fine, stop, I’ll tell you!”
“That’s music to my ears. Make it fast. The night is still young, and I have other plans,” Linda replied.
“I can’t tell you. I don’t know much. He just came to us, and I pointed him in the right direction. There’s nothing more to it.”
“How flammable are your kind again?” Linda asked casually.
“If I tell you, I’ll be killed,” the man replied with a frightened tone. “I can kiss my life goodbye. Well, what I call a life, anyway.”
“You don’t give me the info, you die anyway. Give it to me, and I’ll help hide you until this all over.”
“You would help someone like me?” the man asked suspiciously. “Even knowing what I am?”
“I could care less about what you are and what you do. Unless it’s related to my client’s case, as Mikael Salazar is, I don’t care.”
“Fine. Just… let me stand. Please. I won’t run. You already know that you can stop me.”
Linda rolled her eyes, withdrew her blade from the man, and got off of him. She wasn’t being overconfident – she knew very well she could stop him without hesitation, and the look on his face was more of a broken man than one who thought he could fight his way out.
“Tell me everything. Now.”
“He came asking us about a woman he was looking for in the Underground,” the man replied. “Her name was Rosa Urie. One of her names, at least. In the Underground, she is just called the Royal.”
“Why was he looking for her? Is she one of your kind?”
“No,” the man replied. “He said he needed her help, that he heard she was the only one who could help him. I’ve never met the woman myself. No one I know has, but there are those I know who are connected to those who have. He was desperate and rich enough that I decided to spare him and sent him on his way to see one of my friends who could help him out.”
“What was your friend’s name?” Linda asked. “What happened after that?”
The man seemed to be calming down, and opened his mouth to answer, when a strange sound erupted through the air, and flaming arrow landed straight in the man’s chest. The man began to scream, but the sound was soon cut off by the sounds of the flames spreading much faster on his body than it would have on any normal human.
Linda immediately jumped away from the man and grabbed her bag, looking for whoever shot the arrow. As she looked up, she saw a strange hooded robed figure on the balcony above. The figure began to sprint away, before Linda could say a word. Immediately, she moved forward and scaled the building, chasing after the figure.
As she rolled onto the top of the roof, she saw the figure standing at the edge of the roof, as if waiting for her. So much for trying to get away, Linda thought to herself. Unless they don’t want to be caught.
“Who are you?!” Linda yelled, approaching the figre with her blade. “Let me guess, that guy was giving me too much information?”
“This quest does not concern your kind,” the figure replied in an undefineable voice. “You’d do well to stay as far away as you can.”
“Yeah, um, no. This isn’t a ‘quest.’ It’s my job. And you kind of just roasted one of my only leads, so I think you’ll understand if I’m incredibly pissed and feeling like throwing this blade at your head.”
“If you chase after the underground, you chase after the end,” the figure replied.
“Okay, whatever, I don’t care for riddles, I’m just gonna have to kill you,” Linda replied angrily, and tossed her blade at the figure. It spun in the air perfect, but just as it should have connected with the still figure, the robe it was wearing fell onto the ground of the roof softly, and there was no one to be seen as her blade fell downwards onto the empty street.
What… what just happened? Linda asked herself, as she walked over to the empty robe and pulled it off the ground. She examined it carefully, wary that the figure just might decide to pop back into it. Once she was sure nothing of the sort would happen, and that she was alone, Linda put the robe in her back and jumped off of the roof to retrieve her fallen blade.
The figure was gone, and her previous lead was in the alley becoming nothing but ashes, leaving a grotesque burning smell in the air.
Before anyone else noticed the smoke coming from the area, Linda fled the scene, heading back to where she had been living the last few days while she’d tracked the man here.
She may not have everything she had wanted, but she at least had some relevant information. Rosa Urie, an alias of someone called the Royal in Los Angeles, had been someone Mikael had been searching for. At least she’d be able to update her client that she had a new lead regarding the whereabouts of her father.
Still, something was troubling Linda. Why had some normal human man been searching for this Royal? How did he even know of the Royal, or of the world that had to be out of his norm?
Questions for another night, I suppose, Linda thought to herself as she grabbed her things and decided to head back to LA.