[Chapter 4] of [Book I likely won't finish]

It's a bit of a slow day today. I reached chapter 12 by now and it's slowing down a bit towards the middle. I'm not sure if I can make it or if I should take a break and try again tomorrow but motivation is a bit meh today. I had to edit some stuff in chapters 9 and 10 so am a bit confused. But let's see!

Riz dropped the boy off at what she hoped was his school (You could never know with teenagers these days) and then sent a message to the headmaster where he'd been found the other night. If he chose, the headmaster could involve the boy's parents, but she wanted to give Ekko a chance to come clean himself. He'd said his parents weren't awful (like many other parents) but that didn't mean they'd appreciate a call from the police about their son being found in the woods where just the day before an accident had happened.

Then she went back to the police office and sought Detective Huber at his desk.

"Are they ready yet?"

"Good morning to you too, Clarisse."

"The Pipers," she said. "Is Mrs. Pipers ready to be questioned?"

"You make it sound awfully harsh."

"Detective -"

"Why don't you take a seat?"

Riz sat. There was no doubt she should be talking to Huber with more respect (He was her superior after all), but he was German, or of German descent, and while he was meticulous with his methods, he didn't often care to reprimand any of his deputies for their lack of etiquette. Today, however, seemed to be a day where he did care.

"I heard you went up to the Blackwater forests yesterday night."

"Mel told me?"

He gave a short nod.

Riz shrugged. Why couldn't Mel have stayed quiet? Huber must be thinking she was crazy now as well. "I thought I'd check out the crash site."

"What of the other part of the report?"

"What part?"

"Come, don't play games, Riz. We both know you know what crash sites look like, and as Mrs. Pipers wasn't injured, I don't think there was any need for you to drive there, never mind in the middle of pitch dark night. No? You don't want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about. I found tyre tracks like at any other crash site, nothing else."

"Mel says you seemed afraid."

Riz snorted. "Afraid?" Me? Have you seen me? Almost 5'7' and quick with a gun or rifle (and donuts) - why would I be afraid? But even his words sent a chilly shiver down her spine.

"And the boy?" he said.

"Ekko? He's a police work enthusiast." Or something like it anyway. Why else would he have been in that forest in the night? As if in answer to her question, the image of the leshen he'd shown her on his phone popped up in her mind, but she pushed it away. Leshen belonged to Geralt the Witcher, not Blackwater.

Huber stared at her a moment longer, then glanced down at his desk and pulled out a file from a stack. He held it out to her.

"The Pipers?" she asked as she took it.

He shook his head. "A certain Mr. Han."

Han.

"Sounds familiar."

"Indeed. He is the survivor of the three person crash last week up near Blackwater Creek."

Ah, that was it.

"What do I want with him?"

"You want to talk to him about what he's seen."

"What he's -" Riz groaned. "Not the yeti again."

"Precisely the yeti. If there's someone going around in an animal suit, on two legs, scaring our citizens half to death, or to death in Mr. Han's friends' case, then we ought to know, don't you think?"

Riz couldn't argue with that, so instead, she stood. Han didn't live too far away and if she was quick about it she'd be done in time for (donuts) lunch.

"And Riz!" Huber called after her as she left his office. "If you need any help let me know. Whatever you find out."

At the whatever his eyes lingered on hers, and she had to work on her sneer to keep it up.

Did Huber really believe in this supernatural thing? He was German, and she'd always thought Germans were reasonable, detached, what was the phrase? Down to Earth. (This same efficiency was the reason she felt safe in Huber's presence too although usually she preferred to avoid men) Then again, maybe he'd meant something completely different when he mentioned the animal suit, a killer in hiding, something like it, and she could really count on his help if she needed it.

[Chapter 3] of [Book I likely won't finish]

All right. Tomorrow is a long wait and Chapter 2-2 isn't really a full chapter so here you go: chapter three. And now I really need to get back to working on this or I won't have a chapter 4 to show tomorrow.

Riz ended up at Mel's place anyway, but they didn't have sex. One reason was Ekko, who refused to tell them where they were from and what a leshen was until they agreed he could stay at the police office fort he night. The other was that Riz felt particularly stubborn about the events of the night. She knew what she'd seen, but Mel didn't seem to believe any of it, and that was fine, but it also meant she was in no mood to have sex or talk about their relationship (which Mel often tried after they had sex).

The next morning Riz was even grumpier than the day before (sleeping on a narrow couch will do that to you, but then again, it was her own fault), and only managed to put on fresh clothes when they came in the office (separately) at 6 AM. The clothes she'd kept in the office were too small and her chest (grown considerably since she'd started here) strained against the cloth until she left it open under her uniform jacket. It wasn't standard, it wasn't proper etiquette, but if she wanted a straightjacket, she'd go straight to Huber and tell him all about last night's campfire experience.

At the office, Ekko waited, and Deputy Hailey, a bear-like guy in his thirties, made a grimace at her as she arrived.

"Where'd you pick up that brat?" he said.

Ekko bared his teeth at him, and Riz shrugged. "Dark forest, north of Blackwater."

Hailey lifted an eyebrow, then seemed to think better of it. "Yeah, not gonna ask what you were doin' in a dark forest north of BW."

He left. Riz stared at Ekko and he stared back defiantely.

"Time to go," she said.

"No," he said.

"I have work to do, and this isn't a kindergarten. I'm gonna take you straight to school, or straight to your parents. Your choice."

He too, was wearing clothes that didn't fit, and it looked like one of the deputy guys had lent them to him.

"I'm not goin' anywhere."

"Wasn't a question," she said as she turned to make her way into the corridor, down into the parking lot to her car.

Ekko followed sullenly.

"Did you manage to get anything on camera?" she asked when he'd caught up to her and they were walking side by side.

"All white," he said. "I shouldn't'a used f."

"Hm," she said. Bummer.

At the door to the outside, she stopped, because he stopped.

"What?"

"I can help," he said.

"Help with what?"

"The leshen."

"You've said that word twice and I still don't know what it means," she said. She should've googled it, but in the (relative) safety of Mel's apartment she hadn't felt like unpacking all the crazy she'd seen. She really should have, though, then perhaps she would've slept better that night.

"I'll show you if you let me stay."

"Let you stay where? This isn't kindergarten. It's a police office." What else could she add? Ah, the adult card. "Your parents will be worried."

"No they won't." His eyes darkened. "Don't look at me like that. It's not like they neglect me or some shit. They think I'm at a friend's."

"Hm."

"I can help you with this case."

"Oh yeah? And what case is that, if you're so smart?"

"The leshen case!" he snapped.

"Still don't know what that is."

He made a noise somewhere between angry dog and angry cat, but more dog, and pulled his phone out of male-deputy Guile's pocket. In a few swipes he got what he wanted and held it up to Riz's nose.

"This is a leshen."

Riz stared at it. It was a drawing of a man-beast, a greyish-dark skinned man up to the neck, on which the white skull of an elk sat, and from the skull protruded red antlers. It was exactly what she'd seen, or thought she'd seen, on the road the night before. The two visions were uncannily alike when she layered them on top of each other before her inner eye.

Then her eyes caught something else on the bottom of the picture - like a signature.

"It says Witcher III fanart" she said, suddenly annoyed that he was wasting her time.

"So what?"

"So it's not real."

"You saw it yesterday!"

"I saw a person on the road" she said. "It was Mel."

It had to have been, didn't it? Mel had left her car and came down to collect them in the incline after she'd seen Riz's car stopped close-by. Whatever else she'd seen had to have been something pathological. Anger about the reports, about people like Henny Pipers, driving hands-unfree with their phones, had set her off, and she'd imagined whatever horns or antlers or dark mist. It must've been. Mel hadn't seen it and she'd arrived only a moment after Riz's flashlight went off.

Riz glanced at Mel at her desk, then away again.

What was she thinking about changelings? She'd known Mel about half a year now and there never were any sightings of strange creatures before last week. Besides, if Mel was a leshen, then she was hiding those antlers pretty well. Likely in her cleavage.

Riz sighed. "I'm not buying it."

"But it's right here!" He thrust out the phone towards her.

"I see an image drawn by a fan of something mythical creature out of a fantasy realm -"

"It's not fantasy, it's folklore of [eastern Europe]."

"Uh-huh," she said.

"Your name is Clarisse Hunter, isn't it?"

"Riz," she said, unsure in the next moment why she was telling him anything about her.

"Ok, then, Riz," he said. "I can help you find out where the creature is, what it likes, what it does -"

"You're a gamer."

At this, he pulled himself up straight (about chin-height compared to Riz) and, his eyes burning like (not devil's) embers, he declared, "I'm not a gamer. I'm a scientist."

Riz managed to stop a snort before it left her nostrils, with difficulty, and only because she didn't want to hurt the boy's sense of pride in whatever science class he achieved good grades in school.

"That's good," she said instead. "The world needs more scientists." She opened the door they'd been standing in front of and gestured outside. "Now, however, Einstein, you better get back to your studies."

[Chapter 2-2] of [Book I'll likely not finish]

Here's the third chapter of this venture. It's actually more like part two of chapter two however... and yes. I do know I'm going a bit overboard with Cthulu jokes! But that's what editing is for - right? :)

PS: as this is the second part of chapter two it's a bit shorter (sorry!) but I'll have the real chapter three up by tomorrow morning!

"I - I don't understan -"

The boy beside her moved first. His phone went up and there was a sudden flash as he pressed the trigger button, and then he gasped as if he'd been wounded. His terror brought her back to herself and finally her gun was out. Had the creature noticed the flash of light? Riz killed her flashlight. What had she thought coming here alone? What did she know Cthulu was capable of? All she'd heard about him was fiction and this? This creature? What if it was a ghost and she couldn't wound it?

"What should we do!" the boy whispered. His voice was harsh and terrified and HOW SHE HATED CHILDREN. Why had he come out here? He wasn't any smarter than she and now he expected her to solve it! How could she protect this brat if she didn't even know what she was up against? She could barely see anything ahead, her eyes still trying to adapt, and he thought she could do something to protect them?

"Officer!" he whimpered.

"Quiet!" she snapped back. Protocol. Remember protocol. The innocent behind you, the gun in front. "Don't speak and follow me! Quickly!"

If she could go around the road she might be able to get a better look at it, and they'd have a better chance to get in their car, but if it spotted them...? Then what? Where was it, even? Her sight was coming back somewhat, but the thing she'd seen was gone, the road empty, except.

"Riz?"

Tension drained out of her like a rushing waterfall and she was suddenly inexplicably tired.

"You followed me."

"Of course I followed you!" Mel exclaimed. "Gee, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Riz chuckled. A ghost, huh.

"Haven't you seen anything when you came down here?"

"A lot of trees. Who's that?"

Riz turned to see the boy staring at Mel (well, her lips, anyway). "That's uh -"

"Ekko," he said, half mutinous, half enthralled by Mel.

Riz scowled at him, almost jealously (she caught herself just in time) then turned back to the road, to her car. "And you didn't see anything when you arrived?"

"No." Her brow creased. "Was there anything I was supposed to see?"

An apparition, a ghost. Cthulu's grand grand-kid. An apparition in the dark, shrouded by mist, with antlers on top of its head.

"What did the witnesses say the yeti looked like?"

"Uh," said Mel. "Tall, like a man, dark fog surrounding it. It wears a mask of bone, like the skull of a moose, or an elk, but Riz - Do you believe in this crap?"

What was she to believe? A moment ago she would've bet her life (or at least Ekko's life) that there'd been something supernatural on the road, but now, with Mel there, it was difficult to concive such a notion, difficult to say she'd spotted bigfoot with a straight face.

"I need sleep" she said instead, and walked past Mel to check on her car. It was undisturbed, but in the darkness around her, Ekko's words echoed when he spoke.

"It's not the Yeti," he said, as if annoyed. "It's a leshen."