9) A Tail

David investigates the death of a man. Artemis and Dante continue their travel.

9) A Tail

David can’t believe what he’s looking at. What had started as a normal breaking and entering has quickly evolved into the scene of something brutal and ritualistic.

He had had two choices. Follow Artemis and lose his job or carry on with his job and lose Artemis. He doesn’t know if he had made the right choice. Although he had chosen, he still prays that eventually Artemis would f**k up and he'd be able to find them easily and bring them back. He missed his child, he really did, but following a ghost is a difficult task.

The scene had started out simply.

A friend of the victim had called up saying they hadn't been seen in days. Then follows a routine check-in.

His phone had rung at three-am. He had prayed it would be news of Artemis. Instead, the chief greeted him. He'd given David the address and ordered him to be there quick.

And now David is stood in the door regretting his choice.

The 'simple' scene is grim.

He’s stood at the end of the bed.

Nothing could prepare anyone, not even Hell.

If you looked at the torso by itself, you would probably think it was an animal attack.

"David..." A small female voice echoes around the house. He takes it as a bad sign. The voice leads him into a smaller boy’s bedroom. A football bed is in one corner. A cupboard in another, and that’s it. But that isn’t what the voice was alerting him to. He sees it almost instantly, but he doesn’t want to look at it, he’s had enough of the blood.

A note is written in awful writing, barely legible.
'I deserved this.' Then a picture of a teddy bear. He could guess what it meant. He grabs the teddy bear and tears it open. A camera stares back at him. He doesn’t want to know what was on it, but he has a job to do.

"The man, identified as Alexander Cevolt." David can’t let his emotions get the better of him. "The man deserved to die. We all agree on that." He stares at the faces in front of him. "But the way he was killed was beyond brutal and unnecessary. We as officers swore an oath to uphold the law. And despite the death of this animal, we must follow this oath. Our primary job is to find his murderer, before, he or she, kills again." The crowd doesn’t really seem to care, they know their job, they wouldn't try as hard; this man had deserved to die.

They disperse to carry out their jobs.

David knows they won’t try as hard, he won’t either. But they had to pretend. He returns to the master bedroom. A criminal like Mr. Cevolt, would've had some type of security.

He finally finds what he was looking for in the form of a tiny fish lens camera tucked away in the top right corner. This placement of the camera gives a perfect view of the room.

As he watches the scene unfold, he can’t believe his eyes. The door opens. A figure creeps to the bed, a glint of metal. The man sits up, words were exchanged.
"If Frank sent you..." David jots the name down.
"What the f**k." Alex whispers. The figure has stepped out of the shadows. David knows who it is straight away.
"I aint going anywhere." The figure whispers. David isn’t sure if what happens next is coincidence or something more. But as the figure spoke, a flash of lightning lit up the night sky, illuminating the figure. And more importantly, what is stood behind them.

A devil. That’s all he can think of as he watches the lighting flash. He has watched the same scene over and over again, but still it’s no clearer.

The lighting flashes. The figure - Artemis becomes visible for the briefest of seconds. The thing behind them also does.

He jabs the pause button and stares at it.

The floor, walls and ceiling around Artemis suddenly sprout rot. And behind Artemis stands a white figure three times as big as Artemis, its wings the width of the room, its horns scrape the ceiling. Its clawed hands the size of small cars. It stands behind Artemis like a guardian. The man has also apparently seen it, his face drains of all colour and he pleads.
"Oh God. Please no." His voice echoes around David’s head. Artemis doesn’t even flinch. David has to stop before the murder began. He starts it again. The lightning flash. Artemis is illuminated. And the devil is with them.

The kid knows what the stranger did, but he doesn’t appreciate how much was done, but he knows, he knows that his dad is dead. However, he doesn’t know that this simple act of anger, not only caused the death of his dad, but the death of another father, the start of a manhunt, and the end of the world. No. This ten-year old boy does not know this. No one knows this. What the kid does know is that, as of tonight at Eight-forty-six pm, his dad is dead, and he’s free. Another thing he doesn’t know is that his sisters were in the house, and had witnessed it all. The only people to know this, are, Artemis and David Kaliaski, Jessie and Alexandra Cevolt, the entire Missouri Police Department, and of course, Alexander Cevolt.

The kid sits and watches the stranger collapse onto the bed. He is intrigued, to say the least. A stranger had done what he had wished to do, is this a dream? Did the stranger actually do it? If he feels remorse, the kid doesn’t realise. If he feels guilty, he doesn’t realise. Actually, if the kid feels anything, he doesn’t realise. All he knows, and all he cares about is the fact that his father had been killed, and he is free.
"AHHH!" The boy screams in sudden realisation. The stranger sits up and stares at him.
"What?" They say, not annoyed like his father would've been, but curious, maybe even worried. For the first time in sixteen-hours, the boy spoke.
"My sisters." A simple sentence, a statement more than anything. But even the smallest of words can have an impact.
"What?" The stranger now seems extremely worried. Seems. The kid knows that it’s a front, a facade.
"They were in the house. I forgot about them." The boy starts crying. Not unusual for the boy. "I forgot about them. I left them alone with that b*****d." He spits the insult out. Then with realisation, "They'll find the body." He sobs. The stranger hardly reacts. They don’t even seem to care. But, the stranger knows they have to say something.
"They'll be okay." They say, sitting next to him. A Shadow Person on the left, a stranger on the right. The boy isn’t sure which one is stranger.

I stare at The Shadow Person as they sit beside the boy. It’s a weird occurrence, but what’s even weirder, is that the boy seems to notice The Shadow Person, hell, he could’ve shaken its hand. How the boy had forgot about his sisters is beyond me.

The boy knows he'd fucked up. "Please."
"Please what?" The stranger ask calmly.
"Don't hit me." The words sent a shiver across his body.
"I would never." The stranger pulls him closer. The boy wonders if this is true, could someone who had just killed his father, not hit him? "It'll be okay. They'll be okay. I promise."

David Kaliaski knows he’s in trouble. He could 'forget to mention the evidence' and then 'lose it', or he could turn it in. The first idea is more appealing, but he knows it’s wrong, and he could never forgive himself. However, the second was less appealing; if he turned it in, the board may deem this a good time to put his work under scrutiny, and may go as far to say he isn't suitable for this case, but if he was allowed to work it, he'd have all the help he could ever want to track down Artemis. He had another choice. Easier, yes, but a choice all the same. He pulls out his phone.
"It's me. We have a lead." A quick call, nothing else was needed. "James, come here." A scared bobby appeared at the door - he'd been the one to find the body. "Take this down to the team." He hands the camera to him. David hopes he made the right choice. When Artemis was caught, they would stand trial for murder, but with a good lawyer, they might be able to get an insanity plea. What ever happened, it did not look good for David and Artemis Kaliaski.

Dante appears at the door.
"Where have you been?" I ask, I mean, it's a f*****g bus, he was downstairs, but again, this is a magical bus, so, he could have been anywhere.
"Making calls." He replies simply, pulling a face at the scene in front of him. "My Aunt says it's cool if we crash there." He stands awkwardly. "Who's he?" He finally asks. Good bloody question Dante Smith, good bloody question.
"Ben Cevolt." The boy snivels, he'd been in tears since remembering his sisters.

The boy isn’t sure what to do. His sisters were in a house with their father, who is now dead. He is on a bus, which appears to be single story, but apparently has a floor dedicated to beds. He is with the murderer, who apparently has a boyfriend. While he is 'nice' and 'cosy' on the bus, his sisters are trapped in a house with a dead a*****e. Then the new boy asks his name. A series of thoughts occurs: 'Do I use my real name?', 'What are the benefits of lying', 'Who's this new boy?', 'God what do I do?', and a barrage more. He decides on using his real name. What more could happen? He'd been beaten, and abused since the day he was born. What more could happen?

David watches as Zoe Dorkins plugs the camera in and loads up the footage. He watches as her face goes from confused to morbid. He watches as the lightning flashes and The White Devil appears. He watches as Artemis, his Artemis, kills in cold blood.
"David." She starts her voice cracking. "I'm sorry." She doesn’t know what else to say
"It's okay." He mumbles. "I want to catch them. Whatever it takes and whatever it may mean."

"I'm Dante Smith." Dante says kneeling by the bed. "You've already met Artemis Kaliaski." He absolutely butchers my name.
"Kali-as-key." I correct. I don't know how he manages to pronounce it wrong, but he does. "He's stupid, don't listen to him." I whisper to Ben. Who, against all odds, smiles. "Better make the booking for three." I say to Dante. "Would you like to stay with Dante and me?"

Ben isn’t sure. It’s a strange offer. Especially from a murderer. But then again. He has no one else. Well. He has his mother in New York. But that’s kilometres away.
"Where?" He asks.
"Santa Monica." Dante replies, "She has a giant pool, with a great view of the ocean." He speaks softly. Does Dante know what Artemis had done?

David looks at the two girls, no older than eight, huddled on the stairs in blankets. "What do they know?" He asks Zoe, the newly appointed head of this investigation.
"They saw the whole thing."
"Jesus Christ." A voice gasps, "I could barely stomach that s**t on camera, but to see it in person. F**k me."
"Keep your voice down, McMillan." Zoe orders.
"Do they have anyone to stay with?" David asks.
"Yeah. A mother in New York."
"I'm heading that way, do they need a lift?"
"Thanks, beats me driving down there." Her voice shivers. "One more thing. Don't let your emotions get to you David, this may be your child, but right now they're a murderer, nothing more."

The concept of a giant pool appeals to me. In a childish sort of way, splashing in the pool. Dante in trunks.
"How much longer, Dante?" I ask.
"I don't f*****g know."
"Well go find out."

Ben is royally confused. One minute he was running from home and onto a single story bus with two floors. Then he was being comforted by a stranger with a healing ball of water. That same stranger then proceeded to murder his father. Then he was invited to stay with said murderer and their boyfriend in Santa Monica. All of this while his sisters were stuck in that house.
"My dad's a c**t." He speaks again. The stranger seems shocked, they don’t speak, instead they pull him closer. And for the first time in his life. He feels safe. Strange, he feels safer with a murderer more than he did with his own father. But then again, Benjamin Cevolt, did not know, could not even dream of what is coming. Or what the stranger truly was.

"Alright everyone." Zoe shouts, instantly grabbing everyone’s attention. "Alexander Cevolt was murdered sometime between eight-thirty and nine pm, on the 29th." The room is in silence. "Now, we have a key suspect, who is on camera butchering Mr Cevolt." A brief pause. "Artemis Kaliaski." A murmur rises from the crowd. "Yes. That is David's child. But you, I, and David will do all we can to catch them. They are number one priority." A uniform whispered into her ear. "Another key suspect is Benjamin Cevolt, Mr Cevolt’s son, and Dante Smith" Another murmur arose. "I want all of you to work your hardest. We want them alive."