9 Eyes God [on-going]

TWENTY-SEVEN

Chapter 27 // Daunsel's Bar
[ATHANE]

"Athane is on a quest given by Lewis. A quest is just a fancy replacement for 'do-my-job-for-me', but our dear monocle friend is unaware of this."

Athane had just finished his work in Town Bevealth. The slew of unsolved mysteries just kept flowing, leading them to a dead end. Once he felt his head thumping in with a painful throb, that was his cue to leave. Several of the officers were baffled as to why he left so early, telling him that it would be unprofessional for him to leave.

"Lieutenant Hanazaki only told me to lead. With all the clues we collected, it's a dead-end. You guys should continue this tomorrow morning. I speak for the best, so you should take my advice." He explained while patting the debris sticking to his hoodie. He glanced to the sky, inhaling the warmth of the night sky. "It's gonna rain soon, you should all return home. As for the report, I trust you all can do it."

***

Now he was on his way home. Not home exactly. But it does emit the same cozziness as his home.

The road had been empty for awhile, he could see from the trash circling the ground that no one had dared to declutter the trash away. The harshness of the air that whistled a soft fearsome tune complemented the sky, which had now become the embodiment of something humans aren't able to understand completely. The reddish hue that filled the vast sky was unforgiving in its nature as moist droplets fell from its body.

Rain. It had rained.

The rain... that's the only thing Athane could understand at the moment. The droplets were surprisingly cold. It raised goosebumps on his forearms. He had to find shelter quick. He make quick chase to get under an extended roof from an abandoned shop. Although the iron roof held no quality from the way it still trickled down from a hole in it's shape, it was more than enough for Athane.

That was until he heard the sound of something. He gulped, trying not to show how unnerved he is by it, but the more he held back the urge to look around, the more the noise got louder.

What was that?

His ears had been picking up on the sound of rain pattering against the roof over him. But this strange noise, the sound of it getting louder and ever....

His shoes created a loud echo everytime he took a step. The man even took his time trying to get through each puddle decorating the road. This one is shallow... this one is chillin—

A sharp swooshing noise flew past his ear, making the frosted goosebumps on his forearms rise in alert. He was thankful he caught on to it, if he had been any later he would risk his ear being wounded. He swiveled in his spot, squinting and trying to make out where it had came from. He couldn't see anything beyond a few meters before him, the rest are covered by a translucent sheen of rain slowly turning opaque as the rain fell heavier.

When he turned back to face the wall, he found something sticking out of it. A pink colour, a bright fluorescent shade that had him unravelling what the twisted object is. It was a piece of paper, inside it wrote. 'walk faster.' An a vaguely map was drawn with cynical lines.

He finally realized what was keeping him on edge. He was being watched all this time, by people... His head pointed to each corners of the building surrounding him, and through the dim flicker of the light, he saw 4 forms of people perched. They were clad in rain coats, and they all craned their necks at him, eyeing him with curiosity. Athane even saw one of them waving the tube like stick, this is (probably) what they used to pass the pink message.

Is this really what Lewis wanted him to do? To go in a hazardly destroyed property area to converse with someone? But casting his doubts aside, he nodded to the four fellows above him who in turn waved at him before pointing to the direction he was supposed to go. He trusts Lewis to guard him as he completes his quest, but not to the point he was being given 4 extra bodyguards...

Although the first shot from the guards caught him off guard, he was well aware that Athane is made more than just his title as 'Inspector.' The guard was cautious enough to make loud noise before making himself visible.

The pink paper he held had smeared from the rain, the black ink dripping down his fingers and tainting it black. The man looked up, smiling at the sign hanging from the shop. It was made out of wood, white paint that etched the name of the shop glared him even through the chippings on its letters.

"Daunsels Bars." Athane smiled. Silly him. he found himself smiling a bit more than he was supposed to as the memories from the past began to resurface.