The Unseen *Slow Updates*

Chapter One

She nodded, looking thoughtful. "Is there anything distinctive you noticed about anything that you want to add?"

"There was blood," I paused and swallowed. "On the walls. You guys should take samples and see if anyone in the database matches them."

She was still nodding thoughtful. Every second or so, her head would pop down, as if she didn't realize she had already nodded seventeen times previously.

I decided not to comment on her excessive nodding. "Can I go now?"

She seemed to snap out of her nodding trance and looked up at me, startled. "Uh, yeah. Go get some Lucky Charms or something."

I smiled at her. "I will. Goodnight, Ash."

"Goodnight, Jo."

I stood by the titanium door and waited for it to open, smiling up at the camera to thank the agent on door duty before stepping through.
The room that I now stood in was vast, a good sized waiting room thanks to the government funding. There was a metal table placed on the far wall, a few plastic bins sitting on top of it. Aside from that, the only thing in the room was a metal detector, which stood in front of me, and the door leading out from the waiting room.

Next to the metal door behind me, which I had seen from the front one-too-many times it seemed, housed the feed to the surveillance camera in the soundproof room. Below that was a keypad to open the door, which changed daily at exactly 6:56 in the morning. The strange time change was set in place to keep criminals from knowing the exact time, though it made it easy enough that all the agents knew how to not to get arrested when the time came.

Protocol for the interrogation and debriefing room stated everyone going into the room needed to place any personal belongings in the plastic containers on the table and walk through the metal detector before walking through the large metal doors.

Yet again, I walked through the large contraption in front of me, the red, blinking lights shining in my face as I passed through it. As I had expected, no loud noises erupted from the machine, signaling I was metal-free. I briskly walked to the plastic container which held all of my things.

"Have a good time in there?" the agent assigned to door duty asked me as I picked up my watch.

"Pretty good. We played Scrabble. It was great."

He laughed. "I would imagine so," he trailed off.

"Jo Merryweather," I held out my hand, which now had my watch safely sitting on it. As I did so, I took a look at him.

He had a familiar face, one that you would expect to see at a grocery store picking up spaghetti noodles. His brown eyes were friendly, and his mouth looked like it smiled a lot, with slight crow's feet beginning to appear. As if he heard my train of thought, a smile appeared on his face.

"Pleasure to meet you, Jo. The name's Leviticus."

"Religious parents?" I smiled.

"Naw, they just liked the name."

"It is a good name, I suppose."

He laughed. "I guess so. It was nice to meet you, Jo. Have a good night."

"You too, Leviticus." I smiled at him as I walked towards the door, the ten dollar bill I had safely stashed in my pants for Lucky Charms the previous day in my hand.

The parking garage, which was held above the interrogation room and other more important places in the facility, never made me feel safe. I had been coming to this Triple-S building for more than seventeen years, and yet everything about the parking garage gave me the chills. There were too many corners where anything could be hiding, too many places where people could ambush me. Even with all of the security measures and armed guards patrolling every floor of the substantially large area, criminals were always getting smarter, and the garage felt like the least safe place in the entire building.

I sped up as I neared my car, the Chevy Suburban shining even in the dull light. As I slid the eye into the door, my heart-beat finally calming down, a voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Jo!"

I whirled around, my eyes forming slight slits as if my rapid breathing would hide the fact that I was panicking.
Jacob McCubins was smiling at me with warm eyes, his crow's feet already prominent on his face even though the rest of him didn't look anything older than twenty-five.
I smiled back, the grin on his face contagious as he walked closer to me. "Hey, Jake."

"I heard you got back, but I'm glad to see you're okay with my own two eyes."

"You can't ever trust those government employees, can you?" I said, laughing slightly.

"No, especially not a girl named Jo Merryweather. You know, if you see her, you should run."

I grinned at him. "She's pretty dangerous, eh?"

"A real heartbreaker, if you ask me."

We both laughed, smiling at each other, until I snapped out of the fun and pointed to my car. "Hey, uh, I'm meeting my mother in a few minutes. Do you think we could catch up later?"

His smile faltered a bit, but it stayed in place. "Yeah, that's fine. I have patrolling to do." he gestured to his waistband, a 9mm Glock sticking out of it's holster.

"Have fun with that." I laughed again. "I'll call you soon, okay?"

His smile turned tender. "Sounds good with me. Stay safe."

"You too, Jake. You too."

Before meeting my mother, I decided to go back to the convenience store where I had inevitably gotten kidnapped, and finally get those Lucky Charms for tomorrow.

My mother was somewhat of a neat freak, and someone who always had strict discipline when it came to everyone's food choices. She didn't like my father and I eating sugary foods, and insisted that I'd regret it later on in my life. It didn't exactly work out as she'd planned because, here I was, later on in life, and still having cravings for Lucky Charms. What my mom didn't know, however, wouldn't kill her.

So I stashed the cereal in my car, and under a seat, before going to meet her at Geo's.

The atmosphere of Geo's always reminded me of home. All around the small seafood joint were various signs. On the far wall, I could read, "On this site in 1887, nothing happened.". The signs here never failed to make me laugh and to put me in a better mood. My eyes spotted my mother, sitting at a booth with her hands crossed daintily across her arms. She looked so small, so delicate in that position, and for a moment it was almost hard to think about her being a top spy for the United States government. Until she raised her head and her eyes locked with mine. In those moments, when her guard was down, I could see the pain in her eyes. But as quickly as it was there, it was gone and she was smiling at me and waving me over.

I smiled back at her and made my way through the near-empty restaurant to slide into the bench across from her."Did you get your cast on?" she asked, looking at the hand that I had placed on the table to balance myself as I slid into the booth. I looked up at her and raised my other hand, a tan cast nearly blending into my complexion, but still noticeable, settled on my thumb."They wouldn't let me go into the interrogation room without it."She looked pleased with herself, as if she had something to do with them forcing me into a cast. Then again, knowing her, she probably did.