Warning: swearing, threats of death, violence, lesbianism
Patrol was unusually calm, but it shouldn't have come as a surprise since my transfer. I wasn't in my home sector anymore. Here at the heart of the capital, where those brilliant women all reign together, is definitely safer and nicer on the eyes. I walk down the busy main street just a few passes behind my patrol officer, his horns are almost as big as his need to constantly chat. Suspicious they placed us non humans together, the people around us surely do notice us, rude fuckers. But, I will take what I can get. If I can somehow make this transfer permanent, things could actually get better for once.
I try to listen to what my instructor is telling me, but my mind drifts as we pass an electrical appliance store with TVs scattered across the front windows, playing live footage from the parliament. There in all their glory was Blanka and her associates, but my eyes immediately drifted to the women at her side whom was so tall she barely fit into the frame of the screen.
Marigold Tempest.
"Unlucky us, am I right?"
my instructors voice snapped me out of my daze, he now stood beside me, facing the screens.
"Pardon sir?" I asked genuinely confused.
"Well its just, out of all them amazing leaders to control the officers and policing forces, it just had to be the Tempest. Nothin' but horror stories come from the headquarters she runs." as he finished his sentence he began to walk again, getting back on track with the patrol, I quickly followed, but my eyes stayed glued to the screen as long as possible. How could someone to beautiful be so fearsome?
"Yes, even my previous precinct had rumor's about her, and it was pretty much as far from central as one can get." I add on, hoping he will tell me more about the one interesting topic he's talked about all day.
"Oh yeah? Which rumor's?" He asked, turning his head to gaze at me with an amused expression and a raised eyebrow.
"Apparently, so I'm told, she talks nothing but gibberish and physically assaults her employees all the time." I say with carful grace. He just chuckled.
"So you only know of the soft stuff huh?" He said with a sinker. I rolled my eyes and played along.
"How could that possibly be the soft stuff?" I ask with feigned ignorance, I can imagine much worse things, but lets see what supposedly happens.
"The headquarters is practically where that women lives. We literally call it the den of the Tempest dragon. She has these private rooms with red doors where she takes people, sometimes to interrogate criminals, but other times, she takes employees in there and they... they always come out different. Everyone assumes they're torture chambers, but no one really knows."
"How could no one know if people have made it out before?"
"Like I said, they come out different, changed, spooked and bonkers. Everyone who doesn't come out of those rooms in body bags quits the force and disappears off of the face of the earth anyways."
"That...doesn't sound legal." I say not entirely sure how I was meant to respond to that.
"Haha! Half the shit we officers do isn't legal. Only right our boss leads by example." To that him and I both chuckle.
"So people actually die while working for her?" I ask starting to feel concerned.
"Oh they absolutely do. Last week she flattened a maid like a bloody pancake on a wall with her bare hand just because she broke and spilled some valuable tea set, or something just as ridiculously petty."
It's somewhat comforting to know fucked up shit happens in central as well as down town and the outskirts.
"Excuse me, bare HAND? As in single? Not bare HANDS, as in plural?" I ask holding up both my hands.
"Yep. One hand is all it took. She is fucking huge, with monstrous strength to pair. However tall you imagined her before, she's twice as big. Your probably no taller then her legs, actually, probably shorter."
"Damn..." I say trying to imagine what that would be like.
"And the gibberish she speaks? Yeah, apparently that's just old English, but thankfully, she barks orders in modern English. She threatens people a lot, just as much as she actually physically assaults' them so its a 50/50 chance if she's serious or not."
"Why would anyone ever work for her??" I ask with eyes slightly widened by shock.
"I worked their once for a few weeks years ago, they gave me enough money to pardon my student debts, had I stayed, I'd be a millionaire by now. But I knew I'd have died if I stayed any longer, she really doesn't like men. I heard they had to stop hiring men all together because she'd just relentlessly bullied and or killed them." He said rather nonchalantly.
"That doesn't sound traumatic at all." I say sarcastically.
A giant women with secret murder rooms who hates men. I know I'm mentally ill because that should scare me, but it doesn't.
"Its not so bad, there are lots of ways to avoid her and its all in the job description. But I REALLY don't recommend working for her. I almost died myself, many times, that's how I lost my left horn, I was, quote on quote, breathing too loudly." He said in a mocking posh tone while making air quote gestures with his hands.
Just then as we turned the corner, a small explosion erupted from the buildings up ahead, we gave each other a knowing look and nod as we ran towards it. We met up with other officers at the scene, more were on the way, I assisted with leading some civilians out of the way but wild purple fire emanating from the bomb site began to spread along the road. I flooded the streets with my own magic, stretching it out of my finger tips as hundreds of threads, carefully weaving blankets over the fire to eradicate it. A blast of fire was suddenly hurdling towards me, one of the criminals must have noticed I was undoing their work. I quickly whipped my strings upwards from the road to shield all of us along the street, before whipping it back down, conjuring a shock wave powerful enough to knock back most of the fires assault. My instructor looked impressed.
"Permission to apprehend the criminals sir?" I ask my instructor, turning my head to look at him, he was evacuating the last of the civilians.
"Do what you can but keep your distance until reinforcement's arrive! We do not know how many of them there are, or how many of them have powers." He ordered, and I nodded.
Sure, I'll do what I can, and what I can do is take them all down. But I couldn't tell him that.
In the distance were the perpetrators, just 3 thugs in masks with stolen property in big bags, I chuckle, its almost cartoonish. Clearly only one of them had abilities or else I'd have sensed more magic, or one of them would have had the sense to help their fire wielding friend to cover their escape. I loosely wrapped my strings around me as a make shift shield just in case, as I propelled myself forward towards the fire wielder. My knees collided with his face and a lowed crack and scream echoed as he fell to the floor, the fire disappearing along with his consciousness. The other two tried to run away, but I effortlessly stretched my strings to wrap around their ankles and pulled them back as hard as I could, more echoing cracks and screams followed as they fell faces first into the stone cold ground. Taking a breath and sigh of relief I step back and allow my strings to tightly incarcerate them.
While doing so some rather stupid bystanders, whom I saw refuse evacuation by my colleagues, were flashing their cameras and phones at me. Just my luck is what I think as I pull my hat down and collar up to try and hide my face. I don't want to be filmed or photo'd ever. How long had they been filming? Before I could ask them to put their cameras away, I was pulled back by my upper arm by my training officer who looked displeased.
"That was reckless! You could have gotten injured under my watch! How dare you disobey my orders??" He asked as more officers arrived and began dealing with damage control, taking away the three criminals I apprehended.
"Your exact words where DO WHAT YOU CAN. I did what I could and it just happened to be apprehending all three of them." I say ripping my arm out of his grip. He clenched his jaw.
"I also told you to keep your distance." he says glaring down at me.
"I admit, for the fire wielder I took a calculated risk by approaching him so closely, but I was shielding myself with the same strings that heled off his attacks before! The rest however, I took down from A GREAT distance." I say in retaliation, glaring back up at him. Gosh I'm so stupid, why did I disobey? Why did I act to rebellious with these things?? I can't lose this opportunity.
"Kid, you've got moxie, but following my orders through technicalities, rather then what was obviously meant is still insubordination. Me and all of your commanding officers do not tolerate that kind of behavior. You have been here long enough to know that. This is never to happen again do I make myself clear?" He said in complete seriousness.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. He should not have called me kid. I am 25 for fucks sake.
"Sir yes sir!" I say mockingly while saluting to him. To my surprise he began laughing and his serious composure all but crumbled away.
"A comedian too! Aside from the insubordination, you did great work, I will consider applying your caliber of skills to the field better next time." With a big smile he walked off to discuss the situation with other officers, I was left a little shocked, usually they just yell, never have my commanding officers acknowledged my potential.
[-------------------------------------------------------[Time Skip]-------------------------------------------------------]
To say I was irritated would be the understatement of the fucking century. I was just trying to get my paperwork done at my desk, in my cubical in this goddamn shared space hellhole that is an office. But no. My colleagues had been going crazy over the videos from my patrol today. The sun hasn't even fully set yet and they've somehow gone viral. The gossip and avalanche of questions about what I did, why I did it and how I did it was insufferable. But I was rescued from the disturbance after a colleague told me the captain wanted to seem me.
Time seemed to slow down as I actually approached the door. Was I in trouble? Had the captain seen my videos? Did she read my request? All I could do was gulp as I knocked on the door.
"Enter." Said the captain in a monotone voice. Enter I did.
"You called for me Captain?"
"Ah, yes, take a seat. We have much to discuss." Says the captain putting on her glasses and pulling out a file from her desk.
I sit down as calmly as I could in this situation, watching as she flicked through the paper file.
"I reviewed your request to make you transfer to central permanent." Said the captain, pulling out the piece of paper that was indeed my request. I heled my breath.
"Unfortunately, your position here was always contracted to be temporary due to a small staffing and management error thanks to my superiors." she placed my request down and folded her hands over them, looking directly at me. Hopelessness is all I was feeling.
"I apologize that this is the outcome, you have been truly a model employee and officer in the short time you've been here. The long hours, competence in the field, truly admirable. If I could keep you here I would."
I heled my hands together tightly on my lap, looking down with a clenched jaw, I'm beginning to feel very, VERY angry. The sound of her flicking though that god damn folder didn't help.
"I spoke with other captains about transferring you to other precincts close to central but it appears they are almost all under the same strict orders as I am about employment." She says calmly. I look up at her, hoping I didn't mishear her.
"Almost all?" I question, but the nervous, almost sad expression that played on her face as she handed me a contract kept my hope ay bae.
My eyes widened in shock and horror as I glanced over it.
"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" I say snapping at her. She leaned back in her chair, my reaction clearly expected.
"I understand your apprehensions, and your reaction is well warranted-" "Apprehensions?? APREHENTIONS?!??" I yell interrupting her without a second thought.
"OF COURSE I HAVE FUCKING APREHENSIONS!!! I TRANSFER HERE BECAUSE YOUR UNDERSTAFFED PRECINCT BEGGED ME TOO, FIND OUT HALF WAY THOUGH YOU'LL STIP ME OF MY BENEFITS AND CAN'T GARENTEE MY RETURN TO MY PREVIOUS SHIT HOLE OF A PRESINCT, DENY ME A PERMANENT CONTRACT EVEN THOUGH I DID EVERYTHING TO QUALIFY AND HAVE THE GAUL TO SHOVE THIS IN MY FACE??!??" I couldn't stop and slammed the contract as hard as I could onto her desk, looking her dead in the eye as I caught my breath. She couldn't even look me at me anymore.
"It is...an unfortunate situation..." She said, and I could do nothing but scoff and slump back into my chair.
"But I do recommend taking into consideration the generous benefits you will receive."
I laughed dryly and looked up at the ceiling. Was I going crazy? Did my captain really just do this?
"Oh yes, I'm sure they are. But I didn't need to read past the first fucking line of the name of the precinct I'd be transferred too to understand why." I say as I roll my head back down to glare at my Captain. Silence fell into the room.
"Precinct Prime, AKA, the den of the Tempest Dragon." I say, looking down at the contact.
"Your sending me out to die." I cover my face with my hands and leaned into them.
"You'd seriously rather send someone over there to die then just give them a part time permanent position here? I cant even fathom how you sleep at night. I asked for the bare minimum, and your sending me out to die." My hands moved up to clench my hair in frustration and silence fell again, only for a much longer moment.
"Read the whole contract, I wrote it myself to ensure you'd be somewhat protected and transferred out the second a new opening somewhere else appears." Said my captain, sliding the contract back to me. But I couldn't move.
"You don't have to decide now, I'll give you until the end of the week."
How convenient for her, a week from now I'd be fired, laid off and thrown into the streets...It took all I had to get here, had everything stolen to stay here...I have nothing else.
I sat up, holding back tears as best I could as I stood and grabbed the contract, the scrunching noise of the paper ringing in my ears as I stormed out. I didn't bother going back to my desk. I just went home. My safe space. My single bed, kitchen and en-suite officer accommodation. Everything became blurry once I locked the door behind me, literally, the tears cascaded out of my eyes and down my face, I almost sunk to the floor but I knew if I did I wouldn't get up. With whatever strength I had left, I took off my shoes, dropped my bag before collapsing onto my bed. How could this be happening? How is this real?
(Sorry K this just got so real for no reason.)
I passed out.
I must have, at some point.
That or I warped through time.
Groggily, I tried to get up, ultimately failing and falling back down. All I could muster was the strength to roll over and stare aimlessly at the ceiling. There was silence as I stared at nothing. Maybe this is what they mean, when they say staring into the void. A long breath leaves my lips, I feel disheartened and destroyed, but calm. I've been here once before, I always do what I have too.
I bite my lip and reach into my pocket pulling out the crinkled contract and hold it up above me. Slowly I read through every word, analyze every sentence, looking for any loophole or manipulation they could use against me in the future, like what they had done to me now. Bit by Bit I turned each page until I came to the end with a shocking conclusion. There was no malicious undertone or trick. No fancy words. No double meanings or loopholes. My captain was telling the truth. If I sign this, I'd get over tipple my current pay, with interest, longer holidays, incredible leniency on sick days, intense medical insurance coverage, free housing and food and access to resources people in much higher positions then mine would get. I'd have to work mainly behind a desk somewhere, they seem to need my skills for filing and management more, not surprising, they're probably understaffed to hell with that woman around. But I'd still be able to go out and help people on patrol a few times a week. I pull the contract down onto my chest and wrap my arms over it, staring up into the void once again.
"Is this worth my life..?" I'm sure its easy for them to promise such lavish rewards for someone who they think will die before their first paycheck...
[-----------------------------------------------------[The Next Day]-----------------------------------------------------]
Storming back into the office felt surreal, the pitiful and worried looks my colleagues gave me said it all. They must all know, my yelling yesterday probably helped. Or they knew all along. Would explain a thing or two about how some of them have treated me. I practically glided back into my captains office, swinging the door open and gliding some more towards her desk. Her uncomfortable and startled expressions were so satisfying. If its all going to shit anyways, I might as well go all in.
"I made some adjustments." I say as I drop the new and improved contract onto her desk.
She regained her composure and put on a pair of thin reading glasses as she began to read it, seemingly skimming through it before looking at me with a big smile.
"Will that be all?" Is all she says.
Will that be all??? I asked for daily payments rather then weekly or monthly...I wasn't even sure that was possible...and for double what they originally offered to pay me. Even that If I get murdered or go missing a years worth of said salary has to go to the charities I listed... A few other things as well but those are the main ones. And she didn't even flinch or haggle? What the actual fuck is going on?
I nod slowly, and she hands me a pen and the contract again. Before I know it, I've signed the dotted line and I'm escorted out of the room by other officers who will help me prepare for my transfer next week.