"She's pregnant!" Jake seems happy on the phone, but then tells Malachai that the baby is not his. "She found out she was pregnant 2 weeks after we met. I decided to be there for her, she can't go through this alone." Malachai sighs and then tries to advise him. "Jake, if you really want to be there for Shaina and her child, then go for it, but you're still only 19. Are you sure?" "Yes 100%! She can't do this alone." Malachai is quiet for a second, but then finally gives up. "Okay then, I wish you good luck." She says with a warm smile. Malachai walks back to the kitchen now, seeing Luke is doing her dishes. Malachai walks up to him and starts to grab a towel to dry the dishes. "Oh, I am so sorry, you can sit if you'd like." Luke chuckles a bit by her reaction and gently lays his hand on her side, pulling her gently against his side. "It's okay, it's no big deal." Luke says with a soft smile.
Suddenly the bell goes off. "I'll open it." Luke says while going to the door. He opens the door and a man starts to talk. "Mala- oh... right, Morgan." "Ehhh" Luke awkwardly scratches the back of his head. "I am not interested in your personal love life, Morgan." "Dad?" Malachai hears her dad from the kitchen and walks to the front door. "Now I am. Malachai did you just-""DAD STOP!" Malachai quickly calms down but she's actually really embarrassed from the inside. Luke laughs about it, pats Malachai's shoulder and quickly puts a shirt on. "What's wrong... dad?" She shrugs a bit while asking him. "Right, Malachai, I wanted to talk about a vicious outbreak from the same laboratory we went to save Clover from. I have managed to equip some pictures." Arden then shows Malachai a picture of the same skinwalker Luke saw earlier in the laboratory. "Dude, those were the skinwalkers I saw in the lab. They're crazy man." Luke puts on his shirt while watching the pictures. The shirt is a bit tight and it really accents his muscles. Malachai tries to not get distracted by them and Luke seems to notice this. Arden seems to notice as well and stands in the middle of them now. "Right, anyway, the case. There's been an outbreak in Coolsingel, Rotterdam." Arden shows a video from the security footage there. It shows how a skinwalker is eating a chef's flesh in a restaurant. It walks on 4 limbs and slowly crawls to find some new flesh. The security footage switches to the street and it shows how fast the skinwalker actually is. In a fraction of 3 frames it already caught their new prey.
"I think that the virus for these things are in the sewers and the water pipes. I suggest you 2 not drink the water until we find out where it actually originates from." Arden says while putting away the video. Malachai nods and takes the files. "Okay then, I'll leave again... Use protection." "DAD!" Malachai looks irritated and walks to the door with Arden. After he has left, Malachai closes the door again and sighs. She examines the file and looks a bit tense. Luke notices this and starts to massage her shoulders a bit. "You can do this, I believe in you." Luke says with a comforting smile. Malachai turns around and shows the file to him. Luke wraps an arm around her neck and holds the file in front of them while he crosses his legs. He frowns his eyebrows a bit in confusion and lays the back of his finger at his mouth.
"I'll help you with this case." Malachai looks up at him while being a bit concerned. "You can't do that! You're not a professional." "I don't mind, as long as you're safe." Luke then gives her a soft smile and a soft kiss on her head. "Oh I'll be fine." Malachai says with a scoff. "Right, I might as well call that number you gave me before for that therapist then." "Nonononono-" when Luke starts calling the number, Malachai's phone starts ringing. Luke looks at Malachai with a raised eyebrow and looks confused. "It's your phone number? So you did want to help me... even after I was such a jerk towards you?" Luke gives her a confused smile and puts his phone away. "So... even in that major fight we had yesterday, you still wanted to help me? That actually means a lot to me, you know that?" Luke starts to get a bit emotional about this realisation. He turns around again and tries the fact that he is quite a soft person when it's about this. Malachai seems to notice how Luke has gotten quite emotional about all of this.
"Hey, can I... tell you something?" Luke turns around to her and nods a bit with a soft smile. "Well, when I first met you, you indeed were a huge... yeah, shithead." Luke chuckles a bit by how she says it. "But I thought at some point, you don't need to be like this and seeing how caring you were when I left and how you managed to help Clover, Becca and Me out of the situation, I knew you just needed to hear the right things that can help you." Malachai gently lays a hand on his cheek and caresses it a bit with her thumb. "I believe in you, Luke."
Luke smiles happily now, until his phone goes off. "God dammit, it's one of my coaches." He pinches the bridge of his nose a bit and sighs in annoyance. He answers the phone and tries to sound as good as possible. When he answered the call, it was his coach, yelling at him like usual, but after a while, he started to yell more for help. Luke holds the phone away from his ear now and you could hear how he was screaming in pain. You could hear the skin getting ripped off of his body and the yelling stopped after a while.
"Flesh.... Blood.... Meat...."
After that the call breaks off and Luke looks a bit confused at his phone. "Fuck man..." he puts his phone on the table and puts his hands on the back of his neck. He sighs and sits at the table and wraps his hands in a ball against his mouth. He closes his eyes and tries to progress the fact one of his coaches is gone now. Some tears are falling from his face and he wipes them away. He shivers a bit under his breath and presses his hand against his mouth. He sighs deeply and pinches his nose bridge again. Malachai walks to him and tries to comfort him by massaging his shoulders a bit. "He was the man who offered me this career... and now he's gone. I- We have to stop whatever is haunting the world." Luke's lip quivers while he looks at Malachai with an exhausted smile. "You're not going to do this mission alone. Like I said before, I will help you, even if it will be the reason for my death." Malachai looks even more concerned. She wants to say something, but Luke says something before she even has the chance to say something. "I know what you're gonna say, professional or not, I will help you."
Malachai keeps her worried expression, but sighs and gives up. Luke stands up and starts to caress her cheek gently with his thumb. "I want you to be safe, being able to protect you and everyone I care about. I care about you, Malachai..." Luke looks in her eyes and smiles with lots of affection. "In fact, it's more than the fact that I care about you. I-" Luke sighs a bit and looks back at her a bit shy. "I love you, Malachai. I hope you can forgive me for being such a jerk, and I want to change myself, for the better. I know you can help me with that." Luke smiles softly now and tucks Malachai's hair behind her ear. "Of course I can help, I'd love that." Malachai lays her hands on the sides of his chest now. "So... do you love me just now or did you secretly love me already since last night after our apology se-" "Oh cut it Luke." Malachai gently slaps his chest. "If you want to change your behaviour, then let's start with not making out of pocket comments out loud."
"Oh come on Mal, we both loved it, just admit it." Malachai raises her eyebrows with an 'are you serious' look on her face. Luke notices it and looks a bit embarrassed at her now and rubs the back of his neck a bit. "I'm sorry." He says awkwardly. Malachai smiles now and pats his shoulder a bit. "It's okay honey." Malachai gives him a reassuring smile and walks upstairs now to grab her gear from her room. Luke follows her out of curiosity while grabbing his jacket. "We'll go tomorrow, I want some rest for today." Malachai says with a sigh. Luke nods with her and caresses her upper back a bit.
That same night Malachai and Luke are asleep. Malachai is now sleeping on his chest, nuzzling once or twice in her sleep. Luke's hand is caressing Malachai's back in his sleep and snores a bit. Luke seems to move a lot too, he seems uncomfortable all of a sudden and squirms a lot while breathing heavier. He then suddenly wakes up and gasps loudly. He gently lays Malachai off of his body and sits up straight, cupping his face in his hands. He stands up and wanders his way to the bathroom. He leans into the sink and looks down. He's holding a bottle that he took out his jacket before going to the bathroom and opens it. He throws some Effexor pills in his hand and grabs a cup of water. He knows it's too early to take them, but he really needs them now. 'I'll just skip my next dosis.' He thinks by himself. He puts the pills in his mouth and then chugs them down with the water he grabbed earlier. After he swallowed them, he shakes his head a bit and makes a weird noise of disgust. "Man, I hate them pills." He says to himself. He then puts the bottle back in his jacket that's over the chair in the room. When he turns around he sees Malachai sitting up straight on the bed. She seems not human. Parts of her skin are hanging from her body while her muscles are shown. She is starting to stand on the bed, but with her 4 limbs. She starts to mumble something.
"Flesh.... Blood.... Meat...."
She then charges Luke and shows how her teeth became huge fangs. Luke grabs the gun out of her desk, but hesitates to shoot her or not. She then reaches for his neck, but he shoots her before she can do so. She's laying on the floor now, drowning in her own blood. Luke drops the gun and is shaking now. He starts to breathe heavily and then grabs the gun again. He starts to hold it against his head and slowly pulls the trigger.