The Dark Streets

by Matthew Smith

  “Hello Jon, be a while, how’s Sandra?”

  “You shut the fuck up, you don’t get to say that name! You know why we are here, you made it obvious, you wanted us to find you, so who bailed you out?” He chuckled and as soon as he started he stopped,

  “Yes Jon, you are very correct but do you think I’d reveal everything so soon, you need to dig some more, silly Jon silly silly.” Jonathan pulled out his gun and aimed it at Mike,

  “Enough of this fucking cryptic bullshit of your Mike, tell me or your brains will paint the wall behind you!" Mike chuckled,

  “Go ahead Jon but think of how that would make you look.” I looked at Jonathan,

  “Listen to him Jon, if you kill him and we call backup we will be in the wrong, we don’t have warrants.” Jonathan looked at me,

  “Are you actually siding with this crazy fucker Jack! Maybe you’re the one who bailed them out and you killed your father and now you’re after me!" Jonathan pointed his gun at me and I put my hands up,

  “Jonathan you can’t honestly believe that!? What is wrong? Think logically!” Mike started laughing maniacally,

  “It’s working! My lord Drogoth will be proud of me! The Darkness has spread successfully.” Jonathan shot me in the shoulder and I pulled out my gun and shot him in the chest and he fell down, I ran up to him,

  “Jon!” He looked at me,

  “Jack I’m sorry, I don't know what came over me… something was in my head telling me to kill you and suck your…” Just then his eyes closed and he died, I looked over at Mike.” I stood up and pulled my gun out and aimed it at him,

  “Who bailed you out? Drogoth is powerful enough to be here himself, so who was it Mike!?” He laughed,

  "Do you think I’m really going to tell you who it is? You may as well fucking kill me Jack!"

  “As you wish.” I shot him in the head and he fell to the floor, I pulled out my radio, “officer down! I repeat officer down!” I put my radio away and I picked up Jonathan's body and started walking out of the room and down the hall towards the stairs and towards the exit. When I got back to Jon’s car there were three squad cars on their way and they pulled up to the warehouse entrance and one ambulance was right behind them. I put his body down and I saw Marcus Johnson get out of the first squad car, he was walking towards me,

  “Jack what the fuck happened! You and Jon went to Mike without any warrants and had a fucking shootout!? This was you first outing as a Homicide detective, maybe it was too soon, maybe the Chief was right!” I looked at him,

  “Well Mike was going crazy and going on about the cult coming back and Mike shot Jon and killed him and well I shot him back, I had grounds to kill him sir.” He looked at me,

  “Do you believe him about the cult being back Jack?” I shook my head,

  “No I don’t sir.” Marcus looked at the group of people and news people surrounding the scene and looked back at me,

  “Follow me back to the station, we can talk more privately in my office.” I nodded and walked away towards Jonathan’s car, I got in the car and noticed the keys were still in the ignition. I turned the car on and started following Marcus back to the station. We arrived at the police station and parked our cars and got out and started walking up the stairs to the front doors of the police station and opened the doors. We walked in the station, Laura waved at us,

  “Hi Detectives Darring and Johnson.” We waved at her,

  “Hello Laura.” Laura smiled and we started walking towards the elevator and I pressed the call button, the elevator doors opened and we got in and I pressed the second floor button, the doors closed,

  “Hello Jack, you want to talk to me?” I looked at Stake,

  “I fear we may be too late, the Darkness may be spreading here, Mike was talking about Drogoth and the Darkness and Jon was acting crazy and shot me and I had no choice but to… to shoot him and…” Stake nodded and put his hand on my shoulder,

  “Jack I’m so sorry to hear that, but there’s no need to fear, we still have a chance to stop it, we just have to act quickly, I believe you’re on the right track keep on it Jack.” I gave him a thumbs up,

  “Will do Stake.” The elevator dinged and the doors opened and we got out and started walked towards Marcus’ office, we reached it and opened the door and I sat down in front of his desk, he closed his door and sat down at his desk opposite from me,

  “The witness you and Jon talked to, Donald Jefferies, you remember him?” I nodded,

  “Yes of course, one of the various addicts my father was trying to help, what of him?” Marcus pulled out a file and dropped it on his desk and opened it,

  “He came back to the station shortly after you and Jon talked to him to make an official report because the son of his saviour talked to him and gave him a new meaning on life.” I looked at him,

  “The point?” He looked at me and then back at the file,

  “Well he told one of our officers, that he saw the suspect carrying an axe and followed your father into the alleyway and proceeded to hack him to death and then got into a getaway vehicle and flew the scene.” He closed the file,

  “What of it?”

  “Well as the son of his saviour, is he telling the truth, did he tell you the same thing?" I nodded,

  “Yes he did.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Yes, the man with the axe was Mike and he had one of his new lackeys to drive him back to the docks.”

  “I see Jack, well with the information you have given me and the report from Donald Jefferies, it’s safe to say that Mike Harris former leader and founder of The Blue Kinghts cult murdered your father and Jon, congrats on your first case in the bag and a great one to start with, just like your father!” He stood and offered me his hand, I stood up and handed him my badge and gun, he put his hand away and sat back down, “what are you doing Jack?”

  “I can’t do it Marcus, my father and now Jon, he was like an uncle to me, I just can’t, I need some time to process everything.” He grabbed my badge and put it in his desk and handed me the gun,

  “Okay Jack, I’ll just put your badge away for later and here you’ll need this, it’s on the house for being our best detective in a while.” I took the gun and stood up,

  “Thanks Marcus and goodbye.” I offered my hand to him and he shook it,

  “Goodbye Jack.” I walked to the door and opened it and left his office and started walking towards the elevator. I reached the elevator and pressed the call button, the elevator doors opened and I got in and pressed the main floor button. The doors closed and the elevator started going down, it reached the main floor and the doors opened and I got out and walked towards Laura’s desk, I reached her desk,

  “Hey Laura, before you hear from other people, I’m leaving the force, I’m taking some time off, my father died and now Jon did too, homicide detectives are a dying breed.” Laura got up and walked over to me and hugged me,

  “I'll miss you Jack, but I completely understand why you’re leaving, lots of death in this building but I stay because I enjoy helping people, I hope we can still be friends and see each other!?” I nodded and hugged her back,

  “Of course Laura, you've always been nice to me, even before I worked here when I visited my father, you were nice to me.” Laura smiled,

  “That's because I had a crush on you Jack.” My eyes grew wide,

  “What!? Really?” Laura smiled and nodded,

  “Yeah but I have a boyfriend now and that feeling has been gone for a while now.” I nodded,

  “Why didn’t you tell me before?” Laura looked at me,

  “You know how I was back then Jack, I was too shy.” I chuckled,

  “Yeah that’s true, okay goodbye Laura, talk to you later.”

  “Goodbye Jack.” She sat back down at her desk and I turned around and walked out of the police station and took out my phone and dialed Willow's number and pushed the call button, after ringing for a bit she answered the phone,

 
“Hey Jack, I heard the news! how are things!? You okay?”

  “I'm doing fine, can you come get me?” I kinda like the idea of Willow being worried about me, wonder if she’ll believe me if I ever told her about Stake,

  “Of course, did you get off early?"

  “No, I'll tell you when you get here.”

  “Okay I’ll be right over, see you soon Jack.” I hung up and put my phone away, I walked over to a bench outside and sat down and waited for her to get me. After a couple of minutes, she drove up to the sidewalk, she rolled the passenger's side window, “Get in loser.” I smiled and got up and walked into her car and buckled my seatbelt in,

  “I left the force.” Willow looked at me,

  "What!? But the news was saying that you found your father’s killer!?" She started driving,

  “I know but my father and now Jon, that’s one too many homicide detectives for my liking.”

  “Yeah that’s true but now what Jack?” I looked at her,

  “I don’t know, maybe get the patience to continue my father’s drug addict recovery program.”

  "You really think you could do that Jack? For as long as I could remember, you were impatient as fuck.” I chuckled,

  “Hey you’re supposed to support me not shoot me down.” She smiled,

  “I know I was just trying to get you to smile and it worked, I believe in you Jack.” I looked at her,

  “Thanks Willow and you always know how to make me smile.” I smiled at her.

  Chapter Five

  We reached my apartment,

  “Well if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here Jack and if you need help with the drug addict recovery program, I can help, I knew people that went through it and well Rick was like a father to me as well.” I looked at her,

  “Thanks Willow, I'll keep that in mind and...yeah I know.” I unbuckled my seat belt and got out of the car and started walking towards my apartment building, I opened the door and headed towards the elevator and pushed the call button, the elevator started going down and the doors opened. I walked into the elevator and hit the third floor button. The doors started to close and the elevator started going up, after a couple of minutes the elevator stopped at my floor and the doors opened. I walked out of the elevator and started walking towards my apartment, I reached my apartment and unlocked my door, pushed it open and walked in, took off my jacket and put it away and I also took off my shoes and put them on the rack. I walked into my living room and sat down on the couch and fell asleep,

  “Hello Jack, so why did you lie to Marcus and leave the force?”

  “They’d just get in the way and have the case taken and they wouldn’t believe a thing about Drogoth and put me in a mental ward and pin the crime on me, it’s faster this why Stake trust me.”

  “I see, I guess the people in your Dimension wouldn't understand the workings of Principle and Nepharia Energy, my brother hasn’t allowed anyone to, after we finished him off you will and when it happens it will be like a mini Big Bang but no one will even notice a difference right away but slowly over time you will."

  “What do you mean by that Stake?” Stake smiled,

  “Well right now the Energies lay dormant because my brother has his hold on them as he feeds on them, so slowly without you even knowing, you’re dying, but you don’t know because it is being slowly ripped away but when we succeed and my brother is no longer around and the Darkness has subsided from your Dimension, the Energies will no longer be dormant and will be unlocked and then people with AB- blood will have their special connection to these Energies will be awakened and they can have access to certain abilities, those with that blood are direct descendents of the higher beings of my Dimension, they are called the Elders of Dimension and are called Pariahs. They are a group of individuals with a special connection to the Principle and Nephria Energies and with that special connection they created the three of there Dimensions including yours, there is a fifth Dimension called the Soul Dimension, it is where are living beings go when their Principle Energy dies and manifests into pure Nepharia all Dimensions are connected to both the Soul Dimension and the Ether Dimension.” I looked at him,

  “I have AB- blood, does that make me a Pariah.” Stake nodded,

  “Yes you are Jack, I can sense it in you but it is dormant but it is very strong.” My eyes grew wide,

  “What!? Really?”

  “Yes Jack, I am a descendent of one the Elders of the Ether Dimension, Marlik, my father.”

  “Oh well I guess you’d really know then eh?” He chuckled,

  “Yeah I guess that would make us related, if your blood is shared with my father, by the way when you were talking with Marcus, I could sense my brother’s influence, it was faint and could mean nothing right no, I don’t even think he knows, but be careful all the same though.”

  “Thanks Stake.” I wake up to my door being knocked on,

  “One second!” I walked to my door, unlocked it and opened it,

  “Hey Jack.”

  “Hey Willow, come in.” Willow walked in and we walked into my living room, I sat down on the couch and she sat down on the chair,

  “So Jack, I want to talk to you about something that happened last night.” I nodded,

  “Yeah sure, go ahead Willow.”

  “Well after I dropped you off and went home, I noticed that there was a man in a hoodie, he was standing at the corner and it looked like he was holding something up his sleeve, I immediately went into my apartment building and into my apartment, I locked my door and looked out of my window and saw the man looking up at my apartment and he slowly lifted what was in his hand... It was an axe and he pointed it at me... I'm scared Jack... I'm scared that I'm going to die just... just like your father.” I got up and went over to her and wrapped my arms around her. She started to cry and I move her head on my shoulder,

  “It's okay Willow, I'm here for you... no one will hurt you as long as I'm around... I promise, I’ll find out who this Axe Man is.” She looked up at me and closed her eyes and we kissed each other, and I put my hand on the back of her head as we were kissing, I got the thought of telling her my secret but it immediately left as it came into my head, and then we pulled away from each other,

  “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.” I looked at her,

  “So did I, did you like it?” She looked at me and gave me a smile,

  “Of course I did silly, how about you?” I looked at her and smiled

  “Of course I did Willow.” She gave me a smile,

  “So I have a question for you Jack” I looked at her,

  “What exactly is that Willow?”

  “It wasn’t Mike that killed your father was it?” I shook my head,

  “No of course not, he was a goon, it was someone else, this Axe Man has something to do with it and I know he does and i’m going to find out the truth, even if it kills me.” She put her hand out,

  “Want to be partners?” I looked at her hand and then back at her,

  “This is going to be very dangerous Willow, you could die.” She nodded,

  “I know Jack but nobody threatens me with an axe and gets away with it!” I chuckled,

  “You know what, I think we should because then I can keep my eye on you, so I guess we're partners.” She smiled,

  “Okay, more like I can keep my eye on you Jack.”

  “Okay where do you think we should start partner?” She rubbed her chin,

  “Maybe we should start by finding out if anyone reported seeing a man with an axe as I have.”

  “Good start partner.” I got up and walked to my phone and picked it up and dialed the number for the front desk of the Chicago P.D., it started ringing,

  “Hello Chicago P.D. how may I assist you?”

  “Hey Laura, it's Jack, do you think you can help me out?”

  “Oh hi Jack certainly, what can I help you with?”

  “Well I need to know if there's been any calls about a man with an axe and loo
k as far back as a week before my father's death.”

  "Jack, why are you needing that information, I thought you were no longer on the force?”

  “I’m not, I just watched a scary documentary on Netflix and now I’m scared now.”

  “Okay Jack as long as you are not using it to be some sort of vigilante!”

  “Oh no no, I’m going to night classes for creative writing, I think I’m going to try my hand in writing novels, you will know the name Jack Darring!”

  “Okay Jack, give me a sec.” Willow looked at me and mouthed, ‘creative writing?’ I shrugged,

  “Sure take your time, how's everyone doing?”

  “Pretty good but we're still dealing with the death, John's funeral is tomorrow, Marcus said that you could come, since he was your partner and your father's as well.”

  "I don't know, I might be too busy writing my book to come.”

  “Oh I’m sure everyone will understand Jack, what’s your book about?”

  “It’s about a guy’s father getting murdered and he goes on his own investigation to find who the killer is.”

  “Oh wow, basing it on your own experience?”

  “Yes I am.”

  “Wow that's awesome Jack, good luck!”

  “Thanks for that and did you get that information for me?”

  “Oh yeah sorry, I did, it seems like this man with the axe is a pretty popular man, there have been fifty reports from five different people and they all live near each other.”

  “Oh nice, can you give me the addresses?”

  “Why would you need those?”

  “It’s so I talk to them and research for my book.”

  “Okay… I guess you can in that case, do you have something to write on?” I pulled out my notepad out of the inside pocket of my jacket,

  “Yeah I got my trusty notepad.” I laughed,