Paramin

Having stepped into a storage container that is placed at the edge of the street, Captain Casagrande closes the doors, pulls the lever shaped handles down to lock the container and then gives the handles a test to ensure they are indeed secure. He’s pleased to find that they are and because of that no one will be able to bother them, chief of all being the Mayor. He loathes the man. If he could he’d punch him square in his chiselled chin and see how pompous he feels afterward. In part he wishes he could do that because the man is a crook. The whole city knows it but he’s a wealthy crook and has done nothing illegal, morally grey sure but that is where he has thus far drawn the line. That doesn’t mean it sits well with Captain Casagrande who has spent his adult life pursuing and putting away men, some of which were barely worse than the Mayor. Sadly, re-election is three years away. The Captain knows he just has to keep a lid on his desires until then. There is no way Castor will win another term. Too many people hate his guts. If anything he’s helped make the city less safe than it was before he took up office. In part that is due to massive spending cuts, apparently vital. The excuse is that the city is haemorrhaging money and yet the same level of service is expected from all city provided services.

Captain Casagrande shoves thoughts of the Mayor from his mind before turning toward the squad. They don’t have a name, not officially. Unofficially they are best referred to as DMB. There’s no fancy story around what it means, it’s simply the initials of the members’ first names. Dull but effective and sometimes the most effective things can be the least original. Still, from the expressions on DMB’s faces he knows, not that he didn’t already, that he’s got a heap of explaining to do.

“We’ve got a situation.” Captain Casagrande pauses. He’s searching for the right words but swiftly comes to the conclusion that he doesn’t know what the right words for this situation are. He’s isn’t even sure DMB are the right people for the job. “Huh, there’s no easy way to say this so I’m just going to come out and say it. I don’t know what’s going on here.”

“What do you mean Captain?” Damian fires off a second later with a furrowed brow. If he were to look away from the Captain he’d find Margaret and Bart have much the same expression on their faces too he imagines.

“We got a call. Um. It was about some girl. Apparently she’s in the abandoned looking building across from us. Reports said she staggered in there but that something about her wasn’t right. We know the place has been used by homeless types in recent months so some uniforms were sent to take a look. Make sure it wasn’t a place where something untoward was happening. You know this city.” Captain Casagrande can scarcely believe what the next words out his mouth are going to have to be.

“When they got there they found bodies, everywhere. But that is where things got weird. The girl appeared, as if by magic. Then everything flipped.” The Captain snaps his fingers to help illustrate his point as to how sudden the change was.

“What do you mean flipped?” Margaret asks feeling confused. She gets the immediacy of it just not exactly what occurred.

“…I mean everything that had been on the floor left the floor. It made no sense and I didn’t believe it until I saw the footage with my own two eyes. But that wasn’t the end of it. Bruno and his partner Dean were screaming and begging but no one was near them. The girl was gone. She vanished in a flicker of light. Then the screaming stopped and one of the body cams moved, as if Dean was standing up. Problem was his mutilated body was in shot. He was dead. It was…the most…horrific thing I’ve ever seen. Then there was another flicker and it was all…gone.”

“What do you mean gone sir?” Bart feels the need to query.

“Do you mean as in the bodies Captain?” Damian adds attempting to help his superior to an answer. He’s never seen Casagrande like this. He looks scared. The man has never looked scared let alone pale and right now he is both. Whatever he saw must have been… harrowing. Yet what he’s said makes little sense.

“As in everything that had been present no longer was. It was back to being an empty space filled with some small examples of detritus but nothing more than that.”

“And the footage Captain, can we see it?” Damian has surmised that the only way Captain Casagrande could have glimpsed this is via a recording. The question is uttered following a quick exchange of glances with the other two members of his squad.

Casagrande shakes his head from side to side slowly; his gaze is upon a spot on the floor of the blue container a little ahead of the toes of his polished shoes. In an instant they move and meet the gazes of DMB. “It burned up. We watched it and then the equipment caught fire. The car toasted itself too, just spontaneously combust without warning. Even burned one of the tech guys who’d been inside when it happened.”

“Holy shit!” Bart exclaims.

“Is he…” Margaret begins.

Captain Casagrande shrugs before admitting, “I don’t’ know. He’s in theatre as we speak. They said his burns were… Yeah, I just don’t know.”

“What’s all this got to do with us Captain?” Damian wishes to know. He feels there is more to this than they’ve been informed of as yet.

“I sent Jimenez and his guys in…”

“The worst of us.” Bart mutters without thinking. Damian shoots him a damning glare. Bart bows his head in silent apology.

“What’s happened Captain?”

“We…haven’t…heard from them since. We can’t get a signal. It’s like they…fell off the face of the Earth. That’s why I’m not sure…I should send you in. But the Mayor…” Casagrande takes a deep breath. It does the trick. His faltering, stammering is gone and in its place is the Captain DMB know well.

“It’s why I called you here. You’re the best of the elite squads. I need you to go in. Find out what the hell happened in there. Pull out anyone still alive and… Find that girl.”

“Do we know who she is?” Is the question Margaret poses to Captain Casagrande.

“We do not. The footage was too dark, couldn’t get a positive ID. Plus, no one is reporting a missing girl matching the vague descriptions we’ve been given. And they are very vague with a tonne of contradiction.” The Captain admits with another shrug to accompany his words.

“When do we go in?”

“You go as soon as you’re ready. I’ll leave you to it. Come find me when all is go.” With that Captain Casagrande turns, releases the lock on the container, shoves the doors apart and then wanders off. His head is low and he feels a desperate need to get a drink. It’ll have to be water but he could honestly do with bourbon.

“Are we seriously going to do this?” Bart exclaims incredulously.

“Bart, we can’t leave Jimenez and his guys in there, let alone any civilians. You know we’re doing this. The Captain needs us to. You saw him, he looked terrified. When have you ever seen Captain Casagrande look terrified?” Damian makes his case and then waits for a reply. Though he is responding to Bart’s exclamation his statements are just as much aimed at the thus far quiet Margaret too. In theory he could simply order them but that isn’t his style or how DMB operates.

“Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me Dae. Two officers are dead. A tech burned. One of our cars burst into flames. A creepy girl no one knows anything about. Potentially countless other dead bodies and that includes Jimenez and his boys. Are you seriously thinking we should do this? Cause I’ve got to admit I think we need to pull the nope card right here on this one. It sounds too much like some horror movie bull and I don’t want to get close to that. Maybe someone should call a priest for a fucking exorcism instead of getting us to go in there.” Bart finishes his rant. He’s adamant about this and clearly not just on edge but outright terrified. Damian understands fully, he really does, but this is real life. This is not some horror flick involving revolving heads and ceiling crawling children with creepy voices that sound like a fifty year old man.  Still, it is clear to Damian that Bart isn’t going to see sense and so he looks to Margaret. She has remained quieter than normal. Sure, she asked some questions, they all did, but since then she’s remained mute. As he looks at her now all he can see is a deeply furrowed brow and her eyes staring off into the distance. Damian has never seen her do that previously. She is always alert, in the here and now. He imagines he’s going to get a similar response from her as he has Bart and yet he has to be sure.

“What do you think Margaret?” Damian utters softly not wanting to sway her opinion one way or the other.

Bart turns his attention toward the woman who completes the rough triangular shape they are stood in. His eyes are judging. It’s as if he wants, no needs, her to side with him. Damian makes no such demands with his own looks. He simply wants an answer. He too has reservations about doing this but he’s not about to walk away from his duty. He signed on to do what needed to be done and sure he at no point considered that he might be presented with what sounds like the basis of a horror film, yet he can’t say he believes all of it to be true. He’s a realist and in reality things don’t miraculously shift to the ceiling or catch fire. There is always a cause. It might not be a human one, but there is a reason.

“I don’t like it Damian, I’m not going to lie…” Margaret informs. In response Bart explodes, “Thank fuck for that.” He looks relieved to have heard that he isn’t the only one who thinks this sounds insane. “…but I don’t back down from a job either.” Are the next words out of her mouth.

“Oh come on. You can’t be serious. Are you really saying we should do this?” Bart cannot believe his ears or his luck. He actually thought he had the numbers this time. That this time would be the one time, in his mind, that it makes sense to swerve a job that’s been put in front of them.

“Decisions made. Vote is two to one. Check your shit. You’ve got five. Then we go in.” Are the last words Damian says on the matter before turning on the spot and heading out the container to find Captain Casagrande and let him know they’re ready.