Days Union Oneshot Book [DISCONTINUED]

WHY'D YOU LET HIM COOK 😭😭😭 (Pt. 2)

A/N: Happy birthday Velvian Elos! Have this absolute angst trip I wrote as a birthday gift 😁

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"Good work, Mr. Kold."

The office was different from the first time I had entered it a few days before. The string bunched the blinds together at the top of the window to allow the sun to lighten the office and paint the walls in white beams. Officer Leon's cigarette box was off to the side, untouched for the entire meeting. The air smelled just a bit cleaner, like he wished to make our second meeting slightly more pleasant to my senses. His eye no longer glared at me, but now a drop of sympathy softened his stare.

It was easy to see what got his pity leaking into his gaze—I looked like a wreck. The circles under my eyes were now heavy, sagging bags. I had not bothered to brush out my hair and let the tangled strands fall across my face and stick out of my carelessly-tied bun. I buried my face deeper into my scarf and took refuge in what little respectable anonymity I had left, not out of the need for privacy... but out of shame.

It did not matter the praise I had received from Officer Leon for the completed report or the words of consolation from other Civil Police officers and Saliea's loved ones. It did not matter that Saliea was now alive and back to her cycle of work at the LLC. It did not matter that I had escaped the butcher's shop unscathed and with only a few mendable tears to my coat.

The Butcher had escaped once again.

I should have tried to apprehend him while I could. I should have tried to do SOMETHING, even if I did not have the bulletproof vests and arsenal of the Civil Police. But now he was on the loose, probably slaughtering some poor civilians he dragged into the shadows to satisfy his sickeningly ravenous instinct. Others could have been dying because of me.

As if he could see my lurking thoughts painting remorse on my face, Leon leaned over the table and said, "Do not worry yourself over this, Mr. Kold. We know you did all that you could." He sighed, his need for a smoke finally overtaking him as he slid a cigarette out of the box. "We commend you for your bravery and determination."

Bravery? I was a coward.

And cowards are not excused from justice.

"You said the Butcher was known for cannibalizing someone else."

Leon's huff of his cigarette staggered, startled by my remark. When he exhaled the smoke, he replied, "...Yes. Our Weapons Specialist, Velvian Elos. They were attacked by the Butcher a few months ago, which was what gave the Butcher his charge."

"Give me the case."

I furrowed my eyebrows over my determined stare at Leon's surprised face. The cigarette almost slipped from his fingers, but he brought it to his mouth and inhaled the smoke again, seemingly hoping that the tobacco would snap him out of whatever fever dream he was in. After all, he would not have expected me of all people to be this blunt.

But I was willing to do anything to fix my mistake.

He stammered, "Mr. Kold, there is no case for it... The document was completed a few months ago."

"Even a personal account from the victim..?"

"...No."

"Then let me get one from Mx. Elos."

Leon leaned back in his chair, his cigarette now hanging in between his teeth. He studied me just like when I first met him to take Saliea's case, and just as before, I held my head at the perfect angle between safety in the shadow of my hat and the risk of exposing my eyes. The smoke of his cigarette polluted the air, but what did I care? Anything to get this last chance.