Liberation: Oscar's Story

Chapter 9: Pt. 2

Ananya frowned. "Yes...?" She glanced again at January Bayor and General Karsten, but their figures were abruptly blurred when a hand gripped her thin arm and whisked her inside the room. Her back hit the wall as a fierce coffee stench assaulted her nose. "Ah--!"

"Sh..." the woman with the owl face was inches away from Ananya with a finger pressed against her lips. "Quiet...they're sleeping..." she gestured to the two bodies lying on an examination table with a crooked but surprisingly healthy finger. "Look...they're sleeping..."

"Uh..." Ananya offered a sympathetic smile. "They're...dead, aren't they?"

The woman shook her head. "No, no, sleeping," she insisted, taking Ananya by the hand and bringing her toward the beds. "See? Sleeping boy and sleeping girl."

"Ah, I see." Ananya nodded. "Erm, do you know what made them sleep?"

"Claws...not wolf claws...not animal claws...claws," the woman rasped. "Look, look." She showed Ananya the deep marks that she had recreated on the computer. "The man slept first...then the woman..." she pushed two sheets of paper into Ananya's hands. "The report..."

"That's it?" An incredulous brown eye swept over the medium-sized lettering. "It's not much..."

"Don't need much. Don't need a lot," the woman cackled, then hummed an eerie tune to herself as she bounded away from the table, disappearing behind a fridge door.

Ananya's smile remained, though it was pushed down slightly with confusion. She shrugged and ran her eyes over the pages, drinking the information up, but it was only a brisk sweep, as she decided to go over the data with Oscar later in the day. Taking one last look at the shriveled, decomposing bodies, she slipped out of the room, excited to learn more about her case.

~****~

She met Oscar at a cafe close to the border of his pack; it was a quaint, pink store about the size of a high school classroom and also the place where Ananya had been dying to go to for a while. She was unashamed to admit that she had begged Oscar through text to meet there, though the Alpha was more than willing to join her after a few exchanged messages. Like a giddy child, she sat on a woven metal chair, swinging her feet in anticipation of her strawberry cupcake.

Oscar arrived two minutes earlier than their agreed time, noticing Ananya immediately. He waved and walked toward her in his shirt and jeans, an outfit that Ananya decided complimented his broad physique. Sitting across from her with a polite smile, she noticed how his eyes lingered on the frills of her shirt before locking with her gaze.

"You're very prompt with your work," he said, his voice thick and raspy in a way that made Ananya wonder if he'd slept at all. "I'm impressed."

Ananya smiled. "I like to be on time," she replied and put the two sheets she had been given on the table. "I haven't read it all yet, but from what I can gather, our information is similar to what you learned."

"In terms of identifying the victims or the killer?"

"Killer," Ananya said. "The claw marks could have been made from actual claws or fake ones, but there are traces of metal that were found. Do werewolves have metal in their claws?"

"Traces of it, yes," Oscar said. "They help strengthen our grip. Usually, though, metal is found on wolves in the army or a high position. Civilians don't need them."

"So, either this killer is a wolf of high social standing, a military wolf, or a human," Ananya mused. "We couldn't identify the semen traces either, but I guess it's because we don't have this person in our database."

"Wouldn't the Federal Government have it?"

"Our database connects directly to the government, so technically they're the same."

"Hm..." Oscar hummed thoughtfully, following the movements of the server as she set a cupcake in front of Ananya. Both Oscar and Ananya noticed how the woman inched away from the Alpha, and upon sweeping her gaze around the outside of the cafe, Ananya was made aware that they were isolated from the rest of the customers. Their table was like an island, surrounded by bronze cobblestone and what seemed to be miles away from the next group.

"I didn't realize how...quaint this section was," Ananya mumbled, trying to retain her smile despite the embarrassment she felt. "I'm sorry...maybe I should have picked a different spot..."

Oscar shrugged. "No need to be sorry. I'm used to their trepidation around me," he said.

"It shouldn't be something to be used to," Ananya argued with a frown, though she felt like a hypocrite because she often went through the same situation.

Again, he shrugged, a flair of indifference rising with his strong shoulders. "It doesn't matter to me." He offered her a smile. "I have you, anyway."

Ananya's eyes lit up. "I suppose," she said and pulled a few bills from her knapsack. She set them under the plate that her cupcake had arrived in and spread the two sheets on the table. "Okay, so we don't have any idea who the murderer is, but we did find out who the victims were."

"Yeah?" Oscar leaned toward her, the tips of his hair brushing the crown of her head. "Let's see...they're both college students. Biology majors too."

"Javon Markos," Ananya read the page. "Rising athlete with a dual major in biology and criminal justice. He was a senior. African American. Brown eyes, black hair, athletic build...pretty much your standard rom-com lead."

"Rom-com?" Oscar frowned. "What's that?"