Underneath the Moon is Where My Secrets Lie

Chapter Twenty-Four: Yes, Another Surprising Turn

     I strolled into the bar, my hood up and my gaze averted.

     I didn't even order anything; I was just there to hide out.

     Suddenly, my dark eyes were attracted to a source of dopamine in the room that I hadn't seen in a while.

     A television.

     And on it was a local news station.

     I gaped in shock when I read the headline of the current news story displayed.

     The story was about me.

     And everyone could see my - thankfully - hooded face.

     I whipped out my phone, texting my assisting DAA agent.

     When she picked up, she started yelling at me. She was loud, despite the music in the bar.

     "Where are you...!? Well, I know the answer to that one, but how could you engage in a speed chase with the police? And why didn't you inform me of your whereabouts!?" she shouted into the phone angrily.

     "Don't worry... Dianne, I'm just finishing the task of sending in the required amount of money, okay? In other words, I'm sending in money because I don't want to go to jail. I'm paying the fine! And, I'm sorry! You never would've let me go after him anyways!"

     "Okay, I guess that paying off a fine gets you off the hook with those foreign police, but what about being knee-deep in trouble with me!?"

     "How did anyone find out about the fight between me and Emeran?" I questioned, attempting to change the subject.

     "Someone reported you, I guess... well, I don't actually know, okay?!  I think that's what happened! It doesn't matter!" Dianne exclaimed. "What actually matters is the fact that someone... in the area of your stupid fight, mind you... saw you two!"

     "But... no one was there in the tunnel..."

     "Okay, whatever. I'm just glad it's over. You caught Emeran, right?"

     "Yeah. I knew what I was supposed to do," I growled, "but this thing's far from over."

     "Why do you say that?"

     "Because Emeran said he wasn't alone when he killed my - our - parents."

     "'Our parents'? What!? You're related to Emeran?"

     "Sadly, yes."

     Dianne was silent for a moment.

     "I'm sorry," she murmured into the phone.

     "Me, too. Just so you know, I knocked him out with sleeping gas about five minutes ago, and he's located in the 'D' part of Marlin's Mart's parking lot."

     "Might I ask you why you parked in a liquor store's lot?" Dianne snickered.

     "I-It's not a liquor store! It's... it's half of a liquor store, but it's also half of a market," I supplied lamely. 

     "Exactly. A liquor store."

     "Or a market, depending on how you look at it!"

     "Whatever. Still has liquor."

     I glared at the phone and hung up.

* * * * * * *

     I don't understand why that fool summoned me.

     Didn't he know that I could escape?

     A boy walked across the street, his leather shoes dragging and scuffling. He was without a mother to scold him for doing so.

     A couple of drunken men stumbled out of a bar and into the path of the boy. 

     The boy was smack-dab in the middle of a city.

     Get out of my way.

     The boy suddenly swung his hand up, his small body jerking and wobbling. It was out of control. 

     Out of his hand poured a strong, dark, magical force, knocking the drunks out of the way so that the little boy - the owner of the magic hand - could amble past, his amber eyes glassy and terribly unfocused, his head bobbing this way and that as if he were asleep.

     But, somehow, the boy still managed to move in a straight line.

     "Hey!"

     One of the drunken men grabbed the boy's shoulder and spun him around. 

     "What was that?"

     The drunk's eyes were alight with fear and curiosity.

     All that the boy did before disappearing down the street was give the drunk a smile.

     But not just any ordinary smile.

     The boy's eyes flashed, and his lips parted, revealing jaws full of razor-sharp, yellow teeth, arranged in a giant, eerie half-moon that stretched from one end of the boy's rosy cheeks to the other.

     But the blood was the most frightening thing of all.

     The boy's mouth was caked with it. 

     Lines of blood ran down from the corner of the boy's mouth to his chin, and even down his neck. 

     His teeth glistened with dark red liquid. On some of his teeth, dried blood flaked off, revealing another layer of dry blood underneath.

     The drunk screamed and fled.