Dropping the dose into the recipient's drink, the figure walked away to do the bidding of their nature. His feet clamping on the planks beneath like faint heartbeats of a sleeping being, listless but still blissfully unaware of the true horrid actions around them.

Palming the glass of fizzing beer in her soft hands until feeling like dunking it down, Felicia slowly gulped it in small amounts as she felt the walls of her throat get watered down and felt refreshed.

What was wrong with taking a beer or two when you're grieving? When your mind feels like holding a ball of barbed wire firm, so damned tightly that your weak hands start to bleed, yet all that happens to you is pain all over again. Waiting for something; or someone.

Until that fateful day, all it is, is that the pressure keeps gauging up and up the meter.

And that was exactly what was happening. Felicia was hurting, remembering every single nightmare of her's ever since the first autopsy. A glorified guilt trip.

" Exactly as I said..." A chuckle from the lady.

" Are you drunk already? You took one freaking glass. Not even the jar the guys use." The man behind the counter shook his head with a slight smile on his face, cleaning up the glasses for a final time before closing the bar. His cliché red striped shirt with black hints all around it was folded in an unconventional manner. Not the usual way as Felicia found out as he unfolded them back into a shirt.

It was pulled back to his elbows and just folded once into itself. Yet it gave quite an elegant look. And the denim revealed when he came out the trapdoor used to enter, unconventional as well complimented him nicely. He walked towards her and sat, wincing as he stretched his shoulders back, presumably from stiffness. A result of work, maybe.

" ~God that feels so good~" Voicing in a singsong tune, he cocked his head in all manner of ways, his small groans popping in and out and then he came to shaking his hands side to side, noticing how the new partner of the Phaze was slowly but definitely dozing off like a child. The woman's head was dropping slowly from the support of her palm and then resetting back into position. Taking a look at the still foaming beer and realizing what had happened, Carlton scooped her up without disrupting her and put her upstairs in his bed and went to sleep in his couch.

" No hesitation. God this is why you're the fear, Chris." Following Felicia, the bartender slipped into the oddly comfortable couch, putting his elbow on his face and went to sleep.

*****

The lush green grass that spanned across the entire park had dew settling on them from the morning air. Drops slipped past the emerald blades to land on the brown soil as suppressed shots flew past the trees. But within moments, it died down. Bodies dropped to the floor, blood making an uneven spread on the grass.

" ~ali-oop~" Frolicking through the fields like a ghost, Chris knelt down with his drunken mind frisking the bodies.

He ran his hands through their T-shirts and cargo pants and pulled out five burner phones and dropped them into his pocket after taking out the SIM in each one. Turning to look at the mess he had come to make, it took him about twenty minutes to toss them into the streams  pushing their way through the park.

" This is painfully sl-oh wow my moto. That's lucky. Would you look at that Danny boy, that's my, oh yeah you're dead." With his brain functions messed with from first thing in the morning of the day till the arrival of the next, Chris Canner was easily drunk to forget the intense wounds on his head and on his arms.

Wobbling his way to the bar after a few hours of cleaning up and single-handedly carrying his vehicle with him, Chris crashed on the floor and most appropriately fainted from the exhaustion.

Well done, Phaze.

*****

Felicia was annoyed by the vibrating phone beside her. It made her nose itch and whenever that occurs, it's usually accompanied by a few sneezes.

And sneeze, she did.

Sneezing with a jerk made her feel a jolt in her neck both of which made her mind clear instantly as she answered the call, wondering how she got onto the comfy bed. Seconds later, Felicia felt a severe headache pang her down. Instead of drinking some water or coffee to cool it down, she didn't.

Because she doesn't really start the day off without brushing. Quite the predicament in a place like this. Walking around the unknown layout of the unrealistically huge bar and finding the stairs after a few minutes.

Stepping down the stairs, panic replaced her short slumber with a quick set of thunks down the stairs, finding Chris in a pool of blood.

The huntress messed up with the facts and concluded it was probably his.

It was later accompanied by her shrill scream which woke both of the dozing dunces with Chris flopping like a fish fresh out of water for seconds.

" Aaahh! Wait what? WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING FIRST THING IN THE MORNING?!" The man on the couch blared with drowsing expressions as Chris just looked up from his face down situation.

" He's bleedi-!"

" oh no that's wine." Chris broke in, startling Felicia's revelation that was short lived.

Unfortunately it was revived.

" Uh...nah you're right. That is blood." Pointing at a portion where the red liquid was darker than other areas, gelatinous and stagnant near his head and to the side of his abdomen.

" This, comma is wine." And then to spots where the wood itself was turned a darker shade of pink, then suddenly grunting, until placing his hand under his body and pulling out a broken wine bottle.

" Oh sh-" With impeccable timing and the best acting the Dias had ever recorded, Chris fainted with a short story of how he hugged the bottle to sleep as Felicia and the Phaze's buddy dragging him back to the Dias, to get medical assistance.

Well done, Chris.

*****

" Why did you let him do stuff like this?" Vanessa sighed a heap of remorse for allowing him on a new assignment in the first place, looking at his battered body on the table.

" We didn't." Caleb Stutem ( pronounced Kay-lib Stew-tum ) smacked Chris on the chest, invoking a grunt from the man himself.

" damn you." Chris choked, half asleep as the anesthesia finally kicked in to action. 

*****

Going back to her home, being dropped off by Vanessa who apologized for the new partner of hers. Explaining that he had a rough past which plays a major role in his behavior and his ideals in the present, the Snow Witch drove off.

Felicia fancied a look at the back case of the motorcycle parked at the entrance of the bar, covered in ice cold water and presumably left out to dry.

" Why was he so intent on getting it out of there?" Fiddling around with the locks and screws for a while, the huntress plied open the box which held perfectly fine contents.

" Storage boxes aren't sealed..."

Questions circled around her head, pushing her to respond with a curiosity of the highest Caleb-...caliber.

Clutching the only object she knew with the same familiarity and placing it on the table, she took to examining the other things. A book with a leather casing which held a bookmark on the last page which held nothing. Which was something he would do.

A strange gun, a pistol of course but it looked more like a revolver. But it had three slots. Just three, not three slots with the bullets. Three empty slots with corks as placeholders, wedged into the holes.

The only thing that was bugging her was the radius. The slots were far too big for any bullets she knew, bigger than shells but not as long as sniper magazines. Using a tong to yank it out of its place, Felicia took another look at the weapon.

" This is-" Frozen in confusion and other emotions about the man, wounded but still crafty.

Questions still rotated, taking turns as things slowed down but by bit, inch by inch. Having all these thoughts only clouded her mind more and more, like the rain bringing a thunderous fog with it.

Until, she decided to leave it be. That she would have it in her home. Felicia's home would be the place where the encrypted secrets or something of the sorts of Chris Canner would be housed. Sighing with exasperation, leaving behind wasted energy.

Down to the basics, the woman still in dark olive hues dropped the box and jumped into the comfy embrace of her bed, planting herself on the pillow.

Sneezing one last time from the dust that wallowed out from under and went to sleep.

*****

Nightmares swirled around in a storm, all around him only amplifying itself in horror, memories and thoughts drowning him. In an ocean of bad dreams, all he could do was let the water fill his lungs as he sunk deeper and deeper into the slumber of madness.

Screaming and roaring with all his dread and regret clawing at him, Chris only did what he does everytime. Wake himself up.

Force himself awake.

His eyes came to a harsh contrast of colours from the darkness into blinding white walls around him.

" For f*cks sake." Wincing out at pain his body replaced with the fatigue of unconsciousness, the Phaze glanced over at his body which was covered in the same clothes as the last time he was awake.

" Nessa!" Attempting to make a noise, ultimately giving out in a croak, he attempted to lift his body up that was restrained with IV lines going up and down all around him. Like chains, made to contain the man within its grasp, just spiralling towers with his body, no longer in his control.

A hollow shell with no soul.

" NESSA! LET ME OUT!" The potent roar increased in power. Struggling and succeeding in rolling out the bed, only to be stopped by the reins that held him back ending in his face slamming against the ground, indulging him against a round of flashes.

Groaning in fear and the pain which didn't take kind to his body, all Chris could do was wait there.

For someone to come.

" someone out there?!" A torment pumped cry passed.

" SOMEO-" And there came a pause as a figure slid into his frame of vision. A child in her teen years, perhaps.

" Are you alright?"

Chris froze. His demeanor and his mind shifted to that of a terrified child in the mere moments after he heard her voice. Petrified hearing the voice of the girl he once loved, seeing the girl's figure in the corner of his eyes. When he was still weak and still powerless against mere wires.

Chris gave up on his attempt to break free.

All he thought to do instead was to focus on her.

His teeth grinding against each another. His eyes squinting as he brought out all the time he could bring before his circulation cut off. His heartbeat slowed down.

Time dilated down more and more as his head turned and looked at towards the door, this process taking about a few minutes for Chris due to his overexertion of his perception of time to its utmost, trying to take in it all in one fell swoop.

" oka-" But as soon as his eyes grasped her face, everything fell apart once more as the Phaze shrieked in slow motion which prompted the girl to do the same. His heartbeat lapsed back to normality, leaving him to scream into the empty room.

This lasted half a minute. Half a minute of pure screeching, a single scream rather.

He does have a good throat.

And he screamed again, for good measure.

" AAAAA-"

*****

I know, I know you guys hate me and by that I mean the 3 people are pissed that it takes nearly a month for every chapter but I'm drying up on my schedule and I can't freely get on the book. Exams start next month and I got about 5 months of syllabus to cram within two weeks. IM GONNA DIE YOUNG...

but anyhoo. ENJO----