Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (15 page)

The two Telepaths gasped. “But wait, we said we
surrender! Take us in, lock us up. Did you not hear us? We
surrender!”

Neil walked closer to them, ignoring their
pleas.

“
Wait, please, I beg of you. I only
cheated the casino to feed my family. I didn’t mean any harm. I beg
of you, please! For the love of God, don’t kill me. I will do
anything, I will plead guilty to any charge, just don’t do this to
me.”

Cemmera knew that Neil liked to walk at a slow,
sedate pace and draw out the killings.

“
You boys are gonna learn that crime
just does
not
pay,” he hummed at them.

The sound of horror quickly transformed into
one of pain, as Neil’s massive fist met skull. The man had never
even removed himself from a surrendering position. His cranium was
smashed into nothingness.

The other man stood and attempted to flee, but
only made it into a standing crouch. Neil kicked him in the throat,
snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

The two men, who were full of life only moments
before, were now crumpled in a heap on the floor. Life was entirely
absent from once shining eyes.

“
We got lucky on this one, boys,”
Cemmera said. “Those Carebear investigators almost brought these
two in. They never let us have any fun.”

All five of them shared a laugh.

God, I love my team
.

Cemmera picked up her radio. “Hey, Mitch, guess
what? I got your two Paths. Thanks for leaving that file on your
computer. And don’t sound appalled, of course I broke into your
office. I was bored!”

The voice on the other end fired back with
outrage.
“Damn you all, you Op. team animals. You’re no better
than they are! Those were good people. All they did wrong was cheat
on a few casino games. They weren’t murderers or
thieves!”

“
Ah, but Mitch, cheating is
thieving. Besides, I don’t make the law. Once a Psych hits
twenty-large, it’s a Grand Larceny. Your boys had their chance, and
they didn’t catch ‘em, we did—cry about it.”

The returned explosion of anger-filled shouts
annoyed Cemmera, so she closed her radio, prematurely ending the
conversation.

“
You love to tease the poor
Carebears, don’t you?” Santos asked, chuckling.

The men laughed with him. “I can’t help it,”
Cemmera said. “It’s just too easy. Besides, it’s our job to make
sure that the bad guys pay when the good guys show up, isn’t
it?”

The men gave Cemmera a pleading look, and she
knew why. They all probably had the same thought on their
mind—drinking to celebrate their kill. It was tradition.

“
By the way, I’ve got a lead on some
other great stuff to do. You boys are gonna love this one. I filed
for another kill authorization without permission from an
Investigation Team. They’re gonna flip when we cut down their
targets like we did to these sorry excuses for men.”

Cemmera’s men beamed with
appreciation.

“
Tell us more,” Neil said. “I don’t
know how you manage to keep getting these kills authorized without
consent.”

Cemmera laughed. The only way to receive an
authorization for a kill-order was to send in the Investigative
files to the proper commander. The problem was that investigation
teams were stubborn fools that refused to cooperate half the time.
So, Cemmera stole what she could and bribed her way to the
rest.

“
We’ve got some serious murders
going on over in Elms New Jersey. Nine dead, more will probably
follow. Paro’s got this one. Oh man, he’s gonna lose it when
we grab our targets.”

“
Wait a minute,” Santos said. “Isn’t
Paro doing Juvie crimes now?”

“
Yep, the suspects are kids. He’s
probably going soft on them, that Carebear. You know he used to be
one of the baddest guys around, back when I started. He’s a
legend, that one. Unrestricted too, if you’ll believe
it.”

Cemmera watched as she could visibly see the
chill running down the men’s spines. “Did you know he started when
he was only fourteen?” she asked. “I’m not kidding, he made it rain
blood. It’s sad to see him go so soft.”

Santos’ face turned pale. “I’m worried. What if
he comes after us for killing his targets?”

Cemmera gave him a friendly nudge. “Don’t be
ridiculous. Once we get authorized, there’s nothing he can do about
it. Let him be angry, the world is angry!”

“
If you say so …”

“
Did you guys know that if you took
every
living animal out of the sea, then the water level
of the ocean would go down?”

“
Jack!” Paro snapped, “I’m going to
tell you this one last time. Shut the hell up, or I will shut you
up. We can speak when we get there.”

“
Jeeze, someone forgot to eat a
Mentos
today.”

The van whizzed by on the North Roadway. Jack
had no idea where they were headed, but he no longer cared, either.
He took life on a thing-by-thing basis, but he did fear that his
mother would worry about him.

Looking out of the window, he could see
communities and neighborhoods pass by. He loved his suburban home.
It was like a paradise of swimming pools, parks, and
gardens. The beautiful sunrise cast exotic shadows along the
trees and flowers.

I wonder where we’re heading. God, this is
so boring
.
Stupid Paro, telling me to be
quiet.

Jack was sacrificing a great deal by wasting
all his time with sorcerers.

Then they try and tell me that I’m a
sorcerer too. Hah! If I were a sorcerer, I would summon a
dragon-demon-thing with long black wings that breathed fire. Then I
would ride it through the clouds.

Jack relaxed as the ride continued, until a
dangerous, horrific thought came to his mind.

Oh no! This can’t be … how could I have let
this happen
?

“
We need to stop the car right
now!”

Kazou, Melissa, and Michael all turned to where
Jack sat in the back. Their faces filled with alarm.

“
What’s wrong?” Kazou shouted. “Has
something happened?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, you guys. My
Magic the
Gathering
tournament … it starts in a few hours.
We need to turn this thing around. Today’s prize is the all new
Plainswalker card.”

With a grunt, Melissa slapped him on the back
of the head. “Paro, can I gag him, please?”

“
Be nice, Melissa," Sarah
said.

Jack rubbed his head. Why was everyone so
mean?

Requiem entered the small shop on the
southern-end of Anker Town—not that she had a choice, it was the
only one of its kind in this pathetic town—and looked frantically
around her. There was no one in the room.

“
Oh, Jason, counter-boy? Where in
God’s name have you run off to?”

Requiem didn’t like to be kept waiting. She
tapped her foot with impatience and rested her arm on the wooden
countertop. All around her, cages buzzed with life. Some moved,
some shook, and others sat still and silent.

She needed to see him. She always did after
such a horrible dream. She had dreamt herself in an Amazonian
jungle, on a hot, humid day. She had been chased by a giant pig
with a human’s face, or was it a giant human with a pig’s face? The
exactness of it she couldn’t recall.

When I get my hands on that Pig-faced horse
of a woman, I’m going to strangle her!

The dream was both the most humiliating and
terrifying Requiem’s brain had ever had the misfortune of
conjuring. For miles she had run from it, listening to it oink,
hearing it taunt her. She had even tried to shut down its mind with
telepathy. But in her dream, her powers were ineffective, and it
kept charging at her, and charging at her. She had woken screaming,
sweating, and furious.

She heard a door creak behind her, and she
turned to glance in its direction. A young man no older than
twenty-four exited with a look of disappointment on his face. He
was short, with curly-brown hair and deep blue eyes.

“
Oh, it’s you again, is
it?”

Requiem was in too much of a rush. She needed
to see him now! She would waste no time making small talk with this
buffoon.

“
Darling, release him—now! I can
wait no longer.”

The man sighed and lifted a key chain off his
belt. The jangling keys were one of the only sounds in this quiet
part of the shop.

He disappeared through another door behind
Requiem and closed it. For seconds that felt like days, Requiem
waited while her excitement grew. Finally, after an agonizing
thirty seconds, the door creaked again. Requiem did not bother to
let it finish opening. As soon as the door had been half-opened, in
one swift motion, two beings charged at each other.

Requiem and the dog collided in the center of
the room, and she wrapped her hands around its neck and sighed with
delight.

“
Oh, Mr. Wellington! My sweet
underling, how are you today?” she asked, planting
kisses.

The dog wagged its tail, spinning, jumping, and
licking with excitement. Requiem reached into her pocket to give
him treats. She knew from the moment that Pig-girl had escaped that
she needed to see Mr. Wellington. He would know how to make her
feel better, in a way that no pathetic human life could.

 “
You know, miss. I gotta tell
ya—I got a shop to run here. We sell pets, we don’t store ‘em, ya
sure you can’t take it home with you?”

Requiem kissed Mr. Wellington’s nose and then
looked up. She glared at the man, obviously from New York by the
sound of his obnoxious accent.

“
Silence, you insignificant worm and
obey my orders! Have I not paid you for the storage? Have I not
paid you for the animal as well? If I ever return and find out that
you have either sold my underling to some disgusting human, or that
you kicked him to the curb, then so help me god I shall rip your
still-beating heart from your body. Do I make myself clear,
Darling
?”

The man eyed her skeptically but sighed then
nodded. “You really shouldn’t talk to people like that, you know?
It’s not polite.”

Requiem ignored the fool and crouched back down
to continue playing with Mr. Wellington. The golden retriever was
still young, not even a year-old, but already he had reached close
to his full size. His tongue lolled happily from the side of his
mouth, and he stared intently into Requiem’s eyes. She cupped his
face with her smooth hands.

“
Don’t worry, Mr. Wellington. Once
Ruin and I have found an appropriate lair, I’ll remove you from
this filthy place.” Looking over her shoulder, she could see the
man was back behind the counter and out of earshot.

“
I know, Mr. Wellington, you want me
to turn off his brain or send him into a coma. You’re very
smart—yes, that’s a good Mr. Wellington—but I can’t yet. We still
need him. Once I get you out of here, I’ll take care of him and
bring you home.”