The Arcane: Alistair Mann

CHAPTER 14 A NEXUS EVENT

Agent Prince lies down in his hotel bed with trepidation. He dreads going to sleep every night. Not due to restlessness or nightmares, he hadn't had a nightmare since the first night, but because the lack of them, because the lack of everything. Every night he gets into his night clothes, which is just a another way of saying he strips down to his underwear and gets beneath the warm green covers of his hotel suite.

The young agent would stare out the glass walls across the lit-up city of Eau Claire trying to fall asleep. The varnished pine table and chairs and lamp in the bottom of his eye. And every morning the agent wakes up fatigued on top of his covers in his black suit with the dark green blankets all made as if he had never slept. And indeed, it felt as if that was so. Agent Prince never remembered anything about getting dressed, making his bed, hell even getting out of his bed in the first place. The befuddled agent couldn't remember anything about the previous night.

The young agent again stares at the glass windows thinking of what can possibly be happening to him. His mind wanders to his supportive Maggie, the one thing that had always kept him sane and motivated. Agent Prince longs for her touch just once more, to tell him that he will be able to overcome what is thrown his way. Maggie has always been the supporting girlfriend. The person everyone dreams about but never meeting. To Agent Prince she seems perfect. Supportive, kind, funny, and always there when her Magnus Prince needs him. But nothing is ever as it seems. This kind of blind and loving loyalty doesn't exist.

When Agent Prince isn't looking, when he was gone at his classes or at work, Maggie had a habit of bedding men. Not wanting to lose Agent Prince she tries to alleviate her guilt by treating him with the utmost respect and loyalty when they are together. Despite her tendencies she loves the young man, loves who he is and who he wants to be. And despite herself, she also loves the ego boost of dating a federal agent. And so, through their years of dating Maggie had fallen into a habit of sleeping with other men while Agent Prince fell further into loving ignorance.

Agent Prince hears what sounds like gunshots coming from Agent Young's room right next to him and smirks slightly. That old, unhinged agent always seems to be doing something bizarre. No warnings go off in the drowsy agent's mind as he hears the gunshots and proceeds to fall asleep.

Something wakes up Agent Prince in the middle of the night. Everything is so still, so quiet that one might hear the sighing of the dead. The agent walks across the gray carpeting and dresses before making his bed. Agent Prince walks out the hotel's door and into the hallway. He takes the elevator down from the third floor to the first and goes to the black Range Rover parked nearby. Several minutes later he finds himself pulling into the deserted parking lot of the Medical Examiner. Agent Prince exits the vehicle and walks up to the locked back door of the building. He ensures to stay out of the view of the security cameras doing their best to patrol the surrounding territory. Agent Prince reaches for his pistol and shoots the door, blowing the lock. The silencer on his nine-millimeter only allowing the sound similar to that of a BB gun to escape. The young agent walks into the deathly quiet building. As he walks across the tiled floor of the upper office, his shoes clack softly. Getting into the elevator it takes him to the lower story where Doctor Robert Sinclair and his awkward son do most of their gritty work.

Forebodingly the elevator dings and the doors slide open. Doctor Sinclair and his apprentice look over in surprise. The building is locked, safe, which means someone broke in. They recognize a second later that it is Agent Prince, and their nerves are calmed slightly. But a slight intake of breath escapes Doctor Sinclair's mouth when he sees the empty and dead face of the agent. His eyes have a white film over them while the color of his face is almost completely drained.

"Why are you here? Everything alright?" Doctor Sinclair asks nervously.

Agent Prince doesn't reply as he swiftly walks across the room. Benjamin Sinclair steps around his father to greet the young agent that he cannot help but admire. An instinct goes off in the Doctor and he grabs several sheets of paper and stuffs them in his mouth to swallow. Something is off with the young agent in front of him. Doctor Sinclair shudders at the memory of the Agent's eyes. The good doctor turns to see Agent Prince point his gun at Benjamin and fire. Blood spurts from the fatal wound in the boy's chest. He slumps to the floor gasping for breath. Coughing raggedly, blood sprays from the boy's mouth as he lays there. A plethora of unexplainable and unimaginable emotions rocket through the mind of the good Doctor as he sees in shock and horror his son get shot right before him. Tears burst from his face as he collapses to his knees beside his dying son. They look into each other's eyes and Benjamin smiles slightly trying to say something but cannot. Then, the boy exhales for the last time. Doctor Sinclair looks up to Agent Prince, his grip tightening around the scalpel in his hand.

"I don't care your reasoning or your story, that is my son," Doctor Sinclair cries out grief stricken.

Doctor Sinclair springs to his feet with surprising speed. He thrusts the scalpel at Agent Prince's chest, never wanting to inflict pain so badly before. He is a good doctor, a kind doctor, and a fair doctor. And although his job is slicing dead people open, Doctor Sinclair would never hurt anyone...unless you mess with his family. Something inhuman awakes within the doctor. Emotionlessly Agent Prince sidesteps the doctor's wild swing and shoots the determined man in the head, blood spattering everywhere.

+ + +

Agent Prince groggily wakes up in his bed wearing one of his sharp and uncomfortable suits that he despises but his girlfriend loves. He snorts slightly remembering the grin on her face on his first day of work. She insisted on him wearing a suit, saying that all federal cops where them and its "just tradition". Agent Prince looks down at his clothes and freezes. Dried blood is splattered on his suit. He tries to remember anything about the night but can't. Just then there is a knock on the door and Agent Young's beckoning voice.

In a blur he hears her say loudly, "Prince, we need you now. You weren't answering your phone. The ME and his son were murdered last night."