Night

Alexander

The lighter clicks as flickers of flame burst out. Alexander positions the cigarette to the flame and the white tip glows in contact. He crosses his legs, leaning against the wide, splintering fence and inhaling.

It's a quiet night, as it should be, being far from the city. The fence ran around a farm, the building resembling more of a shack than anything else. There were no cows, no pigs or the clucking of hens. That and the owners had left a while ago. Next to the farm was a graveled road, rocky and unpaved, and beside that was a forest. A rather ominous one to be exact, enough for a child to get lost into... And never to be found again.

And he would know, being a detective and having received enough files about disappearing children-sometimes the pet cat or dog. It wasn't just that, promptly the next morning at exactly 8 o'clock, the corpse would be found right in front of where he stood. The corpse was always found half-eaten from jaws of a supposedly large animal.

The crunch-crunch of boots signals that Alexander's alone time is up. He tosses the half-used cigarette to the ground then causally wedges it under his heel.

"It's always good to see you Alison," he greets with a broad smile.

The owner of the boots returns his grin and flicks him the mask. He catches it mid air and slips it over his face, securing the band around his head. Masks are overrated but useful. His is a fox face, pointed nuzzle and the colour of red autumn leaves.

END (Simply because I ran out of inspiration)

"Ah...and she's gone," Niju said, watching the young woman dash out his door with a convenient baseball bat in her hand. Something told him she wasn't going to use it for a game but to wack a certain, red-haired suspect who ran out the same door a second earlier. Niju wasn't an avid fan of sports and Damien only kept his baseball bat for security reasons. 

He gave a weary sigh, and went to boil himself some chamomile tea.  

"Come back here!" There was a crash of someone slamming against the wall, hard, and the patter of hurried feet rushing back towards his apartment. The neighbors are going to complain again. 

"Okay I'm sorry, Alison! Sorry!" Alexander, the suspect, staggered through the door with a hand clutching his aching shoulder. He scrambled onto the couch with some difficulty, and plopped himself on its cushioned surface. His breathing was labored, blue eyes darting to the door and back to Niju pleadingly. 

Good Lord, Niju thought, pouring boiling water over a white mug. When will that boy ever learn?

"Don't you hide from me," Alison said with deliberate articulation, standing under the door frame. She walked over to him, unusually serene and stopped at his feet. 

"Where!" She swung the bat to his face, the tip almost touching his nose. "Did you put my money converter?" 

Alexander felt the blood rush from his face. The money converter, after a brutal civil war in a dimension he forgot the name of, was given to Alison so she could replace all her coins from the previous dimension into the currency of a different world. It looked like a large locket and all you did was place a note or coin in, and after a few vigorous shakes the new set of coins or notes would appear.  And right now his mind was blank on the possibilities of where it could be. 

"I think it's with my sister..." Alexander answered weakly. 

"She doesn't have it!" Before he could mentally prepare himself, his cheek met the bat and threw him off his sitting position.