A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

III | First Rule Of Fight Club

RUDY
They were back in the precinct, the lights flickering down on them.

"Do we even know where she worked?"

"At the DMV," Mini replied, staring at her computer screen, light bouncing off her glasses. "We're gonna go there, when we get done with this.

He squinted, flipping through extensive credit card purchases. "Hey, look— seems like she had a monthly subscription to... 'Fight Club'?"

She peeked out from the top of her computer screen. "That's a movie,"

"Thanks, I never knew," he said sarcastically. "But no. I don't know what this is,"

"Look it up," she suggested, getting out of the chair, and making her way toward his side of the desk.

He typed out the words, 'Fight Club', only seeing the IMDB, Reddit, and Fandom page for the movie, before saying, "Yep. That's it,"

"First rule of fight club: You never tell anyone about it,"

"I'm... around eighty percent sure that quote is wrong,"

"Shut up," she said, nudging him with her elbow. "Shift a bit,"

He leaned, slightly, as she leaned in, before typing out: 'fight club + payment'

"Clever," he remarked.

"Didn't ask,"

The only other things that came up were to rent 'Fight Club' on Prime Video, and more Reddit pages.

"One sec," he said, reaching out, grabbing hold of the credit card statements.

"Don't these things have more information on them?" he asked, peering closely at the blocky letters printed in the tiny area.

"Usually, somewhat more, yeah,"

"Huh. Check out this link," he said, passing the sheets of paper over to her.

She painstakingly typed out the entire link, until the search engine filled it in for her. Mini hit enter, and the loading screen popped up, the wheel turning and turning, until an error message appeared, saying: Sorry, this page no longer exists!

He sighed, but she raised her eyebrows, and said, "I'm not admitting defeat yet,"

"Against a search engine?"

She shushed him, and logged out of his account, before repeating the process, the pale, blue light of the computer shining in her dark brown eyes: something else was in them too, a strange determination that made them bright.

"What?"

Her voice snapped him out of his reverie.

"You were staring," she noted, her eyes narrowed.

"No, I was thinking," he said, primly, summoning the dregs of his dignity, before returning his attention to the computer screen.

His thoughts swam to their conversation before he'd lost track. "Right— did you find anything?"

She turned the monitor to face him.

"It's still loading,"

The page popped up.

"What did you do?" he asked, slightly surprised.

"Incognito mode, actually."

"Really?"

She hummed in response, as her gaze trailed across the computer screen.

He scrolled down, before frowning, "Well, it seems to be self-defence tips, videos on how to get out of a chokehold— stuff like that,"

"Really? Then why hide behind a complicated method to get on? Wouldn't it be more convenient to make it available for everyone?"

"I don't know," she murmured, before taking a deep breath, closing her eyes.

He shut his eyes, too, before opening them, again.

"When did the credit card purchases start?"

"Hm?" she opened her eyes, slightly confused.

"When did the credit card purchases start?" he repeated, with more emphasis on each word.

She checked the date, before passing the page to him. "November, why?"

The thought seemed to hit her, too.

"Why would she need to subscribe to a self-defence mailing list..." she began, but trailed off.

He finished the thought for her: "Two weeks before she disappeared?" 

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