Shazi and the Demons of the First Order (Book 1)

Jolene

"Alright. My daughter will do it." 

Those were the words that came out of my father's mouth as I pressed my ear against the door to the Chief's office. 

And just then, I decided to enter the room, because... why not? 

I was expecting my dad to be one-on-one with the Chief, but what I wasn't expecting was to see a young woman with long brown hair and reddish brown eyes standing next to my dad clutching her phone like it was going to jump out of her hands any second. 

Three pairs of eyes turned to me. 

"Hey." I said, awkwardly, and gave them a little wave. 

My dad blinked twice before coming to me with his arms outstretched. 

"Jolene, what are you doing here? I thought I told you to come this morning for the exam!" he said. 

I gave him a look, turned my gaze to the Chief, then looked back at my dad. "I did. I did go this morning for the exam."

)~(

When I got off the bus, I saw the police station standing tall and proud, the one place where I wanted to call my second home, along with my dad, who always felt that that was where he was meant to be second to being with his family. 

I walked through the doors that opened all on their own thanks to motion cameras and stepped up to the front desk. 

"Hi, my name's Jolenifer, Jolene, Johnston. I'm here for my exam." I said, and seeing that there was a ringer, I pressed it. 

The sound of a bell ringing throughout the station filled my ears, and when I released my finger, the secretary looked up. 

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked, and pushed her glasses up her nose. 

I struggled to find my words as I realized that the station was empty. 

"Uh, if you don't mind me asking, where is everyone?" 

The secretary looked me up and down before replying: "They're out. Found a dead body upstream. A boy barely twenty. Some officers think it's an animal attack, others think it's something different." 

I leaned closer, which she responded with a simple raise of her eyes. 

"What do you mean by 'different'?" I couldn't help but ask, and lowered my voice as I did so. 

She huffed, as if sensing my determination to get an answer out of her and that I won't walk away without it. 

"They think it could be a vampire. But those things don't exist. They're fiction, and we're in the real world. There's no such thing as vampires, dear, remember that." she said, then went back to looking at her computer. 

I glanced around the station, and was only met with the turned off lights in every office. 

"Your Officer Joe Johnston's kid, aren't you?" the secretary asked after a moment of scrutinizing me with her small round glasses. 

I nodded and smiled kindly at her, silently thanking the skies that she recognized me. 

"Yes, yes I am. My dad told me that the exam would be today at six a.m, and well, it's six o'clock and there's no one here. So...?" I trailed off and motioned around me with outstretched arms. 

The secretary huffed and looked down at her computer. 

"You can leave a note in your father's office, if you want. I have some pen and paper you might want to use." she said, and without even waiting to hear my reply, she handed over to me a notepad and a pencil.