Arcane Sequence: 1994: Never Stop Running... (WLW)

Chapter Two: West Palm Beach, Florida, May 25th, 1994

This chapter contains dark themes.

Berry groaned as she sat down into her sedan and started up the engine. After a long day at her damn desk, she needed a beer and to wind down from her boiling thoughts. That woman had literally called her section captain, the man in charge of the narcotics division and hard-ass Berry loathed more days than not, and ruined her only chance at normalcy in the last three months. She knew it would be an uphill battle with him, despite her previous claim, but Kirah calling only made the situation harder. Berry was beyond annoyed. Beyond frustrated. She was downright angry and just desired her life to go back to some resemblance of normalcy.

She quickly got her car into gear after starting it up and took off toward her favorite watering hole, trying her best to clear her mind during the short drive. It hadn't worked by the time she arrived and she kicked the gravel covered ground as soon as she exited her vehicle, staring up into the sky with her hands on her hips. If only Amir could see her now... Berry, ya wicked up or somethin'? Get ahold of yourself, youngin'. She could hear his voice ringing in her mind, making her scoff with the shake of her head. She really needed a drink and to make that all-knowing voice disappear, or she may fall apart all over again.

"Oye, Marino!" Berry turned her head and spied a few members from her task force and a few other departments within the precinct, sighing as she made a slow plod toward them. "Where ya been, kid?"

Her squad leader hooked his arm around the back of her neck and began leading her in as he yacked with the others around them. He and they all knew Berry was a person of few words unless royally pissed off, or accompanied by someone who knocked down her walls by force and she mentally thanked them before ducking out of Sergeant Mitchell's reach. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the company of her colleagues. Berry just felt a reticence to truly bonding with any of them further with how much she missed her old partner every damn day.

Making her way to the bar, she leaned along it, enjoying the cool that met her as she let her eyes graze over the crowd at the bar. Most of them were cops from several precincts that congregated in the same pub, but some were probably doctors with how close they were to one of the city's top trauma centers. The very ER where Amir was pronounced dead, though he'd been cold long prior to his arrival. Feeling her shoulders slump as her thoughts strayed into darkness yet again, Berry continued her surveillance until she spotted a face in the crowd that she hadn't expected as she took a seat.

There in the right corner of the dancefloor was none other than Kirah Turner shimmying to the country music overhead with a man who was a whole head taller than her. So she likes bigger guys... Berry shook her head free of the thought, mentally chastising herself for letting her mind wander to such a strange topic. She watched as Kirah giggled at the man spinning her around and tucking her closely into his chest, giving rise to the oddest unknown sensation Berry had ever felt in herself.

Again, she shook herself free from whatever it was and watched as Kirah moved away from the man, but he possessively yanked her back. Her smile faltered for a short moment, but only long enough for someone who was really looking to notice. The man had one thing on his mind, obviously. Eventually, he let Kirah out again and she turned around, pulling him back with her toward the bar.

Berry jolted and spun around in her newly acquired bar stool. Shit! Did she see me? She leaned down onto the counter and hid her face in her arms, peeking over one of her elbows in the direction of their traipse. Sure enough, Kirah arrived at the bar with the unnamed man who kept his arm wrapped very firmly and possessively around her waist. She tapped it, but he said something in her ear that made her smile drop for another quick moment. Then it was back again as if he hadn't said anything at all.