Pathos - A Duskwood Fanfiction

Chapter 39

"Ma'am, as I have told you several times now, Chief Bloomgate isn't here. You're free to wait here for him if you wish, but I have no idea when he will be back. Sorry."

She stared down at the disinterested expression of the officer sitting at the desk in the front of the Duskwood PD precinct, her eyes wide with frustration as she tried to maintain her composure. Beside her, Lilly stood silently.

"He's not answering his phone. Doesn't that concern you?" she asked sharply, to which the officer, who was now leaning precariously far back into his swivel chair with his arms folded behind his head, lifted one shoulder in a half-assed shrug.

"He might not be answering your calls, ma'am, but I can assure you that he is just fine and is out there doing his job. Which I would also like to be doing. Is there anything else?"

Nonplussed, she stared at the flat expression of the officer for a few breaths, and then stymied by his total lack of reaction to her glare, swore under her breath and turned away.

"I need a drink," she muttered, as Lilly fell into step with her, the other woman slipping her arm around her shoulders. They walked in silence together to the front door, where she used an inappropriate amount of force to push open it with her back. The sound of her body hitting the door made the officer at the desk look up sharply, and she fixed him with a final glare as she walked backwards and out.

Once outside, with the cold November air blowing wildly all around them, Lilly pulled her closer for a brief hug before removing her arm.

"C'mon," Lilly said quietly. "Let's get that drink."

She lifted a hand to press her fingers into her temple at Lilly's suggestion. She could feel a headache coming on. She closed her eyes briefly as the sudden realization that she would have to see Phil if she went to the Aurora confirmed the definite presence of a looming migraine, and then opened them again to look at Lilly tiredly.

"Is there anywhere to go other than the Aurora? It's... loud."

Lilly looked at her for a moment, eyes scanning her face appraisingly, and then shook her head with a small smile.

"This is Duskwood. Either its drinks at the Aurora or its drinking alone, and I've drank all of mine already."

She sighed at this, and Lilly took her arm again.

"C'mon. Let's go. The bar isn't going to be open for a few hours yet, so it'll be quiet. A good distraction."

She let herself be led down the front steps that led into the precinct and Lilly kept her arm wrapped around hers as they started walking. It was a companionable quiet that held between the two of them as they walked, and she was grateful for the warmth of Lilly's arm as it wrapped around hers tightly. And as much as she didn't want it to, as much as she was tired of it always going back to the same place, her thoughts fell back to Jake.

She had so many questions, so many fears, but the only person that could answer to any of them had left with Alan Bloomgate eight days ago and had not come back. It was a sick repetition of the feelings that she'd had when Hannah had been missing, but flavoured this time with a special kind of terror and grief from the demons that promised her absolutely that he would never come back.

For Hannah, at least, she'd had the cold benefit of detachment - she hadn't known any of the people that she now counted as some of her dearest friends yet. She had cared deeply that Hannah was missing, had done everything that she could have to bring her back home, but Hannah wasn't Jake.

That cold detachment that had helped her remain objective during the search for Hannah had left her the very instant that she had looked into Jake's eyes for the first time. It had been an experience beyond her ability to articulate, finally being able to see the face of the man that had haunted her every existing moment since he had texted her out of nowhere during the search for Hannah.