The Shadows of our lives

Chapter II

I wondered why some levels of the basement were off limits. Now it made sense. It was strictly forbidden for most of the employees and civilians to enter, especially for the ones blind to the darkness lurking in the shadows of dull illuminated streets and trails. The job of the police was to protect, in every possible way. So if people wanted to keep a blind eye to everything, their protectors would provide.

That was one of the many reasons why people like me were a rarity amongst jobs like these. Not many wanted to be protected from the monsters by a monster. But as cliché as that sounded, it was exactly how the most disturbing cases had to be dealt with. Humans, no matter how devoted or cruel, could never have the same level of viciousness as wolves.

Just when I thought I couldn't get more stripped off my own rights, I was about to be stuck several feet beneath the ground. Great.

I tried to remember the way as best I could, which became a habit. Always to know an escape route, no matter what. People here would feel safe but I wasn't people. To be honest, I would feel safer out in the wild in the middle of the night.

We strode past multiple sets of iron doors, dull colored walls and ceilings with barely working lights surrounding us and the longer we walked the more I felt the creeping claustrophobia trying to get under my skin. Silence swallowing the interior, until hushed voices started forming in the distance. I couldn't hear clearly what they were talking about, but could guess multiple people were inside.

Santiago paused and turned to me, the ice cold eyes staring like he could see through everything and so much more than I even could guess lurked in my soul.

"If you dare to cause trouble," he warned.

"I know," I stopped him. "I am aware."

Santiago stood way too close. We glared at each other for what felt like hours. Until I felt the flaring breath he let out through his nose before he finally backed off. He didn't knock, just walked in and whatever conversation was going on inside died right then and there.

"Boss, hey." I heard a warm deep male voice before I followed Santiago in. Multiple more voices joined in and expressed their greetings.

The space was a lot bigger than I expected. Multiple desks with computers sat along the sides of the room, piles of paperwork all around, it looked like a tornado ran this place over. I could guess the documents here were all from a restricted section. The type of information many workers in this building would kill to get their hands on. And there they were. Laying on the ground.

A lot of multi-colored posters were lighting up the boring walls, some with pop-idols, random bands or pictures of all kinds of animals. A target circle with some darts stuck to it was placed next to one of the desks that looked the most chaotic out of all of them. And if all this didn't look crazy enough, my eyes finally caught the big yellow couch that appeared in my sight after Santiago walked further inside.

There were four people in total, sitting down at the back, on that overly eye-catching sofa, although I could feel that a fifth one exited not long ago.

"Who do you have behind you?" the low male voice continued. And once Santiago's back was out of my way, I saw that the voice belonged to a man in the middle of the couch, his smile all teeth, longer light-brown hair kept in a small bun, wearing a plain white buttoned-up shirt and formally acceptable black pants.

He sat more upright to thoroughly inspect me, when I stopped right next to Santiago, and I then noticed the disturbing amount of tattoos covering both his arms up to his neck. I wasn't able to pay attention to the details of them before I felt the intense stares of the others on me and then Santiago's voice shot through the silence. My eyes slid down on the ground.