Lightspeed: Drug Detectives

Chapter 18 (Act II): Returning To The Den

Hello, everybody! This is your girl Ariel Axilas, welcome back to yet another chapter of my second novel, "Lightspeed: Drug Detectives"!

Last time, my crew and I—that's Erica Shields, Marle Atkins, and the Paragon Herman—had a rather fulfilling dinner with our kind hostess, Celeste. Or.....it would've been fulfilling if I hadn't heard how everyone was secretly judging me on the inside for once again letting the trail go as cold as ice on our investigation into the Celestial Syndicate. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I blew up like a fucking nuke—emotionally and mentally, not literally—and profusely apologized to everybody for our lack of progress so far.....but thankfully, Erica was quick to try and rein me in.

Again.....Erica best girl. Erica ride-or-die pal for life.

But fuck that! I'm not going to stand for this! She and Herman both tried to console me, but I know I'm better than this! Tonight, after everyone's asleep, I'm going to go back to the drug junkies' apartment complex and check it for more clues; maybe we missed some the last time we were there.

Also, Celeste seemed to be eyeing Marle with an unusual amount of interest during the dinner. She said she looked "perfect" and that she sensed great turmoil in her.....which is true, admittedly enough. The second part, not the first part. I don't find her attractive; I don't know what the hell you guys are talking about. I just chalked it up to her being a veteran fortuneteller, diviner, and psychotherapy specialist—and so did Herman—but I couldn't help but feel a little off when she invited Marle for a palm reading session that night while also eschewing Erica's request for the same thing. Celeste did give decent explanations.....and she also picked up on my struggles too, like losing my fiancé and my mother.....but I still think that dinner could've gone a whole lot better.

Celeste's cool, right? She invited us to stay here; nothing's going to happen to us! I hope.....

Ugh. They'd better be okay. This time, you'll all be following me as I return to the drug junkies' apartment complex for round two. Come on! What are you all waiting for? ACTION!

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-Calle Diablo Droga 666, Santo Domingo 10100, Dominican Republic-

So, it's come to this.

I, Lightspeed, am back again. Back at that abandoned apartment complex that the drug junkies decided to convert into their own personal cannabis lab.

Well.....the base of it and the tenth floor, anyway. I'm not exactly sure about the other floors. Still, the tenth floor is my sole concern. I really hope I'm not forgetting anything on the other floors, though. If I do, I'm fixing to be pissed off.

The still forms of the outer perimeter guards are still there as I creep over the grass of the lower yard; I'm trying to use my super speed as little as possible now because I want to be stealthy. So hush! The author wants it to be this way, so it's going to be this way! How can I be stealthy when I have a costume that looks like a perpetual display of yellow Tron lines? I don't fucking know!

I already left Erica, Marle, and Herman at Celeste's Clairvoyance Shop under Celeste's care, and took my car to a location about a block away from the apartment complex before continuing the rest of the way on foot. As was already stated, I gaze over at the motionless perimeter guards, still with pronounced gunshot wounds on their bodies; clearly their protective equipment didn't help them too well. I go around them whenever possible; when I have no choice but to go over one, I carefully and gingerly tiptoe it.