The Parallax Effect

Chapter Fourteen: Drinks and Contemplation

A/N (pt 1):

I'M ALIVE (barely)
So as some of you might have noticed, I haven't posted in like 10 months. I know I promised that I would be more consistent with posting and that I should be able to do once a month again but that all went down the drain once my semester started...
Overall, my year has been an absolute shitshow, I'm still in college and working 2 jobs so my schedule is still packed but I'm doing a lot better mentally than I was before
So I MIGHT be able to write more occasionally (I just finished taking 5 midterms so I have a little bit of time to actually do fun stuff for a bit!)
I'll try and post every once in a while but no promises other than I will never abandon this story
That's something I am sure about:
I still absolutely ADORE writing this story. I love my characters and even without having the time to actually write, I constantly daydream and imagine scenarios and scenes in my head!!!

November 15th, 7:41 pm

Valon Castellanos

A visit from an officer was not what Valon wanted to be dealing with at 8:00 at night, right before he had stuff to do. He had barely gotten back from his usual jog around the city and had just been informed that a police officer was waiting in one of the conference rooms on the second floor.

He made his way to the elevator, not wanting to take the stairs after running for the last hour and a half. He leaned against the wall of the elevator, smoothing his frizzy curls away from his face. He made a quick stop in the nearest restroom to splash his face with water and then wipe it off. Valon took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before putting on an extra face mask he kept in his running bag and proceeding to the conference room where the officer sat.

Opening the door gently and walking in, he spotted the cop as she spotted him. She stood quickly, unsure of what to do with her hands, Valon leaned against the table, keeping his expression relaxed and open. It was Lieutenant Rosco, the officer who had helped out with the bank robbery put on by Parallax a few months earlier.

"Lieutenant Rosco, nice to see you again after so long." Her chest seemed to puff up, her shoulders squaring as she realized that Valon recognized her.

"Thanatos! It's a pleasure, I'm surprised you remember who I am."

Valon grinned behind his mask, "Of course I remember you, Lieutenant." He shut down the topic quickly and tried to get to business. "So what brings you here so late?"

She gestured for him to sit, he did, and she did the same, across the table. "As much as I'd love this to just be a social visit, I need to talk to you about something important. Since last month, there's been an unfortunate influx of missing persons reports. We are at a loss on what to do, as this has come out of nowhere. A city of our size typically has 250-300 documented missing persons cases per year, but in the last month or so, it's been close to 150 people, just vanishing out of the blue. We're not seeing any correlation between the people, and at this point, we're getting desperate."

That gave Valon pause. As the officer said, people going missing wasn't all that unheard of, especially in a city as large as Chicago. But that many in such a short amount of time...

"When you say no correlation, what have you looked into?"

"We've examined, age, gender, ethnicity, family life, criminal activity, Abilities, and a whole slew of other things, and we're getting nothing."

Valon hummed, his mind whirling through possibilities. "What can I do to help?"

"Honestly, we don't know. My supervisor sent me over here to try and get you involved in looking into things, but I'm not sure what she wants you to do. I guess for now, brief your team on things and keep an eye out for suspicious activity." She paused for a second, "Oh, and, I'm going to leave you with a comprehensive list of all the missing people, share it with the rest of H.A.U.N.T. and then contact us if you find anything. If you don't contact us within the next week or so, we'll reach out."