Ghost and the Writer

Guild

***

If Ian had to describe himself, he would probably tell that he was a regular run of the mill policeman newbie. Second year on the duty and relying on his partner, Flinn, for guidance.

In fact, he had chosen to be a policeman exactly because he looked up to this very same partner. Not having a father nor siblings, he had ended up growing attached to his mostly busy yet frank neighbor and saw something akin to a older brother or even father in him, but that wasn't something he would ever openly admit, even if that very same neighbor had long since noticed and didn't particularly mind either.

They had a better relationship than most father-son pairs did despite having no blood relations and Ian had long since made a load of policemen acquaintances due to fishing and hunting trips Flinn had taken him along to. So joining the force was the obvious choice, Ian had always been muscle over brains type and he naturally fit in.

If there was anything Ian could take pride in, then it was his own health - he didn't even remember having ever caught a cold and any injuries he got, healed almost overnight. That wasn't the case for his mother, who was always out seeking for her next big love - she was on the frail side, so Ian had long since gotten used to being the one taking care of the house and her, by extension. Luckily, a couple of years ago his mother had successfully found her big love and now her husband took care of her. Ian, being an adult already, neither had the chance nor desire to develop a fatherly bond with his mom's husband.

Despite his youth, Ian didn't have any huge 'I will change the world' type goals, rather than that - his idea was making his own surroundings just a tiny bit better each day. He shared smiles easily, cleaned up behind himself and others and gladly helped out those who needed assistance. He took pride in his role as a policeman. Due to that, his duties were focused around dealing with people, usually nothing too major or important.

The rosewater serial murders were way above his league.

It was a simple case of bad timing that he was dealing with something one floor under the murder incident as an old lady screamed above, discovering her dead husband. Being on the spot, the two policemen - Ian and his partner - handled the location till more forces arrived and once Ian was free to head down, he used the chance to discreetly go and empty his stomach contents in a trash can.

There was something he couldn't describe about the scene. It was not his first time seeing a corpse, and the corpse wasn't even quarter as bad as the worst he had seen, but nothing had filled him with as much dread, fear, and disgust as this one and he couldn't tell why at all. Something was inherently wrong with it, inducing a primeval sense of dread and fear of unknown and none of the corpses had ever done that to Ian's senses.

So the words August had uttered shook him up far more than they should. He shared the voice recording with Flinn, yet that was as far as he got. The case was immediately passed on to a different department and he was both thanked and advised to not peer deeper into it. Flinn agreed with that notion. If not for the copy Ian had made, he wouldn't have any data on his hands at all.

Ian standing in front of August's door was not something he felt he should be doing. Rather, he had a strong feeling he was messing around with the work of some colleagues whose faces he did not know.

But he couldn't help it.

There was something completely and utterly wrong with that dead man and since he couldn't get to anything on his own, August Galord was the only person who might know something Ian needed to face. It was not about his duty, nor was it out of some sense of heroism, Ian needed to understand what was going on so he could move on.