Mystery Noir

Down Below Part 14

The next few days passed in a haze fueled by pain killers, fever , and extremely powerful antibiotics. I know I had a few more showers and I refused to let Matt pay me for the job, despite something about everyone chipping in to cover the fee. I drifted in and out, though mainly slept until I woke up, stretched out in the back of an SUV, listening to Ver argue with Penny about whether or not they had eaten too many hamburgers over the last few days.

Penny was laughing from the passenger seat, sipping out of a cup. "But the next stop coincides with the best chili cheese dog in the tristate area, it says right here on the restaurant's website."

"We're stopping at the diner up there, getting some real food, a vegetable or two." Ver growled, though I could sense the amusement in his voice.

"I already texted Enzo, he's on the chili dog side. Besides, there's vegetables in chili, isn't there?" Penny turned and looked out the window.

"I'm with Ver on this one... I could use some soup or something." I croaked from the back seat.

"You're awake!" Penny half turned in her seat to look at me, ignoring Ver's growls about how dangerous it was. "Like really awake. You were talking about magical picnics last time..."

I had no idea if she was joking, but I sat up and accepted the offered giant plastic cup and took a long drink of the soda that was in it while I tried to clear my head a bit more. When I refocused and looked up, I saw Penny watching me and Ver's eyes on me through the rearview mirror.

Smiling weakly, I sat properly in the seat and did up my seatbelt after handing Penny her drink back. "Where are we going?"

"Back to Mawaska. You actually need to rest a while this time." Ver said firmly, though without the heat I expected in his voice. "How are you feeling? Up to eating?"

"Everyone else was ok?" I glanced over at Penny, who smiled carefully at me.

She shrugged and inclined her head. "I think they're moving, now. Though They went out the next day and demolished a lot of those caves. They never found any females, so as many as they killed, it wasn't the last of those monsters..."

I hesitated and glanced over to Ver curious.

He raised a curious brow in the mirror, before smirking. "I went with them. Enzo and I both. They're... smarter than rocks, pack animals, but... they're pests. And dangerous."

"But don't you think... it's weird... we call them monsters..." I whispered, wrestling with the distinction. Yes, they were man eating predators, but what right did we have to hunt them down and remove them from the face of the earth.

"And humans call us monsters. What's the difference?" Ver shrugged and glanced out the windscreen. "We follow the rules. We don't hunt people down and kill them. We fit into society, and we're just misunderstood."

"Caddaja have been our nemesis for a long time. They are indiscriminate and maybe the creator put them here in order to keep us in line." Penny offered a shrug. "Maybe they were created because of a mistake, or a warning about greed and mindless desire and consumption. They encroach our homes, and we encroach theirs. We keep each other in line."

I rubbed my forehead and nodded, before leaning back into the seat and closing my eyes. "I just wish it was black and white, sometimes. These guys are good guys, these guys are bad guys."

"It's only like that when there's real evil around. Not just flaws and emotions and ignorance, but real evil. And either you're fighting it, or it's you." Penny whispered softly.

"We have about half an hour till we reach the next stop. How about you rest a bit more, Nina. I'll wake you so you can have these soul-searching conversations with Enzo. You know I'm just a simple hired gun." Ver chuckled softly, and I drifted off to that sound.

***

Penny and I had been in Mawaska for about a week when I finally got a new computer and used my flash drive, which had been attached to my car keys and left innocently at Matt's place, to open up my files.

I took the opportunity to pay Penny for the past several days out of my own savings, then scrolled through my emails, sorting through the job offers. Some had expired and still others were in the next week, so I deleted them. Even I knew that I still had not fully recovered from my adventure, despite how well my wounds had cleared up. I felt weak, and even a walk from my hotel room down to the adjoining bar was more than I can manage more than a couple times a day.

Near the bottom, I saw something interesting.

An email from one of my contacts, someone who had helped me out when I had first stumbled into the discovery of the supernatural side of things. Rashel, an older hunter that didn't do much more than consult on cases anymore. Apparently, there was a convention of sorts, for all us supernatural investigator types. It was in three weeks and for some reason she thought I should head down to Las Vegas to check it out.

Now, there were people in the community who merely investigated spirits or hauntings, and others who documented strange happenings. There were those that were committed to helping people find peace and rest, and still others that had more luck debunking myths and urban legends than they did in finding bigfoot. There were healers and mystics that walked the tightrope between human and non-human.

But there were actual hunters, people that hunted down the monsters in the world. Some of them took the time to find out if a nonhuman was a monster or not. They would investigate claims and if it was something that someone needed help with, they helped them. But there were a lot that just believed that all supernaturals were evil and needed to be killed. Too many nights watching bad horror movie plots, dreaming of saving the poor maiden from Dracula, kind of bullshit.

Whenever there were gatherings, and it was something that appeared to happen yearly, when a prominent person in the community died, or when there was something bad going down, there was always a clear and divisive line. And it sometimes led to fights. Always a lot of drama, and people drawing lines in the sand. I was about to respond with a very unconvincing promise to think about it, when another email popped up.

This one was from the mystery employer that had sent me to Mawaska in the first place. They had another high paying job in Colorado. Very little details, all cloak and daggers, promising me big money but giving me scant details to work with.

I frowned at that email and deleted it, then responded to Rashel, telling her that I, and perhaps my partner, would be there.

If only to find out why everyone was gathering. And why an old acquaintance wanted me to join them.

End of Down Below