Arilius sits down in their seat and begins to examine the paperwork for my return. This is my chance to get a good look at them. The first thing I noticed was their hair, how long it was. My guess is, if it weren’t tied back so nicely, it would at least be down to their tailbone. But the fact that it was gorgeous black that fades into a deep dark blue. Mondragon’s had a knack for having unnatural hair colors. Now I see the amount of jewelry they wear, necklaces, rings, and earrings, all seemingly very expensive and genuine stones. But I know that aura anywhere. Those are magic stones. How clever to mask them as regular jewelry and to hide them in plain sight, most people can ever seem to do it right. The more I look at Arilius the more I see someone who appears to keep themself well-groomed, but they cannot hide the dark circles under their eyes. But one glance at their desk, and you can see why they have such horrible bags.

Arilius clears their throat and says, “Your paperwork seems to be in order, so within a week’s time, your rank will be properly reinstated but for now. Welcome back to the association general”.

“Ah good. Maybe this time my job will be easier,” I say sarcastically.

“I highly doubt it with this mess going on,” they gesture to the giant mess of paperwork.

“Speaking of this why do you have it just lying about? Do they not give you folders in this job?”

“I- well, I am busy trying to put out fires that are not mine because Talia shoves her work on to me. As well as filling out three, now four, transfer papers,” they say, defending their mess.

“Three transfers?” I ask

“Yes Talia sent out three different letters, but I have no idea if they even reached the recipients.”

“So it wasn't just Andromeda?” I muttered.

“Isn't that what I just said?” they asked.

Did Natalia invite both Beo and Victoria?

Arilius snaps their fingers and I was snapped back to reality.

“Oh right um where was I,” I begin again.

“You were just insulting my messy desk,” they responded.

“Oh yes right, why don't I help you organize this mess while my stuff is being reinstated.”

As soon as Arilius opened their mouth to utter one more word the door flew open and who do we see? My darling Andromeda and the Lieutenant General Natalia Gairil herself. Andromeda looks as though she sprinted to get here but her face lit up when she saw me. As for Natalia she just looked like her normal self. She still has that prosthetic arm of hers and her once blond hair is now snow-white. But she still looks the same as she did three years ago, powerful and charismatic. She smiles at me but now where I once felt admiration and love for her is now replaced with indifference. 

“What a delightful treat this is! Jessica how wonderful to see you after all these years, how have you been?” Natalia approaches me, placing her hand on my shoulder.

“I have been alright Natalia and how have you been holding up? I heard about what happened,” I inquired, losing a loved one hurts. I would know.

“I am doing fine but I know we aren’t here to talk about that, there is a meeting to be had for our new recruits,” She looks at me and Andromeda.

“Yes, I am looking forward to learning about this case so I can begin solving it,” Andromeda pipes up.

“Hm, let’s start it now, seeing as you two are both late,” Arilius adds.

Natalia takes the other seat next to me and Andromeda stands behind me. It’s only been a few minutes and she reverts to when she was my apprentice all those years ago. Arilius pulls out a hefty batch of files and reports from their desk drawer. I could feel the atmosphere of the room shift when I was handed one of the files. I look over them carefully, the reports of the dead. Most are Acers. The killer seems to have a type, or these Acers are very unlucky. 27 deaths in total all spread out in three years, so no patterns at all.

“I am aware this case is confusing to look at, trust me I’ve been seeing this for three years now. But there is one thing that cannot be ignored,” Arilius stated.

“And that would be? I am just dying to know and I am sure all these people were too,” I added. My dark joke might be in poor taste right now but it seemed to lighten the atmosphere a little bit.

“Very funny Jessica but it is the sporadic attacks, there is no exact date or pattern to be had. Most of the victims are unlucky Acers and the ones who weren’t were just regular people who were passing by,” Natalia confirmed my suspicions about the attacks.

“But were there any witnesses or any accounts of people seeing our killer?” Andromeda interjected, she took the words out of my mouth. That’s my girl.

“Yes but they are always a different description, no two are the same. Some say it was tall and lanky and others say it was short and fast. Not very helpful,” Arilius answered.

“So what you are saying is you didn’t account for multiple killers?” I ask as I now glare into Natalia and Arilius’s eyes.

“Oh no we did, we kept a record of each witness account,” Arilius grumbled as they went into their desk drawer to retrieve the witness accounts.

“Thank you general, that would have been useful at the beginning,” I said. “Now that brings me to my next question, the number of deaths. 27 people are dead and how were you able to find them?” I ask.

“We kept a record of when the night patrol has and has not checked in. If one is found missing we go look for them, and sometimes we would either find them dead or in bed with someone. The worst case is that a person in question is dead alongside innocent bystanders,” Arilius informed me. Their faces changed when they mentioned the innocent bystanders.

“What about the method of death?” Andromeda asked. “They all seemed to be killed in the same way”.

“They have all have torn apart and mangled beyond recognition or burned or limbs found in different places,” I add, this case is getting more and more interesting to me. “I am reading this and I can only guess that the killer is not human at all, but is killing people to feed. As it says here the bodies were found torn apart with most of their internal organs missing and the rest got in the way”.

“We had thought that but it has not solidified yet if that would be the case,” Natalia defends, why is she deafening the fact that it hasn’t even been considered.

“If we haven’t “proved” that our killer is or is not a creature then do we have any suspects yet? Or has that not been “solidified” yet?” I jeer at Natalia.

“We have two people we think but their alibis are very solid,” Natalia tells me.

“Oh really please do tell me who you might think it is,” I leer at her, their methods of keeping information down are really starting to get on my nerves.

“We think it is the Bellrige boys, they do experiments on plenty of dead creatures. They might have even made a monster or two in there,” Natalia says with a little too much confidence.

“The weird boys who live in the old house near the graveyard Bellrige boys? How in the world did you arrive at this conclusion?” I objected, there is no way they could do it. I know them too well, they are too idiotic to actually create a whole new monster.

“Well we questioned the coven of vampires who live here, but we know them all too well. They wouldn’t hurt a human without reason. We next thought it was the demons and werewolf wh-” I cut Natalia off.

“You thought Beckham and Dante would hurt anyone? Ha! Even the thought makes me laugh. The only time you could catch Beckham hurting others is if you mess with him during a full moon, and as for Dante. Look at him, that boy wouldn’t hurt a fly, there’s no bad bone in his damned body,” I argue with her foolish statement, I know those idiots too damn well.

“How do you know them, Jessica?” Andromeda asks me and the other two lean into me more.

“I live above the tavern, Beckham causes plenty of trouble and Ida is an old woman. I sort it out in the rare times' Ridley isn’t at the bar to drink her pain away. Dante is there too but both boys have gotten comfortable with me and take the trouble up to my door. It’s like I have a pet wolf and hell hound sometimes,” I say with confidence because those are my boys now, there’s no way in hell I’m letting Natalia of all people accuse them of brutal murders. 

Natalia laughs at my comparison of the boys, but I continue cutting her off, “And as for the Bellrige boys, as smart as they are when it comes to monster anatomy. They are too stupid to create a whole new race of monsters, that would require necromancy and last I checked neither of them is magic users”.

“Well that may be the case but every time we send someone to their place, they are always hiding something. When I had gone over to talk with them, but when my fist touched the wood of the door, I heard someone yell, ‘Dispose of it! Quickly now!’ which was then quickly followed by the sound of a shattering window, and then a large thump outside the building,” Arilius complained.

“Did you go to check what was thrown out of the building?” Andromeda asks.

“Yes I did, but it was nothing very important to our investigation,” they sigh.

I burst out laughing, I have known those boys since they were young. They have always seemed to follow monsters and any kind of dangerous creature and since I was normally the one who was sent to deal with those said creatures I would often find them. Romulus and Remus make wonderful company sometimes. And the shenanigans I just heard them pull on Arilius, definitely sounded like them.

“We were hoping that someone could question them again, maybe someone who isn't fully part of the association yet? Like an unofficial visit,” Natalia says, which I am very sure that statement was directed at me.

“Let me guess lieutenant, you want Jessica to do it?” Andromeda responds to her.

Joy, I have been here for a little more than an hour and she is giving me work and I haven’t even been processed yet…

“So you want me to do a ‘friendly chat’ with them?” I scoff. “So you are telling us you have no witnesses, no patterns, no written evidence in these files, and most importantly you have no suspect?” I say with a more annoyed tone. Truly what kind of shit show is this?

The room becomes silent for a bit, I think they understood my annoyance. I have seen this face before, long ago when she and Helena would get on to corporals. She is intending to scold me But I have been through hell and back, Lieutenant General Natalia Gairil does not scare me anymore. 

Arilius clears their throat and breaks the silence, “Well I think we all are on the same page for this case. General Andromeda feel free to look around and introduce yourself to some of your fellow Acers. As for Ms. Avernius, you are aware of your unofficial assignment to the Bellrige boys and I ask you to also get a feel for the new environment. Things have changed a bit while you were gone.”

“Yes please do that, now if you excuse me I do have some paperwork to tend to. It was lovely meeting you Andromeda but you don’t have to be so formal with me, please call me Talia” Natalia smiled at her. 

“Yes, ma’am I am grateful you allowed us this chance to work on this case” Andromeda beamed, she was always to find a new hunt. She was always like that, taking the hardest jobs just to see what she could find and or kill.

Natalia turns to me and says in her passive-aggressive voice “And Jessica I am so happy you came back to us, I do hope you stay”.

“I fully intend to Natalia, I have neglected this town for far too long” I respond in a much nicer tone than her. I remember well that the first person who becomes hostile loses, and I will not be that person.