Blake’s Troubles II

Paul let out a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. A small bead of sweat ran down his face. He fidgeted under the captain’s intense gaze.

“This case has been much more difficult than expected, Captain.”

“You’ve been on it for a day! A day! Now we have media crawling up our ass! Do you know how hard this will be to cover up?

Yeah, this is the first time we’ve had to cover up supernatural stuff, Paul thought, but didn’t voice it. Instead, he chose to remain silent — knowing his old friend was just venting.

Drake grabbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand, annoyance radiating from him. “I need to know: did they return?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll have to check with the church to make sure there haven’t been any new demons released into the city.”

Drake’s face looked as if it had visibly aged years upon hearing that statement, his eyes sunken. Paul noticed the dark circles underneath his eyes and a slight stubble covering his face.

“How long have you been sitting on this case before handing it over to R-Detective Hayes?”

“Too long…” Drake sighed. “I thought it was just a normal kidnapping and murder until we started seeing sigils.”

“And when I asked to join the case, you jumped on it right away to make sure there was no supernatural stuff.”

The captain nodded in agreement.

Paul shook his head. It’s always some kind of secret going on in this world. It’s why he doesn’t work on supernatural cases anymore. The hiding, the fight, and the wickedness get old.

So Old.

“On Monday, I need an entire debrief in my office,” Drake said, breaking through his musing.

Paul opened his mouth to speak, but the door to the room swung open, much to his surprise. He blinked, and then a blur pushed past Drake, barreling right into Paul’s chest.

“OOPH,” Paul gasped.The breath was driven out of his lungs as the person wrapped their arms around his chest. The person’s head came up to the middle of his chest. Wet spots dampened his shirt, causing the fabric to stick to his skin.

After a couple of minutes, the person unwrapped their arms from around his waist and stepped back. It was a young girl, around sixteen, with bright red hair. Her face matched her hair as tears streamed from her brown eyes. She sniffed, using the sleeve of her arm to wipe her face clean.

“Hi, Elizabeth!” Paul gasped, his eyes narrowing at Drake, who was laughing.

Liz’s tears dried up, and she narrowed her eyes aggressively at Paul. “Don’t 'hi' me, Dad.” She growled, her hands slowly balled into fists. “How many times are you going to end up in the hospital for being stupid? I bet you didn’t even call for backup?”

Paul flinched at her venomous tone and kept quiet.

“He did have backup; in fact, he and Detective Hayes were on the case together,” Drake spoke up, his arms crossed while leaning against a wall.

Liz jumped at Drake’s voice. She glanced at him, her face flushed red. Defeat was written across her face when she turned back to Paul.

“How long has he been standing there?” She asked, her voice small.

The older detective shrugged. “The entire time.”

“The entire time… how embarrassing.”

Dark snorted, his hand quickly covering his mouth to hide his laughter once again.

Paul held in his laughter and patted the top of Liz’s head. “Don’t worry, it’s just Drake,” he reassured, but she didn’t look convinced. “How about we leave the hospital, go pick up my car, and the three of us can get out to eat. My treat.:

“Fine,” Liz huffed, crossing her arms in annoyance. She tried and failed to hide the smile on her face.

Drake cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “I hate to break up this little moment, but you can’t get your car until Monday.”

Paul’s head snapped up toward Drake, his hands quickly moving to cover his daughter’s ears. “What the fuck happened to my car, Drake?”

“Someone busted the window out of your car, stealing everything inside.”

Paul’s hand dropped limply to his side, and he stared straight ahead, lifeless.

“D-dad, are you okay?” Liz asked, her tone worried.

Paul heard Drake mutter to her, “Just let him go.”

A few seconds passed with the room quiet. Finally raising his head to the ceiling, Paul let out a giant, “NOOOOO!”

Paul dramatically jumped out of the car, pretending to cry as he looked solemnly at the ground. “I promise never to forsake the ground again.”

“Seriously, Dad,” Liz mumbled as she walked past him. “Acting like he didn’t teach me to drive myself, stupid old man.”

He pretended not to hear her grumbling as he held the prayer pose for a couple more seconds. Finally, Liz had enough. She grabbed Paul by the arm and dragged him toward the front door.

“Come on, let’s get inside. I’m starting to feel cold.” She muttered.

Paul took a deep breath, doing his best to calm his nerves. You got this, Paulie; just act like a normal day. The pep talk didn’t help to stop his heart from wanting to burst out of his chest.

Liz let go of his arm, pulled the keys from her pocket, and quickly found the right one. She swung the door fully open and hurried inside.

“Come on, it's been forever since you’ve been here! You tots got to see the new laptop Mom bought,” She rushed toward her room without waiting for a reply.

Paul slowly stepped into the house, which was as clean as ever. Ava had always been somewhat of a neat freak. In the hallway, Liz just walked into her bedroom; straight ahead was the fireplace with a TV above it.

On the mantle were pictures.

He took off his boots and set them next to Liz’s, knowing Ava hated people walking around in regular shoes. He quickly made his way toward the pictures, shocked that Ava still had pictures of their wedding up.

Another picture showed them smiling over Liz’s crib. Putting that picture down, he went to look at the front door, which was open. Paul turned to see Ava coming through the door, his heart dropping at how beautiful she still looked.

I was a damn fool for not making it work…

“Liz, did you go see your fa—” Ava shouted before trailing off. Her eyes locked onto Paul, who stood there, lost.

The room fell quiet as they stared at each other. A strange atmosphere hung in the air.

“Hi,” he said awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

“Hi,” she replied, tucking a piece of hair behind her left ear.

Liz was looking down at her laptop as she walked into the room. “Sorry it took so long, Dad, I was looking for this cool…” She trailed off as she saw her parents staring at each other. “Um, what are you guys doing?”

Liz’s question knocked them both out of their locked gazes. Ava headed into the kitchen with a single grocery bag.

Paul awkwardly cleared his throat and walked toward Liz, looking at her new laptop. “What did you want me to look at on this thing, Liz?”

“Oh, um, I just wanted to show some art I’ve been working on.” She explained.

As his daughter talked, Paul thought back to Rook. After everything, he’d have to come clean about everything, including the truths about the world.