I dashed back to the city at full speed.

“Oh man, I’m going to be late at this rate!” Shay said to himself, completely out of breath.

“The time on the clock said 7:45 before I left, and I promised to meet her at 8. Darn, this one will be close!” I sneered.

I ran down the rugged path surrounded by vast fields covered in grass. I could see the farmhouse, which was positioned right before the gate into the city, from where I was. “The farmhouse is right next to the entrance! Come on I can make this!”

I jumped the fence separating the entrance to the farming area and the open fields and ran straight towards the gate into the city.

I’ll make it! I am faster than what I thought!

I felt my muscles growing tired and I felt extremely short of breath. I tried to keep pushing onward,I was too close to give up, especially after bolting all that way from the outer village. I tried to power myself a little further but to no avail, my muscles grew numb and I began to feel ill, my breath quickened again, and I felt myself begin to stumble a little bit. I subconsciously stopped running for a second to catch breath.

The second I stopped I lost my balance and fell towards a wall on my right. I sat down leaning against it to try and catch my breath. The people around me gave me looks of confusion some asking if I was okay and “what had happened”. I suppose I forgot I was in my guards’ uniform, maybe running full speed through the city wasn’t so much of a smart idea.

After around 5 or 6 minutes I pulled myself together and began walking towards my apartment. I felt my head become dizzy and everything started to feel distorted.

Yup, I overdid it huh? I thought to myself. I spied a clock through the window of some old café that had been there since I was a kid. “8:02 huh?” I said out loud to myself. I guess I was blacked out on the side of the road for a little longer than I had wanted. The next corner would lead me to my house. I could see Amelia standing there waiting for me, her brown hair blowing in the wind, she peered over in my direction and she immediately started to look worried.

“Shay, what happened?” She asked scared for my safety.

“I thought I was going to be late so I ran over from a village outside town as fast as I could.” As I chuckled at my own misfortune her worried face turned into a sympathetic one.

“Come on, what will I do with you.” She giggled. Amelia helped me into my apartment, I got in and went to lay down on the bed right away.

“I thought guards got one day of rest before they begin working.” Amelia asked as she made tea for us.

“There was an emergency in a village outside of town, they needed people there immediately.” I responded

“Aaah, I see. Well, you shouldn’t overexert yourself like you did just now. You won’t be much good to the guards if you are passing out from exhaustion all the time.” She said giggling as she poured out the tea into two separate cups.

“Yeah I guess I won’t be much use will I.” I laughed it off. But still, Amelia is so kind. Here she is making tea for me and helping me recover even though I asked her out to get something to eat. How embarrassing. I thought.

After I had my tea, she made me, Amelia urged me to get some rest. I didn’t take much convincing at that point and after a while of Amelia talking to me as I drifted off, I fell asleep.

6:30 AM - The next morning.

I woke up at my usual time, the birds singing outside, the sun beaming through the dingy old blinds highlighting all the dust flying through the air. I sat up and looked around my apartment, the tea that we had yesterday was still here, my guards’ uniform was still here and…

“AMELIA IS STILL HERE?!” I shrieked waking her up, and probably the rest of the city. She didn’t go home? I mean I suppose she was worried about me. She was lying on the right side of the bed, now looking at me with her usual warm and inviting tone.

“Good morning Amelia.” I smiled at her, “Man you gave me quite the shock. I didn’t expect to see someone in my apartment when I woke up.” I laughed.

“Well, good morning.” She started getting up to go and make breakfast, I got up too to help her. I didn’t have an interview today at the guard station, so my duties didn’t start until 8 AM. No rush, Thank God! I thought to myself.

Amelia was making tea and put a few biscuits out. “This is the limit to my cooking abilities sorry.” She giggled. I mean at least she’s honest. I thought to myself while smiling.

“It’s good.” I laughed back. “I like your tea, it’s probably the best I’ve ever tasted in all honesty.”

“Well when it’s the only thing you can make, I guess you get good at it.” Said Amelia laughing.

I laughed back and sat down to drink my tea. We talked about stories from our childhood and what we could have done yesterday had I not been exhausted. After drinking our tea and chatting for around 40 minutes we decided to head out. Amelia works in her grandfather’s gardening store, they sell plants mainly and only a handful of tools. I decided to walk Amelia there since I had time to spare.

As we strolled down the bustling streets of Aero city we ran into a compendium of friends and close acquaintances. After around 10 minutes of walking we got to her grandfather’s shop. I popped in and said hello to her grandfather, he is such a nice old man, He goes to most charity events the city holds and helps look for lost animals in his spare time when he isn’t working the shop. I suppose that contrasts to Amelia’s personality who is also just as caring.

After saying my hellos and goodbyes I made my way to the guard’s station.

I looked across the street into that cafes window, “8:24 huh?” I said to myself. “I suppose I’m on perfect time today.”

I reach the guard’s station and head over to the changing rooms in the guards’ quarters where I can take a shower and get dressed into a clean uniform. I surprisingly didn’t smell all that bad but taking a shower is for the best anyway.

Once I had finished showering, I got changed in a private stall. As I’m leaving my stall, I see Zane walk into the changing rooms.

“Hey Zane.” Greeting him with a smile on my face.

“Hey Shay, by the look on your face I’ll take it you made it on time for your date last night.” Zane replied.

“Yeah I guess you could say that…” I laughed nervously.

“Hmm?” Zane perked his head and gave an intrigued look. But before he could follow it up, in came Paul.

“Hey guys.” Paul entered the changing rooms with a big smile on his face. It looked like more of a fake smile, maybe trying to put what happened yesterday behind us.

“Hey Paul.” We both responded.

It seemed like Paul had been here before both me and Zane and had already gotten ready. Me and Paul waited outside the changing rooms for Zane and then headed to the main hall for a briefing. The hall was a good size, a stage up front, enough room to fit around 60 people, it felt like your average school assembly hall. The flags of the city were hung high along the ice white walls of the hall. Higher level guards stood along the sides close to the walls, there were around 4 of them in total all spread out standing firm. The 3 of us walked in and sat down in the middle row of seats.

Diablo and another man came walking out from behind a curtain, the unknown man who accompanied Diablo identified himself as Zack Zentorno, the boss of the guard stations in this area. He was a skinnier guy with black hair and silver eyes. He stood tall in his guard uniform; he wore a badge similar to Diablos leader badge, but I could tell even from this distance it was different.

He talked about the basics of being a guard, I could tell that not everyone in here was a beginner, but I suppose they wanted to make sure everyone was still keeping up. He gave us the run down of when we will be given missions, how we will tackle them, when we will be training and so on. Timetables were issued to our lockers in the guard’s quarters that displayed our time for training and when we had off days.

“Attention Now!” He spoke clearly and assertively. This next piece of information was important, I could already tell. The mood shifted immediately.

“We want to keep this information private from the public, so that panic isn’t stirred.”

“You must keep this confidential at all times, anyone caught leaking information will be dropped.” He went on.

“Over the past week, there have been several murders in this area.”

Everyone in the hall seemed to have been knocked off guard by that.

“To make sure we tackle this situation effectively we must work together. I want everyone to keep their eyes and ears open. We must not allow for any more deaths to take place.” He continued “So far all the murders have happened at night-time, the criminal has made no mistakes so far, no traces or clues whatsoever. Therefore, we must pay close attention to our surroundings, consider everyone a suspect. Ask people you pass by ordinary questions like, how has your day been? without making it obvious you are digging for information. Watch their body language, facial movements and all the rest. At the end of the week we will ask you for a suspect list.”

“Is everyone clear on this?!” Announced Mr Zentorno.

A unanimous “Yes Sir.” Echoed the halls and we were all dismissed.

The three of us headed towards the guard’s quarters to collect our timetables when Diablo stopped us.

“Hey.” He called out.

The three of us turned around.

“Shay, I’d like to talk with you in private about what you experienced yesterday, I may of found a lead yesterday.”

A lead already? He sure works fast. I thought to myself.

“Oh, sure thing.” I replied.

“Good okay, come this way then, you can collect your timetable later.”

I told Zane and Paul I’d catch up with them later and I followed Diablo down a side corridor. The entrance to it was locked behind a smooth dark oak door, we walked down the corridor which had several doors inside leading off into other important rooms which I can assume were for important evidence, documents and the like. He takes me into the door right at the end of the hall.

“This is Mr Zentorno’s office.” Said Diablo. “He just left for business after that speech so the room will be free for a while.”

The room was your typical boss’s office, it had a big brown wooden desk with a fancy leather cushioned chair sitting behind it. A massive bay window covered the back wall which brightened up the room, bookcases covered the dark green walls on the right side and on the left was a leather sofa and a glass coffee table.

He is really living in luxury huh? I couldn’t help but think.

“Take a seat here.” Diablo said as he pulled a chair from the corner of the room that I hadn’t noticed before. He sat it in front of the wooden desk and then went to sit down in Zentorno’s seat himself.

“I wanted to ask about that demon again.” He began asking, right to the point is his forte, I guess.

“Was there anything else you noticed about it? Anything strange you picked up on?” He asked.

“The only thing that struck me as off is that it seemed as if it had just gotten out of a battle. It had cuts and strikes on its leg despite me not attacking it there at all.” I replied.

“Hm I thought so. I went to check out where you found it yesterday to analyse the scene and it looked as if the demon had been bleeding before you fought it. I found traces of dried blood in one of the upper rooms despite the blood out front still being a liquid.”

How clever, I mean he could have known that yesterday had I not forgotten to mention it and we might be further ahead in this case, I guess I wasn’t in the right head space yesterday after all.

“Thanks for the confirmation.” Diablo said standing up. He opened his mouth to say something else but before he could -BANG!!!-

The Bay window shattered; something had exploded right outside the window. Shards of glass flew everywhere all over the room. Before I could react, Diablo had already jumped over the desk and pushed me onto the floor avoiding a second explosion -KABOOM!!!-

That one was a lot closer I thought to myself. “Hurry, we need to get out of here!” Roared Diablo.

We shot up and began to make a break for the door! “The window was reinforced with magic, so it was able to survive a single blast, but now that it’s shattered, this room is dangerous!” Yelled Diablo.

We got close to the door and the second we opened it another blast sent us flying into the wall of the corridor.

“Tch, seems like that murderer has come to us.” Exhaled Diablo. “Come on Shay, come with me. This is our only chance to catch that bastard.” Diablo said already about halfway down the corridor. I ran after him; we ran down onto the street where a crowd had begun to form. There were 2 people sitting on the side of the road who had been hit by debris and were injured. A few of the higher ups at the guard’s station began to pour out along with a handful of other guards.

We’ll go after him. You guys stay here and tend to any injured.” Diablo said to the other higher ups. This way, Shay!” We bolted past the carnage that was the guard station right now, from the looks of things someone tried to assassinate Mr Zentorno. Diablo said talked as if it was the murderer from this morning’s speech, why would he assassinate Mr Zentorno though, to get him off his tracks? Is Mr Zentorno some amazing detective or something?

“There!” Yelled Diablo at the top of his voice. As we jolted down the narrow back streets of Aero city Diablo pointed at a tall, average build man wearing a white jacket with a white fedora and black suit pants. “I saw what he was wearing from the window! That man there, in the white jacket, he’s our murderer!”

The mysterious man then turned sharply down a small dark alleyway on the right. “That’s him!” Shouted Diablo and picked up his pace. I was starting to have a hard time keeping up with him and I like to consider myself pretty light on my feet, but Diablo was something else.

As we neared the corner to the alleyway Diablo turns to me and says; “Be ready for a fight, Shay.”

I nod my head in agreeance and look forward for a second, then back to Diablo one last time to reassure myself before turning the corner.

“huh…” I stumbled momentarily in utter shock.

“What…”

“He’s gone… Diablo- Is gone?”