Beast Soul

"Ow…" Jamie groaned in pain, as he pressed his hand on his head, which was hurting like hell from all the beating he took.

"Where the hell did that guy go?" Frustrated and angry, Jamie looked around for the person responsible for this mess, only to find nothing. There was no sight of the guy. 

"Ugh.. Wh- Where'd that guy go?" Benny, who also groaned in pain, rubbed his chest as he slowly got up from the floor.

"Jamie…" The soft and weak voice of Ella shifted his focus, and he immediately walked up towards her without answering Benny's question. "Ella…" He whispered softly as he inspected her body for any serious external injuries, which he found none.

"Be- Benny!" He then turned to Benny, calling and waving at him. "We need to get her to the hospital…" He said weakly, and Benny slowly walked up to them, and helped Jamie pull Ella up.

"Where's Ken?" Benny asked, and Jamie looked around and saw no one. 

"He probably ran away," Jamie said as he clicked his tongue. He would deal with him later. 

"The other guy didn't steal anything, did he?" Benny said as he looked for his wallet, which he immediately found, and Jamie did the same.

'I can't seem to find my student ID card…' Jamie thought that he had lost it during the fight, and decided not to think about it anymore.

-----------------

New World City Police Station.

Commissioner Walter Bridge walked out of the Medical Examiner's room and sat down on the seat which was just outside of the office. 

"Are you feeling alright, Commissioner?" Inspector Garry MacDonald, who was heading down and on his way to the Medical Examiner's room, stopped in his tracks upon seeing the Commissioner sitting outside, which piqued his interest.

"Hah…" Commissioner Bridge let out a long and heavy sigh as he rubbed his forehead, which was covered in sweat. "Not really, Garry, no…" He replied, and he sounded exhausted as he spoke.

"Did you see the dead corpse again?" Inspector MacDonald pointed at the door of the Examiner's room as he spoke. "I accidentally looked at the corpse once again when I entered. Couldn't eat my lunch. Just dumped it all in the trash can." 

"Uh, yeah, no.. it's not that," Commissioner Bridge clarified. "The Mayor came."

"Oh boy," Inspector MacDonald had a shocked expression on his face as he spoke, and the Commissioner nodded his head. "Yeah, I know."

Garry MacDonald glanced at the tired and exhausted looking Commissioner, and then sat down on the seat that was right next to him. "What happened?"

"Huh?" The Commissioner asked with a confused expression, and Garry clarified, "The Mayor. What happened with the Mayor?"

"Oh! Well it went just about how you'd expect, I guess…" Commissioner Bridge tilted his head and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he spoke, and a light smile appeared on the Inspector's face. "Didn't take it too well, huh?"

"That's an understatement." Commissioner Bridge scoffed, and he leaned his head back onto the wall behind him. "Probably shouldn't have had the discussion in the washroom either. That was a bad idea."

"Well, lesson learned, right?" Inspector Garry asked, and the Commissioner nodded while repeating his words. "Lesson learned."

"So, is that it?" Inspector McDonald asked after a brief period of silence, and the Commissioner looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

The inspector pointed at the Commissioner's hands. "You're shaking."

"Oh yeah, that!" Commissioner said with a shaky voice as he looked at his own hands, and realized that they were in fact, trembling. He then took out his handkerchief and rubbed it all over his face. He had been doing that quite a number of times in the past few days. "It's just, I guess I'm a bit overwhelmed by everything that's happening, you know?"

"Oh yeah. I understand." Inspector MacDonald nodded his head. "This is some crazy sh*t that's going on right now. I mean, crazy corpse vines and dragons? I feel like I'm in a freaking monster novel or something!" 

"Yeah, I guess that's what I'm talking about.." The Commissioner didn't know how to respond to the inspector's words, so he simply decided to agree to what he was saying, hoping that he was right. "I- I don't know… It's just not what I envisioned when I thought about becoming a Commissioner."

"I assume most people don't imagine themselves fighting supernatural beings and mythological creatures when they think of being the Commissioner of police." Inspector Garry MacDonald interjected, and the Commissioner let out a short chuckle.

"But now, it's like, this is how it is," Commissioner placed his hand under his chin. "And I don't know if I'm ready for that. I don't know if I'm ready to be the Commissioner of Police, when my job involves fighting literal monsters."

"It's not what you signed up for… I get it." Inspector MacDonald nodded his head. He then inserted his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a can of iced coffee. 

Click!

He cracked open the can and took a sip out of it, and continued, "I guess we all have no choice but to adjust and adapt to the new life, huh.."

"I guess that's really all we can do," Commissioner Bridge nodded. 

--------------------

"God.. help me… ugh!" Clarice grunted as she climbed over the garbage bins that were behind the apartment complex, and tried to reach over to the railings that lined the balcony of Marty's room.

"F*ck!" She cursed loudly, but immediately clutched her mouth shut after realizing that she had to be extremely quiet. 

"Did anyone hear me?" Clarice looked around with a nervous expression. Fortunately for her, there was absolutely no sign of anyone. The streets were completely empty, as though they had been abandoned for ages. Clarice breathed a sigh of relief, and continued trying to reach for the railings to grab onto.

"Just… just a little bit more.." She said to herself, as though she was motivating her to keep trying, and right then..

Grab!

Her hand wrapped around one of the railings, and her nervous expression was immediately replaced with that of a happy and excited one.

"F*ck yes! I'm the f*cking best!" She said enthusiastically in a hushed tone, and she raised her other hand up and grabbed the other railing, pulling her up onto the balcony.

"Ugh!" She groaned loudly as she raised one of her legs up and placed it on the balcony floor, and pulled herself up. 

'That yoga classes I took really came in handy,' She thought to herself, as she had finally reached the balcony of Marty's apartment, breathing in and out, gasping like crazy.

"F*ck me, I ain't doing that ever again…" She whispered under her breath as she laid down on the floor. Her eyes then darted towards the sliding glass door that separated the balcony from the interior of the apartment.

"Now, I have to figure this sh*t out.." She stood up from the floor after catching her breath and walked up to the door. 

'What to use here? Bobby pins? Needles? Or just breaking the glass?' Clarice had a variety of ideas lined up that she could use, but fortunately for her, the door opened without needing any of that.

Swoosh!

The door wasn't locked, and Clarice carefully entered the apartment, moving forward on her toes and being cautious as she looked around the place, trying to find out the 'package' that she desperately wanted.

"For a dealer, Marty sure does keep his apartment clean.." Clarice couldn't help but admit that Marty's apartment was kept neat and tidy. 

"Wait! Focus, Clarice! That's not what you're here for," Realizing that she was losing her focus, Clarice immediately reminded herself of why she was doing this, and began looking around the apartment.

"Sh*t! Where the hell could Marty have kept it?" Clarice began looking around the apartment, rummaging through bookshelves and cupboards in order to find what she wanted. 

But alas, she couldn't find it anywhere. "You've got to be sh*tting me!" Frustrated and enraged by the situation that she's found herself in, Clarice clicked her tongue and slammed her foot on the floor, which made a loud 'thud' sound.

THUD!

Although the noise wasn't exactly too loud, it did echo all over the room, which made Clarice flinch and stand still in one place. 

"...f*ck! Was I too loud?" Clarice was afraid. She was also frustrated with herself. She had to learn to control her emotions, or else she might end up getting caught.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Just when she had hoped that no one could've heard that, a set of noises which resembled something being bashed open was heard from inside the apartment, making Clarice almost scream out loudly in fear.

"....What the f*ck was that?" Clarice mumbled to herself as she looked in the direction from where the noise had come from, which was what appeared to be a small storage room of sorts, present in the corner of the apartment.