Bellow the well
April 28, 2021, 9:09
Beijing, China
CPA east department
Conference
Case 91-5-7-7
"Good morning, lovelies." Dodo skips through the conference room door, balancing her strawberry milkshake in a hand and holding Reema's files in the other. "Cheer up yall it's only 9 in the morning, c'mon Andy, give us that cheeky smile of yours." Andy frowns stubbornly and hisses at her, making Dodo side eye the other end of the wall. She sits down next to Reema and places down the files in front of her, noticing how she's bouncing her leg anxiously and maybe a little impatiently. She places her hands on her thighs, and it calms her down a bit, Reema smiles softly at her and shifts her attention to the files in front of her.
It's a missing case, one that is complicated and crucial according to General Rati.
He has gathered the best two teams in the facility to work on it, hers and Evdokia's, giving them a notice that it's an extremely secretive job, that they can't even consult their higher ups on it.
The case was filed by a fairy. Apparently, his son with half blood was part of the kidnapped group. The fairy's identity was anonymous, which raises high suspension, but his claims so far are true, and they later got another report in the FBI, and the dots were connected.
And so they're asked to work on finding the kids, then finding the fairy and figure out how has he managed erasing every possible paper regards him and his family, yet she has a profile of his son on the table right in front of her, with a first and family name only. Reema schemes through the papers in front of her, stacked and secured well to the binder.
Wang YuNing, >>fairy blood<<
24-year-old male half Chinese half Thai
Birth date: February 27 Birth place: Fenghuang, China black haired and dark brown eyed, sharp jawline and cheek bones.
student at Beijing's contemporary music academy, was last seen on campus four days before the case was filed.
Recorded family members: none.
Li ZiYan, >>Mermaid<<
24-year-old male Chinese
Birth date: January 7 Birth place: Beijing, China brown haired and hazel eye.
student at the Beijing's contemporary music academy, was last seen 2 days at his dorm room two days before his disappearance, according to the victim family.
Recorded family members: father, mother, uncle.
Cui Liling, >>Human<<
23 year old, female Chinese
Birth date: October 18 Birth place: Beijing, China
Black straight hair, large pulled eyes, dark, pale skin.
student at the Beijing's contemporary music academy, was last seen 2 days at him dorm room two days before her disappearance.
Recorded family members: none.
Li NianZu, >>Human<<
23 year old, male Chinese
Birth date: December 6 Birth place: Shanghai, China
Tall, short wavy hair, dark skin.
student at the Beijing's contemporary music academy, was last seen 2 days at him dorm room two days before his disappearance.
Recorded family members: none.
Chang QinYu, >>Human<<
25 year old, male Chinese
Birth date: January 1 Birth place: Beijing, China
Blue dyed hair, round glasses, medium height.
Student at the Beijing's contemporary music academy, was last seen in a senior jacket on campus one day before his disappearance.
Recorded family members: none.
Ming XiangHua, >>Human<<
23 year old, female Chinese
Birth date: August 26 Birth place: Beijing, China
Medium height, tanned skin, curly light brown hair.
student at the Beijing's contemporary music academy, was last seen 2 days at him dorm room two days before her disappearance.
Recorded family members: none.
Other than ZiYan's, the rest of the files are pretty useless in terms of information that could help tracking them down. She even doubts knowing that ZiYan is full creature will help them out at all.
There are a lot of plot holes in this case, because for one, the security cameras caught the whole act, only that once they were all loaded into the van, every camera switched off for less than a second and kaboom, they disappeared into thin air.
They know for a fact humans haven't discovered teleporting yet, so that checks out what species took them. However, it is as hard to believe as for magical creatures. Transferring somewhere else in less than 3 seconds is almost impossible for one creature on his own body, nevertheless the amount of unconscious and conscious bodies that were inside the van, that all without calculating the van. Reema knows they're up against ones with strong magical skills. Add to that the fact that they've used magic in the out open, which opposes every fundamental creatures have long agreed on, friends or foes. This could easily blow their cover that has been standing tall for centuries and decades.
Reema lays back on the chair, uncomfortable. She looks paler than normal with dark circles framing her grey eyes. She's staring at the two files in front of her, like she's waiting for a miracle and the papers would talk to her and tell her everything she needs to know about the case, not a bunch of information she could have guessed on her own while playing trivia.
She looks at the four humans files, and part of her couldn't care any less about them, but the other part of her feels sorry for them, but truly, they're not her priority.
The C.P.A normally doesn't get involved with human cases, to protect their own agents safety. The agency can't afford being found out by the governments, since they're strictly confidential from the governments. But they let it slide sometimes, working while tip toeing around the police system to get enough information regarding the cases that happen to have creatures, if they haven't found them out themselves, and work upon it. Sometimes they manage to access human officers and detectives devices and load more information onto them to get more brains on the cases, smart but risky, Reema thinks.
But this case is different, because no matter how much they think it through, they can't seem to figure out the motives of the kidnappers. They never called the families for money, they never found any bodies around the streets, missing organs.
The anonymous guy is a fairy, which means he can telepathically reach his son, but he didn't, which could only mean that his son is already dead or there's a blockage ward wherever the hell he's being captivated. Either way, Reema just wants to get this over with because yes they pulled her out of her very deserved vacation for this job after her latest case and she wants to go back to it as soon as possible, thank you very much.
She fiddles with the sheet in front of her, reading the other information about ZiYan and YuNing. She believes ZiYan knows his truth, given that his entire family tree descend from mermaids, sirens and cecaelias.
And then there's YuNing. Fairies might not have the biggest of difference when it comes to appearance. In fact, if they were never taught how to use their magic abilities they might seem like any other normal human. It's fascinating in a way, the essence of a being only being taught and never born with it.
For the longest of millenniums, so far no creature was discovered by humans, at least not ones that told them off or wasn't killed on the spot. That's also keeping her mind off. The four humans that were kidnapped, were they exposed to magic? Are they going to have to kill them if they did? Or where they already killed by the assailants as the creatures rules command?
Reema is spacing out when Evdokia comes into the room with what smells like black coffee, Valodya right behind her with his clutches, within his other hands two green tea cups for Evdokia and himself.
"you spoil me too much." Evdokia says to Valodya as she takes her mug from him and slides the black coffee to Reema.
"never enough, your highness." Reema rolls her eyes at them with a sly smile on her face.
"You got the files?" Evdokia asks as she pulls her chair on the opposite side of the conference room table. Reema slides her the files across the table, "Nothing helpful here at all." As Evdokia looks through the file papers, the rest of the teams arrive.
Reema is quite comfortable about working with Evdokia's team, specifically Robin, the winter stalker elf, as they used to work together back before the war, but she also prefers referring to him as her beloved husband.
Evdokia's team consists of six members including their captain.
The oldest and wisest is Valodya, born fairy but died and rose from the ashes into a phoenix, thousands of years ago. The youngest is Ira, an insanely beautiful cecaelia if she may say so herself. Unsurprisingly so, as he's part of the royal family. There's also Mizuki, another thousands years old kitsune, an eight tailed one. And then there's Jean. Reema thinks the man never stops frowning unless Evdokia is around. He's an iron war elf, part of the royalties as well, the good branch if you will. Probably the only good twig if her memory serves her well about that sadistic Admero family. And last but not least, their captain Evdokia. Reema admires her on so many levels when it comes to her work. She has insane magical knowledge and martial arts skills, ones that Reema can't imagine claiming even though she's a hundred years older than her. Evdokia is also a royalty, the princess of the moonfolks people. The most gentle yet restrained race of them all.
Their team speak to Reema as a found family, and she understands it since hers isn't that far from that. Her team consists of four, including herself. Her right wing would be Ufuk, an Archura, wiser than half of the facility combined. There's also Andy, a bright man that was once a boy she found next to garbage cans on a snowing night in Beijing. She thought he was going to be just another orphan she adds to the orphanage she runs, only for him to stick by her side and insist on joining her job, joining her into making a better world for creatures to live in. There's also Dodo, fourteen years old now. Her shape-shifting is still out of control, therefore, Reema does leave her back at the facility most of the jobs, which Dodo doesn't mind, as she's still unsettled with murder and death and its quite common to happen specially within the higher ranked captains missions.
Reema watches as her team sit down on her side of the conference table, getting comfortable in their seats, waiting patiently for the general to arrive and start the meeting.
*
It's pitch black.
The silence is suffocating.
𝘗𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬.
A voice echoes through the room.
𝘗𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬.
Is it water dripping or blood?
𝘗𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬.
He doesn't know.
𝘗𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬.
The screams start.
He can hear the wailing but he can't tell from where it's coming from. The screams were howls of agony and pleads for a saviour, the kind of sound that makes you crawl into your own skin, the kind of screams that rip your heart out of your rib cages and squeezes it till it drains out of fluids.
The screams stop and turn into sorrowful whimpering.
Gradually an image starts to emerge in front of him, it's blurry but slowly becomes clearer. A white haired male curled by the corner of what looks like a cell, stained in fresh blood all over his figure. He tries to reach out to him, he screams and yells but it was all in vain. He moves a little and folds his sleeves, revealing a very familiar tattoo. He rubs it and glances at it before covering his arm again. The man lifts his head off his knees with effort and glances to the side, eyes shot red and glassy.
YuNing takes it all in, the same white pearly hair, the same green and golden orbs, the same white pale skin that shimmers with brooks of gold across it.
The water is dry and the fire is cold.
𝘗𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬.
The dripping is back
𝘗𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬.
And YuNing passes out again.
*
April 30, 2021, 17:45
Beijing, China
CPA east department
Conference
"How the hell are we going to find them? There's literally not a single leading thread." Ira groans as he gulps the last droplets of his latte, excellently throwing the disposal mug across the room and into the garbage can filled with instant ramen bowls.
Reema shoots him a stern look, and he fixes his posture and goes back to looking at the screen, waiting for something to pop up on it.
To be completely honest, Reema feels like this is a hopeless case. There isn't a single thread, just how Ira said. She feels lost, and she's losing her mind with every second the clock ticks.
Evdokia isn't doing any better either. She has been staring at the wall behind Reema for a solid twenty minutes now. they've all been storming out their minds trying to figuer out a single thing about the case other than the kids names.
Luckily enough for Evdokia, the FBI has got the case and handed it to her, and now she has both of her teams, plus Reema's on the case, and somehow not a single one of them have caught onto something yet.
But that isn't Reema's worse fears, rather Evdokia's state since the beginning of the week. Reema doesn't think she has ever seen Evdokia acting that way before except that one time she had a fight with Jean that was the talk of the agency for two weeks.
She doesn't dare to ask, nor anyone on the team. She knows Evdokia, and she knows that woman is a menace to some extent if taken over the edge, so she prefers dealing with her frown than her fight.
Reema looks back at the map before her eyes and the countless camera footage of the city.
Beijing is a fucking large city, they could be anywhere, really. Fuck, they could already be out of the country for all she knows.
Reema sees Evdokia leaving her desk and calling for Jean to come behind her. Jean looks as lost as ever, a little scared, maybe, Reema doesn't blame him.
They talk behind the door of the room, and they seem to be whispering because Reema can't exactly hear anything but just incoherent noises muffled by the sound of keyboard clicking taking over the room.
Jean is back into the room alone, and he doesn't look happy, in fact, he looks like he's fucking pissed.
"where did she go?" Reema asks.
"Out for a cigarette. " Jean grits teeth. Well that's delightful. Evdokia only smokes when she's mad or nervous.
Reema gathers her courage, reminding herself she's a hundred years older than the man, and outranks him even if he looks like he's ready to kill whoever stands in his way, "what did you-"
Evdokia throws open the door, an unfinished cigarette in between her fingers. "Get up, we're leaving." She puts it out with the inside of her fist and lets it fall to the ground as she swings her coat off her chair and makes her way out of the room, none of her team questioning her orders and obeying. Reema manages to catch Evdokia's wrists on her way out of the door, and Reema could feel Evdokia's rage through her skin.
"Where the fuck are you going?" Reema raises a questioning eyebrow at her.
"I found a lead." Evdokia says.
"care to share it with us? We've been working on this for the last two days and now you're just going to-" Andy starts, and even Reema looks mortified at him.
"I don't know if its safe enough for all of us to go, might blow our cover. I'll send you the location of the safe house later." Evdokia lays it out plain and simple, a lot calmer than Reema expected her to be. Reema doesn't let go of her wrists though, and she knows she could be pushinb the wronh buttons, but now that she's this close to her, she sees how worn out she looks.
Evdokia's face is pale, her eyes encircled in black and her hair is sort of a mess.
"Hey, you know you can count on me, right?" Reema whispers to her as the rest of the team obeys her orders and gears up.
"I know, I know, it's just that-"
"Boss, we're ready." Mizuki calls out, sniper in arms.
"Rain check?" Evdokia has a lazy smile on her face, and Reema feels like there's so much to unpack here, and so she nods and lets her go, silently wishing she comes back safely.
*
April 30, 2021, 18:18
Beijing, China
Evdokia doesn't bother telling any of them where exactly they're heading, all Mizuki knows is that somehow, Evdokia figured out where they've kidnapped the college kids and they're on their way to break them out.
And how exactly did she find the said place? It was never explained on her behalf. Quite honestly, Mizuki doesn't care how she did, but he does care if it's safe enough to go without being fully geared up and literally going on their own to the beast's shrine without the other assigned team. He knows she's getting in deep trouble for acting impulsively on her own again, but he also knows Reema wouldn't judge, she's not the most tamed person either, kind of reminds him of Evdokia. The two women are like two mirrored images according to what Mizuki knows about Reema. The only difference is that while Reema is sane, Evdokia doesn't second guess before throwing herself into the fire.
They reach a deserted mansion after a thirty minutes drive from the tunnel , most of it being on a shady highway. Mizuki stops the car and studies the ground around them. There isn't much to look at, just the huge building and dried out trees surrounding it, definitely not enough to take as cover if needed.
Evdokia orders them to separate ways, Robin to the right wing underground tunnel, Mizuki and Ira from the other side of the building, while she and Jean attack from the front door.
"Did you tell any of them? Mizuki?" Jean whispers to Evdokia as he loads his gun and removes the safety.
"No, only Valodya. Mizuki and Robin will see it in his son's eyes." She counters, checking the number of bullets in her gun and getting her sword and chains ready.
"Fair enough." Jean murmurs to himself. Evdokia gives a queue for everyone to take their places and stay put.
From where he's standing, Mizuki could see the two boys tied and thrown onto their stomachs on the floor, circled by two sirens, a werewolf and what could be another shapeshifter race. They're all fully armed and he can see wards around the house already, so he isn't sure if magic would work if they needed to use it. It's usually not a necessity, they've been trained to do their job without using magic at all, yet they still need it as a last resort sometimes.
Mizuki could hear a car from a distance, and it only clicks with him now that they left the van and car close enough to make anyone notice it. Is blowing their cover part of the plan too?
A few minutes past, and all the men are standing patiently for their captain's orders. Mizuki thinks he hears Evdokia cussing in his ear.
Mizuki doesn't get to think about it because the second he's about to ask what's wrong, he sees a black wolf flying out of the woods and towards the window Mizuki and Ira are by.
Mizuki takes Ira in his arms, shielding him from the wolf, but the wolf doesn't seem to care that much for them, but rather the window. Once the wolf breaks through the glass and is inside, they hear guns being fired and creatures screeches. Mizuki's first instinct was to get up on his feet and attack the wolf, but he doesn't move, waiting for his captain's orders.
Andy is a werewolf, but if his memory serves him well, Andy's wolf is brown.
The screams and whines only get louder with every second, and Mizuki realises that the wolf isn't in fact on their team, but rather a mindless out of control creature, and he isn't sure if Evdokia sees it.
"Captain, he's killing all the suspects!" Mizuki shouts in his earpiece.
"I know, let him." Evdokia's voice is way too calm and even if it goes against Mizuki's morals, he stays put, trusting his captain's better judgement.
Mizuki takes a peak behind the safe window, and he sees the wolf ripping apart a siren, his claws implanted into the man's chest while he rips both of his legs off with his jaw. The sight makes Mizuki sick, he almost throws up right on the spot. But what takes his breathe away isn't beautiful nor petrifying, its the birth mark on the wolf's back that indicates the person he knows is inside that wolf right now and tearing all those bodies apart. Mizuki slaps his hand onto his mouth, and attempt to stop the acidic bile that reached the top of his throat, not from the vicious sight, but rather that this wolf is alive and so real in front of him right now.
Mizuki doesn't register that there are back up forces arriving and attacking them until he sees an axe flying across his face, so close to squashing his skull in half.
He instantly moves to break the wards around the mansion to be able to shift to his fox form. He jumps off the roof and takes cover in between the trees.
It only takes him five minutes to do so, Ira covering his back. When he shapeshifts, he hears and feels that they're way outnumbered, but he has faith in Evdokia and so he does what he knows best and attacks. He takes three men out with a swing of two tails, possibly killing them.
He could hear Jean's groan across the ground, and he strides to his rescue, attacking a woman topping over him with a dagger right over his heart. Jean thanks him and runs inside, and then Mizuki realises that they haven't even got the college kids yet, or stop the wolf inside.
He trusts Jean with it and focuses on the armed people on the outside, now circling them and having them wrapped up into a mess of a trap. Mizuki could see that Evdokia's forearm was shot. He grits his teeth and moves his jaw sharply and he sees red. He promised himself twelve years ago that whoever dares to hurt one of the kids must die, and he never failed to fulfil his promise.
And so he kills, kills and kills. One man after another murdered with cold blood by him, and he doesn't regret them or hold back for one second, his form of fox enlarging with every second he breathes through rage and destruction.
He only stops when he can't see any other man or woman on the other side. He does, however, see Evdokia running to his side, hugging him and keeping him grounded and back to reality. Slowly, his tails shorten and he shrinks into his human form. He's tired, so fucking tired.
He sees Jean walking out of the mansion, pulling the black wolf by a chain, Robin and Ira carrying two boys. Jean is injured in his shoulders and back while Robin is limping on one leg. Ira seems to only have bruises from being thrown around. Comes with being small sized.
"There are only two." Jean exhales shakenly.
Two out of six. His heart constricts. He feels Evdokia takes a sharp inhale, her arms still around his body, keeping him upright.
*
Unsurprisingly, they get ambushed on their way to the safe house. Evdokia is sure no one knows about this road other than her and now Reema, and she knows Reema on so many levels she's sure it wasn't her who threw her under the bus.
While Robin and Mizuki are treating ZiYan's wounds, Ira treating YuNing's and Valodya driving, only Jean and Evdokia are left to fight them, even through their heavy injuries.
Evdokia opens the vakeel's door and jumps on top of it. It's not the safest plan with how speedy they're driving, but its all she can do for now. Jean hands her the machine gun and she starts firing off at the cars and motorcycles following them. Precise and sharp eyes like a hawk watching how every bullet implants every object and body just how she wants it.
She sees a werewolf getting off the car and going on top of it, then leaping forward towards Evdokia, toppling her backwards, towering over her. The wolf releases his claws and is about to slit Evdokia's body, before Jean shoots him straight in the head, leaving him falling and run over by the cars behind them.
Evdokia composes herself and stands back up, the weapon already has fallen and blown up one of the cars that ran into it. Evdokia nods at Jean and thanks him before he hands her a gun and bullets. She takes this shoot one by one, every bullet fired with a purpose. One at the left driver, one at the middle car's tire, two at the motorcyclists necks. And the damage done on the first road is enough to stop the rest of the cars or blow them up all in shambles.
*