The Red to My Grey

by William Dudley Berridge Tuckey

  “Mama, you’re so spoiled, Giggle,” Angel teased her as she watched Sophia smiling, completely content with herself for the moment.

  “I love it when Nami does my hair, feels so good.”

  “See, fine. Don’t worry about us, okay,” Dad reassured me, and they left us to cook the rest of dinner. I was setting out the plates when I noticed Angel staring my way. She seemed somewhat distracted while she stirred the sauce through the mince. I turned away, looking every so often over my shoulder to check on her. Once everything was set out and ready to go on the table, I pulled her by the waist to my side. She looked at me when suddenly the nearly healed cut on her forehead split open and blood started to run down her face.

  “What the hell? I thought it was getting better!” I yelled as I rushed a tea towel to her forehead.

  “Sorry. I thought it was too. I’m lucky to have you.”

  “Angel, apart from this, are you feeling okay? You’ve been staring off into space for about half an hour now.”

  “I guess I was wondering what the future was going to be like for you and me. If we had kids, what they’d be called or where we would live. I suppose I was day dreaming a little, ha-ha-ha.”

  “There hasn’t been a day I haven’t imagined you by my side in the future ever since I first met you.” It may have sounded a little cheesy, but it’s how I honestly felt, and it felt good to get it off my chest.

  “I love you!” she screamed excitedly before burying her head in my shoulders as I held her close.

  “Ahem, love birds. There’s hot food waiting to be served up, so if you could hurry it up,” Celia scolded us after she poked her head in the kitchen. The rest of the night went on as normal. Dinner was rowdy as ever and afterwards everyone went to their rooms except for Anne who slept on the couch. Celia and Nami would confine themselves while Dad and Sophia’s ‘messing around’ would echo throughout the house. We were used to it by now and learned to tune it out. I stared out my window into the moonlit sky as Angel slept on my bed. On the roof of the house a pair of giant yellow eyes looked back down at me. My heart jumped until I saw the pair of dangling feet beside its head. I leapt from the window to the gutter and pulled myself up. On the roof was the giant steel-scaled beast with Sinclair sitting beside it; he was wearing a heavy cloak with loose bits of cloth flowing in the wind. The giant creature rubbed its hard-scaled head against me affectionately while Sinclair rested his pale hands in his face, with his elbows on his knees. His eyes were burning a bright red and his breath fell cold to the wind.

  “Do you have any idea what my beasts are made from?” he asked me after placing his hand on the beast, gently.

  “People, aren’t they? Johnson went snooping through the hospital on the night this one came to life,” I said while petting the creature on the head.

  “Indeed, they are. Besides my daughter, they are the closest thing I have to family.”

  “What are you trying to say, Sinclair?”

  “Look this creature in the eyes and tell me it doesn’t look familiar to you.”

  I did as he asked and stared into the beast’s eyes and that’s when my jaw dropped. I lost my breath.

  “Why are you telling me this???” I asked in a panic, not sure of what to say next.

  “You have a right to know, don’t you?” he answered me with a question.

  The creature’s eyes belonged to my mother; it had been so long since I had seen them, I had all but forgotten what they looked like. At that moment I felt genuine hatred for Sinclair. I wanted to murder him in cold blood for taking my mother’s eyes for his creation; it also made me ask myself the question of whether she was ever even buried in the first place.

  “What do you want? Why are you trying to get under my skin?” I asked in a frustrated tone only for my question to be ignored as he stood up.

  “Take good care of my daughter for me. Don’t ever let her heart grow cold like mine.” He enveloped himself in a sickly red aura alongside his beast and the two of them vanished. It would be some time until I saw him again and it was the next time I would learn just how dangerous he truly was, but until that point I went on about living a somewhat simple life with Angel.

  I went to sleep that night troubled; by the morning though, I had decided to not let it bother me. I knew deep down that was impossible though. The thought of my mother or at least a part of her running around as a violent, cold creature, the opposite of what she ever was. It ate away at the peace of mind I had, but I kept moving forward. I went to work that morning as per usual. Anne came with me in her business suit. When she was asked by Mr Smith why she was in the office, she gave the excuse of ‘supervision and overseeing of employees’. Apparently, it was in the contract of the deal made between Storm Co and the company she represented. Essentially on her boring days, Anne would work here, just so she could tease and flirt with me to her heart’s content. Today was a general consensus meeting, a day where everyone would meet in the common room and discuss ways to increase productivity or to bring up any problems in the office. Dan would happily chatter to everyone individually as Mr Smith would try to address the main points of the meeting. Johnson and I sat quietly as we listened to the information being dished out while Sabrina and Anne gossiped about the goings-on of the fashion industry that Ms Frey associated with. All in all, these meetings were pretty ineffective. Everyone, including Rex, used these days to socialise and catch up after a term of hard work.

  “Hey Wade, how have things been with you lately?” Rex asked me. I could tell he knew something was bothering me.

  “Pretty crazy ha-ha, but I’ve been enjoying myself.”

  “That’s good to hear and how’s Angel? Dan was telling me she seems really into the idea of having a child.”

  “Sigh. Damn it Dan. Yeah, if you asked her she’d probably talk your ears off about it.”

  “So, you’re against it then for the moment? Can’t say that I blame you; you’re still living at home, right?”

  I looked over to Dan with a dead tired look on my face; he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Johnson helped steer the attention off my situation by taking shots at Anne as she hugged up to me.

  “Ms Frey, why are you here today? It’s a general consensus day, contract or not you don’t have a reason to be here.” It was moments like these that made me believe Johnson somewhat detested Anne, though I don’t think he would ever openly admit to it.

  “I told you I am within my rights to supervise over company employees. Even if it’s just one I’m peaking on Giggle.”

  “As I said, it’s a consensus day. None of us are actually working and these are matters private to the company.”

  “Oh, in that case just pretend I’m not here then,” she replied without a second thought.

  “Thanks anyway, Johnny,” I said to him while I casually flicked through our notes.

  Knock. Knock. We all looked to the common room door and in entered detective Swan. He asked to see me and as I went to get up, Anne followed.

  “Ah, miss. I just need to see Wade. We’re currently conducting an investigation and need information.”

  “Where he goes, I go. Got it?” she wasn’t being clingy; she was being protective. It was clear from the serious tone in her voice and the glow of her bright red eyes.

  “Oh really? You’re one of the Natsuki’s I presume from your ‘features’.”

  “Never heard of them. The name’s Anne Frey, how do you do?”

  “It isn’t wise to lie to a detective. I’m not your ordinary cop Ma’am.”

  “So sorry, you wanted us outside, detective?” She wasn’t backing down at all. It didn’t take long for Mr Swan to catch on to who Anne was and her involvement in the incident at the hotel. However, that incident was supposedly being looked into by one of his colleagues; he came to Storm Co for a different reason. He was aware that I had been in contact with Sinclair Natsuki and wanted information, anything that he could deem relevant. He was clutching at straws when it
came to getting intel on his whereabouts or a means to tracking him.

  “I’ve been receiving reports across the city of sightings of Mr Natsuki, but their authenticity is still in question. They list him seen in several areas in the east side of Fellbroke, only to appear in the far north end. There’s no way this many inconsistent reports can be a coincidence.”

  “Sounds to me that Sinclair is up to something again. I hate to say this, but you’re just going to have to wait until he comes out of hiding,” Anne chuckled to herself. I also warned him that pursuing Sinclair wasn’t only dangerous, but pointless as well. The detective buried his hands in his coat and walked away. Anne loosened her shirt and linked arms with me.

  “Now that that’s over, let’s go have some fun,” she said shamelessly.

  “That’s enough. I’m going back inside the common room,” I said sternly as she pouted.

  “Aww Wade, you’re no fun,” she complained while tugging on my arm.

  When we returned to the common room Dan put me on the phone to Em, who called asking for us.

  “Hey Em, What’s up?” I was then cut off by another one of Em’s loud outburst.

  “Oh my God, Wade, this is amazing. A professional label wants to sell my clothes! It’s all thanks to Angel! They saw her wearing my outfits and now they’re swarming the place, get over here now!” She then abruptly hung up and I handed Dan his phone. I looked to Anne who had an accomplished smile on her face.

  “You did this, didn’t you?”

  “I might have slipped the industry a juicy leak a couple of days ago after checking the place out.”

  I went to explain that Dan and I needed to head off. I was given a surprising response.

  “Hmm well it’s not like we’re doing much here right now anyway. How bout we all go, and we’ll call it a business trip? Everyone happy with that?”

  Everyone nodded and next thing we knew, half an office block full of people were on their way to the clothes store. When we arrived at the mall, we saw the clothes store flooded with people, both in suits and expensive looking clothing. Em rushed out of the crowd of people and pulled Dan and me into a storeroom at the back of the store. Angel was there exhausted with several outfits hanging up on a shelf next to her.

  “Danny, it’s been crazy, they just up and appeared all over the place. All the attention brought a heap of customers too. Kitten’s been on the register nearly all day.”

  “Damn, it’s almost scary how much something blows up when it trends,” Dan said with his hands in his pockets as he peeked out the storeroom to the store flooded with people. Anne was talking to the designers and marketers while the rest of us helped Em tidy and organise the store as people streamlined inside. Before we knew it, the day was over and we all were kicking back inside the store after a day of hard work. It was strange to me how many people gave up their day to help someone that needed it. Though the store was now free of the vulture-like fashionistas and representatives, it was still crowded with all the employees of Storm Co.

  “Good job everyone, your contribution today is much appreciated. Ms Emelia, it was our pleasure to assist you today in your efforts. Daniel is a highly valued employee in Storm Co and I’m sure you would’ve been more than happy to help us in the past if ever a time called for it,” Rex gave a bold, kind-hearted speech and Em thanked all of us. Once some of the other employees started going home, she brought all of us together at the back of the store. She showed us a safe full of cash and explained it was only a quarter of what she had earned, the rest being card payments. She suggested that we should head out to the Pavilion Night Club for dinner as a way of thanks.

  “Hmm, Ashlyn said there’s some kind of dinning event on tonight, it might be a little crowded.”

  “What like some big fancy dinner party? Sounds fun.” Sabrina asked after putting her shoes back on from when she took them off the moment the store closed.

  “No, nothing so gourmet that it would drag all of Fellbroke over. We’re hosting a food festival. I guess, a sort of meet and greet. It’s just good food and everyone comes and has a good time.”

  “I’m guessing Sophia will be working tonight then,” Catherine said as she locked up the safe.

  “Mama is one of their best chefs, so it would it make sense.”

  When we got to the nightclub it was as wild as the opening night and hadn’t calmed down at all since then. A cute girl and a strong looking bouncer escorted those that were there for the festival to the food tables.

  “Ah, Mr Smith. What are you doing here? Did Ms Ashlyn call for you?” the adorable waitress asked.

  “No, nothing like that. Just thought I’d enjoy myself with my employees and friends.”

  “Be sure to see her anyway. I’m sure she’d like a chance to relax,” the bouncer said as he showed us to our table.

  “I know, don’t worry. I’ll see her now. Wade, Johnson, could you come with me? We’ll bring back everyone’s food.” Everyone went on to tell us what they wanted. Johnson to no surprise remembered everyone’s preferences flawlessly, so when the food did come, everyone was satisfied. First, we went and spoke with Ashlyn, who was sitting in one of the back lounges past the bar area. She sipped at a half full glass of whiskey while she sat on a dark leather lounge in a black dress that only barely reached her thighs. She seemed exhausted, but I was starting to wonder if she ever looked any different since I had only ever seen her like this.

  “You seem like you’re having fun. Or was the restaurant too lively for you?” Rex asked as he sat beside her.

  “I’m simply doing what I always do, sitting here in case the place falls apart. You two, there’s no need to be strangers, sit down. Have a glass,” she poured us a drink each. “So, are you enjoying yourselves? In your relationships I mean,” Ashlyn asked in a cold tone.

  “Of course, things have never been better. Why ask?”

  “Chuckle. I find it amusing how fast everything moves for you young ones, that’s all.”

  “We’re not much older Ashlyn…” Rex said softly.

  The pair gave each other a strange look, but went on smiling. Johnson and I were told to head off to dinner without Rex. Ashlyn organised a cart to bring out our meals and we made our way back to our table. We all had a good time even without Rex and we also saw Sophia after she stepped out of the kitchen. She was slightly surprised to see us, but was happy we were there. Of the many different people celebrating and enjoying themselves, I think we were still the rowdiest as the girls laughed and screamed as more and more drinks entered their system. Johnson stayed pretty quiet and tried to enjoy himself in a bit of a lighter fashion. As irresponsible as Dan could be at times, he had to look out for Em. So, he stayed practically sober, only sipping at whatever Em tried to force on him. As for myself, I enjoyed whatever the night had to offer alongside Angel. The food was great and the aroma of all the different meals being prepared and served was enough to send the senses into overdrive. After we had our fill and covered the expenses, we stepped outside. Angel was playing with a stray dog she found while rest of us were talking with Rex and Ashlyn.

  “Thanks for your hospitality tonight, Ashy!” Em yelled cheerfully.

  “Sigh. It’s was no problem, just don’t call me Ashy.”

  “Wade, Angel’s so cute. She always finds some weird way of keeping her herself entertained,” Kitten said to me as she pointed towards her.

  “Yeah, I guess she does, I like that about her. Leaves less pressure on me, ha-ha-ha.”

  We only took our eyes off her for a second when we heard growling, a voiced called in our direction. We all turned our heads to see a young man with a knife to Angel’s throat.

  “Dumbshits come get her!!!” he yelled before sprinting away from us.

  “Everyone get inside, I’ll call the police,” Ashlyn called out responsibly, but before they noticed, I was already gone, sprinting after the asshole who took my girlfriend. I followed him with reckless abandon, leaping over walls and vaulting thro
ugh buildings as he did. I didn’t care about anything, only her safety. The man ran upside down on the underside of a bridge, putting distance between us over a river-way. I backed up and ran towards one of the columns supporting the bridge. From the moment I made contact with it, I quickly swept my way around it and pushed off it to a column several metres opposite to it. I did the same with that one and was able to cross the gap. However, the kidnapper was so fast and though I managed to keep my eyes on him, I struggled to keep up. As I continued to run, I noticed I was still following the course of the bridge. The man stopped under an impasse. I could hear Angel screaming at him to let her go.

  “Shut up! Be a good girl and sit down until he gets here!” By the time I heard the man scream those words, I had jumped off the top of the impasse and rolled across the ground only to stand in the centre of a nightmarish scene. Within the shade beneath the mass of stone and concrete were corpses, scattered body parts and hellish people that fed on them; they ranged from psychopaths, beastly hybrid abominations of human beings and straight up beasts.

  “Let go of me!” Angel screamed, her eyes burnt a bright red and her hands developed thin blood red claws. With a single lunging strike, she impaled the man and tore her hand out of his chest. The man just stood there and smiled as Angel shook from fear and adrenaline. I held her up by my shoulder and the man in front of us regenerated the gaping hole in his chest like nothing had happened.

  What the fuck are you? I thought to myself as I stared him in his overjoyed face.

  “Risk, that’s enough,” another voice called. A large creature stepped out and spoke, telling everyone to settle down. Its voice was human, but the top half of its body was that of a monster, covered in veins and tough skin. It was someone who had become a monster and retained their humanity. “Our meeting here tonight is not one of chance. Ms Natsuki, we hold no actual resentment against you, consider this a message for your father, the man who made us what you see here, we seek retribution.”