Ūndecim
LachrymoseTaehyung clicked his pen absentmindedly, staring at the mess he had spread all over his cubicle. He felt like a conspiracy theorist, articles and photos tacked to his wall with pieces of red thread connecting all the similarities. He had worked for hours collecting information and pinning it up to his cubicle wall. Although it got him nowhere, it gave him a false sense of productivity. Time was dwindling and he still had no idea how to solve the two hundred year-old case. No matter how many times he researched, he came up with nothing. There were practically no similarities between the different women killed, and he was yet to find out how to read the clue to the puzzle Amaris was holding onto.
"Dammit," he hissed under his breath, tossing his pen in anger.
There had to be something. There had to be some sort of explanation, some sort of solution. All Taehyung was coming up with were blanks, though. He had even resorted to chasing after leads about demons and Lilith. Still, there seemed to be nothing that could help him with his case.
But the case wasn't the only thing on Taehyung's mind. His thoughts were constantly clouded by the image of Jin kissing Amaris. He couldn't help feeling jealous. Sure, he had loved Amaris years ago and those feelings had faded, but they never went away completely. When Amaris said she would have accepted his feelings, a new spark lit up Taehyung's heart only to be extinguished by Kim Seokjin. Besides the kiss, Taehyung was extremely curious as to what Jin had said to Amaris the night they were reunited. Taehyung hadn't thought the new Amaris could be that elated, but Jin had said something to brighten her visage so much that it brought out the old Amaris.
"What are you doing, Taehyung?" He asked himself, sighing and dropping his head into his hands. He didn't have time to be worrying about his adolescent love, he had a murder case to solve.
He brought his head up slowly, taking in a deep breath. As he exhaled, Taehyung leaned back to stretch his neck. He could hear his back cracking as he craned back with his eyes closed. Leaning as far back as he could without falling out of his chair, Taehyung felt relaxed. He opened his eyes slowly to the bright flourescent lights to be met by a pair of deep brown eyes staring at him curiously.
"Amaris?" He shot up, turning around to look at the frail girl behind him. For some reason, she looked even weaker than usual.
"Hey." She allowed him a soft smile, one so small that her dimple didn't show.
"If you're looking for Jin, he's out for lunch," Taehyung said, trying his best to hide the jealousy in his voice.
"No." Amaris shook her head lightly and Taehyung noted how her hair moved in waves when she did this. "I came here to see you."
"Did you figure out the puzzle?" He asked hopefully.
At this, Amaris finally seemed to notice his paper-covered cubicle. Her eyes darted around, following the red thread with a deadly concentration.
"You've done a lot of work," she said, seemingly forgetting why she had come by.
"Amaris, why are you here?" Taehyung asked.
"I had a dream," she said slowly as if contemplating whether or not she really did want to tell Taehyung about her dream, "I dreamed that someone died."
"I get those dreams all the time," Taehyung comforted, "it's probably just because your mind is on the case. It's okay, it's not uncommon to dream about someone dying."
"No, Taehyung." Amaris shook her head again. "It was real. I don't know how to describe it, but I always know when a dream is a premonition or just a dream. This is something that's going to happen."
"What happened?" Taehyung's brow furrowed as he pulled out the chair next to him and offered it to Amaris.
"It was a mugging gone wrong." She sat down shakily. Whatever her dream had been, it was clearly bothering her. "This guy was desperate. He was so sad, so afraid. He didn't want to be mugging this person. He held a businessman at knife point in an alley in the middle of the night. He told him to give him all his money. The businessman was frightened, so he complied. But he moved too suddenly to get his wallet and the mugger stabbed him. He was jumpy and the movement scared him. The businessman bled out in the alley. It took him so long to die."
"It's okay, it's okay," Taehyung said, reaching out to place a comforting hand on Amaris' shoulder.
"It'll happen in three days." Amaris looked at him with pleading eyes, begging him to help her. "We have to stop it."
"Amaris, I can't arrest someone because of a dream, even if it's the dream of the Oracle." Taehyung shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, I can't do anything until a crime occurs."
"But Taehyung he suffered for almost an hour!" Amaris was on the brink of tears and the volume of her voice was steadily rising. "You can sit here with your string and your paper and do nothing, or you can save a human life."
"There is nothing I can do, Amaris," Taehyung said firmly, "I want to, but I can't. There are limitations to what I can do."
"You're supposed to serve and protect," Amaris said angrily with more strength than he had ever seen in her, "so protect that businessman!"
"Fine," Taehyung sighed, "I can't arrest the mugger, but what I can do is increase surveilance on small robberies like convenience stores and such. If the mugger was desperate, he probably would have tried other ways to get what he needs. I'll keep a firm eye on petty theft and other small crimes. Does that sound good?"
"Thank you." Amaris nodded. She looked relieved, but whatever was bothering her was still present in her features.
"Something else is bugging you," Taehyung said, following Amaris with his eyes as she stood up to leave.
"It's nothing." She shook her head weakly and turned to walk away.
Taehyung had half the mind to chase after her and make her tell him what was wrong, but he decided against it. Amaris would tell him in her own time. And if not, she always had Jin to comfort her.
"Nothing, huh?" Taehyung sighed, turning to once again stare at the papers which made no sense to him. It wasn't nothing that was bothering Amaris, but it was certainly nothing that Taehyung knew about how to solve his case.
A/N:
OH MY GOSH HAVE I BEEN GONE FOR WHILE. I DIDN'T MEAN TO LEAVE THIS STORY ALONE FOR SUCH A LONG TIME. I HAD BEEN RESTING MY WRIST AND THEN HAD WRITERS BLOCK AND THEN HAD EXAMS GEEZ I'M A MESS. SORRY FOR THE SHORTER CHAPTER. I HAD MORE, BUT IT WOULD HAVE MADE IT A VERY VERY LONG CHAPTER. HOPEFULLY I CAN UPDATE THE NEXT CHAPTER FASTER ^-^ THANKS FOR STICKING WITH ME!
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