chapter five

   

Cupid Serena found herself visting the Cupid Station a few days later after taking some time to think about what Melanie had told her. Despite it being quite early in the morning for her, she was on a personal mission of seeing if Charlie's soul was still sealed away in the Cupid Archives. Today was perfect as she didn't really have any charges or cases to do from either side. She was informed of that four years ago when she had asked what had become of Charlie after the incident and when she had become a cupid herself.

"There's no way that he could have been revived so soon." Cupid Serena muttered to herself as she made her way inside the Archives.

"Could he? I thought it took a long time to reincarnate especially as an otherworldly unless I didn't get the memo of their special circumstances."  Cupid Serena continued to talk to herself about the idea that no one told her that Charlie's soul could possibly be back in such a short amount of time. Too short an amount of time.

Instantly Cupid Serena scanned the placards hung above the rows of shelves that held white vases of souls of the other cupids as she tried to find the aisle where Charlie's would be stored. It was in alphabetical order in a language mixture of Ancient Greek and Ancient Latin. If it wasn't for her supernatural being self, she knew that she wouldn't be able to read and understand any of it unless she studied it for years.

Anyways, Cupid Serena quietly glanced at the names and correlating pictures of the cupids for each vase as she recalled the letter that she was looking for until she came to the right aisle and row. Just as she was about to locate Charlie's name, Cupid Serena slightly jumped when she heard a voice beside her asked what she was doing as she faced Eros.

"Didn't meant to scare you there, Miss Cupid Reaper."

Eros chuckled as he casually leaned against the shelf with his arms crossed over his chest and giving Cupid Serena a warm smile.

"I believe this is the first time I'm seeing you enter the Archives after the first time you were here."

"Yeah, just looking is all, Eros."

Cupid Serena shot him a quick smile as she brushed her cotton candy colorred hair behind her ears and backed up slightly away from the shelf.

"I never really got the chance to explore the Archives over the years and so I thought why don't I just check it out now since I have time."

"I see."

Eros' eyes shifted to a particular vase with a familiar face that the cupid would totally recognize.

"It's not about him is it?"

He indicated with his eyebrows as she dismissed it with a wave of her hand trying to play it cool.

"No, no. I just happened to be in this section when you arrived, Eros."

Eros smiled at Serena's response as he removed himself from the shelf and had put his hands behind him. He didn't say anything as he just walked past Serena while giving her a nod and moved onto another section of the Archives and out of her view.

Cupid Serena waited a few seconds to see if he would return, but when he didn't her eyes fastened upon the vase that she was searching for. Upon locating it she bent down a bit to view it better. She noticed no cracks of sorts and that there was no glow indicating it was ready to be reborn. It looked like the other thousands of them. Undisturbed and in deep slumber.

"I wonder if it's just one of those dreams she had and then mixed it with an actual memory because she's not totally here or there." Cupid Serena mumbled to herself as she stood upright again and looked left to right if Eros was still lurking around, but he wasn't.

Cupid Serena left the aisle in deep thought while exiting the Cupid Archives, but didn't noticed that Eros had been lingering with a slight concern expression on his face as his eyes darted to Charlie's which suddenly glowed before returning back to its original state.

Just as Cupid Serena was about to leave the Cupid Station she was tackled by something furry and white. Maofah had suddenly came zooming by and latched himself onto her back and she felt his sharp nails digged into her skin and she let out a hiss upon contact.

"Oh, my bad." Maofah apologized as he retracted his claws with Cupid Serena checking her skin for any injuries, but the slight scratched marks disappeard a few seconds later.

"One of the good things about being a supernatural being, especially when not in the mortal world." Maofah remarked happily as he simply climbed to settled himself on her right shoulder instead. "Anyways, let's hurry and  go, Rina. Hedy is driving me crazy."

"Why? She's not that bad, Maofah. She's just a lot of fun." Cupid Serena smiled as she began walking the two of them out of the Cupid Station with Maofah rolling his eyes. "Yeah, you try and hang out with her when she's planning on playing her little pranks here and there."

"But I thought you like those?"

"Not when it's me she's using them on."

"Not so nice when you're the one on the receiving end, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

The two landed back in Serena's living room with Maofah flying off to the kitchen to rummage through her fridge while Nerok was no where in sight. Shrugging it off Serena dropped herself onto the couch for a nap. For some reason visiting the Archives had drained her more than visiting the Cupid Station itself.

"Officer Winfield." Angie called out Dee's name as the female officer turned her attention away from James and to their chief inspector while standing up. "Yes, Chief Inspector."

"Starting today I would like for you to show Officer Jung Theo and Officer Xiao Gui around the departments and help them get familiar with the area." Angie commanded with a smile while motioning to the two males standing behind her. "I trust you to help out our two newbies here."

"Yes, ma'am. Will do, ma'am." Dee smiled with a curt nod of acknowledgement while she subtly kicked James out of annoyance who hissed in pain.

"Wonderful." Angie turned to trio. "As for you two, you'll mostly be under Officer Winfield's guidance for the time  being, but Officer McFadden is here to help, too, right?"

"Yes ma'am!" James saluted with a large grin.

"Good." Angie said with a nod. "Now, Officer Jung and Officer Xiao, you'll also report to either Senior Police Officer Jensen or Senior Police Officer Everingham about your whereaboubts along with any official business dealing with the department. Got it?"

"Got it Thank you, ma'am." The duo thanked her with a smile and a head nod.

"In the mean time until your desks situation is situated, please make yourself comfortable at either Officer Rendell, Officer Rasri, and Officer Dorigo's desks as the three are on medical leave." She motioned at the desks in-between James and Dee as Zhengting and Linkai nodded in acknowledgment.

She faced the rest of the team.

"That is all. Now please resumed what you were all doing before I arrived." She ordered as she patted the both of them on the back before making her leave to her own office upstairs.

James stood up to greet the new two males warmly. "Welcome to the First Division! Great to see new faces around here besides, Dee."

Dee elbowed James as the latter took the blow and still shook hands with them.

"C'mon, Newbies, I'll show you around before you get roped into this guy's shenanigans." Dee interjected as she interrupted their friendly greetings.

"Ouch. I take total offense there, Dee." James feigned hurt with a pout as Dee rolled her eyes at his behavior.

"It's Winfield, MacFadden. Why must we do this everyday?"

"It's because we entered the First Division at the same time." James smirked as Dee ignored him and faced the trio once more.

"Let's get going while we still got some down time."

Serena jerked awake by her mobile phone going off. Out of habit she sleepily tried to locate it by reaching above her head and towards the arm of the sofa, but felt nothing. She paused long enough to hear it out and got up to follow it towards her bedroom where she last left it before heading to the Cupid Station earlier.

Serena looked at the caller ID seeing it was Poo before answering. "Hello?"

"You're still not asleep are you?" Poo asked through the phone with an annoyed tone.

"No." Serena replied as she ran a hand through her hair. "Don't worry, I'll get ready soon."

"It's all good. Don't worry about it."

"What do you mean? You woke me up for no reason then?"

"So I did wake you."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. What about the phootshoot though?" Serena asked annoyed as she rubbed her face to ease out the tiredness.

"Well, the father called me a while ago and said that he wants to reschedule the time." Poo explained before speaking again. "Mr. Uphoff wants to do the shoot in March and that he wanted to change the venue so that it's at the Nizho University Medical Center instead of the Roksiamese Orthodox Church."

"Why?"

"The daughter wasn't feeling well. She may be at the hospital more often and so he doesn't want to cause a hassle on her part."

"I see."

"Anyways, just letting you know that you're free today."

"Am I really?" Serena replied with a sarcastic tone as Poo chuckled. "For now. Maybe we can go out for drinks instead and discuss more on your availability."

"Yes to the drinks, no to the discussion."

"It's better than nothing. I'll text you the time and place."

"I'll be fashionably late."

"I'm sure you will be, but do reply back or I'll come and pick you up myself."

"I'll try. Bye, Poo."

"Buh-bye, Rina."

The two hung up as Serena tossed her phone onto her bed before rubbing the sleepiness from her face. She was about to make her way to the bathroom when a mobile like device shaped like Maofah appeared before her and she paused while staring at the screen.

"You got a CUPID message!" The device spoke in Maofah's voice as Serena click the mail icon to open the pre-recorded video message to find out what Narak had sent since the new year had started and this was the first video of the new year.

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