Sporadic cracks spread across the paper-thin walls, a dusty table stand with an even dustier CRT Television placed atop of it. Fronting it was a rickety, ancient-looking king size bed that looked as if the bedsheets have never been changed since the late 1800s.

I flicked on the switch for the lights. Goddamn things barely even lights up… flickering on and off like a strobe light.

“You told them to give us their best room, right?” I said to Irene beside me as I stepped into my new place of residence for the next couple of days.

Irene now back to her stern, no-nonsense self, simply flung my duffel bag onto the bed which began to creak from the weight of it.

“I’m not charming my way up the ladder for you,” She said, tying her hair back into a bun. “Get inside before I have you sleeping in a dumpster.”

Should have bought disinfectant. I don’t even dare check out the toilet. Who knows what eldritch horrors they have stored in there. The air had this disgusting damp smell to it, walking in, I felt myself shivering with goosebumps.

“I can feel the cockroaches already,” I muttered.

“You’re whining again,” She said, her tone getting sharper. “I didn’t bring you here so you can point out the faults in the service industry, just do what I told you to do… like we agreed.”

Irene unzipped the bag and pulled out a few essential things for me. My laptop being one, my charger the other, the last…

“I don’t remember putting that in my bag,” I said, staring at the small object she held between her fingers.

“That’s because you didn’t. I did.”

Irene tossed me the object and I felt it plopped into my hand - hard.

It looked like an amulet of sort, carved out of a material that I couldn’t quite place. It looked like wood, but it wasn’t wood. Felt like metal, but it wasn’t metal. And it had this warmth to it, as if it was breathing.

I looked up back at her. “This is…?”

“Wear it. I had it made before I left Kronocia. It’s a charm filled with my essence. Break it any way you can if you feel like your life is in danger, it’ll summon me to your location right away.”

From dealing with mob bosses to dealing with vampires and magic. Wow you’ve really outdone yourself this time, didn’t you, me? Keep this up and you’ll be dealing with the end of the world before you know it.

The warmth of the amulet pressed against my chest. “Done.”

It was actually quite hard to ignore how loose it was swinging around my neck. But I’ll stifle all complaints if it meant that this amulet would wind up saving me one day.

Across from me, Irene pulled back her sleeve and stared down at her wristwatch. “I have to go.”

My eyebrows raised up. “Already?”

Irene was already making great strides towards the exit, turning to me once to say, “Just do your job, learn all you can. I’ll be back in the evening. Afterwards we can - “

“Wait!” I said, reaching out for her hand, which turned out to be a horrible idea, because the very second our fingertips touched, I felt instant uncontrollable arousal.

Immediately, I let go. Too late though. My raging libido was here to stay, pitching up a solid tent in my jeans, which I quickly tried to hide from view.

“I forgot about that,” I whispered to her, going red in the face with shame, or maybe it was excitement, or perhaps a strange mixture of both. “Succubus, right…”

“Mmm-hmm,” Irene merely stared at me with indifference.

Thankfully, all it took was a deep breath of the musty air to diminish my raging flames of desire enough to ask her my question.

“So that’s all I have to do?” I said, nudging at my laptop that was resting on the bed. “Play the game, report back to you if I find anything interesting?”

“Why do you think I’m coming back in the evening?”

“And you?”

“Crime scene, reports, logs, evidence gathering. I don’t carry this badge around for nothing, you know?”

Wow, my stupidity is unrivaled. Now I have no other response other than to stupidly nod my head in understanding.

Irene continued her way out the door, her figure now standing idly by the exit, reaching for the handle and gradually swinging it to a close.

“Hold on!” I heard myself say before I could stop.

She stopped in her tracks, staring straight at me with unblinking eyes.

“What is it?” Irene asked.

Hesitation. My lips opened, but nothing would come out. Because to say it, would be to relive it, to relive it, would be to confirm it. In a span of a few, short hours, I have undergone the most surreal experience of my life so far.

Nothing had really settled in for me yet. Not the pain, not the circumstances, not even the repercussion.

Nothing, except for the fear. Nothing, except for the worry. The thought of it was suffocating alone.

Remembering it was even worse… the way her green eyes glimmered in the moonlight. So empty and so void of life. The way she shambled out the doorway without a single word spoken, without even turning back once.

How she could have killed me without a second thought.

That’s what scared me the most.

Not the fact that she was missing, not the fact that she almost killed me. No, I was scared because there was absolutely nothing I could do besides watch her do it.

I saw her go, and that was all I could do.

Resigned to just simply, powerlessly, watch her disappear from sight.

I’m scared because if I couldn’t do anything then, why would I be able to do anything now?

The prospect of actually finding her, as the seconds ticked by, slowly began to shift away from the realms of definitive absolutes and into the uncharted territories of ‘maybe’s and ‘perhaps’s’, gradually edging closer to what I dread to admit, that Ash had gone forever.

I don’t want that. Not one bit. I looked at Irene again, and forced away all my reluctance.

“It’s Ash,” I said, finally finding my voice. “It’s just… you know I’m worried. We wait too long, it might be too late. If we somehow make it, if we find the Matriarch, then what? What can I do? Is there anything useful I can do at all? Against vampires, against magic, what on earth can I possibly do that will somehow help save Ash from all this?”

Irene surely must have seen it all, felt it all. My apprehension, my fears, the look on my face. The way she stood frozen there in silence, yes… surely she must have understood how I felt.

I looked at her, she looked at me, then she slammed the door shut in my face without much of a word of warning, but not before I heard her say one last thing, mid-swing, her response to my worries before her heels carried her into the elevator and out the motel door.

“Play the game, you idiot.”