The scent of coffee made its way upstairs as if it had made it a goal to titillate Noelle into awakening. It was 9AM and the smell had completely permeated her room. There was no doubt that her mother was already on her second pot. Noelle continued to enjoy the smell, hazelnut, as she hastily dressed. It was the day of her departure, her apartment at Ithaca was ready for her and she was eager to throw the bags littering her room in her car and flee from the trappings of her parents’ colonial.

Noelle made her way downstairs to greet her mother. Even though it was still early in the morning and she had no work that day Noelle’s mother was impeccably dressed and styled, fully decked out in makeup, a prim skirt, and a white blouse. Her hair, as pitch black as Noelle’s own, was done up in a bun with nary a strand out of place.

“Noelle dear, you’re up awfully early for an unemployed person. I thought for sure you’d be up at noon like the rest of the riff-raff around these parts.”

“I told you this is the day I’m leaving for my job.”

Her mother pursed her lips. “Hmm you did say something like that. Shame, your father left for golf so he can’t see you off.”

“I told both of you every night for the last week…”

“I suppose it just slipped his mind. I think he’s been avoiding it personally. It’s embarrassing to have your daughter become a police officer in some random town after four years at Princeton. He was so looking forward to helping you with the Bar.”

Noelle pushed down her ill feelings toward her mother’s casual condemnation. She had known that her parents wouldn’t take kindly to her recent professional decisions, but the breezy ease with which their chastisement flowed was still enough to rile her up.

“Besides, I think you’ll come around and contact Andrew again sweetheart. It’s just what you need to break out of this…bohemian phase of yours.”

“I wouldn’t be caught dead doing that.”

“Couples fight all the time. Now won’t you be a dear and refill my cup for me?”

Noelle went back upstairs to grab her bags instead. The sooner she was out of the house the better.

Five hours later, Noelle stepped out of her car in Ithaca, relieved at the chance to move around again. It had taken some time to navigate her old beater around the New Haven traffic, but once she was free of the area Noelle had a great view travelling up the Housatonic River. Spring had finally taken its hold of the passing foliage and an endless sea of green trees welcomed her into New York as she crossed the Hudson. From there on it was nothing but forests, mountains, and the occasional community for her to observe as she made her way towards her new home.

She had come here to camp once with Andrew. It was funny. She had so much fun then but now the scenery did nothing but make her feel bitter. There was no spark to it anymore.

The office at her new apartment was staffed, so she had the key immediately upon arriving. The apartment was barren, and all Noelle had for it was a TV and her sleeping bag. It would need to be decorated, but for now, the inspiration to do so failed to set in.

With nothing to do until her start in a few days, Noelle wandered about the town to familiarize herself with it. The police station she would be working at was rather nondescript. It was a tan cube-like structure, practical yet dull. The downtown area beyond it was significantly more vibrant. After some wandering she found a suitable café and took a break to take in the scenery.

The people she saw on the street skewed young and fashionable. Even though she was five hours away it still felt like she was in New Haven. Between growing up near Yale and attending Princeton, she was quite used to the Ivy league touch Cornell brought all the way out to central New York. They milled about, darting in and out of shops, yet one remained unpatroned. It was a drab looking bookstore named The Dusty Tome. Leaving the unknown quality of what lay inside aside, Noelle supposed that the kiddy name was doing it no favors.

A brown-haired man was setting up a display outside. One side of the table held children's books such as poetry collections and fairy tales, while the other side was absolutely cluttered with smutty romance novels. A sign hung on the front of the table, Mother’s: Treat Yourselves and Your Kids This Spring! The bottom was well decorated with painted-on flowers and birds but the effort spent on the top was significantly less. It seemed like the man had lost interest halfway through and thrown in the towel. The idea of trying to attract woman with sex-filled romance novels so that they would buy their spawn some picture books was gross. If she had her badge already she would’ve shut the thing down. Uninspired to scope out the shop beyond that, she finished off the coffee she had been cradling and went on her way.

The rainy morning of her first day kept the amount of people out on the streets to a minimum as Noelle made her way to the doors of the Ithaca Police Department. The interior of the building was as nondescript as the outside, with little in the way of color and a subtle stale air provided by an over-the-hill HVAC system. Noelle stepped further into the main lobby, making eye contact with the older woman at the front desk.

“You must be the new kid, I can tell from the way you walked in here,” said the woman, “I’m Lucy, I’ll give Chief Brue a call and let him know you’re here.”

“No need!” boomed a voice from Noelle’s side.

Turning, her vision was filled by a large African American man in his late 30s. His uniform was tucked in neatly, but wrinkles in the fabric and numerous spots missed during his morning shave betrayed him as being more slovenly than he wished to display.

“You’re Noelle then? That’s such a pretty name. My wife made our daughter’s name Ashley, said I couldn’t overrule her, but I would’ve loved to name her something else like Iris or-”

Noelle cautiously extended her hand to the man. “Chief Brue...pleased to meet you. I’m Noelle Sellers.”

The large man deflated from her interjection, taking her hand and shaking it half-heartedly. Tough luck. She wasn’t about to hear about somebody else’s children and marriage. The lives of those better off than her weren’t worth a flicker of attention. It’d be much more productive to speak to someone miserable so she could learn from their mistakes.

“Let me show you to your locker, I mean…the outside of the locker room. I can’t actually show you your locker because you know… um…I’d get fired. But I’m sure you’ll be fine in there! We’ve already put your name on the locker and stocked your uniforms and all that!”

The day promised to be long.

Brue filled Noelle in on the lay of the land as he drove her around town. Ithaca was a nice city relative to some others in the U.S., and murder, rape, assault, and burglary all fell below the national average. At least her job would be manageable, a nice easy zero murders per 100,000 people awaited her.

Maybe she’d pray for a few more just to stave off boredom.

While there was a need for a police presence it seemed that most of Noelle’s duties would be tied to patrolling the areas surrounding the colleges.

“These kids can get pretty wild,” warned Brue. “One time a bunch of the rascals got drunk and stole the gas cap off my lawn mower. You’d think something like that would be easy to replace but I was on the manufacturer website for a good 45 minutes looking for the model number. They tipped the garbage can too.”

Noelle massaged her temples as Brue drove them through the downtown area to find something to eat for lunch. Her shadowing of him had been going for a good four hours at this point. While he had some key insights every now and then Noelle found that most of the man’s commentary was concerned with the mundanities of his daily life. The lawnmower tale was only the latest in a long series of mishaps she had learned of, her favorite ( or rather, the one she found the least annoying) being when his belt snapped in the middle of the grocery store.

“You know Chief,” started Noelle, “they say you can learn lots about a man from looking through his garbage. Knowing you I’m sure it was nothing but coffee pods and old scented candles, but the possibility remains for something more insidious. You never know what men get up to.”

“I don’t throw out the candles actually. You can scoop the wax out and recycle them, but I find they make for pretty good jars. My wife uses them for tea leaves. Oh, I haven’t even told you about the tea collection yet!”

“Ugh…”

Thankfully, Brue’s newest tangent was cut short as the man focused on parallel parking the squad car. Noelle had been zoning out for most of the one-sided discussion. While she was sure Mrs. Brue was quite the connoisseur, her husband struggled to give even basic descriptions of the colors of what teas they had. She decided against bringing up how she enjoyed trying different coffees and instead let her mind wander. Serving Ithaca as an officer seemed to offer little in the way of excitement.

Seriously, how was she supposed to get her life going again like this?

Her doubts were cut short by the subtle vibration in the squad car as Brue shifted into park and killed the engine. Noelle stepped out of the car, shielding her eyes from the sun. They were outside of the café she had wandered to the other day.

“Have you been following me?”

“What do you mean?” Brue, to his credit, truly looked perplexed at the question.

“I’ve been here before.”

Brue laughed. “You’ve got taste then! Best coffee and donuts in town! It helps that the owner gives discounts to those in uniform. Wait out here! I want to surprise you with the ‘Boys in Blue’ special they’ve been hooking me up with.”

With that he headed inside without waiting for Noelle’s answer. She decided to wait outside the car to get some fresh air.

People milled about their daily tasks, navigating around the female officer as they went about their routines. A few shot her wary glances. Perhaps they were carrying a couple grams, or maybe the police just made them nervous. Noelle wasn’t in the mood to stop someone and watch them squirm right now, so she paid the glances no mind.

More worthy of attention was the tabby cat to Noelle’s left. She had no special connection to cats, her family had never kept one, yet she could tell the creature was in silent distress. Its tail raised high and back arched, the cat had the appearance of threatening an assailant. Curiously, there was no furrowing of its brow or hissing to be heard. The cat stood still, eyes wide and mouth closed, frozen in the instant between fear and intimidation. Not budging an inch, the cat continued to stare down the alley to the side of the café. Noelle could make out a man leaning against the alley wall, but he was so far back that she failed to discern any of his features. While she was sure it was just the light playing trick on her, Noelle thought that something on him was squirming.

Noelle walked into the alley to take a closer look. It would be best to get Brue for backup, but that would be a hassle. After getting a few dozen meters in she was before the man leaned against their brick surroundings. He was the normal sort of guy one would expect to find anywhere: middle-aged, balding up top, a little pudgy.

He was also missing half his face and right arm.

Where one would expect to find these features was instead a black leather-like substance layered into the shape of the features that were meant to be there. The layers flowed inwards and outwards. It called to mind pitch-black millipedes crawling over and around each other, only to end at the edges of the man’s silhouette and flesh. To call the thing before her even a facsimile of a human would be a mockery of the word.

The man opened his mouth. A piercing screech assaulted Noelle’s ears and died back into a more oscillatory pattern. Pitching up and down, it was like someone tuning an FM radio. Every so often sounds within her hearing range broke through. The man gestured at Noelle, his face betraying no emotion as the noise he emitted fluctuated incessantly. He stretched his black arm out as far as it could go, reaching for her, grasping at the space in front of him. Noelle inched back slowly, terrified of what touching the blackness may mean for her.

The man’s vocal adjustments continued. The natural sounds were more frequent now, there was less static and more “voice” to his sound. Suddenly, a message broke through.

“hELp Me!”

Before he could exclaim further an inky tendril shot out from his arm and wrapped around Noelle’s waist, pressing the air from her lungs before she even had a chance to scream.