It was Friday, at long last, and the Third Shift officers of the Shades were the fortunate ones to be the first to work from their new headquarters, four bus-stops away from the Old Upper Thomson Shophouses, alias the Nightmare Neighbourhood, where many of the non-regular officers live.

“Man, for a police building that was meant to get us out of the main headquarters, this is actually quite pretty. I was expecting something generic,” Xiaoye commented as she, Lucas, Rendal and Tom walked into their new headquarters.

“Reminds me of the New York Public Library,” Rendal added.

“Yeah, but it’s so near rich people houses. Bungalows behind us and condominiums in front of us across the road. I won’t be surprised if they start complaining about sirens and monsters,” Tom remarked.

“Hey, at least it’s near our homes, and we can eat at the café after work.”

“Well, it’s not a café anymore,” Lucas admitted.

“What happened?”

“Tokimaru, Felipe and Ella came up with too much of a menu. It’s no longer the Kyubi Herbal and Waffles Café, it’s now the Kyubi Herbal and Waffles Diner.”

“Oh, that’s better! More grub for us,” Xiaoye commented.

“Unfortunately, those three and the Yang twins won’t be able to handle the workload even with Inna’s help, so me, Tom and Rendal will have to pitch in until Tokimaru’s fry cook brother and line cook sister-in-law complete their immigration procedures at the end of the month.”

“What?” Tom and Rendal uttered at the same time.

“You don’t cook, you don’t eat,” Lucas emotionlessly tells the two before continuing his way into the new building’s locker room.

Half and hour later, Xiaoye and Lucas, having changed into their uniforms, were standing outside a room tagged [Third Shift Grey Team], located on the fourth floor of the building next to the Investigation Arm’s office.

“Cool, we even get our own offices for each shift,” Xiaoye commented when the door suddenly opened and Jason sticked his head out.

“You’re a bit late. Come in, we’re about to start our case,” he said to Xiaoye.

“Hey, no fair, what about Lucas?”

“Oh, Lucas? Sorry, I didn’t see you there. Come in, come in, both of you.”

“They transferred the polong case to Grey Team?” Xiaoye asked as she sat down next to Roderick, who was already in the office with Amirah, Ajibade and Farhan (Weijin is still in the hospital).

“Yeah, not just us, but the Grey Teams for First and Second Shift as well. It’s quite bad, we’ve got a serial killer on our hands,” Roderick replied.

“Shit, I hate dealing with such cases… Anyways, you and your father. Is he still bothering you?”

Roderick sighed.

“He always bothers me. But that’s not important right now,” he replied just as Jason started the meeting.

“All right, Grey Team, the polong case has been transferred to not only us but the other Grey Teams as well. We’re dealing with a serial killer who has been targeting social media personalities. Last two nights, during our offs, the polong struck again and claimed two more victims.”

Jason activated the holo-screen, displaying the pictures of four young individuals on the table.

“First victim, Jonas Sim. Deejay and influencer. He was slashed up so badly that Dr Marog is still trying to sort the corpse out in his forensics lab. Next, Vera Seow, chef and entrepreneur, survived the attack but currently hospitalized under Shades protection. The other two victims are Carmen Dattatreya and Robert Gibbs. One’s a model and the other a competitive game streamer. Both were murdered at random locations: Dattatreya in a library and Gibbs in a parking complex.”

“Based on what we’ve found out about the victims, all of them are successful social media personalities as was said earlier, but that is where the similarities end,” Farhan added as he got up, “While they have heard of each other, the only recorded interaction between any of them was Vera Seow being invited to Robert Gibbs’ party. Otherwise, they’re strangers with no links whatsoever. Another problem is the polong itself.”

Farhan switched the holo-display to show the images of a narrow-necked glass bottle and a small but hideous-looking woman.

“This is a normal polong, nothing compared to what four of our team-members encountered during the rescue of Vera Seow.”

Farhan now switched the display to the footages captured by the body cameras of both Jason and Roderick.

“Hold your horses there, Inspector. That’s the polong? It looks wrong… That looks more like a kuntilanak, or a manannangal,” Xiaoye asked, shocked by what she was looking at.

“My father did tell me how they look like, and they definitely do not look like that,” Amirah added.

“You’re right, Amirah. There’s something wrong about this one. I believe we are dealing with either an undiscovered, advanced form of polong, or a mutated one. Neither of them are good news,” Farhan said.

“And without a proper, established link between each victim, we don’t even have a list of suspects to identify the polong’s owner, right?” Lucas asked.

“Exactly. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying to establish one. Amirah, Roderick, I need the two of you to stay here and assist me in going through what little we have on the victims, hopefully find what we missed. Lucas, Ajibade. The two of you will guard Vera Seow while Xiaoye and Farhan will be patrolling the area. I’ll see to it that some of the other officers provide backup”

“We’re not going?” Roderick asked.

“Because the two of you are good with electronics, and both Lucas and Ajibade have experience doing bodyguard duties. Also, I found out the hard way that Xiaoye and Farhan are terrible with electronics,” Jason replied with a resigned tone right before a soft explosion was heard, causing Roderick and Amirah to turn around to see that Farhan had unintentionally destroyed one of the new computers in the room and Xiaoye having unknowingly ripped out the power button from its CPU.

“Wow, no kidding” Amirah uttered in disbelief while Jason shook his head.

“Roderick, call admin and tell them we need a new computer,” the inspector said.

A few minutes later, Xiaoye and Farhan were cruising around the streets near to the hospital where Vera Seow was currently warded in, with Ajibade having set up a sniper point on the roof of one of the nearby buildings facing the victim’s ward and Lucas already inside standing guard at the door. Rahman and his xiezhi rookie Zhou had volunteered to assist in guarding the patient and patrolling the area as well in case any of the Grey Team officers needed to go elsewhere: They are currently loitering the lobby of the hospital.

“Roderick’s in quite a foul mood, I’ve noticed,” Farhan commented as he turned a corner into Chinatown in their patrol SUV.

“So am I. Why is it that everytime I get partnered with someone senior, they never take the hatchbacks?” Xiaoye replied.

“Woman, look at my size. You think I can squeeze into the driver seat of that matchbox?”

“It’s all your muscle mass’s fault! Makan kurang daging, kurang bersenam, then maybe you can fit into one, you old tiger.”

“And disappoint my wife? Sama sekali tidak! Can’t have my three sons looking bigger than their bapa,” Farhan replied with a laugh, but then he turned serious as he continued, “back to what I was talking about, I’m a bit worried about Roderick

“Aye, me too. I think his father’s actions are really eating into his brain. I never realize he had a temper inside.”

“One month is a short time to try and understand someone.”

“But considering what I witnessed. It feels like there’s a really toxic relationship going on between the two. Roderick wants to get out of his father’s life because of some grudge, and Supt Harper’s fucking up every chance he had to reconcile with him because he’s not trying to understand his own son.”

“Wow, now I feel bad for them both. Still, I do not really approve of the way Supt Harper treats non-regular and elven officers. Which is sort of funny, because he wasn’t always like that.”

“Really? How so?”

Farhan sighed.

“It’s the same with AC David Kang. Both men were once good, honest, righteous and have a desire to protect their people. David Kang was a war hero, and Lawrence Harper was the super-cop who ensured law and order was maintained even in a time of chaos. Unfortunately, both men suffered during the war, and when it ended, well, they’ve become a completely different person than the ones they used to be. AC Kang became a self-serving man who is more concerned about rising in rank than protecting the people, and Supt Harper, whatever issues that affected him drove him deeper into religion until it consumed him. I know some people call him a blasphemer because of his militaristic approach to worship, and unfortunately, they are not quite far from the truth.”

“I thought blasphemy is an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of reverence towards a certain religion?” Xiaoye asked.

“True, but when you use the words of your religion to justify your actions, be they immoral or socially unacceptable, you’re twisting them to suit your needs. I don’t know what others would say, but personally, I consider doing such things an act of blasphemy too, since you are insulting your own religion through your self-righteousness. Supt Harper doesn’t do it out loud, but his biased nature against non-regulars and elves is related to his religious beliefs. I know that quite well, after all, I called him out on it once.”

“You called out Roderick’s father?”

“Yes. He was targeting this elven officer whom I was grooming to become an investigator when we were both still under his command. That officer eventually couldn’t take it anymore and transferred himself out, and I sort of lost my temper and decided to have an honest hear-to-heart talk with Supt Harper… In my transformed state.”

Xiaoye shook her head in amusement.

“Did you scare him?” she asked.

“Oh, definitely. He didn’t dare move a muscle or talk back to me, just stood there taking all the non-vulgar abuse I was hurling at his face because he was afraid I’ll eat him. Come to think of it, Xiaoye, when Supt Harper was being rude to you, why didn’t you call him out like you did with other senior officers when they treat you unfairly? You were known for once throwing a mug of coffee at the head of an Assistant Commissioner after he made disparaging comments about you being a cambion, and you did beat up a pair of station inspectors at a bar after they directed one dirty sentence too much in your direction.”

Xiaoye sighed.

“It’s an old story… Remember when I was in jail for accidently killing that cunt who murdered my ma? There were under-the-table talks with foreign governments about just handing me the death penalty, but Supt Harper, well, he was one of those who sided with Bradley and the others and made sure that I was given a fair trial, even though he dislikes me more than DSP Hamlins because I’m half-demon. After that, he was among the police and government officials who exposed and arrested the five wankers that tried to turn the trial into a lynching. So I guess I owe him, you know?”

“I see. So you didn’t want to retaliate against someone who helped you out despite his personal hate towards your kind.”

“That’s where the problem is. If Roderick finds out his father did me a good turn, he’ll just get angrier with his old man. He’ll likely accuse Supt Harper of holding me hostage through personal debt of gratitude, or something like that. Seriously, I can’t really swallow the fact that Roderick’s having such a bad relationship with his father.”

“Well, everyone craves freedom. Everything Supt Harper did to Roderick in the past, I don’t know, perhaps he was afraid he was going to lose his son like he lost his other four children? I heard they moved out one after the other. How can a father act like one if he doesn’t try to understand his own children and instead tries to impose himself upon them?”

“Who knows? My own pa had to learn that lesson the mortal way despite being a powerful demon,” Xiaoye replied with a shrug when her phone started ringing.

“Di Xiaoye speaking,” Xiaoye greeted, setting her phone on speaker so that she can react to any situations with both her hands, just in case.

“Sorry, is this Sergeant Di from the Shades?” a familiar voice asked from the other end of the call.

“Oh, Miss Umetani? Is something the matter?”

“Look, I know I’m supposed to call the police first, but I think they might not make it in time. One of my colleagues passed out at the stairs of the hospital I operate from, and when he woke up, we found this strange insect in his mouth.”

Xiaoye and Farhan glanced at each other, both sharing a sinking suspicion of what it might be.

“Describe it, please.”

“It looked like a grasshopper, but it has some kind of sting and the face look like a spider. We’re keeping it in a flask at the moment,” the tanuki paramedic said as something is heard buzzing in the background.

“Miss Umetani, which hospital do you work from?”

“Central Hospital.”

“Roger that. We’re on our way.”

“That’s too coincidental. Vera Seow is warded in Central, and a pelesit got caught there? I’m not buying it,” Farhan commented.

“Aye, we better inform Lucas and Ajibade about it. Sierra-3-10 to Sierra-3-3, over,” Xiaoye asked as she grabbed the radio.

“Sierra-3-3 responding. Is there a situation?” Ajibade’s voice answered the radio call.

“We received a call from a paramedic in Central Hospital. One of her colleagues was attacked by a converted pelesit. There’s a chance the serial-killing polong is nearby.”

“Roger that. Sierra-3-7 have already met with Lucas, all three officers are in Vera Seow’s ward at the moment. Lucas, brief them on the recent discovery.”

“Roger that. By the way, just a minute ago, I squashed a pelesit in the ward’s toilet. Sierra-3-7 and I have our weapon’s safeties off at the current moment. We are expecting an attack.”

“Should we go assist?” Xiaoye asked Farhan.

“Damn right we are… The way this case is progressing, we’re going to have an SRE Code Epsilon announced. Let’s grab the pelesit samples and see if we can get Dr Marog and the guys from Counter-Magic to trace their origins,” Farhan replied as he made a U-turn and began heading back towards the hospital…