Int. Captain's Office (Afternoon) October 27, 2025, 10:30 A.M.
Captain Drake was sitting behind the desk, a serious look on his face, his elbows on the desk with his hands clasped together, supporting his head as it rested on the back of his hands. Gabriel sat nervously in the chair positioned in front of the captain's desk. Captain Drake's gaze made Gabriel uncomfortable; the eyes didn't blink as he stared directly at Gabriel. Gabriel fidgeted with his hands, doing his best to not react to the stare as he and the Captain waited for Blake to finally arrive. Gabriel looked at the wall and saw it had just reached ten thirty in the morning. They have been waiting around forty minutes, give or take a few. The seconds dragged by as each tick of the clock passed. Gabriel felt a small drop of sweat down the back of his suit, the room starting to feel very hot. Refraining from taking off his jacket, Gabriel tugged at his collar, trying his best to loosen it up a little bit.
Another ten minutes passed before the door finally burst open, and Blake came flying through the door. "Sorry, Dra—er, Captain, about being late," he gasped, sweat coming down his face. Blake was still in his usual getup: a leather jacket with jeans, boots, and a white shirt. Gabriel thought the jacket might've looked different, but he didn't dwell on it.
"Just shut up and sit down," Captain Drake growled out, his tone frustrated as his glare switched from Gabriel to Blake. Gabriel watched Blake scramble to sit to the right of himself. After he was situated in the chair, Captain Drake leaned back in his chair, taking in the two of them. "It's my fault, isn't it? It's my fault believing Tweddle Nerd and his mentor Tweddle Dumbshit could handle this case without alerting the media."
Blake opened his mouth to speak, but Captain Drake glared, quickly making Blake shut up. Captain Drake looked at Gabriel but saw he was staying quiet. "You two knuckleheads got the media breathing down our necks right now. Not only did they have good videos of you two getting taken away in an ambulance, but they caught sight of the dead bodies," he lectured, tossing a paper onto Gabriel's lap.
Gabriel picked up the newspaper, the headline reading "Fire, Bodies, and Death, Oh my." The front-page picture was two burned corpses being carried away by the coroner's office. "Sir, I'd like to admit going to the warehouse late was a bad call on my part—" Blake tried to speak up.
"I'm not even mad about the warehouse burning, I'm mad at the fact that you, and I'm talking about you, Detective Murphy, you of all people know better about keeping things hush-hush. When you first see signs of dead bodies and a ritual, you call me. We have protocols in place for shit like this," Captain Drake explained, placing both hands on the desk as he turned his back, looking out the window. "I give you a lot of leeway, Detective Murphy, and I cover for you any chance I can get due to all the help you have given me. If anything, and I mean anything, about what is really going on gets out, I'll make sure you, and your partner here, are both thrown so far in prison that your children's children will be paying for your crimes, am I clear?"
Gabriel was confused on what the conversation was really about, but still spoke, saying "Yes, Sir," along with Blake. Captain Drake waved at them. Blake, taking that as a sign, quickly left the room. Gabriel, having no idea, just followed behind Blake, making sure to close the door behind them. Gabriel caught up to Blake, walking in stride with him. "Hey, so are we going to talk about what happened back there, or are you just going to leave me out of the loop?" he questioned. The two of them walked past Blake's desk, seemingly walking towards a closed office.
Blake kept walking, ignoring the mutterings of the other officers as he went to the same room that the duo was using last time to take notes on the case. He quickly opened the door with Gabriel hot on his heels. He loudly slammed the door behind both of them as Blake stared at the wall of notes he had set up just a few days prior. "Seriously, what the hell is going on—" Gabriel started, his voice beginning to raise as anger entered his tone.
Blake interrupted Gabriel, completely cutting him off. "Demons exist, and that's what almost killed us."
Gabriel's words dried up quickly in his mouth. "What the fuck did you just say!?" his tone shocked at the words he just heard. His jaw dropped to the floor at that unexpected news.
Blake turned around, a serious look on his face as he stared Gabriel in the eyes. "Gabriel," he stated calmly. Gabriel knew with Blake saying his name that he was actually being serious. "The things that are mentioned in the bible, things that go creeping in at night, the monster under your bed. They're real, every last one of them. You probably don't remember, but the person we were fighting was one of the demons of legends known as Lust."
Gabriel's mouth finally closed. He went to open it but couldn't find any words to say. Gabriel's mind blanked, the crushing feeling of his bones breaking going through his mind once again. Unlike in the hospital room, Gabriel quickly took deep breaths to calm down, not wanting to show any weakness in front of Blake. There are still things he needs to address today, such as taking bribes, though in retrospect, learning about demons might be a little more important at the moment.
Gabriel felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Blake standing within an arm's length of him. "Hey, I know it's a lot to take in mixed with everything else going on, but I promise you that I'll train you in fighting demons," Blake reassured Gabriel as he patted his shoulder.
"Hey, I saw you guys come in earlier and I thought…" Nadia's voice trailed off from behind Gabriel. "Oh, hand on the shoulder, Gabriel, have you had another breakdown again?"
Blake looked at Gabriel in confusion. "When did you have a breakdown?" he asked.
"In the hospital when he first woke up," Nadia answered for him, now standing to Gabriel's left.
Gabriel shrugged Blake's hand off his shoulder as he rubbed his temples, trying to stem a headache coming on from today. Turning towards Nadia, he spoke. "No, I'm not having a breakdown, actually, I was just thinking. Actually, what are you even doing here?"
Nadia shrugged in response. "I have nothing going on, so I thought I'd offer my help with your guys' case."
"You can't just barge in and ask to join a case," Gabriel argued.
Blake cocked his head and thought for a second. "I don't know, Rook, it could help to have a new set of eyes, plus we are back at square one."
Nadia's face grew a huge smile as she stared at Gabriel, batting her eyes. "See, even the old man thinks having a new set of eyes will be helpful."
"Ouch," Blake shouted, faking grabbing his heart after hearing the "old man" comment.
Gabriel's nose scrunched up at the breaking of so many different rules at the moment. "First off, we are talking about something important, so you joining the case can be discussed later," he told Nadia before turning to Blake. "What do you mean by we are back at square one?"
Nadia clapped her hands in excitement. "I love hearing about secrets, or let me guess, Blake is cheating on his wife?"
"Haha, very funny," Blake mocked Nadia, crossing his arms in annoyance. "I'll have you know we are divorced, and I didn't cheat."
Nadia nodded her head solemnly, getting up from the table she was sitting on, she approached Blake before tapping his shoulders. "There, there. I'm sorry that she cheated on you! I do hope the heartbreak eases up, and if needed, I'll punch her in the face."
Blake's face turned red as the words came out of Nadia's mouth. "Nobody cheated, first off. Second, you can't threaten to punch civilians in the mouth."
"Now you care about rules," Gabriel muttered under his breath.
Blake ignored Gabriel's comments and continued talking, glaring down at Nadia. "I thought you were a shy gal, but a hard worker. I didn't know you had a smart mouth on ya."
"In my defense, you guys never really had a conversation with me, though I'm usually too shy to talk in the face for reasons," she admitted, her face turning red as she took a glance at Gabriel.
Blake noticed it and a creepy grin entered his face. "What about you and the boy? Did you finally help to f—"
"Can you guys please stop goofing off?" Gabriel interrupted, his hand twitching, a frown on his face. "We all got actual work to do, and I'd like to get most of it done before something else happens."
Nadia's smile left her face as a frown replaced it. "Fine, Mr. Grumpy Pants, but eventually you're going to need to loosen up a little bit." She went back to the table to sit on it, pouting as if she was scolded like a child.
Gabriel noticed Blake looking at the watch on his wrist, which was weird on its own; he has never seen Blake ever wear a watch. Blake checked a couple of times before looking up at Gabriel. "So, I'm not trying to interrupt you with kids flirting or whatever is going on here, but Rook, we need to get going before we lose our appointment for today."
Gabriel saw Nadia blush at the "loverbird" comment. Shaking his head in despair, he felt like befriending Nadia Saturday night was a bad idea. The feelings did take a backseat to the situation at hand. "What appointment?" he questioned Blake instead.
Blake's face turned sinister as he looked to the ceiling. "We have an appointment with my C.I. right now, and I for one am excited to see what he has to say."
"And what if we just forgot the conversations that we need to talk about?" Gabriel asked.
Gabriel saw Blake and Nadia sharing a look, with Nadia shrugging. "Pretend as if I'm not here."
"See, let's pretend as if she's not here," Blake echoed.
Gabriel threw his arms up in the air, already over everything else going on. "Fine, whatever, let's just go then, and Nadia can come."
Nadia, jumping in excitement, her arms doing a fist pump in the air. "Yes, road trip!" she cheered.
"This isn't for fun and games," Gabriel muttered to himself, wondering if he made a mistake in agreeing to her coming along.
Blake checked his watch one more time. "It'll take about forty minutes for us to get there, but we should get there right before Mark leaves. By the way, Rook, you're the one driving."
"Oh, I get to see Mr. Grumpy's car," Nadia chimed in.
Gabriel raised one eyebrow, actually shocked to hear those words. "I'm driving? You're being serious, right?"
Blake nodded in return. "Yes, my car is in the shop with a broken window, which also ties back into what was asked before," he explained, walking past Gabriel to the door. Stopping right before exiting the room, he turned back around, his hand still on the handle. "They busted my window and stole all the case files, okay? Okay, see you in the car."
Gabriel's head shot up quickly as the door began to close. He rushed as he caught sight of Blake heading to the car garage. "What do you mean someone stole the case files!?" he shouted, causing other officers to look at them, wondering what's going on. "Dammit," Gabriel muttered under his breath as he left the room, Nadia quietly following behind.