The process of getting out of jail took forty minutes of paperwork. The guard handed him back his things while saying,
"You were taking your sweet time coming back, Jake."
"Did you miss me?"
"Nope… I bet you'd be back in jail in six months."
"I love you too."
Another guard stared at him the whole time, ready to react if Jake did anything.
"Is he new?"
"Yeah, started a week ago."
Jake held his gaze and the guard eventually looked away.
'Always win that game.'
A woman with long brown hair, violet eyes, and delicate features was waiting for him on the other side of the gate with her arms crossed. Jake saw the woman and sighed.
'This is gonna be a long one.'
"Four million."
She said before Jake could open his mouth.
"Four million spent in twelve hours."
"Good morning to you too, Evelyn."
"You left a neighborhood trashed, a neighbor dead, and years of therapy for several people."
Jake opened his mouth.
"No."
Said Evelyn, making him close it.
The tension grew as they walked toward the exit.
"How much?"
Jake asked.
"All of this month's bonus."
"That's…"
"Plus the cost of the structural damage the company had to cover so you wouldn't get sued."
"That's also…"
"And the administrative cost of bailing you out of here, which, funnily enough, isn't cheap."
Jake decided not to do the mental math.
"So basically, I'll be working for free this month."
"You'll be working to pay off a debt this month."
Evelyn corrected him, then turned around and walked toward the parking lot.
Jake followed behind her.
Evelyn's car was neat, without decorations, with a small air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror that smelled like pine.
"Wow, what a… you car."
Jake looked at the driver's seat.
"Give me the keys so I can drive."
"No."
"Why…?"
"Because no."
"Just…"
"Jake…"
Evelyn looked at him over the roof of the car.
"Get in the car. Now."
Jake got in the car.
Evelyn drove with both hands on the wheel, eyes on the road and her jaw slightly clenched. Jake watched her for a few seconds before looking out the window.
"I've got a new case for you."
Evelyn said.
"Thanks for the break."
"It's an abandoned place on the outskirts of the city. They reported strange activity along with a strong smell."
"What's the classification?"
"Class C, with the possibility of being B."
Jake watched the air freshener sway with a turn.
"I only have one question."
He said.
"No."
"I haven't asked anything yet."
"The answer is no anyway."
Jake turned toward her.
"You know what? You should relax more."
The silence that followed lasted exactly four seconds.
"You're useless."
Evelyn said, with an indifferent tone.
"Useless, but with great inner peace."
"You're going alone on the case."
"Without backup?"
"Nobody wants to be your damn backup after what happened to your last partner."
"Right, Johnny, that kid didn't deserve that…"
"You were the one who left him trapped inside a car before a steamroller ran over it."
"Look, I didn't know the car had issues."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Okay, the junkyard that sold me the car said the passenger door sometimes failed and the seatbelt would get stuck, but other than that it was a beast… I felt bad when they wrecked it."
"Jake…"
"Oh yeah, right, Johnny, poor kid, he didn't deserve to die like that."
Evelyn slammed on the brakes at a red light.
"Look, you piece of shit, you'd better not cause any more disasters and actually do your damn job for once!"
She breathed and closed her eyes for a few seconds until Jake spoke.
"It wouldn't hurt if you went to therapy… It's clear the job stress is getting to you."
Jake ended up walking to the offices where he picked up his car and headed to the assigned case location.
When he arrived, he saw it was an old factory on the outskirts of the city, where the buildings grew farther apart until they turned into empty lots.
Jake parked, got out of the car, and looked at the place.
'Classic spot for a ritual.'
There was a particular aesthetic that ritual sites always ended up sharing: an unsettling silence and air that felt a little heavier than normal, until an old woman's voice broke the atmosphere.
"Outsiders are not welcome!"
Jake jumped in fright.
"Jesus Christ, lady! Where the hell did you come from!?"
She continued.
"Anyone who dares to defy the Great Ones will suffer the worst fate of all!"
"Ma'am, do you live here?"
The older woman paused to think and then answered.
"Yes, the Lord lives here!"
"No, I want to know if you live here!"
"The wisdom of the Great Ones can come here!"
"Great, the old lady's deaf."
Jake leaned toward the woman's ear.
"I'm going to check inside!"
The old woman kept shouting nonsense, so Jake left her alone.
The main door had been forced open from the inside.
Upon entering, he found the first floor empty except for the remains of what had once been industrial machines. On the floor there were footprints gathered around circles drawn with chalk or salt.
Jake crouched down and ran a finger along the edge of one of the lines. The texture was grainy and smelled burnt.
'A summoning ritual, and not one of the simple ones.'
Melted candles were placed at regular intervals around the larger circle. Among scraps of clothing, along with an empty bottle, there was a dark, wet stain in the center of the circle, too recent to have dried completely.
Which meant that whatever they had summoned was still there.
Jake kept walking.
A thick, warm smell, like poorly stored meat, arrived before anything else. Jake followed the smell to the stairs at the back, went down to the basement, and found the source.
In the center of the basement, against the far wall, there was something.
It was a large, pinkish mass, its surface covered in veins that pulsed with a slow, steady rhythm, as if it were breathing. Spread across its surface, opened in different directions, were dozens of eyes. Some small, others the size of a fist, and all with pupils.
The mass was gripping a pair of arms and legs belonging to a guy who couldn't be more than twenty years old, with whitish hair stuck to his forehead from sweat, his face turned to the side and his eyes closed. Jake confirmed he was still breathing.
'Well.'
Jake thought.
'This is a problem.'