The Midnight Murder Series: Pieces

“Thank you for helping me, Beyond,” Adán smiled as he planted another flower in the soil by his daughter’s grave. Beyond nodded and patted the soil around a baby rose plant on the other side of the grave. “My baby girl does love flowers – Lots of them. I did want to get her some panda flowers, but no shops sell them.”

“You can make them,” she paused and peeked behind him to see Rosario smiling down at her father. She sighed and shook her head. “Adán?”

He looked up at her and hummed. “Yes?”

Beyond didn’t answer. She kept her gaze down at the soil trying to think of a way to tell her compeer about his daughter’s ghost following her. She glanced at him and smiled sheepishly. “I have to get some stuff from the pond. You know, frogs or toads and lily pads. Would you mind helping me? You’re taller than me.”

Rosario vanished as Adán nodded and stood up. “Sure,” he helped Beyond up and took off his dirty gloves. “I believe the frogs and toads are hibernating.”

Beyond chuckled at his comment. “They don’t sleep. They go south for Mardi Gras. They’re flashing their green boobs for plastic beads. First ones there get the best seats.”

The vampire snorted and raised both of his brows at her. “I think the medicine is getting to you, but sure, let’s go with that. Frogs and toads have green boobs,” he stared at his child’s tombstone once more before speaking. “I know she’s still with me, Beyond. I can feel and even hear her,” Adán choked back the tears. “I wish I could travel back in time and save her from that pandemic. I-I-I.”

Beyond pulled him into a hug and rubbed his back. “You didn’t know about it. Nobody did, Adán.”

Adán closed his eyes, letting the tears fall down his face. He buried his face in Beyond’s shoulder while tightly hugging her back. “I should have protected her.”

Beyond felt the grieving father’s pain. “When – When I reaped her soul, she told me that she wouldn’t leave you without kissing you goodbye.”

Adán pulled back from the hug and looked at her with shock and surprise. “You reaped my baby’s soul?”

She nodded. “She knew she was dying. Why do you think she asked for that water? Your daughter wasn’t thirsty. She didn’t want you to see her die.”

Adán glanced at the headstone then back at her. His bottom lip and shoulders quivered before falling on his knees with tears streaming down his cheeks. He buried his face in his hands. “My baby, sh-sh-she was too young!”

Beyond knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to rock him. “I’m sorry, dearie,” she cooed. “I’m so sorry.” She looked up to see Rosario standing behind her father with a frown on her face.

“Daddy is crying because of my death?” the little girl’s ghost asked the reaper. Beyond only nodded as Rosario stretched out a hand to touch his shoulder. “Daddy, please don’t cry. I’m always with you.”

“Why did she have to go, Beyond?” asked Adán through the tears, feeling his daughter’s touch. “Why did God take my baby girl from me? Why didn’t he take me instead of her?”

“I don’t know, anymore,” Beyond explained. “I was told it was the natural order. We follow it like laws, but when it becomes nonsense that when you think if our lives are game pieces to the big guys.”

After a few moments, Adán pulled himself away from the reaper and dried his eyes. Beyond helped him up and wiped the tears from his cheeks.

“Beyond?” he cleared his throat.

“Yes?”

“Can you sing for her, please?”

“Oh, okay,” she cleared her throat before singing. “Meet me at the pale moon tree. It will be okay, my darling. Take my hand and close your eyes. We will rise to the heavenly skies,” Beyond slowly headed towards up the hill with him and Rosario while singing. “And maybe tonight, this night will stay forever young. With you by my side, everything will be fine.” Once at the top, she noticed one of the angel sculptures, facing the gravel road, had fresh blood weeping from its eyes. “Cassiel?” she whispered when she got closer to it.

Rosario raised a brow at the bleeding statue as she stood next to Beyond. “What’s that, daddy’s friend?”

Adán wandered down the hill towards the pond before freezing in his tracks. His ears twitched at the sound of footsteps running. He identified them as not his partner’s, and he quickly reached into his jacket to pull out his weapon.

Beyond and Rosario heard a stick breaking behind them and spun around. Beyond saw a male figure advancing rapidly towards her knight. “Nine o’clock!” she shouted to him.

“Daddy!” screamed Rosario.

Adán turned at the last minute and plunged his scythe into the figure’s chest. The vampire was stunned when it didn’t harm their body – no blood from the wound when the weapon entered the skin. He glanced up at the smirking male as one of the missing people from the files. “What the-”

The man seized Adán’s wrist and forced him to pull out the blade. He squeezed the vampire’s wrist before gasping. The man released the knight as he continued gasping for air. His face turned pale and his eyes glazed as he fell on his knees. Standing behind him was Beyond with her bare hand on his head. She calmly listened to the man’s gasping before he fell to the ground and died.

“You okay?” she asked Adán and exploded the body into a cloud of dust with a snap of her fingers.

He nodded before spotting another man racing towards her from behind. “Duck,” he whispered while clutching his left fist. Beyond got the message and did so, causing the running man to trip over her in time. The vampire sideswiped the guy’s jaw, causing the bones in the jaw and neck to break and ripping off the head. Adán watched the head fly across the sky and into the pond.

Beyond pushed the headless corpse off her and stood up. She eyed the body before looking at the knight. “Are they the missing people?”

“Yeah, some of them,” Adán huffed while observing their surroundings. He heard shoveling in the direction of his daughter’s grave. “No.”

“Why are they-” she paused before realizing something. “Adán, don’t! It’s a trap!” She tried seizing his wrist, but he was already climbing up the hill. “Dammit,” she cursed and chased after him, but suddenly got tackled from the side by a female. “Aahh!”

Adán halted and spun around to see a female on top of his comrade. “Beyond!” he charged, but someone grabbed him from behind and rammed a syringe into his neck. The knight’s eyes grew large before he convulsed and unconsciously collapsed to the ground.

“Daddy!” Rosario raced towards her father’s side.

The woman pinned the half-breed down on the path and grinned. “Damnum absque injuria. Damnum absque injuria. Damnum absque injuria.”

Beyond screamed in agony as some gray light shined out of her eyes and mouth before everything went black.

“Well,” began Mark while walking the hunters and werewolf out of the police station and towards their vehicle. “I know this case is crazy and all, but I wish you the best on your end.”

“Thanks, Mark,” spoke Arvel. “We’ll try and bring your dad home alive.”

Mark could only frown at his friend’s comment. “Arvel, you and your brothers hunt monsters like Dean and Sam Winchester from the TV show. I finally understand that my dad’s chances of surviving are in the gutter,” he paused for a minute and sighed. “Do whatever you can to bring his body back or something of his back home.”

Rufus pulled out his phone and dialed some numbers. He held it to his ear and waited. The phone rang four times.

“Hi, this is Adán’s phone. If you see a German, coffee-loving idiota named Rufus Roescheisen, tell him to come home and finish cleaning. Thank you and leave a message,” the voicemail spoke after the sound of a beep.

Rufus hung up and dialed some more numbers. He held the phone to his ear and waited again. The phone rang four times as well.

“This is Beyond’s personal and business cell. For spells and hexes, press 1. For practicing witchcraft lessons, press 2. If this is Thanatos, I’m not buying you any more teddy bears.”

Rufus hung up and sighed. “This is weird. I can’t get a hold of Adán and Beyond. Their phones go to voicemail.”

“Maybe their phones are off,” Oliver said.

“No, they ring,” a theory popped into the werewolf’s head. “I think I know where they’re at,” Rufus opened the car’s door and got in. “Come on.”

“Make sure they are tight.”

“I’m so excited for this!”

Beyond groaned in pain as she half-opened her eyes. The room was blurry and spinning. She blinked groggily to clear that blurriness away. The female closed her eyes when they rolled back in her head. Beyond let out a cry.

“She’s waking up.”

“Finally!”

Beyond’s eyes burst opened and scanned the room. She was in a dim-lighted room with pink, chipped painted walls with candles on some dressers, and throughout the room were six people staring at her. She saw one of them as the woman who attacked her earlier. Beyond tried to move, but couldn’t. The reaper looked over her shoulder and up to see herself bound in shackles, and also, underneath a reaper’s trap. Son of a bitch!

“You can’t escape this one, lovely,” Beyond’s eyes went wide. That voice. She turned back towards the people and saw a man in a plague doctor mask in front of her. “Iron shackles for your witchy side, and one trap for that reaper inside of you.”

Alvin drove into the Evergreen Hill Cemetery and towards the back. He cursed under his breath when he hit some many potholes on the gravel road. The hunter pulled out to the side, and everyone sprung out of their seats.

Rufus examined the graveyard and saw some gardening tool and freshly planted roses by the headstone. He frowned and jogged over to it, and the brothers followed him. The knight crouched down in front of the gravestone and fingered one of the white roses. He glanced up at the name and swallowed. “Dammit,” he murmured.

“What’s wrong, Rufus?” asked Arvel as he and his brothers stood behind him.

Beyond’s bottom lip shivered when the masked man removed his mask. “No. It can’t be.” her voice trembled while fighting back the tears. “You died.”

“Indeed, I did, but what’s dead isn’t always dead,” his sky blue eyes were met with her forest green ones. “You should know that, Destiny.”

“Jonathan,” she whispered. A lone tear escaped from one of her eyes and rolled down her cheek as memories of her old life with him began popping inside her mind. She took in a fortifying breath. “Jonathan.”

Jonathan smirked at her voice cracking with his name. “Oh, honey. I’m not YOUR Jonathan. I mean, I took his body and his memories and blah, blah, blah. You know how we work, Destiny,” he walked up to her.

“Wh-What do you mean?” she took a step back, but the bound decreased her movement.

“They were here,” Rufus replied and stood up. “I can still smell them,” he turned around to face them and motioned for the hunters to follow him. They climbed up the hill and halted at the bleeding angel statue. “Adán and Beyond were here, but they aren’t alone.” He bent over to pick up an emptied syringe and sniffed it. “Dead man’s blood...”

Oliver surveyed the ground and found something. “Look!” he raced towards it and knelt to pick it up. “It’s Beyond’s glove.”

“Oh, boy,” Alvin rolled his eyes. “How do you know that’s even hers, Oli?”

“He’s right, Alvin. It is hers,” corrected Rufus. “I can smell her on it from here.” He closed his eyes and focused.

Adán’s unconscious body strapped to a table in a dark room. Rosario climbed on top of her father’s table and tried to free her dad’s wrists. She stopped when the door opened and walked in a figure. The little girl disappeared as the person went on over to Adán’s body and stroked his cheek. Their fingers traced down his neck and chest until the tips reached his stomach. With both hands, they tore open his shirt, revealing his skin. A sinister grin crept on the figure’s face.

Rufus opened his eyes, and they turned yellow. He growled at the brothers before his eyes changed back to normal. “I got their trail. I know where they’re at.”

Jonathan put a finger up to his lips to shush her whimpering. Once he was close to her, he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her up a few inches, pressing her body against his. “I can now see what Jonathan loved you for, yep. Look at that cute baby face,” he slammed his lips on hers.

Beyond struggled to get him off of her. She tried kicking him, but he grabbed her thigh and dug his nails into her flesh. The half-breed let out a cry. “Release me!”

Jonathan broke the forceful kiss and stared into her watery eyes. He did and snapped his fingers. One of the people stepped forward and gave him something shiny. Jonathan grinned and held up the item in front of her face. Beyond’s eyes widened. “Iron knife. It weakens you, right?” he slid the blade across her cheek and watched when it drew blood. He licked his lips before leaning forward and licking the fresh blood off her face. “Mmm!” he drew back and smiled. “Oh, yeah. Delicious half-breed, aren’t you?” Jonathan’s eyes traveled to her chest then back at her face. “You’re a tease, honey. Jonathan liked that. You ignored him, called him a stalker, then you fell in love with him. Beautiful wedding, by the way. I see it all right here,” he pointed to his head.

Anger filled Beyond’s body. “Those are not your memories!” she snarled. “Where’s Adán, you son of a bitch?!”

Jonathan sighed in annoyance and snapped her fingers again. “Gag her. Her voice is now annoying.” The woman who attacked her earlier went over to Beyond and tied a white cloth around her mouth. “Now,” he smiled once the woman finished and walked back to her spot. Jonathan stepped forward, seized Beyond’s shirt, and ripped it open. He clicked his tongue seductively at the sight of her exposed black colored bra and stomach. “Let’s get started.”