[Persephone Dean]

The Case of the Mysterious Miracle

Persephone frowned at the list. She doubted receptionists were supposed to be sharing this kind of information, no matter how little it revealed about those who had signed it. At the same time, if this was the level of care with which the list was treated, the mystery doctor could have signed with literally anything and it probably would have gone unnoticed.

So, probably not a real name. But potentially a name that linked to the doctor – sometimes people drew their inspiration for such things from real life, even if just subconsciously.

“Interesting…” She tapped her fingers gently against the page. “I wonder if this Elaine is a real person?”

Persephone was just about to expand on her thoughts when she was suddenly struck by a blinding pain that blitzed across her forehead and spread all over her very scalp. She stumbled to support herself against the desk, almost vomiting with the pain. Her eyes met with Will’s, genuine panic on her face…

…and then suddenly the pain was gone. She flushed and pushed herself back upright, turning her attention pointedly back to the page as though nothing had happened.

ψ

[Will Chase]

What was that? Persephone had almost collapsed, he had seen the agony on her face. And now she was fine? He didn’t understand. Sudden and unexpected pain was nothing strange, but for it to disappear so suddenly? And from her face this had never happened before. Was it a result of the crash? But surely the doctor would’ve told her if there was a problem, if only to avoid a court case. And did he dare bring it up? She had reacted poorly earlier, and he still didn’t know why. Would she react even more poorly if he tried to get her checked out? Shit, he hated things like this. He’d been on the back foot ever since he’d woken up, and it was starting to get to him. He needed to turn this around, find some way to advance. But Persephone was right, the name could easily have been faked. The woman at the desk may have been tired or new, or both, but she had given him access to the book far too easily. Hell, she hadn’t hesitated to hand it over to him for even a second. The miracle worker could’ve signed it with whatever the hell they wanted and no one would’ve been any the wiser. Eventually, Will decided that to bring up Persephone’s sudden pain when she was so obviously embarrassed about it would be a bad idea after what had happened earlier, and responded to what she had said. “She may very well not be, but we don’t have any other leads right now. I’ll contact a friend and get him to look her up, maybe she’s used the name before and we’ll be able to draw together a list of places she’s been seen.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. It rang twice, then was picked up. “Hello?” “Hey Jacob, it’s Will. I have a favour to ask…” The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me Will Chase 321 Words

♛

[Persephone Dean]

The Case of the Mysterious Miracle

There was a lingering shaky feeling in her body. Adrenaline. It was a far more pleasant feeling than whatever had erupted between her temples, but Persephone still hated it. There was no way she could control her muscles so finely as to suppress the shivers running down her fingers. Her weakness was on full display.

Amazingly, Will was reacting exactly how she needed him to. More accurately, Will had barely reacted at all.

She was extremely grateful that he had chosen to focus rather than to pry. Something felt different, not wrong… just different, and Persephone was feeling an urgent need to figure out just what had happened to her. They needed a little progress, just a scrap of a concrete lead, and then she could make her excuses and leave. Her face burned at the idea, but it was one she could not ignore.

Persephone hung awkwardly at the desk while Will made his call, glancing lazily around the room. For some reason her eyes were heavily drawn to the entrance. Specifically a couple of potted areca palms which looked a little under-watered.

The pain struck again, this time forcing her to her knees.

It wasn’t leaving – why wasn’t it leaving?

ψ

[Will Chase]

“Thanks Jacob, call me back when you’ve got something.” Will put his phone back in his pocket and spoke to Persephone. “That was a friend of mine in the SFPD, he’s going to run the name for us.” There was no response, so he turned and, for the briefest of moments, froze in surprise. Persephone was on her knees, her face twisted in agony. She was twitching, shaking ever so slightly. “Shit,” he barked and strode towards her quickly. He crouched in front of her and seized her by the shoulders. “Persephone, what is it? What’s causing the pain?” He turned to the receptionist, who still hadn’t done anything and was instead standing there staring at them with shock written on her face. “What the hell are you standing around for,” he snapped. “Call a doctor, now. This is supposed to be fucking hospital, get a move on.” Once she’d been shaken out of her funk, the woman acted with admirable speed and a doctor was there quickly. “Do you have any idea what’s causing this?” “No, no idea. I mean, we were in the car crash a couple of days ago and just got out earlier, but the doctor said we had all recovered, and she was perfectly fine until just before.” We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid Will Chase 213 Words

♛

[Persephone Dean]

The Case of the Mysterious Miracle

God damn it, Will was causing a scene now. He’d even managed to rouse the ridiculously incompetent girl on the desk and summon a doctor. The pain was going again, not quite as quickly as the last time, but enough for her to feel ridiculous at the receipt of medical attention. The pain was kind of merging into something else… a desperate pressing for her mind to focus on.

She managed to push herself away from the doctor, finally summoning the energy to cast Will a look. It wasn’t quite the anger she felt inside, but she certainly wasn’t pretending to look grateful.

“I’m fine, I get headaches sometimes,” she lied breezily. Her pain was nothing more than a dull ache at this point, having paled in comparison to the other sensation going on in her head right now. What was it? Did she need to relax in some pretentious, Californian yogi way?

It was like following a tiny little string through a labyrinth.

“Will, I’m sorry but I’m not going to be of any use to you now.” Persephone had suddenly remembered her audience. “Doctor, thank you for your attention but my insurance can’t handle a consultation so I’ll have to decline your services.”

She was nearly at the end of the string and it was excruciatingly intriguing. It felt like she was on the verge of unlocking some new information, a brand new part of her brain... What was this? She needed to get out of here, she needed to focus.

“Please, I’ll be fine.”

ψ

[Will Chase]

Shit, had he done the wrong thing again? Were they really something she was used to? But no, no that couldn’t be it. He’d seen the surprise on her face, the agony she had experienced. No matter how quickly she seemed to have brushed it off, that had been more than a headache. That had looked more like a migraine. But he’d pissed her off apparently. God damn it, he just couldn’t get a break could he? But he recognised that expression. Oh, did he recognise it. He’d seen a similar one hundreds of times before. She’d found something, something she needed to investigate, something she needed to know. He knew the feeling. He wanted to go after her, but knew that he couldn’t. He was too close, and he was fairly sure that she’d just tell him to get lost if he tried. Then his phone started ringing, and suddenly he was focussing on something else; Persephone’s plight may not have been totally gone from his mind, but it was significantly less important to him than it had been only moments before. “Jacob, please tell me you have good news.” Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge Will Chase 191 Words

♛

[NoSuchThing]

We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world. We will see it when we believe it.

The man on the other end of the phone didn’t exactly sound like he had good news.

“Hi Will… I’m sorry…”

It only took a few minutes for Jacob to expound just how little information he had managed to recover, with only a limited number of people with that name in San Francisco, and none of them with anything unusual about them. It was as disappointing a return on his current investigation as could be expected.

The doctor who had come over to help when Persephone had been taken ill was still there. She had watched as the girl had rushed away, frowning in concern. She’d taken a step back as though to leave when he picked up his phone, but was still there, watching him with an amused smirk.

She was short, only about five foot two, with short blonde hair and the typical white lab coat. There was a sharp cast to her features, as though you might cut yourself if you slapped her. There was a strange aura of self-possession and power about her. Will was nearly a foot taller than her, but she didn’t look in any way cowed or overawed. If anything, the doctor looked in supreme control.

“Hello Mr Chase…”

Will Chase

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Will Chase]

Will was still distracted by what had happened with Persephone, and by the bad news he had just received from Jacob. That was the only reason it took him so long to respond to the doctor, and the reason why he was so abrupt. “Hi.” Then he froze and thought back over the past few seconds. He hadn’t told the woman his name, she’d already known it; Will was certain he’d never met her before, and he had a good memory for people, particularly ones as unique as this doctor. He had encountered people with similar bearings before, but this woman’s was sharp in a way theirs hadn’t been. She seemed totally in control, totally secure in who she was in a way he had only rarely witnessed. She was a doctor. She was short, and female. Could it be? Maybe. But it couldn’t be that easy, surely. No way to know, unless he asked. “Tell me,” he said. The words were carefully chosen, and he turned to look her in the eyes. “If I were to ask your name, would you say Elaine Bennet?” Information is not knowledge Will Chase 185 Words

♛

[NoSuchThing]

We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world. We will see it when we believe it.

She smiled, evidently amused.

“For the purposes of this conversation, yes.”

‘Elaine’ gestured off to the side, “although we should have it elsewhere, don’t you think?”

Without even waiting for a response she began walking. It was the middle of the night, but that didn’t mean that the hospital was empty, far from it. A small family walked in with a bawling six year old, blood streaming from a cut on his forehead. A moment later a doctor rushed past, fumbling with the small plastic pager at his waist, it’s insistent beeping faded into the distance.

She was confident that Will would follow her, after all, why would she bring him back from the dead just to harm him now. In any case, she had no intention of harming him, he was family now.

“You left the hospital early… that was a little disappointing, though not surprising, Mr Weaver is surprisingly determined, I really should have anticipated that. As to you coming back… that was less of a surprise…”

She paused once they reached a quiet corridor, out of sight of the main entrance, though the distant sounds of the hospital could still reach them. Her next words were not a question, but a statement.

“You have questions.”

Will Chase

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Will Chase]

Okay, he needed to concentrate. Here she was, a walking, talking miracle worker, and he still had no idea who she was or why she’d saved him. She spoke like she knew both him and Dominic, and he had a feeling that she’d talk the exact same way about the others. She was too confident, too secure in her knowledge. Too accurate. It worried him - very few people had such self assurance, and all those he had met were dangerous. “How did you save us, and why?” She shrugged, “I have my ways…” She paused, as though considering the second question. “In truth… you were the right people, in the right place, at the right time.” Curious. Not that she’d concealed her methods, he had known she probably wouldn’t answer even as he’d asked the question, but her reasoning why. Finding people in the right place, at the right time was not something strange to him; hell he’d been one of those people even before this. But to say that they were the right people… What was her criteria? For him, the right people were the ones who could help him discover the truth. But for her? Lots of people had died in that car crash, or in the hospital afterwards. Why had they been saved where so many others hadn’t? “How did you decide that we were the right people to save?” She smiled in amusement, “I didn’t. I just found you… you could call it serendipity.” Oh she was interesting. She also found this amusing, which meant that he wasn’t asking the right questions. He didn’t know if he was on a time limit, or if he could only ask a set number of questions. He needed to be better. “You saved all of us, fixed what should’ve been lethal injuries to the point where not even a scratch was left. Why then, was Persephone in such pain? It was not a pre-existing condition, I can work that much out.” His question was answered with a raised eyebrow before any words were uttered. “Adapting, the body can only take so much change so fast.” For the first time since their conversation began she looked concerned, “she should be fine once things have settled.” Adapting. What did she mean? And change? How was Persephone’s body changing, and why? Could she answer those questions? No, probably not, or at least not the first one; she had looked concerned over the changes, and why would she be concerned if she knew what they were? The conversation was a maze, and Will was trying to find his way through without a map. What was worse, was that he wasn’t sure if she had intended it that way, or if he had merely trapped himself in a prison entirely of his own design. “Adapting?” “Of course, to the changes.” She spoke as though she were almost surprised by his question, almost as if he should understand her motivations entirely. What changes? She spoke as if he should’ve already known, but he didn’t and it irritated him. He hated not knowing things. “What changes?” ‘Elaine Bennet’ turned away a little, glancing back down the corridor. Two men stood there, before one of them started in their direction. “Your birthright...” She spun around and walked through the door immediately behind her, pulling it closed as she did so. Will followed her, stepping forward. He opened the door, and reeled back in shock. She was gone, vanished into thin air; the room was a closet, there wasn’t space for to have hidden. She was just… not there anymore. What the hell was going on? Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes Will Chase 608 Words

♛

[NoSuchThing]

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

The two men were dressed fairly casually, one in jeans and a polo shirt, a canvas jacket pulled on over the dull red of his polo. The jacket bulged slightly beneath his arm, betraying the presence of a firearm. The second was wearing a leather jacket, one that hugged is lithe form, it was clear that he was not armed. He seemed the leader of the two and he gestured towards the other as they head down the hall.

The armed man hung back, apparently doing his best to look non-threatening, but not quite succeeding in his attempts. His comrade moved forwards with an easy grin on his face. He seemed relaxed, but an experienced cop like Will would have been able to pick out the tension in his form, as though he were expecting an attack at any moment. He had a careful confidence about him, and approached with his hands held palm up in the universal gesture of ‘I don’t have a very large gun’.

“Mr Chase?”

His grin faded, becoming serious, “I need you to come with me.”

Will Chase

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Will Chase]

Shit. Now he had to deal with not just a vanishing mystery doctor, but Suits as well. Will hated Suits, they always had too much to hide. Worse, he'd just had some really weird shit happen to him, and he wasn't looking forward to anymore surprises. The one further back was carrying, and from the way he was standing it looked like he was trying to hide it, trying to look non-threatening. The gun was obviously subtle enough if the guy had been able to walk into a hospital with it, but he wasn't doing particularly well at the latter. Will didn't know many people taller than him, but this guy was massive and not in the nice way, where they were overweight, slow and easy to either run down or run away from. He looked like the muscle; not dumb, but definitely a grunt rather than a leader. But the other guy... He was different. Probably still not very high up, but he looked like the kind of man who had at least some pull within his organisation. It was the confidence, not the doctor's kind of confidence - that total assurance that nothing would be able to even touch her - but the kind of confidence a man had when he knew several very scary people who wouldn't be very happy if he wound up dead. Will was many things, but he wasn't an idiot. He was pretty damn sure he knew what, or rather who, this was about. He'd just watched her vanish after all. He turned to face the approaching man, slipping his hands into his coat pockets as he did so. No piece, he had been in too much of a rush to pick it up. Stupid. Still, he had his keys, a couple of packets of sugar and some loose change. More than enough if things went south, so long as mister muscle wasn't stupid enough to pull a gun in a hospital. Hey, he was paranoid, and he'd just seen a woman seemingly disappear simply by walking into a closet. "Where would we be going?" Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful. Will Chase 352 Words

♛

[NoSuchThing]

Here come the Men in Black

The man raised an amused eyebrow at the PI’s reply. It was obvious to all of them that Will was expecting trouble of some kind. The Asian-american turned and rolled his eyes at the bigger guy, “come on Heller, could you try and look a little more like a professional, and a little less like a tank sized schmuck?”

The large man shifted awkwardly looking apologetic. His partner turned back to Will.

“Clearly you’re expecting me to suggest some sort of secret underground HQ like the ‘Men in Black’…”

He smiled, “I wish that was the case, so much… but I was just going to suggest the Starbucks in the lobby…”

With an easy smile he turned to walk back down the hallway, “I’m Harry Lisle, that is Roman Heller, we are not the men in black. To be honest I wish I could look half as good in a suit as Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones, but some of us just aren’t born that way.”

He paused to turn back a fraction, “are you coming?”

Will Chase

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Will Chase]

Will relaxed. Slightly. "What, no underground bunker? I'm disappointed." So yes, he had been being paranoid. Though he still wasn't sure by how much. After all, he certainly hadn't done anything recently worth a visit, and if they'd just wanted to talk about the crash surely he and the others wouldn't have been allowed to leave the hospital as quickly as they had. No, there had to be something more to this. Still, no reason to avoid them. If it was something simple and basic it'd be over quickly and he'd be none the worse for it. If it wasn't? Well, it's not like they could do anything in a hospital Starbucks. "Sure, let's go." It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. Will Chase 115 Words

♛

[NoSuchThing]

Containment may be a moot point..

Harry ordered a pumpkin spiced latte, while Roman went for a far more complicated triple venti half-sweet non-fat caramel macchiato. The drink was somewhat at odds with his appearance, and even though it came in a large cup, looked almost comical in his spade-like hands. Harry ordered for Will as well and, drinks collected, they found a table in a less crowded area of the already near empty coffee shop.

Harry gestured for Will to sit, and joined him, while Roman found a seat by the door, and apparently became engrossed in the drink in front of him, though Will would notice his watchful gaze flicking across the shop’s patrons. Harry retained his relaxed grin and stance, he’d removed his jacket, revealing that he was, in fact, unarmed. That didn’t change his confidence however.

“Mr Chase… can I call you Will? We find ourselves in a predicament, you’re an investigator, so I’m sure you know how these things work.”

He took a sip and continued without bothering to explain what exactly this thing was. “You’ve been in contact with a person of interest, and we need your help in order to track her down. That and the help of your companions.”

Will Chase

MADE BY VEL OF GS