Sitting on the rooftops, I stared down at the city below. The moon cast a light bright enough that if someone were to look up, they would see me looking down at all of them. They won’t look up, however. They never do. Instead of taking a look at the barren, starless sky, they’d rather pretend stars never existed, so they’ll never look up. Realistically, what would they be looking up at besides a pale moon and a harsh pitch black void?

I sat on the roof of a building some blocks away from the police station, the hood from my jacket swinging from the chill wind. I followed Jessica all the way to the station and got in place. It had been some minutes since they took Thomas in. I waited every single second for him to re-appear, but he still had yet to. There was an innumerable amount of better ways I could find the Juxten Terror – or whatever it was they called the serial killer – but I still waited.

After nearly half an hour passed, I gave up on waiting for him. I could just track him down another day and interrogate him. I took one last glance at the station as I stood up to leave. However, my target decided it was a good time to leave at that very moment. 

Thomas strolled out of the station, hands in his pockets, and head looking down at his feet. I thanked myself for not giving up sooner and took chase. It would be plain idiotic to slam him down in front of the police, so I let him walk down the city blocks while I stalked from above. 

For someone so tall, he looked like nothing more than an amoeba through a telescope. He slithered around like one too, trying to stay away from any and all suspicion. If I were to rate his performance, it would be piss poor. His height was just way too intimidating to be ignored. Other night walkers that passed him skulked away from his size and walked several feet away from him. His immense presence kept everyone away from him despite the fact he wouldn't harm them in the least. 

I couldn’t ridicule him for that. It’s not like he chose how he was born. However, he’ll live to regret the choices he made while he was alive. 

After walking nearly three miles away from the station, and when foot and wheel traffic was lighter than usual, I pulled the jacket hood over my face and moved out. Moving at speeds no one but I could fully comprehend, I jumped off the roof. The impact sent shivers down my spine, and I very nearly lost my balance. I managed to keep myself straight for the time being and dashed toward Thomas.

He had seemingly heard my descent and looked in my direction. Before he could realize he was in any sort of danger, I was already on him. I picked up his entire body while maintaining my speed and fled into a nearby alley. Thomas screamed too late before he disappeared into the darkness.

Before anyone could hear his shouts, I covered his mouth with my hand. I pinned him against the wall and looked at the streets. No sound of footsteps or people screaming appeared. I exhaled, satisfied that no one saw what had happened. 

I was about to turn to him and act all nice and everything, but I felt something close around my hand. I turned my head and saw he clamped his mouth over my hand, attempting to bite into my skin. His eyes became bloodshot as anger and desperation filled his head with blood. In retaliation, I slammed him harder into the wall. Thomas gasped for air, and I took that chance to grab at his neck. I didn’t squeeze hard enough to choke him, but he looked at me in fear that I might. 

My hood still covered my face, so I wasn’t worried about him seeing who I was. In fact, I don’t think it would matter if he did. 

“Who are you?” Thomas asked.

“I’m the one asking questions here.” I shifted the tone of my voice so he couldn’t pin it down as easily. We may not have met too many times, but there was always a chance that he could recognize my voice. “You’re going to answer my question, and if you don’t you’ll be able to turn your head three-hundred sixty degrees. Do I make myself clear?”

He didn’t answer which I took as a yes. Several questions that I wanted to be answered came to me all at once. In the end, I just chose a random question to ask first.

“What exactly did you tell the police just then?”

I let my hand drop from his mouth and he inhaled all the oxygen his poor lungs craved for. “Why do you want to know that?” 

Sighing that I had to resort to drastic measures, I sized him up. His eyebrows raised, confused at what I was doing. That look didn’t last long when I kneed him in the stomach. His eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his head and his neck propelled his head forward. Vomit leaked from his lips and a drip of blood ran down his nose, staining his lips.

He fell to the ground, gasping for air. I closed up my hoodie just enough so he couldn’t see my face, but I could still see out of it. He raised his hand, grabbing at something that only he could see. 

“Are you dying?” I asked.

He shook his head before entering a coughing fit. In between his coughs, vomit propelled out of his gullet, staining the alleyway pavement with whatever he had eaten minutes before. The seven-foot-tall beast of a man groveled at her feet from just a single kick in the stomach. 

“Let me ask you again,” I returned to questioning him. “What did you tell the police?”

He held up a finger before coughing one last time. He wiped his mouth and leaned up against the nearest wall.

“I just told them I witnessed a murder.” 

His voice sounded like he swallowed three frogs and began using them to speak through instead of his own throat. After answering my question, he returned to his coughing fit. Blood from his nose splattered onto his clothing from his body jerking. I waited for him to finish before continuing the questions.

“What happened? Who murdered the news crew?”

“I don’t know who murdered them.” Thomas rubbed his neck as his coughing finally died down and his voice returned to a state of normalcy. “All I know is they wore a black hoodie.” He looked at me and his eyes widened. “Just like yours.” 

I sighed as his eyes went wild from fear. “I’m not the killer if that’s what you’re wondering. In fact, I want to know who the murderer was.” 

Thomas calmed down and raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me you’re some kind of superhero or something? From that speed you showed, that means you have powers of some kind.” 

I nearly laughed but managed to keep it in for the time being. “Sure, let’s go with that.” I returned to taking the questioning seriously after a moderate detour. “So they were wearing a black hoodie. Can you tell me anything else?” 

Thomas nodded. “Yeah, I can. They were pretty short, and they were pretty quick.” 

“How quick?” 

“They grabbed me despite being feet away and I was nearly in a run.”

 Something about that didn’t really add up to me. He’s here and alive despite going up against a cubbi. 

“How did you escape?” I asked.

“I ran like hell. They were quick but not quick enough to catch up with me.”

I sighed and raised my hand. Thomas flinched from that alone, reminding himself of who he was dealing with.

“No lying. Tell me the truth. How did you escape?” 

He panicked. His eyes shifted in all different directions, searching for a way out of his situation. I was about to slap the speak button that so happened to be on his face, but before I could, the sound of running footsteps made their way down the street. 

I looked up, and at the entrance of the alley, Jessica appeared out of nowhere. My eyes widened in surprise from her appearing out of thin air. Upon seeing me and Thomas in a rather precarious situation, she pulled out her gun and aimed it right at me.

“Stay still or I’ll shoot!” Jessica yelled. 

Not taking that chance, I shouted as loud as my lungs could let me. Not only were the muscles of a cubbi much stronger than a human’s, but our organs were as well. The moment I opened my mouth and screamed, the windows on the other side of the street shook from the pressure. Streetlights shattered and broke, bathing the streets in darkness. 

Jessica reeled back from shock and Thomas covered his ears. Amid the panic, I took my chance to run out of the alley. Jessica couldn’t even recover in time before I broke out into a run she couldn’t keep up with. 

***

That shout left me too stunned to speak. The thing that put me back in action was hearing moaning from down the alley. I turned and saw Thomas laying in a heap. Blood splattered on his shirt and vomit littered the alley. I ran to him and checked if he had any injuries. 

“Tell me, where are you hurting the most?” I asked. 

Thomas groaned again. “I thought you hated me?” 

“I still do, but right now, you’re the only person that can help me with this case. If things were reversed, I’d be cheering.”

As I called an ambulance, I thought back to what I had just seen. Someone wearing a hoodie had just attacked Thomas the moment he left the station after testifying the murderer was someone wearing a hoodie. At first, I didn’t really believe him, but after seeing that, how could I deny the fact he was telling the truth. 

“How did you know I was in trouble, anyway?” Thomas asked.

After confirming the address with the hospital, I went to answer his question. “Well, I–”

I froze. When I thought about my reasons, nothing came to mind. Not even a poor excuse. I tried remembering why I even left the station in the first place. Richie went off to talk to some of his buddies about the case. I remembered sitting by myself in the break room eating some chips, miserable that we didn't even take a step forward in the investigation. The next thing I knew, my eyes began growing heavy. I couldn’t deny sleep any longer, and I passed out. 

After that, my memory was foggy. I remembered waking up after a dream of some kind. I tried remembering the dream to the best of my abilities, but there was no such luck. There was one thing I could remember though. When my dream began, I found myself in a jungle.