Recent Loss Is Hard To Take Your Mind Off Of

"Come on, the station is this way!" Rambone pointed to the Northwest to Luca as he took her by the wrist.

"Hey, can you stop grabbing me by the wrist? It hurts, y'know," Luca quickly pleaded.

"Sure. Just don't lag behind me too hard."

He let go of her wrist as they stopped for a second to talk.

"Yeah, I won't. You know that I'm more than capable athletically than you."

"Nah, I'm better than you athletically and not because I'm a guy! I'm 1 year older than you and I bust my ass every day to be more than fit, and you know that. Just because you've been working out for longer than I have doesn't mean you're better!" Rambone ranted.

Luca grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer in anger, gritting her teeth.

"Says you! That's all you pride yourself on, Mr. Loserboy! Just because your momma sends money for food and rent every few months in the mail doesn't mean you're worth a damn!"

"You better watch out or else I'm gonna cut all your hair off in your damn sleep!"

"Oh please... you don't have the balls to do that!"

"Keep pushing me and I'll buy the scissors to do it. I'll cut every last brown lock of your hair off. Every... last... one..."

"Oh, shut up. You're literally dragging out on this mission just so you can pick a fight with me."

"I did not! I did this so we could solve YOUR big problem! I am not picking a fight!"

She let go of him and looked down in silence for a moment. A tear fell down her cheek. Rambone in response frowned. He knew how easy she was to upset in this state. He was internally upset as well but personally couldn't find the time to mourn at the moment.

"It's more than a problem. I miss him."

"I miss Pat too, Luca," he said, looking at her in empathy.

"When people say life is cruel, it's not an excuse for cheap empathy. It's a brutal reminder that can't properly state just how brutal, cruel, and painful life really can be. You know that. I know that. We both know that."

There's a brief moment of silence among the two as they ponder the loss and what life might be like without him.

"Well, I'm sorry for bringing this up. It's my fault. It's j-just he-" Luca broke off as she began to have a brief flashback of her and Pat together. It was only a half a year ago from now in their bedroom, back in fall.

"Hey, Luca, turn around. I just want to tell you something," Pat loudly whispered to her. Hearing him, she turned around in her bed as he sits across the room from her.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Can I talk about the future for a second?" He asked her. She fished around in her mind for a brief moment before giving her response.

"I forgot to tell you earlier. I didn't hear what you said what you wanted to be when you grow up."

"I think a tailor or something relating to making clothes. Make my own brand of clothes. Have an impact on the world."

"That's a good choice. It'll be hard to impact the world, though. When you stop to think about it, the average person can't change or impact the direction of the world. They can only change the people around them. Being a tailor is one of the best jobs for that. People don't consider how much the unfortunate love being given clothes. A jacket, a sweater, an extra shirt, and pants to keep them warm through the cold and nights in an unforgiving world."

"Yeah, that's what I want to do as a tailor. Giving a jacket to a homeless person to make them warm would make my life a lot more bright."

"Just know that the road to being a tailor is a rough one. So please, just promise me that no matter where life takes you and me, that you become a person that protects those you love and care about with all that talent you have."

"I will. Don't you worry." Luca said with a smile across her face.

Luca began shedding more tears in front of Rambone.

"Don't you worry, we'll help him find peace," he said as he wiped off a tear on one of Luca's cheeks. "It's not like I've had to find peace for someone I knew before."

"You b-better be right."

"You can shed all the tears you want once we find his peace."

"O-o-okay," Luca said, battling through tears.

"The police station's not too far ahead, so let's finish the rest of the trip. We're lucky because this murderer seems to like to lay low after committing their crimes." He stated, trying to cheer up Luca and take her mind off Pat.

As the two ended their conversation, Rambone slowly creaked the door on the right open with his corresponding right upper arm and elbow as to let them both take a peek into the entrance of the police station and then let Luca in first, there was a pause as they do realize that their situation just got a whole lot more tricky for them.

The room had all the lights on, but all the bookshelves were missing, and bustling workers and police officers going all around the station were gone. It made it too disturbingly quiet, as to where one could hear the sound of blood flowing through their vessels and their heart beating. In the entrance, which was a liminal space from the door to 3 different office rooms for different purposes. While the plaques on top of the doors to each of the 3 rooms split off on the east, west, and ahead, respectively.

Though, besides the plaques, the only objects in the room not missing or most likely stolen was a large round table in the middle of the room, with an assortment of six or seven chairs going around and pushed in.

Deciding to not waste any time to catch the murderer on the run, the two walked in and the door closed behind them. Because the empty room merely acted as a gateway between many different rooms, it made things exponentially more eerie and disturbing for them both.

Going up to the table, Rambone noticed a small folded-up piece of paper, giving him a quick and puzzled look. It looked like it had been touched fairly recently as he unfolded it and felt the blank feel of the paper in his hands.

There was text on it, clearly written in black ink that had been rushed towards the end of the line to keep all the letters on the paper. It read: "Out to eat, rest of us are off duty for today. We locked the doors too." The words in the last sentence were abbreviated and scribbled as it seems the writer of the note immediately took what, Luca figured as Rambone handed her the note, was a fountain pen and then rushed to write the message.

"Guess we're gonna have to chase after him ourselves," Luca boasted, putting a spread-out hand to her collarbone. "Luckily, I like to call myself a young Ms. Sherlock."

"Yeah, when you had to go searching around your house for the damn book you were just reading 5 minutes before!" Rambone protested.

"Oh, shut up or I'll kill you."

"I'll have you know I never told you that I didn't go to visit a friend in town for a year and a half before. That was a damn lie to make you think I was popular! I went to a school for self-defense in martial arts and sword fighting with a damn good teacher instead."

"Alright, I might kill you one day for making your bag of shit personality look golden to me, then."

"Then why did you just lie to me?"

"Because you're so damn weird to me, ugh," she groaned. "I had a feeling you lied to me about yourself a lot when I first met you. So whenever I thought you were lying to me, I made a promise to myself. Someday I'd respond to them with my own lies, no matter how black or white."

Rambone showed a slight smile at her and chuckled. "We were guided by fate to become friends, weren't we?" As he said that, he turned away from her and walk towards the exit doors.

He turned his head back towards her and leaned on a door, causing it to open halfway, revealing a still glimmering bright sky. It was fall, but the weather was warm with the occasional cool wind that ended up creating the sensation of a mixed season of fall and summer, though it had only switched seasons a few days before, so the feeling wasn't entirely off to someone familiar with the area.

"Come on, let's get going," he said with some enthusiasm, his smile widening. "Time marches forward to the beat of its own drum, y'know? You gotta keep up with it."

"Hold on. Let me grab something from my backpack," she said, walking up to him and opening up the backpack. "Ah, there it is, my umbrella. This should do for me."

As she pulled out the umbrella, Luca's mood improved from feeling slightly down to a more positive one as she showed some signs of happiness upon holding the umbrella. While it didn't differ heavily from an average umbrella, it was smaller in size, the fabric had an odd shade of azure one couldn't quite describe the feeling to. It was lightweight and had a special form of fabric that made it far sturdier, which is what set it apart for her.

"What's the need for the umbrella?" Rambone quickly asked, with a slightly puzzled look on his face for a moment. "It's not raining, y'know?" He joked, chuckling to himself.

"I've told you why this umbrella is so damn good before! Now, shut up, and let's get going." She fired back, growing impatient and annoyed at him.

"Oh, rrrrright..." He said, quieting his mouth, quickly remembering the fact as he took a quick stare at it. "Still, let's go chase down this bastard."