Chapter 1 – I Would Do Anything For Love
Recalling events that led her to this place, Harley walks through a gang hideout that’s covered in blood, bodies, and bullet casings. There’s a single officer down at the back of the hideout who she kneels to touch, but once she does, it comes to life and whacks her across the head. This is where her life took a turn for the worst, a memory that’s painful to remember. She collects herself and drags two body bags to an open coffin that she puts them in. The bodies spring up as she closes the coffin. With great satisfaction, she smiles at it and looks up at the night sky which switches to afternoon as she stops daydreaming.
A woman with her husband next to her say, “Thank you for being here and paying for the funeral for my boy. He always wanted to be a police officer. He said that’s what he wanted to be when he grows up.”
The woman is then brought to tears, but quickly comforted by her husband.
“It’s no problem. Just give us a call if you need anything and we’ll be happy to help.”
The boy whose funeral it is died trying to play police officer when someone was getting robbed. Unfortunately, the robber didn’t care much for kids and killed him so when the robber was later killed, no one cared that she was killed as well even though nobody knows or cares if the officers tried to take her alive.
Harley usually holds special occasions for people whose lives have been directly impacted by crime such as this one. She’s famous for being one of the few female police chiefs, not only in the country, but in the world. Over her career, she’s taken down many criminals, shown mercy when no one else would, and was charitable when there was not much to give. She’s done all this, not just to be a role model or to rise through the ranks, but to protect her beloved lover Alex, the only one who has kept her going for all of her adult life. The only one who she thinks truly understands her. He’s been her moral compass, her inspiration, and absolutely everything positive you could think of. She can imagine him waiting for her at her parked undercover police car.
Her imagination of Alex says to her, “That was a great thing you did. I’m sure the boy will rest in peace knowing that his name will be placed among the bravest officers in this city.”
Harley blushes and smiles gleefully then drives off back to the main police station.
At the entrance, Romanova, the woman at the main desk asks, “Did the funeral go well?”
“Yes, it did. The parents were happy that he’s recognized as a brave officer though it doesn’t help them that much.”
“You know things like this take time.”
“I know but I always wish there was a way to give them a more immediate form of comfort.”
“Me too.”
“I better get to work. Have a nice day!”
“You too!”
Harley says hi to everyone she makes eye contact with on her way to her office. She enters it and looks over the case file for her new self-assigned assignment. Juliet and Rose enter just as Harley was about to call for them.
“Just in time,” Harley says, “Anything new about this case you got for me?”
Rose steps up and puts several files on Harley’s desk then says, “We have these other cases that could be connected to this one. I’ve found a several criminal groups that keep popping up across all of them with similar situations.”
“Juliet told me about them already, is there anything else?”
Rose turns to Juliet.
Confused by Rose’s look, she asks, “What? Did you want to feel special telling her yourself?”
Rose answers, “I thought I was supposed to be your superior and you were supposed to be my assistant, deputy.”
“It doesn’t matter to me who gives me the information as long as I get ASAP,” Harley adds in, “I’ll go to the locations you girls found to be the best ones to find more information at.”
“You don’t want us to go with you?” Juliet asks.
“I’ll ask you if I do.”
“You sure about that boss?” Rose says, “You are the chief after all-”
“This case is very personal to me and you know that we do things differently here in Hillside city. You also know my skills and they haven’t rusted one bit.”
“Of course.”
“I know how highly skilled you both are and I’ll let you look at some of these other places. Deal?”
“Yes mam!” they both say.
Harley gives them places to investigate and looks over the personal case again to think of what’s the best place to look first. The case is all about Alex’s parents and family disappearing mysteriously. Alex went to their house one day to not find them anywhere though the house was in perfect condition. They didn’t pick up their cellphones nor did anyone in family know where they were. Harley went into investigate the house and found secret rooms and evidence that the rest of the family is connected to the newest big gang in the city, The Los Inocentes, a gang that takes credit for the deeds of other gangs while copying many of their styles. No one could even believe that this was true, but when Harley and her police force searched for the rest of Alex’s family who lives in Hillside City, they could not be found at all as if they vanished like the parents. Some of the evidence found by Harley can damn the family, excluding Alex, to life in jail or execution, but I can also bring down the Los Inocentes. Alex didn’t want to get married to Harley without his parents’ approval, but he begrudgingly says that it would be right to bring them to justice if the connection was proved to be one hundred percent true. He’d also marry Harley without their approval, if again, this was true.
There are two huge rewards for her here; the honor of bringing down an infamous gang and marrying the one she loves the most. With her purpose renewed, she heads out to a location that might give her the best answers. It’s a small upper middle-class house that Harley always wondered how some of Alex’s friends could afford to live in it. Once she gets there, the house darkens, shakes, contorts, and decays.
Familiar female voice in the darkness says, “Feeling alone in the world can be one of the worst feelings that a person can feel. Loneliness can lead to the deterioration of the mind resulting in depression, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of uselessness. Feelings like these destroy a person from the inside which makes them into a broken person who want some way to get rid of these feelings as quick as possible.”
The four glass mirrors in the house shatter then shape themselves to be human figures. They throw pieces of themselves at Harley which she quickly shoots back at them. She then shoots the glass mirrors themselves but they shatter then comes back together undamaged. Making a tactical retreat, she runs away deeper into the house while shooting the monsters to slow down their pursuit. She passes by a painting of a thinking brain and takes a breather in a storage closet. There she sees a bottle with a depressed individual on it. Thinking of what the voice said before, she takes it to use on the painting, however, she waits for the glass mirrors to pass by. In the meantime, she checks her ammo and sees that she’s somehow not lost any ammo despite all the shooting. The monsters can’t be heard from where she’s from so she exits the closet and heads to the painting. She splashes the bottle’s liquids onto the painting which deteriorates it and reveals two clips of special ammo with blue bullets. Now with hopefully better ammunition, she makes noise to attract the attention of the glass mirrors and they come to her. She shoots them and their oncoming attacks which damages them and kills them. The darkness and decay lifts from the house and the bodies of the monsters disappear. Harley checks her ammo again and the blue bullets are gone and she still hasn’t used any of her ammo. Events like these are normal to Harley and because of this, she has some control over it. She’s heard of various religious explanations for it, scientific ones, and other random ones that do line up in ideas, but she doesn’t care about it. Nobody knows that Harley has this condition and she keeps it that way. It’s just another crazy phenomenon that happens to people in her mind.
Now that, that’s out of the way, she investigates the house and finds a special room where she finds the sitting dead bodies of Alex’s friends tied to chairs in a circle. Harley calls over her two of her favorite officers to look at the scene once they’re done where they’re at. They come over thirty minutes later and analyze the scene.
“What do you think happen?” Harley asks.
“Judging by the way they are, it looks like they were almost forced to be here then they were sacrificed one by one in some sort of fanatical religious group,” Rose answers.
“You think they wanted to back out at the last second?” Juliet asks.
“That’s possible. Look at the symbol that’s carved onto their shoulder.”
“That’s definitely the one used by the Los Inocentes. It’s a symbol they used that’s inspired by a satanic gang.”
“The bodies look like they’ve been dead for a long while, possibly before Alex knew before his family’s disappearance.”
“So Alex’s friends were involved with this too? It seems like the gang is deeply involved with almost everyone Alex knows.”
“Yeah it’s pretty weird how everyone seemed to be in on it except for Alex and you.”
“But you know neither of us would be involved in things like this,” Harley says.
“I know because I see that both of you are great people. I never saw or talked to his family or friends so I can’t really say anything about them.”
“I never thought someone who’s as nice as Alex would have people like this around him,” Juliet adds, “I just seems so strange.”
“Well these people are the only friends of Alex I know of so his friends are completely off the list I guess unless he has more I don’t know about. I should probably go tell him about this when I go home. Did you two find anything at the other locations?”
“Just more places to look and the dead bodies of people who looked like they were killed after finding the information we found.”
“That’s how you know we’re on the right track when getting this information becomes dangerous to have. We should see where this evidence takes us later tomorrow. Get some rest and we’ll hit more than two locations each. Sound good?”
“Yes mam!” they both say.
After adding their reports and such to the police station, they went their separate ways and went home. At home, Harley tells Alex what she found and he became upset since he never thought his friends would end up this way.
“You’ll always have me with you. That’s not just a promise, it’s a fact,” Harley states.
“I trust you with that. This whole situation is so fucked up and crazy! Why is everyone I know involved in this gang? How could we not see this?” Alex says with tears in his eyes.
Harley hugs Alex since she can’t stand someone who she thinks is the strongest person she knows being brought to tears.
“Some people are really good at hiding their dirty secrets in plain sight. I’ll make everything right so we can have a perfect marriage and a perfect life together here with everyone in the city.”
“Heh, and I thought the man was the supposed to be the strong support of the family.”
“You are! You’re everything that’s keeping me alive and happy! Just keep being happy with me so nothing can hurt us.”
“Alright, but I promise you that I’ll do more for you than just being morale support.”
“Of course you will. You always do.”
Chapter 2 – Paper Trail
Harley gets up early the next morning to get to work on investigating the locations of interest. This next one is yet another house like the previous one except isn’t so large and more normal. It’s a house that belongs to cousins of Alex’s so the connection between his family and the Los Inocentes. The same thing that happened in the previous building happens again with the inside of the house decaying and the light turning pitch black.
The same familiar female voice speaks and her voice echoes throughout the building. She says, “Love is an emotion felt by everyone that can get taken for granted. It can give people a reason to keep living and deal with hard times, however, an excess want of love can make people want to obtain it like an addictive drug. Once they find a consistent source of love, they never let go of it lest they lose their mind.”
The house looks radically bigger now that it’s changed. Every door is unlocked and in one room, she finds red pistol ammo on top of a bed with human silhouettes. There is one special big door strapped with chains, however, that is locked with a pressure plate in front of it. Harley steps on it, but she doesn’t weigh enough for it to open and it appears that something needs to stay there so the door can completely open. While she walks throughout the house, she checks her pistol clips and finds that she has an extra clip with the blue ammo from last time. A screech in the house sparks her attention and she goes to it to find what looks to be a piece of a living organ trying to hug or mate with mannequins and human-like objects in the room. Its sharp appendages try to attach itself to things but they just break or are unsatisfactory to the monster. Harley tries to shoot it with the blue ammo to kill it, but this in fact, only makes it upset as it goes after her. She switches to red ammo and that calms it down and go back to what it was doing. Maybe that monster is what needs to go on the pressure plate and yet, the organ looking monster looks incomplete. There must be another one in the house and Harley finds it not too far away from the first. Its skin is lighter in tone and it tries to insert things into its holes as if they give it pleasure. Harley shoots it with the blue ammo to get it to follow her to the next monster. Once the two “see” each other, they combine to make a beating heart that roll around the room, which also shakes up the house. Now that the two are together, Harley must get them to the pressure plate, but once she leaves the room, the house forces her to take a certain path throughout it by closing off doorways and passages while offering new ones not seen before. All while this is happening the beating heart chases her to crush her beneath it. The chained door is just ahead and there’s just enough room for Harley to let the beating heart pass by her and sit on top of the pressure plate that wraps it in barb wire to keep it in place. Now that the door is opened, everything goes back to normal.
As Harley opens the door, someone shoot it from the other side, forcing her to take cover on the wall.
The man who is one of Alex’s cousins says, “I know who you are and what you’ve done! You’re not going to get away with it! That bitch Alex is going to get it along with the rest of the damned police force!”
Harley tries to calm the man down by saying, “I don’t exactly know what you’re talking about, but we can talk about this you know.”
“No we can’t and you know that!”
Knowing what he’s going to do, she quickly pops out of cover and shoots the man in the head. After which, she sees that he has files in packages along with food, water, and ammo as if he was going to make his last stand there until he died. These files tell of a plan by Alex’s family to eliminate or bog down the police force in the city to have the Los Inocentes as a dominant force in the city like how they are in their country of origin. It also explains that Alex wasn’t told to be part of the gang since he’s such a Gary Stu type person. They think he would’ve ratted them out to Harley. She thinks this as well and is thankful that they didn’t involve him in their plans. Not wanting to just hit one location like Harley said yesterday, she deposits the evidence to the police station and goes off to another location.
This one is an apartment that coincidentally was condemned because of a fire fight that the police had with the Los Inocentes. Several Alex’s aunts and uncles lived here and now the reasons why Harley is here make their living here make sense. The same thing that’s been happening happens again with this location.
The disembodied female voice says, “People who are aggressive are naturally very touchy and not too friendly with others. This could be the result of abuse, neglect, or humiliation by others. There are few that could break through the walls that aggressive people put up to find the compassion within them.”
A black scorpion-like creature that stands up on three legs appears to Harley. It has green acid dripping out of its mouth and another vaginal-like mouth on its chest. The first thing it does is try to ram her and when she tries to dodge it, it slashes at her with its arms and tail. Using her red bullets, she calms it down for a few seconds before going back to being aggressive. Harley goes through each room while trying to avoid the creature which doesn’t work for long as it breaks down all the walls in between them. There then comes a door which is locked so Harley tricks the monster to break it down. Once it does, a giant bee-like insect with stingers for feet kill the black scorpion creature by stabbing it in its chest mouth which then spits out a green clip of pistol ammo towards Harley. She shoots this ammo at the bee to see what it does and it ends up bringing the bee under her control. In her mind, she thinks she could’ve really used this in the previous house, but she also thinks that the red ammo helped here as well. The bee follows her throughout the apartment while breaking through whatever walls she commands it to and holes whatever pressure plates it’s told to. Its usefulness comes to an end when a giant red ant breaks through the ventilation and devours it using its mouth on its chest that is similar to the black scorpion’s. This ant stands up on two feet and is more aggressive than the other insects as it instantly goes for Harley and doesn’t stop. The yellow ammo only slows it down for a second before it goes back to its rampage. She then thinks to use the red ammo and only when she unloads the clip into it does it take effect to calm it down and allow the yellow ammo to take effect. The ant then breaks and moves whatever Harley needs out of the way before it suddenly dies at a certain door at the top floor.
Everything goes back to normal once she opens the door to find the remnants of a firefight. Harley finds the bodies of several uncles, aunts, and other family members of Alex along with people that have a Los Inocentes tattoo. Among the massacre, she finds plans to assault the police station with various secrets of it that Harley remembers telling Alex’s family when she took them for a tour of the station. This has to be one of the biggest mistakes Harley has done, but at least she’s trying to make up for it now. There are also hints as to what the main base of operation for the Los Inocentes looks like. No one knows what it looks like, where it is, or where to even begin to look for it. Only high-ranking members of the gang are allowed to see the trip from wherever they are to the actual location while others are blinded even lower ranking members. Harley calls this into the station to get her other agents on this while she calls a meeting with Rose and Juliet back in her office.
“What have you got for me?” Harley asks them.
Rose starts out by saying, “Nothing new that you haven’t seen. It’s just information backing up what you found. In fighting in the gang, connections to Alex’s family while excluding him, and hints as to what the location of their hideout is.”
“With all of this, we could bring down the gang in a matter of days,” Juliet boldly states, “We’re well armed and smart enough. All we need are the correct targets and the gang falls over like a stack of cards.”
“I think you girls should have the day off the tomorrow. I’ll have some of my forensic investigators take a look at the scenes and the information we found to point us in the right directions.”
“Are you sure about that?” Juliet asks.
“Yes. The jobs you girls are great at are combat and investigation. Forensics aren’t exactly your field so let the others take care of it and rest so you’ll have plenty of energy to take down the Los Inocentes once and for all. Good?”
“Yes mam!” they say.
After this long day of work, Harley goes home and sees that Alex is fully dressed up.
“What’s the occasion you’re going to?” she asks.
“We’re going out to dinner.”
“Thank you for treating me out of nowhere-”
“Your two friends are coming. I called and already told them before you came in.”
“Oh…well that’s good.”
“Is there a problem with that? I thought you love going out with them and me together?”
“I do, I do! What about Morgan?”
“She’s working overnight on some patients she has. I could talk to her about it later. I am a physician’s assistant after all.”
“We have to get that girl a boyfriend. Let me get changed quickly.”
Harley gets changed into a dressy white shirt, black jeans, and dressy flat black shoes. The two get in their car and Alex drives them to the nice restaurant uptown. Once they get there, they see that Rose and Juliet aren’t dressed as nicely and are just wearing casual clothes.
Rose sees how the couple are dressed and as they sit down, she distressingly says, “Oh I didn’t know that we were supposed to get dressed up for this occasion. I thought it was just a normal dinner.”
“I actually don’t have any dressy outfits,” Juliet admits.
“It’s ok girls,” Alex assures, “I was taught to be more traditional about things.”
Rose and Juliet hold their tongue about inquiring about his family given the present situation.
He continues by saying, “So have you girls found anything new?”
All three of them stay quiet. A waiter comes by to take their orders and they stay quiet after that as well.
Alex hits the table.
“Damn it, I get that my family is connected with the Los Inocentes-”
“We know you’re innocent,” Juliet interrupts.
Alex continues by saying, “That’s great knowing something both you and I already know, but I want to hear something new. Did you arrest any of them yet?”
Harley slowly answers, “…We found the dead bodies of your uncles and aunts and,” she swallows her regret, “I killed one of your cousins in self-defense.”
There’s silence among them for a solid minute.
Alex then rubs his face a couple times before saying, “Ok, ok…ok…I’m good. I’m glad that you’re alive Harley. I’m glad that you’re the only one I know of besides you two that are always honest with me.”
The dinner stays mostly ok with Juliet and Rose bringing up TV shows and movies to try to lighten the mood. Later when they go home, Alex almost seems to break down, but he holds it in and shows a smile to Harley who is deeply worried about him. He reminds himself that he must be strong so Harley can be as equally or even stronger than he is.
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