DNA Valkyrie - Chapter 40: Within

CHAPTER 40: WITHIN

Just as she very ‘politely’ asked him, Quentin finally brought the pissed off, pregnant private investigator where the vile monster was kept as a prisoner. It was a large warehouse in an even dirtier, poorer and questionable area of the city than the street she used to live on.

‘’What is this place?’’ The detective asked Quentin as she followed behind.

‘’An old factory where people used to refine steel products and other metal-based objects. It was still up and running about ten to fifteen years ago or so,’’ he answered.

‘’A factory? Sounds pretty hard to believe. This is just a warehouse. Dusty. Abandoned. Rusted...’’

‘’Well, I did say: ‘where people used to’, right?’’

‘’You did. But it still makes no sense. This part of the city never had factories before or any other forms of industrial facilities. I damn well know this because I used to come here as a kid all the time. Never was a soul at any time of the day. And I’m talking about ten to fifteen years ago as well. The exact time-frame you are referring to,’’ she argued.

‘’Never was a soul? How about ghosts, then?’’

‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’I know people worked in here because I was one of them...’’

‘’What?’’

‘’As a child. Father used to bring me to work with him all the time. His crew was often short on staff and he would make me work. I was, of course, much too young to be working here but you know?’’ He revealed to her.

‘’What do you mean by: ‘ghosts’?’’

‘’You said it best. People weren’t really supposed to be here in the first place in this district. There was a fire here about thirty years ago. The place was mostly condemned. A few kids, just like you occasionally came here to play... Escape... But there was no escape for me once I got here... We lived like ghosts, Cyn. My Dad and I and the others all worked under the table. Working here meant that we ran the risk to get caught by authorities and to get sent to jail,’’ he explained.

‘’And did that ever happened with one of the members of your crew?’’ She asked.

He simply nodded. Didn’t even bother to answer.

‘’Quentin?’’ She asked.

Still no answer.

‘’Are you alright?’’

‘’Sure...’’ He said, quickly looking down as he kept walking, guiding Cynthia.

‘’Are you really, really sure?’’

‘’Yeah... It’s right ahead...’’

‘’Okay...’’ And just as he said it, it truly was right ahead. Quentin brought her down in the basement of the warehouse. She followed him in a dark corridor until they reached a large iron-red door. The more they got closer to the door, the more Cynthia felt hit with a twister of heat. It was almost as if there a boiling room hiding on the other side of that iron-red door.

‘’Don’t tell me you hid him behind that door...’’ Cynthia said.

‘’Why?’’

‘’Because he’s gonna die. Don’t you feel this awful heat?’’

‘’Not really...’’

‘’Oh yeah, I’m forgetting that you’re a Saurius and that you kind of love this temperature...’’

‘’Well, I do agree it’s kind of hot down here but nothing too big of a deal.’’

‘’What is behind that door anyway? A boiler room?’’ She asked.

‘’Nope. Not at all,’’ he answered.

‘’What is it then?’’ Just like earlier on the topic of the story of his Dad and him both living as ghosts in the past, Quentin chose not to speak much. He simply guided Cynthia to the end of the dark corridor where the iron door was. He took out his keys from one of the pockets of his pants and proceeded to unlock the door. The old rusty opening for the key caused the key itself to make a ton of clunky and screeching noises as if someone was running a nail against a blackboard. It went on for a little while... After roughly a minute of playing around with the rusty opening, Quentin finally managed to unlock it.

Thump!

The door made a loud, dry, and screeching noises that echoed throughout the entire corridor when Quentin got it to open.

‘’Jeez... Feels like you didn’t open that door more often than that...’’

‘’Recently? Only a couple of times... I come back to feed and give him a little bit of water... Enough to keep him alive...’’ He responded. Quentin fully opened to the door. Since the room on the other side was all dark, the Ceratops Saurius was fully prepared to escort the lady inside of it as her protection... But as he finished opening the door, he was supervised to see her running inside... Without any warning or sign that she was going to explore on her own, she disappeared in the darkroom.

‘’Cynthia?’’

She didn’t answer.

‘’Why are you rushing in there? You can’t see anything...’’ He insisted.

‘’I’m fine,’’ she then simply answered. Quentin entered the room. Instead of running him without seeing what was around her, he chose to do as usual (and as logically reasonable), and to look for the light switch on the wall of the room, near the big door.

‘’Are you sure you’re alright? Don’t run in here, you might hurt yourself. Hold on, I’m opening the light...’’ Quentin said.

‘’I think I found him! Gosh, it’s even a lot hotter in here than it was in the corridor!’’ She said in the dark. Meanwhile, Quentin finally managed to find the switch. He quickly used it.

Roughly two seconds after switching the switch, the light came buzzing into the room, flickering for a few additional seconds before finally settling up. With the light on, the interior of the room was ultimately revealed to Cynthia. She immediately noticed her former employer, Joss, who was chained, lying down on the dirty floor of the room.

The man was still alive. But barely.

‘’Holy shit! What happened to him? What did you do to him?’’

Cynthia appeared to be horrified when she first saw him. Not just terrified by the poor state of his health but also by the fact that she suddenly noticed that Joss’s long tongue had recently been wrapped around the private investigator’s right heel. ‘’Oh God! He wrapped his tongue around me...’’ She announced in hope that Quentin would hear her but he’d already noticed his tongue almost immediately after turning the light on.

‘’Cyn!’’ He yelled out as he quickly rushed himself toward her and rescued her. His hope and intention. He first tried removing the tongue out of around her heel with his strong Ceratops hands but it didn’t work at all. ‘’Let her go!’’ He told the dying creature.

‘’Take your tongue off of me, Joss!’’ Cynthia said, sporting a different accent in her voice when she pushed his name out of her mouth. She then stepped on his vile and surprisingly not slimy tongue with her left high-heeled shoe, crushing it. It worked! Joss quickly released her right heel after the blow. Cynthia pulled herself out of this situation all by herself, despite the fact that she thrown herself in this same situation in the first place when she ran blindly in the darkroom.

‘’You’re okay? You’re okay?’’ Quentin asked her.

‘’Yeah. Sure. I’m fine. I cannot not to the same thing for him, though. What did you do to him?’’

‘’Hold on. Why are you defending him so much?’’

‘’I’m not. That’s the point. You went all vigilante with him and look what where it led,’’ she shouted as she knelt down on the floor next to Joss. The cause of the intense heat in the basement and in the rest of the warehouse was revealed to her right here, right there. It wasn’t a boiling room or a furnace or something like that. It simply was him. He was boiling hot. He was incredibly dry.

‘’I had to do something, Cyn... Like I said earlier, he worked with someone else to capture more women in order to shady stuff. I know you hate me for this right but I deeply believe I did the right thing. About his current state, it’s probably because of his species. They—’’

‘’—I already know! As a Saurius, Joss is from a very specific species of amphibians breed, the sword-tailed newt. He is able to take a lot of heat before getting uncomfortable but spending so much time without being able to bathe into the water, his body is in the overheating process... He has got extremely dry already... If it keeps going like this, he’ll...’’ She said, abruptly interrupting him.

‘’... How do you know so much about his specific species of Saurius?’’ He asked.

‘’I just do. Okay? Alright, Joss, look at me now. Talk to me. I’m here to take you out of here. And that doesn’t make you did wrong any better but I can save you. I will if you answer a few of my questions... Okay?’’ She explained. Joss simply slowly nodded.

‘’Looks like his mouth is so dry that he’s unable to speak. Alright. Quentin told me that you worked in the past with someone regarding prostitution trafficking. Is this true?’’ He nodded, confirming her question. ‘’Okay. So this person you worked with... Would he be known as The Count by any chance?’’ And he nodded once more. But this time a lot slower. He seem scared. But he said yes with his head. Almost as soon as she received this confirmation, Cynthia quickly stood up and raised her arms in the air. ‘’I knew it!’’

‘’We have a connection,’’ Quentin followed. Cynthia walked up to him, fully turning her back from Joss who was still lying down on the floor, chained up to a metal bar.

‘’But you won’t stop him...’’ A tired-some voice murmured behind her back.

‘’How come? What do you mean, Joss?’’ She asked him after she spun around.

‘’... Bring me to safety... Bring me to water as you already promised me and I’ll tell you more...’’ The dying prisoner begged.

Cynthia and Quentin then looked at each other.

***

Quentin revealed himself to have a lot of foresight. He was prepared. In a different room of the same warehouse, he’d planned everything in advance, he’d had a large tank almost completely filled with water. Cynthia and he brought the dried up Joss near it then allowed him to access the refreshing the water. Joss slowly and calmly swam in the tank as his strengths would gradually get back to him.

‘’So, you never actually planned to kill him?’’ Cynthia asked Quentin.

‘’...’’ He didn’t really provide any form of an answer. Almost looked like he was going to for a second but ultimately nothing came out of his mouth. They observed Joss swimming for a short while before Cynthia finally turned her back to the tank and headed for a nearby landline phone she spotted in the room a little earlier. She grabbed the phone and dialled a number, the mansion’s number.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

It rang for a long time before going straight to the answering machine. Exactly just like the other times she called after the events with The Count and Néné. Cynthia hung up. Furious. Not even bothering to record another voice message.

‘’What’s wrong?’’ Quentin asked in the background as he also started stepping away from the tank. But before she could tell him anything about the mansion, Gerald, and Sebastian – the phone she’d just got her hand off of it suddenly started ringing – she immediately picked it up and answered.

‘’Hello?’’ She said, unsure what to expect. Following a short silence, she finally started hearing things, a female voice that moaned on the other end of the line. She had no idea who this person, she couldn’t really recognize the voice and distinguish who it was. The voice felt like it was trapped in a tunnel of distortion, almost as the source of it was a little too far from the phone. This person appeared to be in heat. This girl or woman truly felt horny.

‘’... Come...’’’Was the only word she could make out through all the moaning, sexual noises she heard in the voice. But it also was the last thing she heard before the caller hanged up.

‘’What was that?’’ Quentin asked, very curious since he only heard a few things here and there when it was especially loud.

‘’I need to go,’’ she answered as she placed the phone back down on the table.

‘’Where?’’

‘’The mansion...’’

‘’The mansion...?’’

‘’It would take too long to explain, I need to go now!’’ She insisted after starting to run out of the warehouse.

‘’But what about him?’’’ Clearly referring to Joss.

‘’We’ll have to interrogate him some more later. Keep him here. Lock the entire place to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere!’’

***

To her surprise, Quentin followed her through this whole thing. They used his car to go to Gerald’s mansion as soon as possible. It still took them about half an hour with his vehicle going a little higher than the legal speed limit.

‘’Pull over,’’ the detective told Quentin.

‘’What? The place is right over there, I can get a little closer...’’

‘’Don’t! They’re probably already there,’’ she insisted.

‘’Are you sure?’’

‘’Pull over now!’’ She screamed in the car. He then immediately stopped his vehicle on the side of the road and Cynthia stepped out of it. Quentin followed with a much a slower pace than her. When the private investigator was sneaking on the side of one of the walls of the mansion after climbing on top of the large steel gate outside, Quentin was still making his way toward the place on the road.

As she was all sneaky, Cynthia peeked at one of the windows, one that she already knew had a direct view on the main living room of the mansion. Through that window – she saw The Count, Néné, Gerald, and Sebastian – the first two were standing while the last two were both sitting on the couch.

The daughter seemed much too undressed at this particular moment considering that her Father currently was in the same as her.