ROSES HAVE THORNS-Chapter 33 - Two Visits

Both Kurt and Dominik stood outside the prefect station and were about to enter when suddenly,

"Achoo! *sniff*" Kurt sneezed out of nowhere.

"Watch it, dude!" Dominik flinched as he took a step back, "You sick or something?"

"Nah. Someone must be talking about me. Either that or something stinks in the air. I’m allergic to bad people, you see."

"What a weird disease. Although I’d love to have that. It’d make my job in identifying criminals so much easier..."

"It was a joke. Of course I don’t have such a convenient superpower. By the way, aren’t you gonna bless me?"

"Bless you?"

"Thank you. Now come, let’s get those forms" Kurt said and walked to the door. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Argh I swear, this guy sometimes..." Dominik shook his head and followed behind him.

Kurt, however, abruptly stopped causing him to bump and stagger back.

"Oof! What’s the deal this time?" He looked at Kurt who was looking through the glass door with a familiar death glare.

When Dominik checked to see what was wrong, he saw Tobias standing at the counter with his creepy fox shaped eyes and smile.

"What the? It’s just like you said. He’s here for you–"

But Kurt was already gone.

’How did he slip away like that? Wait, was Kurt an.... Illusion all this time? Have I been so lonely for a friend that I straight up hallucinated? Am I... crazy–’

"Psst hey!" Kurt hissed at him from the corner of the building.

"Huh?" Dominik turned to the sound of the voice.

Visible relief struck his face as he saw who it was. ’Thank goodness wasn’t seeing things! Holy shit...’

Right as he was about to run to Kurt, he heard him hiss again, "Why are you coming this way!? Go get the forms and deal with that creep inside!"

"Oh, right. Duh. Cause that makes freakin’ sense. It’s what we came here for." Dominik slapped his head and entered the station.

Beep vrrt

The door scanned his tag and automatically opened.

"Dominik, finally!" An officer stationed at the front desk called him. "Bishop Tobias here wants to speak with you."

"I’m busy with something important. Apologies but you’re gonna have to wait for another time."

"I’m afraid this cannot wait, Mr. Prefect." Tobias turned and smiled at him without opening his eyes.

"I believe that you were the one who captured this unruly man." He took out a newspaper and showed him the front cover.

"That’s right..."

"Splendid!" he clapped, "Tell me, is there a chance that I may see him? As Goddess Bula once said, we should not blindly jump into fear and hatred but rather to understand and love one another as that is the way we rid ourselves of sin. I simply wish to speak and understand what that man must be going through for him to act so....uncivilised."

Dominik could feel a chill run through his bones as he listened to him speak. Normally he would’ve just chalked it up to him having a quirky personality that could easily be misunderstood.

But after listening to the way Mia spoke of him and how Kurt suspects him, all the points on the graph were making a pretty straight line and at the end of that line was a man guilty of many things. Things that he hopes and prays are not true.

’Calm yourself Dom.’ He thought to himself, ’It’s all just speculation... for now.’

"Bishop Tobias, I’m sorry, but this is a private investigation. We found the body of a dead priest in a secluded park. We believe that it’s linked to the suspect, and with you being part of the church yourself, we cannot let you see him."

"Do you... not trust me. I come in the name of Goddess Bula. Have no fear, child, for nothing will happen to him."

"It’s not his safety I fear for. It’s yours. The suspect is very... deranged, you see. Him seeing you might trigger him so please understand."

"Ahh, is that so... I understand. I’ll take my leave then." Tobias put the newspaper in his robes and began walking to the exit. "Thank you, Prefect Dominik. Just knowing that a sick man like him is in a cell puts my mind at ease. Please, seek me out once his mind has calmed. I will pray for him."

"No problem." He showed Tobias the way out

Once Tobias left the building and was out of sight, Dominik went to go and fetch Kurt, but he wasn’t where he last saw him.

’Huh? Where’d he go? Don’t tell me,’ Dominik looked in the direction of where Tobias left, ’he followed the bishop?!’

He quickly ran inside the station to get a copy of the forms.

Beep vrrt

"Oh, hey Dominik, you’re back so quickly? Your friend just went to the toi–" The front deskman tried speaking but Dominik wasn’t listening.

"No time for talk! Gotta go fast!"

He barged into the filing room and grabbed the documents he was looking for. After finding it, he rushed back out only to run into another opening door.

BAM!

"OW!" Dominik fell on his butt.

"Dude, are you okay?" Kurt lent him a hand.

"Kurt?! I thought you left without me. You didn’t follow the bishop?" Dominik hoisted himself up with Kurt’s help.

"And risk getting caught? Hell no I didn’t follow him. He thinks I’m in jail so let’s keep it that way."

"But you weren’t hiding around the building when I checked? Where were you?"

"Clearly you didn’t play hide-and-seek as a kid. You should never stay in the same spot for too long. I sneaked in when you were watching him leave."

"But I didn’t hear the door go beep..."

"The door only beeps when it opens and scans whatever tag it detects. I sneaked in while the door was still open. A major design flaw if you ask me." Kurt shrugged like it was no big deal.

"But, but... HOW?! Are you a freaking ninja from the hidden island of Riverton?! If so, that’s...that’s... SO COOL! Wait till Mia hears about this!" Dominik looked at Kurt starry-eyed.

’Technically an assassin but I guess I could add this misunderstanding to my resume.’

"So, I take it those are the forms?" He pointed at Dominik’s hand.

"Yeah. We’re good to go."

"Nice. Let’s bail before your boss shows up and screams our ears off."

"Sounds like a plan."

.......

"This is the place." Dominik looked at the address on the form and at the house.

"Wanna do the honors" He gestured for Kurt to knock on the door.

"No, you do it. It’ll be more professional that way."

"Alright."

knock knock knock

"...."

knock knock knock

"Is anyone there? This is a prefect."

The door slowly opened to reveal a middle-aged woman wearing a red silky night gown and a sharp scowl on her face.

"A prefect? Is there a problem?"

"Good morning, ma’am. No, there’s no problem, although there might be in the near future. Do you mind if me and my partner here ask you a few questions?"

"Questions? What’s this about?"

"It’s about the children who have been ’picked up’ by the church. We’re here to ask you about your child. Or more specifically, about the people who came here to ’pick up’ yours. I presume it’s your child?"

"Yes, it is my child and no there was nothing wrong with the nice people who came to fetch him. I signed a form and now he is in training to serve the prophesied one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have bread in the oven that needs tending to."

Shut!

".... Bread?" Dominik mumbled to himself.

"Did you see that?" Kurt asked.

"See what?" He asked as they walked to the next house.

"Her clothes, the furniture in her house, I even saw a half-naked man peeking from the staircase. A very young man."

"And your point is..."

"Take a look around, this isn’t exactly a wealthy neighborhood. Even that woman’s house blends in with the other shitboxes."

’Shitboxes?’

"But everything she had in her place was really expensive looking. Her clothes as well."

"Ok? But what about the guy you mentioned?"

"That lady’s like what, 40ish. That guy I saw was at least in his early 20s. You know what that means?"

"That he’s a man of culture?"

"Focus Dom!"

Smack!

"Ow! Well, what does it mean then!? Who cares what kinky people get up to as long as they’re adults."

"He was holding a pouch of coins. I would know, I had two of them." Kurt revealed. "He’s either a male prostitute or someone in desperate need of cash."

"What are you getting at with all this?"

"This is just me theorising but what if.... She’s been bought out?"

"You mean she sold her kid for money and sex? What the fuck?!"

"It’s just a theory for now though. We’ll see if there’s a pattern as we move through the list."

"I seriously hope you’re wrong on this."

"Me too, Dom."

Hiding inside a pile of garbage, two curious little pairs of eyes were watching Kurt and Dominik as they left.