Edgar took her to the first place he could think of. Elle's shop. He made sure to take the side entrance, just in case she had customers. He led Alejandra to a sofa.
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"Uh, wait here," he told her, hoping she understood enough English to at least understand that. He then glanced over at Barry, who laid claim to a box nearby. "And you, watch her. I'm going to be right back with some food." And he still had to give Barnabus his payment... God, he was so late.
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"Whatever," Barry said as Edgar rushed out the back door to Elle's shop, and just across the way into Barnabus's with the briefcase still in hand.
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He burst into the shop, shrugging past the beads into the backroom. He moved towards Barnabus's office, which was really just a glorified cave. Inside, it was like a whole new world. Treasures of all sorts sat around on shelves carved into the walls, and in the center sat a perfectly circle pool of turquoise water. In the middle, lounged Barnabus, the flicks of his fish tail sending ripples through the still water. He glanced back as Edgar came in, setting down his bottle of Daredevil.
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"Eddy m'boy! What took ye so long? Did ye take a break to fuckin' jack off or somethin'?" He chuckled, holding a hand out. "Gimme the case." Edgar didn't say anything and complied, handing the case over.
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Barnabus's nose twitched, his fuzzy brows furrowing. "Ye smell like shit too. Like, uh. Rot? Is that rot? Did ye fuck a deader or somethin'?"
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"God no. I just had a run-in with an unpleasant fella. Nothing to worry about, Barnabus," he said without skipping a beat.
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"Hah. Well, I hope he's a goner." As he said this, he popped open the briefcase, counting through the stacks of bills.
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"He is," Edgar said, the face of the dead man and Alejandra's friend flashing in his mind's eye. He felt the intense need to justify them, and he wouldn't stop until they were.
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"Good, good." After that, Edgar stuck around for another few minutes, waiting for the money to get counted out. Edgar almost hoped it wasn't all there because then Barnabus would be on the warpath. It wouldn't matter what Elias Thorpe was capable of, he'd be a dead man... Or rather a double dead man.
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Unfortunately, it was all there. Barnabus snapped the briefcase shut and waved to him dismissively.
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"Thank ye lad. I'll give ye the delivery cut in yer next paycheck."
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"Of course. Catch you later, Barnabus," he told the old merman before spinning on his heel and leaving.
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After leaving Barnabus's shop, he hit up the McDonalds that was just outside the entrance to the Underworld. He really hoped Alejandra liked French fries and hamburgers. He also made sure to get a couple of every sauce, just to make sure she had what she wanted.
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This time when he returned with the food to Elle's shop, he went in the front door. Nobody was in the actual shop, but it didn't take more than a couple moments for a rather angry looking Elle to come storming in from the back.
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"Seriously Ed. Seriously?" She wasn't yelling, nor did she have that deathly calm tone. So his chances of survival just increased dramatically.
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"I didn't know where else to take her! Did Barry not tell you the situation?"
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"Yes. He told me all about Elias Thorpe. What the hell were you thinking?"
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"Did he tell you it was his idea to dive into this head first into this shit storm?"
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"No, he did not say that." Elle put her hands on her hip, shaking her head. Wispy stray strands of her crimson hair fell across her face, which she immediately brushed away as she rubbed her face.
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"God. You and Barry are going to be the death of me," she said with a sigh.
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"If I'm not the death of myself first, let's be honest." He chuckled, moving past her. "Let me go give this to her before it gets cold." He waggled the bag of McDonald's. She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest.
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Once he'd given the food to Alejandra and some water from Elle's sink in some old potion bottle, he returned back to the main shop where Elle had waited.
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"So. How long can you hide her here?" Edgar leaned on the counter, glancing back towards the entrance to the back room nervously. He was silently hoping she wouldn't throw up all that food. She looked kind of malnourished.
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"As long as she needs. I keep my shop well warded." She also leaned on the counter, propping her chin up with a fist. "But I'd prefer her out of here as soon as possible. She seems sweet, but one of my customers might notice her presence eventually. You know how folk are down here."
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Edgar nodded, his mind already whirring. He had to find a place for Alejandra to stay. He would let her stay with him, but then Clover would be asking all the wrong questions. He didn't need that.
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"Listen. I'll handle it. Just try to deter your customers from finding her." He reached for the sketchy witch doctor tome plucking it from the inside of his jacket. He placed it on the counter, sliding it over to Elle.
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"Barry has some crazy hunch that Elias has taken his memories. We're pretty sure the answer is in this tome. Will you and he look at it while I go and talk to someone?" He himself had a hunch... Elias had nothing to do with the Werewolf, but Elias was also targeting humans to use as guinea pigs... That meant whatever virus or disease he was trying to create, also was meant to specifically target Humans. He may be not been connected to the werewolf, but he was sure Emily still might've wanted to know about it. Maybe she could even help him find the psychopath.
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Elle spun the tome around to face her, flipping through it idly. "This is some dark shit..." She said after a few pages, before snapping it back shut. "Yeah, I'll look through it with Barry. Who are you going to go visit?"
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"Some contacts in New York."
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"Uh-huh. You'd better be careful you ass. First the whole werewolf deal, now this zombie deal. You're pressing your luck you know."
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Edgar nonchalantly shrugged, offering her a grin. "It'll be fine Elle. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's hiding." Though even as he spoke those words, which there was some truth to, he still had a hard time believing it'd all be fine. He was honestly terrified one of the Council's agents would burst through that door any minute, and put a blade through his face.
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"Even so. Be. Careful." She spoke slowly, iterating each word particularly.
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"I know, I know," he said as he began to back away towards the door. "Tell Barry that I'll see him at home later."
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"Right. Later." She gave him a nod, her expression as stony as usual. He spun around and left.
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Edgar caught a bus downtown. It was about five in the afternoon by now. Club Zona might not be open, but it should be preparing to open. Without a second thought, he walked in.
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The neon-accented black tiles of the dancefloor were empty, all except for a man in a Club Zona t-shirt mopping the floor. He spotted Edgar and held up a hand to stop him.
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"Hey now, sir. We don't open for another two hours. Gotta wait 'till then."
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Edgar gave him a hard stare, the coldest one he could muster. "I'm looking for Emily. Personal business."
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The employee shrunk away a bit. He was a short, scrawny little shit with horn-rimmed glasses. It was unsurprising Edgar intimidated him.
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"Oh, uh, her office is back there, at the end of the hallway." The employee pointed back behind the stage. There was a doorway with a "staff only" sign. Edgar thanked the man before heading into the hall.
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Like the employee directed, he approached the door at the end of the hallway. He knocked on it with three sharp taps.
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"Come in," came a familiar voice, to which he complied with. Behind the desk, tapping away at a keyboard, was Emily. She looked very different from the last time he'd seen her. Her wispy blonde hair was curled and she was wearing a form-fitting black dress.
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"Oh. It's you. Didn't I say to come during opening hours?" Emily glanced up from the screen, eyeing Edgar.
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"Well, I'm a filthy rebel," Edgar replied nonchalantly as he brought up the pictures he took at Elias's house. He silently cursed himself for not getting pictures of the basement but figured it was also pretty understandable... Everything had happened so fast...
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"I'm sure. What are you doing here, Edgar?"
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"Well. I know this has nothing to do with the Werewolf... But I found a man creating a virus which might be designed to specifically target humans." He finally pulled up the pictures and held it his phone. He watched as she silently scrolled through them. once she'd seen them all, she handed him his phone back.
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"And how sure are you of this?"
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"Well, the man in question is a zombie. One that practices the voodoo. We also found human test subjects in the basement. Which I would've got pictures of...But uh... Shit was going on down there."
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"Who is we?"
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"A friend and I. He had a hunch on the man for another reason, and we followed him. I was hoping you might help me translate some of those pictures into normal English."
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"Right, right. And did you manage to save any of the people in the basement?"886Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD6NE348Z8L
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Edgar nodded. "A Spanish woman. Or maybe she's Mexican. Don't really know, but she's staying with a friend of mine. But she can't stay there long."886Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwz5ioV4n4t
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Emily stood up, sighing. "Maybe we can do something for her." She moved around Edgar and held her office door open for him. "For now, follow me."
