Welcome to Gaia! ::

Erica had been on duty when she pulled her patrol vehicle over alongside the curb near a small family-owned cafe shop. It was a quaint little place that had that life-giving java drinks that kept her going on long nights like this one.

With the festival going on there were more people gathered together late into the evening and so she, along with other officers, were driving around making sure that business storefronts weren’t being vandalized or broken into. For the most part the gathers were civil aside from a few groups of drunken college, or post-college, students.

However, there were a few calls reporting odd sightings at the reservoir and the garden area. As of yet, she hadn’t had an opportunity to check on either but a few other officers had swung by with only a small handful confirming the reports while others either didn’t see anything or didn’t know what they saw. Either way, her curiosity had been piqued and would head that way probably tomorrow if there was time.

For now coffee was a must and so Officer Griffin turned the car off and stepped out of her police vehicle. With the keyfob, she locked the doors and skirted around the front to the sidewalk where she paused when the sound of a can clamoring to the ground down. At first she thought it was a cat or trash panda messing around a garbage can but when there was no hissing or ball of fluff running out she had to wonder if it was perhaps a drunk who was back there stumbling around lost.

“Hello?” She hollered, placing her hand on her hip where she unfastened the strap the held her taser in place. “My name is Officer Griffin, I’m with the Density City Police Department.” she proceeded down the alley where the lights grew dim with caution.

The officer paused for a moment as she took in the young mans’ strange outfit. He didn’t look like a Star Festival Volunteer and there wasn’t any conventions going on that he was aware of to warrant such attire.

Being back in the alleyway wasn’t against the law and he wasn’t trespassing but something didn’t feel right. Hardly a reason to have her hand on her taser but there was this gut-twisting feeling that something was off. “What are you doing back here?” Officer Griffin’s gaze flicked to the side where she could have sworn the shadows shifted. “Who else is back there with you?”

Hesitant to step any further into the alley alone she planted her feet firmly in case this was an ambush she was walking into.

Had the young man left it at that she would have perhaps believed him and left. Or at the very least went back to her police-issued vehicle where she could monitor the alleyway for a time. But the form she saw a moment prior shifted again and its corporeal form approached from a darker shadow.

Behind it something moved, it slid against the brick wall and slumped forwards with a grunting sound. From where she stood, Officer Griffin could see what looked like a hand or an arm laying on the concrete ground just on the other side of the large dumpster.

In an instant, the taser was unholstered and lifted as she reached over to the mic on her shoulder. “This is Officer Griffin, I’m near the corner street of Fourth and Jackson. I’m on the scene of a possible homicide, please send back up.”

Over the radio, she heard one of the dispatch officers begin to respond but she turned the volume down. “Officer Hill and Officer Lloyd are in route and will be there shortly. Paramedics are on their way.”

“You need to come out with your hands up where I can see them.” She instructed the young man in the alleyway.

Dance for me?

The confusion only lasted for a fraction of a second when she suddenly felt the muscles in her legs tense and heels shift in response to the command. He was close enough to grab but when the small mushrooms sprouted up around them Officer Griffen took a step backward away.

“What is this?” She demanded while fighting her own body. The urge to dance to the music off in the distance was overwhelmingly distracting but when she glanced at the civilian passed out, if not dead, behind him; Erica strengthened her resolve and stepped towards him to apprehend the suspect.

The moment he turned around and fled, Officer Griffin was in pursuit. “STOP!” She shouted.

Whatever he had been collecting, or holding onto, fell to the ground; at least some of it at least. But now wasn’t the time to stop and look at what it was as she came to an immediate halt.

Her feet were firmly planted a shoulders distance apart when she took aim. He was close enough that it should have been an easy target to hit but what Erica didn’t anticipate was that even though it was a dead-end, he didn’t stop. If anything like a juggernaut the suspect ran faster at a mirror perched against the wall.

He should have collided with it, knocked himself out with the head-on collision with the immovable brick wall but above him was a fire escape that, with enough momentum and vertical jump, would be easy enough to grab hold of and escape. But with the body still lying motionless in the alley behind her, Officer Griffin couldn’t take the chance of him getting away so she flipped the safety switch and pulled the trigger.

Two probes shot out of the taser cartridges along with the wires the connected them to the pulse generator. However, right before her eyes the boy completely vanished. Like some sort of magic trick, he stepped through the mirror which looked like it rippled slightly before disappearing before her. Without finding purchase in the perpetrator the two prongs landed on the concrete with a quiet clicking sound.

“What the ********?” Normally she could bite her tongue and not resort to profanity but it was if they just pulled a Houdini. That creature which was with him had dispersed in a similar fashion.

Whoever they were, or whatever they were, they got away. The mirror, when she touched it, seemed solid enough so aside from breaking it, which would fall under tampering with evidence, all she could do was figure out what he was collecting and check on the victim. However, when she turned around, the alleyway lit up with blue and red lights as her backup arrived.

Officer Hill checked on the victim while Officer Lloyd came to make sure she was ok and to canvas the area. Thankfully the man was still alive, unconscious with most likely a concussion but at least they were alive and the paramedics were able to stabilize them before taking them to the hospital to be treated.

“I don’t even know what to put in the report…” Erica admitted as she raked her fingers through her hair. “If seeing is believing then I’m not sure I believe what I saw.” She would have to look back at the video footage from the camera on her uniform to check her own sanity. “I swear, everyone is going to think I’m mentally insane.” Rolling her eyes she crouched down to pick up the gemstone-like object that was in the shape of a star.

It was a curious thing and she wondered if this is what he was back here collecting. There were several of them scattered on the ground as if there had been a bag of them in the garbage that had ripped open by mistake before being thrown in the large bin. But it seemed to be more like confetti party decorations than anything actually worth something. So Officer Griffin picked a few up and put them in a bag.

The rest of the incident followed protocol and after a good hour both responding officers left to resume their patrols and she was finally able to get a coffee just before the cafe closed for the night.