[Nyxia]

The chill of winter was starting to take hold of the city, despite the fact that the holidays were still weeks off a skiff of snow had even begun to fall. This time of the year the city was fairly quiet, crime was down and people were busy. Rumors of a second war brewed along side the coffee in the precinct break room, but really it was the sheer boredom that cause this. Nothing more interesting that a few parking tickets, a couple of robberies, and one fairly notable smash-and-grab from one of the fancy jewelry stores down town were all they had to do. Akiba leaned back in his chair, knitting his fingers together so he could rest his head against them. He’d been looking over the files on the smash-and-grab, mostly it looked remarkably ordinary to him. The thief or thieves had probably cased the store more than once, and when the owner locked up last night had no longer been able to resist.

The reporting officer had noted a broken back door window, likely the point of entry. Door had been unlocked shortly after the window had been broken, and the person or people responsible it seemed had a field day with making their haul. Most of the cases were smashed, to the point where glass had become a second carpet, and for good measure it seemed they had even taken a crack at the safe. Not a damn remarkable thing about it, and what was missing only totaled something like ten thousand keystones. They had other officers checking every second hand and pawn store in town, looking for any of the missing pieces. All in all it was a boring day, made all the worse by the fact that Kae still hadn’t called him back.

It seemed this snowy day his partner Elliott had become a mind reader, when he set a cup of black coffee down on Akiba’s desk and then perched himself on the edge. With a grunt of a thank you Akiba grabbed the cup and took a sip, the stuff was bitter to the point of medicine nasty but it was still coffee at least. “How much you want to be she’s just out shopping, visiting family? You know she’ll call when she gets a minute.” Elliott gave him a good natured smile, and took a drink from his own cup before making a face. “That is the very last time sergeant Vasile is allowed to make coffee, I swear the woman is trying to kill us all.” He was joking but Akiba could tell his friend was as bored as he was.

[Nyxia]

The call didn’t come in until nearly 3 pm, a homicide at the utterly terrifying Rowe Cove Institute. Elliott took the call at his desk, since they were the only two from homicide still on duty. Whatever was being said Akiba couldn’t hear, but he watched as his partner’s eyebrows shot up in alarm. So much for a boring day, especially when he saw Elliott begin to scribble some kind of note down and motioned for Akiba to go grab their coats. Within six minutes the men were on their way out of town towards the looming old building, and Elliott snatched one of Akiba’s cigarettes from his silver case. As Elliott lit the cigarette, Akiba stole a sideways glance at him barely taking his eyes off the road to do so. “C’mon Elliott. Don’t tell me you believe all those stories, nothing scarier here than the patients.” He didn’t for a moment believe the tales, which ranged from demon cults to insane experiments on the patients.

People always let the old ghost stories get to them, especially when they didn’t like the truth. It was a place for the crazies of the world, and that was the only reason no one other than the staff were allowed in. “Don’t you think Kae would have told me if something was going on out here?” She’d never said much about the place, other than it was draining to deal with the people here. Akiba hadn’t given it a whole lot more thought either, he had his own world of nuts to handle most days. “I mean seriously.” He’d managed to fish out a cigarette and get it lit as they went up the narrow road to the asylum’s front gate. Both men were silent as they passed through it, neither willing to break that silence. For Akiba it was simple, a person, a regular everyday person had gone and killed three of the institute’s nurses and one doctor. Then again he was a realist in every sense of the term, the ghosts and other things that went bump in the night were nothing but imagination running wild.

[Nyxia]

Slowly Akiba pulled the car up in front of the massive stone building, though neither man moved to get out first. Akiba continued to smoke while Elliott fished out a second cigarette and lit it, both regarding the old building from different points of view. It finally become obvious that Elliott wasn’t going to get out first, and while Akiba knew his partner was big believer in the paranormal he was not going to let himself get caught in the same trap. With a sigh Akiba pushed open his door and got out, leaving Elliott to catch up as he began walking towards the building. On the front steps stood a familiar face, Dr. Tausakou stood there with a grim look on his face while a shorter man lit him a cigarette. At first Akiba thought it was another member of the staff there, but one better look confirmed him wrong. Standing there with the doctor was another familiar figure, and Akiba stopped for a moment to groan. Kozma Dragan was in Akiba’s opinion a blight, not just on humanity but on the police department as well. The man fancied himself some kind of paranormal expert, and had gone to great lengths to annoy Akiba. “Damn, just when I thought things couldn’t get worse.” He growled to Elliott who’d continued towards the pair.

Kozma had looked back to see the police car pull in, and the two detectives exit it. He would have rathered detective Brent had come alone, considering how lightly he’d seen first hand detective Rapp took these kinds of things. This time he knew it wasn’t a luxury either of them had, “Ah, good of you gentlemen to make it.” He would still try to be pleasant about this, giving a nod to Elliott as the detective approached them. Akiba though hung back a little ways, not to risk catching the crazy bug it seemed. “This is...” He was cut off by both the doctor and Akiba at the same time.

“I know who he is.” Akiba nearly snarled at the smaller man, eyes glaring daggers at him as he spoke. “Dr. Tausakou, I’m sorry to meet you again under such tragic circumstances.” He shook the doctor’s hand, though didn’t offer much more. “This is my partner Detective Brent.” He introduced Elliott to the doctor before moving on, not mentioning that Dr. Tausakou had come to the Christmas party he and Kae had thrown the year before. “What do we have going on here?” Dr. Tausakou was a tall man, with a wiry build and fairly large eyes. Akiba had been surprised that the forty-seven year old doctor was so strange, not fond of a white doctor’s coat and often looking slightly insane himself. Instead he was dressed as always in a business suit, though his tie was no where near straight or in place.

[Nyxia]

For a moment Kozma just looked at Akiba, like a man looks at a feral dog. Then giving a shrug he allowed the detectives to proceed with their job, not that he would have convinced Akiba of a single theory he had. This place stood with a shroud of pain, rage, and blinding terror; the very things that draw the darkest of beings. Though Kozma gave a glance over to Elliott Brent, the reasonable one of the pair, the pair shared a knowing look even though neither could know for sure what had happened here.

Dr. Tausakou cleared his throat though he made no move to shake the hand Elliott offered, instead he adjusted the wire rim glasses on his long nose and looked over the two men. Finally did he motion them to follow him into the main lobby of the Institute, “I...I am not entirely sure, Detective Rapp.” Slowly he pushed open the heavy one-way glass door, letting Akiba catch the door before passing inside it. As Akiba, Elliott, and Kozma entered; the scene that greeted them looked straight out of a horror film. Blood gathered in pools around the blood soaked chairs and large stripes went off in all kinds of directions, that was far from the worst of it though. As they slowly moved further into the main room, Akiba found an arm dangling over the intake counter. A foot lay sideways near the filing cabinet behind the desk still wearing its feminine and yet functional work heel. Drying rivers of blood ran down the white wall beside the door which lead back to the patient rooms, and dripped from the ceiling above said door.

For a moment Elliott froze at the sight, a liver was pinned with what looked to be finger bones to one of the patient made paintings that decorated the lobby. The amount of blood made it hard to breath, heavy with a stench that reminded him of a slaughter house he’d worked at in his teen years. Shreds of clothing and a single gold hoop earring were grouped in with the blood and what he assumed to be parts of bodies, shimmering as it caught the lights from above. Never in Elliott Brent’s nine years on the force had he seen anything like this, the carnage and savagery were in human. More than once he found himself unable to believe what he was seeing here, and finally the overwhelming sense that he couldn’t look any longer caught up to him. “I’m gonna call for backup, Rapp. We’re dealing with some...someone dangerous.” He’d nearly slipped, but Akiba had missed it clearly. He gave Elliott a nod, while examining what looked like part of an intestine on the floor next to one of the green chairs.

[Nyxia]

Akiba had not asked any questions yet, he was still putting together what he was seeing. The volume of blood on the floor was far more than one human could possess, which meant more than one victim. Confirmed when he found a male sneaker on the floor near the huge one-way windows that looked out to the garden, so that made one male and one female victim involved. He had silently studied this all more when Elliott had told him he would call for more officers, but he didn’t know what he wanted to ask. “I came in this morning, a little late.” Dr. Tausakou voice sounded like it shook, but Akiba didn’t pay that any mind. “I expected Claudie to tell me I had missed my meeting, but instead...instead...” Dr. Tausakou had begun to wring his hands in a nervous fashion, though Akiba noted he wasn’t crying or hysterical.

“I see, so you found it like this?” He’d already flipped out his notepad, scribbling a few notes down for himself as he listened to the other man speak. He waited for a moment, realizing he’d written down Kae’s name along side of the note about the female victim. It was unsettling, and his mind pushed the thought down but he didn’t scratch out the note either. “Dr. Tausakou, was Kae here this morning? I mean is she scheduled to work today?” He couldn’t help asking, it was like someone pushing a button and making his lips move. The voice he heard didn’t even sound like his own either, which made Akiba think that maybe Elliott had asked it. The doctor however looked straight at him, clearing up that mystery a bit.

“No, no I believe she went out of town a couple of days ago. I thought she went to see her family.” He was looking at Akiba strangely, like he was confused by the question. The man also looked like a crazy man in shock, his face was a stark pale and he kept chewing at his lower lip when he wasn’t speaking. It brought him back to what was happening, of course Kae wasn’t here. “It was so quiet, the lobby is never quiet.” The doctor’s eyes looked glassy, and his body had taken on a slight tremor. “Our patients are rarely quiet, even when they have their medicines. No, it was too quiet.” He was clearly not aware that he was speaking out loud Akiba realized, the shock was beginning to get to him.

Carefully Akiba took hold of the doctor, and lead him back out the front steps. Helping the good doctor sit down in the passenger seat of their car to get some air, Akiba continued to make notes. “I at first thought maybe the patients weren’t up yet, or my clock had been wrong...if only...” He wasn’t looking at Akiba, but he was staring at the front double doors like they were some kind of answer. “When I got a little further in, there was so much blood...so much...I-I thought it was a prank, but then Halloween is past now.” Elliott had returned from the other side of the car, looking grim but he nodded to tell Akiba he’d made the call. “So much blood...it just can’t be.” The doctor would need a while to come to grips with this, and he couldn’t tell them anything they couldn’t find themselves in there.

[Nyxia]

When Akiba closed up his notes Elliott gave him a somber look, somewhere between grim and unbelieving. “I put the call to dispatch, their sending five uniforms out to give us a hand.” Elliott then glanced at the doors and frowned oddly, causing Akiba to look back at them as well. “Did Kozma come out with you two?” That was a strange question, why would- Oh hell, Akiba realized the crazy man had in fact not come back out with him. He likely belong in there, but right now he was contaminating their crime scene. Giving Elliott a long look, Akiba shook his head and started back for the institute. He was going to kill the annoying little shit when he got a hold of him. “I guess, that means no?” He heard Elliott speaking, but he could barely contain the rage inside him from exploding at his partner so he kept walking.

His anger was solidifying as he reentered the lobby, eyes sweeping the room as he went through the gore. He was getting angrier and angrier as he looked, sure as he breathed that he would kill the worthless man the instant he found him. “Hey.” The voice was unfamiliar enough to startle Akiba out of his thoughts, and he couldn’t find the source of the voice. “Hey, Detective.” Now he was just a little uneasy, glancing about a little to see if it was just his imagination. “Detective Rapp, here, in the security room.” What in the world? Akiba turned around and made his way over to the main desk of the lobby, behind which sat the security room. Carefully he went around the side of the desk, avoiding the puddles of blood on the intake counter. The door to the security room blocked his view of who was speaking to him, but Akiba suspected he knew by then. Rounding the corner, Akiba found Kozma staring wide eyed at the monitors. “This is very bad, Detective.” He didn’t elaborate further, but instead rewound the feed and set it to play from the beginning.

Akiba had a good mind to rip Kozma a new one, not just for what he might have tampered with but for the fact that he had come back in to look for him. All of that froze in Akiba’s throat the minute the video feed began to play, because his mind could hardly accept what it was seeing. On the screen he watched as a man wearing a tattered white coat, hood up, walked out of the patient door and stopped feet beyond it. All at once the patient sitting in the chair facing away from him jumped up, pointing at something off camera and looking terrified. At the same time the middle aged nurse behind the desk stood up, her hands coming up to shield her face as the security guard rushed out of this very room. In another second he could clearly see what they were so frightened of, and not all the same. It was like the shadows rose up, the room grew dark enough that the camera flipped to night vision mode. Inside those shadows though lurked something Akiba couldn’t explain, four twisted canine like beasts slowly moved in on the three victims like wild dogs on prey. They did not however even give the strange ragged man a glance, rather beginning their attack the moment his hands came up to the sky like a child catching raindrops.

[Nyxia]

Like a lightning strike, Akiba didn’t have time to look away. Those people were torn to shreds before his eyes, but those monsters didn’t eat. He watched as they spent minutes pulling around parts of the bodies that they either tore down further, or played with. Just like that the man lowered his hands from their skyward hold, and those twisted things shrank back before vanishing completely. The light came back into the room where it should have always been, but the man himself didn’t vanish as Akiba had secretly almost expected. Instead he seemed to survey what was left of the bodies before turning back around and heading in the door once more, leaving the door swinging in his wake.

It was so peculiar that Akiba couldn’t for a moment doubt what he’d just seen, but his idea of reality was soon enough clouding it in his own mind. Glaring over at Kozma, Akiba roughly grabbed the one time priest by the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him out the door, still being mindful of the blood as he shoved the other man through the small gate. “Outside, now!” He barked the order, giving the priest a rough shove that nearly caused the smaller man to fall. "Go, now. GO!" He roared as he walked calmly behind Kozma, somehow ignoring the scene around him as he did so. This was like something out of a bad dream, a nightmare, and Akiba didn't have time to stand around and shoot off theories. His mind had somehow rationalized it down to a patient being responsible, ignoring all else he'd seen on the monitor.

As they exited the building Akiba already had a plan, a direction to go in and how to do it. Elliott had come to meet them at the bottom of the steps, looking for all the world like he meant to say something. He apparently chose not to speak though as two patrol cars ripped up the hill and stopped in a cloud of dust next to their own car. "Good, we're going to need as many men as the department can spare." He let the three men make it to the stairs as he got mind together. "Okay listen up! Jacquet take Korch and start searching the first floor patient wings. Be cautious though, this patient is extremely dangerous."  He was taking no chances, and they couldn't afford to either.

[Nyxia]

Elliott took that as an instruction to call back in, and slowly made his way back to their car. He sat himself down in the driver's seat and pulled the radio back towards himself when Kozma opened the door to passenger side and sat down. Neither of them spoke to one another, instead Elliott pulled the mic up and took a deep breath. "This is unit George one, requesting all spare units at Rowe Psychiatric Institute. I repeat George one, requesting all spare units at Rowe Psychiatric Institute." He listened to the radio crackle static in empty space for a long few minutes, glancing over to Kozma briefly.

"Acknowledged, George one. This is dispatch, situation?" The voice that came back to him was familiar and comforting all the same. His sister Tabella, who sounded bored out of her mind. He'd never been so glad to have her be bored, as she would be no where near here.

Gathering himself once more Elliott prepared to relay what Akiba had said, an escaped crazed patient. Kozma put his hand over the mic in Elliott's hand, shocking enough that Elliott looked up at him confused. Kozma shook his head slowly, something was more than Akiba had said. "Hold tight for that dispatch. Getting more information right now." He rehung the mic and looked straight at Kozma, something was wrong. "So, how much worse is it?" The former priest would at least tell him the truth of it, not that he thought Akiba wouldn't.

[Nyxia]

Kozma sat silently while Elliott pulled out another cigarette and lit it, when he offered one to Kozma he accepted quickly. Lighting his own Kozma thought it over while he took a long drag and looked back to the stone walls of building like it might vanish. "It's very bad, Elliott. Very bad, indeed." He exhaled as he spoke, shifting his eyes back to the detective. "This is no angry spirit, nor is it a demon as far as I can tell." What it was exactly he didn't even want to speculate right then, it was too dark for him to risk misidentifying it. "Your partner is partly right, it was a patient. This patient has power I've never seen before, the ability to destroy in the blink of an eye." He took another deep drag, watching as Elliott's eyebrows pinched together in confusion. "What I saw on that tape was a man capable of summoning something even I can't understand." The alarm on Elliott's face was clear and distinct, his eyes flashed to the front door of the building across Kozma's frame. "This is one time where I would advise clearing out anyone still alive, and destroying the place." That was his best option, as he didn't figure any magic could fix whatever was in there.

As the former priest spoke all Elliott could think was that he had to get Akiba and the others out, and fast. Snatching up the mic once more, Elliott depressed the button and realized he had no idea what to say. He sat there taking a couple more hits from the cigarette in his other hand while he thought, "Dispatch, this is unit George one." He didn't wait for the voice on the other side to call back. "I need special unit Beta, back up units requested as well. Copy?" With that sent over he could barely stand to sit and wait for them to confirm, his eyes went back to Kozma. "If they radio back, can you confirm the request and make sure they know at least a cover story?" Kozma nodded to him, which Elliott barely saw as he nearly jumped out the driver's door. He didn't even realize he was running until he almost tripped on the third step, scrambling for footing as he kept moving. Damn if he was going to sit out here while Akiba confront something like this.

[Nyxia]

As the four entered the building Akiba was on high alert, weapon drawn he lead the three uniform officers towards the door that lead to the patient wings. "Reizuki, with me. Until we know what's going on, we evacuate any patients and staff to the lobby." They were nearly to the door when Akiba glanced back at them, "The patient we are searching for was wearing a dirty lab coat, if you see him do not engage. I repeat, do not engage. Fall back and radio for back up, we want to take him alive without any other loses." Confident enough that the officers understood his orders, Akiba took a tactical approach on the door and nudged it open while Korch flanked the door peering in to be sure it was clear.

Slowly the four made their way inside the door, and into the main hallway. Radio's were silent as each of them slid their earpiece in and nodded confirming they wouldn't be given away by radio communications. Once ready Akiba gave the signal for Korch and Jacquet to continue down the corridor, while he and Reizuki broke off at the first hallway and started a methodical room by room sweep for anyone still alive. He never realized they were being watched, someone on the fifth floor sat watching them move through the halls of the first floor. This was a random, and yes tragic, accident; but it was still something to be studied. Dr. Tausakou smiled coldly as Akiba and his men swept along, seeking the few that would have survived the attack.

[Nyxia]

It didn’t take long for Akiba to notice that all of the patient rooms were empty, doors standing open and rooms dark. It was unnerving even if the first floor was just patients on minor seventy-two hour eval holds, no one was there. His flashlight probed the darkness of each room, finding them void of personal effects and persons. Glancing over his shoulder to officer Reizuki, he confirmed that she was finding the exact same thing. Tsoi gave him a worried look, as she came to the only closed door they’d found so far. Room 128 sat in a deep silence, not that the rest of the floor didn’t as well. Tsoi gave Akiba a look, a question of who would breach the door and who was back up. He answered that question by moving in front of the door, leaving Reizuki to take the side and glance down both hallways.

There was no sign of movement, which Reizuki told him with a single nod. Having gotten the clear signal Akiba took the door, one hard kick and the metal door smashed in with a thunder like sound. In the aftermath silence took hold once more, leaving the pair to assume the room was clear. That didn't mean they could simply leave it open without checking however, as Akiba moved through the doorway. Gun raised and a single beam of light cutting through the deep darkness, Akiba took the lead going into the room. Reizuki followed behind him, adding a secondary light to the darkness. The room they found was simple enough, a small room with a single bed and a bathroom off the the left. It also appeared empty as both moved through the room finding no signs of life inside, which was also odd.

[Nyxia]

Akiba was seconds from call the room clear, and move on, when a single groan registered through the floor under their feet. Reizuki moved to check the bathroom quickly and found nothing, which she silently let Akiba know with a single shrug and a shake of her head. The room was silent again, when Akiba moved back towards the doorway that would take them back to the door. He was confused by the findings, by the silence that continued to greet them wherever they went in this strange place. It made little sense that over two hundred patients had simple vanished, with nearly a hundred staff as well. Lowering his gun some Akiba poked his head out to check the hallways, and found it just as they had left it, empty. Motioning Reizuki to follow him Akiba stepped into the hallway once more.

An explosion of activity behind him, startled both Akiba and officer Reizuki. The pair spun around, to see a sight both terrifying and unbelievable. A human looking creature burst from the tiny closet and with inhuman speed jumped the bed and went for officer Reizuki. She managed to get three shots off, with two hitting the strange thing attacking them. She'd only wounded which wasn't enough, as the creature knocked her to the ground. Without hesitating Akiba fired a shot, catching the creature in the side and causing it to howl like a wild animal. This didn't help, as the creature bit deeply into officer Reizuki's throat and pulled away with half of her windpipe. In the light of his flashlight, Akiba could see barbed wire wrapping the creature's head and body. It's face was so badly damaged that he couldn't tell if it was male or female anymore. As the savage thing looked up at him, Akiba felt his breath stop in his throat. It was slowly chewing on the remains of flesh still in its mouth, when Akiba brought his gun up and pulled the trigger. The bullet did exactly what he wanted, as he watched the creature's head explode.