Chapter 1241 (2/2)

“Oh?” Perhaps it was at that point that Commissioner Arrietti had first sensed the strangeness around this humanoid with animal characteristics, but he brushed over it at the time. Perhaps Heiffal had simply grown up in a country without bowling. “Well, then I must insist you come! Although it is a game at its core, heh, it has a habit of showing the true concentration of a man during play…”

Immediately, Heiffal’s eyes had sharpened. “Indeed? Well then please forgive me for imposing.”

And now, today, Commissioner Arrietti had one of the creepiest days of his life. For one, when he had arrived at the precinct headquarters this morning, there was a letter of apology from a notoriously aggressive individual from Chicago, who went by the nickname “Three-Horned Devil.” The letter rather verbosely described the change of heart Patrick Shane had last night, and how there was no need to send the ‘Visitors’ back to his residence.

“Huh,” Elmer had said as he sat back in his chair. He took a sip of coffee. “That is… odd.”

Then the morning had continued to be extremely quiet. Too quiet. After a week of constant complaints, the lack of anything… was disturbing. There were no calls. There were no requests for assistance. There were no complaints. So, being the type of individual with a propensity for anxiety headaches, Commissioner Arrietti had sent out extra patrols of plainclothes officers to try and figure out what was going on in Kharon.

When the patrols returned at lunch, they all told the same story; the entire population that had been transplanted from the Palace of the Chosen that had once been Chicago were suddenly behaving like model citizens. But his officers told some worrisome stories about why. All the people talked about these ‘Visitors’ with deep respect that bordered on dread.

Already, there was a booming serious of horror stories about the Visitors. So much so that mothers were overheard hushing their children with the threat of a Visitor. For Commissioner Arrietti, the most disturbing part was how uniform the reports about these Visitors were.

Obviously, the people said, you could tell a visitor by the fact they were part animal. But that was only in the daylight, and Visitors were tricky. For one, if they wanted to speak with you, they would arrive at dusk so the darkness obscured your features. Even worse, the Visitors always knew where you lived and when you were home.

Homes were very important to Visitors, the people said, because the Visitors did not have a home of their own.

Commissioner Arrietti’s coffee grew cold as he tried to make sense of what was just hearsay and what had actually happened after he had unleashed this increasingly mysterious group of people that Tatiana had put at his disposal. So in the afternoon, he ordered his officers to try and obtain some concrete information on what had happened these last two nights.

What he obtained was basically a collection of gossip. But Commissioner Arrietti forced himself to continue to comb through the reports.

From what his officers had gathered, it was definitely true that this group of people with animalistic characteristics visited the criminals on the list that Commissioner Arrietti had provided. But it was the details of what actually happened next where things got murky.

There were a lot of stories about people attempting to hide from the Visitors who came to speak with them. However, the current public sentiment was that this was a mistake; ignored Visitors would circle around the house and find a window or opening where they stare at you. If you hurried to the next room to avoid their gaze, the Visitor would already be at a window in that room, looking balefully at you while they continued to knock on the glass pane.

To Commissioner Arrieti’s relief, there was another agreed-upon fact: If you actually answered the door, the visitors were extremely polite and would simply ask to enter the home. You could reject them. But, exactly five minutes later, another knock would come at your door. When you peaked out the window, you would find two visitors standing there.

If you rejected them again, they would come back with three. And then four.

From the reports of his officers, people were saying that at one point, someone refused until there were a hundred Visitors waiting silently outside his door, entirely filling the street. These stood impossible still, like corpses, and would knock until dawn when the whole city would be filled with waiting visitors.

“Okay, but,” Commissioner Arrietti had interrupted his best field agent who had been giving him the same rumors he had heard all day. These Visitors started to seem less like real people and more like a supernatural haunting. “What happens when the Visitors go inside to talk?”

The woman had shrugged. “People don’t like to talk about it. Anyone who is visited just… changes. Not personality-wise, but more like… they really don’t want to be visited again. And… Boss, I get that the city is peaceful, but I don’t like that we had to rely on threats and fear to earn peace.”

Commissioner Arrietti frowned. “What do you mean? Threats and fear?”

Shrugging, the woman had said. “I don’t know where you found these people, but no conversation would start a reaction like this. The entire city fears them after two days! If I didn’t know better, I would say that these Visitors cut the head off of the local crime syndicate and took its place. The Chosen are gone, but the Visitors have taken their place. It might keep things peaceful for a while, but this isn’t how we should help these people. If things continue like this-”

They had been interrupted by an insistent knock at the door.

“What is it?” Commissioner Arrietti had said with annoyance, suddenly very aware of the drops of sweat on the back of his neck.

The door creaked slowly open, revealing Heiffal’s familiar features. His mild gaze went from the frozen investigator giving her report to the increasingly sweaty Commissioner Arrietti. Four individuals stood in a neat row behind Heiffal, their animalistic features marking them as Visitors.

“We came to bowl, per your invitation,” Heiffal said formally.

Which was why now Elmer Arrietti, out of his police uniform, led five silent Visitors forward toward the bowling alley. His hand that gripped the strap of his ball bag was extremely sweaty.