Trick or Treat! 🦇🎃👻
I started writing this before October ended, but I didn't finish in time, so have a late treat!
Grounds for Murder
The officer observed the large smear of yellow paint on the coffee shop window. From up close, it looked like nothing more than a few random arced lines, but when Faelan approached the shop from across the street this morning, it looked a lot like an eye, the way the glass had glared in the dawning light almost like it was blinking. It had sent the fur on Faelan's haunches up on end. And as he hastily dug into his bag for the door keys, he had the eerie feeling of being watched.
The call to the police had been immediate, but now that he stood back on the street an hour later, the city a little more awake, and an officer at his side the graffiti didn't seem nearly so ominous. But maybe that had more to do with the nonchalant way the officer observed it, one hand on his hip, the other holding some ridiculous chain brand of coffee to his lips, his snake half circled into relaxed coils.
The officer swallowed his gulp of coffee loudly. "So if I have this right, you left at about 10:00pm last night and the window was clear. Then when you returned around 5:30am this morning this--" He waved vaguely at the vandalism. "--was here?"
"Y-y-yes."
"And none of the neighboring shops saw anything?"
Faelan frowned. "I d-didn't check. Isn't that the police's job?"
"Well, most people don't like an officer on their doorstep, especially not for something as minor as this."
Faelan frowned even deeper. Sure it wasn't a murder or anything big, but this was still a crime.
"You'll probably have more luck with your neighbors than us," the officer continued, and then as if to stop any protest directly added, "Any security footage?"
Faelan didn't want to let the topic change slide, but seeing as he wasn't the professional in this process, he bit down on his complaint. "Y-yes. In the back and out front. B-but it only catches snapshots every ten minutes. I-I already checked the feed. The paint appeared around 3:00am, but it didn't catch whoever did it."
The officer hummed vaguely, looking the markings up and down for a solid minute before saying, "Well, unfortunately, since no harm was actually done, there's nothing I can do."
Faelan's mouth dropped open. "Y-y-you're not going to investigate?"
"With so little to go on it would only be a waste of time. All of our officers are dedicated to serious cases right now, and with so little to go on, I doubt we can do much at the moment. Set up more cameras, and if it happens again, we'll see what we can do."
Faelan's tail flicked aggravatedly. "But this is the only shop they touched! It feels targeted! D-d-d-doesn't that seem concerning? "
The officer raised his brows. "There's no words. No recognizable symbols. Nothing that constitutes a real threat. You’re three blocks from the university; If anything its some dumb kids trying to be funny."
"It's n-n-n-not f-funny." Faelan barely grabbed control of his stutter. It always got worse when he was emotional, which was just inconvenient. If ever he needed a clear voice it was when he was chewing someone out.
The officer only stared at him, his expression more like someone inconvenienced than patient. “Talk to your neighbors. Set up more cameras. Don’t let it ruin your day.”
With that, the officer slithered smoothly back to the police car on the curb.
“B-B-B-But—”
Too late.
Faelan cursed under his breath before storming back inside, the overhead bell tinkling violently with the force he put on the door. His hooves clacked loudly as he shoved into the kitchen, tore open, the refrigerator, seized a mass of dough from yesterday, and threw it on the work table. He gnawed bidingly on his bottom lip while he washed his hands, barely holding himself back from drawing blood before slamming both fists onto the dough with a loud poff!
The dough was cold but he worked into it with all the violent anger he’d wanted to throw at officer or the perpetrator, or anyone else who wanted to try pissing him off today, and soon it was warm and malleable in his hands.
The bell tinkled from the front and Kaiyo’s familiar light step sounded on the tile, moments later the kitchen door creaked.
“Hey, what’s with the— Oh, you’re getting a late start.”
Faelan’s head shot up and Kaiyo's took an instinctive step back, ears flattening against his head.
"S-s-some stupid k-kid vandalized the store, and I wasted h-h-half the morning talking to the useless police who decided they’re not going to do a single thing, w-which they could have told me over the phone for all the help that officer p-provided me by coming down!” He ground the heels of his hand harder into the dough as he raised his voice into a mock conversation. “‘H-Hey, someone vandalized by shop, can you c-come check it out?’ ‘Oh, we a-a-actually don’t give a crap about your shop, so no, we aren’t going to do anything’ ‘Oh, no problem. Th-thanks for being incredibly useless.’ ‘You’re welcome, we love doing nothing.’ See? Easy!”
He punched the dough right in its soft center.
Kaiyo reached across the table and grabbed Faelan’s wrists. “Ok, you’re definitely going to overwork that, so let’s just step back a moment.”
Without letting go, he walked around the counter and pulled Faelan to a stool on the edge of the room, forcing him to sit.
“So, let's calm down a bit. You're saying kids painted that thing on the window?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. That’s what the officer theorized. I don’t actually know who did it, security cameras didn’t catch it.”
“I told you we should get some that actually film.”
“Nothing ever happens on this street; how was I supposed to know we’d be the only shop ever to get vandalized?”
Kaiyo flicked one ear, but he didn’t argue the point further. He probably didn’t want Faelan to explode.
“Well. If the police aren’t worried, let’s leave it for now.” He pulled Faelan up by the arms and began pushing him to front of the shop. “Here, why don’t I finish up the dough, and you do customer service until something is baked.”
“I hate talking to the customers,” Faelan grumbled.
“And they hate talking to you, but you’re in a mood, so you need to not be alone stewing.”
Faelan sighed heavily but clopped up to the register anyway. As annoying as it was, Kaiyo was right. He really could not be trusted with his own thoughts right now or he’d probably start trashing things, or worse, make a very, very angry phone.
The bell over the door tinkled, and he straightened up, forcing on his most accommodating smile. “W-welcome in, how can I—”
An intense chill rushed down his spine quickly followed by a slam of anxiety to the gut so strong he felt dizzy. He had to steady himself on the counter, but the touch of his hands to the cool granite only made him hyper aware of the fact that every single hair on his body was stood on end.
What was happening?
Thump thump thump thump thump…
His heart beat rapidly, no pauses, and as he concentrated on his next inhale to sow it, he realized his breaths were following the same pace.
His eyes flicked rapidly up and down as the woman approached the counter. She didn’t look dangerous. Dark circles under the eyes and a long brown trench coat might be off putting in some places, but at a coffee shop they were fairly normal.
Still, Faelan’s legs tensed to run.
She cocked her head a little and ruffled a hand through her short shag haircut, yellow eyes glinting. “I had a question about your window, but since I’m here, why don’t you throw in a Turkish coffee.”
