#finaldraft

There was one thing that Detective Vince Wolfe didn’t expect when he went to the beach for the first time since he moved to this city. It wasn’t the fact that there was a group of people- it was a beach after all. No, it was for this group of people to be in a circle with two people in the middle. One was on his knees, arms held above his head as if begging to the other. The second one, standing a few feet away from the first, covered head to toe in a dark blue lightweight armor. Their head was tilted down, arms around their body. As Vince got closer to the group, he took notice to one of the members of the group who seemed to be talking to the two in the middle. After a few more steps, Vince heard what he thought was a faint clicking noise coming from the group. He hid by a nearby rock formation, peering around the side to get a better look. 

Soon the member stopped talking and in succession, the armored one thrusted their hand into the kneelings chest. They slid one of their feet back and yanked something out of the first. The first started clawing at his chest with one hand while reaching out with the other before shortly collapsing on the sandy ground and disintegrated. ‘Wait, disintegrated!?’ Vince quickly rubbed his eyes and looked again. This time, all that was left was a small dark crown with gleams of green and red. The one in armor kneeled down and gently grabbed the crown and held it close to them for a few moments before slowly getting up and handing it to one of the group members. As they handed it over, they turned their head away, right in Vince’s direction. 

Vince made eye contact and the armored visually stiffened. They held up a finger to the group before turning towards Vinces hiding spot. Vince’s eyes widened as he stumbled to turn around and run away. In moments of turning around, a heavy force hit his back, causing him to hit the ground. There was pressure on the back of his head, on his lower back and on his right arm. There was a muffled noise coming from behind him, growing louder with every second. Then a faint clicking noise came back and the noise stopped. After a few moments, Vince was flipped onto his back, the pressure moved onto his chest, stomach, and left arm. Vince took a deep breath in and coughed to the side. 

When he finally regained his breath, he looked back up at the one holding him down. They were looking down at him, shoulders hunched, head tilted slightly. “You done?” The voice seemed to have both a high and low pitch. Vince nodded slowly, his eyes wide and mouth hung open.There was a sigh and their head dipped their head, “Good, now, how much of that did you witness, Detective Wolfe?” Vince furrowed his brows and put his lips into a thin line, “How do you know my name?” They slammed their fist next to his head, “I ask the question, Detective. What did you see?” They demanded, lowering their head closer to his. The detective tried to squirm out of their grip, only causing said grip to tighten.”Could you please stop trying to escape,” The person sounded bored. “It won’t do anything.” Vince stopped for a moment before sighing, “All I saw was you ripping something out of that man's chest and him disintegrating.” There was a long sigh as their head rested on his chest. “Great, just great.” 

They quickly sat back, putting pressure on the leg on his chest. Vince grunted as the person turned their head towards the group. Out of nowhere, a double pitch clicking sounded from the armor, with faint clicking coming back. They shook their head, one arm waving at the group. The group looked at each other before bowing and disappearing from the scene. The being stood, hand gripping Vince’s shirt, pulling him up as well. “It was unfortunate that you had to see that. We don’t really have people watching us during these types of things.” Their voice was soft as they dusted the sand off of Vince. “In fact, no one was supposed to see that. I was careless, and I apologize for that.” They exhaled quickly, some smoke came out of the helmet. They turned away from him, running a hand over the top of the helmet. “Unfortunately we can’t exactly just let you go. It’s not safe for anyone involved. We cannot risk you telling someone about our people. However, we also can’t just kidnap you or anything, others will try to look for you and potentially figure us out.” They held their fingers up as they spoke.

Vince slowly stepped back, not wanting to be on this beach any longer. “I suppose we could let you go, but one of us would have to keep an eye on you. Seeing as I’m the closest to your general area, I suppose I’ll be in charge of that.” They quickly turned back towards Vince, “I suppose that means I should introduce myself. I am Lane Senthois and I will be the one watching over you for as long as we see fit.” The silence filled the air, Vince had walked far enough away from Lane while they were turned. They stared at each other for a few more moments before Lane burst out laughing, “Did you really think that you can just walk away from this, Detective? Because trust me, you can’t.”

Lane strode towards Vince’s side and grabbed his arm, “Let us be off then. We have jobs to get to.” They dragged him along up to the entrance of the beach when it dawned on him, “How have you not been caught if you’re wearing that armor. It sticks out like a sore thumb.” He looked around the beach, trying to see if there was anyone else lurking. A new laugh was heard, “Yes that would defeat the purpose wouldn’t it?” VInce snapped his head towards the new voice. There Lane stood in a white button up, tie loose around their neck- well now it was apparent that Lane was a male. He wore dark blue jeans that had splotches of color scattered on them. “Well, is this better for your kind, Detective?” Lane gave a closed eye smile, head tilted slightly. His voice was a low tone, soft on the ears Vince thought.  

Lane spun on his heel and faced the entrance of the beach, “Now shall we?” He held his arm out without looking back. Vince let out a sigh, “I have no idea what I signed up for but, yeah, sure, we shall.”