αηυвιѕ мσяgαη
Victor stared at the blood, dripping down from his fingers and spilling down to the pavement below him. The bullet having grazed his hands and knocking the gun from his grip, he'd quickly taken solace in the nearest alleyway. "Come out, come out!" Raymond called in a sing-song, twisted tone, waving his shot gun wildly in the air. "You can't hide forever, Vicky!" Some partner, Victor mused, while he struggled to tear the hem of stained button up and wrap it tightly around at least one of his mangled, bloody hands. He'd need something to cover the wound if he was going to be able to hold the spare gun which still sat tucked in the holster under his arm. His hands shook from the stress, but he couldn't dwell here much longer. Raymond had been the serial killer the entire time, and a serial killer wasn't about to break his pattern. That meant he'd already set up the scene; all the pieces were in place, and all he had to do was pull the trigger and twenty seven more lives would be lost. Victor had seven minutes. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he snatched the gun from it's holster and
- Anubis gritted his teeth as the front door to the morgue swung open, his fingers stopping where they hung over the keys of his laptop. His dark brown eyes narrowed at the officers, walking in like they owned the place, while his hands slowly moved from their place to close the computer. He let out a small sigh, looking at the time on his watch. It was only six minutes before he'd be leaving the Morgue, and surely, these two, coming to pick up the newly gained files on the recent Jane Doe, or rather, Emily Richards, were going to make him do some overtime. How unfortunate.
"What can I do for you boys?" Anubis asked, though it was obvious from the start that he knew the answer to the question far before it had left his lips. He stood casually, slowly. If they were going to be taking up some of his time, he might as well take some of theirs. Unlike him, of course, their time wasn't infinite. "Finally come for Emily, I presume."
"That's the name of our Jane Doe?" One of the officer's asked, being the first to step forward and follow Anubis away from the desk and into the back room where the bodies were held.
"Emily Danielle Richards, to be exact," Anubis responded, tracking down the small silver doorway which lead to her cold, grayed corpse. He snatched the file from a near-by table on his way over, flipping it open and handing it over to the more talkative officer before sliding open the hatch and revealing the lovely, yet deader-than-dead girl, her chest stitched up in the shape of a capitol "Y" after the autopsy. "Twenty-seven years old, lives on the west side of town with her mother and daughter, a natural blonde, and definitely not a suicide. As to who took the time to string her up after poisoning her, that's up to you guys, but she died of an injection in the back of her neck which slowly shut down her organs."
"Just what we needed; another murder case," the quieter officer interjected, scoffing. Surely suicides were easier. All they had to do from there would be inform the family, but being a murder on the other hand, meant it was turned into a crime scene, and they had to get back to work. Anubis, of course, couldn't have cared either way. He had his job to do, which was close enough to his old duties as a god to do embalming, and then he would simply do his normal godly duty; guiding the dead down to the afterlife. Sure, his fall had left him with so many questions, and among them was if that afterlife was even still partially intact. If he had fallen, maybe that had, too. Maybe he was simply leading these people to a dead end. After all, he'd never really been inside the afterlife, only done his job; weigh their heart, their worth, and either guide them, or abandon them. Just another reason why he was so desperate to maintain his immortality.
"Well, if that's quite all, then I'll ask you to be on your way," Anubis finally said, sliding the corpse back into place and breaking the concentration that the officers had on the file. "You had informed me you'd be coming before two o'clock, and it's now a few minutes past four. I think you'll understand that my work for the evening is done. One of my other associates will be here for the rest of the night, however, if you insist on hassling her as well."
Anubis could already hear Caitlin, the odd, mousy, tall young lady who he'd taken the care to hire six months ago shuffling about in the office up front. The girl was good with filing, and didn't mind long hours, and happened to talk to the corpses whenever she didn't have anything to do. All in all, there was nothing wrong with the little human, though Anubis knew that before the next six months, he'd have to find someone else that would be willing to take on her hours. Nothing could be done about humans dying, and Anubis could smell it on her pungently, more and more as months, weeks, days passed and she became closer to it. By this point, he could almost smell what it was that would kill her. Right now, the smell was between a bus and falling down a flight of stairs. Perhaps by the end of the week, he'd know for sure.
The officers seemed a bit dumbfounded, but promptly closed the file up, gave a curt nod to Anubis, offering a small, "We apologize for that, Dr. Morgan. We unfortunately ran into some issues on the way and couldn't avoid being late."
"It's fine, but I'd like to be getting home now, if you don't mind," Anubis responded. The men nodded again, before finally turning and leaving the way they came. And it was about damn time.
He sighed, the realization that there wasn't a moment left to just sit and finish just one more sentence to his newest novel, but at least he could finally leave. A give and take situation, so to speak. He made his way out of the back room, giving a small smile to the soon-to-be-dead Caitlin, before gathering his things from the desk, shoving them neatly into his computer bag, slinging it over his shoulder and leaving. Even if he did love the dead, it was still nice to step outside of the pungent office once in a while. The outside was just beginning to chill, and while he hadn't needed one for quite some time before today, the New York air was getting just cold enough that he'd be needing a jacket soon. All these years and still, he just couldn't stand the cold. He'd often contemplated moving somewhere with a more moderate climate, but he had to admit, the snow was lovely. If only it could occur without being cold, as well.
His apartment building wasn't far, and while he very clearly owned a vehicle, he honestly didn't mind the walk so much. It wasn't bad at all. In the end, the trip took only about ten leisurely minutes, walking past the entrance to the park, several tall buildings, and relatively calm streets as compared to the other ones in the city, he came to the building in which he'd resided for some time now. It wasn't the tallest place, nor the most modern, and in fact, it held a decent amount of old charm and intricate detailing which many newer buildings just didn't have any more. The front desk workers were often so old, they hardly ever realized his lack of aging before they retired or passed away and a new replacement had to be found. He was simply the kind young man who lived upstairs, to them, and to any of the other residents in the building, a mixture of elderly and young alike. Mostly with money, of course.
He smiled to the man behind the front desk as he entered, and the man, Mr. McDaniels, promptly gave a creased smile in return. Anubis' journey quickly took him up the elevator and into the penthouse where he resided with nary a sidetrack. Alice and Devon barked happily and pranced around him in small circles while he continued through the front entrance, through the poshly styled living room and to the master bedroom, obviously eager for their master to take them on a long awaited walk. He was a few minutes late, after all, and the poor, simple dogs required to go out as soon as possible.
"Just a second, just a second," he tried to calm them, waving a hand at their noses to try and get them to settle themselves. Any more of this, and he'd be tripping over them. "I'll take you for a walk in just a second. For god's sake."
At the very least, he managed to step away from them, while they decided to bother each other instead, nipping at each other's ears and tripping over each other's paws. Free of their attention for the moment, Anubis took the opportunity to quickly strip free of his work clothes and slip on a casual, black, v-necked tee-shirt and grey jeans, along with a pair of comfortable Toms. The outfit was plain, lazy, but he could dress up a little for the party down at Odin's night club later. There was no real reason to look particularly nice for walking his dogs, he rationalized as he pulled a light, black leather jacket on.
He wasn't too much into the whole party scene, but he tolerated it for the small amount of publicity he required to maintain himself. It wasn't as if he had to put any effort towards 'having fun' or 'going wild,' either. All he had to do was show up and wait around for the night to be over, dealing with a few other gods and possibly a few humans who had the night off from work. Nothing wrong with it. And he was almost sure that his friend Hades was even less into the party scene than he was.
"Come on, guys, lets go for a walk," He called back to the two reddish Pharaoh hounds laying leisurely on the couch. They'd only just relaxed, and the word "walk" instantly riled them back up again, following him eagerly over to the front entrance and prancing back and forth in anticipation of leaving. Anubis made quick work of leashing them and making his was back down the elevator, through the front door of the building, and outside once again. The jacket was far more adequate against the slight chill in the air, and he hardly minded the weather now that he was more suited for it. People eyed him, as they usually did to one in high standing, as he passed by them on his way. Few eyes seemed harsh, and most were admiring. Who didn't like a young, handsome, successful man, after all? Still, as a god, he hadn't had to show himself to anyone but the dead. What a terrible switch around.
The walk to the park was much quicker than the walk from work to home, and took perhaps only three minutes or so. Living closer to actual grass and trees, despite being completely manipulated by humans, was at least a comfort, as opposed to living surrounded by only other buildings. It was good for the dogs, too. Walking about five minutes down the path, he stopped, unleashed Alice and Devon and plopped down on a bench, letting the animals run around for now. They were able to get some of their energy out better here, and he wouldn't have to deal with them being anxious all night while he was out.
He checked his watch one more time. By now, it was four-forty-five. At least he had a good deal of time before he'd have to be off to that party, he supposed, crossing his arms over his chest and letting a deep huff of air out. Off in the distance, Devon and Alice had managed to find a strewn tennis ball that someone probably left from some time ago, and were tossing it about and tripping over each other for it. Anubis smiled faintly to himself. At least they'd be tired by the time he got them home again.