Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
I’d rather die than give you control.

No you can’t take it
No you can’t take it
No you cant take that away from me

NIN – Head like a hole.

1. Head like a hole.

This was a morning like every other morning, Reno woke up in his bed alone, the room was cold and the sun had not even risen yet. Cloud had left, gotten on his bike, and nobody had heard from him. His phone was on voice mail. Reno had even sought out Tifa, even though he knew how much she would resent him going there, but she had not heard from Cloud either. Reno was not sure if he should believe her, but she had seemed visibly upset by Clouds mysterious disappearance.

He got out of bed, and made his way to the kitchen, he looked at all the dirty dishes on the kitchen counter, he would have to do his dishes one of these days, and as he took a step forward and stepped in something. He would have to clean the entire place some day. Reno sighed and searched between the dirty dishes for the least dirty cup, he chose one and rinsed it with water before he turned on the water boiler; he leaned against the counter and waited for the little button to click up indicating that the water was hot. He missed his life, even the weather seemed to plot against him, as he looked out the window and saw it was pouring down. Finally the water boiler clicked and he poured the water in his cup and poured some instant coffee in. Maybe this would wake him up. He jumped up on the counter and rested his feet on the windowsill, he found himself sitting here often, as he drank his coffee. He smiled as he remembered Cloud sitting in this exact spot, in his memory it had been a bright morning, promising a sunny day, and Cloud had looked like ivory and gold.

Why the hell was he tormenting himself with these painful memories? Cloud was gone, and by the looks of it, he would not return. It made little difference why he left; fact was, he was gone. Leaving a massive empty black hole in his wake.

His nightmares had gotten worse, and even if he had something that resembled a miniature pharmacy, promising him no dreams at all, they were still there. Two months ago Rufus had called him to his office, and Reno had thought nothing of it, he was used to being briefed by the president. But this time it was different, Rufus had looked all pale and worn, and with a tiny voice he had explained to Reno that he was sure that he had read in the newspaper that there had been some child murders. Reno had. But as Rufus explained to him, what he didn’t know what that with each dead kid, there would be a note, a missing poster for another kid, and it had carried messages to the president. And now these threats had gotten too close, and Rufus wanted Reno to follow the police, as they tried to solve this, he would feel safer with a man inside. And so it had happened, Reno had been assigned as a special police officer, and Rude had stayed by Rufus’ side.

Reno downed his coffee, he missed Rude terribly, he always had had him to lean on, now he had nobody. He knew that Rufus needed this from him, and trusted him with this strange assignment, but it still felt like being shoved off, it felt like he had lost everything, both Cloud and his job, what is a turk when they are not a turk? And ex-turk? That was as good as nothing! Look what good that had done Mr. Valentine.  Reno jumped down from the counter and left his cup in the pile before he got dressed. At least he could still wear his own clothes, and not some pesky uniform; the only thing was that he had to wear this tacky badge that said ‘Mr. Reno Vaughan, Special agent’. Reno sighed, this sucked big time! Special agent, that sounded like he was retarded, too stupid to be a cop. It did not really sound as flashy as Reno and Rude, Turks. 

As he locked the door to his apartment, his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he looked at the number ID.  Just what he needed, Tseng calling him at freaking seven in the morning. He flipped the phone open and grumbled “yea.”

“There has been another uhm... discovery.” Tseng said.

“Discovery?” Reno repeated.

“A girl,” Tseng said. “Its bad man, you should get here fast.”

“Oh,” Rude said. “Wait a minute? You’re there? I thought it was something for the police, and.. yea me.”

“I’m here,” Tseng said “Its Guides Avenue 9.”

Reno thought about it for a moment and said “Wow, that’s an expensive address.”

“Yea, yea.. Just get here alright?” Tseng said with an annoyed tone. 

“I am already there,” Rude sighed as he hung up and ran down the spiral staircase as fast as he could. Coming out on the street he was glad that Shin-ra had bothered to at least give him a car, if he had had one of those fancy motorbikes he would have been soaked. He got into the car and drove off towards the crime scene. He hoped that this would not be as bad as the last time. He could not stomach this for long, he didn’t know how the cops could deal with this so easily, normally he would just have to threaten or kill men, but those were adult men, and there was always a reason for him doing so, he was a turk.. But this, this was kids, and it was just sick. This bastard killed one kid, and then left the missing poster on the scene with the face of the next victim, along with a threat for the president.

As he got there, he was received by a young officer, who greeted him and followed him up the rubble path to the front door. “Did you eat any breakfast, Special agent Vaughan?” he asked casually.

“No I didn’t..Uhm..”  He turned his head and looked at the officer.

“Thomas,” the young officer helped him.

“Yea, right, no I didn’t Thomas,” Reno said flatly. “Why? Are you buying?”

Officer Thomas laughed, “No, Mister Tseng Shi-Ran is here, and he will fill you in I’m sure.”

“Why does that have anything to do with my breakfast?” Reno asked, truly confused. But as he entered the dark mansion, he could smell it right away. Blood, the hallway reeked of death. He went straight to the doorway where two officers stood, and brushed past them. He blinked in the dark trying see anything, and then he saw it, what he had thought looked like a small doe had it been under different circumstances, was in fact a human body, hanging from the ceiling, like an obscene tarot card, gutted like an animal, and headless, the intestines was laying in a neat pile on the floor, but the head was no where to be seen. “Holy fuck on a pogo stick,” Reno cried as he felt nausea, the stench and the pile of guts was just gut wrenching, but he just smiled to the officer next to him, and stepped closer to the carcass, then suddenly another police officer called from behind the large desk in what seemed to be the library. “Guys! I think I found something here!”

Then Reno turned around and as he did, he brushed the carcass so it swung back and hit his shoulder. This proved too much, and Reno had to run out of the room, pushing people aside as he stopped in the hallway, holding on to the wall, and emptying his already empty stomach. “Oh god” he whimpered.

“I see you met Fedora,” Tseng said calmly behind him.

“She’s lovely,” Reno groaned as he straightened up, and wiped his mouth in his sleeve. Tseng nodded in the direction of what was seemingly the kitchen, and Reno followed.

“So,” Tseng said as he handed Reno a cup of coffee, “Milk and sugar?”

Reno was about to say ‘just milk’ but that was an old joke, Tseng would for sure not get it, and he didn’t feel like explaining. “No, black is fine,” he said with a little voice as he slumped down on a kitchen chair and searched for his cigarettes. He lit one and took a sip of his coffee, watching Tseng waiting for an explanation.

“You are probably wondering why I am here,” Tseng offered, as Reno nodded, Tseng sat down on the opposite side of the kitchen table. “Well, apparently mister Shin-ra himself thought a little job rotation would be swell,” Tseng offered Reno a small smile and flashed his, ‘Tao Tseng – Special agent’ badge.

Reno spurted coffee out over the table. “No fucking way!” he coughed, “you too?”

Tseng nodded. “So, should we get to work?”

“Sh-Sure” Reno coughed with an amused grin.

“Alright,” Tseng said and pushed a plastic folder across the table. “This is the note we found”

Reno picked the plastic folder up, looking at the kid on the yellow missing child poster. “Folsom, your in deep shit,” he said to the picture that said ‘have you seen Folsom Harrison, age 15’ underneath.

“Now, we need to track this kid down, and fast” Tseng said. “Maybe, just maybe he is still alive, and maybe we can find him before.. uhm anything happens to him, and then we would either catch the killer or get a good lead, don’t you agree?”

“I think he’s already snuffed man,” Reno said, but then nodded “yea we should try, its not like we can do much for the beauty queen in the next room there”

“No, she’s quite hung up,” Tseng said.

Reno’s head snapped up, looking amazed at Tseng, “Yhy special agent Tseng, was that a joke?” he said before he burst into laughter, he had not laughed in months, and it felt good and liberating.

Reno sniffled as he tried to stop laughing, and turned the plastic folder, reading the note from the killer, ‘you owe me Ruffie’ it said. “Ruffie?” Reno shook his head, seemed like the killer that sick fuck, had a sense of humour too.

“Alright” Tseng said as he took back the note “You get the address of Folsom’s family and go talk with them. Maybe they have some lead of some kind, and I will take this stuff to the lab, and then try and see what I can make out of this crime scene.”

“Oh man.. I am not good at these things, what the fuck am I supposed to say to these people.. we have good reason to believe that your son will show up soon, brutally mutilated, but hey.”

Tseng frowned, “You will come up with something, you’re a slick talker”

Reno rolled his eyes. “Alright, I’m gone,” he said, and stood up. “I will call you when I’m done.”

“Good,” Tseng said and nodded.

Reno hurried out of the mansion, and took a deep breath, once he was out in the fresh air, not caring if it rained. How the hell did these people do this for a living? It was a childs play to be the president’s bodyguard, compared to this shit. He thought of calling Rude, but decided he wouldn't, there was no need to drag him into this crap, and so he got into the car and drove down to the station to see if he could find the last known address for Folsom instead,

TBC