4.1 A Memorial To Remember

I never imagined I’d ever kill a person and go to their memorial service. What a funny string of events that led to this situation.

If only I could’ve gone on my own instead of with Deen. I had to attend the service; I’d come off as an asshole if I didn’t. It’d be super interesting anyway. And I couldn’t refuse Deen’s offer for a ride because the alternative was going with Ramello, which wasn’t really in my immediate plans. More than ninety percent sure that guy has the hots for me. Ninety-nine percent. It’d been ages since I manipulated men who liked me to do my bidding, and I wanted to try it again for old time’s sake, but this Adumbrae thing going on with my body was my priority right now.

I looked out the window. Deen was outside, yelling at her phone. She was arguing with her sister. Again. When her sister called, Deen pulled to the side of the road and got out to answer it. If she didn’t want me listening in on their fight, she should at least pretend they weren’t having one, even if I couldn’t hear them.

My reflection in the rearview mirror caught my eye. White hair strands.

“Huh?” I had spent five minutes in front of the mirror before leaving my condo to make sure I didn’t have any white hairs left.

Hair didn’t instantly turn white. It didn’t turn at all. Once a hair grew, the color was set. It had to fall out for a graying strand to grow in its place. If my memory of my elementary science class was accurate, white hair shouldn’t just suddenly appear.

Unless… these were the same ones I pulled out earlier that then regenerated. I picked them out from the rest of my wavy hair and yanked them off.

“Fuck, I shouldn’t have done that,” I muttered, brushing the strands off my lap. If they grew back in front of Deen, I’d be in trouble. Nah, she’d be facing the road.

The car door opened. “Sorry, Erind.” Deen hopped into the driver’s seat. “It’s just my sister. Ugh, she’s insisting on her own thing again. She wants me to be with her when we present our family’s donation to the victims. I already told her I’m with a friend and can’t…”

Blah, blah, blah. I zoned out the rest of Deen’s rants. She had a lot of family problems. I got that and didn’t care. I nodded and looked as sympathetic as could be, muttering, “uh-huh” and “you’re right.”

A few minutes later, she got it out of her system, and we were on our way.

“This should be Father’s job to meet with the mayor and all that,” Deen said.

She called her parents ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ like some kind of ultra-strict family. They probably were that. Poor Deen. But, again, I didn’t fucking care.

“It was Mother’s idea to establish this foundation,” Deen continued. “I support their initiative, but they passed running the foundation to my sister, who didn’t—”

“We’re lucky the memorial service got scheduled today,” I cut in. I didn’t want to suffer listening to her rants the entire drive to City Hall. We had International Law classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But all classes were cancelled, and Professor Gallagher couldn’t do anything about it.

“Professor Gallagher might be there, for all we know.”

“True, true. At least he’ll see us attending the memorial services instead of, I dunno, going to the mall or something. Are the malls even open today?”

“In the afternoon, maybe,” Deen guessed. “It’s a day of mourning for the whole city. The mayor is making sure that we remember those who—”

“He’s only doing that because everyone is angry at him,” I said, snorting. What was it like to be a politician like? I bet I’d be good at it, but the thought of shaking hands and hugging people made me want to puke. “I had used that subway station for the past semester, and those bioscanners have always been broken. Maybe some corruption going on with the repairs. Maybe they were just that negligent. Unfortunately for them, Adumbrae showed up and killed people. Have you seen the interview with Mayor Minnows on CNC News last night?”

It became my ritual since turning into an Adumbrae to check the news every night for anything that might affect me. Everyone still believed the female cop was killed by Fidgeting Hoodie in monster form. Still nothing about the two guys I killed in Marsh Row.

The only worrying news was that some government officials proposed allowing Corebrings Initiates into the country to investigate what happened in the city. Cooperation and stuff. Three Adumbrae showing was really suspicious.

“I haven’t watched the news for a long time.” Deen sighed as she tapped on the steering wheel. “It’s all doom and gloom. I don’t want any more negativity in my life. What did the mayor say?”

“He was interviewed by a pushy news anchor trying to make him admit some anomalous stuff was going on with the city’s repair contracts. Squeezed by pressure, Mayor Minnows said something like, ‘Even if the bioscanners were working, they wouldn’t have helped anyway.’ Can you believe that?” Insert some disgust in my tone.

Mayor Fish was right, of course. The bioscanners detect Adumbrae. Alarm blares. The Adumbrae starts attacking people on the stairs. But he shouldn’t have said it out loud. Dumb, really. That was why I called him Fish, on top of his family name, Minnows.

“He said that?” Deen asked with indignation. “How tactless of him.” The car sped up a bit. It might’ve been wrong to trigger Deen’s super sense of justice while she was driving. “If the mayor knows that, then they should’ve installed a different kind of bioscanner. There are those with silent alarms that transmit information to the authorities.”

Then, the attack would play out just the same, I thought. The difference would be the response time of the police.

“Mayor Minnows isn’t thinking about tact,” I said. “He’s thinking about his political career and the liability of the city. I bet we’ll discuss this in Torts class. There’s a ton of cases about liability when an Adumbrae wreaks havoc.”

“You’ve read ahead?” She gave me a sidelong glance and a grin. “You’re such a model student.”

“Me? You’re the model student. In more ways than one.” It was part of my face to quip at my supposed best friend.

We bantered all the way to the Grand Griffin Park in front of City Hall, where the service would be held. Actually, we didn’t reach the park because the streets were clogged. The whole city was coming. Deen had a hell of a time finding a spot to park, proving that I chose correctly not to buy a car.

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Correction. Refusing Mom’s offer to buy me a car. I was a privileged leech, but not that much.

Hoping that when I’d shed my humanity someday, I wouldn’t be a leech monster. They say a seeded person’s personality and circumstances affected their transformation. I should be a cute monster.

We walked three blocks to reach Grand Griffin Park, swimming through a sea of people. Times like these, I wish for an Adumbrae attack to lower the population a bit. I had to be extra careful not to let my hatred of physical contact translate into actual action because I might injure someone just by jostling them. I practiced controlling my super strength these past few days, mainly to not expose myself. The other reason was that I had broken many of my stuff due to uncontrolled force—an alarm clock, two glasses, a fork and a spoon, a doorknob, and a cupboard door.

“We should’ve brought an umbrella,” I said while following Deen through the crowd like a car tailgating an ambulance. She had an aura around her that made lesser mortals take a step back.

“Some sun would do you well,” Deen said. “You stick out like a sore thumb with your vampiric paleness in La Esperanza. It's criminal you don’t have a tan in this city.”

“Neither do you.”

She looked over her shoulder. “Want to go to the beach with me?”

“Uh, no, thank you. I’m fine with looking like a ghost.” My regeneration wouldn’t allow me to get a tan. I’d have to be in an oven.

Reaching the park, we found a tent with seats for important attendees. I wasn’t considered important, but Deen was. She was ushered to the wide white tent, and she dragged me along. People probably thought I was her personal assistant. We sat in the shade as air cooled by the many trees in the park flowed past us.

This is the boring stuff, I thought, taking care not to blurt it aloud.

As expected, Mayor Fish, the police chief, and other important people gave speeches. They promised reforms. They touted all the good that they’d done for the city. Praised the bravery of those who passed away. Yada, yada. The dead cops were honored.

It was just bad luck, I explained in my head as I stared at the female cop’s picture set in a black frame. It was in a row with four other cops.

My misfortune of becoming an Adumbrae. Her misfortune for finding me.

During all that, Deen’s sister came by. She was an older version of Deen, with a perpetual cold smile that never reached her gray eyes. More beautiful, sophisticated even, but less friendly-looking. She exuded an air of authority when demanding that Deen join her when giving cheques to the families of the victims. She grabbed Deen’s arm. Not wanting to make a scene, Deen went with her, giving me a quick apology that she was leaving.

Good riddance. I could freely walk around because sitting and just watching the program melted my brain so much that it might’ve disconnected the Adumbrae taking over my body. There was a choir singing religious songs.

“Erind!” A slightly familiar voice called for me. I turned around to see Ramello waving as he jogged over. He flashed a winning smile. “I almost didn’t see you there.”

I frowned. “Are you making fun of my height? You know that I’m sensitive about that.”

That put him off-balance. “What? No! I was saying that I didn’t expect to run into you. That’s what I meant, yeah.”

“You shouldn’t expect to run into me with thousands of people here. Are you sure you weren’t stalking me? I hadn’t been walking around for more than five minutes.” Coy smile. A raised brow. Throw in a wink there. Let him interpret that as low-level flirting. This’d be fun stringing him along.

He grinned. “Report me to the police if you think I’m stalking you. Tell that to my uncle. I’ll introduce you to him later.”

Introduce me? The heck? That was something one did with a girlfriend. This guy probably had wet dreams of me.

“I’m here with many other Eloyce students,” Ramello continued. “Over there. That group. See? I wasn’t stalking you.”

I couldn’t tell if the group of people he pointed at were really Eloyce students because I seldom roamed around campus to visit other colleges. They weren’t my law school batchmates; I was certain of it. “That girl with the blue hair,” I said. “I think I’ve seen her before.”

“Myra Fletcher. She’s in med school, but I’m sure she has visited Cresthorne. Her sister, Kelsey, was on the train when the Adumbrae attacked.”

“Kelsey? Right, Adrian mentioned that. Is… is she okay? Is Kelsey, uh…?” Presenting my caring self.

Ramello somberly shook his head. “They hadn’t found her yet. Myra’s waiting for the DNA test results of the, uh… bodies. There is the grim possibility that the Adumbrae, erm, consumed her… without a trace.”

“Poor Kelsey. I hope they find her soon enough, even just for closure’s sake.” I had heard that line in a movie.

We continued looking for Ramello’s uncle and found him chatting with other cops on the east side of the park. I caught bits of their conversation. Something about stopping PCM protestors and checkpoints. I also heard rumors that the PCM stirred up trouble during the service, but I hadn’t seen them.

“Ramello, my boy,” a cop wearing a dark jacket said in a deep monotone. He stood like a tower and was built like a wall. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him tackle an Adumbrae. “Who’s your lady friend here?”

Lady friend? Didn’t know why, but that irked me.

“Uncle, this is Erind Hartwell. A classmate of mine in law school. Erind, this is Sergeant Jeremiah Hall of the LEPD. He’s not really my uncle by blood, but I consider him to be one. Did more than a father could to take care of me.”

“Erind?” Tower Cop leaned down to examine me, scratching his stubble. “Familiar name. She was present during the Adumbrae attack.”

I glared at Ramello, wanting him to squirm in his lie. This confirmed that he had told his uncle about me.

Ramello coughed to clear his throat. “Ye-yeah. That’s why I asked her to attend the memorial service.”

Tower Cop said, “We need every eyewitness statement we can get.”

“Um, I don’t think I witnessed anything, sir,” I said. My danger senses were tingling. “I was going to the subway station when I saw people running. I’m lucky I didn’t see any Adumbrae.”

“Are you sure?” He squinted his eyes as he examined my face. “Your face looks familiar.”

“Familiar?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

He stood straight. “Yes, I’ve seen you before. But where? A CCTV footage… A dashcam video… Might’ve flagged you as a person of interest. You were present during the attack.”

Person of interest? I almost punched Tower Cop’s head right off right then and there. I stopped myself, ending up with an awkward fidget.

How should I react? Very possible that a camera caught me near an Adumbrae.

Play innocent. I shouldn’t give him any reason to check the videos again. “Probably just someone who looked like me, sir.” Just that. Nothing more. I was tempted to say I hadn’t gone down to the subway station, but that might prompt him to verify my alibi. Plus, the more I talked, the more I seemed to care.

“What are you saying, uncle?” Ramello asked. “I’m guessing you’ve seen Erind in one video, and she looked like someone else in another video.”

“That’s possible.” Tower Cop was still looking at me.

I had to distract him so he wouldn’t make a mental note to verify my check face later. “Sir, how goes the investigation about the three Adumbrae? I’m very scared of another attack.”

“You should be. I reckon there were four Adumbrae present. We only killed three.”