asked.
"I will, and I do," William said, knowing the Gerald would do what was best for the pride.
*******
A lison watched as the three scientists walked past, ignoring her where sat behind the desk at reception. It was typical for them to treat her like furniture unless they wanted something. Without a word the men used their passkeys to open the secured doors and exit the complex where she worked.
She had started the job over a year ago but still had no idea what exactly happened behind the closed doors she guarded. She had assumed that the reception job would involve taking phone calls and routing people to where they needed to go in the complex but soon learned otherwise. After a few days it became apparent that there wouldn't be any visitors, no phone calls, just the steady flow of researchers inside in the morning and out in the evening.
It amazed her that she could spend five days a week doing nothing but sitting at her desk and browsing Facebook. It was like the job was just there for her because they wanted to look like a real business. She figured the thought process was that if they were legitimate, they would have a secretary, so they had one sitting right out front. Camouflage in the urban jungle.
She had once entertained the fantasy that the complex was a front for a mob family, a phony business to launder cash somehow. She knew it was impossible, the scientists were clearly what they appeared to be, too thick of glasses and too thin on style to be mobsters. It was much more likely that the people who ran this place had corporate secrets to keep and that was almost as scary as gangsters.
The most exciting thing to ever happen occurred just a few days ago. Alison had been sitting at her desk like every day, shopping online. Suddenly she had heard a slam at the security doors. When she looked up she saw that two of the scientists had a large bag, strapped to a table on wheels. They had banged it into the wall in the rush to get it inside and had fumbled with their pass key badges when opening the doors. They didn't even look at Alison was they rolled past on the way into the complex.
Alison had a suspicion that the bag might be something illegal and it was shaped an awful lot like a person but knew better than to ask about it. She wouldn't have been told anything anyway and it might cost her the job. She rationalized that there was no possible way it could be a body, and that her fantasies were just running from her away again. It was still fun to imagine that there was a something clandestine going on behind the scenes.
Even now, days later, she remembered it and wondered if she would ever see the long bag being transported the other way out of the building. If it had been removed already, it must have been done late at night when she wasn't working because she hadn’t seen anything. Either way, she was in the dark about it and knew it would probably never affect her personally. She returned her attention to computer, reading an article about cooking with basil.
She sighed and wished something exciting would happen to her, instead of just being the one watching it pass by in front of her face.
*******
G erald and William crouched on the roof of Alison's building. William had summoned him and he had raced across the rooftops, bounding from one to another easily as he used his cat like reflexes and muscles. In the dark, no creature was his equal. As coordinated as a jaguar, as smart as any man, and as powerful as a lion he had raced to his brother.
William extended the scrap of fur he had found, some bloody skin still attached. Gerald sniffed it and let out a low, menacing grow. He knew in his heart that nothing good could come of this.
"It's Samuel's skin," Gerald said and William nodded.
"I found it wrapped in plastic in the garbage of this building," William told him. "I could smell it as I passed."
"Thank you for bringing me here, you
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