| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! Where am I going to find Monkey for her?”
Fabien put a reassuring hand on Owodog’s shoulder. “Like you always say, don’t treat any case as a personal case. Every case is work, the burden is not only yours to bear,” Fabien said, then sighed. “Alternatively, you could go back and tell Matt or whoever that you’ve decided that you cannot handle the case after all and let him dispatch another team to work on it.”
“No! I can’t! I was the one who stopped him from removing me from the case! How would I look if I went back to him and said I can’t do it?”
“You’d be a detective who had done your best but since the victims and all are all personally related to you, it’s hard to completely detach yourself from them and think properly.”
Owodog grudgingly downed a glass of fruit punch. Fabien had stopped him from drinking beer and so he had to make do with whatever was at hand. “I can’t… I won’t give up. If it’s important to Ash, it’s important to me as well and I will get this case solved.” Owodog said the last few words with much gusto.
Fabien patted him on the back. “You know you have my support. Just inform me if you need any help or moral support.”
Owodog narrowed his eyes at Fabien. “You,” he started, “are going to give me moral support all the way regardless of whether I need it or not.”
Fabien laughed. “All right, bud! You said it!”
Owodog lifted his refilled glass of fruit punch to Fabien. “To success!”
Fabien clinked his glass against Owodog’s. “To success.”
Then both of them emptied their glasses.
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Kale wasn’t happy. He had left Richard Xie’s apartment without completing what he had to do. The cat, he could not find the cat. And he was angry with himself for not being able to mutilate him horribly like he did to the dog. He knew it was Ashley’s cat but he wanted to destroy him so he would no longer be of importance to her and Kale’s position in her heart and mind would occupy a bigger space.
The fleet-footed cat had streaked out of sight when he was dealing with the dog. And he couldn’t find him after he was done with the dog. Or at least, when he thought he was done with her. He wasn’t sure if she had died, but that wasn’t his main concern. He just wanted to maim her and made her suffer. She wasn’t moving when he last left her.
But the cat… The cat had been of higher importance to him. If only he had been quicker and more agile, he would have gotten the cat. Then he wouldn’t be a threat to him anymore. Now he still lived and continued to obstruct Kale’s way. It made Kale feel like he was becoming incompetent because he was complacent and inefficient. That didn’t make him feel good one bit.
He had got Richard Xie temporarily kept in a safe place now, and that lifted his spirits a little. Of course, he would make the trip to get rid of Richard Xie personally but for the time being, he was fine with where he was. His arrangements were looking to be fine, as always. He needed to confirm some matters with his associates elsewhere and that was what he was going to do when he reached home. Then he could take the rest of the day off and continue his work the next day.
He had not planned to get rid of Richard Xie initially. But as time grew by, Kale got more and more irritated by the fact that there was still such a big obstacle in front of him. Impatience was hardly a virtue but Kale was running out of patience. Eventually he made the decision to free himself of this huge hindrance. And he knew it would pay off.
Kale smiled as he made the drive home. Hell, he could even whistle and sing along to his favourite songs! Of course, that was if he only thought of the happy things and didn’t harp on the unhappy ones.
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The next day Owodog woke up before his alarm went off. He immediately thought of Ashley but decided it was too early to call her. He would drop by her apartment before work. That was when he realized that none of them had thought of the problem of Ashley living in her own apartment. It wouldn’t have been a problem but seeing as her stalker obviously knew where she lived and could even get in easily, Owodog wasn’t sure if they should allow her to continue living there. Besides, Monkey’s apartment was next to hers and he knew that wouldn’t do her much good.
He put on the coffee in the kitchen and headed to the bathroom.
Wiping away the minuscule water droplets that had condensed on the mirror when he was in the shower, Owodog examined his reflection. To his surprise, he was looking rather good. He had thought the slew of incidents that had occurred lately would leave him looking like a dishevelled old man. But the stubble on his chin only added to his manliness. His hair was growing too long but it was still manageable. At least he didn’t have any eye bags or dark eye circles.
He grabbed a clean towel from the rack and proceeded to dry himself quickly.
He had looked good enough; but he didn’t have a life to show it off.
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Owodog rapped on Ashley’s door impatiently. He had been knocking for five minutes but Ashley still hadn’t come to the door. “Ash! Ash, open up! It’s me, Ao Quan!” He was saying that for the umpteenth time.
Then suddenly he heard a faint mewing coming from behind the door, then a scratching sound. It was followed by silence, then there came the sound of a bolt being unshackled. A moment later, the cat flap was pushed open a little and Sam peeked out cautiously.
“Sam!” Owodog said upon seeing him and squatted down. “Sam, you know me, don’t you? I know you don’t like me, but let me in please.”
Sam was planning to let Owodog in whether or not he said that. The cat flap closed for a while then Sam reappeared again, his sharp teeth clamping a bunch of keys. He waited for Owodog to stretch out his palm, then dropped the keys into it.
With the keys, Owodog hastily unlocked the wrought iron gate and the door to let himself in. Once inside, he made sure he relocked the gate and the door before he went around to look for Ashley. Sam stopped him though and Owodog took a while to understand that he wanted Owodog to bolt back the cat flap for him.
Owodog did so and ruffled Sam behind the ears. “You’re a clever cat, aren’t you? Glad I found you.”
Sam seemed to start to think so too, as he began to have renewed interest in this dog he never liked. He mewed and followed Owodog to Ashley’s room.
When Owodog found Ashley, she was hidden in the covers, curled up like a foetus. She looked okay on the surface, but when Owodog reached out tentatively to touch her, the heat scared him.
“Ash?” Owodog tried again but Ashley still didn’t react. “Oh God, we need to get you to a doctor,” He said to himself as he plucked the covers off her. He mentally assessed her state of dress and decided he couldn’t bring her anywhere out of the house like that. Ashley was, as usual, wearing only a big tee that belonged to Monkey and had Monkey all over it, which constantly reminded her of his absence.
Under Sam’s watchful eyes, Owodog grabbed a pair of comfortable track pants from Ashley’s wardrobe and a warm-looking jacket that hung from a hook on the wall. Feeling nothing except an urgency to get Ashley to the doctor’s, Owodog purposefully got about pulling the track pants up Ashley’s bare legs. He let her head lie on his shoulders as he tugged the waistband of the pants up to where it ought to be. He could feel the light press of her breasts on his chest and struggled to push that thought out of his mind.
Quickly, he sat her back down on the bed and put the jacket on for her. He zipped it almost all the way to the top. Then he slid a hand under her knees and another below her back and lifted her up.
He had almost left the apartment when he remembered Sam. And he didn’t feel he should leave Sam alone, for nobody knew if Ashley’s crazy stalker might be back to hurt Sam. Hoping Sam would understand and obey him, Owodog said, “Sam, just follow me, okay?”
Sam had trailed him out of the apartment which Owodog had locked up again even though he knew the stalker had the means to get in easily.
Fortunately for Sam, and Owodog, Sam followed him obediently right into his car. Owodog reclined the passenger seat to a small angle after he placed Ashley in it. Sam had hopped in and Owodog shut the door. He hurriedly went to his side and started the engine. In a moment he was off.
Sam nervously pawed Ashley’s face as Owodog drove. His constant mewling did not irritate Owodog; in fact, it only made him all the more worried. Owodog stepped on the accelerator.
When Owodog carried Ashley into the small clinic that belonged to the company doctor, it was thankfully empty so the doctor could tend to her immediately.
“Hey Doc,” Owodog greeted the middle-aged man as he carefully put Ashley down.
“Hi Owodog, what’s happened to Ashley?” Doctor Heen asked as he put on a stethoscope to examine his first patient of the day.
“I don’t know. I found her like that this morning, and she was scalding.”
The doctor had just taken Ashley’s temperature and he raised his brows comically. “39.7˚, that’s high!”
“Yeah, I know,” Owodog sighed.
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Owodog contemplated the few choices he had. He didn’t think it would be safe to take Ashley back to her apartment. She would be too sick to fend for herself if anything were to happen. And in any case, she was already too sick to take care of herself even if nothing happens. Therefore, one, he could bring her back to the office where she would definitely be safe but might not be able to get much rest. Two, he could leave her at his home. But that posed the threat that her stalker might pay a visit to his apartment because he knew Owodog’s connection with Ashley. Three… There was always Fabien.
Owodog clipped on the mouthpiece of his hands-free to his shirt and slotted the earphone into his right ear. Then he revved up the engine and left the doctor’s.
Fabien answered on the fifth ring. “Hello?” His voice was dry and hoarse, like he had just woken up.
“Yu!”
“Fuck you, Quan. Must you wake me up so early?”
“It’s almost ten, for heaven’s sake. It isn’t early anymore.”
“Alright, fine. Whatever. Fuck you for waking me up when I could have slept longer on my off-day then.”
“Okay, SORRY. I have important things to tell you.”
“What important things do you have to tell me that you haven’t already told me yesterday?”
“Okay, look, listen and don’t freak out.”
“Just cut the crap, will you?”
“I need you to put Ashley up at your place.”
“Is this one of your jokes again?”
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Fabien had gone along with Owodog’s plan and made some huge detours after they moved Ashley to his car discreetly. Now he was slowly making his way back home with Ashley safely strapped in in his passenger seat. Owodog should be at his place by then. Actually, they did not need to stage this show for Kale to mislead him, because he wasn’t on Ashley’s trail today. Kale was busy with other things.
Fabien swerved into the car park and pulled up in an empty lot. Releasing his own seat belt, he leaned across to Ashley.
“Hey Ash. Ash?” Fabien tapped her arm gently.
Ashley opened an eye unwillingly. “What am I doing here?”
“We’ll explain when we get up to my place.”
“We?” Ashley echoed weakly.
Fabien did not hear it, for he had already gotten out of the car and was walking to Ashley’s side. He opened the door for her and stuck his head in. “Can you walk?”
Ashley nodded and hoped her legs still had enough strength. Surprisingly, they did. But she was feeling light-headed and she felt as if her legs didn’t belong to her. They started to ache as she stepped out onto the tarred ground.
Fabien held her steady as he shut the door and locked his car. Slowly, they made their way to the lift lobby.
When they finally reached Fabien’s apartment, Ashley made a beeline towards the couch. Owodog held out a hot dog to her as he placed a glass of water in front of her together with the medicine Doctor Heen had prescribed. Sam finally stopped following Owodog about and went to sit next to Ashley.
Ashley took the hot dog gratefully and started to bite into it while stroking Sam’s fur absent-mindedly. “You’re part of the ‘we’ Yu was referring to?”
Owodog nodded. “I have a lot of things to tell you.”
Ashley sighed. “Go on.”
Meanwhile, Fabien had made himself comfortable in a furry beanbag and was listening intently to their conversation.
“Okay, would you like the bad news or the not-so-bad news first?”
“The bad news.” Ashley replied without a moment’s hesitation. If anything happened to Monkey or Luna, she wanted to know right away.
“The vet called last night while you were asleep. I called him back just now. Luna… could not be saved.”
Strangely enough, Ashley just nodded as she continued to eat her hot dog. Owodog and Fabien exchanged nervous glances.
“Stop giving each other funny looks. I’m fine. I already knew Luna didn’t stand a high chance of surviving. You’d know if you saw her yesterday…” Ashley said, her voice still weak but calm. “What about the not-so-bad news?”
“The not-so-bad news is,” Owodog looked at Fabien, then reverted his gaze back to Ashley, “I have made the choice for you to stay here for the time being.”
“What?” Ashley blurted out. “What do you mean?”
“Question,” Owodog started, “Are you feeling unwell now?”
Ashley nodded hesitantly.
“Another question,” Owodog said, “Do you think your apartment’s safe?”
Ashley shook her head slowly.
“One more question,” Owodog stated, “Do you think I’ll let you live alone while you’re ill and your apartment’s not safe?”
Ashley shook her head again. At that moment she had just finished her hot dog. Owodog gestured to the pills sitting neatly on the table and made sure Ashley took the correct dosage of everything before the conversation was resumed. This time Ashley spoke first.
“So you chose Yu’s because mine’s unsafe, yours might possibly be watched by my stalker who will definitely know who you are and because I have not seen Yu for some time, he won’t know Yu thus Yu’s apartment is safe.”
Owodog nodded. “I see your detective brain hasn’t been damaged by your fever.”
“I’ll be fine soon,” Ashley snapped. “Probably too many things happened in a day yesterday…” Her voice trailed off.
And Owodog and Fabien knew she was thinking of Monkey.
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->shuang.dao
i'll be updating less frequently now... maybe once a week or so. (: i'm planning 12 to 16 chapters for this story. :D so just stay tuned. love y'all.