-Prologue

Noise is what seemed to be always waking her up these days. Slowly she rolled over from her bed and put her feet on the cold hardwood. Her baby was crying again. It seemed that every night she was being woken up by her child's screams. She only wished that she could get a decent night's sleep. Not tonight either.

As she made her way downstairs to the baby's room, she rubbed at her eyes to stay awake. She probably looked awful. Her work load was slipping. She couldn't wait for her little boy to grow up a little. She remembered her friends talk about their experiences raising a kid.

'You won't sleep for a year' they said.

It would have been so much easier if he was still around. She wondered if he would ever come back

As she flipped on the lights to the baby's room, it seemed to screech louder as it kicked and fidgeted. She moved faster to the crib, scooping up the small child

"shhhhhh. Shhhhh. Mommies here. It's ok. It's ok baby…"

The child just continued to cry and shake. She had tried everything to get the child through the night. She had tried feeding it before bed, different methods of sleeping, staying with the child through the night to ensure its safety. She had tried nightlights, stuffed animals, pacifiers…everything. Nothing seemed to work.

She tried again as she sat down in her rocking chair, gently rocking with her baby in her arms. She moved slowly, patiently with her child as she rocked. She needed to be patient. But patience too wears off in a situation under this much stress.

Stress was soon replaced with anger. She just wanted the child to be quiet and go to sleep. So, in desperation, she turned to the one thing she knew would work.

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout…"

The crying ceased almost instantly and the child looked up to its mother with its large eyes, gripping onto the hem of her nightgown, holding on, practically begging for more. She smiled down at her child and gently ran her fingers across his head

"Down came the rain and washed the spider out…"

The child's eyes grew heavy and it closed them, curling into its mother and pressing its head to her

"Out came the sun and dried up all the rain…"

The child was asleep just as fast as it had woken up. She didn't know what it was about this song that stirred the baby so. She had never seen such a reaction in any movie on the internet or any book or any other parent. Just hers. Just her little boy. She set the baby down in the crib gently, pulling the blankets over it.

"And the itsy bitsy spider…walked up the spout again…"

-Chapter 1

Case 463: -2 hours

Dreams, on the rare occasion that he received any, were a thing he clung to desperately. Something, anything, to escape the real world to a plane where he had complete control, should he remember how to control it and realize it was a dream before waking from it. This time he was more fortunate to remember and twisted it to his wishes for the simple dream he desired.

He walked along the beach wearing only his black and red swim trunks, the ones he had bought a few months prior at the mall while he was shopping for dinner. He liked those swim trunks. And it was a shame he hadn't been able to wear them yet. Or even go to the beach for that matter...

He walked along the sand, holding a mint chocolate ice cream cone in his hand, licking what ran down the cone and onto his fingers. Nothing ever tasted real in a dream. He pushed the realization asside, knowing if he focused too much on the not real then he would awaken. He heard her giggle beside him and he turned his head to look at her. He smiled at the girl beside him, noticing her slender fingers and arm wrapped around his waist. Her hands were warm and soft. He smiled at her and leaned over, kissing her forehead. The girl, shorter than he was, black hair down to the small of her back, wearing a slightly more revealing that neccessary swimsuit, giggled again and leaned her head over, resting it on his shoulder. He had his arm around her and pulled her a little closer as they walked. It was warm outside.

He noticed her chocolate ice cream was dripping from her cone as well which ran down her fingers and onto the sand. She didn't seem to care.

"You better eat that before it melts"

He could feel her smile in his shoulder and she brought it up to her mouth, licking at it. She seemed happy enough, and so he in turn was happy.

There were so few specifics he could make out from the dream, and it only made him fear deep down inside of him that he would awaken and lose the dream. But the acknowledgement of the fear only made it worse. He didn't want to leave yet. He was happy. For a brief moment he was actually happy. Happy with the setting, happy with the girl, happy with the tasteless ice cream, and even happy with the fact that it was only a dream.

But all good things had to come to an end. And when it began to get foggy, he felt a pang of disappointment and even a dash of sorrow rush through him as the girl stepped from him, disappearing in a wisp of grey smoke. He sighed and stopped walking along the now cold sand and turned his gaze to the watery horizon, his eyes dancing upon the details as the water rose from the ocean and blew away like leaves. The sun grew more and more distant until it was nothing more than a star in the black sky. He was alone on the beach, now his own little six by six patch of nothing. Nothing existed past that patch of sand he stood on.

He was still dreaming, but now there was only so much he could change . He leaned down, tying up one of his shoes, pulling the black laces tight in a bow. As he stood up, he adjusted his dark blue tie. No little gold chain on it this time. He turned his hands upward, gripping the sleeves of his suit jacket and pulling them down to straighten them. He liked this suit. He ran a hand through his black hair and shook it out, his hair in that in between spot between needing a haircut and too long. He was ready for what came next. And he had been having such a good time…

He waited to hear the growl. The deep throaty sound of the animal that stood behind him echoed in the blackness. Always there. Always watching. He was always watching. He didn't turn around as the footsteps approached him, feeling the sand beneath his shoes shift to accommodate the animal behind him. He could feel the beast's presence towering over him. He could feel the hot lingering breath brush against the back of the neck. He wasn't scared. How could he be? He had been here so many times before.

The sound of metal on metal cut through the silence between the two of them as its weapon was drawn from its sheath. The tip of the thick blade came down alongside his left shoulder just barely avoiding contact with the sleeve of his jacket. He could see himself in the reflection of the shiny blade as it came to rest alongside his arm and hand. The creature behind him took in a deep breath and just as sound came from it, just as the roar was about to leave its jaws, he felt a shake inside of him as he fought to suppress the animals roar boiling up inside him.

His eyes opened quickly and he pushed himself away from his window seat to sit upright. His eyes moved from side to side in panic, taking in his surroundings having completely forgotten where he was. He was alone. He glanced into the next cart of the train. No one. He glanced into the cart behind him. A few people. Man. woman. Two children. He couldn't see a ring on the woman's hand. They were the man's children. He shook his head and sat back upright in his seat. Only then did he realize his breathing was erratic. He took deep breaths trying to calm himself. His chest hurt and he leaned his head back against his seat, trying to calm down and calm his furiously beating heart.

He rubbed at the spot in his chest that hurt, sighing as he took big gulps of air to calm down. And eventually he did. He let out his breaths slowly. If he smoked, now would be the time he wanted one the most. He turned his head slowly; letting it fall to one side as he looked out the window, hand still on his chest rubbing.

It was beautiful outside the train. And even though he was still a little shaken, he smiled watching the trees wiz past the glass along with tall grass and small houses. The country. A far simpler life. Sometimes, even places time had forgotten entirely.

His smile faded quickly when he heard the growl again and he chewed his tongue a bit before responding.

"You couldn't let me get just a few hours of sleep, could you?"

He was angry, but at the same time, he trusted the voice in his head with his life. He would get over it.

"I was having a good dream"

The growl responded again in his mind as he leaned forward, to hold his head and run his hands along his face trying to wipe away the sleep. He was exhausted. And the time change between here and home was ridiculous. He had been hoping for at least two days to get over his jet lag, but he supposed this was one of those times where not sleeping was a gift rather than a curse when switching between such drastic time zones.

He opened his eyes from between his fingers. His shoe was untied. He sighed and reached down, tying it in its tight bow. He looked down at his tie. Good. The small gold chain was there.

He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. The low constant growl in his ears would keep him awake, but at least he could get a cat nap in before his stop.

"Attention all passengers, attention all passengers: Next stop, Yasoinaba station. Next stop, Yasoinaba station"

"Damn it"

He sighed and stretched out his arms and legs before he stood up. He had been sitting for hours. He wanted nothing more than to get to his place and fall down on his bed and go to sleep. But he knew that it wasn't meant to be. He wouldn't fall asleep anyway. Not with the growling. But he was hungry. Maybe he could convince his co-worker to get something to eat if he paid. He reached up above him to his bags, pulling down his suitcase and the case for his violin. He got down on his knees by his seat and cracked the case. It was fine. A flood of relief ran through him before snapping the case shut again and getting up.

There seemed to be more people on the train now. When had they been there? Had they always been there? He thought not. But perhaps in his sleep induced and panic struck stupor he had missed them when he had looked around. He was content with that answer. He could count maybe twelve that were getting off. Several families no doubt coming back from a small weekend trip to the city and a few business men of various skill sets in their jobs based on their shoes. One scraggly looking, un-kept man with a gold watch caught his eye as he took down his bags. The man looked more exhausted than he did. Nice watch. He followed the small crowd as they made their way to the appropriate doors to exit the train as it came to its screeing gentle stop.

As he stepped off the train and made his way through the small terminal, he glanced about looking for his handler. He couldn't see them. He expected the Inaba police to be more punctual than this. Then again, this wasn't the city. But in his mind he put the detective on a higher place and had expected them to be on time if not early. Was the detective waiting outside?

"Sebastian Chastity?"

His name twitched his ears as he turned in the direction of it. The voice, quiet and smooth yet authoritative.

"Are you detective Chastity?"

The voice came from near the exit of the terminal and he followed his name. The English was superb for this deep into the country. Signs of a rather intelligent being. His hopes were not dashed for the detective.

When he finally saw his handler he threw away all previous notions of the tardiness of both the police department and the detective and gave them a clean slate in his head. The detective had been there then entire time out of the way of the crowd, hidden in the shadows of the terminal. The scraggly man with the gold watch was standing in front of who he assumed was his handler, suitcase in hand.

The man's hair was black and un-kept. It looked a little greasy. His grey suit, which was cheap and hideous, was wrinkled and stained in several places. The buttons were in their wrong place making the suit look uneven. His suitcase was thick plastic and had articles of clothing hanging out from it. Several pieces of paper stuck from it as well. Work and clothing in the same bag. The man kept pushing his glasses back onto his face. A representation of his lack of care or funding to purchase proper prescription glasses being evident. He deduced: no doubt outside of his work healthcare budget. If there was ever a man to represent a stereotype of stress, lack of professionalism, rushed, and straining, in the world, this was the man. He was sweating too.

The very idea that the detective would believe that this…husk…was him was almost a little hurtful. His employer had faxed his information to the Inaba police department five days ago. Did he not fax a picture? Or even e-mail one? It was 2014! How hard was it to attach a picture of him to an e-mail? Or perhaps it was scrambled like every other photo...

He was a little surprised he was getting angry over this and decided to simply swallow it to let the anger burn in his stomach.

The man waved off the detective as he walked by, dismissing the misguided claim.

As he approached, he took the detective in, opening a new folder in his mind specifically for his handler. The detective wore a dark blue overcoat that covered most of their body with black slacks and a black dress shirt underneath the jacket with white ribbon around the neck. A bit more of an un-necessary aesthetic choice, but he had his gold chain on his tie so he wasn't one to complain. Black boots on their feet. They looked expensive. Good. The detective had taste. Finally, atop their head rested a blue hat almost like a signature to the piece. Nice hat. The detective wore black gloves pulled back tight. He noticed the damage around the wrists of the gloved. They were pulled often. The detective wore a slender black watch around the right wrist. It too looked expensive. The detective looked good.

The detective checked the time. Then again. Then a third time. He finally called out as he approached, weaving his way through the small crowd not wanting to touch anyone. And as he approached, the constant growling in his head that kept him awake, the growl that prevented him from sleeping and always spoke outright and guided him through his hardships and troubled times… grew silent and faded away. For a moment, he felt so alone in the world and was awestruck at the event. The creature from his dreams and nightmares had grown quiet. Why? He felt…hollow. And at the same time, he felt so tired, like he could have passed out right there on the stone of the train terminal. He even felt his legs start to shake slightly and he bit down hard on his tongue to prevent himself from faltering as he moved.

"What is it?"

There came no response. No growl or jaw snap or snarl or words of any kind. Silence. He stopped for a moment and spoke again.

"Don't disappear on me now. What's wrong?"

He tried to focus, now in a slight state of panic. He didn't have time for this. This was entirely unprofessional. He could hear it breathing. He could hear the creature inside of him breathing quietly in the blackness of his mind. He could feel it shying away.

"Fine. Be that way. But if you cause any problems then I'm not eating breakfast tomorrow. Understand?"

In the back of his mind he heard the faintest growl before silence resumed. It was strange being inside his head again with no one there to listen into his thoughts or ideas without retort or comment or praise. A little liberating even. At the same time, wrong. He cleared his throat and bit his tongue again to get himself moving.

"Detective!"

He cleared his throat before speaking again.

"Detective Shirogane?"

As the figure turned to look at him, he gave a small smile and bent his knees to place his suitcase and violin case on the ground. Hands by his sides, he bowed his head.

"It is an honor to meet you in person, Detective"

Before he even leaned up, three little words flooded into his mind.

'Case 463: Start.'