It's not what you know, but who you know.. [Abby]

[rob]

If someone would have told him that he would be waiting in a park at midnight to see some young girl a week ago, he would have called them a liar and then tortured them for a while. This girl, however, had something different. Something strong. She just might be able to help him in the future and anyone who had a brain knew that favors were the currency of the underground. Money could get you a lot, but there were some things that it could just not buy; despite his best attempts to do so. His maladies were something that modern medicine could not even begin to answer. Most people that held the keys to his problem would never even set foot in the same room as he, though that was mostly because they could feel what he was. This girl needed help and he could use her.

Sitting on a park bench near the middle of the park at almost midnight was the pits. All King could do was sit there in his jacket and smoke a cigarette as he waited. She wanted information and he was happy to oblige for the right price. He had already called her and let her know that he had found out some information about her mother. All she had to do was come and meet him about it.

Next to him on the bench was a small envelope that had a few papers sticking out. Namely some records of credit card usage, I.D. claims and even a couple of bills that had been addressed to her. None of it was really anything that he cared about, but it was all proof that her mother was alive. Either that or someone was going to great lengths to be just like her. Regardless, he was certain that she would want to know all of it. Now was the time to wait.

[Abigail Sykes]

The park was so quiet this time of night it was hard for Abby to imagine that during the day people came here with their families to play and have picnics. The only sign of life at midnight were the sounds of crickets playing music into the air, with the croaks from frogs acting as the harmonies. Her steps were slow and she rubbed her bare arms. She had settled for just tank top and a pair of jeans, foregoing the jacket. Her fingers moved up towards the risen claw marks and a chill settled down her spine.

It wasn’t the fact that she was meeting a man she’d never met in her person in the middle of the night. It wasn’t the fact that his name was only whispered among people who had no idea who he really was. The vibe Abby had gotten was that he was discreet. If you needed something he was able to find it. After going through numerous channels she had finally gotten in touch with him, though this would be their first face to face meeting.

None of that bothered her though. What bothered her was what he may have found. She had come to him wanting information on her mother. The woman who had left Abby when she was eight and who never bothered to call or write. This was the same woman who had left her with an abusive father who took joy in beating Abby within an inch of her life as often as he could. Why did Abby even want to find her mother?

That was a question that Abby often mused over, often arguing with herself. In the end know she wanted to know. Did her mother have a new family? Had she married someone else? Abby couldn’t remember any abuse before her mother left, but maybe that’s why she had left, and not having his normal punching bag, her father turned to Abby. If that were true though why didn’t she take Abby with her? Was she even still alive?

If she was, what then? Abby didn’t know. She didn’t know if she would see her mother, or even try to get into contact with her. She wanted to know why her mother had left, but what would cost her? How much pain would she have to go through to get answers? Abby had enough emotional and physical pain to last a life time.

Yet Abby was putting herself at risk. She knew that. Not having much money she was bartering with the only thing she did have. Her ability to heal people. It wasn’t easy for her to offer that up. She hated to heal someone unless it was absolutely necessary. It was draining and she often found herself sleeping, trapped in nightmares and vulnerable to any form of attack until she woke. Was her mother really worth all of this?

Shaking it off, Abby squared her shoulders and picked up her pace. She pushed down the fear with anger instead. Anger at her mother for abandoning her for whatever reason. Anger at her father for putting Abby through hell for almost a decade. She took that anger and let it rush through her, fuel her and walked over to the bench wear she saw a man sitting.

“King?” She asked, feeling a bit awkward using the name. Abby felt like she should be bowing down to him or requesting an audience. She would do neither. “I think you have something for me.”

[rob]

"So you're finally here." King mumbled under his breath, probably just barely loud enough for her to hear him. It was true that this was their first face to face meeting, but it would have been the second time they actually spoke. The first time was when she managed to contact and offer him the proposal. Business was not something that he took lightly, especially with people that were influenced by otherworldly events. This woman, as he was beginning to find out, could have been one such person. While he was busy investigating her mother, he was also busy investigating her and her past.

It had not taken him long to dig up information. It had been some interesting pieces of information, to say the least. He had learned about her abusive father and the way that her mother had left them, but there was so much more past that. The problem areas had been actually extracting information about her mother. This was not as easy to come by. A lot of people had believed her dead, at least that was the feeling he got. Identity theft was common too, but something about this told him that this really was the woman.

King had no pictures of her, that would have to come later as it had not been very long, but this information was part of what the girl wanted to know. Her mother, or at least someone with her identity, was alive. If it really was her mother, she had gone to great lengths to hide herself from prying eyes. If it was not, well, they were about to find themselves in a serious world of trouble for picking up the wrong stolen identification.

"That's right. I'm pretty sure you'll want to see this. It's why I called." King shrugged his shoulders and picked up the envelope with one hand, holding it out to her. The lip was tied down by string and it seemed plain in every way, but the information that was inside it would have been fairly drastic for someone that had never read it and was looking for this woman. It was not his job to prepare the girl for whatever emotional trauma hit her, nor did he even care.

As he handed it to her, he stood up and flicked some of the ashes off of his cigarette before taking another long puff. Letting the smoke drift in rings from his lips, he finally dropped the finished butt to the ground and stepped on it, making sure it was out. Now there was very little light in the area, only the moonlight, which seemed to be completely visible from their position. It was enough to read the contents of what he handed her.

The entire place seemed off, though. Even to King. It was strategically placed in the park where he had wanted to meet because of the lack of light, but he had busted out the only one that was actually within range. In his mind, someone had been following him all day. The problem with that was that he knew he was extremely paranoid and that most of the time these things were nothing more than shadows or hallucinations. It was hard to tell when things were real and when they were not, but King was not the type to take the chance. If someone was going to show up, they were going to have a very bad day.

"I've still got more work to do, but that's what I've got for now. Coming to me, I felt that you had a sense of urgency to this, or at least desperation. That's good for business." He shrugged his shoulders and glanced around, keeping his eyes focused on the areas behind her. Maybe, just maybe, someone had followed her there instead. No, there was no reason that someone would follow her there, at least not from what he had seen. She was a stripper, so unless it was some sort of stalker, the chances for that were low. On the other hand, there were some very interesting leads regarding her mother.

"Look through it all. Tell me what you think. Might help if you get anything from it." King glanced at her and took a light breath, sliding his hands into his pockets. What she wanted to do now would be up to her.

[Abigail Sykes]

Abby snorted at King’s slight. He was definitely honest, which was refreshing. She didn’t come to him for fairy tales and lullabies. Abby wanted answers, no matter how ruthlessly devastating it might be, and she didn’t want someone patting her on the shoulder telling her it would be all right. Abby learned a long time ago that nothing was ever all right.

The constant reminder was in the form of two thin white scars, one on each wrist. It had been a sound plan, one that would have worked if it hadn’t been for Cheveyo. That had been the first time she met him, when she had been so close to death. He had helped to heal her enough to where she would survive, against her will. She had been tired of nothing being all right. Hell she still was, but trying to kill herself again would be pointless. Cheveyo would just bring her back from the edge again.

So, if Abby couldn’t escape, she’d just press forward. There was nothing else to do. Technically by looking for her mother she was probably taking ten steps back. Not that she’d taken that many forward to begin with, so she was actually falling farther back than from where she started. Still there was one thing she’d never let herself be.

“I’m not desperate.” She said it low, her gaze still stuck on the envelope. Okay so it probably didn’t sound very convincing to him, but Abby didn’t really give a damn. Abby was nothing to him and he was nothing to Abby. This was strictly business. No emotional exchange needed and that was just the way she liked it.

Taking the envelope from King she sat down on the bench. She looked at it for a few moments, just staring at it. Did she really want to go through with it? If she called it off now she’d still be indebted to King. With a soft sigh she began going through it’s contents.

King was right, there wasn’t much in the envelope. Just a name Anna Sungti. It was attached to recently used credit cards and a few bills. They were scattered in area. Her mother was moving around, just like Abby had been doing for the last decade. Anna was staying in one place for long, not if the few tidbits King had found said anything. Why? Abby didn’t stay in one place for too long because it meant possibly getting close to people. Why was her mother running?

“This is it?” She asked him. “This is all you have?”

Abby hadn’t expected to be anxious for more information. Yet suddenly she wanted to know more. Standing up she started pacing. “I mean this is someone using her name. There’s no photos, I mean what if this is someone else with same name?” She rolled her eyes. “Okay so two Anna Sungti’s is highly unlikely, but it is possible!” She stopped pacing and turned to look at him, once again letting her anger wash over her. “I thought you were the best!” She tossed the envelope back on the bench. “This is not worth me healing anyone.” She looked him up and down. “Seems like the myth is more than the man.”

Turning to walk away, Abby heard a shot ring out. She hit the ground, barely realizing that there was a searing pain in her side. She looked into the darkness, her gaze going towards the area the shot came from. It was too dark to see anything. Getting up and trying to make a run for it would just give them a clear shot.

Looking down she saw blood seeping from her side. She clenched her jaw in anger and pain. Two inches to the left and it would have been a flesh wound. Where it did go through it wasn’t life threatening, well not unless she bled to death. It did however hurt like hell.

She glared at King. “This is so not worth the information you got me.”

[rob]

"Uh-huh." Came the immediate response from King. She sounded desperate and he would have bet that if he looked directly into her eyes that she would have appeared desperate as well. He could not care either way, to be perfectly honest. As long as she was willing to make good on her end of the deal, that was all that mattered to him. The fact that she was even here meant that she really did want to know. The fact that she had called on him meant that she had no other choice.

"I've got one other thing." King shrugged his shoulders and rummaged around in his pockets. There seemed to be something he kept apart because he knew she was going to react this way. Who wouldn't after all that time away from her mother and wondering if she was even alive. There was a single thing that he had not been sure if she even wanted to know, but seeing as he had the information, he intended to give it to her. This was just the kind of clean-up move that was really typical of him.

King crouched almost immediately as the shot rang out and forgot all about the report he had. The reaction was one that a man who knew all about weapons would have made, as he went down and moved behind the bench. He quickly grabbed the girl and dragged her behind the bench; not because he cared about her, but because he was protecting an investment. If she died now, she was never going to be able to pay him for the services of finding her mother. That would make him grumpy and all of his work for nothing.

"Shut up and lay still. Apply pressure to the wound." King licked his lips and searched the darkness with his eyes, allowing the shades the covered his vision to slide down his nose. His sight, now unobstructed, quickly scanned around them. After a few seconds he nodded and smirked slightly, "Alright, here's the deal."

Taking a deep breath, King pulled the jacket off of his body and laid it over Abby so that she could stay warm. "Don't take that off, don't move around too much. You gonna be alright here, or do I have to carry your ass as I kill this fool?" He tilted his head to the side and gave her a once over, wondering if she had been hit in a vital area or if it had passed right through the meat. Would have been lucky for her if the latter of the two were the case.

"Your mother is mixed up with quite a bit of the wrong people. This is one of them. Probably that human I, uh, interrogated. Right. Interrogated." Having grinned slightly during the choice of phrase, King gave another glance out and found the man's position. Being able to see in the dark had it's advantages.

[Abigail Sykes]

Abby bit her lip to keep from crying out when King pulled her behind the bench. She put her hands over the wound and glared at him when he told her how to treat it. “Gee thanks dad, I was just going to let myself bleed out all over the park.”

Even as she said it her eyes were shifting into the darkness. Abby had no idea who was after them, but since they shot her she figured human, animal, or undead, they weren’t the nicest of people. It wasn’t until King mentioned her mother being mixed up with some bad company that her anger receded a bit. “Well what the hell? That information wasn’t in the envelope!”

Her anger washed back and she wondered why King had decided to keep it from her. She was trading her powers, her energy to a guy who was obviously into playing games. If he was going to be upfront about what she found Abby was seriously considering taking her business elsewhere.

Not to mention the fact that they were now under attack by some guy King had interrogated. Great. Maybe he wasn’t as good as he thought. She was sticking with her theory that the myth was more than the man. If he even was a man. There were too many things that could take on the shape of a human these days.

Despite the pain in her side Abby pushed herself to her knees still holding the wound. She wouldn’t be able to heal it. That was one of the things that sucked about her powers. Besides the fact that healing anyone else would either make her tired or knock her ass out for up to three days, she couldn’t heal herself. It was Cheveyo who did the healing and only if she was near death. While the gunshot wound hurt like a son of a bitch it had been a through and through. If it had hit anything vital she would have known by now. She needed some antiseptic and a few stitches front and back, but she’d survive. That meant a nice, long, slow healing process.

“Wonderful,” She muttered to herself.

Abby moved over so she could see where King was looking. All she saw was dark shadows and ominous look trees and bushes. They hadn’t looked ominous before, but now that someone was shooting from them she felt like she was in a horror movie. “What’s the plan?”

[rob]

"I was wondering if we were being watched. Didn't want to give too much away just in case we were. Seems I was right." King peered out from behind the park bench and another shot rang out, this time it nearly struck him square in the forehead, but he seemed to move faster than the bullet could travel and it whizzed harmlessly through the air above his head. He gave a little grunt and his upper lip twitch, a sure sign that he was agitated by this shooter.

"You need to understand something, girl. These people are not your every day scumbags. Whatever happened, whatever is happening.. this is on them. They won't hesitate to kill you for what you know. If you had gotten anyone else to look into this for you, they would be dead right now and their blood on your hands." King let out a light sigh as he tried to get her to realize the seriousness of the situation. There was a trained shooter out in the darkness with rifle. That shooter had either night vision or some other way of seeing the dark, but regardless; he had the advantage right now.


"Here's the plan." King paused for a moment, "I'm going to bring back our new friend and we're going to question him a little more. I'm certain that he may know more than he told me the first time, or he would not be here trying to kill the both of us." He nodded and then looked back at her, "And for the record, I let him live because I thought he was smarter than this. Survival instinct and all that. It's not every day someone comes back to face death." Shrugging his shoulders, he crouched lower and helped prop her up against the bench.

Another bullet came flying, though this time it went through the bench and wood sprayed everywhere. The girl was safe, for the mean time, and this shooter was seriously beginning to get on his bad side. "Wait here." King whispered and then put on a pair of gloves from his pocket. With the blink of an eye, he was off to an incredible start. His sprinting speed was phenomenal. Normally he would not have revealed himself to someone he had just met, but the problem was that he if he just walked out into the open, he was going to get shot. It would not kill him, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like a bitch. That and ruin a three-thousand dollar tailor-made silk shirt.

Once more, a shot rang out in the night, but it seemed to be no where near the girl. In truth, King had already grabbed the shooter and twisted his arm before he could fire off another round properly. The bullet went into the sky far away from either of them. Having successfully grabbed the man, he rested the rifle over his right shoulder and dragged the poor bastard back in a headlock. When they got back to Abby, he offered her a sarcastic smile and then leaned the rifle down on the bench.

"Here we go." He laughed sadistically and forced the man to the ground before stepping on one of his legs and snapping it just below the knee. "Now you're not going anywhere." The tone of his voice took on one that could almost be described as glee, but was probably closer to that of satisfaction. He then crouched to the ground in front of the man and forced him to look at the girl.

"This is the girl you just shot." He pointed and looked at Abby, "This is the man that I was telling you about. He's a dirty cop. Been covering up after your mother, far as I can tell. Here's the best part. Tell her why, Mr. Police Officer." King pressed some weight down on the broken leg to cause an excruciating amount of pain in an effort to provoke an answer.

For a moment the man stuttered until King moved to the other leg, practically threatening to snap it like he had the other one. He cried out, "Wait!" And King stopped, raising a brow. "It's true. I've been covering for that woman the entire time. She's the suspect in a murder case, the only suspect. Nothing else makes sense." The officer shuddered as pain continued to ripple through his body.

Once this had been announced, King handed Abby the police report he had gotten from the man before. This proved what he was saying was true. The murder victim, in this case, was Abby's father.

[Abigail Sykes]

The sudden urge to punch King overwhelmed Abby after she listened to his long winded monologue. Another shot rang through the air and Abby ducked farther behind the bench. Why the hell was someone shooting at them because Abby wanted information on her mother? Before she could follow through with the urge King had disappeared into the night.

Abby felt herself weakening as she lost blood from her side. She was becoming a bit lightheaded and her limbs were becoming cold and slightly numb. She shook her head and pressed harder on the wound. Keeping it together was a priority until she got away from King. There was no way in hell she was going to pass out near him. He was dangerous and Abby wasn’t stupid. Bad things happened to people when they lost their senses around people like him. She wasn’t about to let that happen.

King came back with another man, quickly announcing that she was the one he had just shot. Abby figured the bullet wound in her side was a dead give away, but hey, if King wanted to be Mr. Obvious she wasn’t going to waste time arguing the fact. The man’s leg was at an odd angle, and Abby must have missed his scream into the night. That wasn’t a good sign.

Her heart seized a bit when King told her that he was a cop. Didn’t matter if he was dirty. That was going to bring unwanted attention towards this. It could potentially put both of them on their radar. This whole thing about wanting to find her mother was seeming to become more hassle than it was worth.

When the cop said that her mother was suspected of murdering her father Abby shook her head. “That’s not possible,” She said in a hoarse whisper. “We hadn’t seen my mom since I was eight, and besides I was there when my father was killed. It wasn’t her.”

Accept how did Abby know? It had been a skinwalker that gutted her father like a fish and torn the ligaments in her arm. Who the skinwalker was in human form was anyone’s guess. Except if her mother had been a skinwalker why wait that long? Why wait almost a decade to go after Abby’s father? Would she really attack Abby? Did she hate her own daughter that much?

Black tinted the edge of her vision as she tried to absorb all this. With a shaky hand Abby took the file that King had held out and tucked it under her arm. She would read this later. Right now she needed to get the hell out of there. She glared at King, still angry at him for withholding information when they had a deal. “We’ll be in touch.”

She staggered to her feet. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that King was probably going to kill the dirty cop writhing on the ground in pain. It was something she should have cared about, she was hurt, losing blood, and now this whole business of her mother being wanted for murder had shell shocked her. Abby needed to get going while she still could.

Looking back she called over her shoulder, “Hey, if you don’t have to, don’t kill him.” It was all the protest she could muster as she made her way back to the truck. She had to get somewhere safe, and passing out in the vicinity of King was not even remotely safe.