When James opened the door to his office he found the room a wreck. Papers were thrown everywhere, an ashtray filled to the brim, the trashcan was like a fountain with its contents spilling onto the floor, and nearly all the furniture was covered in an inch of dust. Oh good, exactly the way I hate it, James thought to himself angrily. James began to clean the room knowing the next few years working here were going to be interesting. He walked over to the desk and then stepped on a clump of soiled tissues.

“Ugh, did a pig live in this office before I did?” James said as he removed the tissues from his shoe, and threw them in the garbage.

James pulled out a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on. He walked around the office removing filth from the floor. Seriously! I travel all the way here from Felicity City and the first thing I have to do is clean up the previous detective’s mess! He thought to himself as he opened up another trash bag. Is anyone in this station a professional? He walked over to the previous detective’s office and sorted through some of the garbage piled up on top of the desk.

“This guy definitely had a smoking, drinking, overeating, and,” he said as he opened a drawer to find some interesting magazines, “A…huh, was not expecting a 50 year old man to be into that.”

 With a surprised look on his face he shoved the magazines into the trash bag and went on to the next area. He took some paper towels he got from one of the janitor's closets and started to dust the filing cabinet. As he dusted the dust from the filing cabinet it started to drift off it in pale clouds, and started to float around the room. Man this place is way too dusty to belong to a recently retired police officer. How long has it been since someone has actually been here? Going to have to ask the captain about this, the detective thought to himself.

After a couple of hours the detective finally finished cleaning his office and decided to ask the captain for any assignments and find out the truth about his predecessor. He exited his office with purpose and headed for the captain’s office.

“Knock. Knock”

“Hey captain Gold, it’s James. Can I come in?” the detective announced.

“Come in,” the captain responded in a gruff tone.

“Hi, I was just wondering what assignments you had for me?” James asked.

“Nothing so far, it’s been pretty quiet lately.” the captain reported.

“Really, are you sure?” James questioned, remembering the sketchy streets he saw before.

“Yes,” the captain retorted.

“Okay then. But I was wondering, umm. Who exactly had the office before me?” James queried.

“Didn’t you know it was detective Alan Vieux? He was one of the oldest officers on the force and retired a couple months ago,” the captain informed.

“Really, because the dust and trash in his office-”

“I said he retired a couple months ago  and if his office was a little dirty it was because he was a messy person. Nothin’ to it,” the captain said angrily.

“-Okay then I’m sorry I asked.” James said apologetically.

“Good, now out of my office!” the captain fumed.

James exited the office with a confused look on his face. The things that happened in that office just didn’t sit right with him. Why was a detective's office so messy (even if he was just a messy person)? Why does it look like no one has been in that office for much longer than a couple months? Why is the department so empty, and where exactly is the janitor? The city was much different from the city he knew as a boy. All of the beautiful buildings were now littered with graffiti and the once lively streets were eerily quiet. The city had changed, and he needed to know why.

“Time to get some answers.” James said as he went down the stairs to see if anyone was still there.

He went downstairs and was quite surprised to see someone still sitting at their desks. He was a young man in his early 20’s with bright blonde hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and freckles all over his face.

“Hi my name is James and I just wanted to introduce myself since I’m new to the City.” James said with a smile as he approached the man.

“Oh, hi, my name’s Marvin Yellow; I’m a police officer here. Nice to meet you. What about you, Mr. New Guy?” Marvin asked curiously.

“Oh, I'm James Blanc. I just recently transferred to Noir City from Felicity City, to be your guyses new detective. Since Mr. Veux apparently retired a few months ago”

“Oh yeah I heard about you; apparently you're a pretty good detective huh?,” Marvin said with a joking smile, “Anyways, Felicity City huh? I hear it’s nice and quiet there.”

“Yeah it is but I wanted a change of pace and I have some fond memories here in Noir City.”

“In Noir City? Really? You definitely had a rude awakening when you got here. Why would you ever leave Felicity City? It’s heaven compared to here.”

“Like I said just a change of pace nothing else, and yes I definitely had a rude awakening when I got here. It’s such a different city from when I used to visit it as a kid. What happened to it in just 13 years?”

“Well I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve definitely seen some changes… But doesn’t every city change over time, especially in 13 years?”

“Yeah but never this drastically, I mean you’d think it would only become more gentrified Not turn into a stereotypical trashy city from the movies. Would you know why since you’ve lived here all your life? I mean someone who’s lived here that long’s bound to know something” James said as he leaned closer to Marvin.

“Well I wouldn’t say that I necessarily know why the city’s like this.” Marvin said as his eyes started to dart around the room.

“What do you mean, and why’re you acting so squirrely.” James said as he leaned in closer.

“Well, I can’t tell you here, but follow me if you want to know,” he said as he stood up from his chair.

With that he followed Marvin away from his desk, through some hallways and into a broom closet. Before closing the door he looked outside the door for a little while and the shut door. Next, he turned on the dinky light inside the closet.

“Look I can tell that you want to help this city and I admire you for it. But you don’t know what you’re messing with. There’s a reason why there’s only a handful of cops and why your predecessor “retired”. Once you go in too deep there’s a chance that you’re not going to come back out. You still want to know?”

James was flabbergasted by Marvin’s change in tone, he went from a meek policeman to sort of intimidating. This guy just went from a bell pepper to a habanero in less than 3.4 seconds.

“Wait how do I know if I can even trust you?” James said as he realized he was in a broom closet with a random stranger.

“Look, if you couldn’t trust me I wouldn’t have taken you to the closet to talk. In fact, I would’ve already ratted you out to them.” Marvin said as he looked straight into James eyes.

“Who’s them?” 

“Well they’re the people who have this city looking like a ghost town, they’re the people who have gotten rid of all the cops who wouldn’t take their bribes, they’re the people who killed my… my…  partner.” Marvin said as he looked at the floor.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks. It’s been a while since he died.”

The pair sat in silence for a little while digesting the statement. After a few minutes James got the courage to speak again.

“Well… who are they?”

“They’re known as the Vampyrs, and they’re sucking this city dry.” 

“Well that’s an interesting name,” James says as he chuckled, trying to put on a straight face for proffesionalism, “Anyways, when did this all start?”

“It all started about 10 years ago, when the city started to have constant overcast...”

It was the middle of June and the streets were alive, because my neighborhood was having a street fair that day. Vendors lined the streets, and My friends and I were playing soccer in the streets. All of a sudden, we all heard the sound of a car on the horizon, and we ran out of the street so we wouldn’t get run over. As it passed by we noticed that it was a black stretch limo, with red hubcaps, and a hood ornament shaped like an angel but oddly different. The limo zoomed past us and went down the street with exhaust creating a cloud behind them. We were all quiet for a second but eventually we went back to our lively selves unaware of what would come.

The next day we woke up to a cloudy sky and a downpour in the Middle of July, and a bad feeling. We were right of course, because soon people were evicted from their apartments, old buildings started to go into disrepair, city programs started to disappear, crime rose to an all time high, and so did poverty. With that all these gangs started to pop up and that made this whole thing worse. Everyone wondered what happened to the city, and how it took a deep dive.

After a few years, I had just joined the force and I found out that limo wasn’t just passing through… 

“So who was in the Limo?” James asked eagerly.

“I don’t know the specifics, but apparently they’re this weird family that has all these weird ties to people.”

“Anything else?”

“That’s what most people know about them, because they’re controlling everything that goes on in the city, including the information the general public knows about them. But I’m not the general public James.”

Marvin opened the door and peeked out the door, and locked it behind him. He looked around the floorboards until he found the one that was slightly warped. He grabbed the edge of the floorboard and pulled it up. Then what was one floorboard turned into a panel as he removed the covering of a secret compartment in the floor. He pulled several manilla folders out of the floor, and some cardboard boxes.

“Jesus, you could bury someone with all the dirt you have.” James said, surprised at how much evidence there was.

“Well that’s exactly what I intend to do.” Marvin said without a hint of hesitation in his voice.

“If you’re so intense about this, then why are you showing a random stranger all of this.” He says as he motions to the evidence scattered around the room. 

“I mean, I can only show all of this to someone I can trust. For I believe I can trust you to help me achieve my goal. Which is to put an end to this horrible dictatorship”

“Wait how do you know you can trust me? You’ve only just met me, and I’ve only just met you. Also, if these people are as genius as you claim they are, how do you plan to take them down?”

“Well you have to trust me, you know too much not too. People who know too much tend to disappear around here, and I know how to stick around. So if you want to stick around, stick with me. For the Vampyrs… I’ll tell you my plan once I know that I can completely put my trust in you, so can I?”

James contemplated Marvin’s statement, on one hand Marvin seemed more like one of those sketchy people in the alleys. On the other hand, this city was a minefield and he was walking in blind, but Marvin seemed to know exactly where to step. He would need someone like that if he was going to survive here. So do I trust this man who looks like he wants to betray me, and befriend me at the same time. Or do I go into this even sketchier city blind and with information that can apparently get me killed. James sat there for a moment pondering his decision, for he felt like he was at a crossroads. Finally, he came to a reluctant decision about his fate.

“Okay, I’ll work with you Marvin, but on one condition. No secrets, you tell me everything, because if this partnership is going to work. No more of this cryptic alley-man behavior, we will be honest with each other so we can work together to the best of our abilities. Also kind of want to be able to trust that the information you’re giving me is accurate.”

“Deal.” Marcus said as he reached his hand out to James. 

James looked at Marvin’s outstretched hand, the handshake felt ominous, almost as if he was making a deal with the devil himself. Jeez why does it feel like he’s about to sprout a pair of horns, and the ground’s going to burst into flames. I mean he isn’t but I’ve seen con men more trustworthy. Putting his fear aside he took a deep breath, and stretched his hand out, shaking Marvin’s hand.

“I believe this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Marvin said with a much less creepy smile.

“Hopefully.” James said as he was easing himself into a calmer state of mind, but Marvin’s smile helped him out a bit.