Chapter Text
This fucking case was killing him. It was unnatural in a way. A person has gone missing but all the evidence suggested that they ran away rather than were kidnapped. But that's the catch, the card has been used at only one ATM so far and the phone has been turned off as soon as this girl has gone MIA. They already have searched this person's room and it only made it worse. A lot of personal belongings also have gone missing so it would be smart to assume that it was a casual runaway case. But something was telling him that there was more to that. Parents swore that it was so unlikely for their 'little' daughter to just go without a word. Allegedly they have had a very strong relationship and have been telling each other everything. So now Cellbit was stuck watching hours and hours of camera footage in hopes of finding something useful.
Honestly, he couldn't even remember when was the last time he slept, but that didn't matter. He just wanted to solve this case and get it over with.
Actually, he was able to find a short clip where the girl, Emi, has been visible but that was barely anything. She has shown up for three seconds, she had her suitcase with her and that was it. No other person with her, no one stalking her, she has been the only person on the street. And probably the worst part was that the area where she has been seen didn't have a lot of cameras around, because why not make Cellbit's work even harder.
He took a deep breath and looked away from the computer. Coffee break was probably a good idea because his eyes started to get heavy again. On top of that, he could feel the incoming headache most likely caused by hours spent looking at his computer screen. Cellbit got up and maybe he should have done it slower, because as soon as he stood straight his vision darkened and his head started spinning. At least he managed to catch his balance by grabbing his desk as hard as he could, his knuckles whitened by the force of his grip. As you could tell he was not having the best time and he probably should get some sleep soon.
When he got his vision back and his head was not spinning that hard anymore, Cellbit could finally go for his desired coffee. In his office he had a small countertop with a microwave and the cheapest coffee machine he could possibly find but it did the job just fine.
He selected the espresso option and the drink started brewing. The machine was a little bit too loud for Cellbit's liking especially because his incoming headache arrived with brute force as the machine’s humming made his head spin again.
While he was waiting for his drink he figured he might as well eat something, it would be his first meal in probably two days. God, he should take better care of himself. At this rate his body might just give up on him. As on command his stomach rumbled almost like it wanted to confirm that yes, it needed food.
Obviously, the universe must have hated Cellbit because as soon as he opened the cabinet, in search of something to eat, he hit his head with a cupboard door.
"Ai, maldito armário!"
Great, now his head hurt even more. When Cellbit's hand reached the spot where he was hit he could feel a warm substance leaking from the wound. Just great, he hit himself hard enough to draw blood. Luckily enough, the wound was so small that he could probably just ignore it, also, he ran out of disinfectant so there is not much he could have done anyway.
In the middle of his misery someone knocked on the door. It was probably a new client since it was his working hours but Cellbit was not sure if he was in any state to actually talk to another human being.
"It's open, come in" He called anyway.
Before the guest came in Cellbit quickly tried to make himself somewhat presentable, but he wasn't successful.
"Cellbit! Long time no see!"
As it turned out it wasn't a new client, far from it actually. Standing in the doorframe was his old friend Forever.
"Hello Forever and we literally saw each other a few days ago when I dropped off Richas at your place"
The exhaustion was so clear in his voice that even Cellbit was taken aback by it for a second. He really needed the 'beauty' sleep soon.
"Wow, man are you okay? You don't look so good. I can drop you off at your place so you can get some rest and preferably take a shower, you stink."
Obviously Forever was worried for him. If you had asked Cellbit he would tell you that all the worry was unnecessary, he was doing just great, thank you. But no matter how many times he tried to convince other people of his well-being, they somehow didn't believe him.
"I'm fine, just a little bit tired, that's all." He said and rubbed his eyes in hope of getting rid of the blurriness of his vision. "I'm just really busy with the case I told you about some time ago. I can feel that I'm getting close to figuring it all out and I can't waste any time."
Forever looked like he was deep in his thoughts, his brows were furrowed and his gaze wasn't fully there. Cellbit decided that he wasn't going to interrupt his friend and would just let him think about his response instead. And enjoying the silence while it lasted was also a good idea since his headache was just getting worse and worse with every minute.
Through the silence, a small ding could be heard announcing that Cellbit's coffee was ready. He quickly picked his mug up and took a huge sip. Cellbit didn't care that coffee was probably so hot that it could burn his throat, honestly, it wasn't his first time drinking something almost boiling. He just desperately needed the caffeine shot. At this point he was pretty sure that his blood had coffee in it instead of water. Looking back at the last twenty-four hours, he could count at least eight so-called 'go juices' that he drank or maybe it was nine. He wasn't so sure anymore.
Familiar taste of the drink was gladly welcomed by him with a deep sigh of relief. Cellbit allowed himself to close his eyes in order to savor the moment for as long as he could.
"Listen to me because I'm gonna be serious with you for a second. You need to start taking care of yourself." His moment of peace was abruptly interrupted by Forever starting his lecture. "And don't look at me like that, you know I'm right. You need to sleep, your brain needs to take a break."
"Listen Forever..."
"No, let me finish." Cellbit's attempt at trying to argue back was swiftly cut short. "You won't be any good for anyone and any case when you're passing out due to your exhaustion. You need the sleep man. You know sleep is not an optional activity, right?"
He was just standing there in silence while sipping his hot drink. There was no point in trying to argue with the other man, it would just end like it always did. Somehow Forever time and time again managed to bully him into going home and getting a good and long sleep. To be honest he would probably pass out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
"Actually, I came here to discuss a possible case with you." Okay, that got Cellbit's attention. "BUT it can wait. First, you need to sleep." Forever said, clapping his hands and already going in the direction of the exit. He probably figured that Cellbit was going to follow him anyway.
"Okay, let me just grab my stuff," he grumbled under his nose, his friend was too far away to hear it either way.
After quickly finishing his coffee, he grabbed the essentials such as his phone, and went after his friend. He closed the door to his office and as soon as he left the building he saw that Forever was waiting for him in the car.
Honestly he was grateful that he had a friend like Forever. No matter what, he was making sure that Cellbit got a decent amount of sleep. If it wasn't for his family, he would probably lay down unconscious on his office floor, or, in the worst-case scenario, he would just be dead.
He caught himself zoning out and just staring at the car, lost in his thoughts. He shook his head almost like he was trying to shake the thoughts away, and got inside the car.
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There was blood and dead bodies everywhere. He was in some kind of basement, standing upon mutilated corpses. Everything was covered in thick layers of blood. Some red stains were new and shining in the light of the single light bulb on the ceiling, but there were also the older ones that turned into a brownish colour. But the most noticeable thing was this odor, the smell stung his nose and it was hard to breathe. All he could feel was the sticky thickness of the substance covering him and also this sweet iron smell. And also… scrambled eggs?
Cellbit jolted awake, he was covered in sweat and his breath was faster than normal. He could still feel the smell of blood from his dream. It almost felt like the bloody horror from his nightmares somehow awakened with him. But he also could feel the scrambled eggs, the smell of breakfast being his savior, he decided to focus on that.
Probably it was also reasonable to ask the question, who the hell was making breakfast in his house? But Cellbit was too occupied at the moment, fighting to even out his breathing, to actually consider the answer to this question.
Maybe he really was working too much because this kind of nightmare didn't come with the normal amount of investigative work. Too many images of dead bodies in too short span of time.
When he finally managed to calm himself, he got up and went to check who was responsible for this breakfast smell. Cellbit was also hungry so if you ask him it was a win-win situation. Even if someone broke into his house he would get breakfast out of it.
As soon as he came into the kitchen area, he saw Forever in his shorts and white shirt just casually making breakfast in his house. But that caused another question - how the fuck he got inside? Cellbit was sleeping this whole time so it was not him who let Forever in, and he was sure that the blonde man didn't have spare keys to his apartment.
He must have been lost in his thoughts while staring at his friend for too long because now Forever was facing him with a questioning look.
"Filho da puta, como você entrou!?"
"Calma Celbit, it's just me, no need to panic.'' He turned back and started putting prepared food on the plates. "You were asleep for almost a day and a half man, you need to sleep more frequently because at this rate you are going to die. But anyway, I made breakfast."
After saying some odd shit Forever gave him a plate with scrambled eggs and bread on it, he was also given a coffee. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if he was hungry enough to stomach any of this, except coffee, he was always in the mood for coffee.
"Did you poison the food?" He asked instead of voicing any of his worries. It was unusual for his friend to do anything like that, break into his house, sure, that was in character, but making breakfast? That was a new development. Most of the time he would be the one waiting for someone to do breakfast for him or to give him free stuff. "And why didn't you wake me up earlier? I have work to do, you know."
"As I said you need to sleep more, man. Your work can wait for one day." The ending of the sentence came out distorted because Forever started munching on his breakfast. "And I have something for you, but you need to have a clear head for all that info dump you are about to be victim to."
In response, Cellbit only hummed and started eating his offered meal. It wasn't half bad, honestly, he wasn't expecting it to be even edible. But there we were, sitting at his kitchen table eating a normal full-fledged meal. If he was completely honest it wasn't a normal occurrence for him; usually his breakfast consisted of a protein bar and a cup of coffee.
"So what is this super case that you have been talking about, hm?" Cellbit broke the comfortable silence that settled between them. He could have waited until they finished the meal but he was not sure if his brain could wait that long, he was just too curious. Most of the time Forever's cases were really fucking interesting, so his head was full of questions about what it was going to be.
"Hm?" The blonde man looked like he was brutally pulled out of his thoughts. "Ah the case, well you know how it is. We are completely stuck with this, we checked all available leads and we ended up empty-handed. The killer has no pattern for choosing his victims, they are of different ages, different genders, different everything if I'm gonna be honest. The killings started about three months ago. We found a body without eyes and they were removed with surgical precision, so we guess the killer is someone who probably did it before, maybe an ex-surgeon. The eyes were removed while the victim was still alive but to my mortician's surprise, it wasn't the cause of death. The victim lived long enough to be killed by slitting their throats. We also found traces of poison in this woman's body, and it gets even weirder, the poison was not artificially made, it was insect venom. We are not sure what exact species but we are working on it. Firstly we thought that this venom was a one time thing but we were proven wrong when we found a second body. And the last thing we found was this dried spider in the victim's mouth. Since the first murder, there were three more, all without eyes, with slitted throats, basically the same modus operandi. But to make our lives harder our killer uses different toxins each time-"
For the whole time, Cellbit was listening attentively and was trying to put leads in order. His brain was already in investigation mode, breakfast long forgotten. For now, we have some kind of insect venom, or probably any kind of animal venom for that matter, if the killer likes to change it every time. This could mean that the killer might know a thing or two about venomous species, maybe he was some kind of biologist. Also, he was able to remove eyes with surgical precision so maybe a doctor with a zoologist hobby. Yeah, that sounded like a good starting point.
"...so we think there is a copycat." This brought Cellbit back to reality. He must have drifted off because how the hell is there a copycat now, what did he miss?
"O que? What copycat?"
"Well if you were listening to me instead of already getting lost in your thoughts, you would know that all the victims had different toxins in their bodies and different species of spiders put in their mouths. So my team thinks that there might be more than one killer. The first case became popular after the news coverage so it might have attracted some weirdos willing to recreate it. And if there was only one killer, the probability he would use different kinds of venom is low. Or at least that's what my team thinks." His friend looked so proud of himself that Cellbit almost felt bad about proving him wrong.
"Seu idiota! Honestly, that is the stupidest thing I heard today." Forever's proud expression was gone as fast as it appeared. "What I think is we have one killer who might have something like a zoology hobby and he is probably a surgeon or at least a doctor. He might be retired though. The copycat theory doesn't make sense, because how the hell would a copycat be able to recreate the eyes part with such precision? Unless we have twin surgeon killers, then okay, I would admit my defeat."
A proud expression was now sitting on Cellbit's face. His theory was the basic one for now, he still needed to see all the evidence and try to connect the dots. Forever also mentioned that there was no pattern, which was worrying. Killers who chose their victims at random were more likely to be psychopaths and they were also harder to catch. Or maybe this killer had a pattern but for now they weren't able to see it just yet. Oh God, he was already excited about this case, but suddenly, he remembered that he had one that needed to be finished before he started anything new.
"Ah man, I would love to help but I have this MIA case that I need to solve before I start a new one."
"Yeah, but you said that you were almost finished so you will be free in like two or three days." Oh, his friend knew exactly what he was doing, he knew him well. Forever knew that he wouldn't miss this opportunity no matter what. "So wrap up what you need and then message me, I don't think there will be any new developments in the case by then, so rest assured you are not gonna miss anything."
Damn, was he going to be convinced that easily? Honestly yeah, he probably would. Knowing his defeat he sighed loudly.
"Ok ok, alright. I will help you since you are asking me nicely." He sighed again. "Your department would be helpless without me," Cellbit added teasingly but it didn't mean that at the back of his head, he wasn't thinking exactly that.
They asked him for help more often recently. He wasn't sure if it was because cases were getting harder or because they got lazy and it was just easier to get someone to do the work for them.
"Yeah, yeah man. Whatever helps you sleep at night." While saying these words, the blonde man got up. "I will be going now, remember to take care of yourself."
Cellbit only hummed in response and walked the other man to the door. He was sure that his friend didn't need his help with finding the way back. His house wasn't that big and Forever was there countless times. He would be surprised if somehow he managed to get lost here.
They gave each other a small hug for the goodbye and Forever was almost on his merry way.
"Oh Cellbit, one more thing." The blonde man called out before he was able to close the door. "Don't forget that in three days Richas is staying at your place, so you better be finished with this case of yours by that time." And with these words, he was gone.
Fuck, he had forgotten about his son's visit, he really must have been consumed with work. But now he had even more reasons to find out where Emi was. And if she was still alive.
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After a couple of sleepless nights filled with hard work, he managed to solve the case. Just in time for his son's visit, he even had time to clean his apartment a little and maybe even take a shower.
The case ending was pretty unexpected even for him. After hours of looking at his computer screen, he found footage of Emi being dragged into the van. He managed to track the van and it led him to the old, abandoned warehouse in the suburbs. He shared all this information with the police and they were able to find her, but the most surprising part was that she somehow was able to escape before the officers got there and she was found walking along the main road. Fortunately, everything ended well for Emi, for sure, she will have trauma, but if you ask Cellbit it's better than being sold for organs or being dead.
So now that he had solved this mystery he could focus firstly on his son and secondly on Forever's new case. Cellbit was glad he would have some time to rest and spend it with his family, but on the other hand he would gladly just jump straight into another case and bury himself under tons of evidence.
But no, he was a great dad and he would spend a few days with his son and he would be focusing only on him. No work, only family activities, no matter how tempted he was by this new case.
He just finished washing dishes that piled up in his sink. Honestly, Cellbit wasn't even aware that he had so many mugs, plates, and other tableware shit. He thought that he would never finish cleaning all of them, it felt like the pile was still the same size no matter how many of them he already washed. But after about half an hour he was done. Cellbit didn't even want to think about how many times during this chore he touched something gross with the most worrying texture the world had ever seen. And most importantly he would not try to count how many times he gagged and almost threw up into the sink.
But now he was done with this devilish task and the last thing he needed to do before picking up his son from school was to take a shower. To say he smelled was kind of an understatement. That’s what hard work does to a man.
After a quick glance at the clock to check how much time he still had, he wasn't met with a satisfying response. He needed to be fast or his son would be forced to wait for him and Cellbit knew how much his son didn't like to stay in school after hours, only with his teacher to keep him company.
Before going to the bathroom Cellbit turned on the coffee machine so it would brew him a drink while he took a shower.
His shower was quick but effective, he no longer smelled like he hadn't touched water in two months, far from it actually, he put on some perfume and deodorant so he smelled pretty nice, at least he thought so. Cellbit also washed his hair so it was no longer looking oily and sticky. He even blow-dried it so it looked somewhat presentable in comparison to the times when he had let it dry on its own.
After quickly dressing up in the first clean clothes he found, and pouring himself freshly brewed coffee into his thermos, he was ready to go to his son. Before going out Cellbit checked what he looked like in the mirror. The most visible thing was the dark circles under his eyes caused by lack of sleep, but other than that, he looked the most presentable he had in a long time.
Another fast look at the clock confirmed that he didn't have much time. To be honest, he was probably going to be late no matter what, the traffic jam at this hour was huge and there were practically no chances for him to go around it. He sighed loudly and with a last look into the mirror he left the house.
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The universe must have loved Cellbit so much, honestly, he was probably its favourite child. You may ask why and he would be more than glad to explain this to you. The fucking traffic jam was at least two times longer than usual. He was running almost two hours late and he wasn't even close to his destination. And the fucking people, he wasn't sure who gave them driving licenses, he suspected they found them in the Cheetos packet as a reward for their unmeasurable stupidity. This amebas kept honking all the time like it would somehow help them move faster. They changed lines by pushing their car in front of other cars and almost colliding with them.
He wasn't having a great time. At this point, Richas was probably thinking he somehow had forgotten about him and that he wouldn't pick him up today. But no, he was on his way and he was fighting for his mental well-being or what was left of it in this traffic.
If you asked Cellbit how many times he cussed someone out during these two hours, he wouldn't be able to tell you, he lost count somewhere around twenty-nine. Thank God he had his coffee. It was helping so much, if he felt like he was going to explode he just took a sip and he felt a little bit better. Honestly, he was sure this was the only thing keeping him sane.
Somewhere along the way he called his son's teacher to inform them he was going to be late because of the traffic. Cellbit was convinced that Richas' teacher was an angel because she didn't even sound annoyed and told him that he wasn't the only one that was running late so he shouldn't worry. This calmed him down a bit, at least Richarlyson had someone to play with while he waited.
Finally, after almost another hour of this purgatory, he made it to the school. Finding a parking spot was incredibly easy, probably because it was so late and most people were already on their way home. But, he would not complain about this, his patience was running so thin that he didn't know what he would do if on top of this all he couldn't find a parking spot.
Because the parking was practically empty he managed to leave his Jeep in front of the entrance to the building. He quickly got out of the car and ran inside, he didn't want to keep his son waiting any longer. A few people looked at him weirdly but they didn't say anything. It's not like he cared anyway, it was his business why he was running and if he wanted to run he would, no matter how many unapproving gazes he would get.
By the time he got to his son's class, he was out of breath. Cellbit waited for a few seconds before he went into the class, he wanted to catch his breath to look somewhat responsible to the teacher. To think about it there was probably not much you could do to look responsible when you were three hours late to pick up your child, but he would try his best anyway.
After a couple of deep breaths, he fixed his hair with his hands and went into the classroom. The first thing he noticed was that his son was playing with the only other kid left. Thank God he wasn't the last parent and Richas had someone to play with to kill the time.
"Richas!" He shouted to get the boy's attention "Sorry I am late, there was a huge traffic on the way here!"
"It's ok pai, I made a new friend!" His son shouted back and he looked so happy that all Cellbit's worries disappeared in a second and he started smiling brightly.
"Sorry again for being so late, I don't know what happened on the roads, but it was a hell out there" This time his words were addressed to the teacher.
"As I said before, no problem" She looked away from her computer and smiled warmly "Other parents told me there was some kind of accident involving three cars so that's probably the cause of this mess. I don't mind staying late if that's the case" She smiled once again and came back to whatever she was doing on her computer.
His attention was again on his son, he was still playing with his friend. They were building something using Lego, whispering among themselves and giggling from time to time. They looked like they were having so much fun, Cellbit felt bad that he was about to interrupt their play.
"Come on Richas, let's go home" After those words his son gave a long hug to his friend, the force of it almost made two boys collapse to the floor.
"Pai, can we go get ice cream? And can we take Bobby with us, his parents haven't picked him up yet and I don't want to leave him alone?"
Oh no, Richas was using the puppy eyes tactic, he knew it worked on Cellbit almost every time. But it's not like he can just take someone else's child with him to get ice cream.
"Desculpe, but we can't just take Bobby with us, without his parents knowing. Maybe next time, but we can still go get ice cream."
His son's mood was visibly a little bit worse after hearing his response, but the prospect of getting ice cream kept a smile on his face.
Just when they were about to leave, the other boy got up and looked behind Cellbit and Richarlyson "Dad!!" He shouted and ran in the direction of the person who appeared behind them in the doorframe.
"Bobby!" The man with brown hair and headband shouted back.
"Dad, dad! Me, Richas and his dad wanted to get ice cream but you weren't there so we couldn't but now you are here, so can we? Pretty please!"
Cellbit could see that the other boy was also using the puppy eyes technique on his dad and it seemed it was working.
"I don't know Bobby, your mom would not be happy if she knew you ate ice cream before dinner" Bobby's dad was still trying to fight the puppy eyes but Cellbit knew damn well that you couldn't fight it, it's just simply impossible.
The other dad looked at him for some help but Cellbit wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Fight the child maybe?
"She doesn't need to know and you can get him a small portion so he still eats dinner" He eventually decided to say that, in his opinion this was neutral enough.
"Okay let's go, but you can't tell Jaiden"
After those words, both boys started cheering and jumping. The sight of it made Cellbit smile.
They said their goodbyes to the teacher and were on their way.
"There is this ice cream place not far from the school, we can easily go there by foot. They have amazing homemade ice cream and the prices are fairly low. What do you think?" Cellbit proposed. He was kind of an expert on ice cream places, he and other Richarlyson's dads visited almost all ice cream places in town.
"Fine by me," Said the other man and looked at his son for approval. Bobby nodded his head in agreement and ran off with Richas, chasing a butterfly.
On the way to the place, Cellbit talked with the brunette. He learned that his name was Roier and he was a psychologist. Bobby, his son, was recently transferred to this school because his previous one closed due to a fire accident.
He was so occupied by the conversation that he didn't even notice when they arrived at the ice cream place.
The selection of flavors was so large that it took them some time to choose one specific one. But, after a heated discussion about what certain flavors say about you, they managed to make their pick.
Both boys got chocolate ice cream because they wanted to match. Meanwhile, Cellbit got a coffee flavor and Roier got a basic vanilla one.
"You are such a basic man! Who chooses vanilla when you have a lot of better options? Even the cursed-looking bubblegum flavor was better!" Cellbit was teasing, he didn't have anything against vanilla-flavored ice creams but he couldn't miss the opportunity to poke fun at the other man a little bit.
"Said the man who chose the bitter coffee flavor. Ice cream is supposed to be sweet, not bitter. Just by that choice, I can tell you are a coffee addict and probably also a psychopath. I know what I'm saying, I'm a psychologist" Roier tried to stay serious while saying that but he was unsuccessful, and halfway through speaking a small smile appeared on his face.
On the whole way back they kept talking and teasing each other. The atmosphere of their conversation was so casual that he felt like they had known each other for months, not just mere minutes. They instantly clicked with each other almost like they were meant to be friends. They only stopped talking when they got back to the school parking lot.
All of them said their goodbyes and their sons decided that they needed to do that again. Both Cellbit and Roier agreed with them. Personally, he would gladly spend more time with the brunette. After some more goodbyes were exchanged, they were finally getting into their cars and going home.