Arawn – Eleven Years Ago
“What’s your name, sweetie?” one of the madams managing the whorehouses on the territory as the girl with the most beautiful eyes that I have ever seen fidgets with her fingers.
“Nerthus Hendriks, ma’am.” She answers shyly, and I have to force down the urge to shift in my seat.
One of the men sitting in the room with me laughs, his colleagues joining him soon after. “What a silly name.”
“Oh, please, call me Theresa, sweetie.” The madam speaks again, making Nerthus’ face light up with a smile.
“Okay,” she answers cutely.
I am glued to the television as I see how Nerthus starts undressing herself as the madam assigned to her asks her to do so.
My guts boil at the men around me starting to make indecent jokes, and surprise myself as I clench my teeth.
This is not the first time they show this
Nerthus“Oh, beautiful bitch, you are glowing!” I chuckle as Gigi presses a huge smack on my cheek.Pursing my lips, I move to sit at the bar next to him. “I needed to hear that! I had an ugly night.”“If you choose to bed with the snakes,” he sighs, and I know exactly who he refers to. He waves at Simone, who serves me a glass of wine, and I thank her with a smile.“Well, I got my favor, and she pissed off the king, so the chances are good that I’ll never see her again,” I say, taking a sip from my drink.He lifts his glass of beer and cheers. “Might all our snakes be replaced by big cocks.”I nearly choke on my drink and cough as he snickers. “You are impossible.”“So, I guess your career with us ends already?” Ha asks, making me nod.“Yeah, I’m afraid it would collide with my main job that I just got back. But I can still help out once in a while, if you need me to.”He shakes his head, taking another sip with a sigh. “I wonder how long you two will go on calling it a job.”“Hey,”
Nerthus The flickering lights of the cold room give me harder goosebumps than the idea of being surrounded by corpses.“Whenever you are ready, ma’am,” the coroner looks at me over his small glasses, and I nod, trying to keep the bile rising in my throat down.With a swift movement, he lifts the cloth, revealing the pale face of a woman.It might seem like a mundane action on his part, but I certainly wasn’t ready for it.Even if they gave me all the time I needed to adjust and prepare myself for this sight, I must admit that I wasn’t ready for it.And how could someone ever be?Holding a hand in front of my mouth, I swallow hard.“Take your time. If you need a break, let me know.” The detective, standing at the feet of the woman, talks in a calm voice, tearing me out of my abyss.I blink my tears away as I take a deep breath and tear my eyes away from her. “No, no. It’s alright. Erm… I worked with her a few years ago.”Making a little break, I appreciate the fact that the detective
Nerthus “I don’t know what you mean.”I try to avoid his gaze and keep my eyes glued to the floor while fumbling with my purse.“You seem upset.” He tries to argue with me, but my subconscious has me reacting all wrong once again.And I can’t seem to stop myself.“I’m just tired. Can you leave me alone, please? I’m not in the mood to work tonight.”Putting his finger under my chin, he gets me to raise my eyes to his. “I’m not here for your services. Tell me. What’s wrong?”I sigh, taking a step back to free me from his hold. “I just had to identify a woman I worked with a few years ago. I don’t handle seeing dead bodies well, even if it’s not my first one.”I throw my bag on my couch and turn around to face his intense gaze again.“You are normally rather pragmatic, what perturbed you that much?” His question has my resolve crumbling further, and I hug myself as if it could help me hold the pieces together.“I don’t know…” Sighing, I cross my arms in front of my chest. “At 19, I had
ArawnMy mother worked the streets as well.But she was nothing like Nerthus.She lacked everything and most of all, strength.As my father got to know I existed he compensated my mother well. Well, enough to have us living regally. She didn’t provide any differently for me though. She just stopped selling herself but kept on spending all her money on her drugs and every waking minute popping pills.According to her, it was already the biggest mercy that she had come to take me out of that orphanage.She was convinced I should venerate her like her Goddess for it. At first, I was confused, but slowly I began to understand that it wasn’t that loving gesture as what she sold it to me.Without me, she wouldn’t have gotten any money.My father didn’t know that she hated me just because I was looking a lot like him.In front of him, she played the worried mom. An
ArawnI walk into the police station with a strange feeling.Two of my men are walking in with me and this surely doesn’t help from getting weird looks thrown at us.I clear my throat as I stop in front of what seems to be a reception desk run by uniformed rookies. “I’d like to talk to Detective Ramirez.”The young man looks at me wide-eyed as he looks down at his computer. “Sure, Sir. Do you have an appointment? Is he expecting you?”I just stare at him. “No.”He gets visibly uncomfortable and eyes up at the men standing behind me. “Okay, Sir. Let me call him real quick. Please, take your seat.”“Thank you.” I step away from his desk, and we sit down on a few chairs fixated on the wall to wait for the detective.While we wait, I wonder how Nerthus must have been feeling waiting for someone to help her out as she was looking for her friend.As a man dressed in a worn-out suit turns around the corner, I get up on my feet. My men following me swiftly. “Hi, I’m Detective Ramirez. How can
My lovelies Please accept my apologies for not updating for so long. I'm currently in my exam prep, and my thesis is due by the 27th of May. After that, I will have a bit more air to breathe and also write. By the end of June, I will finally be over with all my exams and I will hopefully get my Law School Degree :D That means: From July on you will get a lot of updates. I have my book about Nerthus and Arawn fully outlined now, and I hope you will enjoy all the exciting things I have prepared for you. I thank you with all my heart for bearing with me and for all your patience and support
ArawnMy men had spent quite a good amount of time, looking into the murder cases. But even after asking the underbosses and interrogating the people who could have witnessed something in the respective districts, they came back with nothing.Which bothered me because this has never happened.And even if I normally wouldn’t care much about the matter, and New York was surely not Disney Land, I couldn’t let it go.Not if it was so close that it seemed to come for Nerthus.After I got the profile made by the profilers, I already thought that Derek wouldn’t quite match the picture. He was a sunny boy, always known to enjoy partying with women. He didn’t seem the type who wanted to cancel and humiliate them.But I couldn’t ignore what Vito had said, so I stuck with it.Until we found him in a rehab clinic, still trying to cope with his injuries.Well, damn it. My boots hit the wooden tiles of the pedestrian overpass, generating a hollow sound as I reach the hut to meet Mattia. He is alre
Arawn Clearing my throat, I finally get their attention back on me. Nerthus lays a hand on her hat as she turns towards me. “I know him.”She laughs as I squint my eyes at her. “I gathered that.”“Oh, you old grumpy man,” she laughs, stepping back towards me. “He is the one I had to talk to you about. The one who helped me out.”My eyes widen as I look back up at Mattia who is now wearing his usually happy demeanor. “Nerthus is your tea?”“Why does everyone keep calling me your tea?” Nerthus asks under her breath, making me chuckle.“You helped her move districts?” I ask back at him, and he nods.Nerthus inhales sharply as she turns back around, grabbing my arm in the process. “He also saved me the time we met, actually.”“Oh, no. It was nothing. Don’t tell him that,” Mattia groans, but Nerthus shakes her head.“There was a guy with a knife. The fucker had surely taken the thing with him from his mother’s kitchen. I mean it was a huge butcher thingy.” She starts enthusiastically while