Chapter 3: His Ego

Damn, it was the buzzer, loud and insistent. Was it morning yet? She lifted the curtain at the bedside. No. Who the hell was it at this hour? 

Normally, she’d wake up with the slightest sound. That’s why alcohol and hunters did not go well, but man did they drink.

The earlier phone calls popped into her mind. Was it Dave? Did he show up at her door because she was not answering her phone? They had broken up for like, what, three years? Unbelievable.

After their relationship ended, for months he had constantly called her and had annoyed the entire building by buzzing every door until she let him in. No. It was not because he loved her. His ego just couldn’t take the fact that she dumped him.

Danica had known better then. It had been the second breakup. After the first break-up, she had accepted him back out of pity, but what did he do? He cheated on her again, with multiple women. She had fallen hard for a playboy without an ounce of loyalty. Dave had broken her heart repeatedly.

In pajamas, she went to the intercom and Dave answered as expected. His tone was just like when they were dating.

“What’re you doing here? It’s…,” she checked the clock on the wall. “...3:00 in the morning.”

“Open the door, Dani.” His tone was harsh, just like in her memory.

He must have a death wish with that attitude. 

“Go back to wherever you came from, Dave. I don’t have time for you.”

“You haven’t called me for a month. Who are you sleeping with, Dani? That guy Luther? That’s why you can’t trust women!”

What the hell? That response was familiar, in fact too familiar that she opened the building door. Dave Rackley had been a cheater and also a gaslighter. He would blame and accuse her of things she had never said or done, the things he habitually did. 

A couple of minutes later, he knocked on her door. She slid the security chain and opened the door ajar. There stood Dave, in a leather jacket regardless of the weather. Six feet tall, with wavy blonde hair. He was a classic definition of handsome. Once she had swooned over him, had ignored the red flags.

“Hi Dave, what’re you doing here?” she asked curtly.

“Were you going to shoot me, Dani? I’m your boyfriend. Open the fucking door. I don’t want to talk to you like this.”

Oh right. In her hand was a gun. That was a habit. But wait, what did he just say? He was her ‘boyfriend’? It would be an understatement to say that she was surprised.

“You’re my EX-boyfriend. We’ve broken up three years ago. Remember?”

He blinked, looking confused. Was he high? He shook his head as though to clear his mind. “What are you talking about? You didn’t pick up my phone calls. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh, cut the crap. I thought this was all ended. What exactly are you here for at this hour?”

“We haven’t met for a month. How good is Luther that you forgot about me? That’s why I’m here.”

All she could say was, “Huh?”

He’s playing an idiot.

After swallowing her annoyance, she replied, controlling her tone. “Listen. I don’t have time for this. We are over since ages ago. Now go back to whoever you’re sleeping with and never come here again.”

She slammed the door shut to his face.

“You are such a bitch, you know that?! Lying, cheating bitch. That’s why I had to find someone kind and pure unlike...”

He kept shouting nonsense, and she ignored him. After a while, the silence again. Thank goodness. He must have given up. 

A couple of minutes later, there came another knocking. Woah, he really was going to be dead. She swung open the door this time, ready to shout, but what she found was the old lady from next door. She said she and her husband couldn’t sleep because of the noise. Danica apologized to her, cursing Dave inwardly. 

She couldn’t shut her eyes afterward. Only at dawn, her apartment faded out, but an hour later, the phone alarm startled her from her sleep. Blood pounded in her head. The conversation with Dave came back to her and she couldn’t help thinking it was strange. She could not think why her ex-boyfriend would suddenly show up and make trouble after years.

Anyway, Danica had no time to ponder on that. She had to go to ORLE—Other-races Law Enforcement, to receive a bounty reward. 

Last week, she had taken out an infamous ghoul that tricked ten people to their death; waited till their corpses were rotten; and then feasted on them. She was supposed to receive a decent reward for that, as the ghoul’s head had been bountied. That’s how she made her living, hunting down bounty heads. 

As a licensed hunter, she was allowed to arm within premises of multiple establishments and she could kill dangerous other-races but the evidence was essential in any case and the risk for the jail time was always there. 

Her destination was downtown. During the rush hour, it’d take at least half an hour to cover the distance, if she was lucky.

As she stood by her car, she saw her reflection in the window. Her favorite maroon shirt and jeans. She had not looked in the mirror before she left the apartment. Her red hair was down, her eyes were hollow. She looked horrible. 

Her car moved slowly along the heavily trafficked roads. Umbre City was famous for many things, but the most significant three would be: its size as one of the biggest cities in America; having multiple magic races and cultures more than any city in the world; and its traffic jams.

She ruffled her hair in impatience. If she was born rich and did not need rewards for a living, Danica would have never gone to ORLE’s Bounty Affairs Office. Aside from the traffic, the staff were very condescending. They treated the bounty hunters like the latter were beneath them. 

While she was waiting for the millionth red light to turn green, she turned on her phone screen on the dashboard. She had a notification. 

“How’s your hunt lately, Artemis? Long time no see.” a comment said under her last post which was from two months ago. 

‘Artemis.’ Mia was good at flattering people, but she meant it well. Danica smiled, loving her little comment. Her friend was not a hunter and was in a happy relationship, unlike her. And she was one of the few friends she still had. Two of them had betrayed her by sleeping with Dave. How hurtful that had been. She hadn’t gotten over it for months.

“Same old, same old, my darling Aphrodite,” Danica typed quickly. The lights turned green and she finally was freed from from the traffic jam. She tapped on the steering wheel, contemplating a plan to meet up with her friend. She’d probably call her this evening.

Everything went online these days, but not the bounty office. You’d have to go in person, provide the proof, and fill in a bounty request form. Despite its outdated system, it would be an abomination to step into theirs sparkling floors by holding a bloody head. No, you’d have to pack it well, put it in a box, like a gift parcel. You’d be fined a thousand dollars, otherwise. 

‘This was a civil society,’ they’d say.

It was a busy day. She stood before the only vacant counter. 

“Can I have a Form B? I filled Form A last week.”

“What’s your name?”

“Danica Gallant.”

“Occupation?” 

Geez, there was only one type of people who would come here to fill these forms. “Hunter,” she answered.

“What’s your business?” 

“Look, can I not just fill in the form?”

The woman did not reply. Her name tag read Maddison. She was in her forties with narrow eyes. Instead of handing her the form that she was supposed to fill out to get the bounty, she greeted the colleague who was supposedly coming here late and made small talks. That’s the reason she did not like coming here, but that’s fine. 

Finally, Maddison handed her the form, muttering something inaudible. Danica swung her leg over a bench in the middle of the room and placed the paper on the table.

“... very funny, haha. We just met yesterday, remember?” 

“No, we met last week, not yesterday. I even remember the date February...”

Danica gave a sidelong glance at the speakers, at the other side of the table. Two guys, one was tall, another was bulky. The hunters, because everyone here was either a hunter or an employee of this office. 

Apparently, the tall guy remembered it wrong because he described last week as February when this was June.

“Check the date on your phone. It’s June 15th now,” said his companion.

The tall one went silent, his brows furrowed. “Yeah. You’re right. It’s June. I don’t know why I thought this was February.”

So was he just confused? He looked dazed. “But we met last week,” he continued insisting. “At the Grand Central, you were…”

“Excuse me.”

Both looked around. 

“Sorry, but I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. What happened?”

“George is just being stubborn. He is so forgettable.”

“I’m not forgettable! You know that, Mark.”

As the three of them went further into their conversation, the one called Mark, and she came to realize that George had developed a memory lapse overnight. That sounded familiar, but that was the end of the information. George was still so confused. 

Danica took her money. That would last her about a couple of months, which wasn’t much, considering she nearly died facing that ghoul.

She decided to contact Dave. There were similarities between him and the hunter George.