The Dinner
“Who’s this?” Sam asked when both Michael and Johnny joined them at the dinner. “This is my,” he paused for a second “My cousin. He’s visiting from Kansas.” “My name's Johnny Blaze, nice to meet you.” “Sam Burke, this is my partner Twitch Williams.” “Hello.” After shaking hands and sitting down once again, the waiter came over, “Are you ready to order, or would you like a few more minutes?” She asked, “I’ll take a cup of coffee, thanks.” Michael said, handing his menu over. “Nothing for me thanks.” Johnny said handing his menu over.” “I’ll take a slice of apple pie, and two donuts, thanks.” Sam said, “I’ll pass” Twitch followed handing the waiter both his and Sam’s menus. “Now, we need to get to comparing notes.” “Without civilians.” Twitch added looking at Blaze. “That's why I'm here actually.” Blaze says straightening up as the waiter came back with the coffee, pie, and donuts. “Let me know if you need anything else.” she said as she walked away. “As I was saying, I'm here because of the case. A friend of mine went missing and I'm not leaving till I find them.” He continued. “They were last seen at the park.” “Can you describe your friend for me?” “Well for starters they're nonbinary, they have shoulder length brown hair, they have heterochromia, so a blue left eye, a green right eye, and they’re about 5’1.” He finished “what's your friend's last name?” Twitch asked while flipping through the case file trying to find the person. “Prince.” After a while, “Huh, it appears your friend isn't in this file. Including your friend, that makes 69 missing people.” “ha-ha, 69.” Sam smiled; Twitch side eyed his partner. “When was the last you spoke to Prince?” Michael asked sipping his coffee. “About two weeks ago, I got a call from them asking for my help.” “Do you know why?” Sam asked munching on his last donut. “Didn't say why they called, no.” They all sat in silence for a few minutes until Michael broke it. “Excuse me, could we get our checks?” “Oh of course!” She rushed over as Sam slid his plates over so she could reach them better. “Thank you.” she says before darting off into the kitchen. “So, 69 people went missing in what, two months?” “Just shy of three, sir.” Twitch answered Sam’s question and pushed his glasses further onto his nose. “Here’s your checks.” She handed both Sam and Michael their checks and walked behind the register waiting for them. Michael pulled out his wallet and left a $3 tip, while Sam left a $5 tip. AS the two went to pay, Twitch and Johnny headed outside to wait. Once Sam and Michael joined them outside, they could see Twitch had his gun out pointing it at a dwarf with face paint. “Hey what's going on here!?” Michael demanded stepping in front of Twitch. “Clown is a demon, not human.” he stated now pointing his gun at the ground. “He’s right. They call him the violator.” Sam said now holding his gun. “I just wanna help! I know where to find some of the missing people.” Michael stepped beside Twitch watching the clown pled. “And why would you help us?” Sam asked. “Demons don’t help people unless they get something out of it.” Johnny said, the clown smiled. “But you do.” Johnny’s heart dropped, he’s the one who followed them from the bar. At this point both Sam and Twitch put their guns away. “what's he talking about?” “I don’t know Sam.” The clown clapped his hands. “You can find some of the missing people in the alley on 25th street.” “That's Spawns alley, and you know it.” Twitch said pointing a finger at him, the clown just shrugged. “Who’s Spawn?” Both Michael and Johnny said together looking back and forth between the two detectives and the clown. “Well, I've gotta go bye!” And with that the clown ran off into a nearby alley.