Frank sat in his room, alone. He picked away at his dinner and ate it. Sighing, he looked around with his eyes almost uneasily, keeping his head stationary, and then looked back to the door in front of him. A light shone down from a vent in the ceiling. Suddenly, a woman in a long white dress appeared behind him, running her delicate hand across the back of his neck. There was not one flicker of a reaction. She danced around him elegantly like a white swan, seeming to be lost in a cloud of thoughts. Frank did not seem the slightest bit fazed by the pale ghost as he stared at the door. She continued to dance around him, almost seeming to taunt him with her red lips and unblemished face.

  The morning had broken through once more and both Frank and Ellis sat opposite each other in the cafeteria drinking their breakfast of coffee. Ellis looked at Frank. “You seem agitated.” She asked him. “What's up?”

  “It's nothing.” Frank immediately replied.

  “It may be better if you get it off your chest. I've seen what happens to people when they hold on to bad memories.”

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  Frank sighed, giving in. “My wife was killed by a hooligan. Just some random guy looking for random people to kill for the fun of it. She was an easy target for him. I then joined the police force in a bid for a crusade against evil. When I became a detective, my partner then betrayed me, led me into a trap and tried to get me killed.”

  “Why?”

  “Probably out of jealousy that I advanced through the ranks so quickly. It only took me six months to get promoted to traffic and then six months after that, I was promoted to homicide. My partner told me to meet him at this hideout that he had found, said that there was an ambush planned. I went there and when I realised that there was in fact no ambush, the gang inside found me. I was shot multiple times in the chest.”

  “Christ. How did you survive?”

  “Artificis found me. He took me to this underground doctor that saved my life. Artificis told me that he could use someone like me in his crusades. I immediately agreed. Before I realised what I was dragged into, it was already too late to back out. I am the designer of my own misery, just because I wanted redemption for my wife's death.”

  Ellis reached a hand out and held Frank's. “Artificis will give you all of the blood that you can spill until you will be satisfied. You will be able to move on.”

  “Maybe.”