Chapter 30: Eye-Opening

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Eye-Opening

Chapter 30: Eye-Opening

After Kevin Lomax collected his documents and left the conference room, Chief Woody entered without saying a word and shut the door behind him. Instead of launching into his usual shouting, he sat directly across from Axel Vance and studied him with an unusually serious expression. The silence lasted long enough for Axel to realize whatever the chief had come to discuss was not good news.

"We hooked something much bigger than we expected," Woody finally said, his voice lacking its usual humor. Axel immediately leaned forward because seeing Chief Woody this serious was almost more alarming than seeing another supernatural corpse stand up. "How big are we talking? Political connections?"

Woody slowly nodded but did not answer the question directly. "Hoffman and the detective squad picked up several businessmen tied to Shark Renovation Company, and I pushed them hard because I wanted names before their lawyers could build walls around them. We used every legal pressure point we had and a few methods I’m not especially proud of, but those bastards stayed quiet."

Woody’s expression darkened further as he continued. "Then yesterday, every one of them died in custody. Different rooms, constant supervision, no obvious attacker, and the same kind of impossible internal damage we saw with Gerald Olin." Axel’s eyes widened because these were wealthy businessmen under direct police control, not isolated cultists hiding in abandoned buildings.

"That’s not even the worst part," Woody said. "By this morning, half the records connected to Shark Renovation were useless. Accounts were emptied or closed, addresses led nowhere, shell companies folded into other shell companies, and people who should have known something suddenly remembered nothing." He leaned back and rubbed his forehead. "It’s like somebody spent the night erasing the company from Miami."

Axel sat silently as the weight of the setback settled over him. The battle at the record factory had felt like the end of one major stage of the investigation, especially after they discovered the ledger connecting Shark Renovation to the cult’s operations. In less than a week, the organization had killed witnesses, eliminated captured insiders, and reduced most of the evidence to dead ends.

"Could somebody above us be protecting them?" Axel finally asked. "City Hall, state government, federal contacts—someone powerful enough to make records disappear?" Woody shook his head before Axel finished because that explanation apparently did not satisfy him.

"If this were ordinary political interference, things would be quieter," Woody replied. "A senator makes a phone call, a judge suddenly finds a warrant defective, somebody gets transferred, and the whole problem disappears without making headlines. Whoever we’re dealing with leaves corpses with exploded hearts and burning haunted hotel rooms behind them, so this isn’t normal corruption."

Axel frowned. "Then what do we do?"

Woody pulled out a cigar, clipped the end, and lit it before taking a long drag. "First, I stop pretending Shark Renovation was the organization itself. It was a shell company used to sign contracts, move money, enter buildings, and give these people a legitimate excuse to tear open walls or dig where nobody should be digging."

He exhaled a thick cloud of smoke before continuing. "The people really running this thing are still out there, and we haven’t identified a single one of the big players. The trail is cold for now, but the case isn’t finished because they know exactly who you are." Woody pointed the cigar toward Axel. "Sooner or later, they’re coming back for you."

Axel remained calm even though his stomach tightened slightly. "So I’ve officially become a problem."

"Exactly." Woody crushed the cigar into the ashtray and gave him a tired look. "You’re a hero inside this department, but you’re also walking bait for every supernatural lunatic we haven’t identified yet."

Woody stood and began pacing behind his desk. "And frankly, you attract strange things like a magnet. If I put you back on normal Miami patrol tomorrow, you’ll probably return with King Kong handcuffed to the back of the cruiser." Axel gave a helpless laugh because after everything that had happened since the prison assignment, the joke no longer sounded completely impossible.

"So I’m taking you off the board for a while," Woody continued. "I used to have a relative connected to a recreation area outside the city, and they always needed people willing to work in the woods. You can disappear there for a little while under a temporary forest ranger assignment until this cult stops watching every street in Miami."

Axel actually liked the idea more than he expected. Miami had become a constant soundtrack of gunfire, sirens, bounty hunters, cultists, federal agents, and impossible murders, so a few quiet days surrounded by trees and fresh air sounded almost luxurious. "Fine with me. Where exactly are you sending me?"

Woody froze.

He scratched the side of his thinning hair and stared toward a mountain of old folders. "Damn it. What was that place called?"

Axel watched as the chief opened drawers, moved stacks of paperwork, and muttered curses at his own filing system. After several minutes, Woody finally pulled a crumpled promotional flyer from the back of an ancient folder and carefully flattened it across his desk. The faded photograph showed a beautiful lake surrounded by dense woodland, with a large slogan printed across the top.

WELCOME TO CRYSTAL LAKE.

Axel’s eyelid twitched.

Crystal Lake.

Of every supposedly peaceful place Woody could have chosen, naturally it had to be Crystal Lake.

Axel knew the name far too well from his previous life. Jason Voorhees, the silent killer associated with Camp Crystal Lake, was one of horror cinema’s most famous slashers, and Axel had already learned the hard way that familiar fictional killers were very real in this world. Michael Myers had already crossed his path, so Jason existing somewhere around Crystal Lake no longer sounded like a ridiculous possibility.

Still, Axel was far stronger now than when he first woke inside Holden’s prison. Prisoner Fitness and Police Marksmanship were both maxed, Holy Reading had reached Level 2, and his Physique had climbed far beyond normal human limits. If Jason never appeared, Axel would treat the assignment as a paid vacation, and if he did appear, Axel might remove another supernatural threat while earning something useful from the system.

The idea actually made him slightly excited.

Woody ignored Axel’s strange expression and squinted at the faded phone number printed on the flyer. He grabbed the office phone, dialed, and waited until someone answered before saying, "Hello, is Landon still running things out there? This is Woody from the Miami Police Department."

There was a pause.

Woody blinked. "He died years ago?"

Another pause followed before Woody shrugged. "Well, that saves me from having to bring him a gift. Listen, do you need extra help out there? I’ve got an officer who’s attracted a little too much attention in Miami, and I want him somewhere quiet for a few days."

Axel stared at him.

Woody continued the conversation without embarrassment. "No, he’s not afraid of dangerous work. Believe me, if something in those woods tries to kill him, I’d worry more about the thing in the woods." He listened for several seconds, agreed to the arrangement, then hung up.

Axel rubbed his forehead. "Chief, how long has it been since you talked to these relatives?"

"More than ten years, probably."

"You didn’t know Landon was dead."

"Apparently not."

Woody showed absolutely no shame about that fact. "His daughter works around the recreation area now, though, so you’ll have someone local to show you the job. Spend some time with her, learn the trails, stay away from Miami, and try not to uncover another secret cult under a campground."

He waved toward the door before Axel could respond. "Go to finance and collect whatever bonus money they owe you, then go home and pack. Leave sometime in the next couple days, and for the love of God, do not bring another inexplicable disaster back to my department."

Axel stood and gave him a casual salute. "No promises on the universe behaving itself, Chief, but I’ll try."

"That’s the best I’m getting, isn’t it?"

"Probably."

Woody groaned and dismissed him.

When Axel stepped outside the Miami Police Department, the city looked almost strangely normal despite everything that had happened. Cars moved through busy streets, pedestrians argued on sidewalks, and distant sirens blended into the background as though burning hotels and supernatural cults were simply another part of daily life. After living under constant tension for so long, suddenly having no immediate killer to chase left Axel feeling oddly empty.

He thought about Crystal Lake but decided he had one thing to do before leaving Miami. His physical abilities and firearms skills had improved enormously, yet when supernatural threats appeared his only reliable spiritual weapon remained Holy Reading. If touching Hannibal’s Blessed Bible had triggered one specialization, perhaps spending time around genuine religious objects or trained clergy could trigger another.

Axel hailed a taxi and climbed into the back seat. "Take me to the largest church around here."

The driver immediately brightened. "You picked the right place, brother. You’ve got to hear Father Kenneth preach at least once."

Axel leaned back. "He’s that good?"

"Good?" The driver laughed. "People swear that man can look at you and tell what sins are eating you alive. Then he starts preaching, and somehow people leave feeling like they’ve been carrying fifty pounds on their backs and somebody finally took it away."

The man’s enthusiastic praise made Axel curious despite himself. By the time the taxi stopped, he found himself looking at a large and surprisingly ornate church whose white exterior and stained-glass windows stood out against the surrounding neighborhood. Axel paid the fare and entered with the simple goal of seeing whether the system reacted to anything inside.

A powerful voice struck him almost the moment he crossed the doors.

"I will stand before you in the name of Jesus Christ and confront the sins hiding within your hearts!" the preacher thundered from the front of the sanctuary. "We will cast out the darkness buried within your souls and drive away every demon that dares cling to the faithful!"

Axel stopped near the entrance.

A man in an immaculate white suit stood on the raised platform with a gold sash draped dramatically across one shoulder. His preaching style had less in common with the quiet priests Axel expected and more with an American revival preacher working a packed tent, complete with sweeping gestures and a voice trained to reach the farthest pew without a microphone. "Your sins have been washed away!" Father Kenneth shouted. "You are once again lambs beneath the protection of the Lord!"

The moment he finished, an assistant stepped forward and dramatically extended both arms toward the congregation like a stage faith healer preparing to send divine power through the room. Several worshippers immediately swayed in their seats while Father Kenneth watched them with intense satisfaction. Axel remained near the back, narrowed his eyes, and suddenly wondered whether he had walked into a church or another performance hiding something much stranger.

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