Page 23 of Anathema
She’ll be begging me for more once the sun rises.
Chapter 10
Derek
Deanleftmeafew messages overnight regarding our assignment and Anathema. He found that over the years, there had been numerous complaints of dark figures going in and out of the old abandoned flour mills.
All of these were dead-end leads, and there was no physical or photo evidence to confirm these sightings had actually occurred.
His research proved there was potential for an underground operation to take root beneath the city, with the flour mills being the discreet doors in and out of the system.
In the last text he sent me, Dean requested that I meet him at one of the mills, the Twin City A-Mill, early in the morning to investigate Anathema's potential hideout more thoroughly—or at least the idea of it being there. We couldn’t confirm that this was where their hideout was located, but I wasn’t about to rule anything out unless it was a confirmed dead-end lead.
“Alright, Dean, you have my attention. Why are we here this early in the morning?” I ran a hand through my hair and inspected the seven-floor building before me as I stepped up beside him.
“Three nights ago, another report was called into the Minneapolis PD about suspicious individuals lurking around the mill. Same as all the other stories. Dark cloaks, faceless masks, and they added that there was a man in a black suit with them this time.”
“What did the police have to say about it?” I inquired, rubbing the stubble along my jaw.
“When I asked the officer who took the call, he stated that no one was there when he arrived, and all exterior doors were locked.” Dean shrugged with a sigh, pulling a backpack out of his car and swinging it over his shoulder. “So they blew it off, assuming it was some prank call or teenagers screwing around.”
“And what’s that for?” I gestured to his backpack out of curiosity. It was still early morning, so I assumed he didn’t bring his backpack to camp out here, which could only mean one thing…
“Oh, this?” Dean chuckled. “Supplies we might need on our newest adventure.” He patted me on the back with a smirk and began walking towards the main entrance.
I let out a low groan of annoyance as I rolled my eyes.
“Adven—Dean, what the fuck? I didn’t ask for this, this morning.” I called out, sighing heavily and grinding my teeth as I caught up to his side.
“No, you didn’t, but I know you, and if Ididask you to come with me, you would have blown me off like you always do and told me to bring Marcus instead.” He stopped in front of the doorsbefore turning to face me. “Unfortunately for you, Marcus isn’t on this assignment, and it's classified, so you need to work with me whether you like it or not, Derek.” He snapped, and I recoiled.
Dean caught me off guard with his sudden attitude this morning, but he was right; I was guilty of shoving him off to Marcus whenever I had the chance. But in my defense, they were best friends; it wasn’t like I was pawning him off to another agent he didn’t get along with.
That being said, I didn’t mind working with Dean if I had to. He was easier to be around than any of the other agents, but today, of all fucking days, was the worst to drag me into a tunnel system.
The only thing running through my mind right now was Alexis and crawling back into bed with her. She finally lets me in for one night, and Dean pulls me away for this bullshit.
Fucking perfect.
Instead of spending the entire day fucking the one woman I wanted—that finally let me have a taste of her, I was going to, instead, spend it exploring an abandoned tunnel system with Dean.
My priorities may seem a little screwed up at this point, but I knew Dean and Marcus had been ditching work here and there to chase tail, so why couldn’t I?Fuck me and my work ethic…
I grasped the handle, turning it aggressively and ripping open the main entrance door.
“Let’s get this fucking over with.” I gritted out, grinding my teeth in anger. Damn right, he was going to know exactly how I felt about this impromptu field trip. I would suck it up and do this with him, but I wouldn’t be pleasant about it, not in the least.
“Goddamn, Derek. Get laid for fucking once; this attitude of yours is getting old.” Dean huffed as he followed me inside, and I held back a sarcastic laugh at the irony of his words.
The goal was simple for this morning: Get in, get out, and get the fuck back to Alexis.
Beforedescendingintothebasement where the entrance to the tunnels was located, we searched the main floor for any sign or evidence of individuals moving in and out of the building.
Given its long history of abandonment, the dust had settled heavily, making any disturbances easy to detect. Sure enough, we found footprints and drag marks in the dirt trailing from the main doors to the far end of the building, where the entrance to the basement lay. We assumed this was related to Anathema, but it could also be teenagers or social media explorers looking for their next viral video.
Due to the high risk of being caught, I had to agree with the decision to search the tunnels in the morning rather than at night. Based on the times when most of the phone calls were recorded, the sightings always occurred at night, which meant they were most likely avoiding the mills during the day. That didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t living down there either, but we assumed the likelihood of being caught during the day was less than if we'd come at night.
There were two primary benefits to searching these tunnels. The first was that we could confirm where their hideout was and if they were actively using it. The second, if we were lucky—but I highly doubted it—would be finding someone we could intimidate or threaten to become our resource for information.
