Sirens don't take kindly to visitors.

I stared at the patch of damp in the corner of my rented office. It was easier to focus on than the grieving mother in the seat just opposite.

"You were supposed to bring her home."

I blinked back a tear and inhaled deeply. I knew what I was about to say might seem cruel, heartless in fact, but it was quite the opposite.

"Mrs. Fortmason, I never promise to bring a missing person home. In fact, it's very rare that that's a possibility at all. I promise to find out what happened to them. Your daughter was killed."

She stared back at me, eyes filled with anger and sadness. No one wants to be told their loved one is dead.

I'm not made of stone; I knew it wasn't a satisfying answer. Nonetheless, it was the truth, accepting it was going to save her from a lifetime of extra pain, although I'm sure the truth would provide that anyway.

"I want details. How am I supposed to just take your word for it?" There was an arrogance in her tone I didn't like.

I cringed, remembering the murky waters that Chloe Fortmason had plunged into and the creatures that were there to greet her. How she risked everything for a midnight swim.

I wanted to spare her mother the nightmares she would suffer after learning about the fate her child had met.

"You came to me because I investigate cases like your daughter's... Cases that involve elements that aren't human. I'm telling you, Chloe is dead. You don't need to know any more than that."

"I paid a lot of money, Amelia. I want details or I'll hire someone else." She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sniffled defiantly, as if it were some kind of threat.

I rolled my eyes. It was tiresome. I understood how devastating it was to lose a loved one, trust me, I really did. But Mrs. Fortmason's entitled attitude was beginning to piss me off.

"There is no one else, you know that. You don't need to hire someone else because the job is done." I opened my desk drawer and pulled out the charm bracelet that Chloe was wearing when she disappeared.

It was rusted a little from years in the ocean but it was unmistakably hers. It was a piece of proof that I'd hoped I could hand over without explanation as to where it came from.

I watched Mrs. Fortmason's expression change as she realized what it was and exactly what it meant.

"Where did you get that? Please, Amelia. I know some people wouldn't want to know... but I do. I have to know."

She took the bracelet and sobbed. I pushed the box of tissues between us a little closer to her and sighed. I felt sorry for her but I got the distinct feeling that nothing I said was going to satisfy.

It never did in my line of work.

"Chloe was killed by sirens. She never left the beach that night. Your daughter was drunk and she jumped into the water after all her friends had gone to sleep. Fully clothed in the pitch dark.

"I don't know why she did that. But I know I got incredibly wet getting that back for you and my life was in real danger. Sirens are nasty creatures, as your daughter came to realize when she swam into their territory." I cleared my throat, holding back the urge to elaborate further.

Be nice, Amelia, be nice.

"How do you know she didn't drop it in there? She could still be out there somewhere..." she responded, disregarding everything I was telling her.

I started to tune her out, feeling the annoyance building inside me. I tried desperately to search for a pleasant way to frame her daughter's death but it didn't exist and I was feeling particularly irritated.

Her words of doubt buzzed like a fly that just wouldn't leave.

"They gave me the bracelet back still attached to your daughter's bony, rotted hand, and then used it to pull me in. It was remarkably well-preserved for how long she'd been in the water.

"They'd repurposed her skull into an accessory, similar to a handbag, being used to hold all the shiny things they'd collected from their victims.

"Apparently, Chloe wasn't the only human stupid enough to end up in their home. It was decorated with bones, way more than make up just one small girl.

"That's a lot for someone to see while holding their breath, isn't it? If I hadn't stabbed the siren dragging me I'd have died down there. Is that enough detail?

"You paid me a lot of money. I did my job. I told you when you hired me that justice is not my department. You wanted answers and I got them. Accept it and parent your other children," I hissed.

"That's not..."

"I kept Chloe's hand. Do you want it?"

That last part was a bluff and for a moment I wondered if I'd taken things too far, but it was effective.

Speechless, the mother shook her head and stumbled to her feet, backing toward the door.

I know I sounded cold. I felt it as Mrs. Fortmason got up and left my office in hysterics. Not half as cold as I'd felt in the water after being dragged in by a vicious sea monster, mind you.

I sounded like a stone-cold bitch, but I was honestly trying to be kind.

I'd visited the grieving mother's home when I first took the case. It was littered with back-page newspaper clippings that archived the meager local media attention the case received, and photographs of her missing daughter.

The house was a dusty, macabre monument to Chloe.

It irked me. I know it shouldn't, I know most people fall into the same pit of despair that Mrs. Fortmason did when faced with a missing child. A piece of them just gone with no explanation, their whole world.

But Chloe wasn't her whole world. Mrs. Fortmason had three other children, children she'd neglected and ignored in her decade-long search.

Her husband moved out of their home with the kids six years after Chloe disappeared, citing her relentless obsession costing them their family life.

His wife was so busy searching for a ghost that she'd forgotten about the living.

I could relate but I couldn't sympathize. It sounds hypocritical to condemn an obsession that I personally share, but I didn't leave anyone behind in my pursuit.

It was fucking sad. All of my cases were. Every lost person is a tragedy.

I thought about the sirens; their long, slender, scaled bodies topped with the head and shoulders of beautiful women, clawed arms extending from the water, accompanied by an otherworldly song. It was a sight that most wouldn't consider possible.

What child obsessed with fairytale books would've thought mermaids would be so dangerous?

What self-respecting adult would believe in monsters at all?

What are monsters? Creatures that are commonly written off as stories, conjured by the minds of overly imaginative children or the mentally ill. Maybe you think I'm mentally ill, too. I certainly wish I were young enough to be an overly imaginative child.

I wish I imagined Chloe's rotten hand.

I didn't believe in monsters either. Not at first anyway. Nor do most of my clients when we initially meet.

I stumbled on the dark underworld that harbors them while searching for my own lost loved one, the only person I'd not been able to find.

My childhood sweetheart, Valerie, who disappeared when we were sixteen years old.

After years of immersing myself in the world of unsolved disappearances, unsuccessfully looking for answers on her, I started to investigate other cases. I earned a reputation in the online amateur detective circles as someone who was determined and relentless.

I started accepting payment for my services, like some sort of unregistered PI.

I still remember the first, a young teenage boy named Kai who had disappeared at a party, featuring underage drinking and popular kids who he didn't fit in with. I'd thought it was so obvious.

Bullying, a prank gone wrong, a coverup... solved.

I hadn't expected that he'd been willingly bitten by a vampire that night. Who would? That he'd thrown his whole life away to fit in with the other little monsters.

My investigation led me to a rural house that Kai had been spotted going in and out of a few years after he disappeared. When I arrived I was greeted by a girl no older than twenty or so, Kai, and a few other kids in a room in the background.

They were huddled around a corpse, suckling on puncture points all over it, draining every sip of blood they could. It was grotesque. Vile.

It took me some time to believe it, I thought the fangs may have been filed down or capped but it was impossible. Kai hadn't aged a day, despite disappearing more than twenty years prior.

The kids came toward me, bloodlust in their eyes. I was lost, terrified, and thought I was about to die. Until I shouted the name of Kai's brother, who had hired me.

The fanged boy shed real tears as he remembered the life he left behind. He provided me with his T-shirt and asked that I told his brother that he died. He couldn't go back and he wanted people to stop searching.

I respected his wishes.

After that it was as if I'd turned over a rock that had been pressed against the ground, hiding all the creepy crawlies for an eternity.

I saw monsters everywhere. Every case led me to something new. Sometimes a recognizable creature; something that lived in the nightmares of the collective humankind. Other times the monsters were different, creatures that not even your wildest nightmare could create.

I'd come a long way since Kai. By the time I was faced with those sirens and that hand, I knew exactly what to expect.

It had been fifteen years since Valerie disappeared. Chloe's case marked the three hundredth missing person that I'd successfully found and even more monster encounters that I'd survived, alone.

It should've been a victory but it wasn't.

I was battered. My body was covered in bruises and scars from my battle with the sirens. I was tired, weak, and had cases piling up. Things were starting to get on top of me; that was probably why I'd bitten so hard at Mrs. Fortmason.

I needed someone who would help pull me out of the water next time. I couldn't continue as a one-woman band. I needed an assistant and I'd been scouting mystery forums for some time.

Defeated and exhausted, I locked up the office and headed to a nearby bar that I frequented. Everyone needs a way to unwind and that was mine; every bad day, every battle wound, and every kid ripped apart by the monster that really did live in their closet led me there.

It wasn't the alcohol or the music that enticed me. It was the prospect of yet another pretty girl as lonely as I was. Desperate to forget their troubles for one night. Women were my poison.

And tonight's poison was beautiful.

She was on her own and I thought I'd struck gold. Her eyes lingered on mine from across the bar as she adjusted her figure-hugging black dress. She was sophisticated-looking, with long, dark blonde hair that cascaded down her back and wicked green eyes that mesmerized me even from a distance.

When she approached, I felt my heart racing. I tried to mentally prepare a smooth opening line but I didn't need to.

"Olive. Would you like a drink?"

Her voice was smooth and I tried to conceal my goofy grin. I'd picked up plenty of women in plenty of bars but something about her was throwing me off kilter. It was as if the rest of the room behind her had disappeared from focus.

I pushed my pint glass to the side, pretending it belonged to the man next to me and racking my brains for a classier drink that I'd be able to stomach.

"Am... Amelia," I answered, unable to take my eyes away from her. "Double vodka and coke, please."

Olive nodded toward the blurred-out bar and smiled sweetly as the landlady asked for her order. I felt slightly dizzy, drunk even, but I'd barely sipped the drink I started with.

"We'll take two beers," she told the barkeep, in that smooth voice.

I started to protest but she held a slender finger to her lips. Her nails were manicured perfectly into long, black, pointed claws. I realized that I was struggling to breathe, like she'd knocked all the air from me.

Something was seriously wrong.

"There's no need, Amelia. No point hiding who you are with me, I already know exactly who you are." Her tone was seductive but dangerous, not dissimilar to the siren's song.

"What do you want?" I stuttered, trying to turn my head but I couldn't. It was like she had me cable-tied with her eyes alone.

"This is more about what you want, Amelia. You want me... that's for sure. But I'm sure you'd drop me in a pit of lava if it meant you could have Valerie." She chuckled, plump lips framing her perfect smile.

I went from dizzy to sick. I could feel the excitement spreading across every inch of my face, I couldn't conceal it. Fifteen years without a single lead and now this. It confirmed the suspicion I'd harbored for years.

Valerie was taken.

"Where is she?" I spat, still unable to prize my neck from its position.

"That's the issue, Amelia. You need to stop looking. You're getting noticed by allllll the wrong people and trust me, you don't want to go down this road any further."

The excitement dropped. Unable to move I started to panic on the spot. The people that worked in industries adjacent to mine weren't renowned for their friendliness.

I was frightened, genuinely frightened.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Olive. And I'm trying to help you. You can take it or leave it but if you continue down this path you will regret it. Stop looking for Valerie. She's gone."

I swallowed a lump in my throat. Olive was stunning, a beautiful monster. I wondered what she was, who she was. I tried to speak but I couldn't, my mouth wouldn't move no matter how hard I tried. I realized I had no power at all.

"She was right though, you are really very pretty."

Olive leaned in, her perfumed, spiced scent filling my nostrils and the very ends of her hair resting in my lap. She placed a black-clawed hand on my cheek and blinked her piercing green eyes. Her lips touched mine and I felt my heart stop for a moment.

It was more than just an attraction. Olive was a real enchantress.

Leaving me static in my chair she pulled away and got up slowly, landing gracefully on her black heeled shoes. I stayed there, still, until she stepped out of the bar door and the hold was broken. I shook my head and took a few labored breaths.

"Wow, I'm surprised you let that one get away," the landlady joked, now back in focus, as she noted my dumbstruck expression.

I laughed it off and left the bar, searching for Olive along the street but she was long gone.

At home, I tried to piece together what she'd said. "She was right though..." Did that mean Valerie? Did that mean that she was alive...? That she sent Olive? I replayed the warning in my mind, knowing it only served to stoke my curiosity.

I also thought about how much the lack of control scared me.

Just like it had in the murky waters, retrieving Chloe Fortmason's bracelet. Just like it had in Kai's vampire commune, trying to avoid being eaten. I couldn't keep doing this alone.

I needed someone.

Sweating, I dialed the number of a boy I'd been corresponding with online. An online sleuth meticulous in his research. I'd spoken to him about how I'd considered an assistant before and he seemed keen.

I'd put off hiring, struggling to work out a way of breaking the human perception that monsters aren't real in an interview. It was still a risk, he still might laugh his way out of the office, but I couldn't waste any more time.

If there was even a slim chance Valerie was alive then suddenly my survival mattered more than it ever had before.

"Hello?"

"Daniel, it's Amelia. The job is yours if you want it."

The trees are a death trap.

"Daniel, can you run through the case for me one more time, please?"

I looked across the desk at my new assistant. He was exhausted, I could tell. His brain was frazzled from repeating every tiny detail so many times.

He took a sip of water and prepared to do it again, just once more.

"The target is Liam, he was twenty-three years old at the time of his disappearance six years ago. He lived with his parents, Brenda and Steve, and was a single father to Macy, four years old at the time. He was a responsible young guy and an outdoorsy person who often took his daughter to the local woods."

"Good," I replied. "What happened to him on March 6th?"

"He'd spent a day in the woods whilst Macy was having a rare overnight visit with her mother. He didn't get to hike alone often and took whatever opportunities he could.

"He returned to the home that evening, agitated. His parents said he wouldn't calm down and kept repeating that something was following him. His behavior was erratic and paranoid."

Daniel took another sip of his water and rifled through the mounds of paperwork on the desk to jog his memory of the timeline before continuing. He was doing well, but I enjoyed watching him sweat.

"His parents managed to calm him enough to get him to sit and eat dinner. There was no one surrounding the house or in their garden, despite searching.

"Still unsettled, he told Brenda at 9 pm that he was going for a walk to clear his head. She thought it may help and didn't stop him. When Liam didn't return by 11 pm, Brenda began to panic.

"She tried to call her son but his phone was switched off, which was very unusual. She didn't know what to do. She and Steve drove around the local area but couldn't find Liam anywhere. He didn't return home and was reported missing the next morning."

"Has there been any evidence since?"

"Nothing. Not a single sighting either, which is odd for a case like this. But there are numerous theories, most relating to a photograph that Liam took and posted online only hours before he returned to the home."

I picked up a photograph that stuck out amongst the local news clippings and documents I'd managed to acquire from police, rescue forces, and PIs.

It was one I'd spent hours looking at.

It showed Liam, a handsome young guy beaming at the camera, trees around him, and his face reflecting the happiness he felt within nature. I'd started to feel like I knew the missing boy's face better than even his mother did, having studied it so intensely.

It would've been fairly innocuous, if it weren't for the shadowed figure just visible in the background.

Humanoid in shape, the figure appeared to be standing behind a tree, watching Liam as he walked through the forest. Its features were clear; eyes, a nose, and a smile, all engulfed by darkness. Every time I looked at it I felt a chill of fear and excitement.

The case had gained very little traction; police had mostly written Liam off as a runaway. They kept up a cursory investigation but explained away his erratic behavior with drugs, despite everyone close to him insisting that it was completely out of character.

Most professionals involved had disregarded the photograph as an optical illusion.

Not all were so eager to declare the mystery solved. Difficult to find internet forums discussed the photograph regularly, coming up with a colorful array of theories.

Did Liam run away and stage the picture? Was he kidnapped by some sort of Bigfoot? Did he stumble on something he shouldn't have in the woods and paid for it on his later walk?

Some even speculated that his ex, Janie, killed him to gain custody of their daughter. This was a theory that was fiercely denied by both Janie and Liam's family. The couple maintained a good co-parenting relationship and the arrangements for Macy were agreed upon.

His mother contacted me when police officially closed the case after seven years of following useless leads and tips from conspiracy theorists. Macy had started to ask about her dad, to question what happened. Brenda couldn't bear the not knowing.

"I got your number from a friend at a support group I attend. She said you're the best."

That's all Brenda said to me when she called.

She couldn't pay. Usually, my services are very expensive but Liam's case intrigued me, so I took her on pro bono.

It was Daniel's first case and my first working alongside someone else. It was unusual, to have someone in the office who wasn't crying, or lamenting me for not being able to resurrect the dead.

It was going to take a while to adjust but after the incident in the bar with Olive, I was grateful not to be alone. I hoped I'd made the right decision, Daniel's online credentials were shining as he reeled off the case in perfect detail.

If it worked out I would have so much more time to work out who was trying to stop me from getting to the truth.

I thought of Valerie. The hour that I waited for her in the park to turn up and how cold the bars were on that swing. We were sixteen, confused and in love, her disappearance broke my heart.

I couldn't be more desperate to follow the lead but I had to be smart. I needed Daniel to acclimate before I trusted him to help me with something so important.

I had to see how he'd cope when faced with a monster.

In Liam's case, everything pointed to him having been taken against his will by the entity in the trees. I'd had the photograph studied by experts in editing, all of them said it was untouched.

That was rare. I'd never before had a piece of evidence so compelling. I ran the risk every time of unearthing another human monster and another human tragedy. Or finding someone like Kai, who didn't want to be found.

Not this time.

"Tomorrow we're traveling to the woods and we're going to retrace Liam's steps. Are you okay with that, Daniel?"

He looked nervous. Daniel was young, inexperienced, and sceptical of almost everything I'd told him. Regardless, he showed promise.

I'd tried to be upfront and whilst I was grateful that he hadn't left immediately exclaiming my insanity, I was concerned that he was woefully underprepared.

I'd met him online two years ago, where he'd obsessively categorized missing persons cases, sparing no detail. His reservations were natural.

It's a hard pill to swallow, finding out that monsters are responsible for a huge number of unresolved disappearances.

Daniel thought that I was making some kind of sick joke, that it was an initiation.

He nodded and we parted ways, him carting a huge folder out of the office to study the case overnight. I'd tasked him with mapping the route and helping us find the spot where Liam took the photo. I wanted to really test him.

I pulled up an hour or so before sunrise outside his small flat, just above a shop.

He'd dressed ridiculously, in a shirt and blazer. I held my tongue, making a conscious effort to come across nicer.

"Morning, Amelia!" he beamed, feigning a cool exterior. He couldn't hide the sweat on his brow or the small tremor in his hands. Not from me.

"Are you ready?"

"I am. Last night I did some research into the local area and the woods Liam went missing in. Did you know there are eight people who disappeared in those woods in the last decade alone?"

"I didn't know that. Good work. I think we could be dealing with something very dangerous... I have to ask, Daniel... Why the suit?"

I just couldn't stop myself.

"I'm working. These are my work clothes."

I laughed a little and touched the accelerator with my woodland walking boots, feeling a little smug as Daniel whimpered a meek protest.

"You've not done any fieldwork in your research have you." I smiled to myself, reveling a little in his fear.

"I find my skills are on a computer. I can dig up dirt, hunt anyone down via their digital footprint, and put together a comprehensive file. But no... I've never taken it out of my bedroom."

"Do you know why I offered you this job, Daniel?"

"Because I'm thorough. I'm useful."

"No. That's not it."

I smiled again as I took a hand off the wheel and reached across him to the glove compartment, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one as I wound my window down slightly.

Online sleuths were ten a penny but there weren't many with the skills that Daniel had, I'd chosen him for a reason.

"I hired you because I traced you back to the email address I received the anonymous files from. I haven't come across many internet detectives with the balls to hack a secure police system."

Daniel grinned, it was a victory he needed to help subside his nerves.

"Like I said, Amelia, my skills are online. I saw some old posts of yours about this case on the forums and I thought I'd give you a hand. We'd been talking for some time and I really wanted this job."

I felt my whole body cringe. I did need a hand. The files he sent were regarding the case that kept me awake every night for over a decade. The only one I'd been unable to solve.

Valerie.

I didn't want to burst Daniel's bubble by telling him I'd already seen those files and that they were of no use to my investigation. It was his drive and ability that I was interested in. I let him have his victory.

"Tell me if I'm overstepping but I didn't realize that you... knew her," Daniel continued, plugging the silence that had followed his admission.

"You are overstepping," I hissed back. "We aren't discussing Valerie today. Who is the target?"

"The target is Liam-"

"The target is Liam," I asserted with finality, tossing the end of my cigarette out of the window. I wasn't ready to let him in, not yet.

We continued toward a small village silently, an antiquated sign marking our turning off the busy stretch of road and into meandering hills and valleys.

Abelfort

I stopped the car abruptly in a small, deserted car park on the edge of the woods.

"Where did he enter?" I asked.

The woods weren't especially large, not in comparison to the vast national parks of America. For England, however, it was more than just a small smattering of trees. Certainly enough to be classified a forest.

Choosing the correct entrance point was vital to covering similar ground to Liam.

"He lived over that way." Daniel clutched a piece of paper and pointed to his left, dawn just breaking in full over the tree line. "So he will have gone in through something the locals call the cross tree."

He pulled another scrunched piece of paper from his pocket and I despaired a little as I noticed his formal shoes. They looked expensive. He unscrewed a photo of two trees that had intertwined about two meters up, creating a perfect natural archway.

It wasn't hard to find.

There was something about the way the trees danced with each other in the morning light that made it look more eerie than peaceful. Like two lovers in a violent, passionate embrace.

"There's no need for work clothes in this job, you know?" I joked, trying to make conversation and squash the earlier tension as I held my copy of Liam's selfie up to various different trees.

"I'm learning that now. There was no induction pack."

I scoffed. I supposed I wasn't such a traditional employer. When should I have broken it to him that we were extra busy during holidays?

The forest terrain was treacherous. Even through my boots, I could feel the protruding tree roots and uneven surfaces. Daniel was struggling, shivering a little under the canopy that blocked out the freshly risen sun. We walked for hours.

I wasn't sure what exactly to look for, I couldn't liken the monster in the photograph to anything else I'd dealt with, leaving us in unfamiliar territory.

Finally, after starting to feel hopeless, I noticed something.

I faced Daniel and held my finger to my lips, stopping him in the clearing we'd reached.

The sounds that accompanied the trees had stopped, there was no birdsong, no tree branches moving in the wind, not even the sound of insects rustling in the leaf litter. Instead, there was a faint hum, surrounding the area and vibrating from every direction. It was low-pitched and hypnotic.

Daniel started to shake as he noticed the low, rhythmic tones. I felt my own heart start to pound a little.

Whatever was near was doing a great job of trying to insight panic. I wondered if that hum was what Liam heard, alone, following him through the trees as he made his way home.

That would fuck with anybody.

"Come on! You didn't hide very well the first time, why are you hiding now? We're here for Liam!" I shouted into the open space.

I was angry. Angry that something would be so blatant and yet so cowardly. It was trying to use us as playthings.

"Who said that was the first time?"

The hum came to a grinding halt as the creature spoke and its words echoed directly through me.

"Come out. Face me."

I noticed that Daniel had dropped his map and his whole screwed-up pile of printed documents. The internet wasn't going to help him now and he knew it. I was confident I could keep him safe... for the most part.

The leg came first. The burnt-looking shadowed leg that lengthened and contracted as it moved, like a slinky making its way down a steep set of stairs. The body followed. Unlike anything I'd seen before the monster moved like the laws of physics didn't apply.

It wasn't typical of the monsters I was used to facing. Many of them resembled humans, or at least things that humans might recognize. This, however, was something entirely new.

For a moment, I felt exactly what Liam must have felt. The panic, the terror, the desperation to flee and go home. It wasn't a good feeling.

As it stabilized, fully in our view, it morphed into the human-like shape I'd grown so familiar with when studying the photograph.

Its extremities resembled the branches and roots of the trees around it. Its eyes formed in the space between the shadows, glowing a yellow that just stood out amongst the winding branches.

And that grotesque, sinister smile.

Not all monsters were so unpalatable, but I could feel the hatred coming from inside this one. Like its sole purpose was misery.

"What happened to Liam?" I quivered desperately.

"Which one was he?"

Without the forest to obscure it, the monster's voice echoed with each word, like a second, and third, and fourth voice all lived inside it. A mocking laugh following every letter.

"The one you couldn't resist so bad that you let him take a picture of you," I held up the photograph, inching slightly closer.

"Mmmmmm... Hahahahahah."

I took my eyes off the monster long enough to recover from the profound effect that his evil smile was having on me. I turned to Daniel, scanning his torn and muddied clothing as I noticed a damp, dark patch on his posh suit trousers.

I hadn't intended to scare him so badly. I hadn't expected to be scared so badly myself.

"Is he alive?" I shouted.

"Of course not. He tasted so good. How do you think you taste... Amelia?"

I felt my face sink. I tried to control it but I couldn't.

"How do you know my name?" I demanded, shaken.

"Your reputation precedes you. There are so many out there who would consider me a hero for removing you from this world."

I took a step back, piecing together the parts that didn't make sense. A monster like this wouldn't reveal itself. It just wouldn't.

This was a trap. Just like Olive.

"Who hired you?" I screamed, my hands clammy and sweat forming on my neck. I tried to hold my composure.

"There are plenty of candidates, aren't there? Your work, your life, your involvement with that pretty, young girl... What was her name? How did she taste, Amelia?"

I swallowed a lump in my throat. The sickening voice spoke with such knowing of my intimate personal tragedies.

He knew way too much. And we'd found him far too easily.

"Who are you working with? How do you have these details?"

"I bet you'd love to know the answer to that. You still didn't answer my question though. What do you think you taste like?"

I snarled. I wasn't going to get anything from him and I knew it. Distressed, it took me a few moments to notice the creature extending a long, branch-like arm toward my new assistant.

"Daniel, move!" I screamed, watching in horror as he leaped backward, stumbling in his muddied shoes and tripping to the ground.

I ran toward the monster, fumbling in my pocket for the knife I'd used to sever my connection with the sirens. One that had got me out of many scrapes. The creature noticed the small blade in my hand and its smile extended, past the perimeter of its face.

"They said you had weapons... Your weapons won't be effective against them. You have no idea what's coming."

I plunged the knife, deep into the shadowed mass as it stood and waited, laughing, accepting its fate. It was apparent the entity was nothing more than another message, a living warning on a suicide mission.

That terrified me even more.

As the knife made contact the creature started to disappear, fading into blackened particles. I didn't like to kill anything, that was never my aim, but no one deserved to die like Liam did either.

One by one the particles faded into nothingness, leaving behind a lighter atmosphere. As the last of the creature was obliterated the colors in the forest grew brighter and the sharp tweet of a bird broke the silence.

"What the fuck was that!?" Daniel's voice brought clarity to the area as he hoisted himself up from the ground. The creature was gone. I clung hard to my blade.

Clarence, a good contact working closely with monsters, hadn't explained to me how it worked or what it was made of when he'd given it to me. He said it was a secret of the organization he worked for and if they found out I had one he'd lose his job.

I'd tried to turn him down at first, insisting I'd rather die than kill, but I'll be damned if it hadn't come in good use more than a few times.

"I meant..." Daniel continued, breaking my stream of thought.

"I know what you meant and I told you when I hired you, open mind. You need to adjust to the things you're going to see. Now get us back to the car, please."

We stumbled through the trees and out of the woods. Daniel was embarrassed, he tried to hide the wet patch in his trousers but he knew I'd seen.

"It's okay to be scared, you know."

"You weren't. I don't want to be scared anymore, Amelia, this was awful... and the most exciting thing I've ever done. I'm ready for our next target."

"Me, too... But first, we have to inform Brenda that her son won't be coming home and that her granddaughter no longer has a daddy."

I shed a tear for Liam as we loaded the car and got back on the road. I had nothing to give his mother, no evidence of life or death and not a single real answer.

Daniel was wrong, too. I was scared.

Monsters and the people that work with them are responsible for so much damage. And I know all about it. There was a chance that these warnings led to Valerie, and an even bigger chance that I was being trapped.

Whoever was after me already knew the answers to my cases and they'd reached the monster first. They were able to make such a terrifying creature willing to die for their cause.

This wasn't just about stopping me from finding Valerie. Someone wanted me dead.

Good friends aren't always good people.

"Amelia, are you really expecting me to believe that this is the office of your most valuable contact? If this a trick, it isn't your best," Daniel wondered.

I smiled to myself. It didn't look much, I'd give him that. A small, corrugated, metal shed on the side of a city park wasn't where one might expect to find someone like Clarence.

But that was exactly the point.

"Did you have to wear the suit again? I told you this job doesn't require work clothes," I retorted, looking Daniel up and down, giggling at how out of place he was.

"You told me this was a visit to a colleague. Do you have to swerve every question I ask?" he responded, a mildly irritated expression on his face.

"It's no trick, the monsters that we come across are hiding in plain sight. It's only pertinent that the humans that help them do the same. Once you understand that, you'll see that they're everywhere."

I sighed, realizing he was going to take some time to adjust.

"So who is this man? What does he do?"

"He's a refuse collector. And if he has the information I think he does then we'll get this one closed fast. No fieldwork, your shoes are safe."

I knocked hard on the outer metal exterior of the shed. The hinges creaked and I wondered how it remained standing. It was a miracle that vandals hadn't destroyed it entirely.

There was a symphony of clanking and crashing. I giggled to myself imagining Clarence tripping through the mountains of junk he kept inside. I knew Daniel was expecting men in black and he was going to be sorely disappointed.

"Amelia!" a warm familiar voice cut through the sound of the creaking door. "Always a pleasure to have you visit."

Clarence was a short, thin, elderly man. On the surface, you'd have expected he was someone's grandfather, a kindly old man and perhaps a dab hand at competitive bowls.

You would never have suspected that he was a high-level operative, working for an organization that cleaned the messes of murderous monsters.

I'd already introduced Daniel to the monsters that hid in the shadows of our world, now it was time he met the humans that helped them to stay hidden.

"And this is?" He gestured to my companion, inspecting him through his magnified, circular glasses. Daniel found it unsettling, I could tell.

"This is my new employee. He's very promising."

"An employee," Clarence scoffed and raised a tufty eyebrow in surprise. "He really must be promising for you to take someone on. I thought you were the lone shark."

He stopped his intense inspection of my assistant to laugh gutturally at his own bad pun. It was one he'd been using for a number of years.

"You're the only one who calls me that and you know it. Anyway, are you going to let us in? Daniel's outfit won't hold up in the elements."

Daniel dusted himself off from my ribbing indignantly, following us into the pokey little shack, filled with industrial garden tools that perfectly matched the facade. I watched him panic, wondering if we were going to converse in there, shoulder to shoulder.

How very cozy.

Clarence opened up a hatch in the floor, revealing a set of dimly lit stairs that led to a much larger, more accommodating room. It was nothing special, but it was carpeted and housed a few chairs and a desk. Much warmer than the shed above.

The acronym of the company Clarence worked for was emblazoned on a brass plaque on the desk - PSEC.

"What does PSEC stand for?" Daniel asked, taking in his surroundings as he took a seat on a plastic bucket chair. Clarence shot me an irritated look.

"Did you tell this boy anything? Why is he so confused?"

"I tried," I started. "He's still a bit of a skeptic."

My contact and dear old friend rolled his eyes. It must have been hard for him to imagine not knowing what he knew. The monsters, the underground network of services specially for them, and the countless swept-up murders.

"I work for an organization called the Paranormal Services Emergency Cleaners. We deal with messes that would cause mass hysteria if left to be discovered by the public, in an efficient and timely fashion," I tutted as Clarence reeled off the PSEC promotional spiel.

"What he means, Daniel, is that he's body disposal." I turned to the old man. "You know I don't do bullshit, Clarence, let's not start with that."

"Amelia... must you always be so disparaging of my work? You could lighten up a tad," he responded, smiling at my defiance. I knew he appreciated it really.

"I'll lighten up when my cases stop leading me to you," I snapped back.

I thought back to the number of times I'd come close to finding someone, only to realize they'd already been disposed of by Clarence and his colleagues after being ripped apart by beasts.

The amount of grieving families I'd had to tell that their loved ones were dead and I had no body for them. No proof. Just my word.

"I'll let you elaborate in your own fashion in that case. Who's the target this time, why are you here?" Clarence responded gingerly, desperate to move on. "You know, it would be great if you just popped in to say hello sometime, maybe a cup of tea."

I noted his avoidance. He didn't like it when I confronted him with just how problematic his work really was.

"Next time, Clarence, I promise," I lied, just like I did every other time he made that suggestion. "Daniel, please run through what we know."

"The target is Mika, missing for six months. She was a university student in the city. She went missing a month after her closest friend, Lola, disappeared.

"Lola had been talking to a boy online who lived out in the country. Her housemates on campus, including Mika, found a note saying that she'd left to be with him. Lola didn't have much money so she will have train-hopped and hitched to the village the boy lived in.

"When she didn't arrive it was presumed that she ran into trouble along the way. No body was found but police suspect it's only a matter of time."

I spotted Clarence's left eyebrow twitch. It was subtle, but it was a tell of his that I'd noticed over the years. He knew something about these girls. I watched him carefully as Daniel continued.

"After the loss of her friend, Mika became withdrawn. She was upset as she felt that there wasn't enough effort being put into finding Lola, she subsequently spent a lot of time in her room.

"A month to the day after the housemates found the first note they found a second, this time from Mika.

"It said that she had found duplicate accounts online matching the boy Lola was talking to and she had theories that traffickers were involved. She feared something much more sinister happened to her friend.

"Mika's note said that she'd gone after Lola and didn't want anyone to follow her."

Clarence tugged at the collar on his tattered polo shirt, taking a breath.

"She left an explanation in her note by the sounds of it. What makes you think this has anything to do with PSEC?"

I rifled through my satchel, pulling out a plastic carrier bag containing the only piece of evidence I had. It was a shirt, the one that Mika was wearing when she disappeared, and it was covered in blood.

I placed it on the desk and Clarence's left eyebrow twitched again.

"So she's dead?" he asked. "You know we wouldn't leave that behind, we're professionals, Amelia, like you!"

"Maybe," I responded, growing tired of the deception. I understood Clarence's loyalty to the company and his reluctance to divulge information but I could see through his blatant lies and he knew it.

He was just prolonging the process.

"That's not her blood though. It isn't Lola's either," Daniel interrupted, realizing our exchange was about to get heated. "We traced the blood through one of those genetic makeup companies and found a familial match in a girl named Polly Tackett. Amelia said you know her father."

Clarence's eyebrow twitched one more time and he realized I had him. I knew that his partner, Artie Tackett, had died on the job last month. Clarence had called me personally in tears.

"What happened to that girl's friend? And if she killed Artie, where is she now?"

A tear rolled down his wrinkled face and he took his glasses off for a moment, rubbing at them with his fleece jacket sleeve to clear the steam.

"We were attending a clean at a site frequented by one of our long-time clients. They subcontract us to ensure their organization is kept secure and operational. They'd held an... event..."

"Carla," I hissed.

Suddenly everything made sense. Mika's friend Lola had fallen victim to one of the most heinous organizations in the paranormal industries. The Ethical Organ Collectors.

A misnomer if ever there was one, they were headed by Carla Parks, a ruthless woman who was known to hunt unsuspecting, innocent people to stock food for monsters. I'd come across her before, even met her face to face once.

She was by far the most terrifying monster I'd had the displeasure of meeting.

The Ethical Organ Collectors pretended to provide an alternative to killing for species that needed body parts to survive. They claimed to reach out to people on their deathbeds, making desperate appeals for the hungry monsters; in reality, they just made finding prey easier for them.

The event Clarence was referring to would've been an organized hunt. Terrified, healthy, innocent people hand-picked and lured by the collectors were set free, only to be tracked through the woods by fearsome, hungry creatures and ripped to shreds.

That's what the boy Lola was talking to was, a lure. A collector.

PSEC had a contract with the collectors, disposing of any excess blood, bone, and shrapnel left behind by the ravenous punters.

"You know I can't confirm or deny Amelia. But I can tell you our clean was interrupted. Your target found us, I don't know how, but she did. She stabbed Artie when she spotted him bagging up that girl's body, more times than would have been necessary.

"The scene was scattered so I didn't have a line of sight on him. That's on me. Her first blow was to the throat; he couldn't scream for help and by the time we found them she'd carved his face up good. She was still going too, all frenzied like."

I thought about how that clean would've looked. The body parts left everywhere amongst the grass and trees, as a group of inconspicuous men tossed them in bin liners with litter picks. It made me sick. I'm sure it made Mika sick too, maybe that's why she snapped.

Clarence struggled to compose himself, I knew how close he and Artie had been. I thought of Poppy Tackett, I'd never met her but Clarence spoke about her like a surrogate daughter. I wondered if she was coping.

My friendship with Clarence had always provided me with a huge moral quandary, but never as strongly as in that moment.

"What did you do with her?" I asked, swallowing a lump in my throat that came naturally with the suspicion that a friend of mine was capable of what I thought was the answer.

Clarence was like a grandfather.

I knew he wasn't really, but it still took quite some mental arithmetics to imagine him a killer, even if in self-defense. Daniel sat, mouth agape, waiting for an answer. It must have been quite the information overload for him.

It was strange, but I genuinely feared Clarence's answer.

I thought about Mika, an average student who had fought so hard for her friend that she'd stumbled on an entire hidden tier of humanity. I could relate to that. I wanted so badly for her to be alive.

"It's rare, as you know. In all my years working for the company I've never had to neutralize a threat. I understand this is difficult, Amelia... but she was a threat. You didn't see what she did to his face!" he shattered my hopes.

"You killed her. Say it. No company jargon, be real with me."

"I killed her, Amelia. It was above board, a clean kill. I think you knew that before you knocked on the door though. So are you going to tell me how you got hold of that?" He pointed to the bloodied shirt in his desk.

The one that shouldn't have existed.

"You killed someone?! You?!" Daniel interjected. He'd finally succumbed to the overwhelming confusion at his situation.

"Not now, Daniel. This isn't the time." I put a hand out to try and halt his hysteria and continued to address Clarence, now shaking at the realization that someone had betrayed him.

Whoever sent me that shirt was trying to expose him for murder.

"It was mailed to me anonymously shortly after I took on Mika's case. That's why I'm here. I can bury this for you but you needed to be warned, I walked into a trap during my last case, and now this. I'm not sure who it is yet but someone's playing a game with me.

"They're baiting me. This proves that they know about our connection and about your work. I'm scared, Clarence."

"Thank you, Amelia! I appreciate the warning. I'll interrogate and then terminate the entire team on site for that clean and report back."

"Don't!" I responded frantically. "Whoever's doing this is smart, slick. This isn't one of your operatives, even if one is working for the one behind this. All you'll do is alert them that we know."

"What do you want me to do then? Just continue to work with traitors?"

"For the moment," I answered solemnly as he struggled to accept my predicament, trying desperately to untangle the knot in my stomach ready for my last and final request.

I knew there was only one thing that I could do to bring closure to Mika's family. I needed that bit of normality; to solve a case like I was supposed to.

I needed Clarence and I wouldn't expose him but I had to give them something. It couldn't be the bloodied shirt, it only asked more questions. I needed proof of death.

I had to do my job.

Clarence on occasion kept trophies from interesting cleans without permission.

I knew because I caught him hiding one when we first met, it was my leverage to get him to talk to me. I suspected that Clarence would've kept a piece of evidence but I couldn't be sure; knowing his preferred trophy, I really hoped I was wrong.

"Clarence, I'm going to need you to hand her over."

His face dropped.

"I haven't got her. I wouldn't. Do you think I'm sick?" he spat, disgusted that I'd even imply what I was implying. I didn't buy it. His disgust was nothing but projection.

"I don't believe you. A girl kills your friend brutally and you avenge him personally. You're telling me she isn't locked up with all the others right behind you?" I tried to steel my face but it was difficult. I told you before, I'm not made of stone.

I gestured to the padlocked storage cupboard that sat behind the desk. The one that I knew was filled with horrors I couldn't imagine. I'd never asked him to open it before, we'd had an unspoken agreement.

We never discussed what was in the cupboard.

His collection.

"I'm so sorry," he said.

Knowing I wouldn't let up and with tears in his eyes, he stood and fiddled with the pocket of his corduroy trousers. I turned to Daniel, a look of baffled terror on his face.

"You won't be so skeptical after this," I told him as Clarence turned the key in the lock and opened the doors.

Revealing rows upon rows of severed heads, preserved in pickling jars.

Monsters of all shapes and sizes littered the dusty shelves. More often than not it was human bodies PSEC disposed of but that wasn't always the case. In the event of a monster-death, Clarence's fascination would get the best of him and he always kept the head.

I locked eyes with the one I'd seen him hiding that first time, a horned creature with a beak more deadly than a hornbill. It had haunted my dreams for a long time.

I'd always wondered what it was, but never worked up the nerve to ask.

His hands scanned the third shelf down before settling on a jar containing a face I recognized. One that looked out of place amongst the myriad of creatures that surrounded it.

I felt my stomach drop as he handed me a jar containing the preserved head of Mika. Her face had been cut and Clarence wouldn't make eye contact with me, knowing how I abhorred his work.

"I'll bury this. But if I ever trace a death back to you like this again I'll kill you myself, got it?" I warned as Clarence shrunk into the corner. "No need to see us out."

Shoving Mika into my satchel I dragged Daniel up the stairs and out of the metal shed. We walked in silence for a bit, settling on a bench in the center of the park.

"What just happened? Is there really a..." Daniel broke the silence but struggled to hold it together. He bent over, heaving as he vomited on the floor, a small splash landing on his perfectly ironed shirt. I suspected he'd been holding that in for quite some time.

I felt bad. I hadn't adequately prepared him for anything and after finding out what Clarence was capable of I really needed a friend. I had to let him in.

"Yes. There's a head in my bag. I'm sorry... I'll stop swerving your questions now, I promise."

Nerves shot to pieces, I reached past the piece of person in my bag and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, shaking as I lit one. Daniel took a few deep breaths before he spoke.

"What the fuck were those things in jars and what did Mika find? What were they cleaning up after? Who's Carla?"

I felt my body tense in anticipation at the sound of her name. Carla Parks wasn't someone I'd ever hoped to interact with again, but with someone chasing me I didn't need to make any more enemies.

"She's a human monster, Daniel... She's also our next client, her son is missing."