Here I was in Japan…thousands of miles away from my office, and the Clam and Drum…and I could really do with a drink, to make things look a little nicer! The last couple of days had gone by in a blur. As soon as I delivered my Contract to the TFC HQ, I was told to get my ass to Japan on the next flight…I was given a Plane Ticket and a Hotel Room…and then I had to go. I’d only been off the Plane a matter of hours, when the Show started…I had a ticket and thought I should check out a little more of what this place had to offer. Then the ring collapsed on that NBK character…and that brings us right back to the present.

It’d been a year since I’d received any word from my employee or the broad that represented them, so I guessed I was just gonna have to follow any lead given to me. Jetlagged, and sobering up quickly; I decided to find out what hospital This Natural Born Killer was staying at. I got directions from Brian the Security Guard, after quite some time…why is it that anyone who works door duty is so slow? Is it in the Job Description?

“Do you take a long time to grasp a point?”

“Ummmm…what do you mean?”

“Your in!”

I reached the Hospital but I was told this NBK had checked himself out. That in itself didn’t seem very likely, after having a ring full of people collapse on you I can’t imagine someone just getting up and walking out of the hospital. I asked to take a look at the records of people in and out. All I had to do was flash my TFC ID Badge…it seems it demands quite a lot of respect. When I looked through I saw that NBK had been discharged…but the signature was of a Lesly Choi. The receptionist told me he was an ‘Alternative’ Doctor on the other side of town. I thanked the man and left. So NBK was checked out by an ‘Alternative’ Doctor…intriguing. I wouldn’t have thought the man would have been fit to move…but regardless I knew where I had to go now.

Lesley chois ‘Surgery’ was like that of all that practicing ‘Alternative’ Therapies. It was bright, airy…and had lots of exotic plants around. Calm noises were being piped into the room. A large fish tank caught the eye when you walked into the room, with the fish swimming serenely around. It was all designed to relax the visitor…it made me feel sick I started to itch the back of my hands.. I couldn’t understand why people strived to make out life was a great thing. Life sucks for everyone…it’s a fact…some people call me a cynic…I just tell them that there gonna die, and that’s all there is that is certain! Life is a series of years attempting to avoid the inevitable for a little longer! As a Private investigator I stare death in the face every day…so I have no fear of it. But this office…this CREEPED me out! I turned to ‘Doctor’ Chois receptionist…and she gave me a broad smile! The last thing I’d want if I was actually sick…a grinning Broad reminding me that other people are perfectly healthy. I didn’t return the smile…I just asked to see doctor Chois. A short Chinese man came out of the surgery. I learnt from the documents on the wall he had earned his ‘alternative medicine’ degree in Hong Kong. I asked him about NBK, and flashed him the badge…instantly he lead me through to a small room, in which rhyno was lying face down…with THOUSANDS of small pins sticking up from his body…I walked to the front of the table…

Not much surprises me, as you may have guessed. But NBK was in superb condition for a man who had a lot of weight come crashing down…bar some cuts a bruises, severe as they were, their was no SEVERE injury on this mans body…and then I met his eyes. Now I’ve seen many pairs of eyes, dfrom the insane, to the evil…the pure to the soiled…and I had never seen eyes like this mans. They were empty…when you looked into them it felt as though you were falling relentlessly through the cosmos. It was at this point I decided eye contact was not high on my list of priorities. I introduced myself…and he muttered something about The Screams knowing who I was…I wasn’t going to buy his act. He’s just a normal guy like the rest of us…this gimmick was as see through as a whiskey bottle left in my possession for 30 minutes. I decided to ask him some questions…

Lewton : ‘You look remarkably well for a man who just had tons odf metal and people fall on top of you…’

NBK: ‘yes…did you trhink I may be dead?…I have strong bones Mr Lewton…isn’t it a good thing that my bones aren’t smashed?..>Would you rather I was squealing in pain…would that give you some meaning in your life?’

Lewton – ‘I’ll make the smart comments thank you, it’s in the Genre, it’s part of the Narrative Causality…I am a Private investigator…thus I drink, I…’

NBK : ‘Yes I know what narrative Causality is Lewton…aned before you ask…yes the ring had been tampered with….The Screams noticed it, they sensed something would happen…do not fear I was ready….’

Lewton : ‘Who would have known you were under their…’

NBK : ‘Everyone…The powers that be thought it would be…neat…and different…if I came out from under the ring…and anyone could have wanted to harm me, I don’t make many friends…’

Lewton : ‘I can’t understand why!…These Screams you mentioned…what exactly are they?’

NBK : ‘The Screams…you want a definitaion?…No…I can tell you what I know…The Screams are natural..WE all have them…you have VERY loud screams Lewton…YOU are druiven by YOUR fears…we don’t all hear them as screams…YOU ignore them Lewton…you are ruled by them…but you deny their existence…but you are no different to most of them…Everyone has done, or will do something in their lives…that will ruin anothers…and The Screams…they kind of chart these destructive emotions…I cannot explain it…but to …I hear ALL Screams…’

Lewton : ‘ Wait ione minute…the phrase…”I see Dead People” is not going to surface in this is it?’

NBK : ‘ You don’t believe me Lewton…’

I didn’t and I told the crackpot so. I had wasted enough time with this freak of nature…I needed some sleep, the Jetlag was catching up with me…I twent to make my leave…when he spoke again…

NBK : ‘So why did you take that bribe Lewton?’

Lewton : ‘ What? I don’t know…’

NBK : ‘The Screams…they communicate with one another…You were a young, high rising detective in the NYPD…and then…you took the bribe…and became a drunken Private Investigator, that longs for his one true love that got away…you walk around and try and make everyone as miserable as yourself…’

Lewton : ‘Apart from the Bribe, you could get all that from just meeting me…I’m a Private Investigator…it’s in the description to be Cynical…and to have a liong lost love…’

NBK : ‘Gina’

Lewton : ‘yeah..Gina (Sigh)…Anyway you’ve made your point…’

I left the Surgery, and realised I had learnt very little that was specific…it seems the ring was tampered with…but who by? The whole roster were suspects…anyone who’d met the man would probably have wanted to kill him. As for the whole Screams thing…well I didn’t want think too much about that. It was like going to see one of those fortunetellers at the carnival…damn creepy…and then I remembered the waiting room of the surgery. There was no way I was getting to sleep without the aid of alcohol tonight. That’s just the way I got about things…the right way for a Private Investigator!

I walked back to my hotel, no closer to knowing what my case was…with everyone as a suspect for the attempted pancake-ing of the Natural Born Killer…I couldn’t help think their was more confusing acts to come…but I wouldn’t have it any other way!