The cat was in good spirits, and so was Jenkins.
Perhaps the story he'd read, with its subtle parallels to his current situation, was just a coincidence. For the next ten minutes, Jenkins searched the entire antique shop but found nothing out of the ordinary.
His eyes weren't infallible, but they'd never failed him against any non-divine creature. To be safe, Jenkins even had Chocolate, with her keen sense of sll, play the role of a police dog. Though she wasn't exactly thrilled about it, she sniffed around nonetheless.
But aside from finding a silver coin that had fallen under a shelf, she discovered nothing.
Jenkins was puzzled by this, but could only conclude for the mont that he was overthinking things. He was about to pick up the book to read another story when the bell on the door chid again. It seed the antique shop was much busier at night than during the day.
"Good evening, Jenkins. Is Pops not in?"
It wasn't a custor, but Captain Bincy. Jenkins could see his squad mbers waiting at the door. A quick count revealed the entire team seed to be on duty.
"Pops went out on an errand. I'm watching the shop tonight. He got word that a shipnt of 'goods' is coming in at the docks tonight."
Jenkins stressed the word "goods," and Captain Bincy nodded in imdiate understanding.
"Be careful tonight. We just received a ssage from the Church of Starry Sky and Equilibrium. They've had a major containnt breach. A powerful Mysterious Object suddenly awoke from its seal, and the resulting energy surge nearly destroyed half of their underground containnt facility. They managed to suppress the object, but a part of it escaped.
All five churches in Nolan are out tonight, searching for that terrifying escaped piece. You should be extra cautious. If you can, it would be best to stay here at the shop instead of going ho. I rember Pops has a guest room ready."
Captain Bincy was just passing by and only pushed the door open to warn him because he saw the lights were still on. After delivering his ssage, he turned and left, clearly having much more to do.
Jenkins erged from behind the counter and stood at the shop entrance, watching the group recede down Fifth Queen's Avenue. He hadn't asked what kind of Mysterious Object had escaped, and Captain Bincy hadn't specified. By the ti it occurred to Jenkins, the captain was already far away.
"I have a feeling sothing extraordinary is going to happen tonight."
Jenkins murmured to himself as he closed the shop door. When he turned around, he noticed the book from the counter was now on the floor. It was an ordinary book—he had already confird that—so it must have fallen because Chocolate had knocked it off.
"ow~"
Faced with Jenkins's accusation, Chocolate protested angrily. She lowered her head and charged across the counter, sending everything—the inkwell, the fountain pen, the teacup—tumbling to the floor in a clattering crash.
A realization dawned on Jenkins:
"Oh, I see! When the book fell just now, I didn't hear a thing. Sothing's strange about this!"
He imdiately cleared Chocolate of suspicion and gestured for the cat to move away from the book, warning her not to touch it.
"Sothing's wrong! This is definitely not right!"
Usually, a situation like this ant Jenkins was in for so bad luck. He cautiously scooped up the cat and scanned his surroundings again. This ti, he focused his gaze on the empty air and finally saw it: an extrely thin black thread, stretching from the street outside, through the display window, and connected to the book.
The mont Jenkins's eyes locked onto the thread, it twitched violently, causing the book at its end to tremble in response.
"Run!"
Jenkins spun around and bolted. He threw open the shop door and ran into the street, hoping to catch up with Captain Bincy's squad, who couldn't be far. But the instant he stepped out from under the awning, the scenery around him lted and blurred like an oil painting scorched by flas.
The crackle of a wood fire echoed from behind him. Jenkins whipped around to see the burning fireplace from Pops's antique shop. His eyes widened. He spun back to look for Fifth Queen's Avenue, but his surroundings had completely transford into the interior of the shop.
This was definitely not so form of teleportation that had moved him back inside. The shop's fireplace hadn't been used in weeks. It couldn't be ti travel, either, because while the place looked like Pops Antique Shop, there were subtle differences in the details.
For instance, Chocolate's cushion was missing from the left side of the counter, and the distance between the top shelf and the ceiling seed shorter than he rembered.
"Not ti travel, either. So, is this an illusion?"
Jenkins stood still, his eyes wide as he surveyed the area. Just as he'd expected, black spiritual auras perated the space. It seed his luck tonight was truly abysmal; the escaped part of the Mysterious Object was probably right here with him.
"How could it be such a coincidence? This doesn't feel right. Is soone trying to harm ?"
Puzzled, he carefully tucked his cat inside his coat and buttoned it up to keep her from falling out. He glanced around; as expected, the detective novel was nowhere to be seen. He then walked behind the counter, and as he bent down, he discovered that the normally solid piece of furniture was now hollow. A crimson ball of flesh was curled up in the shadows beneath it.
At first glance, the nascent flesh-thing possessed a strange, sacred quality, almost like a newborn infant. But a mont later, that feeling was replaced by one of absolute filth, as if it were a patch of gri left uncleaned in the corner of a lavatory—sothing utterly disgusting.
"ow~"
That wasn't Chocolate's ow. The sound ca from the ball of flesh. Jenkins, accustod to his own cat's cries, was repulsed by this imitation. Even if a cat's ow wasn't as delicate as a kitten's, it would never sound like the dying, hoarse rasp of soone with a throat full of phlegm and inflad tonsils.
"What is this thing?"
Jenkins took a step back, watching the mass of flesh squirm. Its surface gradually turned translucent, revealing the forming organs and the head of an infant within.
The sound of a beating heart was startlingly loud in the antique shop. Jenkins narrowed his eyes, focusing on the umbilical cord. He wasn't sure if it was a coincidence, but the black spiritual aura was thickest around the cord.
His hand went to his pocket, where he felt the bottle containing the umbilical cord. Jenkins had brought it with him because he would be getting ho late and worried sothing might happen to it if he left it behind.
"Could it be this isn't the escaped Mysterious Object, but sothing drawn here by the umbilical cord?"
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