I was awoken by a nearly falling off of my chair and possible brain damage, from my head hitting the wall too.

I looked at the wooden table in front of me. Sheets of paper were sprawled across it, along with a few folders and my trusty laptop.

Still dazed I got up and stretched, hoping that the back pains from my awkward sleeping position would fade.

I slowly walked to the bathroom using the wall beside me for support.

I did the usual necessities before looking at my own reflection in the mirror. My eyes had obvious bags under them and my hair was sticking up in the most random of places.

Walking back, through to my office I sat down again and looked at the laptop screen to refresh my memory and see what I was up to last night.

Oh, right! The Vampire case. How could I forget?

After all I had been working on it for the last few days, trying and failing to pull all nighters. Evident by the dominant bags that had found home underneath my eyes.

I glanced at the screen again and my eyes found the time in a small box at the right hand corner of the screen.

15:00. So I had slept in a couple of hours, didn't matter too much, since I still haven't had the information on Casper Hartledge, off Kai, yet.

I decided to go to the earth common room to find some sort of food, to satisfy the rumblings my stomach had been giving me.

I was greeted by my earth team, which consisted of Aidan, Will and Ellie.

They had clearly already helped themselves to the food stock and were happily eating and chatting about recent events.

Little to no Elementals work solo. We are usually found in hundreds (near to thousands) in Pelaga. Then they are split by group type. And finally you are given your team consisting of four to seven Elementals.

I opened the fridge.

Fuck, the date!

I slammed the fridge door and looked at the clock on the other side of the room. 15:34.

Scrolling through my texts with Reece, I found out my date was indeed 16:00 and it takes 45 minutes to get there.

I ran to the door of the common room, which unfortunately for me was being blocked by Ellie and Will.

"Where do you think you're going?" Asked Ellie, giving me a suspicious look.

"A date, now move out of my way."

Ellie and Will looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"You've got to be joking, what division is she... or he." Will asked still giggling.

I ignore them and they both started acting like children and going "ooooo" and all that shit.

I pushed them both out the way and ran to my room.

I changed and brushed my hair back. Then proceeded to drive to the address Reece gave me, passing every red light and nearly adding a couple more people onto my body count.

By the time I got to her house it was 16:10. 10 minutes isn't that bad is it?

It was different to how I imagined it, her house I mean. Then again I never imagined her living alone.

It was a small semidetached house with white frames around all of the windows and plain brick.

I knocked on the door twice.

I heard shuffling from inside the house and a string of curse words. Until a girl with black framed glasses and her hair flowing down popped her head round the door. Nadia has beads of sweat trickling down her face and the smell of burnt food came from inside her house.

"Carter? What are you doing here?" She asked, with a puzzled look branded on her face.

I looked at her in surprise wondering if she had forgotten.

"I was told we have a date."

"What? No we don't. This is the first I'm hearing of it."

I had to prevent myself from slapping my own face. Of course, Reece would forget to tell Nadia, that she has a date with me. Why did I trust him?

"Oh." Was all I could say. Well this was awkward, mind you I was never late for the date in the first place, seeing as I never had one to begin with.

She must have sensed my awkwardness because she decided to invite me into her home.

I couldn't help but feel bad and embarrassed. The poor girl was forced to spend time with me, in attempt at not looking rude. I was debating whether to decline her invitation to avoid the same small talk I experienced on the first date.

But surely that would make me the rude one, after all I did come here unannounced. However I wasn't to blame, Reece was.

While having a small debate with my last two brain cells, my body had taken charge and made me walk into her living room.

I now had a full view of what she was wearing: denim shorts with an oversized branded T-shirt.

She tugged on her hair and sat down with me, on her sofa.

"So, I'm guessing you're not the best cook." I said.

Nadia blushed and brushed some hair out of her face.

"Oh yeah. The smell, sorry about that Carter, my parents never had a chance to teach me how to cook."

"It's fine, I'm not the world's best cook either, I'm currently living off of Chinese take out and pot noodles.

She laughed and I couldn't help but smile. Her laugh was high pitched and like a sweet melody, not at all any other laugh I had heard. Damn, that was cringy.

"So what made you want a second date with me." She asked leaning closer.

"I didn't exactly have a choice, Reece didn't give me much of an option."

Her smile stopped and I closed my eyes, annoyed with myself. I had just told Nadia that I had been forced to go out with her and suggested that I didn't want to be here.

However she brushed it off and started smiling again. That lowered down my heart rate a little.

"Yeah, Letti always drags me on all sorts of dates but they never really work out."

I nodded my head.

"I prefer your hair when it's up, Nadia." I say picking up a strand of her hair and twirling it. "It lets me see more of your beautiful face."

She paused and then laughed. "Smooth, Carter."

"I know." I say cockily and we both laugh.

"So how about twenty questions, seeing as you're basically a stranger to me." I suggested.

"Okay." She said, putting her finger on her chin.

"Oh, what's your last name?" Nadia asks.

"Anderson."

"Nadia Anderson, not to bad." She says.

"Smooth."

"I know."

"Okay, Nadia. Are you still a virgin."

She slapped my leg. "Ew, why would you ask that?"

"Was that a question?"

"No, but that is."

I give her a look, telling her to answer the question.

"Fine, no. I'm not." Oh, wasn't expecting that.

"Next question... pineapple on pizza."

"No, that's absolutely rank." I say, shuddering at the childhood memory of first trying pineapple on pizza. What are these weird Proletarians going to do next?

Nadia then looks at me sheepishly.

"No. No. No. How did a pretty girl like you, end up liking pineapple on pizza?" I say in mock horror.

She laughs, with the same amazing laugh; I could listen to it on repeat.

I throw a pillow at her.

"Carter!"

"I'm sorry but this relationship just won't work out with you liking fruits of the pineapple variety on your pizza." I say dramatically, throwing my hands in the air.

"Oh, be quiet." Nadia responds, glaring at me. "You've got the next question."

"How could you like pineapple on pizza?!"

"You're gonna waste your question on that." She asks raising an eyebrow.

"I need to find out what caused this abomination."

"You're being dramatic."

"I know."

"I don't know. I just like the tanginess of the pineapple and the way it goes with the pizza."

I shook my head at her. "A disappointment."

"I always am, Carter." Nadia says, staring at me. She then breaks eye contact and mumbles, "Next question."

"Job?"

Fuck me sideways. What do I say?

"Jobless."

"Really."

I nodded, hoping she would believe me.

She looked at me suspiciously and I quickly asked her the next question, to distract her.

"So, Nadia. Can I have your number?"

"Smooth."

"I know."

"Here." She says unlocking her phone and throwing it at me. I typed her number in quickly, as Mikayla had previously shown me and gave it her back.

"How long have you been waiting to ask me that?" She asks.

"Why do you think I asked to play this game?"

She laughed again, pushing her hair out of her face. "What question are we even on?"

"I honestly have no idea." I sigh.

"We've probably been passed twenty."

"Who cares."

"Okay. Coffee or tea."

"Tea." I sat rolling my eyes.

Nadia squealed.

"Finally. Letti and everyone else prefers coffee. Drives me through the roof."

I laugh, not realising how important drink preferences were so important and not wanting to question who 'everyone' was.

We decided to order Chinese after a while, it being both mine and Nadia's favourite (call it a match made in heaven) and carried on talking, going well beyond twenty questions...

My phone then interrupted us or more correctly, Ellie did. I picked up the phone annoyed at her.

"What." I said in an unintentional stiff and irritated tone.

"I thought you were going on a date not a sleepover!" Ellie screamed through the phone. She didn't know how phones worked and was possibly worse than me. Will and Aidan always had to tell her what to do or how to use it.

I looked at the time. 22:07. Ooops.

"We're meant to be working as a team for this Vampire murder case, but so far you've either been locked in your room on your own or running around with multiple girls." She ranted.

"One girl, Ellie." I sighed.

"Same thing." She said obviously.

"Fine. I'll be back soon."

"Than-" But I hung up on her before she could continue, to show my annoyance.

"Who was that?" Nadia asked, quietly.

"A friend. But not a friend, if you know what I mean." She nodded, still looking a bit confused.

"But I should head back." I said, awkwardly.

She nodded silently, disappointment flashing on her face for a split second.

"Today was great, Nadia." I said getting up.

"I should hope so." She said smiling, just before I embraced her with a hug. She was tense at the surprising gesture at first, but she soon relaxed and buried her face in my neck.

"I didn't realise we were at the intimate stage of our relationship." She said lifting her head up.

"Why wasn't I told we were in a relationship?" I questioned, raising my eyebrow.

"I meant friendship." She said blushing.

"Did you friend zone me, Nadia?"

"Maybe."

I turned around as I walked out of her drive and towards where my car was parked, watching her wave good bye in the door frame.

As I left I felt a sharp buzz in my pocket. I looked at the screen as I took the phone out of my pocket and saw that Kai was calling me.

"Hello."

"Hey, Carter. You know that guy, Casper Hartledge..."

"Yeah."

"I've got all the files I could find on him. It's all here at the Pelagus, I've already sent it to your office."

"Thanks, Kai." I said, ready to hang up the call and go back to the Pelagus.

"Wait, Carter."

"Yeah."

"Are you sure that this is the guy you're looking for?"

"Yeah, why? Oh and what's his division?" I asked, puzzled.

"That's the thing, Carter. He's a Proletarian."

I nearly dropped my phone in surprise.

"Are you sure?"

"A hundred percent."

I sighed. What would Evangeline give me the name of some Proletarian?

"I might just pay him a visit now and get some answers out of him, seeing as he can't do much harm to me. Can you tell me the address?

"Lalment's cemetery."

"What?" I said, wondering if I had misheard Kai.

"Carter, he's dead. Casper Hartledge has been dead for ten years."

a/n: 200 mark✔️
I love you all so much! It's freaking Christmas, hope you all have an amazing day.

chapter release date = 25/12/18