Alistair sat back in his threadbare armchair with a happy sigh. He could already feel the drugs work it's way through his system, here came sweet oblivion.<br/>Alistair was not a very handsome man. He was thin, no excess body fat whatsoever. He was rather short and his head looked like it was shaved about a week ago, the hair slowly starting to grow out again. He was covered from head to toe with tattoos of mystical and religious symbols, giving him a unsettling apperance. He was wearing worn jeans and a black t-shirt, the band logo faded a long time ago. But the most conspicuous thing he wore was a rubber hose tied neatly around his arm, and a needle stuck in his vein.<br/>Alistair lost himself to the drugs like he had done many times before. But this time there were something at the edge of his perception interfering, stopping him from completely relaxing and letting the drugs do their job. He was suddenly aware of someone was standing in the room. There shouldn't be.<br/>He muttered some irritated words and his vision cleared again as the drugs were purged from his system.<br/>"Albert!" he said with a wolfish grin as he looked up on the man standing in front of him, neatly dressed and with his trench coat on.<br/>"Adam actually," detective Pulcifer said as he handed Alistair a cup of smoking hot coffee.<br/>"Right, right, I keep forgetting," Alistair said as he accepted the coffee. He had a feeling he would need it. "That were some pretty damn expensive smack you just made me waste. You robbed me of a perfectly good trip."<br/>"Oh, I'm so very sorry," Adam replied, his voice dripping of sarcasm. He looked around for a place to sit, finally settling on another armchair. He rested on the edge of the seat, like he wanted as little contact with the furniture as possible.<br/>No one could blame him really. The place looked exactly like what is was: a room in a crack house.<br/>Alistair lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply.<br/>"Come on now, the drugs keep me from getting bored. I think we all agree that a mind like mine being bored and restless is a very bad thing?"<br/>"Yes, well...hopefully I got something for you that will keep your mind occupied for awhile," Adam said, looking a bit uncomfortable.<br/>"Ah, you got something interesting for me then?" Alistair said, leaning forward. To hear Alistair and Adam talk was like studying people from both sides of the British social spectrum. Adam spoke in an upper class, public school accent, while Alistair sounded like he was raised in a working class enviroment, probably north England, maybe Manchester.<br/>"I think so," Adam replied. "What would you say if I told you we had a rapist on the loose, one who sends his victims in a coma and turn their hair white? The one girl who has woken from it emediatly escaped, her first order of buisness was...well, riding a man to death." Alistair dragged some more smoke into his lungs, while shooting suspicious glances Adam's way.<br/>"I'd say that sounds vaguely familiar, wich leads me to ask: What the hell have you been up to, "Adam"?" Adam shifted uncomfortably in his chair.<br/>"Nothing, I swear it."<br/>"You damn well better hope not," Alistair said, pointing an accusing finger Adam's way, his cigarrette forgotten for now. "I believe in giving people a second chance, but that's all you get. Screw up again..." His voice trailed off, the threat left unspoken.<br/>"I guess the question is," Adam said finally, after a long moment of the two men staring at eachother in silence, "will you help?"<br/>Alistair put out his cigarrette in one of the many ashtrays that littered the room.<br/>"Of course I will, you needn't ask. As you said, I could really use something interesting to occupy my mind with. I guess this will have to do."<br/>"Thank you," Adam said and stood up to leave, but hesitated. "Is that a new tattoo?" he asked. Alistair nodded.<br/>"Yeah, you know me. If it's religious, mystical or occult I need to have it available, just in case." Adam pondered this for a second.<br/>"So that means you also have what is considered evil symbols tattooed on your body? Like the swastika, for example." Alistair nodded.<br/>"Sure I got the swastika. It's the evil symbols you might find you need the most."<br/>"And this doesn't bother you? I see you have the good sense to keep it out of sight at least. Where is it, if I may ask?" Alistair gave Adam what could best be described as a smug smile.<br/>"On my right butt cheek." Adam burst into laughter.<br/>"That seems like a good place for it. What's on the left butt cheek then?" Adam drank the last of his coffee, looked around for a waste basket, gave up and just tossed the cup into a corner.<br/>If anything, Alistair looked even more smug this time.<br/>"The star of David," he said and smiled as he saw the coffee shoot out of Adam's mouth.<br/>Adam stared at Alistair in disbelief, shaking his head. "You really are an iconoclast, aren't you?"<br/>"Well my friend, that comes from not only knowing without a doubt that God exists, but also knowing he's a bit of a prick." Adam just shook his head again, but he was smiling despite himself. As he walked out of the room, he could hear Alistair call out to him.<br/>"Albert, if you use the same "patented solution" you did last time, I will kill you."<br/>Adam froze in his tracks. Without turning around, he simply replied :<br/>"...understood." and walked out of there.