Prose.

"The dust is too much for me".

Steven Dextro rides through the hazy fields, down to the brink of Nickel Cove in a dirty old sedan from the 90s. His badge and marine dogtags lay in his lap, his gun in the passenger seat, and little Cinderella MacDonald, of whom he has taken a somewhat unwritten custody, sits in back. His wavy black hair flutters around huge wayfarer glasses straight out of the 1980s. He strokes his chin and turns the radio to a spanish-language soft rock station while she blows bubbles out the window.

"Ew what is this music, Stevie??", Cindy sits up; bubble wand in hand. Perfect grades in school, Cindy just heard that she's being promoted to the 6th grade. Her green eyes are purple behind the bubbles.

"Hey sit back! Ah jeez. You got the bubble crap all over my jacket...it's music. You should be exposed to all cultures, Cindy. It's a cool experience to see the other side of things."

"...But I'm not Mexican! I'm half-black, half-white!", Cindy replies with the sincerity only an 11 year old girl could.

"-Sigh-...Salvadoran. Just sit back and keep doing the bubble thing, ok hun? We're almost there."

Vanacutt Hospital room 706. MacDonald, Harry

Steven leads Cindy into the room and walks over to the bed. He'd fallen into the coma from the last altercation.

"Very well rested, Harry?... I told you not to try killing Beetle. You didn't save Lita...you didn't solve anything. She's a corpse now, kid. The doctor told me there's a slim chance you'll hear me but--"

"Hey Stevie, can I talk to my brother now?" Cinderella says impatiently.

"..Y-Yeah sure, Cindy go ahead..."

Steven walks out of the room into the hallway and checks his handheld. From the corner of his eye he looks on as a scarab walks past his left leg under the door. Steven crunches his foot
down onto the beetle, grabbing his pistol and busts down the door to find a throat-less nurse, a knife to Harry's neck, and the ghastly disfigured face of John Beetle, holding Cindy with the other hand.

"Nice to bump into ya, Stevie boy! I guess he just didn't have what it takes to do me in, yeh know?" His voice shrills with a hiss, the gapes in his neck are only weeks old, still bandaged. Dextro shoots the knife out of his hand.

"He had enough in him to give you gills. Jeez, he really messed up your face, huh? and your hair is all wiry and...not really there." Steve tries aiming at John's face, and Beetle Pulls Cindy in front of his.

"I've had enough of this conversation. Catch me later, Dick Dextro!" and with this, Beetle leaps backwards out of the window with Cindy still in hand.

Steven runs toward the window, almost falling out himself. Cindy's scream echos down the halls of buildings until plunging into the black river. He walks back over to Harry. "Disregard what I was going to say...I just hope you don't wake up too early...Just know i won't stop you this time...it's personal."

"We do this quick and easy. No alarms, no surprises, alright?"

The dusky room of a gambling pit on the South side of Dresden. Steve places his hands on the table.

"I need to find John Beetle. He got another little girl, and she's close to me." The person opposite him looks with an stone face. She goes by the name of Dakota Stanley, and used to go by Stanley Dakota."You really think he talks to me? Of all people?" He looks at Dakota, past the green highlights and heavy batted on eye liner. She doesn't know anything. Of course she wouldn't, she'd been outed by the city's underground as a snitch.Thrown to the bottom of the food chain, she's a gutter whore now.

"Yeah...you don't know anything. But you know someone who does..." She lifts a manly hand and flicks a book of matches at him. A number is clumsily written on the back, signed M. Harris.

"He's a frequent client. He talked about a guy that sounded like Beetle...John Beetle...the faggot. He never called me back after he heard about my big mouth. I thought showing him how big it was the first way wasn't enough...anyway. This guy says he started John Beetle...and knows your old buddy Zack MacDonald. "
"Call him." Dextro says.
"Right now? So sudden?" Stanley replies in a drug addled whir of procrastination.
"Right. Fucking. Now."
"Tell me where he lives, tell me what he looks like, and I'll tell you if he's alive by the end of the night."
Dextro takes a shot of something gold and relaxes behind the big black wayfarers."Jeez, Stevie. You're turning into Zack." Steve pulls out a green shaded .50 and lays it on the table.
"Don't be silly. Just make the call." As she dials, Steve walks over to the game, a dog fight. Ten years ago, he would have them all in a cell. Not now. Not after Beetle kidnapping Cindy. Not after Beetle slaughtered his wife. Not after Zack died. The future is too far gone now. Steven walks over to Dakota flirting with a patron, his hand is on her thigh and her's is in his pants. On the table is a sheet of paper with the information he requested. Steve whips up the paper and walks to the door. "She has a dick." Dextro walks out as the man procedes to scream at Dakota Stanley.

The night is warm and wet, like wombs of darkness. A haze hits the city as the black sedan races up the slick streets, up to the Financial District. In the passenger seat sits the green .50 and a picture of Cindy.