Contractbound

Valentine looked around. Even though it was dark, he could see well. It was as if everything had its own source of light to him, faintly glowing in yellow hues. He sat down for a while, getting used to his night vision.

After a while, he concentrated to find the imaginary switch in his brain to turn off the power. It took him some time to feel something that he had never imagined before. When he finally found it, he turned off his eye power and the room became dark again.

"G, your eyes don"t give you night vision, do they?" he spoke quietly.

Valentine closed his eyes. He sat down in silence. His breathing could be faintly heard in the quiet room. He was trying to feel his new power besides his eyes. The knowledge had been transferred to his brain; he just needed to access it.

The contract with the Deity of Secrets had given three kinds of power. The first one was his night vision. The eyes didn"t enhance his eyesight as Graham"s did but they allowed him to see well in the dark. It could be very useful for night missions. However, it made his eyes glow yellow and drained his stamina, so he couldn"t keep the power active at all times.

The second power was anti-divination. Divination directed at him by someone spiritually equal or weaker than Valentine wouldn"t work. It was just like the time Graham tried to divine something related to Mevrouw Cornelia. His divination just failed. He could also use a medium to interfere with divination in an area as long as the medium remained. It was a vague description, so Valentine had to come up with his own guesses.

"So, in theory, if I place a medium in the witch"s house, anything happening there cannot be divined?" he made a guess, and added, "G, I"ll need you to do an experiment for me later."

He was also thinking of what medium he should use. If he needed to plant the medium in an area, it must be something inconspicuous. But at the same time, it must be something not easily removed. He really had to be creative in his choice of medium for this power.

The third power that he got was directly related to secrets. It was the ability to make a word a secret in a limited area. As long as they were in the area, anyone spiritually weaker than Valentine would lose the knowledge of a certain word.

"Hmm... this ability is peculiar. I wonder how it even works. So if I say the word sleep is a secret, people will forget about that word? What about the action itself?" he rubbed his chin, thinking. "We"ll experiment tomorrow with Mirjam."

He was brainstorming of the use of his third ability. It was a very versatile ability, but the restriction applied to both the caster and anyone in the area.

Valentine opened his eyes and concentrated to activate his night vision. Among his abilities, it was the most straightforward.

"G, most of my abilities are very vague. I will need your superb brainpower to come up with ways to experiment."

He got up from his chair and went to his bedroom. He felt exhausted after the ritual. He saw that he had forgotten to put away the candles, but he didn"t bother to do it. He just wanted to go to bed.

He lied down in bed and quickly fell asleep.

...

In an old apartment building that was lit by yellow light, a young man came out of room number 24. He was Luuk van der Meer, the young medical student. He was wearing a beanie and a mask covering his face. It was a cold night, so he wore a black turtleneck sweater and a pair of equally dark pants. His hands were covered in gloves and his sneakers made a very little sound when he walked.

He moved fast towards the first floor and he left the apartment building. The street that night was very quiet. It was cold outside, but Luuk didn"t mind it. He kept walking east from Vakbond Apartment.

It should take someone around forty to fifty minutes to walk all the way from Tuinstraat to Oosteindestraat; his destination. But Luuk walked unbelievably fast. His steps were light and almost soundless. He could also nimbly avoid any obstacles, even though he was walking in the shaded area, where the moonlight didn"t illuminate.

After walking for a while, he saw two men walking together. One was fat with a beer belly while the other was thin. The fat one looked drunk while the thin one was sober. They were wearing shirts.

Luuk hid in the shadow of a tree and perked up his ears to listen in to their conversation.

"It"s because of you that we are in this mess right now." the thin man said to the fat one annoyedly.

"I"m sooorry. But arent" you haaaappy?" he said drunkenly.

"Well, the party was okay," said the thin man, not sounding excited, "and the girls they brought were pretty. But now I have to walk you home!"

"Yes, yes, leet"s walk hoome." he said happily, his red face shone in the moonlight.

They walked closer and closer to the tree where Luuk was hiding. Once they were close enough, Luuk came out and pretended to walk in the opposite direction. The thin man saw him in all black and got wary. He protected his belongings and pushed his colleague farther from Luuk. The fat man was too drunk to care.

After making sure the two men were within distance, under his mask, very quietly, he started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the fat man"s wallet mine!"

He made a swiping motion with his right hand and a wallet appeared out of thin air. He nimbly stuffed it inside his pocket and increased his pace. He turned to an alley and disappeared.

"Who was that? Your frieeend?" asked the fat man.

"Of course not. He might be a thief targeting you. But when he saw that I wasn"t drunk, he ran away." the thin man said proudly.

In the dark alley, Luuk was hiding in the shadow, his eyes glowed red in the dark. He checked the wallet that he had just stolen for its content.

"Only one guilder... what a waste of time," he said with annoyance.

He took out all the money, totaling one guilder and twelve pennings and threw the wallet away. He got out of the dark alley, avoiding broken bottles and trash littering the ground perfectly. He could clearly see where the trash was. He got back to the main street and continued walking east.

Along the way, he didn"t see any more potential targets. He arrived at Oosteindestraat less than forty-minutes later because of his very fast pace. The street was rather busy tonight, but most of the people were either drunk or had ulterior motives.

Luuk tried not to stand out while walking. His goal was not the gambling parlor that was disguised as a Longese restaurant, but the karaoke bar. There would usually be rich people getting stupid drunk there while being accompanied by escorts. However, there would usually be a sober person who acted as a guard.

Luuk stood at the door waiting for someone to come out. It was close enough, so he could use his power the moment he saw a target. It didn"t take him long until someone came out. It was three men with two women. Two of the men looked very drunk, but the women didn"t. Luuk guessed they must be escorts.

He started to chant his Deity"s name to steal the drunk men"s wallets, but before he could finish, the one sober man glared at him. Luuk felt incredible danger from the man"s glare so he stopped his chant and ran as fast as he could.

...

On Sunday morning, Graham opened his eyes. He looked at the clock on the wall opposite him and saw the time; it was seven-thirty. He yawned and stretched for a while.

"Ugh... I don"t want to..." he complained and went back to sleep.

Half an hour later, Valentine woke up. he stretched his body and got up from the bed. He washed his face and wore his contact lenses to hide his always changing eye color.

"G, you lazy s.h.i.t. Wake up," he said as he went out of the bathroom.

He got dressed and wore his usual attire; a black t-shirt and a pair of denim pants. He wore his leather jacket over the t-shirt and went out for breakfast. Graham had divined that they would not get any visitors in the morning, so he didn"t have to worry about flipping over the "closed" sign.

He had planned to have breakfast at Don"s, while also experimenting with his new power using Mirjam. It was a cloudy day; the wind blew strong. Valentine put his gloved hands inside his pockets.

He arrived at Don"s Pancake House less than five minutes later. The diner was packed with people. A lot of them were families eating out together on a Sunday morning. He entered the small diner and sit at his usual spot.

"Morning, Mr. Detective." greeted a voice he was familiar with.

"Morning," Valentine said shortly.

It was Mirjam, with her freckled face and flaxen hair. Her hair fell on her shoulder. She was wearing a tight t-shirt and a pair of denim pants which outlined her figure perfectly. She noticed Valentine"s outfit. She could somehow start to see the pattern.

"So now you come here every day?" she said teasingly.

Valentine only nodded.

"Give me oatmeal pancakes with syrup and a cup of black coffee," he made his order.

"Coming right up!" she smiled and left. She then shouted Valentine"s order to the back.

Valentine then sat in silence waiting for his food to come. He was also thinking of a way to experiment with his new power. To activate it, he had to declare a certain word a secret, and within the limited area, the word would become a secret. He was not sure of the size of the area, so he had to try it as well.

Before Mirjam came back with his order, he quietly said,

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word Graham a secret!"

Nothing seemed to happen, but Valentine could feel that his power was in effect. He looked around to make sure no one noticed anything.

"If someone noticed something, that person must be another Contractbound," he thought.

Mirjam came back with his food shortly after. After serving him, she was about to leave but Valentine stopped her.

"Hey, Mirjam, what"s my name?" he asked seriously.

Mirjam didn"t see any sign of joking from the man in front of her, so she became confused.

"Why? Your name is -----." she tried to say it but the word didn"t come out of her mouth.

"-----. Your name is -----." she tried again. She became very confused.

"You forgot my name? That hurts my feeling." Valentine said, teasing her.

He had also tried to say Graham under his breath, but the word didn"t come out. He still knew Graham"s name instinctively, but it was as if the knowledge of that word was gone.

"Maybe you should go back there and try to remember my name," Valentine suggested seriously.

Mirjam, in confusion, went to the kitchen which was some distance away. Valentine concentrated hard to try to listen to her, and he could barely hear her still trying to say Graham"s name. He came to the conclusion that the area of effect was at least as big as the diner.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word Graham no longer a secret!"

He said very quietly. Right after saying that, he tried to say Graham"s name and he succeeded. Not long after, Mirjam was rushing to him while shouting.

"Your name is Graham!" she could finally say it.

People were watching, and Valentine got embarra.s.sed. He pretended not to look and continued eating his food. Mirjam was apparently embarra.s.sed, so she went back to behind the counter.

"What just happened? Why couldn"t I say his name?" Mirjam said to herself. She couldn"t make sense of what had just happened.

After finishing his food, Valentine walked around to continue experimenting with his power. He watched the people around him. Most of them were either families or couples. He then saw a young couple who were displaying affection in public. There were no rules against it, but it aroused Valentine"s mischievous spirit.

The couple was walking in front of him, the man squeezing the woman"s a.s.s. They were talking about how much they loved each other, so Valentine had an idea.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word love a secret!"

After he said that, he perked up his hears to listen in to their conversation.

"Honey, you know how much I ----- you don"t you?" said the man. The word he intended to say didn"t come out.

"You what?" said the woman confusedly.

"I ----- you. I ----- you." he kept trying but he couldn"t say it.

"What are you trying to say? Don"t confuse me." the woman started to get annoyed.

"I said I ------ you! I f.u.c.king ----- you! Dammit!" the man also got irritated.

"Why are you swearing at me?" the woman got irritated.

"I"m not! I"m just trying to say ----- but I can"t!"

"You are being weird." the woman said. She stopped walking and moved the man"s hand away.

"I"m not being weird. I was just trying to say I ----- you but I couldn"t! Can you say it?"

"Say what!?" the woman got angry because she thought her boyfriend was making fun of her."

Valentine watched the whole thing and held back his laughter. He then walked past them and said under his breath,

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word love no longer a secret!"

He had deactivated his power, but the couple was still arguing. A lot of people were watching, but Valentine walked away as if it had nothing to do with him. He decided he had had enough fun and went home.

Valentine entered Vakbond Apartment building and went upstairs. In the hallway, he saw Luuk van der Meer who was locking his apartment room door. His eyes looked very tired. He must have had very little sleep, Valentine thought.

Luuk saw Valentine and greeted him.

"Good morning, Mr. Detective."

"Morning," he said shortly.

Luuk noticed that the man in front of him was somehow different from yesterday. He didn"t say anything else and walked downstairs. Valentine unlocked his apartment door and entered his office.

It was still early in the morning, but Valentine had nothing else to do. He took off his leather jacket and contact lenses and lied down in bed. Not long after, he had fallen asleep.