In Black 1

Part One of a series about Noir Badarte. In Black chronicles who he is and what he does. Noir Badarte toked up the joint with a shaking hand. He felt the smoke and felt its buzz. It just had an effect on his biology, just barely. His small, brown eyes watered a bit as he let the breathed out the smoke. "That stinks up the car, N." Bert sniffed in irritation. "I drive the car, I should get to tell you not to smoke your weed in it." Noir opened a window. "Oh, now you do that. Great. That really fixes it all." Noir tried to ignore Bert's sarcasm. Noir knew Bert meant well. Bert owed him. Bert would gladly die again for him. And Noir would raise him back up once again. "My body needs the THC, Bert. This is the only way I ever get an appetite anymore." Bert looked at him through the rear view mirror. "Yeah, I know." Bert flexed a hand nervously. "Back when I was alive, that would've scared me. Its getting harder to remember what that was like, with sleeping and all that." Noir toked up again. "Each body needs a bunch of energy from me to wake up again." Noir pointed to the side of the road ahead. "Pull up at that crossroad. That's where he is." Bert drove the car as directed. "This that same dark man as always? What do you do for him anyway?" Noir ignored the question. "This is a Crossroads, Bert. This whole town sits on a bunch of them. Thats important. Muy arcana. Bad moon is rising. A foreign land is a land of wolves." Noir got out of the car, leaving a befuddled undead Bert in his wake. The rain dripped very lightly, but the sky looked dark and gray. It stank of rain. The Dark Man held out a umbrella. Tempting him with the offer, Noir rubbed the glyphs scarred into his chest. He kept out from under the umbrella. "Truly, Noir, what do you fear when you refuse me?" Noir didn't answer. He looked down at the bench on the sidewalk. There were a couple trees nearby. A park, one or two public buildings, but this small town lacked in anything really big. And no one dared the rain. On the bench sat an old man with sunglasses and a walking cane, the kind the blind use. Noir stuck out his tongue and tasted the rain. "How long do I have?" "You taste it already?" "Are you going to answer my question, Devil, or just play with me? We have a deal, tell me where this body is and I take care of this problem for you. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can end this relationship." The dark man smirked and motioned to the man on the bench. "Sit, at least let me enjoy telling you the details, Noir Bedarte." Noir sighed. “Its a serial killer. Made a deal with you, reneged on it, and you want me to find him and fix it. Normal operating procedure for all this monsters you have me find.” The Dark Man shakes his head. “You insist that I’m behind all this. Ever imagine I simply want to solve the problem?” “You are the Devil, in league with the thousand dark spirits of darker ends of Abaddon.” “Perhaps, perhaps not. You do want to find Elle don’t you?” Noir walked to the bench and sat down. He cursed the Dark Man, in his dark suit and black umbrella under his breath. Brightening, the Dark Man sat down beside Noir. This put Noir between the Dark Man and the blind old man already there. “Good! I knew you’d be interested in learning more of where she went. Homer, could you be so kind? I believe you haven’t met Noir.” The blind man nodded at Noir. “It is good to finally see you. A long time I’ve been curious to see how far you go before you fall.” “The crossroads, Homer. Please.” The dark man tossed an apple at Homer. The Blind man grabbed it out of the air, without even looking at it. He snapped it out of the air, pulled out a knife and started to cut it into pieces. All without looking at it. Noir blinked at him. “There.” Homer pointed to the other end of the Park. “There she is. She will be a hard one for you dead-raiser. Be warned, this monster in man skin will be something you haven’t ever seen.” Noir stood up. “A wolf is a wolf. All monsters think the same. Nice to meet you Homer.” Noir got up. Then he walked to go meet a corpse, hopefully before the police arrived.

Next Part (2/10)