I saw my badge and gun on the night table, right next to my locket. Sitting on top of the folded up Marker.Today was the day. The day I called in the ...arker. It’d been sitting there my whole life, waiting until I was ready. And today, I knew it was time.It’d been seeing the girl yesterday. The girl’s body really. I didn’t even know her real name, and didn’t particularly care what it was.She’d been a whore, working off a corner on 14th Street. Not anyone that mattered, not for a long time. Maybe. As she walked to the bathroom she caught herself mumbling, “I love having him watch me. Wearing sexy clothes...”She shook her head to clear as her thoughts.She left the light off to help her headache. She took two aspirin as her phone buzzed.“Wake up your son with a kiss,” the message read.Fuck. She thought. She used to kiss him more when he was little but had stopped after catching him looking at her differently. She better just get it over with.When she entered the room she caught a whiff of. How deliciously perverted!”“Maybe you shouldn’t let the others know,” I said, “I think things are weird enough as it is.”“Won’t say a word,” Lexi said, smiling mischievously, but she stepped over and put her hand on my shoulder as I knelt on the floor and added, “But, you know, if you and I got together for a little uncle time, if you know what I mean, it would help me to keep my lips sealed even better.” “Come on,” I said, “let’s not start getting carried away here.” “You just did it with. Along with the usual hour, minute and second hands, there is a small red hand pointing directly at 12. You fiddle around with the watch a little bit, spinning it around in your hands as you consider whether you really feel like facing the old man and his dark magic again or if you're just going to leave the watch on the doorstep and take off. Almost absentmindedly, you hit the red button and the world suddenly goes quiet around you.The deafening silence causes you to quickly jerk your head.