Five Missed Calls from Kitty
Hello, everyone!
Before you start reading my book, I’d like to give you a little heads-up: I don’t stick to any particular writing style. In fact, I love stories that are a little unconventional.
Mine has a bit of everything: humor, a certain amount of naivety, plenty of absurdity, and, at the same time, serious themes, proper investigations, and love.
Actually, at its heart, this story is about love — a love that was never supposed to happen, but somehow did. However, the details of this rather unusual love story will only be revealed in the second book.
This was a deliberate choice. I really wanted to tell the story this way. Maybe it’s a little foolish, maybe it’s unconventional, but it’s my decision, and I stand by it.
So, if this kind of storytelling isn’t your cup of tea, that’s absolutely fine. Just don’t feel obliged to spend your time reading it.
And to everyone who decides to give my story a chance — welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride.
Five Missed Calls from Kitty
Anabeth woke with a scream and sat bolt upright in bed, beads of sweat glistening on her skin. She ran her hands over her face, trying to wipe away the last traces of the nightmare. The dream of her mother’s murder at the hands of a strange creature with glowing lines across its body had haunted her for twenty years. It was as though someone kept replaying the same grim scene before her eyes, etching it into her memory like acid and leaving deeper scars each time. Sometimes Beth thought that if she could only look closely enough at every detail, the pieces would finally fall into place. But the truth always slipped away, leaving her with nothing but the heavy burden of a mystery she could never solve.
Adam propped himself up on one elbow and asked, looking weary,
“That dream again?”
“I think it’ll keep coming back until I find some answers,” she whispered, glancing at her ex-husband with the faintest hint of a smile.
She pushed the covers aside and got out of bed, her bare feet touching the cold floor.
“Where are you going?” Adam mumbled sleepily.
“Back to work on the case. There’s no point trying to sleep now,” Beth replied.
She picked up her phone. The screen showed 3:47 a.m. and several missed calls, along with a voicemail. Beth let out a surprised little chuckle.
“That’s strange. Kitty called me five times. I didn’t hear a thing...”
Adam chuckled, catching her hands and gently setting the phone aside.
“Well, I’m not surprised, considering what we were getting up to...”
Beth smiled, remembering the night before. Adam had pulled her close, stopping her from going through the old reports on her mother’s death for what must have been the thousandth time. He had set about undressing her, covering her body with kisses, but it hadn’t made her forget everything. It had only helped take her mind off things—and nothing more. Adam’s lips had moved across her skin, leaving feather-light kisses in their wake. His hands had followed the familiar curves of her body with practiced ease. It had been good, as it always was, but nothing beyond that. Their breathing had fallen into a shared rhythm, their bodies moving in a familiar dance, until time seemed to dissolve in the well-known rush of it all. Only the persistent beeping of the alarm had brought them back to reality.
Beth sighed, gently pulled away from her ex-husband, and headed to the bathroom to shower before work. Adam got up, dressed, and went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
Fifteen minutes later, Beth came downstairs, drawn by the smell of breakfast. Adam was at the stove, sliding an omelet onto a plate.
“Ready to head to the MBRA?” he asked with a smile.
“Always!” Beth replied, narrowing her eyes playfully as she stole a piece of omelet straight from his fork.
“Hey!” Adam protested.
“I’ll get coffee at work. I’m running late!” she called, grabbing her bag and keys.
As Adam poured himself a cup of coffee, he glanced at a photograph of Beth and Kitty, but the hiss of the frying pan soon distracted him. Beth had to get to work, where mysteries far more serious than household ghosts and nighttime nightmares were waiting for her.
The summer day was damp after days of heavy rain. On her way to work, Beth decided to stop by the subway station, where she usually bought coffee from a small kiosk. A gray-skinned man was bustling behind the counter—one of the first outsiders to arrive in the human world after the Rifts opened.
“Morning, Turis. The usual, please.” Beth handed him a bill.
She smiled at the familiar face.
“How’s life? Settled into our world for good?”
The man deftly positioned a cup beneath the coffee machine and smiled back, a network of tiny cracks spreading across his cheeks.
“Can’t complain, Beth. It’s been twenty years. I’m used to Earth by now. It’s not home, of course, but I like it here.”
“Glad to hear it.” Beth took the cup and breathed in its pleasant aroma. “Have a good one, Turis!”
“You too, Beth. Have a good shift,” the barista replied with a nod.
She got back into her car. On the way to the office, she drove past Central Square, where the Memorial to the Victims of the First Rift stood. The black granite monument, split by a jagged strip of frosted glass, served as a reminder of the day the fabric of existence had torn open in New York, allowing creatures from other worlds to enter ours. At its base, an eternal blue flame burned among the names of the dead engraved on the granite slabs.
Beth glanced at the clock. She had just ten minutes before her shift began. She took out her phone and called Kitty again. It rang and rang, but her friend didn’t answer, and the voicemail wouldn’t load.
Where are you? Beth wondered as she pulled into the MBRA parking lot.
She entered through the main doors, showed her ID to the security guard, and headed for the elevators. The metal doors slid shut, and the car began its descent, carrying her deeper underground.
As she stepped out of the elevator, Beth spotted her boss waiting by the doors. Beside him stood a tall, dark-haired man with a hint of stubble. His eyes were a striking sapphire blue, and his posture had the unmistakable bearing of a military man.
“Anabeth, meet your new partner,” her boss said, nodding toward the stranger. “This is David Strant. Bring him up to speed on the current cases.”
Beth turned to him, ready to offer her hand in greeting, but the words caught in her throat. The gaze of those eyes seemed to pin her in place. Something about their color stirred a memory buried deep inside her—a familiar yet elusive glimmer from her recurring nightmare. For a moment, she felt like a fragile fawn frozen in the middle of a road at night, blinded by oncoming headlights. He didn’t frighten her. He mesmerized her, making the bunker walls and the voices around them seem to disappear...
Shaking off the strange sensation, Beth forced herself to extend her hand. David gave it a firm shake, and a strange warmth ran through her at the brief contact, as though she had held that hand before. Her new partner, however, remained perfectly composed, as if he hadn’t noticed her reaction at all.
“Hello, Anabeth.”
She corrected him.
“Just Beth. Almost nobody calls me by my full name.”
“All right, Beth. I’ve already been briefed on the nature of your work, so I’m ready to get started.”
They made their way into the office. It was a fairly large room. One section held the workstations and state-of-the-art equipment; another had been set aside for Joseph and Kevin’s inventions. A comfortable lounge area occupied the far end.
Beth began introducing the newcomer to the team. She gestured toward a desk buried beneath half-disassembled devices.
“This is Kevin, our field medic—or something along those lines. He’s really our jack-of-all-trades. He and Joseph are always coming up with new tools and modifying our equipment so we have at least some chance of fighting off creatures from other worlds when we’re out in the field. He also considers himself the department’s resident comedian. Unfortunately, he’s the only one who laughs at his jokes.”
A young Asian man leaned out from behind the nearest monitor. He gave the newcomer a quick once-over, then winked cheerfully.
“Hey. Welcome to our madhouse. Hope you last longer than Beth’s previous partners. Most of them were gone before lunch.”
Beth shot her colleague a murderous look, but David was more than willing to play along.
“Hey, Kevin. I think I’ll be sticking around, so you’d better get used to me,” David replied calmly, approaching the desk and offering his hand with confidence.
Kevin hesitated, clearly unprepared for such cheek from a newcomer. Then he snorted and returned the firm handshake. The medic chuckled, glancing sideways at Beth.
“I like him already!”
Beth gave an ironic nod and led David to the next workstation at the other end of the room. Joseph, their senior analyst, sat in front of a huge wall map covered in markers. The older Black man studied the newcomer intently.
David stepped closer. Joseph shook his hand firmly.
“Welcome, David.”
He narrowed his eyes slightly, looking from the newcomer to Beth.
“Just a heads-up. She’s hard to keep up with.”
David gave a restrained smile and glanced at his new partner, who looked nothing like the fearsome monster hunter Joseph had described. She was short and slender, with blue eyes and fair hair tied back in a ponytail. David caught himself feeling oddly drawn to her, but quickly pushed the thought aside and turned his attention to the large map behind the analyst.
“What are all those strange markers on the map?”
Joseph leaned back in his chair and answered solemnly,
“Each marker represents a Rift. There have been forty in the last twenty years. Forty bleeding tears in the fabric of existence, all under the control of intelligence agencies around the world.”
Joseph turned back to his monitors and immersed himself in his reports. Beth gestured for David to follow her. She wanted to show him around the different floors, explain how the MBRA was organized, and use the opportunity to get to know him a little better.
They stepped into the elevator. Beth pressed the button for the lowest level, leaned against the wall, and asked,
“So, where are you from, Strant? Where did you work before this? What brought you here?”
David looked at her and began to explain.
“Well, I’m from Florida. Military family, so my career path was pretty much decided for me a long time ago. I usually worked at Rift sites. Nothing particularly exciting. So I asked for a transfer to the MBRA. There’s more going on here... Fieldwork. Investigations. Chases...”
Beth nodded knowingly and said with a wry smile,
“Let’s hope you don’t regret the transfer. Things can get pretty rough around here...”
The elevator reached the selected floor, and the doors opened. They walked down a long corridor into the prison wing, where outsiders who had committed serious crimes were held. At the far end, they entered a spacious office. Around twenty people sat at large monitors, while a supervisor worked at a big desk in the back corner. Beth led David over and introduced him.
“Hey, Andy. This is my new partner, David Strant. He’ll be dropping by from time to time.”
Andy shook David’s hand, then gave Beth a pointed look.
“Beth, that’s the fifth one in six months... What do you do to them?”
Beth clicked her tongue and shot him a glare.
“Eat them...”
Then she told David there was nothing else they needed to see there and led him away. Andy returned to his desk, grinning at the fact that he’d managed to get under Beth’s skin.
Next, they headed to the laboratories. The spacious area had transparent walls, and people in white coats hurried about inside. They didn’t even venture farther than the elevator. Beth briefly explained the purpose of the floor.
“We don’t usually come down here. That’s Kevin’s department. So if you ever need anything from the labs, just ask him.”
They got back into the elevator and headed for the archives. The place was enormous. Countless files and folders were stored behind rows of partitions, and at the far end stood an office with a heavy metal door. Beth opened it, and she and David stepped inside. An elderly man was sitting behind the desk.
“David, meet Tony Holt. He’s in charge of all this old stuff.”
The man held out his hand.
“Hello, David.”
Then he put an arm around Beth’s shoulders and added, looking at her new partner,
“So, you’re the latest victim of our ‘monster hunter’?”
Beth let out a weary sigh, rubbed her forehead, grabbed David by the sleeve, and pulled him toward the exit, muttering,
“He’s going to run for the hills before he even starts working if you keep that up.”
Tony burst out laughing as he watched Beth—Moose to those who knew her—nearly drag the newcomer out of the room.
But David was clearly intrigued by the place.
“So this is where you keep all the information you’ve gathered over the past twenty years?”
Beth nodded.
“Every last bit of it. And if I ever disappear for a while, this is where you should look for me.”
“Got it,” David said, his eyes moving over the countless shelves.
After the tour, they finally returned to the office. Beth showed David his workstation, directly opposite her desk. She perched on the edge of it just as the office door opened.
Emily, the boss’s secretary, walked in. She moved unhurriedly, perfectly aware that all eyes were on her. She greeted everyone and handed Beth a folder she had been holding tightly in her well-manicured hands. Then she turned toward the door, taking the opportunity to give the handsome newcomer an appraising glance. He had clearly caught her attention. For a few seconds, the scent of her perfume lingered in the air, overpowering the office’s familiar smells of archival paper, antiseptic, and strong coffee. It was an unfamiliar note in a melody that had long since settled into its rhythm.
After Emily left, silence fell over the office for a moment. Everyone’s attention was fixed on the plastic folder in Beth’s hands. It held another grim mystery they would have to unravel. Her slender fingers brushed over its textured surface.
“What’s in there?” she asked quietly, addressing the folder more than anyone in particular.
Beth opened the file, and her heart stopped—then began pounding heavily, each beat reverberating in her ears. The floor seemed to tilt beneath her feet, and she started to fall, but David reacted instantly, catching her by the elbow and steadying her. She glanced briefly at her partner, Beth pulled herself together and began reading the dry lines of the operational report. On its first page was a forensic photograph of Kitty.
