Edward Graves: Temporal Detective
Chapter 17: The Sound of Silence

Vinnie Albertelli did his best not to cringe as screams of agony wafted through the halls of the mansion. He knew that it was imperative to maintain his steely resolve, no matter what. Of course he’d heard such screams before; it was nothing new for Mr. Crawlfield to invite a friend around for a little chat; nor was it unusual for him to employ...methods of persuasion to get the conversation flowing. But usually these chats would be over relatively quickly, a few hours, maybe a day and night if the friend in question was made of stronger stuff. But these screams had been going for four days day, with only the occasional interruption. It was enough to make even a pro like Vinnie turn cold.

There were only ten minutes left of his shift and he was counting down every last one of them. There was nothing that would stop him from leaving this house as soon as humanly possible, not while that god-awful screaming was going on.

He snapped to attention as Mr. Crawlfield and Harbinger walked out through the large Oak doors.

“He has to break soon! Ain’t nobody that can last this long, what’s it been, three, four days? I mean, Jesus, what’s he made of? I’m startin’ to think that the stories are true...”

“Mr. Graves is not some sort of superman, nor a god. He, like every other Archaic is still, at his core, only human. He may have a strong resolve, but even the toughest of barriers can be broken down.”

“Yeah well, all I know is that we’ve killed him at least a dozen times and each time he comes back, just as determined and resilient as ever.”

They were standing right in front of Vinnie, looking out of the rain-streaked windows, scarcely noticing that they had company.

“It’d be a hell of a lot easier if he hadn’t locked his timeline,” said Crawlfield, “then we could just skip this arduous torture an’ get to the answers, but no, he had to make it hard on us and himself. Bleedin’ idiot!”

Harbinger leaned against the window sill, his low voice barely audible. “Edward Graves may be a lot of things, but I assure you that he is by no means an idiot; far from it. It takes an incredibly strong mind to maintain a time-lock under such pressure, especially on a timeline as extensive as his.”

“Sounds like you’re a fan,” spat Crawlfield as he started walking down the corridor.

The stranger shrugged, “I simply know when to pay my enemies their dues, it means that I never underestimate them.”

What remained of the conversation, Vinnie didn’t hear, as they continued down the hall and out of sight. It was only then that it occurred to him that the screaming had stopped again. He wasn’t sure why, but somehow he found the silence so much more unnerving, like it made him uneasy about things that were soon to come.

“Hey Vin, shifts up, all quiet?”

He looked up at Joey and offered a forced smile. “Yeah Joey, all quiet.”