"Is that all?" Uriel looked asked with a confounded look after the shopkeeper showed him his 'secret stash'.
"Yeah, these are the best cuts of hog you'll get in the whole district. My cousin is a hunter and sometimes brings back a couple hogs after his incursions." The shopkeeper replied as though showing off.
Apart from the regular meat, the shopkeeper's 'secret stash' had all sorts of meat: racoon, hog, different kinds of bird and even something that must have been a lizard but he couldn't tell if it was a snake or not. Uriel was no expert on meat by any means, but he was more than capable of recognizing human remains thanks to his studies and there was nothing even remotely similar.
'If there isn't any human meat on a meat shop as sketchy as this, I highly doubt there's any on this market.' Uriel inwardly thought, still trying to decide if he was relieved or troubled by this. With such thoughts, he left the shop without buying anything and decided to call off the investigation, but just when he was about to head back to the west district he thought he saw someone familiar.
It was only a short glimpse, but as soon as he looked in the direction the person disappeared in the crowd. His heart started beating faster and he made his way through the crowd trying to catch up to that person. He couldn't quite put his finger on who it was, but something in his gut told him that he couldn't let that person escape.
He crossed a couple streets and ran across some alleys until he finally reached a dead end, where the person he was chasing after stopped.
"Hey! Do I know you?" He asked and the mysterious character that began turning slowly, until her identity was finally revealed.
"I can't believe you forgot about me! You really are an idiot... or maybe I'm the idiot for running away from someone who didn't even remember me in the first place." Emma said with a dejected expression on her face.
She was wearing the same kind of baggy hoodie Luna used to wear, but she was so skiny and emaciated, Uriel would have thought she was just another slum dweller.
"So you've been hiding from me... may I ask why?"
"You have the gall to ask!? I've known nothing but fear ever since I met you, you've also kidnapped me in more than one occasion and you're friends with the laycantrope that's been killing people on campus! I've been running for my life ever since I found out you were friends with that thing, I really thought you were coming for me!"
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"Fine, I get it. I'll leave you alone." Uriel shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave. He did feel bad for all he had done to her while he was under Water warlock's influence, but now that Water warlock wasn't possessing him Uriel realized he didn't like Emma at all.
"Stop!" She yelled clenching her fists and Uriel did as she asked.
"What? Did you change your mind or something?"
"You're investigating the human flesh incident, aren't you?"
"Don't tell me... please don't tell me you're the concerned citizen that wrote the letter."
"I won't say it then, but does it make a difference? Will you really abort the investigation just because you didn't find what you were looking for in a single meat shop? You didn't even look on the right places!"
"I don't have the time for games, if you're going to say something do it now or I'll just leave." Uriel bluffed. Even if he didn't like Emma at all, he had to admit to himself that she was a capable investigator.
After all, she figured out on her own that the creature causing so many disappearances on campus was a werewolf, though she didn't know that the people that disappeared were actually vampires that had been slowly infiltrating the city.
"I... I'll take you there, but I must warn you, it's ugly." Emma led Uriel across the alleyways towards the slums at a speed only a local could which got Uriel wondering if she had been hiding at the slums all that time.
"I don't get it, you said there was human flesh on the market but you're taking me to the slums."
"That's because we need to wait until dark, that's where things become more interesting. You see, when I first moved here I thought my days were counted and I sort of... spent all of my money," Emma blushed up and then continued.
"so I ended up living in the slums." She was beyond embarrassed when explaining her situation and Uriel didn't understand the reason since he too lived on the slums for a short period after breaking up with Medusa, but he understood everything as soon as they arrived at Emma's place.
She was living on one of the cheapest apartments on the slums, which was a lot to say by itself, but that wasn't all. Uriel noticed the scarcity of people walking the streets, but he also didn't miss how they all acted paranoid, constantly looking over the shoulders and rushing their steps at random.
Once they were inside Emma's apartment, she took off her hoodie and went to fetch something to her room while continuin her explanation. "Since I didn't have much money, I was forced to live off mostly on synthetic food. I hate it, I hate its flavor, its smell, the texture... and those noodles are the worst! It's like drinking murky water."
"I know someone who would disagree with you." Uriel chuckled at the memory of Medusa slurping the cheeky chicken noodles like they were the best thing since sliced bread.
"Hey! don't laugh at my misery! Anyway, I stumbled upon a food stall that sold these incredibly juicy tacos..."
'Please, don't let this ruin tacos for me' Uriel inwardly thought as he crossed his fingers. Then, Emma dropped an small white object on the table in front of him.
"And I found this." She said as she pointed towards a human teeth.
"Dammit!"