Love's Limit

One morning in October, 20XX

Los Angeles,

Neil Royce rushed in from outside, tacked under his arm a newspaper, banged on Uri Wayne's desk, and gasped for breath: "Uri, look what we have?"

Uri Wayne was revising the document before approving it, glancing at the newspaper headline.

"Another person has become a "Victim" of VAMPIRES! They really exist in human life?"

Uri looked at the words Vampires highlighted in red, then back at Neil Royce, raising an eyebrow: "That's a good title!"

"This is the fourth case this month. There are two tooth marks on the victim's neck." Neil Royce pointed to his neck.

"Neil, don't tell me you believe it?!" Uri burst into laughter.

Neil pulled out another newspaper from nowhere, and pressed it on the newspaper earlier, his eyes filled with interest: "Look at this, someone said they saw a Vampire in the Present Street!"

Uri Wayne was completely uninterested in the article, didn't even glance once, he shrugged his shoulders: "Perhaps someone just wants to get the attention of social networks. You go to the store located at the top of the street to buy wings and immediately can turn into a Vampire!"

Neil Royce pursed his lips, not merry: "Uri..."

"Neil, this is the 21st century. Be realistic! Vampires are just human imaginations after all." Uri did not hesitate to speak out.

A colleague, side by side with Uri, who heard the two talking, interrupted with a sarcastic voice: "Neil, do you believe this too?"

Neil Royce felt like he was being mocked, frowned slightly, said nothing more, picked up the newspaper, and went back to his seat, looking very unfunny.

Uri looked to follow Neil's shadow, and shook his head, smiling slightly. Over the years, he got accustomed to this personality of Neil Royce. The two are childhood friends. They attended the same secondary school and high school, and then went to the same university. Neil studied the media and Uri studied journalism. After graduating from university, the two joined the same newspaper office. Neil works as a correspondent and Uri works as an editor.

The newspaper office where they work was neither large nor well known, with a total of just over a dozen staff. The published articles are in the penultimate position, but the boss is very generous and the treatment is not bad. Uri feels satisfied when working here. Colleagues are also very friendly.

Both Uri and Neil are not from here, originally from a small town 2 hours by car from Los Angeles. Only when the job stabilized, did the two move here. Neil lives with his brother, and Uri lives with his grandmother. His parents died in an accident, and Neil's parents divorced when he was just in secondary school.

Neil is close to Uri like a brother.

Thinking that Neil would soon come out of anger, Uri didn't think much of it and continued his work.

In early October, a body was found on the Western outskirts of the city with two-bite on the neck. At first, no one noticed, but later, the police discovered a second and third bodies. The cause and state of death were the same as the first victim. That's why the city has been buzzing recently with rumors of Vampires appearing. Uri is loyal to scientism. Some myths, miracles, or magic, if science can't explain it, he's not all considered real

******

By lunchtime, everyone in the office started to have lunch. Uri stretched, stood up, and called out to Neil: "Neil, let's have lunch!"

"You go away, I won't eat." Neil responded. He was bowing his head to something, hearing a voice that didn't come out of anger.

Uri was a little curious. He got close to Neil, at his poky desk crammed with newspapers. Some places were painted with crayons. Neil was busy taking notes on something. Uri looked at the newspapers, her small face slightly wrinkled, all the news about Vampires.

"Haven't you given up yet?" Uri sighed a little. This guy is so stubborn.

"Uhm..." Neil responded casually, still not raising his head.

Uri looked at the scrawled notebook in Neil's hand.

The abandoned building next to the Los Angeles River (11: 45 PM)

Suburban West Landfill (1:00 AM)

No 5, La Verland residential area (9:50 PM)

Terrace's Park Green Hotel (1:20 AM)

Alley 5, Present Street, Los Angeles (3:40 AM)

"...."

This is where the murder scene and where people have seen vampires!

Uri frowned, a bad hunch rising in his heart: "What are you going to do? Don't say to me..."

"Yeah, I'll go to check out these places tonight, maybe I'll meet a real Vampire." Neil Royce nodded, looked up at Uri a moment later, and asked: "Do you want to come with me?"

Uri didn't know what to do with his best friend, harshly saying: "Don't drag me into such meaningless tricks!"

"Meaningless? Do you feel this is meaningless?" Neil frowned, displeased with Uri's way of speaking.

"That news spread on social media, everywhere you see it. Can you believe it to be true?" Uri firmly countered.

Neil pursed his lips: "What if it's real? If I find any information, our newsroom will be well-known!"

Uri doesn't want to continue arguing with him anymore, and shrugs: "Then you keep doing this silly thing."

He said and turned away.

Neil looked at Uri's shadow, raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and continued to lower his head to take notes.

The two of them didn't say anything to each other that afternoon. Uri was busy editing a lot of documents and Neil was running somewhere all afternoon.

After work, Uri met Neil at the newsroom's door. Neil has just returned from outside. Neil looked at Uri, and hesitantly asked: "You... don't you want to go with me?

It seemed that Uri was still quite angry at Neil's stubbornness, bluntly refusing: "I don't want to waste my precious time on such things."

After saying that, Uri coldly snorted, turned, and left.

He didn't know that this decision would change his whole life.

Uri got back home by bus.

The place where he is living is an old residential area, mostly people from the surrounding small towns. The income is just enough to live on, neither excess nor lacking.

At dusk, the darkness was vague, the interlacing electric wires in the sky, making the whole residential area seem like it was captured in a spider web. The atmosphere is somewhat claustrophobic and mysterious.

The road leading to the residential area is narrow, zigzag, and deep. The surrounding walls were painted with monstrous shapes. The street lights at the turns were turned on but none of them clearly illuminated the path, just flickered, turned on, and turned off again.

Uri kicks the small stone at his feet, just walking and muttering: "Neil Royce, idiot! Vampires are not real! Not real!"

With only a turn to go home, Uri suddenly heard a series of strange noises coming from the small wedge in front of him, which were both like the collision of a cardboard box falling from above and the sound of someone trying to scream but being gaged.

"...."

"...."

Uri was momentarily startled, both hands clutching the straps of the knapsack, slightly frowning. He slowed down his footsteps, then stopped. A few stories about vampires in the newspaper suddenly flashed through his mind. It says vampires tend to commit crimes in dark places and out of sight.

Thinking that Uri's heart couldn't hold back and beat faster than usual. But for now, curiosity overwhelmed his fear. Uri took a deep breath, intending to walk to that alley to observe, but suddenly from that, a black cat came out, looking at him quietly groaning.

"Meowwww...."

It turned out to be a cat!

Uri breathed a sigh of relief, he was thinking too much. There are no vampires here!

Uri busts to laugh because of his thoughts. He sat down and stroked the little cat: "Kitty, go home, don't run around like that."

The little cat rubbed against his hand,

constantly moaning. Because it was dark, Uri didn't notice that the back legs of the cat had been dyed red in a large patch.

"Let's go back!" Uri said and quickly stood up. Just as he turned his back, a black figure get out of the alley. Not long after, a red blood flowed from the inside.

*****

Uri! Uri!"

"Wake up, Uri! It's going to be late!"

Uri was startled by the call to wake up. Opening his eyes, in front of him, was his grandmother's gentle face. Uri rubbed his eyes, slowly sat up, and laughed quietly: "Good morning, Grandma."

"Good morning, honey. If you don't get out of bed, you'll be late!" Mrs. Wayne smiled.

Uri looked at the clock, shocked, and threw the blanket. He's going to be late!!

Uri jumped out of bed and ran as fast as possible to run to the bathroom. Less than 5 minutes later, Uri was downstairs neatly dressed.

"Take breakfast and then go." Mrs. Wayne, wearing a light purple apron came out from the kitchen, looked at Uri, and said.

Uri rubbed his unkempt hair, hurriedly changed his shoes, shook his head, and said: "Don't need it, I'll be late for the bus! I'm gotta go!"

Uri said, ran in and kissed Mrs. Wayne's cheek, and rushed out the door. As soon as he stepped outside, he felt the atmosphere was somewhat unusual.

After taking a few steps, Uri saw a lot of people gathered in front, including police cars. With a few people in police uniforms walking around, the noise was constantly resounded.

Uri was slightly surprised. Where people were standing was the alley where Uri met the black cat last night!

Uri quickly ran over and asked one of the people in the crowd: "What's happened?"

"Someone died in the alley. There were two bite marks on the neck."

On Uri's face appeared a few amazing rays. He peered through the crowd into the alley, a group of people in white clothes surrounding something, the camera light constantly flashing. Uri could not see clearly what was inside.

"Fifth person, are vampires really real?"

Thinking about last night, maybe he had a meeting with the killer, Uri couldn't help but shiver.

"Ask everyone to disperse immediately. Anyone who obstructs the performance of their duties will be arrested!" A uniformed police officer ran out and shouted.

The crowd was noisy for a while and then dwindled.

Uri looked at the staff from the City's Newsroom who were present, broadcasting the crime scene live, and suddenly remembered something!

That's right! Bus! He will be late!

Uri looked at his watch and hurriedly ran out of the residential area. Before running away, he glanced through the alley one more time but still couldn't see anything.

Fortunately, hardly had he run out to the main road when the bus arrived.

Uri breathed pink and climbed onto the bus, and sat down on a seat. He hugged the doubtful mood all the way.

No sooner did Uri arrive at the door of the newsroom than the editor-in-chief came in, patted his shoulder, and said: "Uri, I heard that Vampires appeared in your place?"

Another colleague holding a coffee cup passed by, lightly teased: "Uri, be careful! Don't let the vampire suck the blood."

"What's a vampire? Crap!" Uri waved: "Just an ordinary murder."

The editor-in-chief was a man with a rather good-looking face, named Simon John. Simon waved the newspaper in his hand, sighing softly: "The City's newsroom had published an article about this case, so fast!"

Uri nodded in agreement, and looked around the office once: "Neil hasn't come yet?"

"I haven't seen him." Simon shook his head: "Did you fix the articles yesterday?"

"It's done, I'll send you later."

"Okay, that's good." Simon nodded contently, then waved his hand: "Go to work."

Uri went to his desk, took out his phone, and called Neil.

"The subscriber you have just called is currently out of reach, please call later..."

Uri called him again but the result was the same.

Uri turned off the phone, looked at Simon John, and asked: "Mr. John, is Neil taking a break today?"

Simon John picked up his phone, flipped it a few times across the screen, then shook his head: "No, I haven't received any calls from him."

Uri frowned, found another phone number in the contacts, and pressed the call button. A few seconds later, the other line picked up the phone. Uri quickly asked, "Hi, Nail. Is Neil at home?"

"Ah, you're on a business trip?"

"There's nothing... Well, maybe he's late... Yeah, don't bother you anymore... I'll hang up."

Uri hung up the phone, feeling bad in his heart.

Eight-thirty, Neil still not turned up.

Simon John also began to get impatient, looked at Uri, and said: "This midday, you come to his house to check, okay?"

"Uhm..." Uri nodded, trying to focus on his work, not distracting himself from Neil's problem.

Near midday, Uri was about to ask Simon John's permission to let him leave work a little early to go to Neil's house when a colleague came looking for him and said: "Uri, someone is looking for you, it seems to be a police officer. They're waiting in the director's room."

Uri was a little surprised, but very quickly guessed it was probably related to the murder in the morning. He replied one, turned off the computer, got up, and went to the director's office.

Uri knocked on the door of the director: "Boss, I'm Uri Wayne."

"Come in." From inside came a hoarse male voice.

Uri opened the door and walked in.

In the room, three people were sitting on the sofa. In addition to the director of the newsroom, two other people were sitting with their backs to him, seemingly a man and a woman. Uri looked at the silver-haired man, a little surprised in his heart.

Silver-hair, this is the first time he has seen it.

"Boss." Uri politely bowed.

The Director was a man over 50 years old, named Ethan Smith, with light brown hair and typical European blue eyes. Ethan looked at Uri, nodded, and patted the empty sofa next to him: "Uri, come here."

Uri quickly walked over and sat down next to the director.

"These two are from the city's FBI task force. They have something to ask you." Ethan Smith quickly introduced the two people to Uri.

Uri nodded. At this time, he noticed the two people sitting across from him.

It's a man and a woman.

The girl has light blonde hair, which is neatly tied up to the back, revealing a white left face. The light blue eyes are sharp, the two long lashes bend naturally to make the eyes that are already beautiful now more graceful. Her body exudes a feeling of both nobleness and rhythm. If Uri didn't know her career in advance, he would have thought she was an actor or a singer.

Uri turned his eyes to look at the silver-haired man next, then was stunned. The first thought that came to his mind was: This man is so handsome!

This man has an extremely brotherly face, and firm facial features as if carved from a statue, making one looking at it unforgettable. He has rare silver hair, which is parted in a 3/7 style, to reveal a high forehead. The eyebrows are dense, the bridge of the nose is high and straight, and the angular face stands out in the dark blue eyes, deeply. It's like having a magic power that makes anyone who looks at it immediately be drawn into it.

Under the corner of the left eye, there is also a mole, making the face that has wild beauty become more attractive and charming.

This man exudes an attractive aura of his own that Uri himself could not have imagined. He just looks blankly at the man.

The silver-haired man at this moment suddenly turned to look at Uri. The moment she met those cold dark blue eyes, Uri suddenly felt cold and shivered, and quickly retracted his gaze.

"Hello, I'm Donna Nancy, a member of the city's FBI task force. This is my captain, Alex Dominic. Nice to meet you!" The woman opened her mouth to introduce herself. Her voice was somewhat tough, completely different from her graceful appearance.

Uri frantically nodded and replied: "Hello... I'm... I'm Uri Wayne. Nice to meet you two, too!"

Donna Nancy nodded and asked softly, "Your house is in the Satifield residential area, isn't it?"

The silver-haired man sitting on the opposite side still hadn't taken his eyes off Uri. His eyes carried the scrutiny, staring at Uri.

Although Uri didn't look at him, he could feel his gaze. He gulped and nodded: "Yes..."

His eyes are so scary.

Donna continued asking with a flat voice: "This morning there was a murder in your place. The time of death was confirmed as between 6:00 p.m and 8:00 p.m yesterday. We have checked the security video on Lane 6 in your residential area. The camera showed you going through Lane 6 at 6:15 p.m. The crime scene was just a few steps away. Because the crime scene is located in a hidden corner, the camera couldn't capture your image, but on a camera apart 200 m from your house, it recorded you. That was 6:25 p.m."

Donna spoke and then paused, observing Uri's expression.

Uri quickly understood what the policewoman in front of him meant. Although he was a little panicked in his heart, he still tried to appear calm and nodded slightly: "Uhm... That's when I went home from work..."

Donna slightly narrowed her beautiful blue eyes and continued: "As far as I know, from Lane 6, going through the crime scene to your house is just a few steps away. At most, it only takes 5 minutes. But according to the camera, the moment you appeared in between the two cameras was 10 minutes apart. During that 10 minutes, what did you do?"

Donna said, then looked at Uri with a questioning look.

Being stared at by two scrutinizing eyes makes Uri both restless and unnatural. He moved slightly, thinking about what to do to explain to those two people in front of him.

"Uhm..." Uri scratched his cheek, rearranging the words in his head.

But his appearance made Ethan Smith sitting next to him feel nervous and worried. He patted Uri's shoulder, and softly said: "It's okay, Uri! Just tell them the truth!"

Uri nodded at him, indicating that he did not need to worry. Then he only dared to look at Donna and not to look at the silver-haired man. Uri took a deep breath, slowly recounting the whole thing that happened yesterday afternoon, including that he saw the black cat.

"The black cat?" Alex Dominic suddenly spoke up, his voice toneless, not hearing any emotions.

Uri heard his voice for the first time, felt like his whole body was frozen by that voice, and quickly nodded: "Yes... that's right..."

Donna Nancy tilted her head at her captain, asking quietly: "What's wrong? Captain?"

Alex Dominic shook his head, signaling that she continues.

Donna nodded and looked at Uri: "The things you mentioned above are completely impossible for anyone to prove. No one really knows what you did in those 10 minutes. We have absolutely grounds to suspect that what you said is untrue. In other words, your alibi is not established. You'll be on our suspicions for the time being."

Uri's heart trembled quietly, suspected being the suspect was an uncomfortable thing. He pursed his lips, shook his head, and weakly said, "I... what I said... It's the truth..."

Donna smiled: "Mr. Wayne, don't be too nervous, you're just temporarily under suspicion, not the killer, okay? We're going to do our best to find the real killer, so I hope you..."

"Donna!" Alex Dominic interpreted Donna coldly and said: "Ask about the black cat."

Uri peeps at Alex Dominic, and a second later immediately leaves his eyes.

Donna was startled but quickly nodded back. She looked at Uri, slowly saying, "Okay, if the things you just said above are true, is there anything unusual about that black cat?"

Uri laughed wryly, shaking his head: "Because it was dark, I couldn't see, but that black cat... It cries... hear... Uhm..."

"How its cry?" Donna quickly asked again.

Uri frowned, trying to find the most appropriate word: "It... It sounds like... "begging"? I don't know how to describe it, it sounds a bit pitiful..."

"Beg?" Donna frowned at her delicate eyebrows, asking again.

Uri hesitated a little, then nodded.

Donna rested her chin in thought, a moment later. She asked Uri again: "Do you try to remember a little? Besides the above, is there anything out of the unusual?"

"Unusual? Maybe... it's over..." Uri shook his head slightly.

Suddenly, something flashed through Uri's mind, and he lightly exclaimed: "Ah..."

"What's wrong?" Donna asked.

Uri scratched his head, saying, "That... sound... That sounds so strange..."

Donna heard his sentence desultorily, cryptically asking again: "What sound?"

"I... I don't know, I remember as I approached that alley, a strange sound sounded, like... the sound of an empty box falling to the ground..."

"Empty box?" Donna rubbed her chin, looking pensive.

Uri looked at her and pursed his lips without speaking up. The hand on his knee is slightly tightened

At this time, Alex suddenly stood up and said coldly to Donna: "Let's go!"

Donna Nancy hurriedly stood up, and nodded to Uri: "Thanks for your cooperation. If you have any news, please notify us at this number."

She said and pulled out a business card from her pocket.

"I got it." Uri accepted the business card and nodded in return.

"Well then, don't forget you're still under suspicion!" Donna said and winked at Uri, completely different from the serious look before: "See you soon!"

Uri heard her say that, trying to make a smile.

Donna also laughed back, looking at Ethan Smith, "Mr. Smith, we gotta go!"

Ethan Smith quickly responded, "Let me show you!"

"No problem!" Donna waved her hand, then hurriedly ran after Alex Dominic, "Captain, wait for me!"

Seeing the two people disappearing behind the door, Uri breathed a sigh of relief.

Ethan Smith also let out a heavy breath, and asked Uri with concern, "Wayne, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, boss!" Uri waved his hand, laughing, and replied, "So... I ask permission to go first."

"All right, go away! If you want to take a break, tell John."

"I got it." Uri nodded, stood up, bowed to Ethan Smith, and left the room. He returned to the office, his colleagues were gathered in a group, constantly whispering.

"Is the FBI so handsome now?"

"I thought Hollywood actor visits us newsroom..."

"Silver-hair... It is the first time I've seen it!"

"The woman next to him is his girlfriend? They look like a couple!"

Uri heard those words, guessing they must be referring to the silver-haired man. Indeed, he is very handsome! But Uri felt it was best not to have a connection with this person. In him, Uri sensed something very dangerous.

After talking for a while, it was time for a lunch break. Uri packed his things and left the newsroom.