80,124 Words

Julia had found the perfect job—until it wasn't. Julia managed to snag a third shift position at Remington Safe and Clean, a crime scene cleaning company with an impeccable reputation. The great pay and benefits made her feel like her life was finally turning around for the better. Until the night she and her partner, Stan, received a job request in a bizarre language she couldn't read. Her partner's comment about 'it's too soon' made her realize that 'the other shoe' was about to drop. Stan gets hurt, and there's a fresh body lying on the roof. As crime scene cleaners, they arrive only once the police are done, not before they ever get there. Yet, for this job, they are expected to collect evidence, bag the body, and clean the scene. Then there's the creature who fled after scaring her half to death. That's when she's told there's another race inhabiting the Earth—the Secret Humankind. And they've implanted a device in her neck without her knowledge. One they can use to blow her carotid artery if they ever suspect she's telling anyone about what she's learned. As if that wasn't bad enough—the supernatural being that killed the man on the roof is continuing his murder spree. He also starts taunting Julia, and those she works with, daring them to try to stop him. Can Julia reconcile herself to keeping the Secret Humankind's secrets? All while trying to stay alive and somehow hunt down a supernatural assassin who knows who she is?