Introduction

On the top of a small moutain, near a village by the name of "Christendom", there was a single isolated wood house amongst the trees. If you looked at the direction of that house within a certain distance, you wouldn't be able to even notice that it was there. It was a very peaceful place to live. No loud neighbours and no barking dogs to pester anyone. The person who lived there — if you can even call it that — is someone named Flopper. He is classified as an "anomaly", which are non human creatures with grotesque appearances who often attack and consume human flesh. Flopper, however, is one of a kind. He is the only anomaly known to be conceived with the grace of self-awareness. He is able to reason and think like a human does, which made him twice as smarter and twice as dangerous than every other anomaly. Besides that, he also received a much less horrifying appearance. He looks similar to a cat, with two big ears, a long tail and a layer of fur above his skin, which only made him look less intimidating. 12 years prior to today, the current leader of the village, Mason, found Flopper when he was three years old. The day that he was found, Mason walked around the forest nearby the village as he smelled a strong scent of dead carcass, and as he investigated the smell, he found Flopper standing on the middle of the forest covered in blood and internal organs of animals as well as their corpses scattered around him. He felt something different in Flopper than other anomalies, so he took him in secretly and found out how similar Flopper is to a human, he could walk, mutter some words, and most importantly was able to feel some degree of empathy. But still, it took a whie for Mason to finaly introduce him to the rest of the village, and the didn't accept him at first, but with time they learned to be around him normally. For being an anomaly, he had a strenght and resistance beyond human, because of this, he was more often entrusted with the most dangerous tasks to help the vilage. Since an early age, he would hunt and dissect animals open to suppress the urges he had for hurting other people, since he was raised to not harm innocent people. Flopper later decided to live mostly on the mountain by himself, even building a house with the help of his friend Chase. Flopper wakes up normally and follows on with his usual workout routine as the first thing he does in the morning. After finishing his workouts he opens his door to go back into the house, when suddenly Chase appears on the other side of the door, about to open it as well, but Flopper gets startled and instinctively right hooks him into the face, knocking him out. Flopper stares at him for a few seconds "Oops." He turns his back to the door and heads towards the village. Many citizens greet him as he walks throughout the streets. He reaches the stand of someone who despises him, where he usually gets extra tasks to do to help the village. The owner of this stand is named Ethan Mitchell, a well respected former soldier of the village, now retired due to health issues. As Flopper approaches, Ethan notices him, but immediately looks away and exhales "Not this freak again..." Ethan looks back at him, Flopper gives him a smile and puts his hands on the counter "Hey how you doing Eth-" Before he finishes speaking, Ethan grabs him by the neck and pulls him closer, whispering to his face. "You don't get to use my first name, fuckin' weirdo." Flopper smirks at him confusedly "Okay, erm... is there anything i can do today?" Ethan lets him go abruptly and leans back "Yeah you can get the fuck out my sight before i attain another heart disease or some shit." Flopper raises an eyebrow and questions him again. "So there's nothing? No lost kid?" He asks softly "Yeah. And also, Mason wanted to talk to you." He looks away and huffs "About what?" Flopper tilts his head slightly to the right "How the fuck would i know? It's between you and him." Ethan exclaims. Not like he was ever the patient type but with Flopper it's just unconditional hate. "That so? I should get going then..." He sighs "Well what the fuck you waitin' for then? You want me to tell you go there?" He huffed again, placing a hand on his hip. Ethan already despised average anomalies, let alone one that can talk. After this quite inconvenient — but useful — exchange, Flopper nods at Ethan and gives him a thumbs up — which he ignores and looks away — rushing towards the middle of the village where the leader's shelter is located. He gets to the place and notices the already opened door. Weird, but he goes in anyway. He walks into the office where he finds Mason and Liza, another one of his friends. "Oh there he is! Where's Chase?" Mason asks, putting a hand on his shoulder. Flopper scratches his head "Oh, you sent him to my house? I kind of knocked him out. He'll be gone for a good while." Mason's smile slowly vanishes "Oh. Then i'll leave this only for both of you." Mason took his hand off of Flopper's shoulder and walked back to his desk, sitting on his chair "A few hours ago two worried parents reported their child went missing." The leader looked out the window with a dissapointed expression "Wow. Ethan wouldn't believe this." Flopper whispers to himself and Mason continues "Apparently they were in the woods collecting plants to craft medicine and they weren't paying enough attention to the little girl and she ended up dissapearing deep into the forest. They tried looking for their child but they came across an anomaly and had to flee." Mason says. Liza frowns and leans against the wall, crossing her arms "Poor girl. I can't even imagine how her parents feel, especially after seeing that anomaly." She says, looking at the floor "The kid went missing on the eastern side of the forest. I want both of you to go there and search for her." He speaks in a more demanding tone "Finally something to do, i'm tired of wasting time around here. Let's go Liza." Before the duo went into the forest where the girl was last seen, Flopper quickly interrogates the parents to see if there was any other information worth knowing, he only finds out that the name of the lost girl was Sayla and she was 9 years old. Once they go to the place where Sayla went missing, they can see a partial trail of footprints that go into the forest but gradually vanish.

The forest

Diving deeper into the forest, the enviroment gets denser and travelling amongst the trees and the bushes and the grass keeps getting more difficult. But both of them were experts in exploring the forest since they've always lived there. Liza was personally taught by the leader of the village on how to conciliate with the jungle, but while Flopper also received training, he mostly learned alone, observing and practicing. They walked, and walked, and walked on the forest for hours, and yet they couldn't find a single evidence or track that could lead them to know where Sayla was. At some point they had to stop and rest before they could continue the search. They built a campfire and rested. The light of the night made the ambience soothing and the shinning of the moon comfortable. Though, Liza still felt a bit afraid of sleeping in the midst of the forest, considering how far they were to the closest point of the village. She would scoot closer to Flopper and lay her head on his shoulder. All they could hear were the animals, the crickets, the frogs, the sound of the leaves blowing in the wind, and it was comforting. Both of them felt relaxed amid the trees, despite all of the dangers that could find them as they slept. The search remained for 3 consecutive days, but still, they couldn't find anything. Not a single trace. Liza still had hope and determination to find the girl, while Flopper was more focused on looking around for evidence in any spot. However, on this day, Flopper noticed something weird. As they were walking, his eyes glanced at a tree that looked oddly familiar. He stopped mid way and called out to Liza "Hey, you. Come here." Liza turned around and went closer as Flopper gestured. "Have we seen this tree before?" Flopper said. Liza looked at it, confused "No, we haven't." She said, putting a hand on the tree "Mhm. Weird. I must be imagining things." He says, putting one hand on his chin thoughtfully. Liza bonks him on the head. "There's a lot of trees in the forest, you think you'd memorize every single one?" Flopper scratches the spot where she hit him "Uh-huh, whatever you say." They continue roaming the forest for a few minutes, when he grabs her by the arm and pulls her closer. Liza looks at him in the eyes "Huh? What is it?" Flopper points at a nearby tree. "Look at this. This tree has the exact same marking as the one we saw a couple of minutes ago." The tree had a mark, which looked more like a single straight line turned diagonally "That's... that's true." She frowns slightly and takes a closer look "But what does this mean?" She asked. Flopper thought about it for a second. He started looking around and walked closer to a rock. "This stone, it has the EXACT same format as every other stone, but in a different size. It's almost like someone took the same models and just made them smaller and copied them around." Flopper glanced back at Liza "There's an anomaly around." She walks around and investigates the trees, noticing that they are all copies of each other, but in different sizes and angles "But since when? And how?? We didn't take our eyes off of the forest even if for a single second!" She affirms, in a slightly more desperate tone. Flopper gets up and walks up to her "Okay, listen, we just recently got into this illusion as we were awake, because if the trees were being duplicated for a longer time than that i would've been able to tell, so it's very likely that we're stuck in a limited space, which means we're gonna have to either wake up or break some barrier to escape." He looks at every direction, but can't really think of a way to escape "Okay..." She said "This illusion could mean we either walked in into it or the anomaly did us dirty while we were distracted." She looks at the sky, grabs a rock and gives it to Flopper "I'm too weak, so throw this at the sky with all your strenght." Flopper snatched the rock and threw it as hard as he could. The force of the throw makes the rock cut through the air creating a path and nearly break the sound barrier. However, the rock hits a kind of an invisible wall and tears a space on the sky, and from that space a red liquid starts flowing out. "What the hell?" Flopper looks at it even more confused. "That's blood, i'm sure of it." He affirms. "Which means, w-we're inside an anomaly. Hah." Liza exclaims nervously as the hole starts closing. Flopper notices this and picks her up, putting her on his shoulder and using his legs to leap into the hole. The floor below them is destroyed and both of them are sent piercing through the hole. As they start falling, they look back and finally see the anomaly. The anomaly had 12 legs, 6 on each side of her body, all about 5 meters tall. It had eyes all over it's body who cried blood and stared back at the duo. The face of the anomaly was completely deformed, there were huge bubbles below it's skin with unknown liquids inside. The eyes of the anomaly were missing from it's head, and it's body was fat and deformed. Flopper and Liza were inside it's stomach when they were under the 'illusion', which made them theorize they just walked into the anomaly's stomach somehow. The anomaly screamed in pain, Flopper and Liza fell crashing into the trees and then the ground, but got back up quickly. Flopper didn't even think twice and already dashed into the direction of the anomaly, but the bubbles that were on the anomaly's body started exploding and the liquid was poured to the ground, and small creatures began forming from it. The creatures looked like extremely deformed humans. Some parts of their skin looked like they were turned inside out, they walked with their long arms and legs supported on the floor with their bodies turned and arched up, and out of their mouths came that same liquid. Three pairs of those creatures rushed towards Flopper to attack him, but he used both of his arms to impale and block each one of them. He would pierce his arms through their hearts and stomach and destroy everything in it's way. Liza watched the scene horrified, since she was not used to the sight of such a disgusting anomaly. And there was too much blood. More blood than a normal person can handle. Flopper advanced into the horde of creatures, killing each one of them until he got to the anomaly that trapped them. He leaped up again and as he was into the air, the anomaly bit him and swallowed him again. Liza looked at the scene even more shocked, but, a few seconds later, the anomaly started screaming loud and unhinged noises in pain, it's legs were shaking weakly and the eyes that were on it's body started crying even more blood. Flopper was destroying all of it's internal organs, as the anomaly failed to put him into another illusion. He tore his way into the anomaly's head, causing it to explode apart and pieces of the anomaly's brain to fly away into multiple parts of the forest. The anomaly's body went limp as it fell down into the trees, making a loud noise. Flopper then crawled away, got up, and ran back towards Liza, covered in blood and in a horrible smell. There was an excited smile on his face since he finally felt some adrenaline while fighting. "Liza." He tried speaking, but she quickly cuts him off "S-Stay away from me... please, just stay away from me..." She turned her back on him and leaned her body against a tree, breathing heavily. Flopper looked at this and felt a bit hurt, the smile on his face vanishing. It's obvious that no mentally stable human can simply witness a brutal scene like that and not suffer any consequences, but Flopper was more desensitized to violence due to his background.

Questioning

They stop by a river for Flopper to clean himself up. Liza was sitting by the feet of a tree, watching him. "Can you hurry up? What are you doing?" She says, putting her right hand on her cheek. "I am becoming one with water. Wanna join?" He said. Liza frowned slightly and looked away, the scenes of what occurred previously kept flashing at her mind. She could remember the smile he had on his face, and it made her question the morality of Flopper. He acted like what happened that day was just a normal occurrence. "There was something about what happened at the day when Sayla dissapeared that Mason didn't tell you." She got up and leaned her back against the tree. Flopper, who was letting his body float on the water, turned back up and looked at her "What is it?" He asked calmly "The relashionship of her mother and father had been decaying for a few weeks and they were constantly fighting. Sayla would seclude herself in her room and cover her ears with her hands to not hear her parents arguing. The day when Sayla dissapeared, they decided to do one last thing together before they divorced, and even Sayla knew this, but while they where gathering the plants they started fighting again, that time it got much more intense. This scared Sayla, so she ran into the woods without even looking back." Liza exhaled and shook her head, looking back at him "Could you imagine the fear that she felt? The anxiety? The uncertainty if she was ever safe? Just imagine all of that on top of being isolated, alone, on the depths of a forest you barely even know." She looked back at him "Does that make you feel anything? Anything at all?" Flopper heard her monologue and frowned, staring back at her eyes "I feel like i can relate to it, but... i don't know. It's so foggy and messy, like a hidden memory." Flopper affirmed in a much serious tone. Liza sighed and stepped away from the tree " I see, then. It must've been my imagination." She says "Huh? What do you mean?" "It's nothing, forget it." Flopper raises an eyebrow and insists on the question "Oh great, i'm not sleeping tonight am i?" He said "You didn't even flinch back then when you were fighting that anomaly. I saw the smile on your face, Flopper. Do you not care that they were anomalies too? I mean, it's like a human killing another human." She affirmed, but Flopper didn't seem to understand her question "I don't get watcha' trying to say. They tried to kill us and they were a potential threat to da village. I only did what had to be done, they had to die. And i wouldn't say it's like a human killing another human, it's like a human killing some animals." He responded. Liza sighed and nodded "It's okay, i get it. Let's just put this behind us." She said and smiled. Flopper gave her a thumbs up and they continued their search.

Just Chase

Somewhere in the Christendom Village, Chase, who has already woken up from the knockout, walks towards the leader's shelter to speak to Mason. However, he wasn't there. He then took off to a restaurant to see if he could find him, but he only found his friend, Arthur, eating a fair portion of chicken-fried steak. Chase approaches him sneakily and slaps the back of his neck a little too strong, making Arthur nearly spit his food out "Yo, you seen Mason around?" He asks his friend "You really have to stop this habit of hitting people and no i haven't seen him, but i think he went to the training grounds." Arthur responds, stroking the back of his neck "God forbid people have fun." He replies, responding to Arthur's first affirmation "Are you gonna let me eat or what?" Arthur replies "Oh, i know! Wanna spar?!" He requests excitedly "Hell nah let me eat my food in peace mate." He turns back to his table and continues his feasting. Chase thinks about mocking him for saying 'mate' but he's just not in the mood to have an argument and he decides to confirm if Mason really was in the training ground by talking to Ethan, since he is Mason's closest friend. Reaching Ethan's stand, he greets him "Yo Mitchell!" Ethan turns around and greets him back "What's good bro?" They dap each other up "You know where Mason been today?" He asks "Yea he's doing some training sessions with a of bunch people up, why?" Ethan leans against the counter "I have this idea of taking my friend group and putting everyone to live in the same house, that would be so damn epic!" Chase laughs to himself, even though he doesn't even know if Mason would approve it. "Tell me about it. Which ones are you calling?" "Well... Liza, Haiko, Flopper and obviously myself." Ethan sighs at the mention of Flopper "You're bringing that freak-ass too?" Chase is confused for a while but quickly realizes he's talking about the anomalous one "Oh, Flopper? Well yeah. He's a cool specimen. I don't understand why you two are always one step of ripping each other's head apart." Ethan gets slightly irritated "The guy's fucked up on the head that's why i want to rip it apart. There will be a day you people will regret taking that psycho' as one of your own." Ethan scoffs "Flopper may not be human but that doesn't mean he can't be happy or have friends, you gotta open that little mind of yours big bro." Chase steps back from the counter "There's not a single document or file about Flopper's early life or origin, not legal nor illegal, what do you make of that?" Ethan says and leans closer "I know something's wrong with that little fucker. One day he's gonna slip up and i'm gonna put him behind bars." Chase zones out for a while before replying "I know you kinda messed up right now but wanna spar?" Ethan chuckles and pulls back "Sure, got nothin' to do anyway."

Chase VS Ethan

Chase and Ethan head towards a hill, an open space, where they could practice hand to hand combat freely. Ethan would make the first moves, launching multiple punches towards his opponent. He aimed for the most vulnerable areas, Chase managed to block each punch but he had no time to counter-attack. Ethan swiftly moved behind him, sweeped his leg and attempted to hit him on the center of his back, but Chase dodged, spinned and dashed back, he prepared his leg, flexing his bones and applied a clean roundhouse kick into Ethan's face, but the kick barely did anything. Ethan grabbed his leg and elbowed down on the middle of his knee using his body weight for more force, nearly breaking Chase's knee. Chase groaned and rolled back and took a small distance, unable to move his left leg properly, Ethan took advantage of this, giving him no further time to think he moved towards Chase and tried to cross punch him in the face, but Chase acted quickly and ducked, charged a punch and used the momentum to land a powerful strike on Ethan's stomach, which made him lose stability for a few seconds, giving Chase the opportunity to uppercut him on the chin, making his brain hit repeteadly against his skull. Ethan however resisted the punch and stood his ground, he spinned 360 degrees and back kicked Chase in his stomach, in response to the punch. Chase fell to his knee and they both distanced from each other. "What the hell?! How are you this good with health issues!?" Chase exclaimed "My disease isn't that serious i just used it as an excuse." Ethan says, before they both advance towards each other and start trading punches, both landing hits on each other, but Ethan was being able to overpower Chase. They launch two punches at the same time and their fists collide, the impact of the punches fractures Chase's knuckles and pushed his arm back, giving Ethan the opening to strike him thrice, landing a left hook on his cheek, piercing his neck with an open hand, and in the end back-kicking him to the stomach, which made Chase fall with his back on the ground. Ethan grabbed Chase by the face and started slamming the back of his head against the floor repeteadly, until his arm felt heavy. Only after that, Ethan let go of his face and went to get some help for him. It's important to notice Ethan Mitchell was 30 years old on this occasion, while Chase was 16, even though he was a bit of a prodigy. Ethan didn't want the village's new generation to be weak, so he decided to go all out on Chase, but despite being very strong he couldn't do a lot more than that. Now wether it's moral or not to give an ass beating to someone half your age is still being debated by scholars. A few hours after these events, Chase couldn't go to the training grounds but he was informed Mason wanted to talk with him, therefore they met at his house. Mason came in and drank a little bit of coffe, since he was offered. They spoke for some time and Mason found the idea of the friend group house pretty neat, so for him it was allowed. "Mitchell mentioned how none of us really know Flopper's origin." "Yeah." They sat on the stairs right in front of Chase's garden. "You're the one who brought him to the village Mason. You got NO idea of why he is what he is?" Chase asked curiously "Do you think if i knew i would keep it to myself?" "I don't know dude you're a bit freaky at times." "Wha...? In any case, no, i don't know Flopper's origin." Chase sighed "Alright then." They sit in silence for a moment. A bird comes down to the ground looking for food and Chase goes after it for no reason at all. "That house is quite a mansion, if you ask me. However, the owner has not yet moved his buttocks out of it, henceforth you will still have to wait." "Oh, i see. Keep me updated anyway." Mason's gaze hovers to his bandaged arm. "What happened to your hand?" "Oh this? I was sparring Ethan and he took it a LITTLE too seriously." "Ah. Of course." Mason stayed there for a while but left before it got late.

Temperance

Flopper and Liza had been living in the forest for 5 days now, yet no significant evidence was found. Even so, they both knew neither of them would give up the search until something was found, even if something tragic. In this day, they remembered of an ancient cave that stood in the path of the jungle, and that the neighbour village used to have a trail leading to that cave, so they decided to go after it for any chance of finding evidence. Flopper and Liza were walking carefully throughout the trees and the fauna, always making sure to look in every direction not allowing for anything to go unnoticed. They soon learned that when you're stuck with the same person for 5 days in a forest you'll either start liking them or get tired of them. "Flopper, how come i never heard you talking about having a girlfriend?" Flopper paused for a second and turned around to look at her "Ah, it's not something i care a lot about, ya know?" Liza heard this answer but she still wasn't happy with it. "Come on, you don't have to get all defensive about it! It's completely normal for a fifteen year old to spend his day thinking about romance, or perhaps more stimulating things." She walked up to him and pinched his cheeks. "Why dho you kip thoching me like i'm some phet?" Flopper swats her hands away "Come to think of it, i wouldn't mind having you as a pet... but you have to think about your future, Flopper!" She pouted "So? You wanna cookie?" He said and sighed heavily "I'm telling you this for your own good. And luckily it's very probable that you could breed with a human, too." "Man did you really have to use the term 'breed'?" Liza ignored that last question and he started walking again. But the conversation didn't end there. "Since we're already here, do you prefer big or small boobs?" Flopper speeds up his pace "Can we not talk about that right now?" Liza speeds up as well to follow him. "I've always thought mine are a bit below average but i never asked anyone about it... what do you think? Are they small?~" "Uhh, sure." Liza reaches Flopper and wraps her arms around him and stops him. "You're walking too fast, jeez, calm down! Why are you like this?" Flopper flinches a little when she puts her arms on his waist "'Why am i like this'? Why are YOU like this?!" Liza chuckled at the response. "You have to admit you like it. If you didn't, you wouldn't even want to be my friend, would you?" "I thought girls wouldn't usually be perverts." Flopper sighs heavily "Really? Oh boy... how do i tell you this?" Flopper takes her arms off of him and pushes her to the ground "Calm down i'm just joking, jeez." Liza looked behind Flopper and her eyes caught a glimpse of something. "Wait, look around you, are those footprints?" Flopper turned around and looked at the floor. There was a multitude of footprints and it seemed like a total mess, on some spots the footprints were awkwardly scattered but some others were more preserved. They followed the footprints, which led exactly towards the cave. When they got closer to the entrance, they began smelling a horrible scent, but they couldn't identify what it was yet. They went inside the cave, where the smell was strong, and there was a huge rock leaned against one wall of the cave, the weird smell coming from the other side of the rock. When they checked what was on the other side, they found Sayla's deceased body, mildly decomposing. There was a lot of blood spatter near the local and her clothes were visibly torn off, multiple bruises and cuts throught her body could be seen, some that looked like what could be made by the claw of a big predator. Upon seeing this, Liza stood in shock for a few seconds. "Sa..." She took a few steps back and walked away from the body going back to the entrance of the cave. Her lips kept muttering the words "Oh my God." Her legs felt weak and she fell to her knees on the floor, the unexpected change on the atmosphere caused her eyes to fill with tears. Flopper stood there the whole time looking at the body. He was frustrated and dissappointed, but also intrigued. When he saw that Liza was much more affected than him, and after taking his last glances at the body, he went after her. He kneeled down in front of her and comforted her. He moved his left arm around her waist and placed her head on his chest, stroking the back of her head with his right hand. In that moment he didn't know the right words to comfort her, but he could understand why she felt that way over the revelation, despite that, to some extent, he couldn't feel the same thing, and that made him question his own sense of empathy. Flopper was much less affected by the scene than even himself expected to be. They stayed there for a while before they had to return to the village with Sayla's body, at the moment the least they could do is give her a decent burial.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Funeral

The news was first presented to Mason, then to the parents under calmer circumstances. The parents took the decision to make a public event for the whole village, to bury the body in respect for the little girl. The entire village was invited and attended. A grave was digged and her body was carefully placed inside, then they buried it by putting the soil back inside the pit. A cross was carved and placed behind the grave, with the name "Sayla" written into it. As traditionally done by the village, they all stayed silent for the next 5 minutes, grouped around the area. Mason gave the parents the right to make the final speech while the rest of the people remained silent. The mother of Sayla began speaking "Today we gather around in memory of my daughter, Sayla, whose life was interrupted abruptly by the hands of a faceless beast. She spent this whole time, ever since that day, alone, and scared. Our hearts are greatly sorrowed by this occurrence, deeply scarred in a way that cannot be reverted. No matter how much we weep, my child can't be brought back. Let this incident be of not only grief, but a reminder. We ought to be more careful with our children, to not make our problems affect negativitely their life, for what happened here could happen again. We humbly thank each and all of you for coming to our child's burial, and especially Flopper and Liza, who devoted their days for the dignity of our family, and were able to localize and inform what happened to our little one. May God have mercy on us, and may God deliver us from any more of these episodes." The parents bowed down to the people, and the people bowed back to them. After this occasion, everyone payed their respects individually and left. The only ones who remained were Sayla's parents and Flopper. He stared at them expressionlessly. He saw their pain, even respected it, but he couldn't feel it, as much as he wished he could.

The Theory

"You like watching people grieve for their loss, motherfucker?" Ethan appeared and put a hand on Flopper's shoulder. Flopper looked at him and stayed silent "The look on your face creeped the fuck out of everyone." Flopper raised his eyebrows "No one was looking at me, Mitchell." Ethan scoffed "Hearing my name come from you is a gift directly from Satan." Flopper smirked "Yeah i know. Sorry about that." Ethan leaned closer "Fuck you." Flopper's smirk vanished and he looked back at the grave. "I bet you didn't even react to seeing the body personally you fuckin' weirdo. I know something's fucked up with you, i've always known." "They're wrong." Ethan looked at him in puzzle "Wrong? Who's wrong? About what?" Flopper sighed "I don't think Sayla died by the hands of an animal, she was murdered..." Ethan looked even more puzzled now "What the fuck are you talking about? Mason told me about the body, there was a huge claw mark made on her stomach, how'd a human do that?" Flopper looked up thoughtfully "The scratch is too thin and oddly intentional to have been made by the work of a bear or another animal, but rather by a knife. There is no bite mark on the entire body and no other scratch of the same size. Her head was disconnected from the body, yet her face only had bruises." Ethan looked at him disgusted "How the fuck do you know that?" Flopper looked at Sayla's parents "They held to the body for two days before burying it, so i analyzed it." "You did what?" Flopper looked back at him "The cut was clean, nearly surgical, and i could tell it was made in a single movement. There is absolutely no chance an animal did that. The bruises point out she was hit repeteadly, since there is no sign she fell somewhere or even hit her body so hard as to cause that many bruises. I also noticed her throat and her wrists had strange red and purple spots, it's likely she was strangled, but i don't know why the wrists were so specifically that way..." Ethan looked at him in disbelief and disgust "You give me the fuckin' creeps, you know that Flopper?" He ignored him and continued "Judging by every evidence i found, the killer is between 175-180cm tall, weights 76kg and isn't less than 28 years old. If we can search for someone with these characteristics, we-" "You're fucking delusional you brat. Let Sayla rest in peace from your conspiracy theories, you're not an expert you can't know if your measures are accurate and you might get the wrong guy arrested. This was the biggest bullshit i've heard my whole fucking life so please get the fuck outta here and go home." Ethan scoffs and leaves the place "Fuckin' psycho." He whispered to himself. Flopper watched him go, dissapointed that he was interrupted. However, he decided to tell his theory to Mason, since he knew Ethan despised him so it's unlikely Ethan would listen even if he's right. "Jesus Christ, Flopper, you got to those conclusions just by analyzing her corpse?" Inside Mason's office, Flopper sat on the chair across Mason's desk and spoke to him "No, not just the body. I stopped to look at the footprints and the local near the cave too, before and as we were taking off." Mason looked at him skeptically "How can you be so sure of your conclusions?" "Nothing appears there from thin air, Mason. All the evidence has a reason for being there. I viewed the severity of every damage suffered and determined how they were made. The bruises, the red spots, the scratches, the blood spatter... everything tells a story, all i did was crack it. And also these types of killers usually have similar profiles, so that was my base for judgment." Mason spinned in his chair for a second before looking back at him. "But you're not a worker of the law, are you? How can you be so sure of everything you've said?" Flopper yawned and stretched. "Well... i know a few people and read a few books, hah. Come on Mason, can't you back me up this one time?" "I'm sorry, no." They sat in silence of a while before Flopper sighed and got up. "Alright then." Flopper quickly got himself out of there and left the place.

Stalker

Both Ethan and Mason denied his theory, but Flopper was sure of himself. He could not bear to stand there and do nothing. Deep down he knew that he needed, no, wanted, to get justice for Sayla. The village that used to have a direct path to the cave is one called "Bettelhound". Since it was the closest village to the cave after Christendom, Flopper decided to go there and look for people who fit his killer's characteristics. He took a day to warn his friends he would be gone for weeks, but he gave the names of multiple places instead of just Bettelhound, to avoid suspicion. Flopper spent the first week looking for whoever matched his profile. Wandering. Stalking. He walked both in light and in dark searching carefully for those who met both physical and mental aspects of his killer. He made sure to be seen as little as possible. At the end of the first week, he came across many people, but he settled down to only 10 suspects who fully matched his characteristics and presented small empathy and desensitivity to violence. Those ten people were: Winston Smith, William James, Alexander David, Matthew Charles, Christopher Joseph, James Andrew, Benjamin Scott, Joseph Alan and Ray Krowler. All of them were known troublesome people with apparent hidden lifes. However, one in particular caught Flopper's eyes amongst the others. Winston Smith, husband, father of 2, serves as Lieutenant at a police department. The 'perfect' disguise of a 'perfect' man. A perfectionist man good at everything that he does. Flopper spent nights watching him as he worked, slept, and stayed at home. He broke into his house and hid in his ceiling, where he could listen to almost everything. Winston, a seemingly kind and good soul externally, is a man who hit his wife and constantly yelled at his cubs. He had weird work schedules, some days coming too late and some too soon. Flopper couldn't always keep an eye on him, but Winston did dissapear at times. All Flopper needed was a concrete proof. One day, Flopper saw a person fully covered in black come out the house with a black bag in hands, go into the garden and into a tiny structure Winston had built there. Flopper waited for the person to leave and he sneaked up in. Inside the place there was nothing but a toilet. He found this very weird since that bag was nowhere to be seen, so he took the toilet off and dug into the ground beneath it until he reached something solid and flat. "The hell? This isn't a bathroom." He cleared the place of soil and saw a handle. Upon opening it, he found a secret basement below the ground. "What is... this?" He jumped down to the floor and landed on his feet. There were 4 of those same black bags put at each corner of the small room, and a horrible smell struck his nose once again. He instantly knew what those were, but he still needed to check. Inside the bag located at the upper left corner, there was a dismembered body, seemingly adult and female. The cuts were smooth, surgical. Flopper was even more intrigued by this. Four victims, which means Winston is officially a serial killer. The upper right bag had another dismembered adult female. However, the lower left bag had much smaller severed limbs. "A child... there's no doubt. Winston is Sayla's killer. But... why'd he leave the body here?" Flopper looked around disgusted but also interested. This man dissapeared four people leaving little to no evidence behind, but he was too careless. Twice. That's what made him get caught. Upon opening the last bag, the one at the lower right, he saw a different pattern. The victims limbs were much more robust and larger than the others, what made him think it was a male. He analyzed each limb, but as he got to the head, Flopper jumped back. The head belonged to Winston himself. Flopper sat in shock for a good moment. Confused. He started overthinking.

Winston wasn't the killer, he was the victim. How did i not see this? Abusive husband, fake, happy, perfect life... but it never proved he was a killer. Winston didn't mess up, i did. I lost my time. I couldn't see the true killer's face. I don't get it. Why Winston? Why was he in Winston's house? Does he know i'm after him? Did i get outsmarted? I can't think. I have to get out of here.

Flopper left the place and tried his best to keep everything the exact way it was. For the first time in a long while he felt lost. He didn't know where to go, where to search, who to investigate. There was no way his family killed Winston. His wife disliked him but she wasn't strong enough and the cuts were made in one blow. His children were 8 and 9 years old, so no chance either. But then, he remembered. The cuts where very precise, there was no way that was done by an amateur. One of his suspects, Ray Krowler, was a butcher. That was it. The last detail missing. With this hunch, Flopper began stalking Ray more often than the others. In one Saturday, three days after Winston's death, Ray and his friends were drinking at a bar. Flopper went into that same bar as him, to try and overhear something. Due to his popularity, Flopper was greeted by quite a few people there, and since he was an anomaly, they decided it'd be okay to let allow him in and even drink alcohol. Flopper sat from a certain distance of Ray and his group, listening to their conversation while also speaking to the other people. "Hey Ray" One of his friends said "You heard about what happened with Winston?" Ray, who had already drank his fair amount of alcohol, burped and replied "Yea, he dissapeared didn't he? Wonder what happened. Hope he got butchered" They laughed "So what are you gonna do about Michelle now?" Someone else asked "His hot-ass wife? I'll probably fuck her again. It's good that he died, he used to hit her, you know that? Hah!"

'Hot-ass wife', 'Butchered', 'Fuck her again'. There's a backstory here. They had an affair and Ray knows Winston was abusive. There's the motivation i couldn't see. He killed Winston to eliminate competition. At least that's what i'd like to think. This proves he's an asshole, but not a murderer. I need more proof. But Ray isn't exactly a genius. I know how to catch him. There's no turning back on this. It's you, or nothing, Ray Krowler.

Blackmailing

A few days after, Ray woke up in the middle of the night to a loud sound coming from the kitchen. He got up and went to check on the sound. On the middle of the kitchen, he found the black bag that used to contain Winston's severed limbs, but inside was only Winston's head. Along with the bag, there was a card along with a location, which said: "No salutions needed. Go to the addressed coordenates tomorrow after midnight. If you refuse to do so, or if you do not come alone, i will so kindly share the rest of the body along with your sweet DNA attached to it to the police deparment. Don't be seen by anyone." Upon reading this, Ray started to sweat coldly and panic. He kicked the bag away and wasn't able to sleep for the rest of the night. The next day came, and Flopper felt nervous. He wasn't very sure of what could happen, but in the best case scenario Ray would give himself in. Still, Flopper took precautions. He made sure the place was away and isolated from any civilization. He still knew Ray could try to report the card to the police, so he made sure to stalk him at all times, just in case. But Ray didn't even think about it. He went straight to where they would meet. As he got to the place, Ray couldn't see anyone. The place was an abandoned village, with little to no life. It was so abandoned not even animals really lived there. He walked around the city at the creep of the night, shouting for whoever sent him the card. He went inside a training academy, and inside the academy there were the rest of the bags of the people he, so far, allegedly killed. He stared at those bags for a while, when all of sudden, Flopper sneaked behind him and wrapped a string around his neck and pulled on it. Ray flinched and tried to fight back but the string was on his way. Soon enough, he slowed down as his counciousness faded. Flopper took his body and went back to his own house.

Interrogation

Ray woke up to a strange enviroment, strapped tightly to a chair by a rope with his arms behind the chair, and in front of him there was Flopper, sitting in a chair, waiting him to wake up, and a table with something beneath covered with an extensive cloth. "What the fuck? Where am i?!" Flopper walked up to Ray and pressed a finger on his forehead "There's a few loose ends i have to stitch up." Flopper walked up to the table and took the clothing off. Above the table was Sayla's corpse laying down, some limbs had fallen off but he rebuilt them so that they seemed to be fully connected. "What the fuck? What is that?" Flopper rushed towards Ray and crouched beside him, grabbed his head and forced him to look at the body "Sayla. A sweet and kind 9 year old girl whose life was taken away by a monster called Ray Krowler." Flopper moved and stood in front of Ray, grabbed his chin and forced him to look back into his eyes "Around three or four weeks ago, in a cave. You caught her and killed her and then you cut her head off. Any memories?" Flopper said softly and stared down at him. "Oh... Hahahaha! That's what this is about? You're kidnapping me over a damn brat? Well guess what, i did kill her, and i enjoyed it, you fucker." Flopper held him by his throat and slammed him against the wall behind. He applied pressure on his neck, cutting off his breath and slowy suffocating him. "Uh-huh. Sure you did." He put Ray back on the floor and let go of his throat. Ray groaned and gasped for air as Flopper sits back at his chair and stares at him for a while. "How many others did you kill?" "Others..? I don't fucking know, you count how many ants you step on?" Flopper leans closer "The four bags at that hidden basement, this little girl, that man in the bar and your father. You killed seven people in total." Ray throwed his head up and laughed weakily "Hahah... yeaah... that's about right." "Why did you kill them?" Ray stops smiling and slowly looks back at him, sighing heavily "I couldn't contain myself. I had these urges, and i couldn't hold them back, as much as i tried." Flopper stares at him blanklessly as he speaks "I felt compelled to it. To killing people. But i didn't ask for it to be that way, okay? I can't change things now, only embrace them." He chuckled. Flopper got up and headed towards his sink, he slided his fingers along some knifes that were organized on top of the counter "I know. You couldn't resist it. The feeling of wanting to give in to your desires and flow with them... it's very tempting, isn't it?" He takes a long sharp knife and steps back towards Ray, stopping in front of him again "You understand what i mean. You don't have to do this." Flopper smirked at his desperate plea "No, i understand you, i just can't accept you." Flopper positioned the knife in Ray's throat "W-Wait! Wait! You catch killers, right?! L-Look, i used to work with a murderer, a serial killer who's never been caught yet!" Flopper stopped for a moment "I know his identity. He tried to kill me before when we stopped working together but i ran away. I'm sure you know him just please get this fucking blade off my neck." Flopper took a deep breath and withdrew his knife from the throat. "He's the one who killed 13 pregnant women, and is probably still active today. He's your perfect target, more cruel than me. I'll give you his real name but you'll have to let me go." Ray breathed heavily. Flopper tilted his head to the right "The Tree-House Killer..." He pressed his knife back on Ray's throat "N-Nathan Badge! His name is Nathan Badge..." Ray yelled desperately as he felt the knife against his neck "Mhm. Nathan Badge." Flopper took his blade off of Ray's throat, but grabbed his chin with his left hand "Open up, Krowler." He forced his mouth open and carefully positioned the knife against his tongue, cutting half of it off in a single slice. Ray groaned and whimpered, gurgling and choking with his own blood "You made me realize something." Flopper sat back at his seat "I don't have to hold back, but i won't kill innocents either. I don't hold anything against Mason and the others. They truly tried their best to raise me as a normal boy to live a normal life." Flopper spaces out "But this... this feels... right... the right thing to do. You deserve to die after what you did to all those people. After what you did to her." Flopper sighed and looked back at Ray, who was still alive, his mouth foaming with blood and the look in his eyes a mix of anger, pain and fear "This feeling is something i will cherish for long. Not just the feeling, everything behind it. The proccess, the stalking, the interrogation, the kill, and the aftermath. This feels great. It's a feeling i wish i could share with you. It'd make this moment more intimate. More special. But you don't deserve it. You don't regret your actions, and even if you did, you don't deserve forgiveness. You brought this to yourself. No one forced you to kill." Flopper quickly walks behind Ray and covers his eyes with his left hand and smoothly slits his carotid artery with the knife. The blood spurts out rapidly, killing Ray in just a few seconds. Soon enough, his deceased body layed there, limp, the blood falling down and creating a puddle on the floor. It was a mess. His clothes were dirty with his own blood. Flopper yawned and stretched. He sat back at his chair, staring at the body. "My first human kill... Mason wouldn't approve it but what can i say. I'm taking out the trash. If anything i'm doing the world a favor. I'm not as bad as them. I can't be." He sighed and looked around "Clean up all this mess.." Flopper brought Sayla's body back to her grave and re-buried it. He felt a bit bad about taking her corpse but it had to happen. Ray had to see what he's done. Flopper ran back into the house and placed Ray's corpse in the table. He took a deep breath, and dismembered the dead body into 10 parts, taking his head as a trophy. He planned to build a secret underground basement to hide it, but for now he decided to bury the head somewhere else temporarily. As for the last 9 parts, he brought them back to Bettelhound as fast as he could and positioned each member of the corpse on the ground in the middle of a public road, he placed each severed limb in a certain distance from each other, but in a way that still resembled a body. He double checked for any evidence he could've left behind and then left Christendom and travelled back to another village, since it'd be too suspicious if he came back home right after killing Krowler. He cherished the ritual for a long time. After 15 long years, he finally was able to shut down the unsettling need. He convinced himself that if he kept Ray alive he'd just kill more innocents. But now his eyes were on another target. Nathan Badge, The Tree-House Killer, a neat murderer who ended pregnant women and built tree houses to hide their bodies. No one knew his motives. But Flopper wanted to find out. He was fascinated. The next day, Ray's body was found, as Flopper intended, and the news about the death quickly spread. The anomaly came back only a week after he killed Ray. Upon returning, he was greeted by his friends and acquaintances, went directly towards his house and threw himself on his bed. He felt only pride of what he did to Ray, hence why he exposed the body publicly. He wanted to send a message.