A woman wearing a blue coat with the logo of the Police was standing in front of a six-story apartment that was bustling with activity. Under her coat, her soft-pink dress with floral patterns complemented the innocent beauty in her face, although her eyes belonged to someone who was battle-hardened. Her brown hair was loose and glistened under the afternoon sun. On her back, there was a short bow that looked like it was tailor-made for her, just like the heavy-looking boots that she was wearing.
"Lieutenant Roze, Sergeant Rood and Geel are here," said a Police officer while saluting her.
She nodded and continued staring at the apartment building in front of her, while the officer left and joined the others. Around her, people with similar attire were busy going around and preparing something. Not long after, a tall man with a scar on his face came approaching her; his manner of walking was calm and domineering. Behind the man, there was a woman with light blond hair with freckles on her face. Her light blue eyes looked very calm and staring at them would make someone feel soothed. She walked graciously towards the Lieutenant.
"You're finally back, Roze," said scarred man coldly.
"Don't be so cold to me, Rood. It's nearing the conclusion on the other side, so they can spare me being here," replied Roze with a mature voice, which contrasted with her appearance, "Anyway, congratulations on your second contract with a President. You're only one step away to becoming a Lieutenant,"
Rood stayed quiet and looked at the apartment building in front of him. The blonde woman was now standing beside the two of them.
"Geel, you can start now," said Roze.
She nodded and then started kneeling in front of the building while opening a briefcase that she was carrying. She took out a stack of black incense sticks, some blue grass, and a tiny black crystal. Geel slit her wrist and drew a sigil on the ground carefully until a blood sigil resembling a compass made out of crosses was formed. She then placed the incense, blue grass, and crystal on top of the sigil and smeared more of her blood on the items before taking out a matchstick.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Serpents and Death, hereby place the curse of deep slumber upon all the living beings inside this building,"
Her voice sounded very calm and tranquil. As she finished chanting, she set all the offerings on fire with the matchstick and the items burned slowly. The blood sigil created a wall of fire that gradually emitted a mysterious dark blue mist that started to envelop the apartment building. It took more than two minutes for the mist to finish enveloping the entirety of the building, and once it was done, deep silence came from the apartments that were busy just a minute ago. Geel zipped her briefcase and stood back up gracefully.
"It's done. Not even an explosion will wake them up," she said.
"Bring in the Ghost Puppet!" shouted Roze.
Two Police officers came carrying an all-black box half their size. There was a constant thud coming from inside the box, like whatever was in it was agitated and wanted to get out. They put the box near the Lieutenant and she opened it after muttering something inaudible under her breath.
Once the box was open, an eerie-looking puppet jumped out and lied motionlessly on the ground next to the box. Its wooden body looked very stiff, but the eyes that were supposed to be lifeless were rolling around in their sockets, watching its surroundings. After that, the puppet suspended itself in the air like someone was pulling its strings and floated into the apartment building.
"Follow it and detain everyone it points at! We can just interrogate them later and release the innocent ones," commanded Roze decisively, and then turned to the calm woman, "Geel, be ready to seal the puppet later once it's done its job,"
"Okay," replied Geel.
Roze, Rood, and Geel quickly entered the now quiet apartment building, following the many officers who had headed in before them. The officers were following the puppet around the first floor. Whenever the puppet stopped at a door, they would pry open the door and took the person inside to their motor carriage and handcuffed them there. The person remained asleep through the whole process because of Geel's curse.
After the puppet was finished with the first floor, it went upstairs, followed by the officers behind it.
"Geel, follow the puppet. Rood and I will look for the basement," said Roze.
Geel nodded and went upstairs with the other officers while Roze and Rood stayed behind. The two of them then went towards the manager's office that was not far from where they were standing. They stopped in front of the door with the sign saying 'Manager's Office' and Rood tried to open the door.
"Locked," he said shortly.
It wasn't a problem for him, however. He slit his palm and let the blood gather on it. Once there was enough, he started chanting while pressing his bloody palm to the keyhole.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Wit and Blood, order the blood that covers my palm to take the form of this door's key!"
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The blood then hardened and filled the keyhole perfectly, forming a key that was a match with the lock. He turned the key and there was a click coming from the door.
Creak...
The thick wooden door made a loud noise as he opened it. Roze and Rood entered the manager's office carefully. There was no one currently there in the well-organized office. They were there to look for the building's blueprint to find the entrance to the basement and were quickly able to do so. The blueprint was placed inside the desk drawer and it was not locked. Rood took it out and spread in on the manager's desk.
"According to this, the basement's entrance is inside room six. That's not normal," said Rood while holding the blueprint paper down to prevent it from rolling back up.
"The more reason we should be suspicious. After all, both Paars and Oranje did divination and this place came up," responded Roze.
The two of them quickly left the room and headed towards room six on the first floor. They arrived shortly after and found out that the door was again locked. When Rood was about to slit his palm again, Roze stopped him.
"Let me," she said shortly, and then focused her attention on the door in front of her, "I order you to unlock yourself!"
Click!
The door was now unlocked, so they entered the apartment room where the basement entrance should be. The apartment looked uninhabited, judging from the furniture that was covered in sheets to prevent dust from piling up on them. They walked past the living room and went straight to the bedroom, which was indicated on the blueprint.
There was a kingsized bed in the middle of the bedroom, and the floor underneath it had a sign of dragging. It was likely that the basement entrance was hidden under the bed. Roze focused on the bed in front of her and spoke.
"I order you to move aside!"
With her words, the bed magically started to drag itself to the size, slowly revealing a trapdoor underneath. It was a metal trapdoor and there was no handle for them to hold onto, so the only choice was to use Roze's order again.
"I order you to open yourself!" she said while focusing on the metal trapdoor.
Clank!
Instead of opening, there was a weird noise coming from the trapdoor, like pieces of metal hitting each other. Roze's Order had failed.
"There is protection placed on this door," she concluded.
"I don't suppose we can open it, can we?" asked Rood.
"We can't, so let me just make a new entrance," she said nonchalantly, "Move aside!"
Rood did as he was told Roze took several steps back away from the trapdoor. She then picked up the short bow from her back and got into position. On the handle, there was a sharp piece of metal attached, so she could quickly make an incision on her right finger. The blood that flowed from her wound took the form of an arrow. In a shooting position, she started to chant.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Great Battles and Decay, imbue this arrow with the power to create a small explosion!"
Whoosh!
The blood arrow pierced through the air and hit the wooden floor near the trapdoor.
Kaboom!
The arrow suddenly exploded. Both Rood and Roze had taken cover behind the wall of the living room, and after the explosion ended, they came back to check. The metal trapdoor was unaffected by the blast because of the protection, but on the floor next to it there was now a hole big enough for one adult to get through. The hole led to the space behind the trapdoor, which was a dark staircase leading down.
Roze and Rood entered through the hole one by one and they activated their night vision to help them see better in the dark. They also got ready for combat because the explosion should have alerted whoever was in the basement if they weren't affected by Geel's deep slumber curse.
Although she was wearing heavy leather boots, Roze was strangely silent. The two of them kept descending down deeper and deeper under the building until they arrived at a very large chamber that wasn't the same size as the one in the blueprint. The one in front of them was much bigger. In the dark chamber, they could see numerous human corpses being hung upside down with metal hooks. In fact, the room was full of sharp hooks hanging from the ceiling.
Swoosh!
Without warning, Roze suddenly shot towards the space in front of them. Rood, who had also felt the presence of an enemy, took out blood bags from his coat and started to make weapons right away.
"How rude of you..." said a male voice from afar.
They couldn't see the person who said that, but they knew that the person was dangerous. And judging from how the voice sounded, it appeared that Roze's arrow was successfully deflected or dodged.
Ding ding ding...
There was the sound of the piano being played in the distance and suddenly, the two of them got a splitting headache. Roze bared with it and created another blood arrow while chanting.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Great Battles and Decay, imbue this arrow with the power of explosion and sickness!"
Swoosh!
Her arrow pierced through the air and a second after the sound of it hitting something was heard, a loud kaboom overcame their ears. There was an explosion ahead of them but the smoke from the fire was dark green instead of grey. The sound of the piano playing stopped as well because of the explosion.
Cough! Cough!
"How did you even find this place? Cough!" asked a voice that sounded calm despite the violent coughing.
The two of them didn't respond. Roze signaled at Rood and they entered the chamber carefully, walking slowly towards the source of the voice from two different directions. They had to maneuver over the hanging bodies, which looked much worse from up close. It appeared that some of their organs and limbs were missing, most likely used in a ritual. Despite the large room, the numerous bodies obstructed their views and made dodging sudden attacks difficult, so they had to be extra cautious.
That woman must have crazy aim if she could hit the target in this condition, thought Rood.
As they got closer to where the explosion was, the green smoke also started to affect them, so they quickly took out paper pouches and inhaled the blue powder inside.
Cough! Cough!
The sound of coughing got closer and they finally could see the person making it. There was a man busy preparing a ritual at the other end of the chamber with a ruined piano next to him. The wood was still burning because of Roze's explosion and green smoke kept rising from the fire.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Great Battles and Decay, imbue this arrow with the power of paralysis!"
Woosh!
Roze suddenly shot at the man without giving him the chance to finish his ritual. Judging from all the blood and the sinister materials used in it, the effect wouldn't be good at all for them. The impact threw him to the back and he lied motionlessly on the concrete ground. He seemed to be unable to move, but there was a smile on his face.
Growl!
Suddenly, the dead bodies hanging from the ceiling started moving and roaring violently. They tried to break free from the hook attached to them by shaking and squirming about. As their attention was drawn by the moving dead bodies, the man in front of them suddenly turned into numerous tiny birds and flew all over the place.