Clue! It was an important clue!
Aiden cheered up internally as he looked at her. “Uhm, can I know where they live?”
He deliberately made a faint sheepish smile, which Nessa instantly ‘caught’ on. “Very cautious aren’t you? You need to first hear from employees about our factory? I am afraid I can’t tell you about their addresses as it’s against the rules. I can tell you their names, maybe you know some of them?
“Or you can also ask your neighbor who has the special license. Go ahead and ask the employees about us. You’ll definitely find it worth it.”
Before he could say anything. He watched Nessa look outside and exclaim. “Oh, it’s about to reach my stop already! I have to go, I am sorry we couldn’t talk more.”
She quickly sent him a message about their names and gathered up her belongings, before heading towards the door of the bus as Aiden bade her a simple farewell. Getting to know about the illusion of a burning factory was an unexpected clue.
He took a look at their names and forwarded them to aunt Hellen who now had the key to the administration office. She had already contacted the Bureau, who agreed to her having the authority temporarily.
I might as well go to their homes and ask them instead of heading towards the fourth site. There are a lot of people there, and I don’t believe the Bureau team is that incompetent.
Within five minutes, aunt Hellen sent their addresses and a permit to ask questions without asking why he needed it. Smiling slightly on her trust, he turned his gaze towards the addresses.
Luckily, the route of the bus he had boarded passed through one of these addresses.
It was roughly ten minutes later that he got down at a bus stop and headed over to the address. It was a ten minute walk towards the building where this employee lived.
People were below the Privileged class before the Great Smog all lived in buildings. Except for a few things like less space and privacy, it wasn’t a bad area to live in. The ones living on the top floor also got to see the view from such a high altitude.
When he visited the house of one of his friends in the past, he absolutely loved it.
Sure, such a high height beckoned him to make a jump, just like it did to everyone else. But apart from that, he felt absolutely thrilled to stay at such a height.
He showed the permit to the gatekeeper of the building and used the lift to reach the house of the employee. After ringing the bell, who opened the door wasn’t the employee but a middle aged woman who had a bit of flour stuck to her forehead.
It brought back memories of his mother from the depths of his mind, who also seemed to have flour stuck to her forehead whenever she made tortillas for them.
Pushing back the memories, he asked when the woman didn’t say anything. “Hello, is this where Damian lives? The one who works in the factory near the outskirts of our town.” He flashed his permit again.
After sparing just a glance at the permit, without even reading it, the middle aged woman’s expression fell as an aura of sadness and despair immediately radiated over from her. Aiden was quick to notice something amiss and swiftly consoled her,
She is probably his wife.
“Don’t worry ma'am, I am not here with some bad news. I only wish to ask a few questions to Damian. I have permission from the mayor and it’ll be extremely helpful if he could cooperate. It won’t take much time.”
An expression of relief passed over her features as she heaved a sigh and invited them in. “Damian has gone to work today, but I can answer the questions if I happen to know them. If you want, I can even call him so you could talk to him. Or maybe you can wait here? He has been coming home rather early since more than a week ago.”
“No thanks. And please call Damian so I can talk directly to him.”
He entered the house and took a seat on one of the sofas as the woman called her husband. He was rather quick to pick up the call, as the woman went on to explain the situation and handed the phone to him.
Aiden put it to his ears and asked, “Hello, can I ask you to describe your experience during the time when you said the factory was burning?”
The man first laughed on his phone, then spoke, “Haha, at least someone believes in me. I’ll tell you what happened that day.
“We were in our protective gear, working in the factory during the night. We frequently did overtime so it wasn’t any different that day either. But suddenly, a strange man entered our compartment and put a finger on his lips.
“You might not believe me but it really happened, all of us felt like trusting the man. He just really had this aura about him. No one talked, nothing, not even a word.”
Mind control?
A thought flashed through Aiden’s mind but he kept it aside and continued listening to the man,
“He pointed us to a corner, where we saw flames. Of course, all of us panicked, but he acted like he had everything under his control. He led us through another exit, none of us knew why we were following him but we did.
“He left after getting us out of the factory and a few distance away from it. Still keeping a finger on his lips, he pointed to the direction of the buildings. We knew he was telling us to go home while staying quiet, so we did. We had no intention of sticking around in the damn burning factory.
“I have no idea how it’s still in the same condition as it was the night before the incident but honestly, nothing made sense anyway. Not even the strange man.
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“We didn’t tell others about the man, else we’ll really be called lunatics. We still tried to tell them about the burning factory though. But of course, none of them listened.”
Aiden patiently listened to everything the man had to say before he asked,
“Do you remember how that man looked?”
“Hmmm, he looked really good, but from his clothes, it seemed like he had been in a fight before he approached us. He had long black hair, reddish brown eyes and wore some black and white clothes. The ones which servants wear in the tv shows and movies.”
He immediately knew who the man was talking about.
The vampire.
Aiden thought for a while, before he asked again, “Do you remember when this happened?”
“On the night of 26th feb, maybe 27th feb? My memory of the incident is becoming more and more hazy as the days pass by.”
Huh? That’s even before the night of the red moon.
“Alright, thank you. By the way, one last question. I know it’s weird, but did any of you comment anything on the burning factory?”
“Hmmm, we were quiet all the way when we were leaving the factory but when that strange man pointed at the buildings and left, one of us cursed at the factory and the man both. Well, I can’t really blame him, he is the most hot tempered of all of us.
“He used to live in those bungalows for the privileged people. But due to his nature, he kept losing all the inheritance money he had, eventually resorting to jobs like working in a factory, which made him even more angry. None of us replied of course. I guess that’s all.”
Aiden narrowed his eyes and thanked the man after he gave him the angry man’s name. After refusing the invitation to have lunch, he thanked the woman too and left the house.
Aunt Heleen should have the list of the names of all the victims right?
Aiden sorted out his thoughts, before leaving the building and calling aunt Hellen to ask for the list.
He immediately got the list as he continued walking back to the same bus stop.
That angry man’s name was on the list. The fifth house where murder took place belonged to him, he lived alone in the house. He quickly procured his information, which included his address from aunt Hellen, apologizing to her for so much trouble before ending the call.
It was approximately an hour later that he finally reached the fifth site of murder, belonging to the angry man. Waiting for the correct bus took too long this time.
It was already his lunch time, but he figured it would be better if he completed this task. He didn’t head towards the house, but approached the neighbors of this site who happened to be talking.
It was a pair of middle aged women, likely living in the same area.
He approached them and flashed a harmless smile before he showed them his permit.
“Hello, if I am not wrong you’re the neighbors of this house correct?”
Only one of them agreed, as the other replied she lived a little further down the road and had no relationship with the people living at the fifth house. The middle aged woman of course didn’t know that the only person who used to live in the fifth house had been murdered.
“I just wanted to ask a few questions. It will be of much help if you can cooperate with me, it will hardly take a few minutes.”
The lady who confirmed she was the neighbor nodded. Without any chit chat, Aiden quickly got to the point.
“So, did you see the red moon?”
“Well, nope. We had a movie night that day, so our entire family was sitting in the home theater with our phones on silent. It’s a pity we missed it.”
Oh it sure is anything but pity. Aiden inwardly commented but continued asking. “Do you have an idea if your neighbor could have seen the red moon?”
The middle aged woman jogged her memory before answering, “Well, I don’t think so. That guy tends to sleep early, and he has never picked up any call or seen messages when he is sleeping. The red moon that day appeared extremely late at night as far as I remember from the messages I got. It’s unlikely he would’ve stayed up that long.”
Aiden thanked the woman and walked over to a nearby bench, his mind already having arrived at a conclusion.
Fuck!
The Crimson Devil has created more than one illusion. And it clearly doesn’t care which illusion people react to, it hunts them all the same.
His mind was heading towards a state of despair.
If the Crimson Devil can create more such illusions, doesn’t that increase the probability that we all might have at some point saw and reacted to its illusion?
If even one of us has reacted to the ghost then we’re all dead if the ghost decides to attack us. Since it can solidify the house so that no one of us can escape, there will be no hope for a second chance either if we’re caught unaware. Do we have to split up the forces?
Aiden put his head in his hands, leaning ahead on the bench as his elbows rested on his thighs. All types of thoughts bombarded his head, dots connected and disconnecting as he tried to find ways to counter this.
Who could have imagined this? That the ghost could make more than one illusion and people reacting to any of them would make them the Crimson Devil’s target?
On a side note, it was kind of given too. If it could do it once, what stops it from doing it again?
Now that I think about it, the Bureau’s team did suggest that the illusion could be one of the powers of its domain. From how they didn’t even mention it, could it mean that powers of the domain don’t need any conditions to activate? Hmm, very likely.
Aiden leaned back, putting hands behind his head as he gazed upwards at the empty sky.
Random thoughts surged into his head as he willed these stressful thoughts to disappear.
Hmmm, didn’t the textbooks say how in the world before the Great Smog, there were a lot of plane routes? The airports were lively and many people traveled through planes, same with other modes of transport.
Now along with cars and such, even air transport like the planes have been heavily regulated. They fly through far fewer routes than before the Great Smog. The water transport seems to have suffered the same situation.
No wonder prices have gone up on some random items, the trade must’ve been heavily impacted.
Could high level ghosts like the Crimson Devil be actually intelligent enough to hamper trade and such? No right.
He suddenly sat up straight.
Wait. Aunt Hellen always said ghosts aren't conscious beings, they couldn’t actively think. So unless proved otherwise, I am going to assume the same for the Crimson Devil.
Since it isn’t intelligent, it couldn’t have laid out such traps. It only focuses on food. Since so many triggered its condition through the red moon illusion, it has no reason to continue.
And there’s one more reason!
Aiden realized he had been looking at it from the point of view of a normal person, not a super. There was a glaring issue in his earlier hypothesis of illusions being everywhere.