JULY 25th, 2014.

A phone.

Running through the possible answers in his head, Seth searches for a possible route to a clue. If the Archangel had accessed the victim’s phone afterward, then, why?

It’s impossible to tell just by looking… the video’s too blurry to check if they were scrolling through it or not.

Sifting his hands through the files on his desk, he scans the papers for the autopsy report belonging to the man who had been killed in the video. As soon as he comes across it, his eyes devour each word, begging to see what he’s hoping for.

Cause of death… that’s the same, bruising… yeah…

Yes! There it is!

Inside the box of text that details the objects found on or near the victim’s body, his cell phone was included.

They already ripped everything… Lucky, lucky…!

Before Seth could open up the transferred phone history sub-folders located in the USB stick on his laptop, he heard three successive knocks at his room’s door.

“Huh?” he exclaims out loud, caught off guard and forcibly thrust out of his intense focus.

“I brought you some food. Open up.”

The impatient voice behind the door belonged to Kat. Seth stood up from his chair, quickly walking over and opening the door for her. She appeared annoyed, holding a carry-out-styled styrofoam box with wooden chopsticks wrapped in red paper, raising a stern eyebrow at him.

Chinese? For me…? I see an angel in front of me…

That interpretation quickly faded as she spoke again.

“You do know it’s like... six P.M. already, yeah? Did you even eat lunch?”

Seth’s stomach, picking the worst time to do so, growls eagerly in response as he takes on an awkward smile, brushing the back of his head with his right hand. Kat stares him down, unimpressed, as she walks past him into his room.

“How responsible… you were planning on solving this on an empty stomach?”

She plops down on the edge of his bed, looking over the horrid mess of papers and open files that is his desk and laptop. Seth walks over and reaches for the box she had laid beside her, highlighted by a look of embarrassment.

“Well, you saved me, so thanks for that…”

Kat scoffs, playfully rolling her eyes.

“Hah, your knightess in a blazer, sure. Anyway,” she quickly changes the topic, “Have you found anything yet? Liam told me—”

Seth quickly hops back into his office chair, holding his styrofoam box of Lo mein noodles with one hand and slurping them up with chopsticks in the other.

“Actu…” he begins to mutter with a full mouth, then takes a moment to chew and swallow before continuing, “Actually, a lot. Not only is our killer a signer, but…”

He sets the box down and points to the screen as the security footage plays again.

“Hey, what the hell is that?” Kat asks, pointing at the hand as Seth pauses the playback and zooms in to it, “A hand…?”

Seth taps his finger against the right arrow key, bringing the video further in, up to the point where the light shatters.

“Dunno what else it could be. But look here.”

Kat grimaces with a furrowed brow, scrunching up her lips.

“Shit… that’s a lot of them.”

“More than just one, right?” Seth asks, checking over his shoulder at her reaction.

She puts her right hand up to her chin, lightly sweeping her fingers over it.

“...Like, five or six, easily.”

Pulling out a matter-of-fact index finger raised toward the ceiling, Seth smugly closes his eyes as he continues to explain.

“Yep. And, on all of the autopsy reports, there’s external bruising… as if the victims were held down by an entire group.”

Kat lowers her head, thinking about the implication before her eyes widen in shock.

“Wait, so that’s…”

Seth turns back over to place both his hands on the keyboard, combing through sub-files once more.

“...A lot of hands. I don’t know how they work, or any limits they might have, only that they’re the best evidence we have so far. But I might’ve just found another…”

Kat tilts her head in curiosity as Seth continues.

“...After the light goes out, a few seconds pass, and then the killer turns on his phone. Couldn’t tell you what he did with it, but…”

Klk-clk-clk-clk

With a password entry— multiple sets of numbers and letters had been specified in a sticky note attached to the report with their respective designations— Seth accesses the folder containing the victim’s network logs.

“...Nothing was off with his banking info. His photos, videos, and text logs, all clean.”

“What about his browsing history?” Kat asks.

Seth snaps his fingers, pointing his right hand over his shoulder toward her.

“Bingo. And that’s what I’m searching through right…”

Vrrr… vrrr…

“What the hell?” He didn’t mean to say it aloud but did regardless.

“Huh? You found something?” Kat asks, getting up off the edge of the bed and leaning over his shoulder.

Seth, without even glancing back at her or paying any real mind, continues to stare at the screen

“Something like that…”

The logs, which were formatted to include the websites that were visited, the date they were visited, the method by which the website was used to transfer information to and from the victim’s phone, and finally, the size of the information sent and received.

To the bottom left and middle of the list, there was an odd name for a website.

It felt different, compared to all of the others. Instantly standing out amidst them. It read:

int.dontcry.net

A private domain, huh… networks aren’t my strong suit.

“Huh… try and pull it up,” Kat suggests, with Seth just now realizing she’s leaning over his shoulder.

A little too close, but… sure…

His hands move across the keyboard, copying the domain and pasting it into a new browser. While using a typical day-to-day search engine, his pressing the enter key only results in an error page showing up.

“404, not found. Let’s try Garlic...”

“You’re really losing me here…” Kat scoffs, annoyed by all of the terms and names being thrown around that she doesn’t understand.

“Listen, I’m not that skilled at this type of thing, but…” Seth trails off, using his mouse to select the browser and typing in the name of the domain, “...Garlic’s like Goolga, but for people who don’t want to be traced or recorded.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Kat gives a semi-understanding subtle nod as Seth presses the enter key, finished with inputting the domain into the search bar. As soon as he does, he’s met with a black screen with white text and a singular input box with a blinking cursor to its left.

YOU SEEK SALVATION FROM YOUR HELL

PASSWORD:

“I should be used to creepy crap by now…” Seth jokes as he looks over his shoulder as Kat stares, confused, at the laptop’s screen, “...Do we know anyone who can bypass this security? I don’t feel like bashing my head into his password prompt for hours.”

Kat ponders for a moment before taking on a look of disapproval, shaking her head at the thought.

“There is one guy, but… no, just… no.”

Seth lowers his eyebrows, annoyed by her pickiness, for whatever reason she could justify it with.

“I dunno what you have against him, but if he can crack this…” he trails off, pointing at the screen with a glare of serious dedication.

“Yeah, but…” Kat trails off, reaching out her hand to express how badly she doesn’t want to deal with him before rescinding it and slumping her shoulders, “...Ugh, fine. Follow me.”

Well… how bad could it be?

. . . . .

As the two of them walked through the headquarters, Kat brought him to the training area once more, and toward the room furthest to the right corner. The one that takes the most walking to get to. As soon as she gets to the two towering doors, she slams the underside of her fist against them as hard as possible as they rumble from the force.

“TIGA! OPEN UP!” she yells, continuing to pound against the door impatiently. Before long, it slowly opens to a crack between the two, as a tall man presents himself leaning against the inside of the left door. He’s slightly taller than Seth, with green swept over medium-length hair and eyes, black piercings on the lower part of his left ear, and sporting a loose soft jacket with a pale v-neck and blue jeans.

But to Seth, above all else, he looked like the type of guy who would go after women he had absolutely zero chance with. Not really a playboy, more like a poor attempt at one, someone who would rent expensive cars with their parents’ money and drive them around while working at a supermarket.

“My… I didn’t expect you at this late of an hour…” he trails off, sizing her up before raising a subjectively seductive eyebrow, “Ah… perhaps you’re here to…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Kat had already winded up a fist next to her waist that she subsequently thrust into his gut, knocking the breath out of him as he exhaled sharply in great pain.

Deserved.

Indeed.

As Seth ignores the sudden comment from Yggdrasil, Kat pushes the door open with her right foot as Tiga slides against the floor.

“A-agh…” he mutters, coughing in pain, “Y-you could have… just said… no…”

“Oh?” Kat looks down at him with a mischievous but somehow genuine-looking smile, “I’m sorry, it was just instinct.”

As Seth steps inside, past Tiga’s defeated body, he finally notices that the entire training room has been renovated and turned into a personal paradise for Tiga. On one side of the room, there was an entire desk and shelf collection for various old pieces of tech and media, as well as workshops for repairing some of that tech. On another side of the room was a giant eight-monitor set-up, complete with a built-in desk computer. Seth wasn’t surprised to see that all of it changed colors rapidly. The room was painted in a dark grey, closer to black, which was a stark contrast to the other training rooms’ white walls. Before he could inspect everything, he heard Tiga clear his throat just behind him.

“You must be Seth…” he trails off while standing up, brushing his jeans and jacket off with both hands, “...I’m afraid I don’t have any interest in men, but it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

He holds his left hand out toward Seth for a handshake, which he only stares at in disapproval.

“...Yeah, a pleasure...”

If I was a woman, I’d do the same thing as she did.

Without warning, Kat hangs her arm over Seth’s left shoulder with another mischievous grin, pointing at him with her other hand.

“Anyway… this is my friend. We need you to look into something for us.”

Eh…? Ehhh? What? Why are you…?

As Seth looks up at her in confusion, she gives him a wink that doesn’t say ‘trust me’ as much as it does ‘shut up and follow my lead’.

Tiga scoffs, flicking his hand forward with his palm facing the ceiling. A very over-the-top show of disapproval.

“I’m afraid I can’t. You see, I only listen to…”

Kat interrupts him with a devilish look in her closed eyes, like that of a fox’s.

“I’ll shatter all of your monitors and destroy your computer then~!”

Tiga’s eyes widen in horror as he takes a step backward, retreating his hand into the security of his jacket.

“T-that’s a threat… you’re threatening me…”

Kat nods.

“Mhm~!”

I would… not want to make this woman angry.

That’d probably end with an early ‘death’.

Seth raises up his hand awkwardly, unable to make direct eye contact.

“There’s a website we need you to crack… ‘int.dontcry.net’.”

Tiga drops his endangered look and slumps his shoulders, sighing.

“That only sounds like an edgy art project some kid thought up…”

Wow, looks like he can say something agreeable, who knew?

Tiga walks over to his computer chair, around twice his size, flopping onto it and spinning it toward his desk.

“...Fine, fine. I’ll backdoor your little curiosity. All I ask is that you leave my equipment alone…”

Kat grins yet again and gives another thumbs up over Seth’s shoulder.

“Yep, I won’t touch a thing.”

Tiga groans to himself as he places his fingers on the modified keyboard, split into three sides and curved upward like in a ball shape. Seth figured it had something to do with ergonomics and typing efficiency, but he couldn’t help but feel it was almost pretentious-looking. Or maybe that was only because Tiga was using it.

As soon as Seth and Kat exited the room and closed the door behind them, she spoke up.

“Er… sorry about that. For getting too close and all.”

Seth walks forward, trying not to think about it. He didn’t really feel any particular way toward her, more or less only liking her as a colleague, but the thought of Tiga being jealous of him was drama he didn’t want to deal with.

“No problem…” he trails off while waving his hand through the air, dismissing it and drifting his attention back to the case.

Now… I guess we just wait for him to call us back.

Wait they did, lounging around the offices and chatting about the case, as that’s all they could do. But finally, just two hours after they left Tiga’s room…

Bzzzttt, bzzzttt…

Bzzzttt…

Seth receives a call.