It’s early in the morning. Three days have passed since my last interaction with Remi. I’ve kept a cool head since then, continuing with my daily routine. Remi’s people are probably reporting back that I’m being a compliant little girl.
Ha! No, I’m done with that shit.
Vigilante Scarlet runs this body now. She takes risks!
I know very little about my target beyond the type of people he kills and where the bodies are found. I vaguely know how the girls are killed, but as with any evidence, getting actual eyes on notes and bodies is better than hearsay.
What is presented and what is genuinely occurring can change upon a second look at any crucial facts. Remi and her group could be missing something. Even worse, if the killer is a person within the castle, and if they’re a member of the force that’s tracking the killer in the first place, it’d be easy to obfuscate what’s going on.
Basically, I need to see what evidence was collected myself so I can draw unvarnished judgments. With no one to skew what I’m looking at, I’ll be able to arrive at theories different from those investigating this madman.
Remi and her team would have no way of knowing this, but I have more investigative experience than any of them, probably. I was a criminal defense attorney for many years. I had to look at evidence, draw conclusions, read investigation reports, conduct my own analyses, and hire people to find info. Admittedly, I didn’t do that a lot since I settled most cases, but sometimes the police didn’t do their jobs well enough, and a little digging got a few clients cleared of all charges. At the very least, I can recognize patterns of criminality within the evidence. Considering the types of crimes I saw were more modern, and I’ve read about a lot of varieties of criminal acts, I think my knowledge base is ahead of the curve here.
Now, who would have evidence?
Master Talbert and Remi are the likely people.
Neither will let me walk right into their rooms.
I have a higher chance of being caught by Master Talbert since he’s in his office often. Plus, he’s more alert to intruders than Remi.
That leaves me with breaking into Remi’s living space. She keeps all her work stuff in there. I’ve seen her desk. It’s burdened with papers. Something will be there. Nothing confidential or unknown to the rest of the soldiers, but something. More than I know at least.
A part of me feels guilty about doing this since we just made up, but it still doesn’t change what I feel I must do. All my issues were somewhat resolved until this killer arrived. After my talk with Remi, I realized I still wasn’t being true to myself. Some months back, I’d have listened to her. Done the “right” thing. I just can’t do that anymore. Not when it makes my heart hurt so much.
Sacrifice.
Myself or others. Myself for others. My peace for a dream. My safety for adventure. My life so I can live.
Me, me, me…
Sighing deeply, my gaze shifts lightly to my right. I watch Gai breathe softly in his sleep.
Ever since the pillow wall between us was removed, he’s been clinging to me unconsciously in his sleep. His body holds itself against my own. His left hand slides under my pillow while the right lays limp around my waist.
The man is my alibi. He just doesn’t know it yet.
“Bastard. How long are you going to stay asleep?” I turn, looking into his face. “Wake up, bitch.”
Ugh! I can’t take any more of this!
I roll into Gai, head-butting him. Not hard. Just enough to wake him. “Owwwww!” I complain for good measure.
“Huh?” Gai blinks awake.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper in a hoarse yet sweet voice. “I’ve been tossing and turning all night.” I muster the most pathetic, girly voice I can. My forehead leans against his chest as I dramatize my ailments.
Gai immediately perks up. “You okay?” His arms release me. He backs away from me in bed with a cautious demeanor. “Feel sick or something?”
“I don’t get sick. None of us do remember?”
The statement is counter to what I’m trying to convey. Still, such anti-sick replies will make my lie seem more valid. Especially if, instead of me convincing Gai that I’m ill like a gift user would be, Gai convinces himself that I am. All I have to do is present facts for him to draw from.
Gai leans forward. His hand goes to touch my forehead, but he hesitates.
“What?” I look up at him.
“I, uh, I don’t…” Gai pauses. “Is it okay if I feel your forehead?”
“Is that you asking permission?” I blink in surprise. “When did that start happening? You were just holding me in your sleep. I’ve woken up on more than one occasion to you coping a feel. Then there’s all the time you got really drunk with Alexander and kissed me without warning. Do you really think I care about you touching my forehead at this point? It means nothing to me, neither bad nor good. It’s nothing. Nothing.”
“Holy shit, relax. I’ll start to cry if you don’t stop,” grumbles Gai. His eyes droop slightly.
“Then just do it and move on already.”
“After our talk, I dunno.” Gai scratches the back of his head. “I’ve sort of been re-evaluating how I interact with you.”
“If you want to touch me, then touch me. You already do in your sleep.” Jokingly, I put my hands on the bottom hem of my shirt. “Here, I’ll move this so you can get a full titty. Is that what you want? Permission?”
“That’s not what I meant,” deflates Gai. “I’ll take you up on the offer, though.” His joking demeanor pokes through his conflicted words.
I cover myself with the bed’s sheet.
Gai smiles at me. “I win.”
“Shut up.”
A hand lands on my forehead. “You feel okay.”
“Divine treat, Gai. There wouldn’t be symptoms even if I were sick, and I’m not.”
Gai closes his eyes briefly. “Right. That wouldn’t matter then.” He frowns. “You knew that, and you still made me go through that whole conversation?”
I smile teasingly. “It’s funny to watch you squirm. And you were so nervous you couldn’t think straight.”
Gai mushes my face with his hand.
I recoil away with mock annoyance while Gai merely smiles back.
“Rude,” I complain.
Gai looks me over, his face returning serious. “Alright, symptoms then. How do you feel? More tired than normal? Body feels heavy? Hungrier or thirstier than you have been in a while?”
“I slept like two hours, so I feel great,” I lie. “Nothing you said applies to me cause if it did, I’d have to stay inside all day and be bored, so I feel great. Stop. Digging. Let me live.”
Gai ignores my sarcasm. “You do feel weak then?”
“I’m still in bed at the same time you are. What do you think?”
“Okay, okay. No need to be a bitch. I hate to say it, but you should probably take it easy today and rest.”
“I’m not sick. I’m tired.”
“No, you’re sick,” Gai corrects me, much to my internal enjoyment. “You’ve got all the symptoms of your gifts repairing your body. You must have picked up something.”
In reality, I am totally fine. This is all an act to trick the boy.
People with Divine Treat abilities no longer get ill in the traditional sense. Any actual disease that attacks us is intercepted by our gifts. The trade-off is that they weaken or stop working altogether depending on the degree of illness. Disease and poison affects us the same way. However, if I tried to go without eating or drinking for a month, I’d die.
We’re more like super soldiers than killer robots. We need energy and to maintain our bodies, but a lot of the annoyances of being human are toned down or intercepted by our gifts, thus making life easier.
“How inconvenient,” I groan as I allow my eyes to soften. “It does feel like I’ve got a horse laying on me. I’ll be fine though. Nothing to worry about. I can get up and walk around,” I say as I stand.
Gai, frowning at me, lightly pokes my forehead.
I could withstand it, but that’d defeat the purpose of my demeanor, so I fall backward onto the bed. I at once get back up, shoot Gai a look, and protest, “I wasn’t ready.”
“Stay in bed,” Gai urges me. “Go to sleep.”
“I don’t need to.”
Gai’s eyes soften. “Fine. Lay down for a minute at least, okay?”
I relent, but I was always going to. “Fine,” I allow before lying back in bed.
Gai motions with his hand. “Turn around.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
I comply. “The pants stay on.”
“A shame,” quips Gai as he lies in bed next to me.
“You’re not going to take advantage of me now that you know I’m weak, are you?” I joke. “There’s literally nothing I could do to stop you. Oh no!” I mockingly gasp in horror. “You poisoned me! This has all been a part of your plan!”
“You need to stop making comments like that. You’re going to hurt my feelings someday,” mutters back Gai.
I feel him move closer.
Soon, fingers move through my hair at a comforting pace.
I tense at first.
“…”
“This fine?” Gai asks me in a gentle voice.
“…sure.”
Gai continues to glide his fingers through my hair. “My older sister used to do this for me when I was sick as a child.”
“Older sister? Not your mom or a maid?”
“My mom is like any other noble mother. Very hands-off. Maids aren’t as gentle. None were like Sonya, at least. My sister, on the other hand, was always kind to everyone. She treated me more like a mother than my actual one.”
“Hmmm. Where did she end up going?”
Gai doesn’t answer.
“Is she—”
“Got married off to a family to the west in the mountains,” murmurs Gai. “She has three kids of her own now. Those kids will get married themselves in a few years. She seemed happy the last time I saw her, but that was a while ago.”
“Do you want to see her again?”
Gai doesn’t respond.
“Do you want to see anyone in your family? They’re coming down for the wedding. Are you happy about that?”
Gai hesitates. “Not really,” he says after some time. “Do you think that makes me a bad person?”
“Mhmm, I don’t know what they did to you to make you feel that way. You can tell me why if you want, but since I feel the same way as you, I don’t need a reason.”
“Then let’s leave it at that,” Gai mutters. “Just…relax.”
The fingers continue to glide through my hair.
It feels really, really lovely…
I’ll let him do this for a while, pretend to go to sleep, then sneak out once Gai leaves.
*
“Hmm?” I wake up, cutting off a snore coming from my throat.
Hair sticks to the corners of my mouth. They’re glued there by drool. My head feels hazy. Oddly enough, I’m relaxed and even more well-rested than when I woke up earlier.
Ah dammit, I actually fell asleep.
Wow, I’m easy.
Thank the Gods Gai isn’t a scumbag. Well, he is kind of. No, he’s just verbally a scumbag. He never acts on it though. A dog that’s all bark and not bite, basically.
That may have been the best sleep I’ve gotten in a long, long time. Miya used to do something similar back when we were dating. She’d rub my back when she couldn’t sleep.
So why do I hate it when people touch me so much if I find it relaxing?
Weirdo. I’m a weirdo.
Shaking my head, I get out of bed. My clothes are skewed. I fix them until I look somewhat proper then standing. My arms fly back as the sudden need to stretch overtakes me. A yawn erupts from my mouth.
Looking around, I see no sign of Gai anywhere.
“The hell is he?”
I poke my head out of my room. There’s a guard out there waiting.
Figures. I’m still under surveillance. Gai must have pushed his duty off on someone else while he’s out. How long will he be gone, though? That’s the question.
“Yo! Where’d Gai go?” I ask.
The guard is startled by my sudden emergence and speech, but he corrects himself quickly. “Lord Regal said that he’d train in the courtyard then check back on you around lunchtime.”
“When did he leave?”
“Around half an hour ago. Do you want me to escort you to him?”
I force a yawn. “No, I’m still feeling terrible. I may go back to sleep. If I don’t, Gai might yell at me.”
The guard accepts this response. “As you wish.”
I close the door, re-enter my room, and smile.
Okay! So I fell asleep, but my plan is still successful! Gai left me here in my room. The guard knows it’s probably because I’m ‘sick,’ so I don’t see there being any interference in the near future.
Now’s my chance.
I walk over to my window. Looking around, my eyes search for additional surveillance. The man outside my door can’t be the only one, especially given how I left the castle during my short-lived vigilante days.
Nope. Not on the ground level.
Up high then?
Ah, there. To my left. There’s a walkway about a story above me. A person is there when there usually isn’t. It’s quite obvious why.
I’ve got two sets of eyes on me, then. One in the hallway. One outside.
I back away softly from the window.
Rationally, there’s no way whoever’s watching me is just standing there, leaning over, staring into my window all day. He’ll need to take breaks even if he is doing that.
“I need to be able to see him without him seeing me,” I mutter.
If I had Gai’s powers, this would be easy. I can’t convince him to help me though. He’s on Remi’s side after her stupid arguments won him over. I’m not going to try and convince him to help me either in case he rejects me. Then it’ll be even harder to leave. I can’t risk that.
For now, I’m alone in my efforts.
My room’s mirror beckons for me to break it. I flick the corner with my finger. It breaks off from the rest of the mirror. Now I have a little piece that’ll let me see the outside world.
Creeping back to the corner, I use a tiny dark tendril to pinch the mirror piece and hold it by the window out of view of any watcher. I catch a glimpse of the person overseeing me. He’s not paying full attention to my window, only occasionally. All I need to do is wait for a good opportunity to slip past him. It’ll come. I simply need to be patient.
A few minutes go by.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
I wait, tense.
I’m still in my bedclothes, a tank top I made from an old shirt and some sleep shorts I retrofitted from old pants I used to exercise in. There’s no point in changing. It’ll only waste time.
“Move already, asshole,” I whisper.
More minutes go by.
Gai’s been gone for almost forty-five minutes now if the guard’s correct.
Then—
“Yes,” I whisper. “He moved.”
The guard steps away temporarily from the ledge. This is my chance.
Using my tendrils, I launch myself out the window like a slingshot. The motion is noiseless.
I’ve gotten better at three-dimensional maneuverability since working out with Gai. Having to chase people through the city, I’ve picked up new tricks, most dealing with verticality. It’s a cliche, but people never look up.
My body suspends in the air.
A tendril launches out of my arm. The tip of it is shaped like a tri-pronged claw. It clings to the castle. A second one follows. Two others coming from my back break my descent as I stick to the wall below the balcony of my watcher.
I wait for a bit.
Footsteps sound above me. The guard is back in position peering at my window.
Sucker.
My tendrils recede until the dark energy grips my arms and feet, imitating beast-like appendages. The claws stick into the stone, but they’re small and hooked, so they go in and out easy without leaving massive holes.
I begin crawling along the side of the castle.
Below me, people practice drills. Troops move about. Workers stroll within the courtyard. I gaze at them while climbing toward my goal: Remi’s room.
On the opposite side of the castle, two floors down, I crawl in through a window. There’s no one inside.
Success!
Unlike Master Talbert’s, Remi’s room has a sense of personality.
Now that she’s gone up in the world, the shared area Remi used to live in with all the female soldiers is a place of the past. Power and responsibility provide one with their own space. She doesn’t have to stay at the castle anymore. A good amount of the staff commutes in, but she stays here anyways. Remi’s job must be too involved with the castle for her to live at home with her family.
Remi’s area is segmented into two sections: a living room and a bedroom. The living room holds furniture, including a couch, chair, bookshelf, and many different plants. The colors are neutral. She never shook me as a person who likes bright things, and I’m right on that front, as her room theme consists mostly of blacks, grays, and whites.
A desk is wedged in the corner in an L-shaped pattern, very similar to the one I have upstairs. While mine is a mess, Remi’s is even more haggard. Stacks of papers and books are strewn across it. On the wall above it, certain documents have been attached to the surface.
Within her bedroom, clothes are strewn across the floor. Everything seems messy, and that’s very unlike Remi. It shows how stressed she is at the moment. This killer is making everyone go overboard.
“It feels icky sneaking in here,” I admit to myself after a moment. “Maybe I—”
The door to the room opens.
Using my dark gifts, a tendrils sprouts out of my back and attaches to the ceiling. It pulls me up quickly as a stranger enters inside.
Great. Remi’s back. Hopefully she doesn’t look up or I’m…screwed?
Clyde walks in with a small collection of papers bound together in leather. He walks over to Remi’s desk and places it on top of her scattered work.
For a moment, he stares at all the things she has out in the open. Documents. Drawings. Reports. Maps.
In his eyes, I see…something…
Glancing over all the materials, Clyde pulls out a small notebook of some sorts out of his robes. He flips through all the pages briefly while cursing and muttering to himself. His eyes dart between Remi’s notes scattered about and his own. Little mutters leave his lips as he writes down furiously whatever he’s discovered.
It’s so odd.
Eventually satisfied, Clyde quietly closes his personal papers and tucks them back into his clothing. He glances at Remi’s notes a few more times, fixing a few papers, and rearranging the item he’d brought before nodding. Finished with whatever he was doing, Clyde turns to leave.
For the briefest moment, he stands just beneath me.
I can feel my breath catch in my throat.
Shrugging, Clyde exits the room. The door closes ever so softly behind him until I’m left alone.
Even still, I wait.
Minutes go by.
Nothing.
“What were you doing in here Mister Healer?” I ponder to myself as I lower to the floor. My eyes gaze over to the source of all the activity. “And what did you leave?”
I position myself in the empty chair before Remi’s desk.
“Time is of the essence. I need to go through this shit quickly.” My fingers pluck at what Clyde left first. “Huh. Autopsy on the last victim. Okay…that explains why he was here, but not everything else.”
Hmmm.
Put that aside for now, Scarlet. You only have so much time to work. Gather as much as you can now, then move forward. It’s all you can do.
Mentally charged, I plunge myself into my research, imitating a past where this used to be my norm.
*
Conclusions swirl around inside my head as I set aside the final document necessary to comprehend the situation.
All the victims thus far have been between the ages of sixteen and twenty. None have deviated outside of that range. All were considered beautiful, and all were from the center “wealthy” district of Water’s Bastion or had deep connections to it.
The killer has a propensity for killing intelligent, beautiful, women.
That’s how people perceive me, unfortunately.
It is also true that the last few girls found, all this month, had their hair forcibly dyed red. It’s a new trend outside the pattern. Thus, I agree with Remi. It appears I’m being targeted.
Then there’s the killer himself. Who could he be? I was curious as to why Remi thought he was affiliated with the castle. Now it makes sense given the circumstances.
If the killer were some random person unaffiliated with Castle Grey, stating that I’m a target assures he’ll never get to me. I’d get an even more intense security detail, the patrols would increase, and any attempt to sneak in would immediately end in failure. The subtle intention to kill me, regardless of those facts, either means the killer has a way of getting to me where security increases won’t matter, or he’s already within the castle. The latter is more plausible than the former, as anyone powerful enough to get through the castle security wouldn’t waste time sending warnings. He’d just act. At least, that’s what I’ve rationalized.
But there’s another stronger reason why that’s the only plausible conclusion. It’s simple. The killer has not been caught yet.
Remi was kind enough to leave out docs on her recent troop deployments. Well, she hid them, but I found them since I know her very well. From what I read, the patrols are randomized, assignments are given only on short notice, and patrol patterns and periods are constantly varied, adjusted, and switched.
The rational conclusion this shows is that the killer has a way of learning how soldiers will be deployed within the city. That narrows it down to either a member of the guard or an employee of the castle.
I can see why Remi is doing what she’s doing now. When the next body comes up, they’ll be able to trace a time of death and correlate it with the staff inside the castle. Her notes already show that procedures have been set up to record when everyone comes and goes. Then again, who’s to say those will be accurate? Her plan has good intentions, but it’s shortsighted. More people will end up dying in the long run. It solves nothing.
It makes me wonder how many other things they tried before landing on this bullshit…
Okay, so I need to operate around the given information and develop a plan contrary to the established order.
In my mind, troop deployment is the answer. Even with all the changes, girls keep getting taken, killed, and dumped in the central ring of the city.
“Then…huh…logic dictates that the killer would be where the guards are not. That means there’s a pattern being exploited or something substantial Remi’s team hasn’t noticed,” I say. “The bodies are taken and dumped in the same place, so it makes sense that guards are being deployed heavily to the central district, but…”
I pause in thought.
He’d have to be killing them outside the district?
Maybe, but all the bodies somehow make it back into the central part of the city every time. Someone lugging a body through a city, even in suitcases or a tarp, would be suspicious. The killer would have slipped up by now.
In my mind, he’d probably have to be killing his victims in the central district to make it easier.
However, the facts dictate that the girls go missing for at least seven days before their deaths. They’re tortured thoroughly before their demise. It’d be hard to hide such deeds in a city like Water’s Bastion.
Then…yes, they’d have to be killed somewhere outside the city.
There are plenty of places that could be happening. Empty farmhouses. Discarded homes. Hell, the killer could have a hidden camp out in the woods.
Based on Remi’s notes, she and her people considered this as well and did some searches but turned up nothing substantive. Then they scratched the whole concept on the notion that it seemed more plausible that the killer was killing within the city than lugging bodies from outside back in.
I suppose I understand the logic, but…I’m not sure if I agree quite yet. There’s something bugging me here, but I’m not sure what it is.
Okay, I should focus on the main issue with the plan. How are the bodies being moved? Is there a way to do it consistently, unnoticed, and with no witnesses? It’s a long way from outside the city into the middle. To move them, avoid traffic, and set up the bodies in such intricate ways…I can understand why Remi’s team is acting in the manner they are.
I go over the available facts again.
“The girls are found headless with multiple lacerations over their bodies from their feet to their necks. Eyes are removed. Hands are removed and placed over the ears. Signs of sexual abuse,” I mutter to myself. “They were always fished out of the canals. Probably so that the bodies would be easier to find by guards and—”
I pause.
“No, that’s what Remi thinks based on her notes. That its for presentation. Or what someone else concluded for her, I can’t rule that out either,” I realize. “What if…that’s how they’re being moved into the city?”
No, that’s not right. That’d be too risky. People might see the bodies.
Then again, they’re always found early in the morning.
Hmm…
No, wait.
Ah ha!
“If I’m right—” I stand up from the desk. A large map of the city sits above Remi’s desk. It has little dots marked where the bodies were found. I peer at them, trace them, then nod. “—I know what he’s doing.”
The water in the canals always moves north towards the center of Lake Hopeful. If the killer were to place bodies on rafts at the south end of the city in the channels in the outer ring, the bodies would float toward the center of town. If he timed it right, he’d be able to gauge when the bodies would arrive and by what time. He could probably even pick different destination depending on the channel and time of day.
“How has no one caught on to this? It’s obvious when you consider all the factors. A little outside the box at first, admittedly, but it’s been months. Someone must have thought of something like this,” I whisper. A cruel thought hits me. “Someone shot the idea down. Either that or I’m wrong. Best to accept the former conclusion. Then if the killer happens to be someone I recognize, it won’t be as surprising.”
Shit, if I’m going down that route, I have to start ruling out people.
It’s not Remi. That’s clear. She wouldn’t be able to accurately replicate the signs of sexual abuse. We’ve bathed together in the pond, so I’m very certain in that regard. We can rule out all women with that line of thought, honestly.
It’s a man.
Nigel has been just as busy as Remi coordinating in the city. It’s not him.
Gai? No, I’m with him too much. I’d have noticed. Hopefully. I’m basically his alibi.
But he can turn invisible…
I…I really can’t rule him out entirely, I suppose.
Shit, okay. Moving on.
Master Talbert, I can rule him out. He’s in charge of the task force. I’ve seen him throw his bed out of his window when he got word of another killing during an earlier morning practice. He isn’t taking it very well. Plus, he’s on the older side and this is a new phenomenon. There’s no history of these things happening in the city prior to now and he’s been here since the civil war.
Captain Van Gallan…hmm…I think I can rule out all the older soldiers in the castle for the same reasons I ruled out Master Talbert.
Then the killer would have to be a newbie.
Alexander.
Huh.
I can’t say yes or no to that, but my gut tells me he doesn’t have it in him.
Then who the hell is it?
Clyde?
He was extremely sketchy. He’d have knowledge of human anatomy no one else would due to his education post-gift acquirement. There’s a connection with him to the castle, but he’d have no real way of learning troop patterns or things like that.
Ah, but he did come into Remi’s room to drop off the last body’s autopsy, and all this information was available for me to read. He could have done so at a different time.
I guess that could be true of anyone in the castle, honestly. It was easy for me to find this information. It doesn’t have to be a solider or someone influential in the castle. The killer could be a completely nobody I wouldn’t even consider or know.
A cadet? A maid? A cook?
Gah, there’s no point in speculating! It’ll drive me crazy.
It’s probably not someone I know, so that gives me comfort. I don’t know how I’d deal with it if I suddenly found out Nigel or Alexander were doing something like this. It’d break me a little.
Shit…but if I’m being honest…I can’t rule anyone out completely, can I?
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
Okay, moving on from that absolute cheeriness. I’ve narrowed down where the bodies are being dumped. Well, how. I also know the girls are being killed outside the city and are floated in on makeshift rafts.
When will this happen?
“The recent girls are taken within a week of being found.” I bite my cheek. “That means…the girl that will be killed this week has already been taken.” That dark thought humbles me. “Dammit.”
I’m already too late…
Shit…
No! Stop! I’ve got to figure this out. I can worry about that later.
Okay, okay…when do the bodies get dumped?
I look through the time period in which the bodies were found.
“First body appeared before my engagement ball. The second one happened sometime during it,” I note, recollecting my thoughts. “Third body one month after that around when the Voiced arrived. That’s when a pattern emerged. The bodies started ramping up from then, appearing every month,” I mull. “The killer then came back strong, killing a girl each week of this month. But…”
They’re not random. The killer stuck to a plan. There has to be something connecting them.
I spend some time looking for patterns. For the most part, I strike out.
Is there a connection to birthdays?
No.
Age?
No, that’s varied.
Married?
No, some were single and some were not to varying degrees.
Children?
Only one had a child.
Profession?
Too varied.
Being wealthy and intelligent are so vague, they aren’t even helpful factors. They all had different degrees of wealth and education. Colloquially, they fit into those terms, but not by any consistent metric.
Then the relevant factors would have to be related to either time or place. Seeing as how the bodies were found in many different areas within the central ring, time is the only possible factor to find a pattern based on my current thought process.
For many minutes, I go through pattern after pattern until—
“What day of the week was the first body found?” I check Remi’s notes. “The seventh? How about the second? The fifth. That isn’t helpful.” I frown.
Then what…
Wait.
“Third body was found on the third day of the week. The fourth on the first. Fifth on the…sixth. There goes that pattern,” I grumble. “Sixth on the fourth. Seventh on the second. Great. That doesn’t follow the same convention as before. The eighth was probably on some other random day. Let’s see…the eighth was…on the seventh?”
What does that—
Wait a minute.
Seven, five, three, one, six, four, two. It then repeats.
Odd numbers of the week, then even.
“If that’s it, then the current body will be discarded on…the fifth night of this week.”
I don’t know for sure if that’s right, but it’s the only thing I can piece together from the information I have right now.
It’s worth risking it, even if I’m wrong, I think…
“Stop being pessimistic. You’re right,” I argue with myself lightly. “It’s not in Remi’s notes. There’s no indication that pattern has been brought up, mostly because it would take a lot of bodies to even get this repetition in the first place. It just recycled into the initial loop. Makes sense they’d miss it. Still, it’s a stupid pattern. Why they hell would he do this? It’s so odd I don’t want to trust my leap in logic.” I tap at my lip. “Even so, there is no harm in checking out what I know.”
Okay.
I’m more sure of myself now.
Not only do I have a general area down and where the body will be dumped, I think I have when it’ll happen, too.
“Am I right?” I mutter. “It all seems circumstantial…but…it’s better than nothing.”
The fact that none of Remi’s notes reach my conclusions gives me confidence that I’m correct. And yet, after all the time Master Talbert and Remi have had to find this killer, with all the notes they’ve collected, they couldn’t have seen this pattern either? Someone should have seen this or proposed it at least even if it might be off-based.
Either I’m wrong, they’re wrong, or my theory of a false actor working within or closely with the investigative force to skew things is correct. Regardless, I’m the one holding this info in hand. I must decide the next steps going forward.
“If I sneak out and don’t find anything, I probably won’t get a second chance. Someone will realize that I’m gone.”
I could go tell Remi.
No, I can’t trust her task force.
But I trust her, right?
Of course I do.
Hmm…no, I can’t let this information leak out. The risk is too high based on their failure rate. I need to do this by myself.
Is that rational?
Yes, in some sense. I also realize that I’m taking too much upon myself than I should be. Someone should know. I shouldn’t be doing this alone.
Then again, no, I should be.
I’ve already deduced the person committing these atrocities likely lives and works within the castle. The least amount of people that hear me, the better. I won’t even vocalize my conclusions. Who knows who might be listening?
Damn, am I really going to do this?
I think so.
“I’ll get you,” I decide, my resolve hardened.
The killer’s probably a weak, beta-male coward. Even if he is a cadet, I’m not worried. There are not a lot of people who can fight at my level anymore. I’m generally humble, but I am also realistic.
The only thing I couldn’t figure out was the motive.
Why were the women being killed? Why target me?
I could guess many aspects. Sexual abuse as a child. Mental issues in general. Past trauma in war, as that criteria would fit a handful of people servicing the castle. Maybe a wife or lover was killed in such a fashion, and it caused the killer to copy. He could be a ‘super fan’ of mine. Or perhaps there is no reason. The person could just be a sick bastard. I doubt that conclusion, though. The killings are too ritualistic. It’s like he is trying to send a message.
It doesn’t matter in the end. I can ask these questions once he’s bleeding beneath my feet.
I rise from Remi’s desk and creep out of the window. Dark energy surges within my hands and feet as I climb around the walls of the castle back over to my room.
My watcher is still at his post.
I sneak under the balcony. Based on his shadow, he’s looking at my window. Using a spare tendril, I creep it up the patio and tug upon his foot. As soon as the action is completed, I make the tendril disappear.
“Huh?” The guard turns around. His shadow shows as much.
I quickly crawl into my room.
The lack of shouting tells me my sneaking mission has gone off without a hitch.
I throw my arms over my head. “Success!”
I relax. Moving over to my bed, I flop down, exhausted from so much reading and thinking.
As I do, the door to my room opens.
“You sleep well?” Gai shoots me a coy smile as he walks into the room. He drips with sweat.
“I’m not going to lie, I did. I feel a lot better now,” I allow the man. “You have magic hands.”
“Be sure to remember that if you ever feel lonely.” Gai’s eyes dart around the room. Accepting its condition, he walks towards me. “You seem to have a bit of your energy back. I bet you’re hungry. Want to grab a bite?”
“I could eat.”