CHAPTER 9: INVESTIGATION

It was a regular Wednesday morning… At least for everyone else but Julie. It had only been three days since she had started working for this ominous company, and everything had already gone to shit. Today was no better. An entire neighborhood was quarantined due to signals they had received about a possible outbreak of corrupted Anima spreading in the vicinity.

She looked across her shoulders—two masked guards armed with ominous weaponry she had never in her life seen before escorted her toward the home they were going to investigate. The supposed ground zero.

Stepping out of the vehicle and into the blinding sunlight, Julie took hold of the house she was instructed to enter. It felt very familiar to her for some reason. Have I been here before?

Though that hardly mattered at this point. Finding out only three days prior that supernatural entities existed in this world made it impossible for her to even care about such mundane topics. Even worse, she had still not been allowed to contact her own mother or any other family member.

Overgrown grass, weeds popping up across the driveway, mold clinging to the walls—everything about the house signaled to her that whoever lived here was clearly careless. The two masked soldiers towered over her as she was escorted into the home. Stepping through the door, a foul smell invaded her nostrils. Ugh, what the hell? Was this place a crack den or something?!

“Do not focus on the odor. Keep moving,” the armed guard shoved her into the building.

“Y-yes sir.” She smiled toward him as she swiftly walked inside the dimmed living room while holding her breath. Why the hell is everyone in this company so damn rude?

At the center of the living room, she noticed a tall man wearing a black suit that was hard to spot in the dim light, standing with his arms crossed. From his short gray hair, she was able to know who it was immediately. Director 004… Fuck, why did it have to be him?..

Noticing her approach, the man shifted his neck back. Other than his thin, rounded glasses, it was easy to spot his signature frown even from a mile away. Whatever the situation was, it was certainly not good.

Standing before him, she straightened her posture and greeted him. “Sir, as instructed, I am here.” The two guards saluted toward him from behind her.

“Mhm,” he looked down at the floor—Julie’s eyes trailed to his. At the center of the living room was a small altar with an unlit candle placed above it. Even in the darkness, she could visibly see a sigil marked in ink drawn across the altar’s surface. The director’s husky voice broke her chain of thoughts.

“Intern B34, Julie-Anne Kafka. What do you think of this situation?”

She gulped down a mouthful of saliva before answering. “It seems like the person living here had invoked some kind of r-ritual, sir.” Sweat trickled down her forehead, calm down Julie, calm down… It will be over soon…

The man simply nodded. “Have you been briefed about the situation yet?”

“N-no, sir.”

He leaned down on one knee and closely observed the sheet of paper draped in blood beneath the candle. “This house belonged to an individual named Soren Andersen. Prime characteristics are as follows: 22 years of age, 5'10" in height, Caucasian male, slim build weighing approximately 150 pounds. He has chestnut hair and hazel eyes. Additional characteristics include prominent eye bags and a distinct nose bridge. His facial structure is symmetrical with a defined, pointy chin.”

Julie, however, zoned out the moment she heard his name being mentioned. “Soren Andersen? That Soren Andersen?”

The director gave her a quick look that made her shudder in fear before answering. “Correct. The suspect behind this incident is the same individual you knew in your past, according to our records.”

How much did these bastards research about me… She brushed her sleek, raven black hair behind her ear. “So you suspect that maybe he was behind this ritual? The Soren Andersen I knew was a pragmatic guy who always put logic over everything else. Why would he dabble in the occult?”

The director stood up and placed his arms behind his back. “That is for you and the team I am assigning you to investigate. IRE U-1549, as it has been dubbed, still remains elusive in this sector, so I will also be providing you with Phantasm Task Force 3’s omega division to provide an extra layer of defense in case anything goes wrong. You will await further instructions in the meantime, as Dr. Miguel has still not arrived on the scene.” The man walked past Julie slowly, reaching the exit of the house.

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“I expect great things from you, Intern B34.”

Seeing his figure leaving the scene, Julie sighed inwardly. That freak is finally gone… She looked down at her trousers—luckily, she hadn’t pissed herself.

Ever since she had been hired by the Human Preservation Project, as they call themselves, every one of her colleagues had warned her about not getting on Director 004’s bad side. There was a clear reason behind this too—one that she fully understood herself the moment she met him three days ago. She was unsure why, but a suffocating aura always encompassed him. It felt as if she was in the grasp of his palm, a mere ant that could be squished at any moment. She had almost fainted the first time his gaze reached her direction.

Calm down Julie… Just 6 more hours to go… The shift is almost over…

Deciding it was best to forget about 004, she leaned down toward the wooden altar to get a closer look. The smell of burnt wax indicated to her that it had not been that long since Soren’s disappearance. She turned to face the two armed soldiers that were still standing behind her. “When will Dr. Miguel arrive?” Without his arrival, messing with the scene too much could hinder their investigation.

The one on the left voiced, “in approximately 10 minutes. The area has been thoroughly secured—no signs of hidden IRES spotted.”

I never asked you about other IREs though… She smiled at him faintly, “Say, Phantasm Task Force 3, isn’t that the PTF in charge of dealing against vagrant cult activities? Why did the higher ups or Director 004 assign them to this mission? This seems like a one off case of an individual dabbling in something they had no proper understanding of…”

“.....”

She coughed to ease the awkwardness and went back to observing the altar. Fine, don’t answer me, asshole.

It had to be mentioned that although she knew Soren since they were children, he was a fairly distant kid in the past—someone who refused to engage in conversations with others. Julie used to find him very annoying, but as she had grown and learned more about his troubled family life, she did approach him a few times to make friends… At least tried, anyway.

It wasn’t very hard to understand why, either. Every person who had ever approached him simply did so for their own benefit; even his own parents. Why would he ever trust anyone at that point? Ever since his talent for chess had been discovered at the age of 6, his entire life had been a mess—at least, that’s what she had heard from others.

What she did know however, was that he would eventually be called ‘The Failed Prodigy.’ Perhaps as an act of rebellion or due to burnout, he had abandoned the one thing that had made him unique in the eyes of others.

Frowning, she stood up and turned to face the two armed guards, who were now watching over the entrance of the house. “Can I go explore the home a bit?” Her memories of this place were still a bit fuzzy, but she did remember that it once belonged to Soren’s grandparents. She had visited them when she was younger once before.

The armed soldiers stayed silent, which she interpreted as them giving her permission. It’s not like they can’t stop her if they decided what she was doing was wrong, anyway. Walking up the stairs to the second floor, she approached the door leading toward Soren’s room and opened it. It felt kinda wrong to invade his space like this, but she was eventually going to have to enter the place anyway once Dr. Miguel arrived on the scene.

The first thing that welcomed her was a cloud of dust. The place had obviously not been cleaned in a long time. She squinted her eyes as she entered the room and flicked the light switch. The bedroom came into focus… If she could even call it that.

Other than a single bed on the right side of the room, a dresser with a broken mirror next to the door, and a closed window positioned above a normal-looking computer desk, nothing else was present. There were also a few chess books, and a folded chess board tucked away next to the desk, but everything else seemed plain, at least when compared to the usual suburban home in her neighborhood… It was very strange—Although his family life was troubled, Soren wasn't very lacking when it came to finances. Countless chess federations had sponsored him over the years.

Brushing away the dust off of her clothes, she stepped inside slowly. Julie noticed a few peculiar items on the bed that she couldn’t really recognize from afar—they looked to be pill containers of some sort. Just as she was about to walk towards them, the PC fans blared loudly, grabbing her attention.

What the?.. She frowned as she observed the computer on the desk turn on its own. A sudden chill ran down her spine. Could it be a rogue IRE?! I thought they already secured the area?!

She clumsily reached for her waist—a pistol holstered tightly to it. Even if she lacked adequate training, she refused to die a dog’s death without at least fighting back, though most of her knowledge on IREs made them out to be invulnerable to most traditional attacks.

The computer continued to boot, but weirdly enough, instead of the usual display screen, a popup window appeared. Her eyes squinted as she read the words displayed on the monitor with a loading icon beneath it.

“Scribe-of-Worlds? Isn’t that IRE U-1549’s name?!”