As Mortuus made his way to the orphanage, he noticed an officer standing in front of caution tape, a coffee in hand. His silver badge shone brightly on his grey suit in the summer sun. He stood there, keeping people away.
"What happened here?" Mortuus asked an officer. The officer looked over at Mortuus, standing behind the caution tape. The officer peered at him from behind his metal frame shades and bushy grey mustache. Unlike his mustache, the hair under his hat was a shade of brown.
"Just another murder in a series of them, Mortuus." The officer said. He had been pretty close with Mortuus, so he didn't see it necessary to hide the truth from him.
Mortuus looked at the officer's shoes. A trail of blood led into the hallway just past them. Whoever the killer was, they had a gruesome method and left a messy scene behind.
"May I come in to see?" Mortuus asked the officer. He thought a minute before agreeing. After all, Mortuus was probably the only one who would understand this. Mysterious deaths were his expertise, after all.
Mortuus moved past the officer and followed the blood trail like breadcrumbs, careful not to disturb the scene. The blood led him to a room with a nasty murder. The violence was similar to The Stitcher's killings, but it had its own unique way.
"Maybe a copycat killer?" Mortuus pondered. It was possible that after the tragedies, one of the victims' family members snapped and went on a killing spree in anger and grief. Something about the way this killer murdered his victims told him that this wasn't the case. He still couldn't rule it out, though.
In the center of the room was the body of a young woman with her insides ripped out. She had been hung from the roof with her intestines, and her eyes lay on the floor before her in a nice pile on top of an ace card. She wasn't the only victim.
On the chair in the corner was the body of a young boy, probably ten or eleven. His eyes were also missing. As Mortuus looked at him, the body's mouth dropped, revealing the eyes and a scrunched-up ace card.
Mortuus's stomach dropped as he stared at the scene, the blood draining out of the boy's mouth. It was a genuinely revolting scene. He leaned down to observe the body before following the trail again to another room.
In the adjacent room was a man whose organs were sewn through him. All his appendages were bent at weird and unnatural angles while his blood was spread outwards like he'd fallen from a high place at an incredible speed.
As he looked at it, Death appeared beside him, crouching over the body. "Seems that someone has been busy, Mortuus." Death said.
Mortuus picked up an ace card from off the floor. "Very busy," Mortuus said, focusing on the card. Looking at the ace, he remembered the other one on the floor under the woman's eyes and the one in the boy's mouth.
He looked over at Death, who stood before the boy, head held silently in honor of the passing. "This wasn't just a murder. It was revenge, Death." Mortuus explained.
Death turned to him and lifted his scythe to his shoulder. "What makes you say that?" He asked.
Mortuus stood up and walked over to him, a bloody ace held between his index and middle finger, "One ace card on a body is weird, two is a coincidence, but three is just suspicious."
Death nodded, "Very observant."
As Mortuus continued talking with Death, the officer entered, wondering why he had heard Mortuus talking to someone. "Is someone else in here with you, Mortuus?" he asked.
He jumped a bit, startled. "N... No. Just talking to myself." He responded. The officer nodded and walked over to Mortuus, unaware that he was standing right in front of the angel of death. It was still weird to Mortuus that he was the only one who could see him.
"What did you find out?" the officer asked, looking at the hanging body. Mortuus lifted the card up and showed it to the officer. His clean, bandaged hands acted as sterilized gloves, keeping the card from being contaminated.
"Whoever did this seems to have a gambling addiction." Mortuus responded. He handed the card to the officer, who bagged it. It was clearly an essential clue as to who killed them since the family did not own any playing cards.
Mortuus closed his eyes and stood in the room silently. As he stood, he could see the scene. He couldn't see the whole thing but could see their screams as they died. The officer noticed and questioned him, "What on earth are you doing?"
"Visualizing the scene. I'm trying to see from their point of view." Mortuus responded and opened his eyes. As he did so, a clock on the wall caught his attention.
8:56 AM. He was late for meeting the children at the orphanage. "I have to go. I'm supposed to be helping out the orphans." Mortuus said and left the room. The officer remained, taking note of the scene.
Mortuus ran down the side, his breath heavy as he rushed to get there. Out of breath, he knocked on the door. A nun answered and looked at him disdainfully, "Oh, Mortuus. You're late."
Mortuus lifted his shoulders and spoke, "Very sorry, Sister Marideth. I got caught up in something." Sister Marideth sighed and rolled her eyes, "You're very lucky those kids adore you so much."
She turned and shouted into the hall before inviting Mortuus in, "CHILDREN, MORTUUS IS HERE!!" Upon hearing that, dozens of young children ran into the room, climbing on Mortuus excitedly. They jumped happily, shouting, "MORTY, MORTY!!"
Mortuus chuckled, lifting dozens as he raised his arms, the children hanging onto his arms and giggling excitedly. "Hey, Kiddos. Sorry, I'm late. Some things popped up on my way here." He apologized.
The kids led him back to their homemade garden, just happy that he had arrived at all.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yuMbxfCpN
