Chapter 3: Sin Scar It didn’t take too long for the watcher to find the source of the city’s most recent issue, she perched on top of a lamp post in a frog like pose looking down at police officers milling about, some were holding back a line of people and reporters who were trying to get a glimpse in, and others looking over what looked like the corpse of a young girl in a miniskirt laying next to a shabbily dressed man. The female was a white cat, thin, very thin, and almost looked like she was losing fur in places even before her death, or maybe she was just unkept. The man was a badger of some kind wearing a torn leather coat. The watcher had good eyes but was a bit limited by the distance. She didn’t want to get closer with all the activity, but she could see a blood pool had formed under the man, while the girl seemed splattered a bit but not like she bled out, she had blood on the side of her face on one of her arms, and a bit between her legs, but it wasn’t that much. The watcher would have to get in closer to see more and that would have to wait till activity died down a bit, so she would have room to walk without bumping into people or things.
She lay stomach down on the curve of the highway lamp post while she waited, one of each arm, leg, wing, and breast hanging off either side of it while she surveyed the police at work. They were doing the usual thing, taking pictures and trampling all over the place ensuring little trace evidence would remain, assuming there even was any in what looked like a back-alley imitation of a park. It was mostly barren dirt with some scraggly grass but much wider than a normal alley, perhaps it was a lot that was too low value for anyone to build a store on, though she found that difficult to believe. With experience the watcher knew that ‘low value’ land was still very valuable to some certain sorts of people, the sort who’s businesses she didn’t mind sabotaging by shorting out the fuse boxes from time to time, when she could do it in a discrete manner. Eventually the activity died down the watcher fireman-ed down the light pole then glided over, landing as gently as she could on the ambulance that the medical examiners had brought. She hoped the slight sag her weight induced would not be noticed. Up close it looked like the girl had been strangled, she still wasn’t sure where the blood on her came from, but her guess was the man bled on her. Was this a double murder committed by someone else or ….
Get back here you little slut
or was it just the two of them and they killed each other? The methods of death appeared to be quite different so that made it more likely that they killed each other. Figuring this out would make the next steps easier given what she knew would be happening here…
Where’s my FUCKING product you deadbeat swindler!
… happening here soon. The watcher grimaced and tried to keep the voices at arms length, as much as you can keep spectral voices at bay anyway. They would be a hint at what had happened which in turn would help to solve it, but the more she let the voices in the more of a problem they would be.
I swear, I’ll get your money
That was odd, the watcher paused when she heard this third voice. The first two utterances had been male seeming, she assumed the voice of the dead badger berating the cat, but the third voice also seemed male, and he was definitely on the receiving end of some shakedown of some kind. The watcher took a risk and opened her mind to it a bit more.
You had your chance.
Take your damn pills
Please, it hurts, please….
I swear I’ll get it, just give me a chance.
On your knees.
The boss is very disappointed in you.
The watcher shook herself and winced as the voices started to push into her head, the voices definitely came from more than just the two who were dead now, that was a problem. Hearing voices at all wasn’t great, but this sort of thing happened from time to time. Places with strong emotional links, good or bad, could sort of, ‘absorb’ the emotions of the people that felt them. It was almost like leaving a ghost behind, though it was possible for it to happen even without the person dying, that said the emotions felt near death were very strong and so were more likely to cause this. The positive feedback effect it had on the living, encouraging more similar acts in the same place, was a problem too, and would become worse if not addressed.
Do your damn job, worthless cunt
The watcher felt a hand smack her across the face and fell back with a thud on the top of the ambulance. She froze immediately sure someone had heard her fall, and pissed at herself for not doing a good enough job blocking the voices out. If one could slap her then this place was growing in power. It would be a magnet for the same depravity it had previously absorbed, the acts would continue to be done here and only worsen as the area scarred by the strong negative feelings only grew in power.
She had to sort out the pain and hate in this place before it got strong enough to start manifesting more physically, that would end poorly for any mortal nearby. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just beat it into shape, she needed to know and understand. Seeing the MEs loading the bodies into what one of the cops charmingly called the ‘corpse wagon’ the watcher flattened herself on the roof of it preparing for the ride back to the morgue.
Morgues, potentially strangely, were not all that sad as far as places went, at least as far as the watcher’s extra senses were concerned. The leftover emotions when a person died didn’t follow them to the morgue itself, at that point the body is just some meat after all, the only emotional imprint was from the still living relatives that sometimes identified the body. That though was mostly washed away with time or replaced with the emotions of the medical examiners.
The watcher leaned against the wall in the corner of the well-lit but somewhat chilly room. She had gotten used to sneaking in here over time, turns out its possible to hide UNDER stretchers, they do telescope up when walking a body around so one could just ride under it, the uniform grunts mostly attributed the extra weight to ‘those shitty wheels’ or to the corpse being fat. The only trick was to get out from under there before they collapsed it back down.
“Ohh my my my what do we have here” The ME, a wiggly otter, said leaning over the corpse, “What do we have here, ohh she’s a pretty one”
“Looks like strangulation” The officer, a younger looking golden, who wheeled the first body in said giving the ME a look, “is the music necessary?”
“You’re new right?” The otter replied as he half hopped around the room collecting his tools, each step was in time with the Broadway soundtrack that was blasting in the room. The man didn’t seem to click that he was working on corpses the same way others did, he wasn’t bothered by all but the roughest cases and always insisted in keeping the mood up with his music. The cops hated it.
“It just seems… inappropriate”
“How so?” he said leaning over the corpse on the table humming to himself as he set up his magnifier and got a camera, barely registering that uniform officer’s presence as he documented the wounds on the girls neck before cutting her clothes away for the exam, “She’s got a cute necklace, don’t you think?”
“I think I was more interested in the, I don’t know, all the blood and the marks on her neck?” The uniform was audibly annoyed.
“Ah you are new. well you’ll learn to ignore the irrelevant stuff eventually” The ME said continuing to take his photos, tilting her head from side to side to get a better angle. “Irrelevant? How is all that blood irrelevant?! and the marks!” The cop was now visibly annoyed.
The ME sighed, “Look, Obviously she was strangled, but there’s no open wounds so the blood isn’t hers, probably the other guy’s, you know the one with the hole in his chest? I’m pretty sure he got stabbed, incidentally” The ME chuckled to himself, “that’s all obvious, I child could tell you that, but a necklace with a pretty heart shaped pendant on it that is STILL on her? that’s interesting.”
“How so? thinking of taking it?”
“No just getting idea’s for shopping” He laughed at his own joke and the Watcher found herself grinning in the corner as well, she’d been in here enough and this guy was pleasant to be around even if he couldn’t ever know she was there, “but in all seriousness this looks like something nice that a boyfriend would give her, since its still there we can conclude that she had a boyfriend and that the dead guy was probably alone when he killed her, and/or she wasn’t killed over money”
“How’s that, I get the boyfriend part but the other stuff.”
“Well I’m guessing that guy was the attacker, she self defensed him to death with some sort of knife while he was choking her out. I mean they COULD have BOTH been killed by a mugger or something, but then you need to explain why the pricey necklace WASN’T taken. More likely just the two of them, he can’t take it when he’s dead too of course”
“I see…”
“I’ll write a report don’t worry, his ID says Fredrick Austin, incidentally, she doesn’t have ID”
“We’ll look into that, enjoy your… dancing…” The cop turned to leave and the watcher took her chance to scoot forward grabbing one of the pictures of the necklace off the table, thankfully the ME used a polaroid, and reverse picking it into the cops back pocket. Is she tried to carry it out it would look like a magic flying picture to anyone else, but stuffed into the cops pocket, no one would even notice it. She would just pick it back out once they were near an exit.
Back at the crime scene the watcher glided in gently, the photo clutched in her hands, on the flight over here if the paper had been seen, which was unlikely, it would probably just look like a piece of litter fluttering about in the wind. She settled back down in the now abandoned and cordoned off lot. Walking over to where it must have happened the voices started up again.
Hey girl, how much?
Get away.
I’ll get it back.
Sorting through the cacophony was annoying but she was planning on starting with just one voice. closing her eyes she ‘thought’ back at the crowed her own words.
Hello Fred
How are you. Owes, You owe!
What do I owe?
Greedy bitch, waisted it! You…
Maybe I can get it back. What is it?
The watcher was playing the role the spectral thoughts would respond to, or at least this one.
I How need could the you money use, you up know the how charge important it’s it important is.
I’m sorry I don’t understand
You you under-understand enough plenty, LIAR!!
The watcher suddenly felt ghostly hands clamp around her neck and stumbled back, landing on her back in the dirt. She grabbed at the ghost hands trying to pry them away from her neck but they were surprisingly strong.
You wasted it! Give it back!
It was starting to make a bit more sense, she had been talking to two voices at once, similar but different issues. That was a bit unexpected, but also somewhat irrelevant when one was being strangled. With a grunt the watcher sent a mental command to her multitool. The golden jewelry melted to fluid and flowed over to her hands. With a quick slash she slammed the specter off of her and staggered to her feet gasping for air
I was hoping to sort this out without violence, but if that’s what you want.
The specter was becoming visible, at least to her, as were a few others. The watcher snarled and crouched down flowing her tool farther forward to become elongated claws. Then she launched herself at them slashing and tearing.
The first one fell easily enough, he’d probably get back up though, she couldn’t just dispel them in one swipe, but the interference weakened them considerably, she just had to keep killing them and eventually they’d stay down. This was not her preferred strategy, but she didn’t’ have much choice at the moment.
The crows closes as she tore into them, she felt spectral hands grabbing onto her body, both the visible ones and others, they tugged her in every direction and from every side. She responded with more cuts and clawing, ignoring their inane and random babble as best she could.
Hold her down
The unusually strong voice was accompanied by equally strong grips on her arms and legs. dragging her off balance and making her fall. She looked up at the forms and started to see them, see who they were born from. A old man who was clubbed for his wallet and bled out, A young man who had been given a needle with just a little too much in it, a pregnant woman crying as she slowly undressed. ‘This damn lot has seen a LOT of nastiness over the years, would have had to for it to grow so strong’ the watcher thought to herself while struggling against the forms with only minimal success
So tasty
The one voice still speaking leaned over her, oddly calm and centered for a specter, almost like it was still intelligent rather than just a figment. It leaned over and reached out a hand towards her. She wasn’t sure exactly what it could or couldn’t do to her but wasn’t about to find out.
Turning her multitool into a spear she stabbed at the thing leaning over her and threw her wings out to push the others off. She then leaped to her feet with a silent growl and wrapped her hands around its neck. She forced it down and squeezed with all her might, digging her amplified claws into its form a she did do. It resisted for a time, but slowly began to fade, slowly losing shape and form, finally fading away entirely leaving the sweaty watcher just kneeling on the dirt ground.
She’s gone. Its all over.
A different voice, and only one now. The watcher stood up ignoring her aching muscles, and looked at the last visible figure as the rest faded with the main one. The final form was kneeling over the fallen picture of the necklace around the dead girl’s neck.
gone. gone. gone.
Yes it is too late, she’s dead.
Drained away, used up.
What DO you mean by that?
The watcher didn’t get an answer, the specter reached out and touched the picture then dissolved, seeming to vanish fully. The watcher sighed and looked back at the lot, it still pulsed with anger, but was far far reduced from before, it might be low enough to dissipate naturally now. How did it get so strong though? Normally the watcher was aware of these things when they first formed, but this had to have been growing for a while to be so strong. As she walked away rubbing her sore neck, she wondered how many others she had been missing.
