Phasmatta -ch 14-

Ryan was hiding under a rocky outcropping.

Mostly from the rain and wind.

Yet also from Mirella.

There’d been a brief moment where he’d seen flashlights searching about through the trees. As if they were looking for something.

Yet no one was calling out.

It wasn’t a search party that expected whoever they were looking for, to come to them.

Assuming that they were a flush group, Ryan had rushed onward, following where the spirits directed him.

Which was to this lonely rocky cliff.

Where the wind couldn’t reach and the rain didn’t pool or slide into.

Shivering to himself, he’d been watching the pre-dawn hours crawl along. Creeping inexorably to the point that the sun would come out.

Because that’s what Ryan was most hopeful for.

In the day, he could start making his way to the road. Back to civilization.

Maybe even his car if he got lucky.

But given there had been multiple people swarming all over Mirella’s home, he imagined his car had been broken into and hotwired to be driven off, or just towed away.

It was uncomfortable evidence for them.

“Fucking rental place is gonna kill me,” he muttered to himself in a raspy and shivering voice. “I have no idea what happened to the car. Serial killer and her cult took it. Does the insurance cover that?”

“Didn’t for me,” Mullins reported from where he was crouched on the rock nearby. “Had a car get destroyed by someone trying to get out of a house where a warrant was being served. I was just there because there was a reported homicide on site.

“Obliterated that poor sedan. Police force covered it for me thankfully but… the insurance didn’t.”

“Great,” hissed Ryan shaking his head. “Let’s hope Misha is generous and helps me out. No idea how much this’ll cost.

“Maybe if I tell her I can take her to a location swarming with spirits who need help she’ll pay me extra. She seems to want to get into the career as deep as she can.”

“Misha. Interesting name,” Mullins drawled. “That’s your new boss. You mentioned her previously. Where’s she from? And where is she right now? Why didn’t you reach out to her rather than my daughter or that other girl?”

“She’s s-s-s-somewhere in Europe. Hell if I know beyond that. I think s-she’s Eastern European. Russian, Polish, Ukranian, something like that. I honestly didn’t recognize the accent other than ‘eastern european’.”

Mullins grunted at that and shook his head, looking out at the vegetation and trees all around them.

“I’ll go take a look again. Make sure we’re not getting crept up on,” Mullins stated and stood up.

He didn’t really need to, if Ryan was being honest.

The ghosts that were in the woods were everywhere around Ryan right now. Spread out in every direction that he could see, they were all watching outward.

Somehow, they’d all determined that they needed to look outward. Look outward and be aware of Merilla and the others.

He quite literally had a sphere of spirits around him watching in every direction for any hint of their killer and her supporters.

His biggest concern wasn’t Mirella or the ghosts.

But… the weather and how he felt.

Right now he felt chilled to the bone.

Hunched into himself, his wet clothes clinging to his flesh, the heat long since had fled his body, and without a way to do much of anything about it.

The best he’d managed was to strip out of everything and wring all his clothes dry as best as he could. To forcibly get out all the water possible, then put it back on.

He had no idea if that was a good or a bad idea, but even wet clothes felt better than nothing at all. For all he knew he was making a fatal mistake.

That’s just how life went though.

Perfect choices and decisions were the stuff of fairytales.

Shaking his head, Ryan realized his thoughts had started to drift and then quiet. As if he were about to fall asleep or lose himself to whatever that drug Mirella had injected him with again.

“Cold,” he whispered and pulled his knees closer to his chest.

“Yes. It’s quite cold out,” Carl agreed from where he floated in mid air. He was facing out to the trees and seemed to be watching for something. “You’re in danger, Ryan. Those who are waiting for your death are nearing.

“They sense that you’re close to the boundary of life and death and they’ve come to watch. They’re deeply curious as to how this’ll play out.”

“What?” asked Ryan in a croak. He’d seen what was written in his character sheet. There were forces that were part of the after-life that seemed to be aware of him.

Aware of him personally.

Lifting his head up, Ryan looked out in the direction Carl was.

And saw something.

A dark silohuette that seemed larger than it should be. Something that rippled in the eerie gloom of the woods as if it were flexing muscles, rather than wearing clothes.

An inhuman thing that was humanoid in shape, but most certainly not.

As if it felt Ryan’s eyes on it, the thing’s head tilted to one side. In a way a dog might do when it was confused or curious.

“You shouldn’t look at them,” Carl advised. “It’ll only make them more curious. More interested. They believe you can only see spirits, not them.”

As casually as he could, Ryan let his eyes move away from the monstrous thing and to the tree beside it, then paused.

Staring at nothing.

He was trying to make it look like he was just peering out into the darkness. That he hadn’t seen anything, and he was just looking into the woods.

Like a scared mortal would in this situation.

With eyes that could barely see in the dark and a fear of what they couldn’t see beyond that limited vision.

Eyes flicking from space to space, lingering, then moving on. Seeing nothing at all.

After a time, Ryan just let his gaze fall back to the rock in front of him.

“They didn’t buy that, by the way,” Carl admitted with a chuckle. “It’s fine. Maybe. Maybe? They can’t actually harm you.”

“What is it?” Ryan asked in a whisper.

“I don’t know! I just know they exist beyond life and death. I always thought of them as a reaper. Like a grim reaper. But different,” Carl explained. “You now know as much as I do. Isn’t that horrible?”

“You’re such a shit lately,” mumbled Ryan.

“Have I? Well,” mused Carl. “I’ll see if I can work on that. No promises.”

Ryan interpreted that as ‘stop asking me questions about me and maybe I’ll be around more.’ That could just be his imagination though as Ryan was pretty sure he was still having strange thoughts.

“At some point you’ll have to explain yourself,” Ryan blurted out, his mind going almost immediately blank after having the thoughts about not bothering Carl. Instead he decided to treat it like a game. “If I’m finally out of the tutorial and starting up on the main… main quest… line… shouldn’t you be more on hand? Helpful? Willing to explain things?

“Right now it feels like you just run away the moment it’s inconvenient.

“I’ve always suspected there was more to you Carl. If I’m finally moving forward, I can’t just ignore how strange you are and how odd this all is. I don’t have that mental strength to not start poking at you and your story.”

Carl snorted at that.

Then harrumphed.

“Yes, well… yes,” he said finally. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Blinking, Ryan looked up to the coverage of the trees. The leaves and branches that blocked the horizon line.

Through it, he could see the faint pink and orange of what was likely sunrise. He had no idea how long it’d been ongoing, but it was happening.

It was finally happening.

Looking to his phone on one of the higher points of the rocky ground, Ryan hesitated. It’d gotten somewhat wet but it’d been off.

If he turned it on, he’d risk it having an issue if it had water on the inside.

I’ll wait.

Just a bit longer.

Just a bit.

The sun was nearly overhead when he decided to finally turn on his phone. He’d waited this long to give his phone time to dry out because he might only get one shot at this.

As he thumbed the power button he just stared at the screen. Willing it to turn on.

That it would turn on without an issue and power up like normal and there wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Ryan felt his lips pressing together harder and harder as he held the button down without a response from the phone.

Please, please, please… ah!

The phone turned on and flashed the logo of the provider and began to boot up. It was a little unnerving that it’d taken longer for it to start up, but he was just glad that it was.

Once he got to the home screen he saw he had multiple text messages.

There were a multitude of them from Tilly as well as numbers he didn’t know.

Realizing that his phone was a beacon and an issue, that he was on a timer, he called Tilly directly.

Who picked it up on the first ring.

“Ryan!” Tilly gasped out.

“I’m alive. I’m hiding,” Ryan said. “I don’t know if they’re using my phone to track me and—”

“Leave your phone on,” Tilly stated firmly, loudly. Interrupting him with volume and the demand. “Leave your phone on. Lieutenant Murphy is working with a search team to find you.

“I called him late last night. I explained everything you told me. It took him some time to wake up the judge and get a warrant but… but they’re at her house right now.”

“They are?” Ryan asked, surprised.

“Yes. I’m not far from her house. I just left the police station. I was giving a statement about what you sent me. They downloaded the data off my phone,” Tilly growled, sounding frustrated. “Are you still near her house? I can come get you and we can go find Murphy together.”

“I’ll make my way to the road and wait there,” Ryan answered, rather than telling her more. He was still afraid someone was using his phone some how. It was likely just paranoia, but he wasn’t going to ignore paranoia right now. “After I see your car go by, I’ll call you to turn around. Same car you were in previously?”

“Yes. Yes it is,” she said sounding determined. “Okay, I’ll start driving now.”

“Thanks, Tilly,” Ryan said and hung up the phone.

Followed by him promptly turning the phone off again.

He looked to all the lost souls around him and cleared his throat.

Slowly, they all turned to look at him. Or at least, the ones near him did.

“I need to make my way to the road, and wait for someone to rescue me,” Ryan explained in a simple way. “Can you all guide me to the road and make sure no one sneaks up on me? THe person I’m waiting for will be coming up the road in a car.”

There was no physical acknowledgement that they’d heard him, but once again, they all began to form a corridor and pointed with their arms in a direction.

Here we go.

With any luck, this’ll be simple.

Simple and boring.

I’m so tired.

***

Tilly had arrived just as she said she would.

She drove past at the speed limit.

Ryan called her back immediately and stayed on the phone with her as she pulled a u-turn and came toward him.

The ghosts that’d guided him to this location and time remained in the treeline, rather than step onto the road. They didn’t leave.

Surprisingly, Mullins didn’t leave either.

He gave Ryan a strange look and made no move to get into the car.

Instead, he remained with all the others who had been murdered just like him as the car pulled away.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Tilly murmured as she started driving far faster than the speed-limit. “There were so many weird things that happened after Murphy got involved.

“I’ve talked to him a bit here and there. It sounds like an entire group of people were at Mirella’s house and they were clearly looking for you.

“They didn’t manage to catch anyone. They all left before Murphy, the warrant, and his people showed up.

“Which, honestly, makes me think some of the police are involved in one way or the other. The police, or maybe the courts. Someone tipped Mirella off.”

Ryan turned away from looking out the rear-view window.

Mullins was rapidly fading away into the distance as Ryan drove away with the man’s grown daughter.

“—definitely a serial killer,” Tilly continued. “They’ve found a whole bunch of things that are adding up to it, but no bodies yet.”

“She’s been turning them into human smoothies,” Ryan explained, his eyes turned toward the street ahead of himself. “Oil drums. There’s multiple locations in the woods. I could probably lead Murphy to them. I found them.

“She leaves the bodies in oil-drums then dumps them into loose soil and mixes it up. Let’s it soak into the ground and become nothing. Maybe some eroded teeth and slivers of bone are left over.”

“Really? Blessed mother that’s disturbing,” hissed Tilly, sounding a lot like her father in that moment. To the point that Ryan felt a smile curl his lips. “Alright. Well… I wanted to take you to the police precinct to make you visible and public. So they can’t try to sweep you under the rug but… it might be better for you to help Murphy find the bodies. I’ll call him.”

Tilly reached out and tapped at her dash twice. Several seconds after that the phone began ringing over the speakers.

“Murphy,” stated the Lieutenant.

“Mullins here,” Tilly answered. “I’ve got Ryan. Picked him up. Safe. Secure. He was hiding in the woods overnight. Said he found where the bodies are.

“Oil-drums in the woods. Bodies are being liquified with solvents and the like. Says he can direct you to it.”

“The woods? No. I think we can find it,” Murphy answered, as if he were suddenly waving someone over. “We saw a few game trails around the perimeter but Mirella doesn’t own any land nearby. We took it as animals moving about but it sounds more like she’s using game trails to find suitably dumping grounds.

“Take him straight to the precinct. I want bloodwork done on him to make sure we get a lab report. I want to know if this is something she’d have access to, because if it is, that just makes this even more air-tight.

“Found a great deal of evidence already. Adding the bodies when we find them and this is… it’s a done deal.

“And you’re-you’re positive she took your dad? He really was murdered?”

The man sounded deeply confused, which Ryan didn’t quite understand.

From what he’d seen of Murphy, the man had resisted the idea that the man was murdered. To the point that it was obvious he’d been part and parcel to making sure Vern’s murder had been swept undre the rug and hidden.

Buried and forgotten with speed.

“I have no proof of it, but I’m positive of it,” Tilly said before Ryan could but in. “I think she realized pa was closing in on her. That he’d found something that’d lead down a trail that’d come back to her and she acted. Took him out.”

Ryan blinked as he realized something Vern had told him earlier would help click this into place.

“It was a coroner’s report,” Ryan chimed in. “Vern dug up a coroner’s report for a body that was done outside of Noxfield. The body was loaded up with… I forget the name. It was a long name that read like something that shouldn’t be there and wouldn’t be gotten over the counter.

“That was the piece of evidence that got Vern killed. The Coroner of Noxfield is involved and-and honestly Murphy, I thought you were involved as well.

“No one wanted to talk about Vern’s death and it seemed like everyone was trying to sweept his murder under the rug. You, the Coroner, other cops. Everyone was hiding something and no one wanted to talk about it.”

Murphy blew out a long and slow breath. If Ryan could see the man now, he imagined he’d be pushing a hand through his hair while glaring at somene or something.

“Coroner is Mirella’s dad. Love child. Affair,” revealed Murphy. “I only know because we had to do background checks on all EMT’s a few years back and the DNA came back as a match with the Coroner from a previous security screening. I burried that cause I thought Mirella and the Coroner didn’t need to have their dirty secret aired out.

“It’s also why I didn’t want to talk about your father, Tilly. I didn’t want to let anyone ask about Vern’s death because-because every sign I had pointed to him killing himself.

“That he cut his wrist, wandered out into the woods around his house, laid down somewhere, and died. That massive pool of blood was a lot like someone slitting their wrist. There was also a faint trail of blood moving out the back door.

“It’s not the first time someone’s committed suicide like that. It’s easy to do and the animals handle the clean up. No one finds a body.

“We’ve got a lot of missing persons for a reason out here. A lot of those are just people who have had enough of one thing or another and get lost on purpose.”

Huh?

Why the fuck would he care if— oh.

I see.

Ryan’s eyes had flicked to the crucfix hanging from the rear view mirror. Slowly swinging back and forth as Tilly drove them through the winding backroads of rural West Virginia.

Vern had been a religious man.

One that was open about his faith.

Suicide had lost a lot of the stigmata in the modern church, but not all of it, and certainly not in places like Noxfield. Places that clung tighter to traditions and belief more firmly than other locations.

He tried to hide the whole thing because he… respected Vern?

He didn’t want Vern to suffer the barbs of taking his own life after he was dead. Murphy buried it, kept it under wraps, ande made sure it was a ‘ailment’ rather than a suicide.

The Coroner went along with it because he was protecting his daughter, who had killed Vern.

Murphy that he’d talked the Coroner into doing something illegal, while trying to help Vern.

The Coroner was letting himself be persuaded to hide what his daughter did, while making himself seem like he was uninvolved.

Mirella played the whole thing off like a suicide when she likely killed him in that kitchen, took his body away, and stuffed him in an Oil-drum.

The badge could’ve fallen out on the way back to her place or something else entirely.

No body, no witnesses, no crime.

Everyone else tried to do what they felt was best, all of them creating a situation where no one ever wanted to look into Vern’s disappearance.

“That makes sense,” Ryan allowed after a very long pause in the conversation. “We’re heading for the station. You going to pick up the Coroner, too?”

“Yeah… not looking forward to that but… yeah,” Murphy confirmed. “Just hoping we find Mirella. I’d rather not admit we’ve got a manhunt for a serial killer.”

“Mass serial killer,” Ryan corrected. “Easily a hundred and fifty or more kills. There were a lot of oil-drums that I could see and you can assume she’s been at this for a while.”

“Ugh,” Murphy choked on that single noise. “Ugh… she was probably going after homeless, hitchhikers, or wanderers. As an EMT with police connections and the Coroner as a dad she probably had a good idea of who could vanish without a trace.”

Leaning his head back agains the seat, Ryan closed his eyes.

For the moment, he was safe, and out of the crazy serial killer wods.

He’d survived.

I’ll need to go back and find Vern later. Make sure he’s okay.

I don’t know why he stayed there, but he’s not bound to his badge anymore.

I’ll need to make sure he’s okay.

Fishing Vern’s badge out of his pocket he held it up.

“Your father isn’t bound to his badge anymore,” Ryan said and set it down beside the shifter. “I think he found his body out there and… is waiting, now. He didn’t come out of the woods with me.”

“I see,” whispered Tilly, shook her head, then squared her shoulders. “I suppose I’ll have to figure out which location he’s in and then have the grounds blessed accordingly. He’s a man who died in service of the people and at the hands of evil. He’ll be welcomed.”