Poison City

“Do we know what killed them?” After collecting some samples of blood on the ground and on the wall, Marcus went to Kevin, who had been examining the body for the whole time and asked: “There’s something weird about them - I don’t know why yet, but there’s definitely something unusual that I missed.”

 

“What do you mean?” Mick asked, the frown remained on his face ever since he came into the house. “What kind of weird?”

 

“I think I know what you mean.” Kevin nodded: “You’d expect there to be more blood, well, by that I mean, more splash and more gush.”

 

“I - I still don’t get it.” Mick thought for a short moment then shook his head.

 

“Here.” Kevin pointed to one of the bodies, one with the neck torn open and chest cavity exposed, presumably of the father and said: “If a person was killed like this, you’d expect the blood to gush higher, but you can see, there’s almost nothing on the ceiling.”

 

Marcus looked up, all he saw was that there were a few light gray handprints on the ceiling: “Are you sure? Has anyone checked?”

 

“Yeah, at least by the looks of it, it’s clear, slightly aged and stained, but those look like marks from old paint and weathering.” Kevin shrugged, but then he noticed the strange look Marcus gave the ceiling: “What? You see something?”

 

“Let me double check first.” Marcus shook his head and started looking around, trying to find any traces of things that would mean danger to any of the officers here: “Oh, right, who found the bodies again?”

 

“Technically no one - something triggered the house alarm. And the house alarm company tried to contact the owners. They did not get a response so they called in, per their policy.” One of the officers helping Kevin wrap up the body parts answered: “Josh Kim and Caleb Manning answered dispatch and they called this in.”

 

“Okay.” Marcus nodded and quickly located the position of the two officers and went over to them.

 

“Hi Detective Cai.” Officer Josh Kim was having a cup of coffee just outside the police tapes, looking exhausted but not attached by any hints or traces of unclean being or energy: “Sorry for the mess - it’s quite a - it’s quite something.”

 

“Thank you for the hard work. ” Marcus patted the officer on the shoulder, “And - uh, sorry if anyone has asked you this already - but did you see any suspicious person around? Or did you see anything weird?”

 

“Yeah, no problem. ” Officer Josh Kim held his jade buddha pendant on his neck as he answered: “Nothing out of the ordinary, I’m afraid. Once we saw the bodies in the house through the window we immediately checked around the house and all exits. No sign of any person, no sign of forced entry or lock picking.”

 

“Anything else that you can think of? ” Marcus looked at Officer Josh Kim up and down, trying to make sure there wasn’t anything ominous attached to him: “Maybe even just slightly strange?”

 

“Aside from the gruesome scene? Can’t say I saw any…” Officer Josh Kim thought for a while, then shook his head.

 

“Oh yeah, I definitely felt something weird.” Officer Caleb Manning, on the other hand, was quick to provide a not-so subtle answer: “You know, detective, I feel like - like when you have spent so many years on the force, dealing with weird case after weird case, you’d get the intuition when things aren’t exactly right, you know?”

 

“Yes, I think I know what you mean.” Marcus took a careful look at Officer Caleb Manning’s face, just for enough time to confirm what he saw, and not too long to be obvious and uncomfortable. Then he took a quick glance at his shoulder - there were barely visible small clouds of black mist lingering on his left shoulder and around his forehead. “But can you be a bit more specific?”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s see - it’s like - I felt this sudden gush of cold air blowing out from one of the back windows. You know?” Officer Caleb Manning nodded, thinking while looking at the sky: “And I felt like I heard someone inside the house saying something. And I just couldn’t shake the feeling of someone having just left the scene right before we got here. I looked around the house a few times, and found no traces of anyone. The neighbors were asleep then, not even the animals were out. Still…”

 

“Understood, understood. Have to say I have had some experiences like that before.” Marcus nodded and patted Officer Caleb on the shoulder, with a little bit of Qi concentrated on his palm, trying to burn away the dark mist.

 

His Qi ignited the traces of dark mist like a burning match to a fuse, and the mist lit up in sparks. It eventually reached his forehead and burned a small chunk of the dark cloud over his forehead, but that was it - the small trace of Qi was fully used up by that point.

 

Marcus nodded and infused a very small trace of his Qi into the shoulder of this officer. This additional Qi should be unnoticeable by any normal person, while still able to help the officer fight the dark energy. He was not entirely sure how else he could clean up the last bit of the dark cloud still attached to the officer right now, so keeping an eye out would pretty much be the only choice he had at the moment.

 

While Kevin and Mick were still inside the house, Marcus decided to circle the house with his Qi activated, in an attempt to discover any other traces or leads. Even now he was still unclear what he should do in this kind of situation. If it really was the doing of some kind of supernatural or ethereal entity, then how on earth would he solve this case. How would he solve the case of Lydia Mu, or help with the investigation of the emergency reparations team?

 

Just when he was thinking about all of this, a trail of bare footprints on the ground caught his eyes, leading right up to the backdoor of the house. There were no evidence markings on them. Apparently, they were something only he could see.

 

Backtracking the footsteps, Marcus made it around the house and onto the streets. The footprints disappeared when they reached the public streets. Judging from the direction, they seemed to be leading to the electric substation.

 

“Hey, what’d you find?” When Marcus came back back into the house through the back door, Kevin was just in the kitchen taking pictures of the blood-stained sink and the dining table.

 

“Uh, not entirely sure.” Marcus took a peek at Mick, who was helping other officers collect evidence in one of the bedrooms, then lowered his voice: “So, Kevin, I know this may come out of left field - but take this as a hypothetical question: do you know if there’s any concrete case that are surely committed by supernatural beings? And if there is, what kind of pattern do those cases follow?”

 

“Uh, detective?” Kevin frowned then patted Marcus on the shoulder: “Again, not that I am not happy about you agreeing with me or taking an interest in my theories. But I wouldn’t want you to go directly into this direction when you have a case. What happened? Did you encounter something recently?”

 

“It’s a long story.” Marcus sighed: “Maybe I can explain to you over some Dim Sum later, but currently, I just - you know? There are some very clear signs that what happened, and what is happening is nowhere near normal or natural.”

 

“I can see that - but - okay, question?” Kevin scratched his head: “What are you seeing that we’re not seeing?”

 

“Kevin? Marcus? ” Just this moment, Mick called from the master bathroom: “Can you come and take a look at this?”

 

“Let me tell you the details about it later. Like I told you before, I needed some time to clear my head and think about things. But I think I’m in a better place now.” Marcus nodded: “And - believe me or not, there are things I am fairly certain about.”

 

“Really? That’s good, because I for one am not super convinced.” Kevin shook his head with a wry smile: “I know, shocking. I have some experiences that led me to believe what I believe, but I’ve never seen or heard actual cases of supernatural killing. There are many cases that seem like they could be the case, but I - I still need more convincing. What you saw in the tunnel was the closest thing I have ever heard. But - ”

 

“But I was poisoned and injured, and all I saw was a shadow. I understand.” Marcus chuckled, still debating in his mind whether he should tell Kevin more: “Yeah, even I can’t be sure of that one. But, weird point to ask for more proof, huh?”

 

“Yeah, I know. ” Kevin chuckled: “But I have my boundaries.”

 

When they entered the master bathroom, they saw a really messy bathtub still half full. The water in it was dark and seemingly full of dirt, a few leaves and weeds floated in the tub. Dirty watermarks everywhere. Three plastic cups, three toothbrushes and a bottle of hand soap were scattered on the ground, some were even in the toilet.

 

“What the hell happened here?” Marcus asked, frowning.

 

“Looks like some kind of struggle.” Mick pointed at a few blood stains on the side of the tub.