Chapter 24: Clues
Deeper into the night, Morden’s peaceful sleeping face could be seen lying on the chair, but the environment isn’t as empty.
Standing not too far away from where Morden lay was a completely dark shadowy figure; the only thing representing its presence were the two reddish spots that were in place of its eyes.
The figure just remained there for a while, but it soon slowly faded away in its place as a tiny red gem.
The rest of the night went by peacefully.
"Why is it so bright and cold?" Morden cursed out while he scrunched up his face.
The window located on his right was widely open, allowing the morning rays and some chilling wind to seep inside.
The light and the cold forced Morden up from his sleep despite his unwillingness.
He hadn’t had any rest in a long period of time, so the little bit he just had was nowhere near enough for him.
"I am sure that window was closed last night," Morden said with a strange face.
Though he didn’t really focus on making sure everything was closed, he couldn’t have slept with his window open like that.
"What could have opened it?" he wondered while approaching the Open window.
He arrived in front of the window and bent at his hips to check through the other side, the only thing there being a tiny garden.
"Hmmm, I guess there’s nothing there," he muttered while turning around to leave the tiny red stone missing by a few inches.
While approaching the chair he was previously sitting in, Morden suddenly halted his footsteps with his eyes locked on the ground.
’Why didn’t I even bother looking for clues last night?’
’Yes, they might have cleaned up well, but I don’t think they could have done a perfect job.’
’There must still be something,’
With that line of thought, Morden moved to the exact spot he remembered himself standing when he just arrived in this world; he scanned the whole sight in front of him, but he didn’t see anything missing.
There was nothing out of place, no shifted key or a missing Remote, it was literally perfect, or was it?
From his current position, Morden’s eyes finally caught something. It was light from the window he had just approached.
In this place, he was almost completely backing it, but he could still catch a tiny bit of its light just as it was at the extreme edge of his vision, just like the red light.
The two nights, while standing in that exact spot, his eyes caught sight of a faint red light from that exact edge.
’Does that mean that the Red ghost left through the window?’
’It must have been returning to its master from there.’
His experience during the trial showed Morden that immediately after the red ghost was done with its task, it returned to the mountain Lord.
Without wasting any more time, Morden rushed towards the back entrance, opened the door, and approached the garden that was just below the window.
In his memories, he could remember his Mom had always taken care of the rose flowers that were planted there with so much love and attention.
They were the first things she tended to in the morning.
Morden stared down at the flowers with strangely curious and strangely sad eyes. He didn’t have to stare too long before he caught sight of something.
Among the bright red blooming roses was another red object of a much darker shade.
Not caring about the thorns at all, Morden proceeded to grab it, and shockingly, the thorns only caused a bit of discomfort, but they could barely pierce his skin.
His hand touched the red object, and he realized it was a piece of clothing that appeared to have been ripped off from someone. He could feel the cloth was stuck in the thorns that was probably torn off in the first instance.
’He must have been crouching here,’ Morden thought while folding the piece of the clothing in his hand.
"One clue at a time, I will find you and"
He didn’t waste any more time there, since there was nothing more to see and he actually had somewhere he was supposed to be this morning.
Back in the house, Morden didn’t stop in the living room; instead, he went up the stairs to the room he shared with his brother.
He looked through the room, his and his brother’s clothes still scattered all around the room; he then proceeded to enter the room and move towards the bathroom door, where he pulled off all of his clothes and slipped in the shower to have a bath.
About three minutes later, he had managed to clean off all the blood and grime and everything else on his body, leaving him sparkly clean.
Morden moved towards his bed and just picked up the clothes currently closer to him; he did the same for some pants and underwear, and soon he was fully dressed in a casual outfit.
He wore a grey t-shirt and black trousers, and that was all.
"Since I am going to register, I should probably take along my ID card."
The ID card was something that was issued to almost everyone in the current City he was staying in at the age of ten. It contained every single thing about them, including their account balance.
Feeling fully prepared, Morden left the house and headed to the Edificial Bearer’s Organization.
It was a large glass building with beautiful statues and intricate designs all over; it was the exact kind of building that gives you a feeling of odd satisfaction just from staring at it.
After about ten to fifteen minutes of walking, he had finally arrived. He could see people mostly dressed in ordinary clothing moving in and out of the building in droves, not the armored, weapon-carrying people like he had expected.
He managed to squeeze through the entrance and finally get into the actual reception hall when he had a piece of news that had immediately caught his attention.
"Breaking News: A family of three was stabbed to death in an abandoned building, with the officials having no idea what happened. Journalists have been able to get words on the street that the people in the vicinity have described as having seen a Red light just around the time the incidence had been suspected to have occurred."
’Red light? Again?’