Chapter 47: Investigation
The trio of them walked back to the reception area again, where Brenda was already waiting for them again, and this time she wasn’t holding a uniform; she was holding a case file and a metal box, which she handed to the two guys, respectively.
"Miss Mona also said to inform you that anyone that wishes to leave or return home can go ahead, and you all don’t have to report tomorrow, but you must be present two days from now," Brenda passed on the message.
And immediately after hearing that, a smile formed on Morden’s face.
"Finally I can get some rest; tonight has been a long night," he said while turning to look at the other two.
But they didn’t share his excitement at all; Darlus even looked slightly downtrodden, while Lisa just looked neutral.
"Is there a place we can stay in here?" Lisa asked as she looked at Darlus, snapping him back.
"Ahh yes, follow me," he responded before leading her away.
’She doesn’t even mind staying in the same room as a guy,’ Morden thought, and he could guess that because there was still no change in her expression.
The other two have left without even a goodbye, and now Morden was left alone with Brenda and the case file in his hand.
’I should return home too,’
"Have a good night, Brenda," Morden said before turning around and heading towards the elevator path they came down.
Upon getting back outside, Morden didn’t waste any time; he just headed back to his house.
He had left since that morning, going from the Bearer’s organization to the cafe and then to that man’s house and then
back to the Bearer’s organization, to outside the city, and then back home now.
With the case file still in his hand, Morden didn’t stop in the living room; he headed straight for his room and plopped straight on his bed.
Almost immediately, he fell asleep.
The rest of the night went by peacefully, and since he didn’t sleep in the living room, no shadowy figure came to watch him sleep.
The next morning, Morden wasn’t awakened by the glistening sunlight that usually went through the open window like before, so he had unknowingly slept in.
The sun was already high in the sky when Morden even rattled awake.
The fact that it was already almost morning when he even returned home made it understandable that he slept till so late in the afternoon.
"Ohhh damn, is it morning already?" Morden said in a groggy voice while he tried to sit up, and in the process his hand hit the case file he had dropped when he fell asleep.
His still sleepy eyes immediately cleared when he looked at what his hand just touched.
’I can’t believe I fell asleep without checking this first,’ he thought while picking the file up.
He didn’t hesitate before opening it and reading the information currently written in it.
When he started reading, his expression still remained the same since the information there was still tidbits he had picked up, and some were even things he had said, for example, the Red-ghost.
But the more he read, the more drastic his expression became; he was starting to see things that made him question some of his knowledge and things that raised even more questions.
"For further inquiry on the case, please report to the higher officer in charge," Morden read at the bottom of the file before closing it.
"Report to the higher officer? I have almost a million questions; some things just seemed outright wrong."
’It was stated here that I was stabbed by the same knife that killed Mom and my brother, but just last night I was the one that choked myself.’
At this stage, Morden had self-inserted and blended together so much that he was considering the previous owner of the body different from the current him.
They were already one and the same.
’I am leaning towards the one I saw last night being the truth since these people weren’t there and those scenes were created directly from my memory.’
’And it makes more sense that way, since that explains why there was blood on my mouth, as my hands were bloodied when I did it.’
’If that part was most likely wrong, then who could tell which other parts are wrong?’
From the file he read, Morden was able to get more information about the piece of clothing he found.
One of the Watchmen agents was scanning the compound that same night when he found the clothes stuck in that exact spot he had found it so his theory about someone crouching among the flowers wasn’t disproved, but what he didn’t know before was the fact that, this wasn’t the first time they had encountered something like that.
The piece of clothing bore extreme resemblance to the uniform of one of the Watchmen’s greatest enemies, but that fact was the only thing stated.
There was no fact or anything like that to support it, which means he would have to report to a higher officer if he wanted to know more.
"There’s nothing about a red-eyed shadowy figure here, which means the watchmen don’t know about it or it wasn’t intentionally included."
"Either way, I need to investigate that myself, and I should start by checking that exact spot."
Having a new lead, even though it might end up being false, still filled Morden with adrenaline that was enough to clean out any bit of sleep still left in him.
He jumped off his bed and rushed down the stairs into the living room. To be safe, he did a cursory scan of his surroundings before actually approaching that spot.
He didn’t know what he was going to find; he didn’t even know if he was going to find anything, but he still felt a strange thrill.
Luckily or unluckily, he actually ended up finding something.
"What are these red stones?" he muttered.