Chapter 57: First Victim.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The young man violently shot upright. His terrified eyes darted wildly around the unfamiliar surroundings.
A single lantern swayed from the ceiling, casting long shadows that danced across the walls of the dimly lit tent.
Standing directly before him were two men.
One wore a perfectly tailored blue suit, holding a black walking stick with impeccable posture and an unnervingly warm smile.
The other sat quietly inside a black wheelchair, his fingers loosely resting beneath his chin while thick strands of black miasma lazily drifted around his feet.
Behind them stood an enormous undead creature with twisted horns, the face of a ram, the eyes of a goat, and claws that looked capable of tearing through solid steel.
The young man screamed again and nearly choked on his own saliva multiple times.
Vincent smiled politely.
"Good afternoon."
Damien sighed.
"Why do they always scream first?"
"I believe it’s your face." Vincent responded.
"My face?"
Vincent nodded. "You do look rather cadaverous."
Damien frowned, which made the young man even more terrified, his screams became rather annoying to listen to, so Damien pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Would you stop that? We’re only going to ask you a few questions."
The screaming somehow became even louder, but who could blame him, Damien and Vincent were notoriously the two most dangerous men at camp, he didn’t know why they kidnapped him, but it was definitely not anything good.
The man stopped and took a deep breath, just as he was about to start screaming again, Vincent’s fist collided with his face, breaking his nose and nearly knocking him unconscious.
"Awww, why would you do that?". The man squeezed out in-between sobs.
Damien glanced at Vincent.
"Was that really necessary?".
Vincent avoided making eye contact.
"He’s quiet now, isn’t he?".
Damien turned to the man, shuffled some empty papers on the desk.
"Josh, based on what we have here, you have the ability to ignore obstacles and see through almost anything, Like a blizzard for instance".
Damien wiped the spit from his mouth and coughed lightly before continuing.
"You also have pretty decent physical prowess, which is nothing special, basically everyone has enhanced physical strength, some more than most".
Blood was still dripping from the hand Josh used to hold his nose, he didn’t understand what point Damien was trying to make, and getting punched by Vincent has pretty much pissed him off.
"Look man, I don’t know what you lost, but I ain’t got it, okay. So please just let me go".
Tsk
Tsk
Tsk
Vincent clicked his tongue, before suddenly dropping down to the man’s level, using his walking stick as a weapon he suffocated the man.
"Where were you the night Leslie was murdered, we know you shamelessly used that ability of use to peak at girls bathing, you must have targeted Leslie, and when she found you out, you useless but oddly thoughtful degenerate, she attempted to report you to her sister, so you killed her... speak, I know you did it".
"What? No, I didn’t do any of that, I was just doing my role for the day, which was cleaning the bath house, I didn’t mean to sneak a peak, and I even apologised to Jasmine and she forgave me. As for, wait, Leslie was murdered?".
Damien suddenly yanked Vincent back before dragging him out of the tent, they both looked ahead at the distant snow with a subdued air of mystery.
"Vincent". Damien spoke. "How about we avoid suffocating and threatening the victims- I mean the suspects".
Vincent nodded.
"Yeah, my bad. Let’s try again".
The two returned to the tent, Josh was desperately chewing on the rope they used to bind both his hands and legs, but to no avail, when he spotted them returning, he quickly raised his tied hands in surrender.
"Alright, this is how things are going to go". Damien shoved the table dangerously close to Josh’s chest.
"We speak hypothetically, and you answer, truthfully".
Josh was at a loss for words.
"How am I supposed to answer truthfully when you’re asking hypothetically?".
Vincent shrugged.
"I’m sure you will find a way".
Josh swallowed as they both leaned in towards him with evil grins.
"First question, where were you the night Leslie died?".
Josh swallowed hard.
"I was with Jasmine, after she forgave me, we became pretty close and just as I was about to ask her to be my girlfriend, you guys kidnapped me".
Damien and Vincent glanced at one another before both turning to Josh.
"Vert well, you clearly have an alibi... But we need a replacement- I mean another suspect, with the motive and means to possibly harm Leslie".
Josh’s eyes darted between the two stars of misfortune before him, he didn’t really have anyone that came to mind, at least on the motive part, but when it came to the means. They were hundreds of people with special dormant abilities that could have hypothetically killed Leslie.
Josh decided it was best to play their game and escape alive, so he leaned in closer.
"There’s this guy, real shady. He frequents the area around Leslie’s tent, even though he’s supposed to be living in the lower part of town, and his dormant ability... Well I’m ashamed to say, he can appear nearly as intangible as the space master, Claire".
Vincent’s eyes twitched.
"What do you mean appear? so he can’t fuse into space then, it only appears as though he does".
Josh nodded with a heavy heart, he seemed so sure of himself that even Damien and Vincent accepted the fact they had the wrong guy.
...
A figure was thrown into the snow, landing face first, further damaging his already broken nose, Josh gritted his teeth and swallowed his anger before crawling away.
Damien and Vincent sighed almost at the same time, Leslie’s murder mystery was clearly going to be far more complicated than they initially anticipated.
"Hey, what are you guys up to".
They both looked up and saw Claire and her brother Ethan, Damien’s browse rose, Ethan had a leash attached to his neck.
Vincent on the hand simply waved his hand at Claire. "We’re trying to figure out who murdered Leslie".
Vincent’s words made Claire swallow her words.