Chapter Text
Melissa sat up in her bedroom. She blinked, unsure of what had awoken her. It was still the middle of the night. Melissa could still see the red moonlight shining through.
Melissa frowned and looked out the window. The moon was awfully red tonight. Was it a Blood Moon?
Rising to her feet, Melissa made her way out of her bedroom and down the hall. She paused at the sight of Klein’s open door. He usually didn’t have the door open. Especially not this late at night.
Melissa walked closer and pushed the door fully open. Klein wasn’t there.
Melissa frowned and was about to head into the kitchen before she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She stepped into the bedroom and looked at the desk. Although it was hard to see in the red moonlight, she was certain that it was blood. And a lot of it, too.
Melissa’s eyes widened as she took a step back in shock. Where was Klein?
Melissa turned on her heel and darted into the kitchen. He wasn’t there.
Melissa hurried out of the house and managed to catch a patrolling police officer.
“Officer!”
“Yes, Ma’am?” the officer asked as he walked over. “What seems to be the issue?”
As Melissa explained the situation, the officer headed inside and took stock of the situation.
It wasn’t long before Melissa was in the police station, inside an interrogation room and being told to rest.
Leonard looked around the scene. They had been alerted by the police officers that Klein had been reported missing and both he and the captain had rushed over. Leonard carefully stepped over a bit of blood and made his way to the desk. It was covered in blood, including the notebook that lay open on the desk.
Leonard noted the date. Today’s date. Well, yesterday’s, seeing as midnight had already come and gone.
“Everyone will die, including me.”
Those were the stark words written on the page. “Captain,” Leonard called.
Dunn came over and frowned upon reading the words. “Some sort of mystical ritual?”
“But where did Klein’s body go?” Leonard asked.
“Maybe the killer needed it for the ritual. The first two kills were to set it up and then the last kill is the apex of the ritual and the body is required?” Dunn put forward.
Leonard frowned. “Maybe we should talk to the sister. She was the one that found the scene.”
“Yes,” Dunn agreed, tapping at his forehead. “She’s at…”
“Tingen Police Station,” Leonard reminded him, well and truly used to his captain’s terrible memory.
As Leonard and Dunn headed down to the station, Pallez couldn’t help but wonder at what exactly he had sensed in that room. It felt a lot like his abilities of a Worm of Time, but at a higher level. And it couldn’t be Amon. ‘He’ clearly hadn’t ascended to sequence zero yet.
Pallez knew that there were a few pathways that had authority over time, but the aura in that room felt far too much like the Error pathway to not be similar. However, there were no other options. Any apotheosis ritual would be noticed. Besides, neither of the two other pathways would be able to make a deity so silently. Antigonus was likely still missing and Bethel would still be sealed.
It was then that Pallez realised what it could be. The Lord of Mysteries. ‘He’ had somehow revived at a lower level. This might mean that Pallez’s biggest competition in the form of Amon could potentially be eliminated.
If Pallez could find the Lord of Mysteries, then he may be able to keep his characteristic in exchange for service and helping ‘Him’ ascend to his place once more.
“Klein Moretti,” Pallez mused. “Let’s see if we can find you.”
Ince Zangwill woke up. He immediately frowned. He had had one of the best sleeps he’d had in a while.
He hurried to get up, heading over to the desk to see what the quill had written.
Ince blinked. It was gone. Instead, glowing golden letters carved into the desk itself remained. “Ince Zangwill remained asleep, his spirituality not alerting him to the person who had entered the room as the person had not even drunk a potion and therefore was not a threat to him. The person then took me and left without Ince Zangwill ever noticing.”
Ince stared in shock. Then he started cursing and hurried to grab his stuff, preparing to escape. Without the Quill of Alzuhod, the Red Gloves would catch up to him soon.