~~
Reece
~~
I had watched my Little Bunny walk so that she was standing in the air and looking down on the scene from about twenty feet in the air. She was different than she usually was, that was immediately obvious.
After hearing my Little Bunny whisper something about needing to see more, I saw that her eyes started to glow blue. Actually, her whole body seemed to glow and shine almost like there was a black light inside of it. It was strange, but kind of cool too.
“What is going on?” Cadwal, was scared as he saw something strange happening with his queen for the first time, exclaimed in a hushed voice.
“She is investigating. She is the Goddess after all, she will be able to do things that we would never even think about.” I smiled as I answered him.
.....
“But how did she do that?” Cadwal still didn't get it yet. He was still asking for an explanation.
“Like I said, she is the Goddess. She has magic that we could never fathom. Even if we observe her for twenty years, she will still surprise us.” That last part was me admitting that I was still surprised by her on a regular basis.
“I cannot imagine what that must be like.” He shook his head and just watched as my Little Bunny saw what she was up there to see.
After a couple of minutes of me and Cadwal just staring at her and watching her work, I saw that my Little Bunny was surprised by something. She was looking hard at the building that was the old church. She had squinted her eyes but there was obviously too much going on through the glowing of her eyes to make out what she was seeing. Instead, she hurried down from where she was and stood right in front of the wall.
As I was making my way over to my Little Bunny's side, I saw that she was using her mana to wash the blood away. For a moment I was shocked, because it was evidence, but I knew she had her reasons, not to mention that it was already catalogued and documented so it was fine.
Underneath the blood there were words that had been carved into the wall. The dark, weathered, gray wood of the church wall was different from the lighter color of the letters gouged into it with a knife of some sort.
“What the hell?!” I couldn't help but exclaim in anger when I saw what was written on that wall. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” At my loud and angry outburst, the others all came running over to see what was going on.
“What are they playing at? Who are they calling monsters?” Shane was pissed when he saw the words.
“They think we're monsters, yet they're the ones that have killed people so brutally. What are they playing at?” Vincent, equally angered, glared at the words.
“So, does this mean that we were right in assuming that it was a human?” Shawn's words seemed to bring the entire group to a halt. They were now starting to think about the implications of what those words meant.
I reread the words again. I needed to see what it was that they were telling me. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything at all.
'Monsters hide in the dark,
but that will never stop the light from shining through.
We will hunt the monsters to extinction
and we will free the world from their evil ways.
We will slay the beasts and
we will stop the spread of their
infernal diseases to the good people of this world.
We are the saviors of humankind.
We are the heroes of the light.
And we will not be stopped.'
“It is very clear to see that it is meant to be a warning or manifesto of sorts. They are telling us, the nonhumans that they knew would be investigating this murder, that they are going to keep killing people. Specifically, our people. They call themselves the saviors of humankind. They say they are going to slay the beasts. They call us monsters, but we're not their enemies, and never have been either. So, Shawn, to answer your question, yes, these killers are most definitely humans.”
Everyone in the area was staring at my wife with a dumbfounded look on their face. Me included. This was not at all what we thought was going to be discovered at this scene. And, of course, this was something that we had been hoping wasn't the case.
How were we supposed to find, capture, and deal with a criminal that was human? They obviously would not have the same sort of discretion that we would have. These people didn't care if humans saw the victims, and they didn't care about involving the whole world. And that also meant that they had no intention of stopping, ever.
“We need to tread carefully. We need to make sure that there is no information leaked, and we need to be on the lookout for suspicious humans. We've both narrowed down and broadened our searches. And that is what scares me the most.” I could feel the words that I had just said. It was like they were bouncing around the space between us all. We all already knew how important this investigation was, but now it felt like there was a more intense and heavy weight to it. In a sense, it was almost like the 'shit just got real' feeling. It was definitely nerve wracking, that was for sure.
After we got as much from the scene, which wasn't much beyond what my Little Bunny had found, I went with Dietrich and Trinity to view the body. While the three of us went to do that, Shawn, Shane, David, Gabriel and Vincent went to interview some humans in the area. They would be able to tell us if there were any people that were around that they didn't know. Someone that might have left and come back recently. This was vital to us right now, so there was no room for error.
The body, thankfully, was still in the freezer at the closest coroner's office. And that, thankfully, was not far from the Alpha's home. The three of us along with Cadwal went to view the victim. I don't know what Trinity wanted to see here, but there was obviously something that she needed to see or thought that she might be able to learn from the body.
Another positive for us was the fact that the coroner, Gwri, was also a wolf. He had bright blond hair, shining green eyes and a somber face. I guess something about him had to be affected by all of the death that he had seen.
However, with Gwri also being a wolf, it meant that we did not need to hide who and what we were. And we would be able to investigate everything a lot easier.
“Thank you for coming.” He said as he welcomed us into the storage area. “Both of the bodies are still here. The families wanted to make sure that all information was gotten from them before they were buried or burned. I know that is not tradition, but we were working with bereaved families here, I hope you understand, Queen Trinity.”
“Of course. I am actually very happy that they are still here. This allows us to see their bodies and determine if there is anything about them that is different or that needs to be examined again.” I watched my wife speaking to this man fluidly and easily. She was doing her best not to be affected by the situation at hand. “Please, take us to see the victims.”
“Yes, right away. Please, follow me.”
Gwri led the way to the far side of the room. This was the room where they performed the autopsies as well as stored them. It was cold and smelled like sterilized death. The chemicals didn't fully mask the scent of the dead that were in this room. Honestly, it was a horrible smell and I didn't know how Gwri could handle it at all.
He pulled out the last two drawers that held the bodies of the victims from this pack. Niclas was in the furthest drawer and Llewellyn was in the one next to him. The moment that they were pulled out of their compartments, the scent of death was intensified.
They didn't smell like they were rotting, not yet. They were being kept preserved with the cold, but they definitely smelled dead. There was a scent that settled onto a body when someone died, and it only got stronger the longer they were dead. And it was a smell that was insanely intense for wolves such as us. Again, I had to wonder just how Gwri was able to handle the stench of these bodies. It was beyond horrible. At least in my opinion it was.
I was just starting to look over the bodies. I was trying to see if anything stood out to me at all. There were the wounds as well as the runes that were carved into the body. There were bruises as well as the mottling of color from the body having sat so long after they were killed. There was so much going on that I just didn't know where to start. However, I was distracted almost immediately by the startled cry of the man standing next to me.
“Oh my Goddess! No! No!”
