Inside the cold, fluorescent-lit interrogation room, Charles sat perfectly still. The heavy wires of a polygraph machine were strapped across his chest and fingers. Detective Frank Costello sat across the metal table, glaring at him.
"Did you kill them?" Frank asked, his voice hard.
"No, I did not," Charles answered, staring blankly ahead. "And I stand firm on what I say."
"Yes or no questions only," Frank snapped.
John, the polygraph examiner sitting in the corner, checked his monitors. "He is telling the truth, sir. No physiological spikes."
Frank frowned, leaning forward. "First, is your name Charles?"
"Yes."
"He is telling the truth, sir," John repeated, his eyes on the scrolling paper.
"Who killed them?" Frank demanded.
"It was a demon," Charles said, his voice breaking slightly.
"Give the full details."
"We went to a babaláwo for a money ritual," Charles confessed, the shame heavy on his tongue. "And a demon has been after us ever since. He said he wanted our child by all means, and we didn't give her to him. So he killed my wife."
Frank scoffed loudly. "You went for a satanic ritual? That isn't exactly a crime, but are you being completely honest right now?"
"Yes," Charles swore, a tear slipping down his cheek. "I did not kill them."
Before Frank could argue, the door opened. Dr. Elena Rostova and the CSI lead stepped inside. "Sir," Elena said, holding a clipboard. "There is absolutely no sign of any weapons that could rip a human head off like that. We have searched the entire church compound, and we are planning to tear the BQ down to keep searching, but for now... we have found nothing."
Detective Jack O'Connor walked into the room right behind her. "I told you, Frank. I felt something was off, but you didn't listen."
Jack stepped up to the table. "Our forensics team found no sharp weapons—no machete, no axe, no meat cleaver. And it would be medically insane for us to argue in court that a starving mechanic did it with his bare hands."
"We just haven't found the weapon yet. We will," Frank argued stubbornly. "You are just being emotional because of the kid."
"No, you are the one being illogical!" Jack fired back. "What is your deal? You want him to go to jail so badly that you're ignoring the facts! When we secured him, there was only blood on his hands and knees. There was no high-velocity blood spatter on his face or chest!"
"He might have changed his clothes, showered, and come back!" Frank countered.
"I am with Jack on this one," Elena interjected. "We received the 911 call where he was allegedly screaming that he was going to kill her, and SWAT arrived within minutes. There wasn't enough time for him to commit a triple-weapon homicide, shower, change, and dispose of the weapons perfectly. Come on."
Charles's eyes became watery. He looked at the detectives, his chest heaving against the polygraph straps. "I could never kill my beloved wife. I could never do something like that. It was not me. I promise you... it was not me."
"So what now?" Frank threw his hands up in frustration. "What now, exactly? We literally have his voice on tape!"
"We are going to do forensic audio analysis on that recording," Jack stated firmly.
"For what?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Jack crossed his arms. "To confirm if that was actually his voice."
"Come on, that was his fucking voice! We all heard it!"
"Be reasonable, Frank. Don't act like a rookie," Jack snapped. "We just gave you three massive physical claims that you have yet to debunk, and you still have the mouth to talk like you know it all. What has gotten into you? This is going to be a very long case."
Standing in the corner of the interrogation room, completely invisible to the humans, Azathoth watched the argument unfold.
The God of the Void ground his teeth together. "Fuck. I want Serena to be without a mom and dad. I could just possess them to make it easy, but Astragel would instantly step in, whining about 'free will.' "
Azathoth paced the small room, glaring at Jack. "If I do whatever I want with brute force, Astragel will step in and do whatever he wants with divine light. Good and evil will just cancel each other out, making our actions irrelevant."
Azathoth stopped, his red eyes narrowing. "I have to just whisper. I have to corrupt the system from the inside."
The shadow vanished.
The Invisible Monster
Back at the O'Connor household, the afternoon sun filtered through the living room windows. Clara stood by the kitchen doorway, smiling warmly as she watched Serena and Ignis playing on the rug.
"Raaaaaah!" Ignis roared, pulling his face into a funny dinosaur expression. "Look, I can do the face of a T-Rex!"
Serena burst into a fit of bright, innocent laughter. "Haaahaaahh!"
"Raaaaa!" Ignis chased her playfully.
"Look, me too!" Serena covered her face with her tiny hands, then peeked out. "Raaaahhhh!"
Ignis laughed, falling back onto the pillows. "Serena, Serena! Let's watch The King and the Great Dragon next!" This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
"Okay!" she beamed.
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Clara leaned against the doorframe, her heart melting. "So cute seeing Ignis finally have someone to play with," she whispered to herself. But her smile faded slightly as she looked at the heavy bandages peeking out from Serena's collar. "I feel so much pity for her. At such a young age, she lost her mom and dad. She doesn't fully understand it now... but when she grows up, it will hit her like a bullet. I am so sorry for you, pretty girl."
"I will go and prepare some food for you both to eat," Clara announced softly. She walked toward the hallway, looking back over her shoulder. "Continue having fun, little ones."
Clara opened the heavy oak door leading to the dining room.
Suddenly, Serena's laughter cut off.
A blood-curdling scream of pure, primal terror ripped from the little girl's throat.
"Monster!" Serena shrieked, scrambling backward across the rug until her back hit the sofa. "Monster! He is right in front of you! The monster is right in front of you!"
Clara spun around, her heart jumping into her throat. "Calm down, love! What is it?"
"Where is the monster?!" Ignis yelled, jumping up and looking around the bright, empty living room.
Clara looked at the open doorway in front of her. "No one is there, Serena."
"You are pointing at the monster! Look! Look!" Serena cried hysterically, tears instantly flooding her eyes.
"No one is there, love. You are scaring me," Clara said, her voice trembling as she stared at the empty space.
But Azathoth was standing right there. Towering over Clara, staring down at her with glowing red eyes.
"Please," Clara stammered, feeling an unnatural, freezing chill in the air. "No one is there."
"The monster is behind you!" Serena wailed, pointing a shaking finger directly at Clara.
"But I see no monster!" Ignis panicked, grabbing a toy sword to defend them.
Clara reached her hand out, physically touching the empty air where Serena was pointing. "See? Nothing is here."
"You are touching the monster!" Serena screamed.
"What?" Clara gasped. She didn't see anything, but as her hand swept through the space, a wave of suffocating, unnatural dread washed over her. She began to shake from pure, instinctual fear and confusion.
Clara didn't wait to figure it out. She ran to the kids, scooped Serena up into her arms, grabbed Ignis by the hand, and sprinted.
"Let's go! Let's go! Let's leave this room!" Clara yelled.
They ran directly past Azathoth. Clara slammed the heavy living room doors shut behind them and locked the deadbolt, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.
Clara looked down at the weeping girl. "Are you sure? Was there a monster?"
"Monster," Serena sobbed, nodding frantically.
"Don't worry, you are safe now," Clara lied, trying to soothe her own racing heart. "The monster is trapped in that room."
"But I saw nothing," Ignis said, thoroughly confused and scared by his mother's reaction.
Clara frowned, her mind racing. "What the fuck is going on?" she thought.
Suddenly, Serena pointed a trembling finger down the hallway. "Monster. Monster is out."
Serena buried her face deeply into Clara's chest, refusing to look.
Clara stared at the completely empty hallway. "What now? What should I do?" she muttered frantically. "I need to call a child trauma psychologist. But... what if she is telling the truth? Is someone actually standing right there? Is this house truly haunted?"
In the center of the hallway, Azathoth slowly walked toward the family of three.
He stopped, his dark, formless gaze locking onto the ten-year-old boy holding the toy sword.
Azathoth's glowing eyes widened in the dark.
"He is the Ignis," Azathoth whispered, realizing the cosmic irony Astragel had woven. The Champion of Light was standing right in front of him.
With a dark smirk, Azathoth vanished.
Clara stood frozen in the hallway, clutching the children. She looked down at the little girl trembling against her. "Is the monster gone? Or should I run away?"
Serena took a deep, shaky breath, peeking out from Clara's shirt. "It's gone."
"We will be taking you to meet some guests who can help you tomorrow," Clara exhaled, her knees weak.
"To kick the monster's butt?" Serena asked tearfully. New chapters come out on g.com first.
"Yes. Kind of," Clara swallowed hard. "Not exactly that."
Clara looked at her son. Ignis looked back at her, his hands shaking. "Mommy, what's wrong?"
Clara looked back down the empty, silent hallway, the feeling of dread slowly fading away.
The Dead End
Inside the county jail, Charles stood behind the thick steel bars of the holding area. Detective Jack O'Connor stood on the other side.
"Don't worry," Jack promised quietly. "I will be your lawyer, or I will find you the best defense lawyer in the state. I will set you free."
"Thank you," Charles said, gripping the bars. "But... why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Because you are innocent," Jack said firmly. "And it is my job to enforce justice."
"Yes," Charles smiled weakly, remembering the late Pastor. "Callen was right. Good people like him still exist. Thanks a lot, Detective. I really appreciate it."
"Of course," Jack nodded. He turned to walk down the concrete corridor.
Charles watched him go, a heavy sorrow settling back into his chest. "I hope I get out soon to meet my daughter," he whispered. "I miss her so much. How will she survive without me?"
"Wait!" Charles shouted down the hall.
Jack stopped and looked back. "I am sorry, Charles. I was only given five minutes to talk to you by the captain. I will come back tomorrow."
Jack pushed through the exit doors. Charles slumped against the bars, whispering into the quiet cell, "How will I know how she is doing now?"
The Perfect Fake
In the forensic audio lab downtown, Dr. Helen Fraser and her assistant, Jennifer, sat in front of a massive soundboard. They replayed the 911 recording for the fiftieth time.
Helen paused the track, pulling her headphones down around her neck. She looked at Jennifer. "Something is way off."
"I know," Jennifer agreed, staring at the digital soundwaves on the monitor. "It sounds too perfect."
"Exactly," Helen pointed at the screen. "Look at the vocal spikes. The voice has absolutely no breath intervals. There is no true, physiological gasping for air between the screams. And the ambient acoustic resonance? It sounds like the audio was generated in a vacuum outside the room, not echoing off concrete walls inside a bloody church."
"But the soundwave perfectly aligns with Charles's vocal cords," Jennifer argued, frustrated. "And no AI software currently exists that can replicate human distress like this in real-time."
"The girl sounds terrified, but again... no breathing. No vocal cord strain," Helen tapped her pen on the desk. "So what should we put in the final result report?"
"This is too weird. I don't know," Jennifer sighed, rubbing her eyes. "The soundwaves match perfectly, but it feels like a flawless mimic. Not a human."
"We just leave it as 'Inconclusive' or mark it as a mystery anomaly," Helen decided, logging off the terminal.
"Yeah. Good idea. I am too tired for this," Jennifer grabbed her coat. "I wanna go home. Bye, Helen."
"Of course. You can go home. Bye, Jennifer."
The Knight King
Later that night, the O'Connor house was quiet.
In the guest bedroom, Serena lay in the center of the large mattress. She held tightly onto Clara, burying her face deep into the woman's chest for safety.
Clara gently patted her head, stroking her soft hair. "Don't worry. The monster is gone now."
She kissed Serena's forehead. "Tomorrow, you will see a nice doctor who talks to children. Because this is becoming too crazy."
On the other side of the bed, Ignis reached over and pulled Serena slightly closer toward him.
"I will be the one to protect you," Ignis declared proudly. "As the Knight King! Not Mommy!"
Serena looked back over her shoulder, seeing Clara smiling warmly at them. Then she looked at the ten-year-old boy.
"Who is stronger?" Serena asked skeptically.
"Me, of course!" Ignis puffed out his chest.
"Okay. If you say so," Serena finally relented. She let go of Clara, rolling over to hold onto Ignis tightly. She buried her face into his chest and closed her eyes, feeling truly safe for the first time since the bloodbath.
Ignis gently patted her head in the dark, staring up at the ceiling with determination.
"I will protect you," Ignis whispered into the quiet night. "It is my duty, Serena."