Why?”
“Because I want to and this killer guy looks cool,” Cath responded, her raven hair resting on Flo’s side as she continues to read the quest.
“Fine then, let’s go catch this guy,” Flo replies as his gaze shifts from her face back to the quest/bounty.
At the top of the poster was a drawing of the man: black armour chest, black foot wear, black scarf, black everything.
The only noticeable thing was their eyes slightly peeking out and it is noted that they are bright sand-like eyes.
Under the picture was a the actual quest that read like so:
‘Dead or Alive, bring him to the Union building.
Last spotted fleeing from Heckler’s restaurant to the western edge of the city.
Motivations unknown.
Kills brutally by leaving a massive hole in the stomach and chest of the victim.
Believed to have a hammer weapon body.
The last known victim is Steven Heckler (Owner of Heckler’s restaurant) on the morning of the 17th morning of summer.
Difficulty – Unknown.
Recommended to be experienced.
Reward – 800 shards dead.
1 sol alive.
Additional rewards for any extra information.
Reward will depend on the information.’
Cath stared at Flo’s face as she finished reading first.
Reading the date, Flo quickly announced, “17th morning sunrise of summer, that’s today.” Flo looked up as he finished the reading, making eye contact with Cath as she continued to fixate on him.
They held eye contact and Flo continued speaking, “why are you looking at me like that?” His words left his mouth quickly as they wondered about the answer.
“Because I want to,” they still kept holding eye contact as Florian was still confused.
Only moments later, Catherine broke eye contact, as a beautiful smile ordained her face and an elegant laugh accompanied it.
Her head shifted downwards trying to regain a motion of calmness.
“Let me go register it, then we can start,” Florian spoke, as he started to walk to the reception.
It was quickly written down by the ginger receptionist, noting that Florian was the one to take the quest.
Catherine, just behind him, turned towards the door and grabbed his wrist, pulling him along, “Let’s go to that restaurant place,” she said cheerfully.
Crossing through the many narrow and large streets of Birnam, the duo arrived in front of Heckler’s restaurant.
It was a large restaurant built onto the corner of a street.
Two more floors were built on top but not for customer use.
The restaurant was a fine beige colour; strips of the cream-coloured wood wrapped around the top and bottom of the restaurant.
Some dust covered the windows that connected the two strips and a large closed sign ordained the double-door entrance.
Cath and Flo walked together to the main entrance where two coats were guarding.
Two coats, Flo has seen before and might recognise and two coats we definitely recognise—it is Tom and Mabel.
Cath and Flo both grabbed onto their plinks, ready to show identification.
Tom began to speak as he approached, “Aren’t you the boy we saw at the crime scene in the alley?”
“Yes I am, we are Adventurers that have come to investigate this case,” Flo spoke as he opened his plink screen and allowed it to be viewed by the coats—Cath did the same.
“You may go in, just don’t touch anything unless you ask first,” Mabel declared in an icy stone-wall tone.
Florian and Catherine walked past the coats couple and opened the door as Tom wished them good luck and finally saying, “Bye, hope to see you again.”
“Did you really have to say that, they’re adventurers, not colleagues, they just steal our work, people will see us as useless if this keeps happening,” Mabel spoke, her ice tone slightly lifted whilst speaking to Tom.
“Don’t worry, didn’t you see their realms, it won’t be long until we see them out this door,” Tim replied in kind.
Inside Heckler’s restaurant, coats but with different designs swarmed the places; some had more stars, while others had stripes running down their sleeves.
No basic coats like the ones Tom and Mabel wore were inside the crime scene.
For the most part the restaurant was very regular for a closed one: empty, slightly dirty tables, unused bottles placed neatly on the tables, the bar vacant of human life and the many fancy and unfancy alcoholic drinks stand happily as they survive through the day.
Returning to Cath and Flo, they make their way forward and go to the part of the restaurant where it definitely isn’t normal.
Blood splatter decorated the tables and windows where the coats were targeting.
Where the most coats were was the resting place of the founder and boss of Heckler’s restaurant:
Steven Heckler.
Steven Heckler lay flat on a table nestled into the corner of the restaurant.
His eyes still laying open and gazing at the roof he knew best.
Florian and Cath made their way through the flock of coats, the coats ignoring their existence didn’t move for them, forcing Florian and Cath to dance through.
Making it close enough to the body—they saw the gruesomeness of the killer.
The man’s body has a gaping circular hole in the center of his body.
His chest and torso were attached by mere strings as the rest had disappeared into the nearby blood stains.
Quickly looking over his body, Flo stepped back and pulled Cath with him.
Leaving the crowd of coats, they sat together at the bar.
“Hey, I didn’t get enough time to look at him,” Cath said, displeased.
“You had enough time to find out that there’s a big hole carved into his body, you could spend the rest of the day looking and find nothing.
He’s already been stripped by the coats.”
“So what do we do then?”
Flo stood up as Cath watched, not sure what to do.
Florian looked around for a few moments before heading to the back of the restaurant.
Only moments later he came out, “Cath, come with me.”
Cath did as told and followed him as they left the building.
They walked past Tom and Mabel.
Mabel held an ice cold look whilst Tom wasn’t smug but a smirk of ‘I knew it’ claimed his face.
Florian walked around the restaurant and turned the corner, where the restaurant continued.
Tom watching them leave proudly remarked, “See Mabel, I told you so.”
“They didn’t come from that direction,” Mabel replied, knocking his confidence.
“Well maybe, they’re just going to a different place,” he replied, his ego clinging onto survival.
“Maybe or maybe not,” she replied calmly, glancing at where the two turned.
Around the corner, Flo and Cath have already traveled far down the street where the windows stop and a brick wall remains.
“So what’d you find then?” Cath asked cutely, frustrated by her own confusion.
“Nothing, I just have a feeling, a feeling that tells me this is the only logical place to go,” Florian replied but most of his thoughts focused onto the wall.
“Wouldn’t the police have already checked here?”
“No, the coats would first drive themselves crazy before taking a step back.
And once they finally did, the trail would go cold,” Flo moved to the window and peeked through it, witnessing the coats still swarming around the body, “I mean look at them, you’ve already stripped the body clean, why are you still looking, killers don’t leave that many clues.”
Florian kept on looking and Cath tried to help, but was unsure what to look for.
A few minutes later, Flo’s eyes lit up.
His hands brushed against the side of the window closest to the brick wall.
A small blood circle was on the bottom of the window frame, “see this, he came through here, either walked past here or jumped out the window.
But where did he go from here?”
“Up,” answered Cath, pointing at another blood circle, this time bigger and more visible but high above head-height.
Seeing where Cath pointed, he patted her shoulder before beginning the ascent.
He latched onto the rotting wooden beams and slowly clambered up the building.
Every now and then his hand slipped and sliced off the beams or caused a crumbling of a section of the beams.
Making it halfway through the climb, he glanced downwards, spotting Cath not climbing he asked, “Are you not gonna follow?”
“Nope, I’ll walk through the streets, he might have jumped off somewhere you know,” she responded, finding an excuse not to climb the awkward building.
Carrying on the climb, his right hand reached the top, allowing himself to be pulled up onto the sloping roofs.
Inspecting the roofs for a trail, he found very little so he just carried on forward, walking across the wooden beam that connected the two slopes.
Jumping onto the next roof, there was still no trail, he peeked over the edge of the roof and saw Cath walking alongside him on the streets of Birnam.
She waved and smiled at him in a graceful manner and he waved back but without the smile.