Chapter 51

"Are you absolutely certain he's there?"

"Not necessarily him, but without a doubt there's a fresh corpse inside."

Sarah and Anthony were looking at an old, abandoned building and trying to think about their next course of action. They didn't expect to find an exact location so soon and especially not this close to them.

"Is it possible for it to be an animal?"

"No. I'm sure it's a human. Should we tell the others?"

"Rose could come inside if she doesn't mind getting more injuries. There is no way I'm letting anyone else in though. And before you get any ideas that also includes you, young lady."

With that the two of them headed back to the rest of the group, only to find half of them slowly being buried by the desert winds. After being filled in on what happened they sat down to share their findings and what might be their best lead.

"So, do you want to come and help out?"

"Sure. I was actually thinking that you could bury me once we get back home. Getting injured is not really a problem."

Thus, the two of them left after everyone other than Rose shared some bewildered looks. After waiting a few minutes for the adults to get out of hearing range, Sarah finally got the opportunity to go after them.

"Sorry that I'm leaving you alone but I really want to see what happens."

"No problem. Just try to get back in one piece."

They shared a high-five and Sarah took off after the two adults.

[You have received the blessing of the serpent.]

[Effect: All physical attributes +1.00]

[Time left: 59:59]

Anthony and Rose were walking at a leisurely pace. They were going to look at an inanimate corpse so there was no use in hurrying and running would have just caused unnecessary commotion. It also didn't help that Rose was pretty much incapable of going faster without the use of her ability.

With the moderately long distance between them and their destination, there was more than enough time for Anthony to clear up a question that only arose a few minutes ago but getting an answer for it was very crucial for future plans.

"About that being buried thing. How exactly did that come up, and why now of all times?"

"I'm not that familiar with how things go around you but as far as I can tell, my healing problem is going to be permanent. If nothing changes I will look more like a corpse than Sarah, with the added problem of becoming even less mobile than I already am.

My shadow form on the other hand is in perfect condition and is almost indestructible. I just thought that we might as well do it now while there is something left to bury."

"I won't argue about that, but you definitely should discuss the matter with someone else."

"Like the kids?"

"Like a therapist. I get that we are not exactly normal but discarding your body so easily cannot be healthy."

They didn't talk after that. The immortal and the shadow walked towards the abandoned building in complete silence while failing to notice that they were being followed.

When they arrived, they had to face an unexpected challenge presented by the weathered door of the aging house. It was stuck completely and wouldn't budge unless the visitors wanted to break it as well, which wasn't the best choice considering they have been trying to remain inconspicuous so far. In the end the least destructive method of entry they found was to break only the rusty hinges of the door and carefully lift the whole thing out of the doorway.

The anteroom was pretty much what they expected. A thick layer of dust and sand covered everything and the spider webs were so dense that Anthony broke one of his bone swords in the process of getting to the next door. Fortunately, the rest of the building had fewer obstacles even though it was still in a terrible shape.

The inside of the building was deceptively large so it took a while for just two people to search through, it also didn't help that they decided to stick together in spite of them being the least likely people to be in danger. Eventually, they did find something noteworthy, which was a trail of footprints.

The footprints were left by a large shoe which either had a really unique design or was somehow forced onto the paw of a tiger as there was an identical set of scratch marks in front of every step. Another notable observation was that the trail didn't have a proper origin, it started in the middle of a random corridor.

It took a while to figure out what happened to the rest of the trail but in the end Anthony managed to find the solution. The rest of the trail did exist, it was just on the ceiling. There were deep cuts in the wood tiles of the ceiling, in an identical shape to the scratches on the floor. The two investigators followed the new trail all the way to a small room where it split in two.

More specifically, they have been following the split so far. The other half was made up of two sets of cuts one of which was facing the other direction, most likely leading outside of the building. They were a lot deeper than what they have been following, suggesting that whatever left them was using the same cuts to climb through the ceiling. This idea reinforced what they previously thought of the murderer's intelligence and added considerable dexterity to its presumed capabilities.

The room where the trails led was nothing special. It contained a bed, a nightstand and a broken window which was probably used in place of the actual entrance, explaining why the front door was in such a bad shape.

At that point, Rose was starting to get tired of the search for clues. From her point of view, they found an obvious lead to the target and immediately went in the opposite direction.

"From what I can see, the direction we came from doesn't have a path leading outside so we might as well go back since our culprit is most likely still there. Please tell me why we had to come all the way here and make the whole thing more complicated than it was?"

"You're right, we didn't have to. I just wanted to know more about what we were dealing with."

"We'll find out anyway when we can look at it. There's no point in being cautious, since neither of us are in actual danger."

With nothing else to discuss and arguing being pointless, they made their way back to where they came from and continued to follow the footprints in the proper direction. The path led to the second floor of the building and into another room. There they found what they were looking for and more. Two human corpses instead of one.

One corpse was dried out and propped up against the wall under a window and the other was seemingly still fresh and lying in a corner. The problem was that based on the locals' description, the dry one was supposed to be last night's victim.