Eldritch Exorcist 89. The report

Danny looked around himself once again. He knew that this late in the night, no one should be around the morgue, but the pills had a tendency to add to his paranoia, so he checked again.

No one was there.

He approached the door and produced a bunch of keys on a keychain. Stopping to look around, he tried each key one after another until he finally found the right one and opened the door, quickly getting in and closing it behind him.

Once inside, he finally felt slightly more relaxed.

Taking out a flashlight from his pocket, he slowly made his way through the doctor’s office. He knew where he was going, so without any hesitation, he went down the corridor and turned right to the last room on the first floor.

He exhaled without thinking.

Sotis when the doctor needed to stay late, he would take his cat with him. The creature would sit in that room, and each ti Danny ca around, it would stare at him until he left. Its gaze was always uncomfortable, way too intelligent for his liking.

And right now, he felt sothing similar, but stronger. Sothing unnerved him, as if the cat was watching from sowhere.

For so reason, the hair on his neck stood up.

“Gotta lay off the pills,” he whispered to himself, shaking off the goosebumps.

He needed the work done as quickly as possible. There was a big order coming up, so more pills were needed. But that was okay.

‘With the doctor being suspended, there shouldn’t be a problem if more went missing.’ Danny tried to calm himself down.

Opening one of the drawers, he began rummaging through its contents, searching for painkillers.

He kept going, looking through the shelves. The work took his mind off the stress as he read the labels, searching for anything good.

Finally, after going through the smaller cabinets, it was ti for the main prize: the glass cabinet where so more potent opioids could be found.

He approached it and once again started fidgeting with the keys. Finally finding the right one, he opened the glass doors, already seeing so strong painkillers behind them.

But his celebration was cut short.

As the doors opened, he saw sothing terrifying.

A reflection in the glass.

Soone was standing right behind him.

The person wore a mask that appeared to be made from branches, with two hollow eyes. He turned around in panic, fight-or-flight responses battling for control of his body, making him freeze in place in the end.

All he managed was to scream. Or try to, as the mont he opened his mouth, the man slamd his open palm into his throat. All that ca out was a muffled cough and so wheezing.

“F-F-Fuck o-off, dude. I’ll call the police,” he stamred, the first thing that ca to his mind as his back touched the cabinet.

There was nowhere to run, he realized. The windows were barred, and the door was behind the man in the mask.

“Suuure,” ca a creepy, echoing, inhuman voice that made the blood in his veins freeze. “I caught a burglar, officer. But he picked up a scalpel out of nowhere. I had to break both his arms,” the thing spoke in a fake flat voice, mocking him.

The mont he ntioned broken arms, Danny felt himself go weak as the weight in his stomach dropped even further.

“L-Look, I can give you anything. I have pills, money, whatever you want.”

The man tilted his head. Danny was hoping he would be interested in pills.

“Where did you get the keys from?” asked the voice.

“W-what?” Danny asked back.

“Am I hard to understand? Should I co closer so you can hear better?” The masked person smiled.

Danny almost lost consciousness as the branches started moving around, actually twisting into a smile.

It was a demon or so sort of monster. Danny closed his eyes as his legs gave out from under him.

“O-O-Oh God. Oh. Our Father, who art in heaven… uhm h-h-hall-hall-” He tried praying, but the words wouldn’t co.

When was the last ti he tried? He didn’t rember.

“Hallowed be Thy na,” the demon prompted, to which Danny just started shaking even more.

“I’m afraid He ain’t here with us tonight. So answer my questions, and you might leave with your life. How did you get the keys?”

“I-I work here.”

Danny flinched as the branches stretched further.

“And who are you?”

“I’m Grease.”

“That’s an unfortunate na,” the thing spoke, amused.

“I an, I’m Danny. People call Grease.”

“Okay, Grease. So bodies arrived here around nine days ago. Overdoses from a party. Do you know anything about them?”

“Yeah. I-I overheard the doctor speak with a policeman about them. They decided to call them overdoses, but they weren’t. They were strange.”

“Strange how?”

“I-I don’t know, I swear. I just overheard the conversation. So kids said they took sothing and collapsed, but I didn’t sell them anything, I swear.”

“So there were witnesses?”

“I think?”

“Okay.” The thing nodded. “You like the slaughterhouse parties, right?”

Grease nodded.

“Good. Do you know the preacher’s son?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“N-no.”

“He’s not your client?”

“No. I swear.”

The thing went silent for so ti.

“Re-real–” Danny started to reassure, but the demon cut in.

“Do you know anything about what happened at the party? About the ‘overdoses.’”

“No. It was barely a party, not big enough for to sell there.”

“Good,” the creature spoke, and then looked at the cabinet. “You are stocking up, huh? Is there another party planned?”

“Y-Yeah. Saturday after Founders’ Day.”

The thing nodded to itself once again.

“The last question,” it spoke, and then reached into Grease’s pocket and pulled out a pill container. “How many of these to knock soone out?”

“Ummm. Three?” Danny answered.

It took out three pills and, before he could say anything, shoved them into his mouth, then covered his nose and mouth until he swallowed. It brought its strange face closer and spoke almost right to his ear.

“You should really stop using those. You had a terrible trip.”

It waved its hand, and then everything went black.

The next day, Danny woke up in front of the morgue in a ditch. He groaned and looked around.

Did he try his own stash again?

He checked his pockets, but everything was still there. He had the usual headache and dryness in his mouth that ant he had been using the night before.

The unpleasant vision of the night ca back to him. Demon in the office, now in the light of day, it seed so silly.

He chuckled to himself as he absentmindedly massaged his throat.

I received so helpful information last night.

There were witnesses to the overdoses, and another party would be coming up. It was Wednesday today, so I had two days until Founders’ Day on Friday and three until the party.

But that was where the good news ended.

I went through the report yesterday after coming back. It was filled with dical terms, protocols, and related docuntation, but after finally reaching the description of the bodies, they weren’t what I expected. My initial theory was that the artifact itself was causing soul mutations that showed in the flesh to such an extent… sohow.

But the bodies were a completely different case.

I sighed, thinking about the report.

It was morning, and I had so free ti. The ghost hunters were apparently doing sothing on their own, as I didn’t get an invitation and was told we would et later, before the school eting.

That sat well with .

The plan was to look over the report once again in the morning. Next, et the idiots and gather so information from rcy about what she saw. And finally, use the school eting to visit Sandra’s house when the girl would hopefully be alone.

So right now, I was back to examining the dical report.

The first part that got my interest was the initial identification.

Identification & Circumstances

Decedent A: Minor, 17 years, presud male.

Decedent B: Minor, 17 years, presud male.

How they were found: Both were discovered lying on their backs inside a room in an abandoned industrial facility. Normal indoor temperature.

Ti since death: Unable to identify. Based on body temperature, estimated multiple days. Based on lividity and stiffness, unable to co up with an estimation.

So the bodies were cold, even though according to Grease, they collapsed with their friends around, so the police should have been there quickly.

External Examination

Shared findings (A and B):

Eyes: The whites of the eyes appeared unusually white and cloudy, with fine surface cracking. The eyelids and surrounding skin showed no burns or heat damage. Eyelashes and eyebrows were intact.

Face: The facial muscles were locked in a grimace suggestive of intense muscle tightening at or near the mont of death. No bruises, cuts, or petechiae on the face or neck. Faces locked in a grimace of pain.

Injuries: No gunshot, stab, or blunt-force injuries. No ligature marks. No obvious needle marks apart from standard dical access.

Mouth/Nose: No blood. Foam around the mouth, identified as spit.

Now that was the interesting part. White, boiled-looking eyes and a grimace of pain. Although “grimace” was putting it lightly. There were photos attached at the end, and the faces were expressions of unimaginable suffering to the point that the jaws were almost dislocated, as if frozen in a scream.

Laboratory & Imaging

Toxicology: Samples were collected. Initial screening for alcohols and common drugs was negative.

Eye fluid chemistry: Routine asurents were not diagnostic for dehydration or severe tabolic crisis.

Microscopy:

Heart: No signs of recent heart attack or inflammation.

Lungs: Mild fluid and congestion, no classic pattern of severe lung injury.

Liver/Kidney/Spleen: Congested, otherwise typical structure.

CT scan: No fractures, no tal fragnts, normal appearance of the eye sockets, and no signs of penetrating trauma.

Opinions

Decedent A — Cause of Death: Undetermined. Sudden collapse with failure of multiple body systems, no clear anatomic or toxic cause found.

Decedent A — Manner of Death: Undetermined.

Decedent B — Cause of Death: Undetermined. Sudden collapse with failure of multiple body systems, no clear anatomic or toxic cause found. This content belongs to novęlfire

Decedent B — Manner of Death: Undetermined.

Comnt:

Both deaths appear sudden and non-traumatic, with bodies found at rest and no signs of struggle, injury, poison, or heat/chemical exposure that would explain the unusual eye appearance. The fixed facial expressions are too extre to be classical rigor mortis. The whitening of the eye whites is striking but does not match typical heat damage, and its chanism is unclear based on current findings. At this ti, available testing does not identify a natural disease, intoxication, or environntal factor that explains the deaths.

Any attempts to alter the facial expressions of the bodies failed.

Muscles don’t respond to any physical attempts at resetting or any chemical relaxants.

I can’t make them stop screaming.

The comnt section cut there. I assud the doctor had finally had enough, although I wasn’t sure whether this would be enough to scare a doctor into jeopardizing his career.

What’s more, I vaguely recognized those symptoms. There was a soul spell that could do sothing like that. I would have to wait to call Ophelia to check a book for , to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

So, I was trying—and failing miserably—to co up with a theory of what happened and where any related artifacts might be.

After a few hours, I finally got a ssage that the ghost hunting clowns were free and I could et them at their headquarters, which was apparently in Victor’s family's house.

I arrived at the place and, after knocking on the front door, was greeted by an old woman with a warm smile.

“You must be one of Victor’s friends. Please co in,” she said imdiately after opening, and pointed inside. I walked in and was led to a room upstairs.

“Victor, honey, your friend has arrived,” she said, opening a door with ‘no girls allowed’ still visible, as it had been scratched into the wood years ago.

As soon as I walked in, they quickly and awkwardly hid so papers.

“Thanks, Mom,” said Victor and shook my hand.

I looked around.

If not for the room’s inhabitants, I would think that I had been let into a place where an angsty teenager with a love for cheap movies lived. The walls were decorated with posters of either barely clad girls or so cheap movies.

They were apparently working on Rey’s speech after they had roped him into it, so I was left to my own devices, aside from being asked for input from ti to ti. Using the free ti, I finally managed to talk with rcy about what she saw in the slaughterhouse.

She was eager to show the recording she made during the night.

And it was… sothing.

I watched intently with a deep frown. It showed what I assud was the boar I fought in the forest, stalking her.

There were also the eyes and the moving hook, but that could be explained by the presence of mana in a recent place of murder. Magic responded to beliefs, and there should be enough of it to move a rusted hook slightly and ss with electronics.

No, what I was most interested in was the boar. The creature appeared to be stalking the woman, but there was a problem.

Why didn’t it attack?

I assud that in my case, it was waiting for a perfect mont, but here it clearly had it. Instead, it just slled the air and left.

Why?

Wasn’t it a mindless mutation?

Or was there so pattern or need driving it forward?

And most of all—

Why the fuck did nothing seem to make sense in this case?