Chapter 23

  "So you must be the famous investigators I keep hearing so much about." The kindly old doctor greeted us at the entrance to his office. He was your typical white haired old doctor who had been the town's primary physician for decades. This was the notorious Townsperson #48 who had worked with Mayor Night to facilitate the disappearances of the cursed townspeople. Instead of looking menacing like Clay had expected, he looked much more like Dick Van Dyke's character when he guest starred as an out-of-touch older doctor. In the episode, the character relied too heavily on outdated medical practices. I wasn't quite sure what would count as outdated for this ambiguously dated old fishing village, maybe leeches? Maybe just amputating everything? I could totally see this old guy randomly sawing off limbs for stuff as simple as getting a splinter.

  "Sorry, he does this a lot." Joan whacked the back of my head. "Focus!"

  I realized everyone in the room had been staring at me in silence for long enough to look either annoyed or confused. Joan was annoyed. Tara and Townsperson #48 were confused. I was hoping Joan's blow to the back of my head wasn't enough to warrant the old doctor feeling the need to amputate.

  "I'm Clay, they are Joan and Tara. And this little guy is Dalos." Clay scratched under the chin of the Tindalos puppy in his arms.

  The old man wiped his bloody hands on a nearby towel before extending them to shake Clay's hand. "Sorry about the mess. I had a patient with a stubbed toe. I'm still cleaning up."

  "I knew it!" My guess about him being amputation-happy was confirmed. Looking around at the others, I realized I had only speculated in my own head about the amputation thing which made my outburst seem completely random. "Sorry, I forgot I only had that conversation in my head. Never mind. Also, make sure nobody gets a papercut around this guy."

  Everyone still looked confused. Clay shook the man's extended hand. He had completely forgotten the hand had been bloody moments ago and instead of a proper wash, the doctor had only wiped his hands on a towel. They were really sticky, to put it lightly. Both Joan and Tara looked equally horrified that I'd actually shaken his hand.

  "So what brings you in to my humble little office? Did I hear one of you has a papercut?" He glanced over at a wall at the far end of his office. It was then that I noticed he had a bigger variety of saws than a carpenter.

  "No papercuts here! We actually just had our amputations today, thank you!" I shook his hand furiously in an attempt to draw his attention away from the serial killer wall. Tara had followed the doctor's eyes to the wall and remained staring in horror. Joan continued to look annoyed, unaware that I likely just saved at least one of her limbs.

  "Clay wanted to see your morgue." Tired of the schtick, Joan blurted out our intentions.

  "Morgue you say?" Townsperson #48 rubbed his chin in thought. The totally not blood-free hand left a smear of red wherever he touched. I glanced down at my own palm realizing I looked like I'd just been holding hands with Carrie. The one starring Sissy Spacek, not the remake. Although, I don't really know if there's a difference in the amount of blood since I didn't watch the remake. I'm sure it was just fine. I mean it starred Chloe Grace Moretz and she's awesome in everything. Her performance as Hit Girl from Kickass was legendary. She did the voice of Wednesday Addams from those animated Addams Family movies, which I had trouble watching. The movies were pretty good and she did great as Wednesday, but the Pugsley didn't live up to Addams Family Reunion Pugsley. That was peak Pugsley.

  "Does your friend want me to check his head? He seems to have some sort of brain damage." The sound of Townsperson #48 suggesting checking out my head was just as effective as one of Joan's Focus commands. His blood smeared face didn't help him look any less terrifying, even if the old man hadn't actually done anything yet.

  "He's just a little quirky." Tara smiled as she gave the kindest possible description of my personality flaws.

  "If he does it again, knock yourself out doc." Joan wasn't so kind. "Anyway, yeah, he wanted to see the bodies. He didn't actually tell us why, so I'd have to assume some kink."

  "I don't really understand what you mean, but I can show you to the cellar. There are a few down there. Is there anyone you're specifically looking for?" The doctor innocently brushed off Joan's comment. I wondered what Joan actually thought about me, or if she literally just assumed the worst. If that was the case, what did that say about the trust she always showed in my judgment and actions?

  "I was actually looking to see if there were any possible murder victims." I'd made the statement so matter-of-factly that it caught everyone in the room off guard. Tara seemed to be especially unnerved by my request.

  "You're in luck. There are a couple of Does downstairs. A Ron Doe and a Jane Doe." He smiled as he guided us to a stairway leading to the basement.

  "You mean John Doe, right? Not Ron." I had been caught off guard by the doctor's upbeat mention of murder victims. I was familiar with the terms John and Jane Doe referring to dead bodies that couldn't be identified, so I wasn't sure if Ron Doe was some sort of random reference that even I didn't get.

  "No, I meant Ron. You'll see what I mean." His smile when talking about dead bodies was beyond disconcerting. I guessed since his job involved dealing with death, he had built up a tolerance over time. Either that or he was a psychopath.

  At the bottom of the stairs, we were met with a large open room. There were ten tables set in the middle of the room. On four of the tables were white sheets covering what appeared to be bodies. The other six were empty. Next to the tables with the white sheets were various belongings, likely belonging to the body on the corresponding tables. Right next to the stairs was a desk covered in papers and a mug that read World's Second Best Grandma.

  "I finally solved the mystery. That was really going to bug me if we moved to the next investigation and I hadn't figured it out." I patted Townsperson #48's back firmly as if he deserved congratulations for owning a mug. Of course neither Joan nor Tara had even the slightest clue what I was talking about. Dalos didn't understand, but he reacted with pure joy, making me sit him on the ground so he could run circles around me while he yipped. Even eldritch dogs were man's best friend.

  "I'm happy for you. Do you still want to look at the bodies? They are the last two on the right." He gestured toward two tables at the back of the room. "I should probably warn you that Ron Doe's body is especially hard to look at."

  The shock was so big that I doubt I could have hidden it if I tried. If the body was enough to warrant him to consider it hard to look at, I couldn't imagine what it actually looked like. I made my way to the bodies and pulled the sheet back on the first. Underneath was a woman in her twenties or thirties. Her face was stuck in a twisted terror, and the likely source of her terror was her crushed neck. It looked as if some impossibly strong individual crushed her neck like a Hi-C Ecto Cooler juice box. You know, the Hi-C collab with Ghostbusters that had Slimer on the box?

  "Those were delicious." I said out loud as I reminisced about the limited edition beverage.

  "Excuse me?!" Even Joan looked horrified. I couldn't blame her, I was staring at a brutally murdered body and talking about a delicious childhood memory with no context.

  "Don't worry, I was talking about Ecto Coolers. I don't think corpses are delicious, obviously. That would be weird." I assumed my explanation had been enough to clear any misconceptions.

  "That would be weird? You know, never mind. Every time you give me a glimpse about what's going on in your head, I'm reminded that the Lovecraftian creatures are only the second most disturbing this in this world." I didn't sense she was entirely joking, so Joan's response wounded me deeply.

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  A quick glance at Tara confirmed that she was beyond horrified. I thought it might be smart to try to reel in my tangents before I scared her off.

  Moving to the second body, I pulled back the sheet. Immediately I was met with the reason for Townsperson #48's warning. Everything below the neck seemed mostly fine, but above the neck... It would have been better if the body had been beheaded. Instead, the head was crushed and split open. I couldn't even look in its direction long enough to formulate a suitable pop culture reference. I can't handle cinematic gore, so something at this level was way too much.

  I averted my eyes from the gore, finding the pile of this body's belongings. Right on top, I realized why the doctor had referred to this body as Ron Doe. Although the shirt was appropriate for the setting of this town, there was something very out of place stuck to the front of it. On the familiar red and white nametag sticker was the name Ron written in handwriting that I recognized. This person was one of the passengers on The Love Craft. They had been on the deck the night we were dragged into this world. Joan and I had received name tags with the same handwriting as the tag on the corpse's shirt.

  My eyes met Joan's. She immediately came over. When I looked at Tara she was so scared that he was shaking. I was sure my stern face didn't help calm her down.

  "Tara, I hope you don't mind if I talk to Joan for a little bit. If it's too difficult to be down here, feel free to go upstairs. We'll be right up. We don't have long until we'll be moved to the next investigation, so stay close." I tried to smile, but it was difficult to hide the unsettling feeling gripping my chest.

  Tara nodded weakly before quickly heading upstairs. The elderly doctor followed her.

  "What is it? Did you find what you were looking for?" Joan cut to the chase.

  "Unfortunately, yes. I was hoping I was just reading too much into things, but that's not the case." My eyes held on Joan's. My usual awkward playfulness was replaced with fear and confusion.

  "What did you figure out, Sherlock?" She wasn't being sarcastic, she genuinely meant the nickname as a compliment.

  "Be mindful of the murders." I spoke the familiar words from the note we'd received.

  "I don't... I'm not following." She looked genuinely confused.

  "We thought it was talking about the crows. That trail led us down a wild rabbit hole. But it wasn't talking about groups of crows. It wasn't a riddle." I held her hands as I spoke to her, I was sure my hands were clammy but I didn't care.

  "Murders... You think it was talking about these bodies? But that doesn't make sense. What do they have to do with the disappearances?" I could understand her confusion. She'd been stuck on the same misconception that I had.

  "Why do you assume the note had anything to do with the investigation?" My words hung heavily in the room. Joan immediately started to say something, but swallowed her words as she realized what I was implying.

  "If it wasn't related to the investigation, what is it talking about?" Her eyes desperately scanned mine for a clue.

  "How many passengers were supposed to be in this world, including us?"

  "There are two couples per world. Since we were counted as a couple for some reason, and we know Tara and Raif are here, that makes four." She thought back to the initial announcement that she had heard when we first reached this world. I hadn't heard it first hand, but she'd relayed it to me. Each world during this game's prologue was supposed to have two couples. Initially I wasn't sure if Joan and I counted as two separate couples since we were on the cruise as singles. When we'd discovered Tara and Raif, we realized that Joan and I had been considered a couple.

  "Then why were there six?" I pointed to the nametag next to the body. Joan's eyes opened wide in recognition.

  "So you told Tara to go upstairs because..."

  "This has to do with how I'm not supposed to be here. No matter how I do the math, it doesn't make sense why there'd be six passengers... Or I guess five if you don't include me." I finished her thought.

  "Do you have any theories?" Her response let me know that she didn't have any ideas. Even with my struggles to read the room, I could see how nervous she was.

  "I don't. I can't even tell if that god arranged to have them killed for some reason, if someone else wanted to cover up their existence, or if it was all just a coincidence. But the biggest takeaway is that there's someone on the inside that is either trying to help us or mess with us. They wanted us to find these bodies. They wanted us to question why there were two more passengers here than there were supposed to be." I didn't know what it all meant. It was just one more layer to the mystery behind my existence in this game.

  Our conversation was cut short by a message flashing in front of me.

  You have 5.00 minutes until the start of the next investigation.

  "Clay, I'm sure you realize we can't share this with Tara or anyone else, right?" Joan warned.

  "I know. I don't share your feelings about her, but I understand this is something we need to keep between us for the foreseeable future." I nodded. "But we need to meet back up with her and get ready for whatever's going to happen in five minutes."

  Joan shrugged unenthusiastically as I headed up the stairs with her following closely behind. When we reached the ground floor, I immediately realized that Tara was nowhere to be found.

  "If you're looking for your lady friend, she ran out of here in a hurry." The doctor must have been able to read my thoughts from my worried expression.

  "Joan, this isn't good. We need to find her quick. I don't want to know what happens if she's not with us when the time is up." We didn't know anything about what happened when the new investigation started. In a best case scenario, Tara would be placed with us even if she hadn't been with us when the time was up. In the worst case scenario she would be sent to a completely different world from us by herself... Or maybe even worse, she'd be reunited with Raif.

  "Maybe this is a sign that we shouldn't trust her." Although I understood she had a logical reason to say what she did, I didn't want to believe her.

  "I'm going to look for her. If you don't want to come with me, I won't make you." Even though I meant what I said, I really hoped Joan wouldn't stay behind. If I wasn't with her to start the next investigation, she wouldn't be able to roll my new stats. "Dalos, track down Tara."

  The miasmic pup stared at me blankly, not understanding what I was asking him. I guess it was understandable that my request might be above his current skillset.

  "I can't just let you go off by yourself. But don't think this means I suddenly changed my mind about her." Her hand grasped mine as she stood beside me. She wanted me to know I wasn't alone. I wished I could get her to understand just how important that gesture meant to me. I also wished she could understand that Tara needed that same gesture at that exact moment, because I could only imagine how alone she felt.

  Unfortunately, no matter how desperately we looked around town, we didn't have enough time. As the timer hit zero, we still had not found her.

  With Joan's hand grasping mine, I felt the world shift around us. I guessed the next investigation would be set somewhere other than Marblehead, but I hadn't been able to confirm it until now.

  As my vision cleared, I noticed we were in some sort of run down office. Papers were strewn about on a cheap wooden desk. The smell of cigar smoke hung in the air. A cheap red carpet covered the floor, and the walls were a smoke-stained off white. A window looked out over a dreary city-scape. If I had to guess I'd say we were in...

  "Boston in the thirties. Or whatever that god interprets as Boston in the thirties." I spoke my assumption out loud. Joan seemed to nod in agreement.

  "What's this? Some sort of private detective's office?" Joan added to my theory.

  Giving the room another scan, I realized she was probably right. The papers on the desk all appeared to be some sort of case file. The books on the bookshelves were either legal books or mystery novels.

  "It's like some sort of film noir. Like China Town, but written and designed by a worthless deity." My heart fluttered at the thought of being in a film noir. This would have been a dream come true if it hadn't been for the dark cloud hanging over me. "She isn't here."

  I had hoped that somehow Tara would appear with us, but that wasn't the case.

  "We don't know what was going through her head, but we can't worry about that right now." She pushed back, clearly able to see what I was thinking.

  "My top priority is going to be finding Tara before anything else. I'm not going to budge on it. She needs our help." I was unwilling to budge on the matter.

  "So what, do you think you're going to be her savior?" She was not pleased with my stubborn refusal to give up on Tara.

  "Of course not. Tara isn't some damsel in distress." My words made Joan look at me with surprise. "But she is our friend. And friends help each other. Even when they don't ask for help, friends help each other."

  I grabbed the office door to make a dramatic exit to look for Tara. Unfortunately, the door would not budge. Instead, I was met with a message.

  Stay tuned for the formal announcement.

  Time until announcement: 14.23 minutes

  Doors to your safe rooms will open after the announcement.

  Enjoy your free fedoras.

  "What the..." Joan responded to the announcement with annoyance. But, I had a different reaction. I looked in my inventory and found a new item.

  "Woah! This is amazing!" I put the black fedora with a yellow ribbon on my head and posed. "How do I look?"

  "Like an idiot."

  "Wait! Hold on, I've got it!" I quickly sat behind the desk and put my feet up. I tilted the fedora on my head and grabbed a cigar out of a cigar box that had been sitting under a stack of papers. Dalos joyfully leapt onto my lap as I posed like a hardened private investigator from a crime drama. "How about now?"

  "Like a big idiot." She crossed her arms over her chest. "What happened to finding that girl being your top priority?"

  She pulled a yellow fedora with a black ribbon out of her inventory, and groaned.

  "There's nothing we can do until after the announcement so I might as well have fun while we pass the time. Speaking of having fun," I grabbed the hat from her hand, "How about we trade hats. I want to look like Dick Tracy."

  "You are literally the worst." Joan groaned loudly as I modeled her yellow hat.

  Despite my joking, my heart ached. The time couldn't count down fast enough. Somewhere outside that door, Tara was trying to battle her demons alone. Somewhere outside that door a new horrible investigation was about to test our limits. Somewhere outside that door, I knew that god had laid extra traps designed specifically to kill me.

  I watched as the timer hit zero. I heard a nauseatingly familiar voice echo throughout the word.

  Greetings surviving players. Welcome to the main event. What you just experienced was just the prologue, the real madness is about to begin.