001 Serial suicides—— X mark

On the east side of Massa port, it had long been far away from the real port. The cruise ships in the distance were parked quietly, and the busy scene in the day was silent at the night. Even the lights of the port became dim when they came here.

Near midnight, the warm wind in spring became bone-chilling after being eroded by the dark sea. The crashing waves hit the concrete embankment, and the sound was blocked and filtered by the warehouses on the bank. It could not be heard in Becky street, which was still full of neon now. Under the full moon in the sky, only when you look carefully can you find that on the gray cement embankment wall, a pale palm was holding the edge of the embankment and swimming slowly.

The water splashes kept rushing into the mouth of the man who was sticking to the dike wall. His face was like white paper, swollen without a trace of blood. He was like a corpse that had been soaked in the sea for several months. The skin on his neck, cheeks, and palms exposed to the sea were full of wrinkles, and the torn muscles were pale and lifeless.

He coughed and vomited out the seawater. His breath was buried by the spray. His brown hair stuck to his head and was as dark as the sea after being soaked in water. Not all the hairs on the mottled scalp were there, and some were sticking to his forehead and back of his brain.

However, it was strange that his skin was getting less bloated and tighter. The scratched muscles seemed to be closed and healed slowly by some force. On the bald head, new hair was growing slowly.

When he finally swam to a lower place, he was no different from a normal person. Oh, no, he was a normal port worker who fell into the sea. His work jacket was soaked in the seawater and attached to it were the remains of unidentifiable marine life. Although his face was pale, it had turned red. He breathed heavily, and the white mist spewed out of his mouth as if he was expelling the cold from his body.

The man raised his arms over the bank and forced his body out of the sea. His movements were not very flexible. He struggled to move on the slightly inclined dike wall for a long time, and his back, waist, and legs barely turned over to the shore. But his left hand was still buried in the sea as if pulling something.

The man was lying on the ground panting, and his left hand was lifting. A black plastic bag showed from the white spray. His lips trembled because of the cold, and opened and closed slightly, "one, two, three!"

The black bag was pulled out of the sea with the friction between the plastic and the ground, the crash of the seawater on the cold ground, and the man's breath of relief.

The man threw aside the black bag about the size of a man and stood up slowly. His whole body was shaking because of the cold. He tentatively moved his limbs, and a smile began to appear on his trembling cheek. He covered his face with wet palms and breathed into them. The warm breath was spitting on the cold palms.

The man's eyes were shining. He could not help bending his knees, lifting up his still pale face, unconsciously holding his hands in front of him, and his trembling lips made an uncontrollably excited sound: "thank you! Thank you!!" The hard and subtle sound gradually became clear, "I'm back! I'm back! Thank you! Papa Midnite!" （Papa Midnite）

The excited man's expression suddenly stopped. His excited expression turned into pain, and his hands scratched at his chest. The port worker's work jacket was pulled open by himself. On his pale left chest skin, a circle of red X-shaped mark showed through his skin and slowly took shape.

The man's face changed from pain to panic. He knew that he needed to 'work'. The man began to look around. As a 'once' port worker, he was no stranger to this area. He had already left the port and here was the warehouse gathering place around the port. Because it was not close to the center of the port, there were few people here except the occasional night patrol staff. Good. It's convenient for him.

The man endured the biting cold night wind, dragged the black bag away from the bank, and found a secret place first. At the warehouse group management office, he stole someone's clothes and the warehouse keys when nobody was paying attention.

The man who came back from death walked through warehouses and had a wonderful feeling in his heart. Once he hated these goods, cold machines, cranes... Now? He loved them!

9,10,11,12. The man hid his figure and looked at warehouse 13 in front of him. Three men with various tools in their hands pushed open the door of the warehouse. They threw their tools back into the trunk of an old car and stood by the car chatting. After a while, they got in the car and drove away.

The man waited patiently and confirmed that no one would pass by, then he returned to the place where the black bag was stored. The man who had recovered his strength did not take much time to carry the bag to warehouse 13.

The smell of decay and mildew filled the whole warehouse. The man immediately judged that this was a semi-abandoned waste-stacking warehouse. He didn't have to worry about being disturbed.

In one corner of the warehouse, there were obvious many traces of new paint on the cold wall. The man put down the bag and began to restore the scene little by little which was handled by the three hunters.

******

Half a month had passed since the last full moon, and the mark on Benjamin's skin had completely disappeared. The werewolf didn't need to be tightly packed. As the temperature really warmed up, Benjamin changed into a short shirt.

As a result, five minutes later, it was still a bowl with clear egg white and yolk in Laura's hand. Alice reluctantly took the bowl from Laura.

"Benjamin, you don't have to help." Alice stirred the eggs.

"It doesn't matter. I have nothing else to do." Benjamin answered unconsciously and continued to knead the dough on the desk. The muscles of his upper arm tightened the white cuffs with force.

Now we can see why Laura was absent-minded.

Ryan pushed open the door of the kitchen. Naturally, he was unwilling to be absent from the Anderson family's collective activities.

"What can I do?" Ryan smiled.

"Yes." Alice looked into the kitchen. "Stir the mashed potatoes."

Ryan nodded and began to do the same job as Louise.

Today was not a festival, and the food Alice prepared was not for Anderson's family, but for Laura's volunteer.

For various reasons, Laura quit the cheerleaders who had no chance to perform anyway, and spent all her afternoon in social practice, that is, Laura found a part-time volunteer. Teach first and second-grade children to draw at Park Primary School in the Paisiying district.

This kind of action similar to atonement and compensation was supported by Mrs. Porto and, of course, Alice.

The environment of [Park Primary School] was not good. The facilities and teachers belong to the bottom of Porto. They had been supported by a group of volunteers and kind-hearted teachers for a long time.

Today was a special day for a teacher named Trisha Jon in [Park Primary School]. Her husband survived an accident, which was a surprise for Trisha. For the whole primary school, it was also something worth celebrating. So a group of teachers and children who were seeking pleasure in the bitter thought that teacher Trisha should be given a celebration party.

Laura took over the work of preparing food , so there was the present scene. In Porto's flashy meals and Alice's simple but delicious food, Porto's Fat Chef and Benjamin's... Well, Laura used the word 'sexy'. Considering her age, I decided to omit it.

In short, Laura came to Anderson's house with an excuse. She even used old Hank to carve fruit, but she was addicted to enjoying the scenery.

"Vampire! The phone is ringing! Can't you hear it? The phone is ringing!" Kim, the Great Dane, raised his ears and eyelids. He found that Run was harassing Ryan then continued to lie on the ground.

Now Kim had mastered some rules. When Laura comes, Alice will cook delicious food. So as soon as he found Porto's car parked outside, Kim would run back to the kitchen and waited patiently.

Run kept shouting in the back of Ryan's head, "phone, phone!" The Anderson family pretended not to hear. This Earthbound Spirit had not shown any use except to harass others. For example, now.

Benjamin frowned as if annoyed by the noise of Run. "Ryan, the phone seems to be ringing."

The vampire looked back in surprise. Recently, the werewolf ignored him and rarely spoke. Besides the clothes delivery, the werewolf must still be angry about something else.

"Really? I'll go and have a look." Ryan smiled at Benjamin, walked directly through the transparent body of Run, left the kitchen, and walked to the office.

Ryan didn't want to answer the phone. The Anderson family suddenly received a lot of attention about half a month ago. After the initial accident, Ryan now only felt trouble. We know that the vampire was not really the boss of the funeral industry, but now, he was better and better at this job.

"Anderson house..." Ryan picked up the receiver.

"It's me! Lance!"

Ryan raised his eyebrows. After Connor Herman's funeral, the vampire did not embarrass James anymore. He was afraid the endless punishment will have a negative effect. So he recalled Kim, who stayed in Mrs. Curson's kitchen every day, and returned James' identity.

Since then, James had worried about changing his image once again. In addition, his complex emotions needed to be digested. He hadn't contacted Anderson for some time.

"Long time no see." Ryan smiled. "Can I help you, detective Lance?"

"Don't you read the newspaper! Something strange is happening in Porto!" The voice on the receiver was obviously a little excited. Forgive James. He had not yet come out of the psychological shadow of the vampire. Right and wrong were blurred in the heart of the son of the general who received strict education.

"Calm down, James." Ryan chuckled: "This is a city. Strange things happen every day."

"No! It's not normal strange, but strange strange!!"

"Are you trying to say that it's strange to have something to do with us' monsters'?" Ryan smiled more and deliberately used words to stimulate James, which seemed to have become a habit of Ryan.

A deep breath came from the receiver. James said in a flat voice, "you know what I mean."

Ryan looked sideways: "I know." Ryan stopped teasing James. "You must be saying 'suicide incident'. I don't think it's anything worth noting."

Of course, Ryan had read the newspaper and knew about the suicide incident that had suddenly aroused discussion recently, but in Ryan's opinion, this was just normal social news.

"No, Ryan! Something has been omitted from the report!" James over the receiver seemed to get excited again: "I saw the autopsy report. Every suicide's heart was engraved with an 'X'."

Ryan frowned. "What kind of 'X'?"

"It's an X! You can't read a tilted cross!"

After all, James still can't face the vampire calmly, even on the phone.