10 Housekeeping Is This Diligent?

When Dean first pressed the play button, the camera swayed as if it was being readjusted. Because of this, Dean was able to gain a brief glimpse of the surroundings. It appeared that the video was being filmed in a dilapidated basement. Rusted water pipes crisscrossed the ceiling and slowly dripped with the occasional waterdrop, which caused the cement walls to be filled with rusted water stains.

"Pl-please just take my fingers."

As if on cue, the screen finally stopped swaying as the camera finally rested on the center of the room.

Displayed on the holographic screen in front of him, a horrifying scene was unfolding before Dean's eyes. Laying stark naked on a shiny metal medical table, rested a short-haired Caucasian woman who appeared to have had her mind broken. Looking closer Dean could see why.

The woman was missing her left arm, right leg, left ear, and even her right eye. Oddly enough, if one paid enough attention they'd realize that the amputations followed a peculiar pattern of alternating between left and right. Even the remaining appendages weren't left intact because the woman only had a thumb and ring finger left on her remaining right arm. Her left leg, however, was even worse as only the small toe was left. The poor lady didn't have a complete set of anything.

If Dean wasn't a ghost, he would have already vomited at this point. Unfortunately, the cruelty of the situation didn't end with just this.

Despite the gruesome nature of her injuries, there wasn't a single drop of blood anywhere to be seen. It was if her body parts just magically separated themselves from her body. However, the various medical tools on the tray beside her and her pitiful wails made it abundantly clear that they hadn't.

'I'd imagine that the first half of the video that Myfavorite mentioned probably shows how she got in such a terrible condition. Just what kind of fiend could do this to someone?'

Just as Dean was having this thought, the person responsible for the woman's condition finally walked into the frame. Adorned in white scrubs, a figure appeared from behind the camera to slowly step towards the woman.

The figure wasted no time and treated their words like gold because they didn't say a single word, but just proceeded to point first to the woman's remaining right arm before slowly moving down her body to point at her left leg.

At this weird motion, the woman seemed to know what the figure meant because here eyes began to frantically dart about and her breath started to come in ragged convulsions.

"Pl-please just take my fingers." These words seem to be the only thing the woman could still say in her pitiful condition.

Sadly for her, the figure did nothing more than repeating the weird motion two more times before finally resting on the woman's remaining leg. Reaching towards the metal tray beside the woman, the figure grabbed a bone cutter and began amputating the woman's only remaining leg with practiced ease.

Before the video could continue any further, Dean paused the video to calm his nerves. Several seconds later, Dean looked down at the bottom of the screen and realized that the video had over 50 minutes left. Seeing no need to watch the heinous scene anymore, Dean decided to skip ahead to the last 5 minutes.

When the video resumed, the woman was nowhere to be seen. Only the white scrub figure remained cleaning the last bits of blood and flesh off of the table. Soon after the figure cleaned the table until it was in pristine condition, he walked off the screen and returned pushing a wheelbarrow filled with the dismembered body parts of the woman. The figure pushed the wheelbarrow 2 steps before the video abruptly cut off.

"System you can go back to the private message threads now." After witnessing the cruel methodical nature of the figure, Dean didn't let his emotions consume him as he calmly spoke to the system. It wasn't that Dean was apathetic to the suffering of others, but rather he knew that the only thing he could do now was calmly sift through the clues in the chat room and catch the murderer as soon as possible.

Looking at the various private message threads on the holographic screen, Dean decided not to waste anymore time on the old threads, so he directly chose the bottom-most and newest thread.

This time CandyUncle was communicating with someone named LostOne and the most recent exchange between the two happened just 5 hours ago.

CandyUncle: "There's been a bit of an issue."

LostOne: "What kind of an issue?"

CandyUncle: "The newest video that you requested will be a few days late because a few problems popped up on my end."

LostOne: "Problems? That has nothing to do with me. I've already made the deposit, so I expect you to deliver as promised."

CandyUncle: "You'll get what was promised. I just need a bit more time. The latest volunteer was a bit feistier than usual, and I had to put her down after she injured my assistant."

LostOne: "All I'm hearing is excuses and I don't do excuses. You better deliver what's owed."

After this CandyUncle seemed to have become furious as the next message he sent was unlike his professional demeanor before.

CandyUncle: "F*ck, you'll get it when you get it. You demanding things won't change sh*t, so just sit back and wait. If that's not good enough for you just f*ck off and I'll refund your deposit."

LostOne: "..."

LostOne seemed to have lost his nerve because he no longer corresponded with CandyUncle. However, the exchange between the two enlightened Dean on the situation because he now realized that CandyUncle wasn't working alone. Dean had no idea if there were more, but he knew that there were at least two people responsible for the horrors he'd witnessed. Of course, the matter of both parties being here at the motel tonight was another matter.

'Well, it's time to get looking.' Dean decided to walk to the closest occupied room as he asked. "System did all of CandyUncle's messages in the chat room come from this motel?"

"Host for the past three years all of CandyUncle's correspondence in the chat room came from this address."

When Dean heard the system's reply, the list of suspects decreased drastically. All of CandyUncle's messages came from this motel, a place where one usually spends a night and then leaves, so all Dean had to do was narrow his suspect list down to the people who appeared to have been staying here for an extended period of time.

Reaching the first room, Dean only had to briefly struggle before he was able to phase right through the door. The scene on the inside of the room was cleaner than he'd expected. Lying languidly on the bed was a middle-aged man in the middle of watching a baseball game. Aside from a few empty pizza containers, the rest of the room looked as if it hadn't been touched for weeks.

Casting the middle-aged man a glance, Dean walked passed the man to access the bathroom. If the man was staying here for an extended period of time, Dean figured the personal sundries present in the bathroom would be a dead giveaway.

Dean walked into the bathroom and aside from a small stick of deodorant, there was nothing else in there. The bathroom was barren of the essential supplies one needed to be hygienic. There was no soap and no toilet paper, which made Dean wonder what the man would do if he had to release his bowels. Leaving the bathroom, Dean walked back to the living area to see that he'd overlooked the still packed suitcase underneath the bed.

'This man hasn't even unpacked and the lack of hygiene supplies in the bathroom makes it obvious that he hasn't stayed here long.'

Tentatively crossing the man off his list of suspects, Dean left the man's room before going to the next occupied room one door down.

Once again struggling through the door, Dean phased into the room to see that this room had not just one occupant but two.

The first occupant was a pretty Hispanic woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She was in in the middle of a heated argument on the phone with someone and vicious curse words would fly out of her mouth with nearly every sentence. Munching on a bag of Doritos on the bed was a young boy who appeared to be no older than 6-years-old. The boy seemed used to hearing the woman curse because he completely ignored her to focus on watching his cartoon.

'I don't want to jump the gun, but I pretty sure I can rule out the young boy.'

Learning his lesson from last time, Dean looked for the woman's suitcase and realized that aside from two bookbags slung across the bed, they possessed no other luggage.

Seeing no use to look any further, Dean quickly left the room and prepared to walk to the next occupied room two doors down.

Dean was halfway to the next occupied room when he had to make room for a housekeeping lady pushing a cleaning cart.

Dodging to the side out of habit, Dean was only able to take 4 more steps before the weirdness of the situation struck him.

'It's nearly 2 in the morning. Since when was housekeeping so diligent?'