44 Bloody Investigation
~~~ A few miles before Grand Island, Nebraska, the day prior. ~~~
"Hey, Frank, yeah, we are already near Grand Island. Can you call me when they leave the city again?"
I said to Frank, who called me to inform me that he found the car involved in some of the kidnappings through a traffic camera, and it was seen a few minutes ago parked next to a family home.
For nearly one and a half months, we haven't really had much luck finding any signs of the Followers or kidnappers.
We have consistently lagged behind, unable to pinpoint their location or detect any pattern indicating where they would appear next.
So, I contacted Bobby and Frank to help us, and finally, two weeks later, Frank found them driving towards Grand Island.
"Yes, this will be one thousand dollars for my time..." says Frank and hangs up. He probably deserves more since he was the only one who managed to find something.
Sadly, I couldn't track the victims as their kidnappers left no one alive behind. Besides scattered body parts that is...
There was also no clear sign if these were the Followers or some other monster, or just normal humans doing this. But whoever they were, they knew how to destroy all evidence thoroughly.
Of course, we weren't just driving around Nebraska like fanatics; we also enjoyed our time together, doing a lot of sightseeing and training.
Cthylla started to learn witchcraft since she couldn't use her morphing or eldritch powers anymore due to the elder sign on her.
She was still physically stronger than a normal human but not strong enough to fight a Follower like before.
Unlike me, she had a strong aptitude for elemental channeling and elemental spells but was absolutely bad at object and soul spells.
At least she could now combine her enochian magic with elemental spells to protect herself if things get tough.
Since we didn't encounter many supernatural creatures except for ghosts, who seemed to be nearly everywhere, I couldn't improve myself much in any other way except for my witchcraft, while focusing on studying the grimoire with Cthylla.
The only thing I couldn't do was replace the car player because Cthylla made them explode as soon as I bought one... but someday I will.
"Let's stop at the next McDonald's," I say to Cthylla, who looks as if she would fall in love with me again upon hearing my words.
"Not for food, you glutton... let's put on our FBI suits if the place is already a crime scene."
She looks suddenly sad and says, "Not again... my fake ID is embarrassing. Are you sure that Bobby got it from Frank?"
"It was the only one with a female name, and of course, Frank made it..." I replied, lying through my teeth. Actually, I changed the name before placing her photo on the ID...
We used this tactic to gain access to some crime scenes. At first, I thought that no one would fall for the FBI trick, but as long as you have a woman with you, the act seems a lot more believable somehow.
So we stopped at the next McDonald's, and I put on a good-looking suit, and Cthylla did so too.
However, she didn't really like hers because she said it made her look like Scully from some bad TV show she watched once.
Sometimes I'm really shocked by her statements... Sure, it was probably not the best show, but it was still good, right?
---
Since the weather has drastically changed in the past two months, and Nebraska has become snowy, we also put on some coats and were finally ready.
Before continuing our ride, I bought us two Big Mac menus since she wouldn't stop giving me a sad look while holding her stomach...
"This whole thing is strange," says Cthylla while munching on her burger as we drive towards Kimball Avenue.
"How so?" I ask her curiously, as I also have my own theory about this case.
"The kidnappings are all way too random, and the women who got kidnapped weren't all different, and had no traits that would show a pattern as to why they got kidnapped.
My theory is that it has something to do with human trafficking or, in the case of monsters, food collecting, or perhaps even worse..." she says and then continues to eat.
"Well, I agree, but I'm pretty sure it was the work of monsters since the body parts had some strange scratches and undefined bite marks on them, which weren't from an animal.
In any case, at this point, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the work of your father or his cult, since their actions are never random and have only one goal in the end: You."
"That's true..." she says as she stops eating for a moment to think about it before continuing to eat.
"Anyway, since we've spent so much time chasing them around, let's finally finish it and drive somewhere warmer." I say to her and park the car near a crowd of people watching policemen do their work.
"It seems Frank found the right car..." she says and then takes out our fake FBI IDs and two pairs of disposable gloves and gives me one pair.
We exit the car and walk towards the police officers who are holding the curious crowd away. Like real good impostors, we take out our fake IDs and show them to the policemen, and they happily let us through.
Then we enter the simple-looking house with broken windows and walk inside where some police and forensic guys are checking out the bloody mess in the living room.
Like at all other crime scenes, there was blood everywhere, but this time at least two dead bodies were intact, while a third one had no head and was probably responsible for the room painting.
The bodies were of a young blonde woman around twenty years old and an older woman who seemed like her mother. And not far away was the body of a male with a missing head which, I guess, is the father.
After looking through the room, we walk towards the smartest-looking guy who examined the body of the father.
Then I say, while we both show our IDs, "Hello, I'm Aiden Cross, FBI, and this is my partner Céline Dion, also FBI. We have some questions about the crime scene."
Every time I introduce her, I need to hold in my laughter while she looks only embarrassed and stays quiet, probably thinking about how to make me pay for it.
---
The bald elderly man with glasses stands up and checks our IDs before saying, "You guys are fast. It happened not even an hour ago."
"Yes, we were in the neighborhood. So what happened?" I say, as I put on gloves and kneel down, while Cthylla walks to the other bodies but stays within hearing range.
"Well, if I didn't know any better, I would say that an animal crashed through the windows and attacked these people, but the eyewitness report says something different."
Huh, an eyewitness? That would be the second case where somebody saw something...
"He said that when he entered the house at 7:30 pm, he saw two people clad in black holding the father and using his headless body to spray the room red, while two females were holding the mother and daughter hostage.
Afterward, he started to scream and run away, and the invaders probably panicked, killed the hostages, and fled the scene through the windows for some reason."
Probably to create more chaos...
"So no one is missing or got kidnapped?" I ask him to be sure.
"No, the family is complete. They seem to have killed the daughter quickly with a neck snap while torturing and abusing her parents.
They stabbed the mother's neck with something small and sharp before also snapping her neck, after beheading the father.
But I need to do more tests to know what tools they used and how they removed the father's head. As it seems like it was ripped off..." he responds and looks irritated at the body.
"Thanks, Doc. Can we look carefully around? I promise not to mess around here." I say to him, and he waves me away and continues to examine the body again while I walk to Cthylla, who checks the mother's body.
When she notices me, she signals me to kneel down and look at the mother's neck.
"Do you see that? It looks like her neck was pierced by a lot of small knives or teeth... also, she seems to be very pale, as if she nearly lost all her blood, but there is so little on the floor next to her."
The wounds on the neck and the missing blood would normally scream vampires. But shouldn't a vampire bite be sexy and not look like a shark tried to bite off your neck?
"Considering the world we live in, I can think of what a monster it was... but let's talk to the eyewitness first." I say, pointing at the room next to us where two people are sitting.
She nods, and we move to the other room where a young-looking deputy is talking to a young man.
We walk towards them, and when the deputy sees us, he stands up and looks nervous.
"Agent Cross, FBI, this is my partner Agent Dion, also FBI. Can we ask the witnesses some questions?"
"FBI? Oh my god, of course. I'm already finished here. Please take your time." says the young deputy while being a complete fanboy.
"Thanks. Can you maybe bring us some coffee? It's been a long day." I ask him, and he nods frantically and runs out of the room.
Cthylla looks at me as if she's saying 'Really?' but I only shrug and sit down in front of the witnesses.
Luckily, it's not the Sheriff himself, or he would probably ask too many questions and check if we are really from the FBI.
---
Cthylla sits down next to me, and I let her talk because she is better at this empathy stuff.
"Hello, you probably heard we are from the FBI. Can you tell us what happened here?" she asks the shocked young man.
After a while, he says angrily, "Yes, I can, but you have to promise me you will arrest these monsters!"
Cthylla looks understandingly at him and says, "Of course."
And he continues, "I came here to pick up Amanda... my girlfriend... but when I wanted to ring the bell, I noticed that the door was open, so I simply walked inside. But when I came to the living room, I saw it..."
He stops talking and starts to shake. So she grabs his hand and looks him in the eyes, and he calms down then says,
"I saw how two guys were holding Mr. Smith's headless body and swung him around while spreading his blood everywhere... next to them were two females holding Mrs. Smith and Amanda, making Amanda watch while... while..."
"It's OK, you can tell us, however gruesome or unbelievable it may be," says Cthylla caringly.
"One of the women suddenly grew some fangs in her mouth and bit down on Mrs. Smith's neck... and then everything blurred.
The next thing I know is that I'm in the house, and the police are talking to me."
"Do you know if the woman had a strange green glowing symbol on her head before the fangs appeared?" I ask him after letting Cthylla do the most work.
"No, she simply opened her mouth, and they began to grow. You believe me, right?"
"Yes, thank you for answering our questions. We will find them, don't worry," I say and signal Cthylla that it was time to leave.
Cthylla then turns to him and says, "The police will take care of you, so stay put till someone picks you up, and take some time to rest a bit."
Then we leave him alone while he starts to sob.
As we walked out of the house, the deputy arrived with two coffees. "Thank God I caught you, here's your coffee! Are you finished already?"
To lift his spirits, I tell him, "Yes, and we'll visit you guys soon to exchange information, but so far, you've all done a great job."
He salutes us and says, "Thank you! I promise you that our information gathering will not disappoint you!"
"Sure, see you then," I say with a wave of my hand, and we walk away with fresh coffee.
