Noah, City of Von 2067, Sunday, January 12th
Noah, who is now just trembling in his place, tries to justify these murders.
'Am I glad they're dead? They had to die, right? AH! What am I thinking? It doesn't matter whether I think they deserved to die or not. I need to call Rudolph and tell him what happened here.'
Noah goes into his right pants pocket, pulls out his phone, and dials Rudolph.
'Pick up, dammit!' Noah thinks as he sits just outside the bloody room.
Finally, Rudolph picks up the phone, "Hello?"
Noah, who starts to speak really fast, to the point where it's hard to understand him.
"Yes! Rudolph, I need you to come to "Karaoke Magic" at Luminara Square! It's bad!"
"Wait? Sorry, Noah, I'm going to need you to calm down. I can barely understand you."
Noah takes a deep breath and tries to speak in the calmest voice he can.
"Three kids have been murdered."
Suddenly, the room and everything around Noah fall silent. No one says a single word for almost a solid minute. It gets so quiet that Noah can hear Rudolph's breathing increase at an uncomfortably rapid pace.
Finally, Rudolph said a word but only one.
"Where."
Noah leans his head against the wall, then forward again.
"Karaoke Magic, in Luminara Square.
After the phone hangs up, Noah sits there for several minutes, which feels like an eternity. Noah can still hear the blood dripping onto the floor from the chairs. He even begins to listen to the sound of the intestines slowly falling onto the ground, which makes the most disgusting noises.
After some time, Noah can finally hear sirens outside the Karaoke place. Struggling to get up off the floor, Noah tries to get to the entrance, trying just to place one foot in front of the other.
"You okay?"
Noah looks up to see Rudolph standing there and A-3 beside him.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Noah uses a nearby table to help him get up.
Rudolph sighs.
"I want to ask how you managed to come across these three dead teenagers. But I won't, just as I wouldn't with Amelia Ashford."
Rudolph walks past Noah and pats him on the head.
"But I will need an explanation at some point."
Noah follows Rudolph and A-3 to the room, when Rudolph and A-3 suddenly stop and just stand there in front of the door. They are finally looking at the fate of these three teenagers and how this killer brutally murdered them.
Noah watches as Rudolph and A-3 exchange a similar look. A look that suggests they have seen this type of murder before.
Noah gets close enough to hear what they might say.
"This—this is the same killer, right?" Rudolph's voice gets more serious. "The same one that killed Winter Rose?"
A-3 enters the room and starts to examine everything, all while carefully walking around the blood-stained floor.
"Yes, this should be the same killer. Their MOs match."
Rudolph carefully enters the room and walks around, looking at the bodies.
"Do you think the poison was used this time?"
A-3 lifts the hands of one of the victims to get a closer look.
"Yes, the same poison was used."
"What poison?" Noah says, entering the room. "Also, I thought you weren't supposed to touch corpses and stuff without gloves?"
A-3 stands up and just stares blankly at Noah.
"My hands don't leave fingerprints. So I can touch stuff and examine it as much as I need."
Without moving much, Noah looks over at Rudolph, who is just sitting in front of Mike, who is now dead.
"Why do you think the killer only puts lights around this victim but not the others?"
Noah stares at the lights, which flicker like crazy in Mike's neck. Then looks over at A-3, who seems to be heavily examining Mike's body with his bright white eyes.
"I still am unable to understand human emotion fully, but if I had to take a guess—"
Before A-3 can finish what he was saying, Noah chimes in.
"He killed them out of hatred."
Rudolph and A-3 just stand looking at Noah like he might be crazy.
"Why did you suddenly speak in a serious tone?" Rudolph chuckles nervously. "I think it's about time you went home for real now. I am beginning to see eye bags form."
Noah wants to try to explain what's happening to him and how he knows all this, but at the same time, he knows he can't. So he exits the room without arguing and heads home.
Noah, finally arriving home, opened the front door and entered. When he enters, he sees Young-Mi sitting on the couch watching TV and Mi-Cha in the kitchen cooking some food.
'I wonder what she's cooking? Based on the smell, it might be tacos.' Noah thought.
"You cooking tacos?"
"Ah, you startled me! I didn't see you come in!" Mi-Cha chuckles. "Yes, it's tacos, and they will be done soon."
Noah takes off his shoes and goes to sit down on the floor and lie his back against a wall. He starts to try to put together everything he has learned so far about the killer, victims, and possible motives.
Then Noah gets the idea of writing down everything he has on a whiteboard or bulletin board.
"Hey? Young-Mi, you wouldn't perchance have a bulletin board or whiteboard, would you?"
Young-Mi looks at him, puzzled, then gets up and goes to her room, then comes back out with a giant whiteboard.
"Here, it's kinda huge, but it should do right?"
Noah jumps up off the floor enthusiastically.
"Yes! Thank you!"
Young-Mi again looks at him, puzzled.
"Sure. But why would you need a whiteboard?"
Noah takes the marker off the toolbar and begins writing rapidly.
"Because I need to write everything I know about the killers and the victims."
Young-Mi says nothing and just sits down and watches him write like it's nothing. She watches him write in charts: one titled '4 victims' and the other titled '1 victim'. Then Noah just sits there for a second thinking, and after a second, he begins to write again.
She watches Noah write under the '4 victims' chart first. Then she watches him write under the '1 victim chart.'
Noah steps back from the board and begins analyzing everything he has written so far.
"Am I missing anything?"
Young-Mi stands up and points to the board.
"Yeah, you should first name your killers. It will help you build profiles down the road."
Noah looks at her, questioning everything she just said.
"Name the killers? Why would I do that?"
"Because it's kinda rude to refer to them by their victims, don't you think?"
Noah continues to look at her, thinking, then he throws a look of agreement.
"Okay, what should I call the first killer?"
Sitting there, Noah compares the victims and how they were killed, and he tries to tie a motive to them.
"Ah! I got it!"
Young-Mi looks at Noah, curious.
"What did you think of?"
"This killer will be named the Liberator."
Young-Mi holds out her hand to Noah, signaling for the marker. After getting the marker, she changes the name '4 victims' to 'The Liberator.'
"What about your second killer?"
"Hmmm, let's see?"
'What should I call this killer? I mean, they only killed one person, and I don't have much to go on. Let's see… the only thing I can think of is that person I saw sitting across from Amelia Ashford in the Cafe. If I remember correctly, she was wearing a black hoodie or rain jacket, I think?'
"Ah, whatever, let's just call them the unknown killer for now."
Young-Mi changes the name '1 victim' to 'Unknown killer.'
Young-Mi examines the board.
"You don't have a lot of info down." She then begins reading the info under each killer.
"For the 'Liberator', you put down the killing method he used for each victim, then you put down that he probably kills out of vengeance or hatred, also put down that the killer probably thinks he is helping the victims."
She walks over to the right side of the board and points at the 'Unknown killer.'
"For this killer, you put one thing. You said that the killer might like to display their victims as art."
Young-Mi throws a disappointed look at Noah.
"Yeah, I know I don't have a lot of information right now. But that will change over time. More information will surface, and it's only a matter of time before the killers are caught."
Noah stretches, then walks to the door and puts on his shoes.
"I'm going out for a bit! I will be back soon!"
Mi-Cha looks over.
"Okay, just make sure to get back on time for food! I know you haven't eaten today!"Mi-cha laughs.
"Okay!" Noah says, slamming the door behind him.
Noah begins to walk down the long steps of 'The Stacks' until he finds himself walking on a path towards the police station.
Noah puts his hands to his mouth and blows into them to try to warm himself up.
'Huh, the snow is still coming down hard,' Noah thought.
Noah looks up at the sky where the snow is falling from, and as he lets the snow fall on his face, he spots a slight movement in the sky–a butterfly.
'Another butterfly?'
Noah follows the butterfly to a road lit up by street lamps, which clearly show the snow on the ground. Noah continues to follow the butterfly down the road until it leads him to a bloody path right down the middle of the road.
Noah stands there, frozen, trying to decide whether what he is looking at is blood. He hears someone being dragged across the snowy pavement: their skin scrapes and tears across the cold snow.
Noah follows the blood trail until he sees a mysterious figure dragging to what looks like to be girl wearing ragged clothes.
Noah, standing in fear, tries to yell but just can't seem to get any words out. But in the end, it doesn't matter; the mysterious person notices him.
"You weren't supposed to see this kid." The mysterious man says in a chilling voice.
The mysterious man then looks up at a street light.
"Kill him."
Noah looks up at the streetlight to see another person there, but then, in a flash, he disappears.
'Huh, where did he go?'
But then, at rapid speed, he reappears right in front of Noah, almost knocking him off his feet.
Noah can't make out what this guy looks like, except that he sees his green hair float up into the sky like Medusa's snakes, then come together to form a sharp object, like a spear. In less than a second, leaving Noah no time to react, the hair impales him directly in the middle of his chest, going all the way through.
The man then rips his hair out of Noah's chest, then disappears into the darkness, only to leave Noah with his thoughts.
Noah, just standing there, looks at the gaping wound the man left. He watches as the blood stains his clothes and stains the snow on the ground.
Noah feels a hot liquid rise in his throat, and he ends up throwing up a whole puddle of blood onto the ground. Noah, starting to feel weak, falls onto his knees first, then face forward onto the cold, snowy ground.
Noah is unable to get any words out as the blood drools rapidly out of his mouth onto the ground.
'It's cold, it's so cold.' Noah thought.