The House of Morpheus

Chapter 3: A Coach full of Death

Early the next morning, Rune, Snake and Midnight stood outside of a coach. 

Midnight stood talking to a detective - the detective that had called them in. 

"Seven bodies: three female, three men and a transgender male. All were on a work trip here, they visited the 'Down And Up' bar before they got into the coach." 

Midnight nodded. "What about the driver? Did he drink? Who called him? And where were they going?"

The man looked around and lowered his voice, staring at some reporters. "To the Black Moon Hotel, like all tourists. The driver was called by the boss, a Ms Lucy Hevni. The driver said he wasn't drunk but he felt sleepy."

Snake stepped forward. "So he pulled to the side of the road for the dizziness to pass, fell asleep, woke up over four hours later to find out all of his passengers had been murdered. How interesting."

The detective said nothing, glaring at Snake for speaking but keeping silent. 

"Do you need to see the bodies?" The detective turned to Midnight. 

He shook his head. "No. Can I get inside the coach?"

The detective frowned and then nodded. "Come this way, please."

Snake moved forward as well, Ren falling behind him but Midnight stopped them with a hand.

"Snake, why don't you interview the...driver with Rune - make sure he's telling the truth and his story checks out."

Snake nodded, turning away when Midnight grabbed him by the hand. "Keep the detective out while I talk to them."

"For how long?" The snake around his neck hissed, yellow eyes glowing brightly.

"Maybe ten minutes, but it could be more. Oh, and keep Rune out of the spotlight. There's a chance that the murderer might be hanging around and if he thinks that Rune can find him...well, you never know."

Snake nodded and moved away, taking Rune with him as Midnight headed to the coach. 

Inside the coach, the smell of blood was thick, cloying the air with its foulness. A woman lay slaughtered on the first row of the seats, the blood-soaked leather shinning. She looked up as Midnight entered and smiled at him, her grey eyes focusing on him clearly. 

Another detective stepped forward from the back. "All the bodies have been taken down. Is there anything you need?"

Midnight shook his head, keeping his eyes focused on the dead woman. The detective nodded and left quickly, brushing past Midnight. 

Midnight spared a glance around the empty coach and then turned his attention to the woman, bending down on his knees to stare her in the face.

"Hello," he whispered, "I'm Midnight, can you tell me what your name is?"

The woman nodded. "Clara," she whispered back. "I'm Clara Donald."

"Hi, Clara. Can you tell me what happened here?" 

Clara shook her head, staring down at the blood on her hands.

"Ok, can you tell me why you're the only one here?" Midnight offered up a bright smile.

Clara nodded. "I died here."

Midnight frowned, opening his mouth to ask another question when Clara stood up, suddenly.

"I died here!" She screamed and then tried to slap Midnight. 

Her hand touched his face and she froze, her eyes widening in shock. "How?"

Midnight stood up. "I'm the door to the other side. I'm not a reaper and I don't decide if you go to hell or heaven. I just make sure that you are seen because you matter." He whispered with a smile, capturing her hand in his.

His eyes began to glow and so did his hand - the hand holding hers. The glow began to spread upwards, over her arm, fading her skin as it took her to 'The Gates at The End of Life'. 

"I died here but they didn't," Clara whispered, tears falling from her face as she faded into the warm light that curled around her body, holding her in a soft embrace that made her feel safe. 

"Thank you." She whispered as she left.

Midnight stared at the space where she was standing and smiled sadly, "No, thank you, Clara Donald."

Midnight turned around and walked out of the coach with a sad smile. Snake, Rune and the detective met up with him outside, questions in their gazes which made Midnight smile brighter. 

"Well that was a fail, there's nothing there." Midnight walked on before coming to a stop and turning back to the detective. "Ah - I didn't catch your name, what was it?"

"Mine? It's Cole, Detective Cole Branton." The detective looked startled. 

"Thank you, I'll contact you if I find anything out of the ordinary." Midnight waved to him and moved away. 

He headed to a random door, the blackened door of an alleyway.

"Here? What's here?" Rune whispered, confused.

Midnight smiled, turning to Rune  just before he opened the door. "Here? There's a world of answers."

He opened the door and ran inside. Snake and a Rune following closely. 

"Oh, you're back already?" Angel smiled at them from her desk, the door had led them back to the office.

"Angel when does The Up and Down bar open today?" Midnight asked, looking at a clock. 

"You mean The Down and Up bar? It opens in the evening, from 6 to 5 in the morning." Angel clicked on her keyboard, loudly chewing her gum as she answered Midnight. 

"Hmm...tonight, I'll take the entire gang, except for Moon and Shiro - of course. Make sure you're ready."

Midnight declared loudly and exited dramatically, causing Rune to laugh. For some odd reason, Rune quite liked Midnight even though he was a mysterious being that was quite hard to read. He didn't seem to tell any lies and always omitted a soft aura.

The evening crept up and everyone was waiting outside the bar, in the usual line. 

They followed the line until they reached the head bouncer, he waved them in without paying too much attention. 

"Um, Midnight-san, what are we doing here?" Rune asked, rubbing his palm across his stomach. 

Midnight smiled, walking backwards. "To catch a liar, which is where you come in."

Rune and Midnight had come into the bar. Snake and Angel were waiting around the corner, Axel was on the roof across the bar and X had headed in earlier. 

"Who are we going to question?" Rune asked, looking around in dismay at the large crowd. 

Midnight just smiled and moved towards the bar, his strides smooth and even. 

"Now, a little bit of flirting and all the answers will fall in our lap. Tap my hand twice for a lie and once for a truth. Can you do that Rune?" Midnight turned to Rune with a soft smile. 

"Is that why you wear makeup?" Rune asked, curiosity fighting inside him.

Midnight blinked, evidently surprised at the question. "No...I wear the makeup so I seem more human. I'm tired of being taken to the morgue."

Rune frowned, confused at the answer but he nodded anyway as the bartender was turning to face Midnight.

"What can I get you...sir?" The bartender had dark brown hair and brown eyes, looking very ordinary. 

"Hmm...how about your number?" Midnight smiled and leaned forward, pressing his chest on to the bar in open invitation. A look of disgust ran across the man's face before he masked it.

"I apologize...but I'm married." He proudly showed off the ring on his left hand.

Rune tapped Midnight's hand once, the man was telling a truth. 

"So...? She doesn't have to know. Besides, a man is so much better in bed." Midnight bit his bottom lip, looking quite seductive. 

A stranger approached him and ran a hand over his hip. "Well, darling if you want it that badly - I can play with you."

Midnight ignored the man and the man was dragged back by - X?

"Wait my darling, don't be looking at other men." X fake giggled, gripping the man by the arm tightly as he dragged him away.

Midnight launched forward, making good use of X's distraction to seize the bartender's hand. "Come on, play with me for a bit. I'll make you feel really good."

"Look, I'm not interested. Can you please stop?" The bartender wrestled his hand out of Midnight's grip, looking even more disgusted.

Rune tapped once again.

"Why do you hate gays? Transgenders?" Midnight pressed on forward. 

"NO." The bartender walked away signalling to the other one to take over, finally having had enough.

Rune tapped twice and Midnight smiled.

The other bartender was a woman with a warm face, she approached Midnight with a frown taking up the empty space the man had left behind. Midnight slid money in her direction. "Can you tell me if that man did something unusual yesterday?"

She frowned but then shrugged, sliding the money away with expertise. "Well, he took off halfway in his shift, just turned tail and ran. Oh and his brother-in-law showed up as well, hot piece of ass."

Rune tapped once.

Midnight raised an eyebrow. "You got a name?"

She looked around and shook her head. "No name but I heard he works in the police force. Dan likes to brag about it."

Rune tapped once again.

"Dan?" Midnight leaned back

"The bartender." She pointed to Dan and left after giving Midnight a funny look. 

Dan - the homophobic bartender - was talking on the phone, whispering angrily as he looked around. 

"That is our cue to leave, Rune." Midnight stood up and dragged Rune out, keeping a hold of his hand.

They met up with X, Angel and Snake outside of the bar. 

"Well, how did it go?" X glanced at Midnight, his eyes falling on their still entwined hands. 

"Good. The killer is coming to us." Midnight responded as he let go of Rune's hand, completely unfazed. 

"Hey, we have incoming." X blurted out.

"Great." Midnight whispered before turning around.

"Mr Midnight, is that you?" The detective called out, walking closer.

"Yes, it is. I'm here by myself." Midnight moved into view.

Rune froze, could the detective not see them? The detective looked around and relaxed, for some reason unable to see Rune, Angel, Snake or X.

Snake's eyes glowed and so did his hands, he was creating an illusion which meant that the detective was no longer able to see them even though they were in front of his eyes.

"Detective Cole, was it?"

"Yes. I'm out here because someone in the bar called about a disturbance involving a tall man with long hair and a face full of makeup." Cole informed Midnight.

Rune's eyes widened as the man's aura changed, darkening as he told the lie.

"Haha, well some people don't like to be hit on. Well, beats calling the police." Midnight rubbed his hands together. 

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Sorry? I'm not sure I understand what you're saying."

"I'm talking about murder, the murders you and the bartender committed, to be exact."

Cole blinked, his hands twitching closer to his gun. "What are you talking about? I haven't done anything of that sort, I'm afraid you're mistaken."

Midnight wagged his finger about, his face grim. "No, I'm not. Let me explain it to you the way I see it and in the end, you can tell me if I'm wrong or right."

Midnight began to pace as he started talking. "I presume the transgender male began to talk to the bartender, he was drunk and wouldn't take no for an answer. So, Dan went to the break room and he followed. Dan killed him by smashing a bottle over his head."

Midnight turned to the side, the man he was talking about staring at him, shards of glass littering his hair as blood dripped off one side of his face.

"Uh oh, Dan had killed him. What to do now? He called you, you would help him. So, he cleaned up the man but before he could finish, five of his co-workers turned up. Why? Because the man had felt bad about the flirting, so he had followed Dan to apologize to him."

Midnight stopped, staring at the dead man that had begun to weep. "Why? Because he had a man back home and even an adopted daughter. We can tell this because he has their names tattooed on his left hand."

Midnight began pacing again as he kept the story going. "Now Dan was in a pickle, so he took the hammer that was on the side to fix something and bashed their heads in, killing them almost instantly. Which was quite easy to do since they were drunk and uneasy on their feet."

Midnight turned to Cole, who had paled and seemed to be blinking rapidly. "By the time you arrived, there were six bodies and all were dead. So now what to do, you called the coach using the female bartender and when he came you gave him a spiked drink and loaded up the dead bodies by claiming them to be 'too drunk to walk'."

"What-?" Cole whispered, looking incredibly pale as he licked his dry lips.

Midnight shook his head. "I'm not finished yet."

"The only person still alive was Clara. So you followed the driver until he stopped because he was feeling dizzy and then you killed Clara and staged the other bodies. You left the driver alive because you needed him to testify that all the victims were alive when they got on to the coach."

Midnight took in a deep breath and smiled, ignoring the six dead souls around him. "Now, am I close or still far away?"

"How? How do you know all that?" Cole gulped, his eyes twitching around.

"Easy, from three things. One, when you were telling me about the people that died, you said and I quote 'Seven bodies: three female, three men and a transgender male. All were on a work trip here, they visited the 'Down And Up' bar before they got into the coach.' How did you know one was transgender? Unless you had prior knowledge or you stripped him before he was taken away, it didn't make sense."

"The second thing is the fact that you came instead of the police to handle a disturbance. I mean, come on."

Cole gulped and pulled out his gun. "I don't know how you know that but it's only you and me here. I'm going to kill you and claim that it was you behind it all. Your brother, the famous homicide detective would be so disappointed."

Cole walked to Midnight, his gun pointing straight at him. 

Midnight just smiled. "You're missing something."

Cole frowned. "What?"

"I said that there were three things, won't you at least ask what the third was before you kill me."

Cole nodded. "Best to know, so that I can cover it up later, what was it?"

Midnight smiled. "I can speak to the dead."