Morix Origins: Journeys

The Tale of the Melting Construct, Part 3

May 24

Wax Museum

Back Room

11:40 AM

I walked toward the back room of the wax museum with a small frown on my face. I couldn't help but wonder what all of these witnesses were going to be like. Dr. Moreno said they were artists who had been asked to make wax sculptures for the display when the museum opened, but I couldn't stop thinking about what that could mean. They had been commissioned to work on artwork for the sake of the museum, but if that was true, then... One of them must have put the victim's body in the wax sculpture. Surely we were just looking for one of them to own up to it and then reveal they were behind all of this. 

But if that was the case, then why hadn't we heard about them coming forward sooner? Perhaps the killer truly was among them... But they would likely go out of their way to make sure the truth of their work on the statue was kept secret. They had no reason to be honest with us about what they had done. If they could push it off onto Mr. Aromas, then they were likely more than happy to do so. They wouldn't have gone so far if they weren't fine with forcing the blame onto another person. 

"I'm glad we're finally done in the room with the body," Sumire murmured from her place beside me. She was holding one hand around her mouth and doing her best to not meet my gaze out of anxiety. "I really hated having to look at it." She had left to go and be sick after she started to see and smell the victim's body, and I could tell by the paleness still sunk into her face that she wasn't feeling great yet. She was better, clearly feeling well enough to get away from the rubbish bin outside and try to look around, but she didn't know how she was meant to feel about all of this. 

"You're not the only one," I confessed. "I've seen Dr. Moreno work on investigating many bodies in the past, but he hasn't ever said that it was that hard for him to find the truth behind what happened for the victim to die."

"I can't believe someone put a corpse in wax," Sumire sighed with a shake of her head. "That's so horrible... I have to hope the person was already dead before they were put in there, but..." She gagged like she was going to be sick again and shook her head furiously. "No. I can't think about that. I need to stay focused."

"You don't need to worry about anything to do with the victim's body," I assured her with a smile. "We're just going to talk to the witnesses, and I can ask them to be nice about all of this. I'm sure they would be more than happy to leave the mentions of what happened to the victim's corpse at the door if we asked them to."

Sumire nodded dully, doing her best to keep her composure even though it was clearly a battle. She strayed a little bit closer to my side, and I stepped away ever so slightly to ensure she didn't stumble into me directly. I let out a slow sigh and turned my attention back to the path ahead. We were going to be fine. We just had to hear what the witnesses had to say. 

I pushed the door to the back room open, and I saw four people standing inside. Two were women, and the other two were men. They barely even seemed to notice Sumire and I had arrived, too busy chattering and talking with one another about all that had happened. I knew without needing to ask that they were talking about the victim and the way he died... But I didn't know how I was meant to get into the conversation properly. I couldn't help getting overwhelmed as I stepped into the room. They were all so loud, and I couldn't sift out the various strings of thought from the haze of the crowd. 

Instead, I chose to turn my attention to one of the people in the room. One of them was a blonde woman with her hair tied up into a messy bun at the top of her head. She had a hat sitting on her head, though it was crooked and seemed intent on falling off no matter what she did to stabilize it. The best way I could describe her sense of fashion was... Interesting and extravagant. There wasn't much cohesive about her outfit, but she clearly enjoyed it. She wore a bright smile, and she didn't seem to care at all for everything happening around her. Even though someone had been found dead in a wax sculpture, she was still grinning. I didn't know how anyone could do that, but I supposed I could just trust that she was doing her best.