Worlds Apart

Chapter 2

N O T • T H E • O N L Y • O N E

Sep. 09 2020 01:19 CET

Room #04, The Port Inn

Elin sat stiffly in the armchair, facing the two of them but staring hard at the ground. She was sickly pale and was chewing on her bottom lip. Maybe she was in such a state because talking to two complete strangers about a traumatic topic like the murder of a family member was more than a little distressing for her, Owen reasoned. Or maybe it was because they were all sitting in the room opposite the one where said family member was murdered.

Why were they staying so close to the crime scene? So that they could keep an eye on it, and so that it was easier to access. Duh. The fact that they were supposed to talk to Elin here shouldn't be a problem at all. Especially considering that they had already established that she had nerves of glass.

Daisha was sitting next to him, almost as still as Elin, except that her posture was more professional and natural than rigid. She had been waiting patiently for Elin to regain her composure. Now that they were here, Owen realised that he really did not want to do this. It was then that he understood how she must be feeling, sitting here, just a corridor away from the place where someone was so brutally killed that people avoided the entire building. And unlike him and Daisha, she knew that person. If he were to be honest, he wanted to avoid being a part of this whole ordeal. Maybe it was cowardly to think so, but he was okay with that. They wouldn't have sent them here unless they were running especially low on personnel. But considering the kind of news they'd been hearing recently, Owen had to reluctantly admit it made sense.

Sure, he liked his job, but at times like these, he sort of — definitely — hated it.

"Ms. Elin —" Daisha started.

"I— I'm not sure where to start... so much happened in the past week." Unlike her posture, Elin's voice was thin and timorous. Her words were slightly accented, seemingly random upward flicks in pitch colouring them. "And please, just Elin is fine."

"Could you tell us more about this town, Elin?" Owen suggested. It felt like a good neutral topic to start off with.

Elin nodded rather forcefully in response, her golden locks catching the golden light of the lamps as they bounced up and down. "We do not get many visitors here. Dalbyen is actually infamous for its ghost sightings'' —Owen suppressed an eye-roll— "and this hotel is the most haunted place in the whole town."

She audibly gulped. "P—People think that's what killed her, the ghosts. They think that's what killed all of them..." She trailed off, resuming her examination of the wooden floor, though he had a hunch she wasn't really seeing it. Daisha glanced over at him, and he knew what she was thinking. No one had said anything about more deaths.

"All of them?" Daisha inquired.

Elin's head jerked back up. Her glazed eyes refocused on them and she clarified. "My family. The causes of their deaths are unknown. We do not know what happened, but the police confirmed that they did not die of natural causes. The locals say that nothing about it was natural, that we are cursed. A— and that I'm next... because I am the only one left."

Owen's eyes were wide by the time she finished. "Woah, woah, wait. Slow down. Your whole family's already dead, and they were all possibly murdered. And you didn't tell us this earlier?"

"And," Daisha interjected, "why is the police not investigating this case as well, if they're already investigating the others? It's very likely that the incidents are linked."

"I— Well, I am telling you now," Elin stated, her voice uncharacteristically hard. But then again, he wouldn't know if it was normal for her or not; he'd only met her less than an hour ago. "And the police decided that they were going to stop examining these murders, after yesterday."

At Daisha's raised eyebrows, she took a deep breath and elaborated. "Yesterday morning, the body of the police officer in charge of this case was found in his office. They could not find out the cause of his death either, but there were three long scratches across his chest, as if he 'were attacked by an animal' — that is how they described it. They found a message on the wall, telling the police to 'back off'. And they did."

"So they were threatened..." Owen murmured. "Most probably by the murderer. Was there any sign of a break in?"

"No."

"No? None at all?"

Elin shook her head. "That was what made people think that they were right to believe it was the work of spirits. Some police officers who were part of the investigation called me yesterday evening after they examined the crime scene. They said there was no sign of anyone breaking in or out of the office. No sign of a struggle either.

"They also told me that their leads were useless anyway, so they were going to leave it as 'Unsolved' sooner or later. Perhaps they thought that would comfort me." She looked the furthest thing from comforted as she spoke.

"They said they had leads? What were they?" Daisha asked.

"They said it like that to make it sound like they actually found something, but they did not," Elin scoffed, her previous glass-like demeanour nowhere in sight. It looked like there was a lot more to her than they'd seen so far. "All of their 'leads' were just the physical evidence found in the room."

"Maybe we should go and have a look at it then?" Owen directed at his partner. Daisha nodded in agreement.

They had just gotten up to leave when the lamp in the corner of the room flickered. He and Daisha merely spared it a disinterested glance. Elin, on the other hand, looked deeply unsettled as she scampered out of the room as calmly as she could (which, in fact, was quite impressive. It's difficult to look composed as you sprint out of a room because of a flickering light bulb).

They crossed the hallway to the opposing room, their shoes clicking loudly on the wooden floor. The doorway was warded off using police tape, but the oak door was cracked open. Owen pushed it further open, wondering if the door had been open when they came up to their room but realised that he hadn't been paying much attention at the time. It swung open soundlessly, and he ducked under the tape, entering the room warily.

Owen doubted anything could have prepared him for what he found.