The Cult of Korunathep: A Shattered Past Story

Chapter 4: Insicarius

After the body had been recovered, Korena and Nathan had been driving around for a little while reflecting on what they had seen as they made their way back to the precinct. That strange substance that she had found was troubling her, it didn't make any sense, how could something just vanish into thin air like that? Furthermore, it didn't look like anything she'd ever seen, not a bodily fluid, nor a liquid of any kind. Strangely, it seemed to not follow the rules of a liquid either, but it looked like one on the surface. She rested her arm on the car door as it started to head up a main road. It wasn't just the black orb that had been bothering her, the way that those people had been killed also wasn't sitting right.

It was just so, barbaric. She'd not seen something like that on the force, not even from the "Cross Blade" killer case. Limbs were removed, cavities were cut open and there was so much blood that it seeped into the floorboards. Any appetite that she had was completely ruined, as would anybody who wasn't a complete psychopath. Nathan was relatively quiet, though Korena could tell that the things that they'd seen weren't sitting right with him either.

"So, Nathan," Korena asked finally breaking the long silence.

"Yeah?"

"About everything, didn't that seem like one of those old horror stories? Like the ones where the kids go into the woods, they're never seen again, but they find their belongings and a tent?" She started to tell him.

"I guess it did," He let out a slight chuckle. "Anyway, the body, the cuts on it. Didn't it seem weird to you?"

Korena thought about it for a moment, and he was right. The cuts were rather strange and didn't match any kind of wounding pattern that a normal person would inflict. It seemed like there was a lot more to it than that. The victim in question was unidentified as of yet, but she doubted that there was anyone, who was sane at least, who would do this much damage to a person. "Yeah...there was something about the wounds that he had, there's just too many on him. Also, too many in one place, based on my experience, nobody has a mind crazy enough to cause that many cuts."

"Except for that Upgrade guy," Nathan remarked. Korena just remained silent, she remembered that part of her oldest brother's life. Whenever she would go and visit Michael and his family, they seemed so different than what she would have expected. Upgrade was a menace, a creature with no heart and love except for murder and pure chaos. A chaotic being from a chaotic time, as her mother would put it.

"Yeah, that guy was insane, who took him down again?"

"I think it was James' kid, David? I think his name was."

"I think that's it, then again I didn't come online until a few years ago,"

"Well, look him up, the kid's a prodigy, of course he's almost thirty now, but back then he was crazy." Nathan chuckled as they pulled up to the station. "I remember when my w-" He said pausing in the middle of his sentence. Korena looked at him for a moment before he silently disengaged the car's engine and stepped out. The Exo followed him out and noticed a change in his behavior, something about him changed. He seemed a little colder. Korena walked up to her locker and put a few things in it before walking out of the room and up to the clock in clock out machine. She'd been on for nearly eight hours and it looked like it was her time to head out. She started to wonder what it was that was stopping Nathan from talking, it sounded like he was about to say wife.

Korena got on her sparrow but before she started driving she looked up at the station as Nathan walked out. "Hey, you still up for drinks?" She called to him. Nathan just shook his head.

"I'm alright, thank you, have a good night Korena," He said putting his electronic cigarette in his mouth and he started to walk down to the opposite end of the street. Korena shrugged it off and started to drive back to her house, trying her best to make sense of the object that she had seen earlier. Something about it didn't add up, she'd never seen a substance like this, but she did have a friend who might be able to help her. She was a Warlock, so she was busier but she could catch her at the Study every now and again. Maybe tonight would be a time that she'd catch her.