Shadow Slave

Saint tried to come to terms with the situation.

She had been attacked by three strange men… they did not seem to have attacked her by chance, and they had not been trying to rob her either. They had come to kill her.

These men were dead now. One of her former patients — a detective from the Homicide Division of the Mirage City Police Department — had killed them with his bare hands, right in front of her eyes.

…Well, he had killed two of them with his bare hands. The third one, he had killed with his car.

And now, here she was.

Too calm to describe her current state as a normal reaction, probably in shock.

’They knew who I was. The detective seemed to have known that I would be attacked, as well. He arrived just in time.’

Looking away from the corpses, Saint brushed the wet strands of her hair away from her face and looked at Detective Sunless with a slight frown. Now that everything was over, she could finally feel the bruises on her face and the cuts on her fingers.

The pain was sobering.

”How did you know that I would be in danger, Detective?”

He stared at her for a moment, then let out a barely audible groan.

”Saint, you… you ask a lot of uncomfortable questions when you talk, don’t you?”

She did not deign to answer, looking at him impassively.

Detective Sunless shook his head, and then…

Suddenly took her hand.

The unexpected touch made Saint flinch.

”You’re bleeding.”

There was a dark expression on his face, and a dangerous undertone in his voice.

Taking out a handkerchief from his pocket, Detective Sunless carefully wrapped it around her cut fingers and spoke:

”To answer your question. Well, you see… I knew that you would be in danger because I had met Mordret — not the CEO of the Valor Group, but his evil twin, who is an insidious bastard of epic proportions, as well as a demented mass murderer who dabbles in genocide from time to time on top of that. He and I have never really seen eye to eye, which is entirely his fault, of course. The first time we met, I ended up locked in a cage because he wanted me for my body. And it only got worse from there… wait, no, that did not come out right!” 𝘙АΝȰ𝔟ËS

Saint pulled her hand away. Faced with her indifferent expression, Detective Sunless coughed.

”It didn’t, I’m telling you! What I meant to say was that he wanted to possess my body like a ghost, that creep. Needless to say, I was not too keen on the idea. Who would have been? Anyway, he hates me too — for no good reason whatsoever, I might add. All I did was kill his dad… what’s the big deal?”

Noticing a slight shift in Saint’s expression, the detective added hurriedly:

”Don’t get it wrong, though! It’s not what you think. He only hates me because I managed to kill his dad before he could kill that insane bastard himself. Let me tell you, that whole family is unwell… was unwell? In any case, they are all crazy… unlike us normal people...”

Hearing that, Saint tilted her head a little.

She regretted not having her notebook at hand.

’Projected patricide fantasies. Oedipus complex?’

He was such a fascinating case...

Detective Sunless sighed.

”In any case, I met that Mordret here in Mirage City — which is a grand illusion created by an ancient demon, as I mentioned before. He informed me that there is a problem with the… the control system of this entire place, so to speak, and as a result, every real person in Mirage City is in danger. Because Mirage City… is a serial killer.”

Saint raised an eyebrow.

Detective Sunless remained silent for a moment, then shrugged.

”It is. There are very few real people in this creepy city, and we are on its victim list: me, you, both versions of Mordret, my partner Effie… oh, and Morgan, as well.”

He nodded.

”That is how I knew that you would be in danger.”

Then, his expression changed subtly, and he looked in the direction of the mental hospital.

”Oh, right. Morgan!”

Saint frowned, wondering if Detective Sunless was genuinely crazy or simply continuing his act from their last meeting.

”What about Miss Morgan?”

He glanced at her with a somber expression.

”You might not believe me… but facts are facts. In the last two days, someone tried to kill everyone I mentioned. The CEO of the Valor Group barely survived an assassination attempt, I was nearly stabbed to death by a hired killer, you were assaulted by these three thugs, and my partner had to wipe the floor with a home invader. That… only leaves Morgan.”

His eyes darkened.

”Who is pumped full of drugs and wearing a straitjacket.”

Saint’s frown deepened. Miss Morgan was indeed in no condition to defend herself. But…

”The security measures of our hospital are stellar. It is practically a fortress — there’s barely a safer place in the city, so I can assure you, she is perfectly fine. I saw her just half an hour ago.”

He shook his head.

”There are no fortresses that can’t be breached, doc. Nowhere is safe, and nobody is safe either. For a thoroughly guarded place like your workplace… the easiest way to harm someone being kept there would probably be from within. Have there been many new faces around lately? People whom you don’t know too well, or whose behavior changed all of a sudden?”

Saint opened her mouth to rebuke him, but didn’t find the words to do so.

There had indeed been many new faces around as of late. People she knew had indeed been acting a bit strangely.

Detective Sunless grimaced.

”Curses!”

He fell silent for a moment, then said in an urgent tone:

”We need to go.”

Before Saint could protest, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in the direction of the hospital. She had no choice but to follow him, still reeling from everything that had happened.

The detective’s hold was firm and strangely reassuring.

’Let’s just… see what happens.’

Her willingness to play along with his deranged charade was not a healthy reaction… but somehow, Saint found herself reluctant to resist, and lacking the desire to pull her arm out of his grasp.

’That’s because I’m in shock. Definitely.’

They waded through the rain, hurrying toward the hospital. The entrance was just like Saint had left it — it was as if three men had not tried to kill her just a few hundred metres away from the brightly illuminated premises of the hospital.

The volunteer workers were still building a barricade out of sandbags around the building. The security guards welcomed her as if nothing had happened.

”Dr. Saint. Have you forgotten something?”

They stared down Detective Sunless with cold expressions.

Saint cleared her throat.

”Ah… yes. This is one of my patients. He is in need of an urgent consultation. You can check the system — there is a pass issued under his name, still.”

The guards studied them for a few moments, then reluctantly stepped aside.

Saint and Detective Sunless hurried inside. Just as they were entering, a nurse who was leaving opened the door and held it for them politely, lowering her head in a respectful bow.

They walked inside.

A moment later, however, Detective Sunless froze in place.

”Stop.”

Saint halted, giving him a questioning look.

He turned around with a tense expression on his handsome face.

The air was full of a subtle scent of blood.

”Where are you going, I wonder?”

Saint frowned, confused by the question. It took her a moment to realize that the question was not directed at her.

Following his gaze, she saw the nurse who had opened the door for them stopping halfway across the threshold.

The nurse lingered for a moment, then looked back.

She was wearing clean blue scrubs and a standard face mask, her black hair gathered in a tidy bun.

…Above the mask, two beautiful vermillion eyes were staring back at the detective with a cold, calm malice.

’Her eyes are red.’

They were definitely of a vibrant, vivid scarlet shade.

It was Morgan, the Valor Group heiress.