“Uh - looks like there’s definitely some struggle.” Marcus followed the smell of blood in this bathroom and knelt down - there was a tip of a severed finger laid in the hidden space between the side of the tub and the toilet.

 

“Yeah, this is bad.” Kevin took a photo of the finger tip, picked it up and put it into an evidence bag: “This is just - I don’t know. Everything felt weird about the bodies. I couldn’t even pinpoint where they were killed.”

 

“But we’re sure this is a murder?” Mick asked, looking at both Marcus and Kevin.

 

“I mean - I really can’t think of anything else.” Kevin shrugged, then looked to Marcus: “What do you think?”

 

“Murder fore sure. But we need to establish a killer profile first.” Marcus thought for a brief moment, then said: “I asked Officers Manning and Kim, they didn’t see anyone suspicious. I’d say we see what the neighbors have to say, this kind of brutality indicates strong personal grudge, and possibly sociopathy.”

 

“Understood, I’ll go check with the officers, see what they’ve gathered from the neighbors.” Mick nodded and went out of the bathroom. Shortly after he left, Marcus and Kevin heard him again, sounding surprised: “Detective Lance? What brings you here?”

 

“I heard there’s another gruesome case, so I just came over.” Detective Keryn Lance’s voice approached the master bathroom: “Don’t worry, I’m just here to check in on you guys and maybe share some info.”

 

“Hey Keryn.” Marcus greeted Detective Lance from the door of the master bathroom: ”How can we help you?”

 

“Quick brief on what happened? ” Detective Lance came into the master bathroom, somehow Kevin immediately became slightly nervous.

 

“Uh - not much.” Kevin’s breathing became mildly faster, which was somewhat obvious to Marcus, but probably easily missed by anyone else: “Not sure if this helps you in any way, but - the bodies are quite brutal, the blood stains are a little - unnatural.”

 

“Unnatural how?” Keryn asked with a frown on her head.

 

“Well, aside from it being smeared all over the ground, the thing is - the lack of ‘killing splatter.’” Kevin tried to describe what he meant with his hand gestures: “You know - the kind of blood splatter that occurs when there’s an active murder? Whether it’s knives, guns or hammers, there’s always some kind of blood pattern if there is a direct spill. But there’s almost none in this very house here.”

 

“Okay, elaborate please.” Keryn took a look at Marcus, seeming to see if Marcus could understand, to which Marcus only responded with a shrug.

 

“What I mean is - let’s say someone was killed by a knife, or a sharp cutting object, there is usually some kind of jetted blood on the walls, or on the floor.” Kevin tried to describe with his hands, but it only seemed to have confused Keryn more.

 

Mick and other officers wrapped up part of their scene sweeping work, so they left the house for now. And somehow, when they stepped out the door, the wooden wedge placed in the front and back door that served to prevent them from being closed was moved. Both the doors were then closed from gusts of wind.

 

“Hiss.” Marcus sensed a strange sense of chilliness that seemed to have filled the entire bathroom with no sign of any buildup. At the same time, lighting in the room and even the entire house seemed to have become dim.

 

“What happened?” Kevin noticed the change in Marcus demeanor and emotion.

 

“Did it just get cold in here?” Keryn took a look at the window and zipped her jacket up: “What the hell?”

 

“Stay here, let me go take a look.” Marcus narrowed his eyes, then went out there. He was not sure what to look for, but something just did not feel right.

 

When he reached the hall between the bedrooms and the living room, the blood stains on the floor were somehow all cleaned up. Instead, there was a long trail of watermarks connecting the two areas.

 

Marcus lightened his footsteps and snuck into the living room, and right there on the spots of the three bodies, laid a grown man, a teenage-looking boy and an adult woman. These were the bodies of the family that lived in this house. But somehow, right now the bodies seemed to be untouched and unspoiled, and Marcus could immediately distinguish some of the obvious marks on them - the mother and the boy had their faces full of water and dirt, their faces were pale and was showing colors of green and purple, signs of drowning and asphyxiation. The father, on the other hand, had a clear strangling mark on his neck. His eyes were bulging and his tongue was sticking out, an indication that he was choked or strangled to death.

 

“Ah!” Kevin’s frightened and surprised scream came from the bathroom, along with the grunts of Keryn.

 

“Kevin! Keryn!” Marcus immediately turned back, but at this moment they were already out of the bathroom. Keryn was carrying Kevin, and Kevin seemed to have some kind of injury on his left shoulder.

 

“We’ve gotta go.” Keryn shook her head, her tone was stern, but slightly trembling: “Something attacked Kevin from the tub.”

 

“Let’s go.” Marcus nodded, and rushed to the front door.

 

The handle on the door creaked as it was turned, but it wouldn’t open. Marcus pulled, then pushed, neither worked.

 

“What’s happening?” Keryn asked from behind.

 

“Ghost Lock.” Kevin coughed: “They’ve locked us in here.”

 

“Who?” Marcus and Keryn asked at the same time.

 

“Watch out!” Kevin warned with his voice raised, staring at the location of the three bodies.

 

Marcus looked over, and found that the three bodies on the ground had somehow stood up, facing slightly upward and staring at the three of them over their noses. Their bodies appeared stiff and they were moving like zombies, but even so they were still muttering and whining something.

 

“It shouldn’t be me… it shouldn’t… ” “Why me? Why… why me?” “Why not them? Why?”

 

Their mutterings were barely intelligible, but their movements revealed their intentions: they wanted something from the three of them, and it did not appear to be anything they could offer.

 

“Live! Live!” The father and the mother yelled and cried at the same time: “Let us live! Let us live! You will make a donation… you will make a donation!”

 

“Back off!” Marcus stood in front of Keryn while reaching into his jacket, grabbing two talismans he kept with himself. There were more in his car, left to him by Master Liaoran and Wuzui, and he was regretting the fact that he did not bring more with him right now.

 

“You will make a donation! You will!” The mother’s eyes rolled back into her head and her jaws opened wider, to an extent that was almost impossible for humans, revealing her crooked teeth and rotten, molded tongue: “My life is precious. I have a cause! You WILL DONATE to me! YOU WILL!”

 

The three bodies lunged at Marcus, Kevin and Keryn, but were immediately met with the palm strikes of Marcus, and the claw attack from Keryn.

 

Marcus’ Qi was hot, brutal and even violent, and his attack instantly burnt two holes on the bodies of the father and son. Keryn, on the other hand, though not known to either Marcus or Kevin, apparently had mastery over some kind of sharp and swift Qi. The claw attack from her landed on the mother’s throat, and like the slash of a knife, it slit open half her neck.

 

There was only dry, paper-like flesh on the bodies, and not a single drop of real blood, not one piece of real bone or a sliver of real flesh. Marcus’ palm strikes blasted the father and teenage boy away and threw them against the wall behind them. The mother was pushed back and wheeze from her sliced open throat.

 

Even with her throat open like a second mouth, the mother still groaned and tried to grab Keryn by the arms: “Why are you so selfish! Why won’t you donate to me?!” But before she could utter one more word, Keryn whipped her long leg at her waist, sending her spinning in the air and then broke in half. Rotten and burnt fragments spilled from the broken parts like a broken bag of charcoal or coffee grind.