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thenebulochaoticwriter · 5 months

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Chapter Two: Incidents Happen

Jester was surprisingly calm when he and Moira arrived home, even with the guest over. Of course, the detective was no CupKake, but Jester was still usually on edge when a stranger was in their house. It’s not as if the detective convinced him to stay calm with a treat or anything. He’d just given the dog a nod and sat down.

“I would totally make you a cup of tea, but I cracked my favorite tea set and the others are dusty, so..” Moira sits down across from the detective, “..I hope you don’t have a sore throat.”

“Don’t worry about me.” The detective pulled a couple of envelopes and spread them across the table. “I’d be more worried about yourself due to your lack of an alibi.” He comments, “How sensitive would you say you are to seeing real photos of corpses?”

Moira tilts her head to the side in thought, “I grew up watching horror movies if that means anything.” She states, smiling. Although, when the detective gives her a serious look she shrugs. “I can look at them.”

“Good.” Masashi fingers through one of the folders, before slipping out three separate pictures and a printed information page. “If you don’t recognize this woman, I don’t blame you. She’s one of the many visitors from outside of this town that were last seen alive here. Her name is Minnie Marter.”

Moira looks down at the three seperate photos. Even in death the woman died in a strangely graceful position, as if she were some sort of actress. Her face was unrecognizable, with her eyes being completely plucked out of her sockets. Apart from some sort of worm crawling out of her agape mouth, her skin was a dull and pale gray color. Her lips looked swollen and some residue of make up was apparent on her face.

It looked… gross. Moira was glad that the movies she watched were so unnecessarily gruesome, or else this might actually make her physically sick. “What did you say her name was?” She asked, her eyes not leaving the pictures.

“Minnie Marter.” Masashi repeats. He pauses, and Moira nearly swore at how obviously pale her face had gotten. “It looks like you know something.”

“Uh. I know that exact name from a book series that I read, like, religiously.” Moira admits, standing up and walking over to a bookshelf built into the staircase leading upstairs. She picks at a couple of them, before pulling out one and sitting back down.

Masashi examined the book’s cover as Moira slid it over to him. The cover showed that it was the very first volume of a series called ‘’Home’s Lack of Rhapsody’’. The picture was that of a woman in front of a large house that seemed to be comically sentient in an old-fashioned rubber hose artstyle. He skimmed the first chapter as Moira began speaking.

“It’s meant to be a romantic horror about a woman who moves into a new neighborhood with a, uh.. very strange routine. Not that that matters, actually.” Moira fiddles with her fingers, her expression uncharacteristically blank as she thinks. “Right, but the main character is named ‘Minnie Martyr’. Martyr spelled like the religious definition. It’s meant to be a big.. foreshadowing thing for the rest of the story.”

Masashi nods, seemingly understanding Moira’s awkwardness as she gives small details and tidbits of the story that stands out to her. “And does this woman die?” He asks.

“The series isn’t finished. She could die in the future, but she hasn’t yet.” Moira fiddles with her fingers as she pauses, “..the only real resemblance I see with this Minnie and the Minnie in the story is that they have the same name, although spelled much differently. Nothing else really lines up, it’s just..” Moira looks down to the gruesome pictures. “I’m certainly no writer, but I just assumed that the word ‘martyr’ was just that. A word with a meaning, not a name. It seems kind of strange.”

“If that were the case then the name we were given could have been fake. But that would mean that this young woman’s loved ones lied about her identity, which wouldn’t benefit them at all.” Masashi reasoned, tapping his fingers on the cover of the book, before holding it up. “Do you mind if I take this with me for further inspection?” He asks.

“So long as you return it.” Moira’s lax smile returns to her face. “Creepy coincidence or not I do still want to keep up my collection.” She says, nodding to the other similarly colored books on the shelf behind the detective.

“Well, moving on.” Masashi slips the book back into his bag and swaps the photos of Minnie’s corpse with a few photos of the entire scene. It showed the familiar sight of an old abandoned theater that the town was familiar with. The theater was off the side of the highway. No one really ever bothered going there, but kids did sometimes hide there for the sake of the ultimate game of hide and seek.

“I recognize that theater.” Moira comments, resting her cheek in her hand as her elbow sits on the table. “Not many people go there outside of kids sometimes. I guess technically that would make it a pretty decent place to hide a crime.”

“I thought so.” Masashi crossed his arms as he looked at Moira seriously. “This building is by no means off limits to the town, so can you explain to me why you couldn’t have gone there and hid the body of this young woman?”

Moira points outside the window to her mailbox, “Well, for starters, I don’t have any form of transportation.” She begins. “That’s another reason I don’t often leave the house unless I need to run errands.”

She lifts a finger up to play with a loose curl of hair near her hair. “My house is located in the middle of the town, so regardless of where I went or when, I’m sure I’d be seen by anyone.”

“That would be if the only way to kill her was from your home. You did say you have guests over often, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that she was one of your guests.” Masashi scribbles a couple of notes on his notebook before continuing. “You also said that you only usually go out on Thursdays. I assume this means there are exceptions?” He asks.

“Yeah, but not too often. I have a common daily routine. So much so that the only time I ever leave is whenever I have plans with my clothes. I’d like to say that that only usually happens once every two months or so.” Moira hums, tapping her foot on the ground. Masashi’s eyes darted from her leg to her face. Her constant moving could mean that she’s getting increasingly nervous or increasingly bored. If the former, it would probably be best to push his current line of questioning.

“Is that not unhealthy? To stay at your house all day? Do you only socialize via telephone?” Masashi asks, tapping his pen on his notepad as he awaited Moira’s response.

“I do have a dog.” Moira chuckles, nodding to Jester, who was sprawled on the couch and watching them. His tail wagged a bit when he saw Moira looking at him. “I often take him out to my backyard in order to keep him active. And even when I don’t need to tend to him, I’m out on my porch often.” She points to her telephone, “As for the phone, if it’s not a quick conversation I prefer to invite people over to chat.”

Masashi nods, taking in her demeanor once again. He opened his mouth again to speak, but was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the phone. “Oh. One second.” Moira stands up, and waves to him, “Feel free to look around or whatever.” She says dismissively as she answers the phone, “Yello?”

“I told you to listen to my show. Did Clown hate my dancing that much?” CupKake sighs dramatically.

“His name is Jester.” Moira corrected.

“Same thing.”

“Very different things!” Moira sits back down, the wire of the telephone stretching a bit, “And anyway, I’m busy getting interrogated by a cop.”

“Detective.” Masashi corrected, “And don’t go spilling information.” He hisses, plucking a couple more volumes from her shelf.

“My bad, a detective.” Moira emphasizes, sticking her tongue out at him.

“I knew you were a murderer!” CupKake laughs victoriously, not even giving Moira a chance to reply as he continued. “But, anyway, Stephen wants to talk to you.”

Moira gasps before a familiar voice speaks up. “No I do not.”

“Oh my God I’d know that sexy voice anywhere!” Moira cheers, causing Masashi to give her a strange look and CupKake to choke on whatever he was eating and start laughing.

“I’m calling the cops for sexual harassment. Get that detective on the phone, Doe.” Stephen ordered, although she at his words only twirled the wire of the phone around her finger.

“He’s busy investigating me, but you can always talk to meeee.” Moira hummed, hearing the pure irritation radiating from his sigh.

“Stephanie and I were just talking about how excited he was to attend you and Victor’s show here in a couple weeks.” CupKake claimed, and despite the fact that Stephen didn’t bother commenting on CupKake’s several incorrect claims in that statement, Moira could tell the truth from the joke.

“So, you’re coming, Steph?” Moira asked, twirling the phone wire around her finger, as if trying to mimic a happy-go-lucky housewife on the phone with her husband.

Stephen often attended any fashion, literary, or movie-related get together, regardless of if it had anything to do with Moira or if he was invited at all. That was simply his job and hobby as a critic as he was also the only legitimate critic in this small town. He was overall well-respected in the town, despite the fact that he found a reason to complain about everything, even if it was only his personal preference.

“Yes, as per usual.” Stephen claims dismissively, his voice as monotone as it always is. “Someone said you were going to light yourself on fire. I’d like to see that.” He said, clearly having her Bea and Lys’ radio show that morning.

Moira smiles at Stephen’s surly response. “Maybe. I heard that dryer sheets are hella flammable.” She says, crossing one leg over the other laxly. The detective gives Moira another confused look, but climbs the stairs to her second floor once she waves him off.

“..dryer sheets.” Stephen repeated, obviously trying his best to keep his voice even despite his clear confusion at her statement. CupKake butts in loudly.

“So you’re actually gonna set yourself on fire?! Like forreal?!” The sound of him accidentally hitting his microphone and hitting his microphone were evident through the call as he attempted to get his words together. Truthfully, Moira couldn’t quite tell if he was loud in pure excitement or worry. “Okay, like… like, will you die, though?”

“Aren’t public executions illegal?” Moira asked. Masashi made his way down the stairs again, holding a couple of items that Moira recognized.

“That’s not… how that works.” Stephen paused, “..at all.” Moira could almost feel him shaking his head in disbelief from across the phone.

“Oooone second, I’m still getting interrogated.” Moira says, pressing the phone against her shoulder and looking at Masashi in a questioning manner.

Masashi holds up some letters and sits down at the table. “You didn’t tell me you were in contact with the person who wrote this series.” He says, handing Moira letters she received from her sister.

“Oh, right. She’s my sister.” Moira states casually. She looks down to the book, though, and is reminded that her sister’s direct name wasn’t on the cover at all. “How’d you know? Did you read through all of these?” She asks, skimming the letters in search of what he saw that made him come to such a conclusion so quickly.

“Yes. Your sister talks plenty about the books. I saw that she updates you on certain facts about them constantly. I simply connected the dots from there.” Masashi points to several parts of the paper which did successfully support his claim.

“Oh.” Moira puckers her lips thoughtfully, her eyes lit up in curiosity. “Detectives are so cool.” She muttered, folding one of the letters and grabbing a nearby pen to scribble something down on the back. “That’s her number if you need it. But, just as a disclaimer, she does live, like… all the way in Oklahoma. I’m not sure how she could be involved at all with this.”

Masashi nods, giving Moira a small thank you as she spoke and slipping the paper into his bag as well. “You and your sister share different surnames. Are either of you married?” He asks.

Moira barks out a laugh, making Jester flinch a bit. “Sorry. I wish, but no. Since I’ve last spoken to her- about a month ago- she hasn’t told me about being in a relationship.” She pauses, realizing why he asked. “Oh, right, the ‘Doe’ surname I use isn’t my actual birth name. It’s sort of a pseudonym, although this is moreso true for my sister with her ‘Mz. Marionette’ name when she writes.”

“Right, noted.” Masashi stands up, fastening his bag. “It’s late so I won’t keep you up any longer, but..” The detective looks back at her. “Out of curiosity, is there anyone you can think of that has an interest in your sister’s series?”

“Weeeell..” Tilting her head back a bit in thought, Moira attempts to think of anyone off the top of her head. “Um- the fella who runs the library in town. His name’s Ai Watana-bae– I mean, Watanabe. His library’s closed right now, but you can check and see if he’s still there.”

Moira smiles a bit, thinking of the librarian. “We both love the series, but he’s more notorious for dissecting the stories page by page. I’m sure he’ll have some interesting facts to tell you about the story. Especially if something aligns with this whole… case. Of yours.” She says, standing up as well.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Masashi nods, grabbing his coat that was hung on a nearby coat racket. “Thank you for your time, Miss Doe. I might drop by sometime tomorrow if I find anything worth asking about.” He says bowing his head to her as she holds the door open for him.

“Mkay, have a nice niiiight!” Moira waves to him, before closing and locking the door. She turns to Jester with a sigh. “What was I doing..” She wonders aloud, pulling a hand up to her chin. She spots the phone, which she just realizes that she hung up while speaking to Masashi without realizing it. “Ohhh, yeaaaah.”

Moira looked up to her clock, which hung above her tv. “Well, it’s probably over by now anyway.” She reassures herself, and instead decides to fish out the vhs that Ai had given her. With that in hand, she throws some popcorn into the microwave and turns on her tv.

“You want some popcorn, Jester?” Moira asks, smiling down to the dog, who was sleeping on the couch. He opened his eye to look at her when she mentioned a snack. “Cool, I’ll make sure to accidentally drop, like, seven pieces just for you.” She teases.

As she kneels down to insert the tape into her vhs player, her phone suddenly rings, as shrill as ever. “Eee..” Moira sighs, standing back up. “I should find a way to mute that thing..” She says, before picking up the phone. “Yello?”

“Moira.” Ai greets. “I’m glad to hear you’re awake.”

“Watana-bae!” Moira chirps, “I didn’t think you’d be up this late, actually. I expected CupKake to bother me in all honesty. But what’re you callin’ for?”

Ai hums, “Well, I was listening to CupKake’s show and heard that you got a visit from a detective. Are you alright? Did anything serious happen?” He asks.

Moira pauses in thought. Misashi did tell her to not go spilling information about the case like she most certainly would be doing if he hadn’t said that. “Well, he told me not to tell anyone. I’m totally fine, though. If you’re curious, it’s best to ask him, though.” Moira paces back and forth slowly, as far as she could without damaging the phone wire. “Speaking of, are you still at the library? I actually just directed him that way because my sister’s books popped up, and I was sure that you’d know about it.”

“Oh, did you?” Ai asks, his voice an oddly curious tone. “Thank you for telling me. I am at the library right now, so it’s nice that he won’t be able to take me by surprise.” He claims, chuckling lightly. “One second.”

Moira hums in response. She totally wasn’t trying to listen in, but she overheard Ai speaking to someone else. Maybe it was CupKake, or one of his co-workers, since he was still at the library. Moira’s eyes scanned the living room as she waited for Ai to finish speaking.

“Sorry about that, Omo-sha.” Ai comes back to the phone. “If you’re okay, then that’s lovely.” He says, “Have you watched that movie yet in all of that interrogation business?”

Moira looks to the microwave as it beeps. “No, but my popcorn just reminded me that I was just about to. Are you sure you don’t want to give me any spoilers before I sit down?”

“Hmm.. spoilers.” Ai pauses for a second, humming in thought. “Well, I can’t say that this is a spoiler about the movie in particular, but.. it carries a lovely amount of foreshadowing. Both in the movie and in real life.” He says, his voice clearly showing that he was smiling on the other side of the phone.

“Real life? How is that?” Moira wondered as Ai made an over exaggerated stretching sound.

“Ohh, gee, would you look at that. Is that the detective pulling up?” He asks, “It looks like I should hang up now, doll.” Ai claims in faux distress. Moira imagines him throwing his head back and tossing his hand atop his forehead in a dramatic manner.

“Seriously?! Ah, jeez, you’re such a little punk, you know that?” Moira sighs.

“You’ll thank me for not properly spoiling you, doll.” Ai laughs. “Oh, but, on that note.. Are you free tomorrow, perchance?” He asks, before continuing. “I’d like to introduce you to some people who I think you’d like.” He pauses for but a brief second, before quietly adding. “Additionally, I’d also like to show you something I’m quite proud of.”

“Hm.” Moira smiles smugly. “After that little cliffhanger? You might have to beg me.” She claims, flipping her hair over her shoulder and just hoping that Ai could hear her hair hit the phone. His laugh doesn’t quite indicate that he heard it or not.

“I’m more prone to do so in person.” Ai claims, his tone getting a tad bit lower, as if he was trying to keep someone from hearing him. “If you want me on my knees tomorrow, I might just oblige.”

Moira chokes on air for a quick second, slapping her hand over her mouth in an attempt to keep Ai from hearing it, although it seems that that attempt was fruitless. Ai giggled, “Oh, not like that, you pervert.”

“I.. refuse to comment on that.” Moira says, quietly but stubbornly.

“You’re a doll, Moira.” Ai laughs, before someone on his side of the line calls him about something. “If you don’t wait a–” He pauses, remembering that Moira was still across the phone. “Kuso..” He mutters something in Japanese and sighs. “Well, my offer still stands, doll. I have a couple of pests to attend to.”

“I’ll think about it.” Moira hums. “Good night, Ai.”

Ai pauses. “Right. Yes. Goodnight.” And hangs up.

Moira lifts an eyebrow at his sudden rushed farewell, but ultimately shrugs it off as she grabs her popcorn and plops on the couch next to Jester. Jester sits up and stretches, before hopping down onto the floor and sitting next to Moira’s leg as she began the movie.

The movie itself seemed to be pretty recent, although it looked to be filmed in pretty low quality. The acting was subpar when it came to everyone but the main antagonist for some reason. If anything, the most unsettling part was just how perfect her acting was compared to the rest of the cast.

It was as if she was the only one who put in any effort, or the other cast members just.. weren’t experienced enough. It was weird, and gave Moira a strangely uncanny feeling- not that she hasn’t dealt with such experiences before, of course.

As for the plot, it was interesting, but carried out poorly by everyone but the main actress. Moira hums in thought, tossing a piece of popcorn on the floor for Jester to scoop up. As another poorly-executed heated scene came up, Moira reached over and grabbed the cover for the vhs tape. Looking at the list of actors, she didn’t really recognize any of the names given, until she ran across one of them.

The main actress, once again stood out to her, but for a far more chilling reason. She paused, reading the name once more, twice.

“Minnie Marter.” Moira whispered underneath her breath, tapping her fingers on the cover. She looked up to the tv, where the actress’ face was clear in a psychotic-stalking scene. Every shot of her paid grave attention to her eyes, which mastered the unhinged stalker look by nearly bulging out of her head. Her face was growing red, likely due to her angered reaction to whatever was happening. More than that, though, it looked as if Minnie was staring at the camera- at the viewer- rather than the man she was stalking.

Moira let out a shaky breath. Oftentimes whenever she was scared, it was just her imagination making things worse than they are, but..

Her mind flashed back to the picture of the corpses that she was shown. “..jeez.” Moira sighed, pulling her legs up underneath her. She looked up to the tv, before realizing that the screen hadn’t changed from Minnie’s face; her eyes were still bulged out in anger and staring at the camera- at Moira.

Moira shivered, feeling an odd sense of dread, before the screen and background ambience suddenly started again with Minnie moving towards the camera. Moira gasps at the sudden movement, and looks down at Jester, who had his paw on the remote in a curious manner.

“Jester!!” Moira hissed, tossing a handful of popcorn at him. Jester immediately ignored the remote to lick up each individual piece of popcorn, and Moira groaned. “Jesus..” She sighed, leaning down and grabbing the remote. She put it on her lap, away from Jester and his devious paws.

Thankfully, the Movie was only around an hour and a half long, so she finished it rather quickly. Moira let out an exhausted breath. “I’ll be honest, Jester, I didn’t expect the horror to erotica ratio to be so vast. I should’ve known.” She sighs, slumping further into the couch. “I mean, it is Ai we’re talking about here.”

Moira sighs, retiring for the night and heading upstairs to her bedroom. Knowing Ai, he’ll definitely expect whatever her theories are for the movie. But Moira wondered if she would be able to think of anything outside of the actress’ corpse.

Her rotting, bloated, real life corpse.

#nechwr #literature #my writing #reading #books #thriller #In Stereo Rhapsody #writeblr

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