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“He’s…an Octavius type person, isn’t he?” Turney asked with a laugh.
Scarlett chuckled. “Yes.”
“‘Me’ type? In what way?” Octavius asked with a frown.
“I’m glad you had someone like that by your side after everything,” Min-ji said with a bright smile, ignoring Octavius.
Turney frowned. After everything? What was that supposed to mean?
Scarlett reached out and took one of Min-ji’s hands with a smile.
“Hey, I asked a question. In what way is Godric like me?! I’m one of a kind, I’ll have you know!”
“Yes, yes, you are your own unique style of crazy,” Scarlett deadpanned, robotically patting the vampire on the shoulder.
Octavius narrowed his eyes at her, but Turney could easily spot when the vampire decided to just accept it as a compliment. Hard to miss his frown turning into a beaming childlike smile.
“ANYWAY, back to the case! But I won’t keep going on. Why bother when there is a video!” Octavius opened his laptop, the screen lighting up instantly. Turney’s brow rose when the vampire started scooting his chair towards him, eyes beaming cutely. Chuckling softly, Turney moved over as far as he could without ramming into Cormac. Now sitting beside him, Octavius pressed the spacebar, starting the video.
* * *
Octavius smiledas Godric appeared on the screen. The male was sitting in a chair, and he looked to be in some sort of hotel room. The zombie looked about the same as the last time he saw him. Long platinum blond hair that reached past his shoulders, pale angular features, sharp jaw and nose, and plush lips. His eyes were a startlingly light blue color.
“Hello, my old friends. As the letter said, I recently purchased the Dobrin estate. The purchase included the Soarta Mare Hotel and surrounding land. I’m not going to lie, it was quite a deal. But as most too good to be true deals go, there was a catch. I got the hotel and land for a steal…along with hundreds of murderous ghosts. You would think, how could that many be trapped in one place? Well, the truth was, the human who was blamed for the murders, the one who was hanged for them, he was a scapegoat.”
Octavius gasped. “Alexandru Dobrin wasn’t the murderer?”
Godric chuckled. “I’m sure you just gasped, Octavius, and possibly asked a question.”
Turney snickered. “He knows you well.”
How did Godric know that?! Was he predictable?! No…no! He couldn’t be!
“To answer your question. No, Alexandru Dobrin wasn’t a serial killer. Now, I will say, the human wasn’t innocent. He knew what was going on, helped fund it, and even covered it up. But, the real killer was a zombie by the name of Radu Bucur. He got away with it for almost a hundred years before being discovered by the reapers.”
“Godric always was one to over explain with many pointless details,” Scarlett said with a bored sigh. Min-ji chuckled.
“Now, I’m sure Scarlett is wondering, or complaining about me saying so much. But if you’d give me just a moment, I can explain why I am telling you all this.”
Octavius burst into a fit of giggles. “It seems I am not the only one who is predictable.”
Scarlett rolled her eyes and crossed her arms with a huff.
“Bucur is quite dead now. Taken out by reapers in 1967. But I don’t think they bothered to explore the hotel at the time. Or if they did, they weren’t thorough. Not that reapers generally take care of ghosts. Usually, they are seen as an acceptable paranormal occurrence in front of humans, due to the fact that it’s rare for a ghost to reach wraith level. This hotel, having sat empty for a few decades, rumors of course spread. Mentions of screams and other such sounds spread. Spread, no doubt, by the teenagers who had, over the years, stupidly tried to break in. Well, I quickly discovered, on entering the hotel, that not only were there ghosts, but that every single one of them were wraiths.” The zombie held up his hand. “Before any of you start asking questions, yes, I am sure. The house is full of powerful and very homicidal wraiths. While one or two harmless ghosts for a horror attraction is fine, this is at a dangerous level. I wouldn’t invite a paranormal, let alone a human, to stay for a night of fun here. On top of that…I am still uncovering hidden spaces. Some of the things, the remains, I have found…” Godric grimaced. “As I’m sure you all know, it is illegal for zombies to change anything other than humans. But, I believe, Bucur was experimenting before his death. Nothing has been found still moving, but I’m worried I may find something eventually. So, I am asking for your help, my friends. Come help me clear out these angry ghosts, and make sure nothing dangerous is hiding in these walls. My private jet is available for your use. And I have already set up transportation services for you. I hope to see you all soon. Goodbye, my friends.”
The video ended there. Octavius frowned at the implications of Godric’s words. It was forbidden to infect animals with the zombie virus… The consequences could be horrifying and dangerous.
“Okay…wait,” Turney said with a frown. “Wraiths…are different than wraths, right?”
“Yes, while the names are similar, they are very different. Wraiths is just a fancy name for very angry ghosts. It doesn’t matter if it’s the remains of a human or paranormal. Though, most don’t refer to ghosts as wraiths unless they are powerful, even though it is a generic term. While wraths are the captured souls of phantoms that have been corrupted and twisted by the magic user who murder them,” Scarlett explained.
“The experimenting shit sounds sketchy,” Cormac said with a yawn.
“It’s concerning, I’ll give you that,” Octavius mused. “But given the time that has passed since the original homicidal owner died, I doubt anything we find will still be together. Animals infected with the zombie virus, really anything infected with it, without maintenance and brains, will eventually fall apart. Once they become a ghoul, the decaying process speeds up as the virus, from what I understand, attacks the body, looking for the nutrients it needs to survive. As fierce as ghouls are, that strength doesn’t last forever. It’s been over fifty years since Bucur’s death. Anything he created by now must be in pieces, or just dried out and mummified.”
Turney grimaced. “When you say that…will these be moving pieces or…?”
Min-ji chuckled. “While moving zombie pieces would have certainly been a possibility perhaps thirty or forty years ago, too much time has passed. The virus wouldn’t be able to survive for that long without food. And once the virus dies, so does the creature it was animating. The virus is what keeps you and Scarlett undead. If it dies, so do you, or in this case, the experiments.”
