Chapter 294: Sleep and the Detective
The house finally quieted.
After all the panic and drama over Lily’s glowing eyes, everyone slowly peeled away to their respective corners of the house to get some rest. It wasn’t easy fitting eight people into a modest three-bedroom home, but they made it work...or at the very least, they tried to.
Leo and Adam disappeared into Leo’s room, quietly exchanging a few words as they exchanged thoughts on what had happened today before shutting the door behind them. It left the rest of the space to the girls, which Penny loudly announced was a win for feminism.
Not long after that, the living room became a patchwork of blankets, pillows, and half-eaten snacks. Rachel was already stretched across one couch, legs dangling off the side. Penny had claimed the other, curled up in a hoodie and nursing a cup of water she insisted on calling "night broth."
Down the hall, Aria stood outside the old master bedroom. Crystal hovered nearby with a pillow under her arm, clearly unsure if she was meant to find floor space or make a quiet return to the living room.
"You can crash with me," Aria said, glancing at the bedroom door. "The bed’s big enough, and I don’t take up much space."
Crystal looked surprised, but didn’t hesitate.
"Thanks," she said, then smiled. "That’s generous."
Aria gave a light shrug. "Just a heads-up though. My wings might grow back to full size while I’m asleep. No promises on space if that happens."
Crystal didn’t miss a beat. "I’m willing to take that risk."
Aria blinked. "Risk?"
Crystal smirked. "Come on. Most people would kill to say they shared a bed with a celebrity. Being potentially smothered by soft feathers is a small price to pay~ "
Aria’s face flushed pink. "I am not a celebrity."
"You kind of are."
Crystal had a soft smile on her face as she teased the shy superstar of their group.
Before Aria could protest again, Rachel’s voice rang out from the living room with an overly dramatic edge.
"Oh wow. The new girl gets the VIP room? Not even a single crumb of consideration for your day-one wingless sister?"
Aria turned toward the living room. "Rachel, you’re already sprawled out like a queen on the couch."
Rachel sat up and threw her blanket off like it had betrayed her. "I can relocate. I am perfectly capable of motion."
Penny piped up from her own couch. "Didn’t you just whine for like ten minutes just trying to sit down. Pretty sure you made more noise than when Lily found out her eyes were glowsticks."
Rachel ignored her. "You hear this? The disrespect. I nearly died beside Aria. Multiple times. I nearly got a burn on my face facing the fire with her! Perfection was almost ruined!"
"Perfection? Pffft! Okay~! Maybe she invited Crystal because she doesn’t narrate her life like a tragic audiobook," Penny said.
Rachel whipped around. "Excuse me, narrator of granola consumption."
"At least I have the dignity to snack silently."
Rachel gestured toward Penny like she was presenting evidence. "She eats like a raccoon who found a vending machine."
Penny rolled her eyes. "You probably sleep like a guy in a wind tunnel. Pretty sure you’ll snore in different tones and keep me up half the night!"
Rachel gasped. "You don’t even know me. This is your first night here."
"And somehow I already know too much."
Aria watched them from the hallway with slowly widening eyes.
Aria looked between the two of them again. "Wait... do you think they might actually be related?"
Rachel and Penny both stopped mid-bicker.
Rachel squinted. "What?"
Penny frowned. "I would know if I had a long-lost sister. Probably."
Rachel tilted her head. "Unless you were swapped at birth with a dramatic, gorgeous genius."
Penny gave her a flat look. "So definitely not you, then."
Rachel threw a pillow at her. "Sibling confirmed."
Aria let out a soft laugh and opened the bedroom door.
"Come on," she said to Crystal. "Before they start filing adoption papers."
The door closed quietly behind them.
In the living room, Rachel was already pulling her blanket back over herself with exaggerated suffering. "Left in the cold. Emotionally abandoned."
Penny shifted deeper into her couch. "You’re under two blankets and eating chocolate almonds. You’ll survive."
"I’ll survive, but at what cost?"
"Probably your volume privileges."
Rachel smirked. "Admit it. You’d miss me."
Penny smiled into her hoodie. "Tragically."
The lights dimmed, the last of the noise settled, and for a brief moment, there was stillness. The quiet wasn’t perfect. It was filled with the sound of rustling fabric, the soft hum of old wiring, and faint glowing light slipping under a door before that too faded.
However, despite them going to sleep, the night did not end. Or at the very least it hadn’t ended. Yet.
Morgan Raelic was craving a cigarette as he stood outside a 2 storey apartment watching as Forensics inspected the crime scene and the surrounding area. If you could call it that. There had been no signs of forced entry but a man had died inside.
The deceased was 27 year old Warren Valic. A Part time Employee at a local convenience store who had mysteriously vanished. Nobody had reported him missing as he had no friends, no family and was not well liked by his coworkers.
They had described him as unnerving, always choosing to observe instead of interact. There had been reports filed in the past with him having been accused of stalking
Morgan Raelic stood across the street from a two-storey apartment complex, the collar of his coat turned up against the chill. He stared at the front entrance, where crime scene tape flapped quietly in the wind and uniformed officers paced the walkway, their boots echoing against damp concrete.
He wanted a cigarette. Badly. His hand hovered near his coat pocket, fingers brushing against the crinkled cardboard of a pack he already knew was empty. He didn’t bother checking. Just stood there, jaw tight, watching the forensics team sweep through what was left of apartment 2B.
Warren Valic, male, twenty-seven, part-time employee at a run-down convenience store. No close friends. No emergency contacts. Barely a blip in the system until now.
Missing for three days. Dead for one.
He’d been found in bed, lying on his back like he had just fallen asleep, except the look on his face said otherwise. Mouth twisted. Eyes wide. Black blood caked beneath his nostrils and smeared across his cheeks. A headset still strapped to his head. One hand gripping the controller for Ascension of Souls Online like it had been the only thing grounding him to life.
Morgan remembered the body photos. Remembered the way the jaw had clenched so hard it cracked a molar. Remembered how even the ME had said it looked like the man had died screaming.
He exhaled slowly, breath misting in the air.
The game console was powered down when they found it. No power surge, no corrupted files, nothing obvious. Just a dead man in a small room, killed by something no one could see.
He was just reaching into his pocket again out of reflex when one of the younger officers stumbled out the front door.
The man barely made it to the edge of the sidewalk before doubling over and vomiting onto the grass. The sound was ugly, wet and loud in the quiet night.
Morgan turned slightly. His lip curled, but he didn’t say anything.
The officer stood up shakily, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, face pale as snow. His voice was hoarse when he spoke.
"Detective... you’re gonna want to see this."
Morgan arched a brow. "Another body?"
The officer shook his head. "No. Closet."
"What about it?"
The man swallowed hard. "It’s... full of jars. Dozens of them. All of them have eyes in them. Human eyes."
That made Morgan stop.
He stared at the officer for a long moment. Then slowly looked back toward the second floor.
Warren Valic had just been another name in a stack of forgotten people. Quiet. Off-putting. The kind of man who barely left a ripple. But now—
Now, he was something else.
The Watcher.
The nickname hit him like a punch to the chest.
He remembered the case file. The photos. The victims. All stalked before vanishing without a trace. Bodies never found. Only rumors. The Watcher had never left a signature until now. Not until tonight.
Morgan muttered under his breath.
"Son of a bitch."
Suddenly, the simple case of a recluse dying with a headset on wasn’t so simple anymore.
And Morgan had a very bad feeling that this was only the beginning.