paranormal

1.1 | ONE CLUTUER TCENHOGLYO

(Listen to the music while reading. I'll be adding more instrumentals into the story.)

Music: "Nightfall" by Carly Comando

/////

Night had already fallen. Stars were decorating the night sky, as if someone poured salt over a black silk. Despite the comforting light that the stars gave, Sanguis still looked dead as ever. The abandoned houses with cracked houses and splintered wood gave me the chills. They looked even scarier in the night. 

Jaemin and I decided that tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, we'd start scavenging around and try to find the hideout, which was mostly likely going to be in the forest, where all the victims died.

"This is your first night in Sanguis, right?" Jaemin asked me as we left Chief Rosewood's office.

I nodded. "Yeah. Is it really bad?"

Jaemin thought for a second. "Some nights, nothing happens. Some nights are pure terror. It all happens at 1:27 am, though."

I nodded, again, slowly. "Do you think this house would ever be attacked?"

Jaemin shrugged. "It could happen, but we have a fully-armed police force. Guns and all. Plus, all we have to do if they do come in, is that we need to get into the best hiding spot you can find."

"Wait, don't the 1:27 have like, hypnotic eyes that make you lock eyes with them and that leaves you completely vulnerable?" Uneasiness pinched my voice.

Jaemin's eyes lit up, but not in a good way. "Shoot, I forgot about that," He pondered. "They smoulder you. Apparently the 1:27 are extremely good-looking, so even if they didn't have that hypnosis power, female victims would fall in love with those serial killers."

I repressed my laughter, but I couldn't hold it. "That sounds so wrong," I said in between giggles. "Falling in love with a killer, one that's about to kill you! That is the most abnormal thing I've ever heard, Jaemin!"

Jaemin looked confused. "It's true, though. I bet if you were one of the victims-no, never mind I don't want to think that way." He covered his mouth as his face turned pale when he realized what he was about to say.

I smiled. "It's cool beans, Jaemin. If I were one of the victims, I'd slice their heads in half," I pulled out a pocket-knife that was engraved with my name. "My dad gave me this before I left for Sanguis. Of course, I never got to use it, but if some creepy terrorist dude decides that I make a good display for his dead people museum, I can obviously use this on him."

Jaemin laughed nervously. His face clouded with worry. "I really hope my friends are okay," He said in an almost inaudible voice. "I don't want you using your pocket-knife on them. And I definitely don't want to take the two to jail."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Jaemin. We're going to find that hideout. We're going to free your friends and take down the 1:27. It will be the end of an era. We'll come back as heroes."

Jaemin gave me a small smile. "Thanks, Narae. You're really awesome, you know that?"

I smirked. "Of course I know that. I'm amazing."

/////

Jaemin and I were in the lounge, laying out a map of Sanguis and the cities that surrounded it. We were marking the areas where the 1:27 attacked in red marker. Jaemin was circling the houses that had been attacked. 

"Okay...this house was attacked on...August 17, 2017..." He wrote it down in his notes. "And this one on the 31st..."

We were trying to see if there was a certain pattern that the 1:27 attacked houses in. I was going through some photos that other officers gave us while they were investigating in the past. Each house was destroyed, mostly the walls. Each house had no light, all windows were either left dingy or cracked, and there was always a message written in or outside the house.

I frowned. "Hey, Jaemin. Each house either has a letter painted on the wall or some really creepy message. How many houses were attacked?" 

He counted the red circles that he drew over the map. "...20 houses." 

I furrowed my brow and wrote down the messages and letters from each of the photos. Then, a thought flashed through my brain. "Jaemin! What if the letters from each house form a phrase if they're placed in the right order?"

His eyes lit up. "That could be it! If we form a phrase, maybe that can tell us where their hideout is!" He started getting excited. "That's way too easy! How come the other detectives never thought about that?"

I gave a smug grin. "That's because we young." 

He laughed. "I used to say that all the time with my friends," He smiled at the memory. His face got more serious. "Okay! Let's try to make a phrase!"

I showed him all the letters. "There's an O, a N, and a E," I told him slowly. "Um...the word is ONE?"

Jaemin bit his lip. "It might stand for something else," He offered. "What other letters are there?"

"The next one is a phrase," I squinted as I tried to read the photo. "It says...'we are fully capable'."

Jaemin looked really confused. "What does that mean? The 1:27 are capable of anything?"

I shrugged. "Probably," I wrote the observations in my notebook. "The next letters are C, L, U, T, U, E, and an R," I frowned again, this time with deep confusion. "Clutuer? That's not a word."

"Scramble the letters. The 1:27 are trying to make it confusing." Jaemin pulled out a dictionary. "The letters are C, L, U, T, U, E, and R, right?" He flipped through the pages until he found "C." "C, L, U, T, U, E, R...C, L, U, T U, E, R...C, L, U, T, U E-aha!" He exclaimed triumphantly. 

I excitedly read over his shoulder. "What's the word?"

"I think the word is "culture." There's no other word, right?" 

I shook my head quickly. "I don't think there's another word," I went back to my notebook and wrote it down. "The next one is a phrase. It says 'cHeRrY bOmB.' The letters go from lowercase and uppercase, alternating."

"Cherry bomb? What the heck?" Jaemin scrunched up his face. "Maybe the 1:27 really like cherries?"

"What if they're planning to bomb Sanguis? Like, literally turn it into a crater." Worry clouded my eyes.

Jaemin bit his lip harder. "Maybe," he nodded slowly. "Write that down, anyway."

I wrote it down and read out the last letters. "T, C, E, N, H, O, G, L, Y, O. That's the last few letters."

"I can already tell that those letters make up the word 'technology'." Jaemin said matter-of-factly. "We have the words 'culture' and 'technology.' What's that first one? It literally says "one." What if it is actually one?"

I shook my head. "I bet you not. Try naming all of the words that have those three letters. There's new, eon..."

"Neo..." Jaemin mumbled.

"What?" I asked him.

Jaemin looked at me weirdly. "Neo. It means "new or refined of"."

I placed the puzzle pieces in my mind together. "Could it be Neo Culture Technology?"