[crow]

It wasn't just one of those articles that glossed over everything either. There was a timeline, and a police report of their findings after conducting an interview with the murderer, who had confessed to his crimes after being brought in. One detail caught her eye--- apparently the ones who had found him were a group of local teenagers.

She couldn't help but think of Akira and Yuu, talking about their plans to deal with the monsters they'd been seeing, and trying to enlist her to see if she could help.

[crow]

At this stage, Akira said they didn't really have the manpower to take down any more of the big ones. Apparently the last fight they'd had was bad, and they had barely gotten out alive. Funny how she had forgotten a detail like that, but... It had never been a Hogwarts letter to them at all, had it? They'd known for a lot longer than she had that their lives were on the line.

These kids had done it, but the murderer had been human. Humans could do some crazy things, but they were still people, flesh and blood.

[crow]

It seemed like such a small mitigating factor, but when she tried to imagine facing down those things she had seen in her dreams... She'd faced down people, and it had cost her so much to do it, these last few months. She didn't know how they dealt with what they did.

She kept reading, and the further she read, the weirder things got. The guy had confessed, and despite being what the police called 'derogatory' in his interrogations, he did... mostly cooperate with them.

[crow]

But even though he answered their questions, they hadn't managed to figure out exactly how he carried out the actual killings. Everything that he had said about the events leading up made sense--- following women home, coercing them alone in unused rooms, approaching them under more legitimate pretenses. It was just the modus operandi for the murder itself that never made sense.

Police say he claimed to have pushed them into televisions. Investigators believe he may be conflating his murder methods with an urban legend that had established itself within the town.

[crow]

It went on to describe the rumor, which was mostly perpetuated among the younger population of the town, about a mysterious TV channel that played during late night hours, where viewers could reportedly find their soulmates, or the person who would kill them, or the ghosts of their relatives trying to establish contact. There were many variations of the rumor, though none of them had been confirmed.

They did have the few commonalities between them though. The rumors all stipulated that it had to be late at night, for one.

[crow]

But the thing that made her blood run cold was how, of those interviewed who claimed to have actually seen something, all of them claimed that the image tended to be grainy and full of static, almost as if the subject was obscured... Obscured by a fog.

Her hand trembled as she read the words. Hazel swallowed, her mouth suddenly gone dry.

Wait. You think I'm dreaming about these murders? It took her a few times to type in her message because of the way her hands were shaking.

[crow]

She wasn't so shocked that she could no longer say anything, but she would have been lying if she said she wasn't hoping he would tell her that it was just a coincidence, or a joke. She scrolled up on the article to see the date, on the off chance that it was April 1st. It wasn't... but a girl could hope.

I don't know. Akira's reply came quickly, thankfully, but it wasn't what Hazel had been hoping to read. This was just what came to mind.

[crow]

What kind of hobbies do you have... Why do you even know about this kind of thing? She sent a sweatdrop emoji of her own to accompany the message.

His reply was surprisingly calm. It was all over the news when they caught the guy. Did you read about how they couldn't figure out how he killed the victims?

Ugh... Don't say it... This time she sent a whole line of sweatdrop emojis at him. If she didn't know better, she might have guessed that he was doing this intentionally to freak her out.

[crow]

The TV stuff and the rumors. I don't know for sure, but I always thought it was weird. There were no emojis to take the edge off what he was sending her now. Hazel found herself missing those stupid looking cats. You said it feels like the monsters, but not dangerous. Maybe you found the thing they were all talking about.

If I found it, it should have felt dangerous! People died! That should have been enough to freak out her weird dream sense, shouldn't it?

[crow]

She didn't understand it all that well, but if it recognized the monsters as dangerous, and those things hadn't even managed to kill anyone yet, then wouldn't a place where people died be that much worse?

But apparently, Akira didn't think so. Maybe it doesn't feel dangerous because the danger is gone.

Reading his response, Hazel just sat there, trying to figure out what to say in response. Her first instinct was to vehemently refute it, but... it wasn't completely nonsensical, the more she thought about it.

[crow]

She did a quick internet search on the town mentioned in the article, just to see if his theory held any water. Sure enough, no major news coverage of the place had happened since then. There were a few small scale local news reports, but never anything big. As far as she could tell, no one had been murdered at all there in the intervening time.

Heck, a big city like Tokyo couldn't even say something like that. Sure, there weren't serial killers, but a few people did get murdered every year.

[crow]

In a small town though, everything was different. Fewer people meant fewer would-be criminals, and fewer victims too. Everyone knew each other, but that part didn't really help. There was some statistic about how it was usually someone you knew who carried out the crime.

How must it have felt, seeing someone you had worked alongside or grown up seeing around town do... whatever it was that guy had done? Or knowing there was a killer in your midst, and suddenly not being able to trust anyone around you?

[crow]

This whole time, she had thought of their own situation as freaky, but there were plenty of terrible things out there. She'd just been oblivious to most of them before the accident. Even now, she wasn't really thinking about things like that.

You really had to link this to me at 3 AM... I just had a nightmare, dude. She sent another angry emoji, but her heart wasn't really in it this time. She just felt drained, after reading everything in that article he had sent her.

[crow]

Sorry. There was, as it turned out, a dogeza cat emoji. Hazel didn't want to laugh--- she even tried to hold herself back from it--- but she burst out laughing anyway. It was just so... over the top. She had already known that Akira could be kind of weird, but this one caught her off guard.

She sighed. She wasn't really mad at him, but... You really think that's what I saw?

I don't know. Maybe we'll find out soon. There wasn't much she could say to that reply.

[crow]

Let me know if you see anything. In the end, she settled for the utilitarian response.

Akira did the same. Will do.

Hazel didn't want things to end on that note though. She didn't feel better; they didn't have any answers; and now she didn't even feel like she could go back to watching the cat videos she'd been entertaining herself with before he'd messaged her.

She decided to just keep the conversation going. He could just tell her he was leaving if he got sick of it. Why are you up anyway? She typed it up and sent another message at him.

[Event posts end here]