A Dark Night with a Dark Stranger Ch. 17

CHAPTER 17- A STROLL THROUGH THE MORGUE

That night, after Ragon stormed through the house in a rage, he told the coven that Bell was conscious but had lost her memory.

"What do you mean she doesn't know who you are?" Sandra had asked as soon as Ragon had mentioned Bell's amnesia.

"It's retrograde," Ragon replied, "it will come back."

Even as he had said this, a small part of him hoped it wasn't true. When he had heard Dr Brown's diagnosis, he had been upset, even terrified but then, as he thought about it longer, the prospect of her being able to forget all the horrible things that had happened to her in the last few months, seemed like a gift. Perhaps if he hadn't of been so hot headed and territorial, he wouldn't have told her that they were together. He scoffed then, remembering the catalyst as to why he had made this proclamation; Officer Ryans.

"And there's a policeman whose asking a lot of questions about what happened to her," Ragon said. "I heard him say that Bell wasn't the only other 24 year old female who had been attacked."

At these words the entire coven went quiet. Even Clyde, who had been half way to the door, intent on visiting Bell at the hospital, had stopped to listen.

"What do you mean '24 year old females'?" Clyde asked, speaking to Ragon for the first time since the night he had rescued Bell.

"The deaths, the ones that the Elder's mentioned, 10 of them were girls who were 24 years old," Ragon said.

"What are you saying?" Sandra asked. "We know who attacked Bell, it was Sameth, but he couldn't have killed all those other girls; he was barely out of our sight, accept for the night that he-"

"I know," Ragon admitted, cutting Sandra off, unwilling to hear to the rest of her sentence. "But it seems too stranger coincidence that 10 other girls, the same age as Bell have been killed."

"But I thought it was Kiara who wanted Bell dead," Cambridge said. "So why would she be randomly killing 24 years olds'; she knows exactly what Bell looks like and where to find her."

"I agree," Thomas said. "It can't just be Kiara who is after Bell."

"But if it is true that whoever is killing these other 24 year olds, is actually after Bell and that's a huge but, they must not know what she looks like, just her age," Larissa piped up.

This affirmation was followed by silence. The entire reason for the coven's existence was to protect Bell and now they find out that there has been someone going around killing girls the same age as her.

"But why would someone be after Bell?" Thomas asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Perhaps because of what she can do? Maybe someone at the Halloween party saw her?" Sandra voiced.

"But if they saw here, then they would know what she looks like," Thomas said, moving over to Sandra and taking her hand in his.

"When did these deaths first start happening," Clyde said.

"I don't know," Ragon admitted, shaking his head in frustration.

In truth he had not been following the news or anything else mortal related since Bell had come to live with him. Suddenly he felt underprepared, as if whoever was after her could walk into the hospital room where she was and kill her at any moment. He knew what he needed to do; he had to find out more about the girls who had been killed.

***

A little less than half an hour later, he and Clyde were sneaking into the city morgue. He had asked Sandra and LBellssa to watch Bell until the morning, hoping at least that with their protection she would be ok during the night. Cambridge and Thomas had remained with Patrick to assist him with keeping Ryder at bay. The car ride over to the city morgue had been met mostly with silence. Ragon had thought of confronting Clyde about what he felt towards Bell, but had thought better of it. The last thing he needed was to know that Clyde really did have feelings for her; that would complicate things. The pair was dressed as inconspicuously as possible, wearing black jeans, no-descript shifts and baseball caps. When Ragon knocked on the front door, he was pleased to find that no one answered. He had been unsure what sort of hours coroners kept. The job, in itself was a dark one, and he thought perhaps that they might have works outside normal business hours. For a few moments Clyde rummaged through his pockets, finally retrieving a credit card and a bobby pin.

"Seriously?" Ragon asked, looking at the tools in Clyde's hands.

"Do you have a better idea?" Clyde asked, now flicking the card between the door and scrambling the lock.

Ragon didn't answer.

Ten minutes later and the door opened. They had only just crossed the threshold when a loud whaling signified that they had tripped an alarm. For a moment they looked around the large entrance wildly, searching for the source of the disturbance. The room was a dull green colour, with white walls and olive laminate flooring. A small water cooler, two old brown couches and a small green counter was all that occupied the waiting room, along with a half dead palm in a large pot, which looked as if it desperately needed watering. Finally, after searching the entire waiting area, Ragon spotted a small red flashing light. He blurred over to it, releasing that it was embedded in a metallic box that was firmly attached to the wall behind the counter.

Clyde looked disappointed at this.

"What?" Ragon asked, holding the remnants of the coroner's security system in his hands, still omitting a dull robotic noise.

"If I had of known that there was an alarm, I wouldn't have gone to all the effort of picking the lock," he said, a small grin breaking his otherwise indifferent face.

"We don't have long," Ragon said, indicating a door on their left.

The pair quickly raced through it, entering a long, dark hallway. There were no lights on, except for a low glowing green one that read 'exit'. Still, the pair was easily able to navigate around the various names on each adjoining door, until they found the one they had been searching for: 'Morgue authorised personal only'. Pushing open the door, there was a notable drop in temperature. The room itself was sterile looking. Two large metallic workbenches stood centre stage, with a large instrument tray on either side. Along one of the walls were many rows of handles and Clyde moved over to them purposefully.

"Eny, meny, miny, mo," he said, moving to one of the handles, turning it and pulling out a heavy draw on which a cadaver lay.

This continued for a while, as Ragon rummaged through a filing cabinet near a small office desk.

"Well she looks to be mid-twenties," Clyde said after he had opened the fifth draw which revealed a young girl's body.

There was a large white tarp that entirely covered her body. Clyde had unzipped only the uppermost part of the cover to expose the girl's face. Her eyes were closed and her lips were bluish purple, while her face was a dazzling white. Ragon did not look up, but pulled out four or five files that he had found. Holding them in his hand, he moved over to where Clyde stood. When finally he was next to Clyde he looked down; he couldn't help but feel an odd pang of guilt and sadness. He felt responsible somehow.

"What was that?" Clyde asked, hearing a noise and looking around the room dramatically.

Ragon responded immediately; quickly he closed the draw containing the body and still cradling the files, he dashed over to the door. From outside he could see a flashlight searching the long corridor.

"Shit," he whispered.

"Time to go," Clyde said moving to follow Ragon out of the room.

But before Clyde could grasp onto the handle, he felt Ragon pull his collar tight, sending him flying backwards and into the centre of the room.

"What are you doing?" Clyde hissed, as Ragon began open draws at random. "If we don't get out of here soon -"

But he was cut off speaking when Ragon found what he was looking for.

In an instant Ragon jumped onto an empty slab and said, "There's no time, pick one and get in."

Clyde looked horrified for a moment. Then sighing loudly he began searching for his own, pulling the draws open with such vigour, until finally he found an unoccupied one slab.

"This is undignified," Clyde said lying down flat onto the cold metal draw and closing his door.

A second later and the pair heard the door to the morgue open.

"Did you see the lock though?" one man asked.

"Yea, I saw it," another responded. "But why the hell would someone want to break into a morgue."

"Looking for a date?" the first man asked and the pair laughed loudly.

"There's no one here," the second man said.

"They could be hiding," the first man suggested and Ragon and Clyde heard a draw slide open.

"Yuck Ern; this wasn't in the job description," the second man said.

"Quit crying and help me check," the first man said angrily.

"Oh man, dead bodies give me the heeby jeebies," the second man said, reluctantly opening one of the draws in front of him.

As he looked down he saw the body of a man. He looked to be about 27 years old, with blond hair and handsome features. There was something odd about how he was positioned and how he was wearing regular clothes.

"Oi, are they supposed to be dressed like this Ern?" he asked.

"Like what?" Ern replied, moving over to stare at the slab with the man's body.

For a second Ern hesitated, than reached a shaking hand out to touch the man's neck, startling a little at how cold the body felt. Clyde felt the two fingers press hard on his jugular vein, which had not pulsed for many, many years. It took all of his will power not to scare the hell out of the guard.

After a while Ern seemed to be happy and closed the door to Clyde's slab saying, "Definitely dead."

For another few minutes the pair continued like this until they were satisfied.

"Probably just kids doing it for a dare," Ern said, closing the door to the morgue behind him and slowly retracing their steps back along the corridor and out of the building.

Ragon and Clyde waited until they were quite certain that the guards had left before leaving the safety of the slabs.

"You do realise how much you owe me for this," Clyde said, pulling his body off the metallic slab and reclosing the door behind him.

Ragon couldn't help but laugh as he moved to open the door to the morgue before he and Clyde crept along the hallway, back towards the entrance. Back inside the car Ragon flipped through the files he had stolen. All the reports contained details of girls aged 24 when they had been killed. Thumbing through the files frantically he searched for something, anything that might tie them to Bell in some way. It didn't take him long to find the missing link.

"What?" Clyde asked, when Ragon let out a long sigh.

"Grace Valley Orphanage," Ragon said simply.

"What; that orphanage that burnt down a few months back?" Clyde asked.

Ragon looked at Clyde instantly at these words. "What?" he asked.

"I heard it on the news, back when I first met Bell," Clyde said. "She said that was where she had grown up."

"It was," Ragon said, "And so did the rest of these 24 year old girls. And the first death dates back almost two months ago, that's well before the first time she started using her powers."

"So there is someone after her; but why? I mean if it was a vamp and they knew she had powers over us, I can understand why someone would have it in for her..." Clyde said in a hiss.

Ragon nodded slowly, placing the files on the floor of the car then looking sombrely out of the window. For a while he stared at the blurring houses they past, his mind troubled. It was only when they passed a large, well lit building, that he realised they were not heading back to the house.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ragon asked, already knowing the answer.

"I thought we should visit Bell," Clyde responded coolly.

Ragon huffed but did not argue. In truth he wanted to see her too, although it was nearly one in the morning and not exactly the best time to be sneaking into the hospital to see her, having just broken into the city morgue.

"So you think that all these girls are being killed because of Bell; because they are trying to kill her but don't know what she looks like?" Clyde asked as they walked to a well shadowed area of the hospital, intent on finding an open window to climb through. "So what are they going to do; kill every 24 year old girl in the area and hope that they get the right one?"

"I don't know," Ragon replied, lifting himself through the small window that was on the second level of the hospital. "It makes sense that if they were responsible for the Grace Valley Orphanage burning down, that they could have gotten their hands on a list of all the girls that were born in the same year; but I can't figure out how they know what year she was born in or which orphanage she even went to."

Their conversation was cut short when they heard a nurse whistling tunelessly to herself and for a moment they both froze, hoping the shadows of the store cupboard they had found themselves in would be sufficient to hide them from sight. Fortunately, after a moment the nurse left and Clyde let out a long low sigh.

"Well what the hell is going on?" Clyde asked, as they left the room and made their way towards Bell. "How can someone know which orphanage Bell went to but not know what she looks like? And why the hell do they want her dead if they started killing girls before she even started freezing people?"

Ragon did not know the answers to these questions. He had been wondering the same thing himself. There must be something about Bell that he didn't know, some reason why someone wanted her dead and was prepared to kill every 24 year old girl who went to Grace Valley Orphanage.

As the pair rounded the corner near Bell's room, Ragon couldn't contain his excitement. He hated being away from her and the prospect of seeing her, even with Clyde around, was enough to add a spring to his step. Ragon's face had fallen almost instantly however, when he pushed open the door and his eager eyes met Officer Ryans.

"What are you doing here?" Officer Ryans asked in an angry whisper, looking first at Ragon and then over to Clyde.

Bell was half-asleep in her bed and Officer Ryans was sitting in a chair next to her, reading a slightly ratty book that was so crumpled it was impossible to make out the title. From his plain clothing of jeans and a white t-shirt, it was obvious that he was no longer working.

"I could ask you the same thing," Ragon said in the same low voice.

"I told you I would put a police man on to watch her," Officer Ryans said no longer trying to keep his voice low. "But you're not supposed to be here now. It's outside of visiting hours. How did you both sneak in?"

Ragon glared at him but it was Clyde who spoke. "Guess the security is not all it's cracked up to be," he said arrogantly.

Ragon had to supress a grin; the fact that Clyde was on his side made him immensely happy. For a moment it seemed as if the officer would retort, but then a long yawn from the bed told everyone that Bell had woken. As soon as her eyelids fluttered open, Clyde was by her side.

"How you feeling beautiful?" Clyde asked, letting a wide smile spread across his face as he winked once.

"Like she should be getting rest and peace from unauthorised visitors," Officer Ryans said, moving from his chair, throwing his book down and advancing on Clyde.

"Unauthorised?" Clyde scoffed. "I didn't realise you needed a permit to visit a sick friend."

Bell was looking up in confusion at Clyde.

"I'm Clyde; the knight in shining armour who bought you here," Clyde said, introducing himself to her.

At these words Officer Ryans moved over to Clyde saying, "I need to ask you some questions about that."

"That's fine, although you'll need to make an appointment with my secretary," Clyde said smugly.

Officer Ryans looked at him, his eyebrows raised. Who the hell did these two think they were? Breaking into hospitals and talking to a policeman like they were descendants of God. For a moment Officer Ryans thought of arresting him but one glance at Bell made him reconsider this.

Instead he reached into his jeans pocket and retrieved a small notebook, saying, "How about here and now?"

Clyde shrugged, moved over to the chair that the policeman had previously been sitting on and dragged it next to Bell. "Fire away," he said, crossing his legs and fanning interest.

"Please retrace your movements on the day that you bought Bell to the hospital," he asked.

"Hmm, let see, well I stayed in bed most of the day; it was pretty hot out and I burn easily..." Clyde began, pausing to smile at Ragon's inaudible growl, "then, around dinner time I decided to go and fetch a snack. I have been on a liquid diet, so I thought I would treat myself with something I would regret later."

Bell had laughed at this and for a moment Ragon turned hopefully to look at her. But then her face returned to its previous indifferent expression and Ragon looked down in disappointment. Bell had not known why she had laughed at this; it had been instinctive and escaped her before she had had enough time to consider her response.

"Anyway, long story short; on my way home I saw Bell on the side of the road near the driveway. When I got to her, I thought perhaps that she had been jogging or something and had fallen over, but then I saw that she was bleeding and so I raced her to the hospital."

"What did you think happened to her?" Officer Ryans asked, scribbling quickly on his notepad.

"How should I know? I'm not a doctor; maybe she got clipped by a car?" Clyde said.

Officer Ryans eyes narrowed even further at this, "You didn't realise she had been stabbed?" he asked.

"No. I just saw the blood and took her here," Clyde responded coolly.

"And there was no one else around; no binds on her hands or ankles; nothing..." Officer Ryans began, but at these words Bell had turned white, her face suddenly fearful.

"Can't you do this someplace else?" Ragon asked, his angry eyes glaring at Officer Ryans and Clyde, before turning to look at Bell, his eyebrows raised in concern.

"Sure, later," Officer Ryans said, not wanting to leave Bell alone. "Can you come buy the station tomorrow morning some time to make a statement?"

Clyde looked at Ragon for the slightest of seconds then turned to Officer Ryans and said, "I have a prior engagement in the morning; can I call you?"

Reluctantly Officer Ryans pulled his business card and handed it to Clyde. He did not write down his afterhours contact details on the back of it, as he had done for Bell, but rather shoved the card haphazardly into Clyde's outstretched hand. Clyde didn't bother reading it but crumpled it so that it would fit into his back pocket.

"What's going on in here?" a male voice asked, turning the handle of the hospital door before entering the room.

Though the man who opened the door was elderly, the livid look on his face did not suggest frailty in the slightest. He gripped his white hair manically and wrinkled his already lined forehead when his eyes fell on the unauthorised visitors who were causing a ruckus in one of his rounds rooms.

"This patient needs rest," he said, glaring at Officer Ryans, before his eyes fell on Clyde and Ragon. "And who are you?"

Clyde pressed one undignified finger to his chest saying, "Mwah?"

He couldn't help but love ridiculing humans, especially up tight ones. There was something deliciously irresistible about mocking them. Unlike Clyde, Ragon was more respectful of his elders, even though technically he was about three times older than this man. Moving swiftly over to Clyde, Ragon pulled the chair out from under-him; for a minute it looked as if Clyde would fall to the ground, but at the last moment caught himself, glaring up at Ragon for spoiling his fun.