Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rekrap sat in his office at his desk, as per usual. He relished in the fresh April air that softly blew in from the open window, skimming over some reports that he was supposed to go over, and tossing them into carefully organized priority piles on his worn oak desk. The files were regarding some recent cases he had been helping Jaron with. There had been a truly shocking amount of assault cases recently, and Rek had been given the truly mind-numbing job of looking over them in case they were related in any way, or were needed to help solve future cases the detective agency received.

Rek glanced over the ever-ticking golden clock to see when he could finally get a break from the monotony of the near-endless paperwork. Rather unfortunately for him, the clock only read a little bit before 10:50. He fell back in his chair, feeling a bit hopeless that there were still around 70 minutes left before he could reasonably go on lunch.

Fortunately, as Rek was lamenting his job and watching the minute hand of the clock complete a full circle, the door to his office burst open and Jaron ran over. His shoes loudly slapped against the stained linoleum floors like dying fish, causing Rek to look up and meet his coworker's far too excited eyes.

“We got a new case, and oh boy, is it an interesting one,” he said frantically, rushing over and slamming a manilla folder onto the desk, sending Reks nicely organized piles spiraling into the air and onto the floor.

Rek grimaced at his once organized papers and spoke as he bent over to grab the reports, “Define ‘interesting’? The last time ya said that it was pretty violent.”

“Oh no, it isn’t that violent this time, it’s just someone we know! Also, the body vanished,” he said, far too excited while digging for something in the many pockets of his trench coat.

Rek froze. The clutter below him was momentarily forgotten as endless horrible possibilities of who had been killed swirled in his mind. Had all of ClownPierce's “business ventures” caught up to him? Had SB737’s reckless habits come back to haunt him? Had Mini gotten too ambitious and flown too close to the sun?

“You good, dude?” Jaron said, turning away from Rek and sitting on the desk.

Rek focused on the now crushed papers in his hands and Jaron’s voice to stop himself from further spiraling. After a few brief moments, once Rek felt he could speak, he managed to croak out a simple question, “Who?”

For a detective, Jaron seemed lawfully oblivious to his friend's emotional situation. Alternatively, he was fully aware and was merely playing with him. Before Rek had time to mull over the possibilities too much, he started talking again in a far too positive way, “The police are pretty sure it's Mogswamp, ya know, the one who had the dinner party yesterday.”

Reks' swirling thoughts quieted slightly and he was finally able to unclench the paper and bring it up to the table. Murder cases always hurt more when it was someone you knew, but at least it wasn’t one of his super close friends. Rek was pretty distressed still, but figured he should try to solve the case, “That is interesting. We were there pretty late, when did he die?”

Jaron pulled a notepad from one of his many pockets, flicked it open, and started skimming over some of the hastily written bullet points, “The police received a call after some neighbors heard screams at about 3 AM, and the forensic guy said the blood found on the scene was, like, pretty fresh.”

“That was, like, what, an hour or so after we left? Has the coroner report come back yet?” Rek inquired, going back to cleaning up his messed-up desk.

Jaron turned slightly and looked at him, “So, about that..” he said it far too suspiciously for Reks liking.

Rek made direct eye contact with Jaron while cleaning up some papers, “What, did the body vanish or something?”

“Well… The official case report says that Mog is a missing person, so you're right. But it gets better, there is only CCTV footage of people leaving his apartment, and everyone left by 2 am!”

Rek stared at him momentarily as he picked up the last of the papers from the floor and set them back on his desk, “Is there any other way in the room then?”

“Someone could have scaled it maybe? But it's on the 6th floor so I doubt it.” Jaron suggested, intently watching Rek clean.

“Should we go investigate then?” He suggested, rising from his chair.

“Yeah,” Jaron said, rising from the desk “Can you drive? My car is running low on gas and I don't want to get more yet. Also, I took you home last night.”

Rek looked at him, “OK ok, maybe don’t drive a 14-year-old truck so gas mileage won’t be a problem.”

In response, Jaron turned to face him. “Rek your forester can legally drink and my car is 6 years younger than yours,” he said flatly.

“Ya want me to drive or not?” Rek said, waltzing over to his office door and opening it.

“Fine, fine,” Jaron replied, slithering through the open door as Rek tried to close it on him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To the detectives, apartment 649 looked the same as all the others from the outside. It was one of the last in a long series of equally spaced, wooden doors that lined a garish and monotonous cream hallway. The only defining features of the apartments were the bright white apartment numbers that had been neatly painted onto each door, and the occasional decorated doormat welcoming people into the residences.

The lone detail that singled out apartment 649 from the repetition of the hall was the bright yellow police tape that blocked off the entranceway.

Jaron pulled out a small key from his pocket and attempted to unlock the door. It was surprisingly difficult to unlock the door, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the latex gloves or the lock. It took him a few moments before the faint click of the lock opening could be heard, and they were able to duck under the police tape and enter the small apartment.

Rek gazed past the small entryway and further into the familiar house. It looked remarkably different during the daytime than it had had at night. Sparking streams of golden light poured in through the fluttering pink curtains of the living room. The light bounced around the room, glimmering off the replica scheele's green wallpaper, and resting on the majestic bookshelf and red couch that decorated the room.

Focusing on the entryway once more, Rek noticed it was slightly different from when they had been by the night before. The shoe rack by the door was still a mess of haphazardly stacked shoes and the coat rack was sparsely hung with jackets. The only difference was that some things were missing; a pair of black dress shoes and a purple coat.

Before Jaron was able to walk further into the residence, Rek grabbed his arm and pointed out the differences, “So, some of his stuff is missing.”

“What, like a robbery?” Jaron said, still looking further into the house.

“No, like his shoes and coat. I don't think a criminal would take those.”

“Eh, He was probably just cleaning, or something.”

“Yeah, maybe, It’s just strange,” Rek replied, releasing Jaron, though something about that explanation didn’t sit right with him.

Venturing further into the house, the pair entered the dining and living area where Mog had held the dinner party that evening. At first glance, the apartment looked practically the same to Rek as it had the night before.

Over in the living room, the flipped-over game of Monopoly rested on the white carpet, the game pieces and cards scattered across the floor. The room was also littered with colorful pieces of fake money that would occasionally flutter away from where they were precariously balanced by the faint breeze from the fluttering curtains and the open window.

As he looked around, Rek almost immediately noticed something was off. That window had not been open last night.

Upon seeing this, he split off from Jaron as he went to investigate the kitchen. As he wandered further into the room, a few strange red stains on the carpet caught his eye. Before he stepped deeper into the room to investigate more, Rek pulled out his phone and started taking photos of the crime scene in front of him.

After he had taken the photos, Rek moved over to inspect it closer, however, when he passed by the couch, he noticed something slightly odd with Mogs knitting basket. Amongst the brightly colored skeins of yarn was a gun.

As he took a photo of the odd screen Rek called out to Jaron, “So, I just found a gun.”

Jaron looked up from where he was going through cabinets, and started to cross the house to where Rek was, “Hold up, dude, I'm coming over,”

“Alright, it's kinda odd, though. Just considering you said the neighbors reported yelling not a gunshot.” Rek said, pulling a very crumpled evidence bag from the pocket of his hoodie and putting the gun inside it.

Jaron reached Rek and looked down in the basket, “Yeah, that is pretty weird, is there anything else that points to it being a gun?”

Rek waved in the general direction of the blood stains, “Ehh, not really, the blood stains kinda match up but they would match up to a lot of other weapons.” He quickly scanned the ground before looking back at Jaron, “Could you check if there is a bullet anywhere?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You’re probably not going to find anything, if it's a bullet it's most likely still in the body,” Rek called out as Jaron started walking away.

Before he got too far he turned around and lightly tossed something in an evidence bag over to Rek, “Oh, by the way, I found this list of dinner party guests that we could use as a potential suspect list.”

Rek failed to catch the item and it landed on the floor below him. He bent down and picked it up while looking it over, the list was pretty normal at first glance, a thin lined sheet of white paper covered with neatly written cursive names. It had all the names of people who attended the dinner party but at the top of the list, there was something odd.

Mog's name was written out at the top of the list and crossed out, why in the world would someone put their name on a guest list?
Before Rek had time to speculate more on why the host of an event would write his name on a guest list Jaron interrupted him. “Oh, OH OH. Rekrap, second of your name, I found something!”

It had always perturbed Rek how excited Jaron got over investigating literal murders. Still, he assumed it was either leaning heavily on the fun parts, or suppressing all emotions so this job didn’t make you too depressed. “What?”

“Okay, ok, so there is a hole in the wall but it's not like a bullet hole it's more like a diamond shape, and it looks like someone wiggled it free after the fact!”

Rek walked over to him, and sure enough, there was a diamond-shaped hole in the wall, it was right by the window, almost hidden by the blustering curtains. It was not a bullet hole, that would have been more rounded and far smaller. However, It looked rather similar to an arrow hole.

Rek was no expert on arrows, but he could remember when Jaron had started getting them more involved in serious cases and Clown had insisted he learn how to defend himself. They had used a variety of weapons but this was the most reminiscent of a crossbow hole.

“It kinda looks like a crossbow made it.”

“That would explain the lack of a gunshot.”

“Yeah, but was there a gun,” Rek commented, pulling out his phone and snapping a picture of the hole.

Jaron pulled out a little notepad and flipped through it before writing something down, “Mog didn’t own a gun so I’m not sure, maybe it threw us off the trail?”

Rek shoved the full evidence bags into a larger shopping bag, and crossed his arms, “It just seems sloppy.”

“Yeah, somethings not right.” Jaron said, glancing around and starting to walk over to the door, “Let's get back to the office and call up the suspects.”

“Sounds good!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was around 6 pm by the time Rek and Jaron had finished all of the phone interrogations. Nothing of note had come up in any of them, mainly because everyone was suspicious.

Clown, Mini, and Brock all had very weak alibis. Brock and Mini claimed to have gone straight home and directly to bed seeing no one who could confirm and Clown had crashed at Branzy’s place, a claim which, by all means, should have been verifiable except the fact that Rek had seen Branzy lie in court to prove Clowns innocence. Loony, Clown, Wunba, and SB all owned and were reasonably proficient with a crossbow.

The only real lead they had was Clown, he had a very questionable alibi and could use a crossbow. Jaron was fairly convinced it was him. Rek on the other hand wasn’t convinced. Sure, Clown may have been a contract killer for the P.M.C. but the crime scene was far too sloppy to have been him. Clown also never used basic guns like the one he had found, all of which had red accents to match his work outfit.

It didn’t really matter who they thought it was, because even if they were 100% sure it was someone, there wasn’t enough evidence to convince just yet. They would be able to do more investigation tomorrow and the fingerprint analysis had yet to come back from the labs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek stared up at his ceiling, the glow-in-the-dark star stickers gazing back down at him, uncaring about the events of the day. Mog's death seemed like nothing more than another big city murder case and yet something about it felt wrong. He had no clue why this one felt off, he had dealt with people he had known dying before, but there was something more going on here. Something more sinister. It just felt like they were missing a single clue that would cause the whole case to fall into place.

Maybe sleeping on it would help, Rek had always found answers that came to him as he slept and was able to process the information from the day. Rolling over and facing the window by his bed, Rek gazed out at the real stars as he drifted off to sleep, hopeful for the coming dawn, failing to hear the faint shrill of scratching nails against the window.

Chapter Text

The annoying ringing of Reks' phone woke him that morning, just moments before his alarm and the sun shining through his window would have. He picked up the phone from his desktop and unplugged it as he looked at who was calling him, it was Branzy.

As he picked up the phone Rek thought that was odd for him to be calling this early, as Branzy wasn’t normally up until 11, and it was currently 8:30, “Branzy? What's happening?”

“Rek! Oh, thank heavens,” Branzys distorted and panicked voice said, “Clown was hanging out with Mini and he's not back yet!”

Rek got out of his bed and started for the kitchen, it wasn’t really that concerning. Clown vanishing suddenly was nothing new to him, “So?”

Branzy sounded frantic, “He said he would be home by now and he’s not answering my calls!”

“Doesn’t he like, do this sometimes?” Rek replied a growing feeling of dread growing within him.

Branzy sounded on the verge of tears, “He's always told me before.” He was probably really worried.

Rek decided to try and comfort the other, even if he had a growing hunch something very bad had happened, “I'll run an unsolved cases search and see if any look like his M.O. if ya want? He might just be hiding to keep both of you out of trouble.”

“Please? I’m just really worried about him.”

“Yep! I'll let you know if I find anything,”

“Thanks, dude!”

“Anytime.”

Rek hung up the phone.

He was sitting at his kitchen table, resting his head in his hand. Clown was dead. He knew this was not normal behavior, now all he needed was for someone to find him, or whatever was left.

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Rek sat in his office, head in his hands, the constant tick-tock of the clock driving him crazy as he grappled with the fact another one of his friends was definitely dead. Jaron knocked on Reks door before pushing his way in. It was almost comical in a way, this was almost identical to yesterday morning, “Ey, Rek. Bad news..”

Rek looked up at Jaron, “Clown’s dead isn’t he?”

Jaron was left momentarily speechless, “How did you know?”

“Branzy called. He filled a missing persons report and everything.”

“But, that doesn’t guarantee anything, Clown has easily vanished before. So how did you know?”

Rek sighed, he should have known that would need to justify how exactly he knew, “I’ve known Branzy for a while and each time Clown has ‘gone missing’ he's told him. So he's dead.”

“He’s technically missing,” Jaron said again, sitting on his desk.

Rek pushed him off. “Jaron.”

Jaron just used the push to walk over to the door and start to leave the room, “Yeah, he's probably dead.”

Rek silently walked over to the door and followed Jaron out of the room. Before locking the door, his eyes lingered on the window in his office that sat just above the box of evidence for Mog’s case. He had a sneaking suspicion that the case file was about to get bigger.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The sight of Clown's death was much more of what one would expect of a murder location. It was a small corded-off alley, hidden from outside view by two massive brick buildings and paved by hard gray concrete. On the left building, there was a short craggily staircase that presumably led into the building, and hanging above the door frame atop the staircase was a small light. On the right side was a copper fire escape that snaked up the side of the building. At the far end, there was a large green trash bin.

The deeper Rek walked into the alley the more shadowy it would become, to the point where one could almost imagine the inky darkness that would overtake it come nightfall, only interrupted by the light of the lantern.

The only sign that this had been a crime was the massive pool of blood that stained the concrete, interestingly enough there seemed to be a trail and it almost looked as if a body had been dragged away into the back corner of the shadowy alley where it vanished.

Jaron walked over to where Rek was examining the blood trail “We have camera footage of Clown falling from the top of the building and of someone pushing him, but the figure who pushed him is too obscured.

“Huh, that's odd, is there any footage of what’s down here?” Rek said, pulling out his phone and taking pictures of the blood. As Rek looked through his trashy phone camera he noticed something hidden in the darkest corner of the alley.

Once he walked over to it he was able to recognize it was a piece of paper in a plastic bag, as he grabbed it and turned it over to inspect Rek realized that he recognized this list, it was the same one from Mog's apartment except now the name below Mog’s was also crossed out, it was Clowns.

“Na, we see him land then the footage gets all weird and glitchy,” Jarons voice was slightly muffled as Rek looked around the trashcan.

“I don't really think we are gonna find any clues in that” Rek gestured at the mess of blood way before the trash can.

As he started to walk back over to the street, Jaron ran up to him, waving a knife in his gloved hands, “Rek, Rek! Look, I found a clean knife.”

“Wow man, cool it.” Rek grabbed the knife and took it away from Jaron- mainly because he wasn't practicing proper knife safety- and placed it in an evidence bag, “That wack, it may be another fake out weapon like the gun.”

“I'm pretty sure that’s exactly what it is!”

Rek leaned against the right side of the alley, taking another photo of the crime scene, “Damn, this is pretty similar to Mog's case. Do you think they are related?”

Jaron was just across the alley sitting on one of the steps, “I mean probably. Unless there's another murderer snatching bodies.”

“This is really weird, do we have any suspects?”

“Just one,” Jaron pointed up at the building he sat under, “That is Mini’s building”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mini’s apartment was pretty neat. The three of them sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by brightly colored abstract art that contrasted nicely with the warm white walls. They had been sitting at the table for a few minutes and had already broken the news of Clown's death, withholding the details.

“Wow, Clown’s dead.” Mini was shaking slightly in his seat, gazing down at his white mug of tea, “I didn’t think it was possible.”

Rek was sitting on the edge of his chair, trying to balance a fine line between interrogation and friend breaking bad news, “Yeah, he kinda fell off this building too..”

“HE WHAT!!!” Mini slammed down his cup on the table.

Rek reached out his hand to rest lightly on his friend's hand to attempt to comfort him slightly, “Did you let him on your roof, perchance?”

“You can't just say perchance,” Jaron said, dangerously tipping his chair back.

Mini stared at him, “Are you seriously joking around while telling me my friend is dead!”

Jaron leaned further back in his chair before catching himself as he almost fell over, “Ya man, either joke a bit or get unreasonably depressed in this field, So yes?”

“Well. As much as I hate to ask, did you?” Rek said glaring at Jaron and trying to get him to shut up and stop making his interrogation worse.

Mini looked slightly like he wanted to cry, “He wanted to stay up there and look at the stars, I wanted to go to bed.”

“You left him on the roof alone!”

“Well, apparently not!” Mini looked down at the table. “He said he would be down in a bit.” That's when the grief started to hit and Mini started sobbing.

“Hey, it's gonna be okay,” Jaron said, attempting to comfort him and failing very badly, mainly because he's been very rude and dismissive for the whole conversation.

“He's- he’s dead!” Mini blurted, “It’s not okay, he's gone!”

Rek glared at Jaron again, “You're right, and it probably won't be okay for a while if ever. At least we will all be going through this together so it's not as isolating?”

Jaron stood up and started to walk towards the door to escape the awkward conversation he had caused, “We're gonna like to go... Now…”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rain pattered outside of Rek’s bedroom window. When he had been gazing out the window earlier, he had noticed that there were small scratches on the corner of the window. It was slightly frightening considering his friend's deaths, and that he lived on the 6th story. He had drawn the blinds closed that night.

Clown's murder was highly disturbing to him. It was really close to Mog's murder and they were only a day apart. Normally the serial murders they investigated were further spaced. There would often be weeks or months between the kills.

The list also concerned him greatly, it had somehow escaped the locked evidence boxes and found its way to the crime scene. The names being crossed out was also quite a bit of an issue. Mini's name was next followed by Jaron’s and Rek wasn't quite sure if this guest list was more like a hit list.

As he snuggled up in his bed, feeling the melatonin he had taken earlier take effect, he figured he would need to talk to Jaron about it the next day in case he was going to die in 2 days.

Chapter Text

Rek woke up later than normal, his alarm clock blaring violently next to him. As he opened his eyes the room was mostly dark, only lit by the light that leaked in from behind his closed blinds.

He slowly got out of bed and opened the window. He could be a bit slow this morning as he had taken the day off work for Mog and Clown's funeral.

He hadn’t really taken the day off, Jaron had informed him that he was off.

He was still stressed from the night before and how this may have been one of his last days with Jaron. Somehow, he had still slept through most of that time, the funeral was at 11 and the bright red numbers on the clock told him that it was 10:30.

Rek crawled out of his bed, making it up before he got ready. As he was getting ready he saw his trusty blue and yellow hoodie, he grabbed it. He figured that if he did start crying then he could pull up the hood to save himself a little dignity.

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The bright light of the morning sun glimmered through the stained glass of the church bathing Mog and Clown’s empty caskets in a colorful mosaic of light, Along with the massive piles of surrounding lilies they laid within.

Rek stood in front of them, both forever frozen in death. He could feel Jarons supportive hand in his as tears twisted the view of his dead friend's empty caskets into nothing more than colorful blobs in a sea of white.

It was strange, Rek had never been to a funeral before. Seeing the caskets made it feel real, even if he knew both bodies were still missing. Normally he could imagine the victims alive and well without the sight of the funeral service, but here he knew that wherever Clown and Mog’s bodies were, they had been reduced to just empty shells. Nothing more than an empty house that had been drained of all that had made it a home.

It was a somber reminder for everyone in attendance. The fickle and fragility of life pressed forward every second. Every tick of the clock that only brought the inevitable grasp of death as it endlessly marched forward.

Two of his friends had died in only two days and he was completely powerless to stop it. He could only hope none of his other friends would befall the same fates, at least for a while anyway. Time was an apathetic force after all. Rek was lucky he would have the opportunity to move forward. After all, Clown and Mog didn’t.

After a short while, the caskets were closed and brought over to a hole in the ground, where they were lowered in. Rek could hear someone openly weeping and muffled sniffles but he couldn’t figure out who it was coming from.

Rek felt trapped in a dream, like nothing was real and this was all some terrible nightmare he would wake up from. He knew it wasn’t, reality had always been far more cruel than any of the terrible thoughts that occasionally swirled around his mind. He could still feel the warm sun and Jarons hand in his.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek stared at the massive standing corkboard in front of him, He had managed to suppress all of his grief and worry to deal with later. Right now he has a case to solve.

The board had been divided into 10 sections. The first two had all of the pictures and notes from Clown and Mog's deaths pinned up. The rest were left blank. Logically he knew that the board probably only needed 8, assuming if people kept dying they would carry on the investigation.

Looking at them next to each other, some of the similarities were obvious. Both deaths were in isolated places at night, not too uncommon for murders, but still important to note. There was some sort of fake out weapon. There were no bodies.

Soon his ponderings were cut short as Jaron gently kicked open his door, “Yo, Rekrap. Figure anything out yet?” He asked as he walked over to Rek with two coffees in his hands.

Rek took one of the drinks from Jaron, “Not really, there are some connections but nothing that points to a suspect.”

Jaron wandered over to the board, inspecting the thread that connected the similarities between cases, “That's definitely odd.”

“Yeah, like individually they have a suspect but not together.” Rek drank some of his extremely sweet coffee.

Jaron spun about and waved dismissively at the board, “Clown could have killed Mog and then Mini figured it out and killed him.” He wandered over to Rek’s desk chair and sat down, “Like a chain of killings.”

Rek continued looking at the board, as if looking at it would reveal more information, “It's just odd.”

“Yeah, but at least there's a potential motive” Jaron said, he pushed the chair out slightly and started spinning in slow circles.

Rek wandered over to him and sat on the desk still staring at the board, “Also, ‘ya know the guest list we found at Mog’s place?”

“The one with his name crossed off?” Jaron said, scrolling on his phone while spinning

Rek put his coffee down and stared at the ceiling in a way he thought made him look cool and mysterious, “Yeah, well I found it again in the alley we found Clown.”

Jaron was side-eyeing him hard when he could see him, “Okay, and? It probably fell out of your pocket or something.”

“I doubt it. Clown’s name was crossed off, I think it's like a hitlist.” Rek said, picking his coffee back up, “Whoever is behind it is killing someone every night and framing the next person.”

Jaron halted the spinning to look directly at Rek, “Oh sure, it's a teleporting hitlist.”

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Rek sat in his bed that evening, the callous blue-green glow of his star stickers doing nothing to help dispel the feeling that had built up over the day.

He gazed out of his window, not up at the real stars but at the street below him. It was late enough that it was completely desolate. He scanned over the darkened streets, sidewalks, and equally spaced trees and light posts, his gaze limited by the massive apartment and office buildings that rose from the edges of the walkways.

His scanning of the repetitive scenery was halted sharply when he saw a figure under one of the light posts. Rek couldn’t make out much as the figure was wrapped in shadow, but it was clearly wearing a purple coat and had a crown on. It was eerily familiar.

As he stared, the figure turned slightly, its shoulders twisted in the direction of his building. The shadowed figure looked directly at him, like it knew where he was.

Rek fell back against his bed hiding below the window, hoping beyond hope that the figure, who shared a terrifying likeness to Mogswamp, could no longer see him.

Rek didn’t know how long he lay gazing at the green-blue glow of the stars on his ceiling, hoping beyond hope that today's break in the murders would be the end. He didn’t know how long he lay there, petrified before sleep eventually overtook him.

Chapter Text

Rek woke up long before his alarm had gone off. As he rolled over in his bed and grabbed his phone he saw that the time was 4:15. He also saw that he had received a text.

Clicking it open he saw it was from Jaron and dated to 3:29 am. “Rek! Mini apparently knows something about the case cause he dealt with something similar a while back!!! I’m gonna be meeting with him at Roseway Park, I'll tell you about everything in the morning.”

Rek didn’t need to be a genius detective to see that going to the park very late at night with a suspect in a murder case was a very bad idea. He had been hoping that with one murder-free night, the curse of his friend dying would end. But even if it had, Jaron’s ambition was bound to get him killed.

Rek ran around his house tossing on a pair of shoes and grabbing his hoodie to keep off the chill of the night and the rain.

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By the time he arrived at the park, it was too late. Rek could see the beam of an unmoving flashlight shining from the center of the park. When he rushed over to the source of the light, he saw them for a moment before their bodies were consumed by the shadows.

Rek stood in an empty park, standing on bloody mud. His hoodie was soaked through by the rain and his hair was plastered against his face.

He stood next to Mini’s phone, its light still shining into the darkness, Jaron’s hat sat next to it. He could see no murder weapon this time.

He fell to his knees and he rolled back to sit on the ground, his pants and shoes now coated in bloody mud. The rain still poured around him.

He had been wrong. People were still dying. Rek started to cry.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Eventually, the sun rose over the park and the rain stopped. Mini and Jaron were still dead. Rek had seen the bodies only for a moment before they were dragged into the shadows, but there was no denying that they were dead.

Rek was holding onto his dirty pants, still seated and crying on the muddy ground. He had taken Jarons hat and sat with it dripping onto his lap.

He reached into his pocket to get his phone only for his hands to be met with plastic. A plastic bag.

He pulled it out and gazed at the evidence bag in his quaking hands.

It was Mog’s guestlist.

There were now four names crossed off. This was a list and they were all going to die. He knew not when, nor how, the only thing he knew was that SB was next on the list.

They were all going to die if he didn’t do anything, and the one person who knew something vital had just died.

Something was going on. Lists don't just get crossed off when locked in evidence, bodies don't vanish into shadows, and he had not seen Mogswamp walking around last night.

Rek had been looking at this case through the lens of human crimes, he now realized that this may have been caused by something distinctly not human.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek gazed at the board of evidence, photos of the various crime scenes and victims were connected by red string. Mini and Jarons photos were still unconnected as he had just pinned them up.

Patterns were starting to emerge. Disturbing patterns but patterns nonetheless.

There was always some sort of lead that was nothing more than a distraction. The gun in Mog’s apartment. The knife in Clown’s alley. The cracked and bloody bricks the police found at Mini and Jaron’s murder.

The crimes always happened near someone else's home or there was an apparent suspect.

There were never any bodies.

Finally, they always followed the list.

Rek walked over to the board and gazed at the list once again. It looked the same as yesterday. Still the same pretty cursive writing, the same clean paper despite it being found at every crime scene.

Mogswamp, ClownPierce, Mini-Minecraft, Yeah_Jaron, SB737, NotNotBrock, Rekrap2, LoonyMC, Wunba.

He had two more days to figure out who- or what- was causing these murders. There were 5 more days until they were all dead.

Rek had to do something quickly. Maybe it would be possible to prevent the murders if all of them were in the same place. Or perhaps it would speed up the murders. It would probably be fine. Jaron and Mini had only died the same day after whatever was hunting them had skipped a night, using that logic they should be alright together for a night.

Rek dearly hoped they had been killed because a day was skipped and not because Jaron and Mini had been in the same place at the wrong time.

The only reasonable solution Rek could think of was a group sleepover!

He could move his desk into Jaron's now unused office and have everyone sleep in his office. He could pile some blankets from his apartment up and ask the others to bring some to cover the bedding situation.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek gazed over his empty office after he had moved his board and desk over to Jarons empty office and tossed blankets over the floor.

Under most normal circumstances he would have been really happy to have his friends sleeping together. Unfortunately, this was for survival, not fun.

Rek had made five beds in his office and was now leaning against the wall scrolling mindlessly through his phone as he waited for his friends to arrive. He wasn’t quite sure how he had convinced them, but he had, and they would be over any moment.

After just a few more moments of scrolling Rek heard a knock at his office door. Getting up from his spot on the floor he opened the door and saw all of his friends peering at him.

Loony was standing in front of the group, “Hey Rek! Sorry, we are a bit late. I had to pick everyone up.”

“Oh, yeah that's totally fine.” Rek waved dismissively as he opened the door to let them in, “I’m just glad you all made it before dark!”

“I mean you sounded really worried about it,” Loony said as he entered the room and sat down on one of the makeshift beds.

SB followed him in and tossed down a bag on the bed closest to the window, “Yeah, why is that?”

“No reason!” Rek blurted. Shutting the door behind all of them and subtly locking it.

Loony raised an eyebrow, “Rekrap.”

Rek hurried away from the door and sat down in his own bed, “I’ll explain it in the morning.” He tried to play into his emotions so they would stay, “I just don’t really want to be by myself right now.”

“So it's true then?” Brock said, gazing at him from another one of the beds.

Wunba was unpacking an actual sleeping bag and shaping some of the blankets into a mattress, “What is?”

“Mini and Jaron? I saw them in the news this morning.”

Rek looked at the bed below him, “Yeah.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek gazed at the empty ceiling above him. It was strangely starless. He couldn’t even see the real stars out of his office’s lone window as SB was in the way, all he could see was the side of a building.

It was strange. He was used to sleeping alone and hearing all the people's sounds was starting to get on his nerves. The ground was also not very comfortable at all. Rek had to constantly toss and turn to keep from aching all over.

Despite this, in a strange way, it was comforting. He knew no one would be dying tonight. They were safe at least for now.

They just couldn’t get separated tomorrow night or he and SB would most definitely die.

Chapter Text

Rek awoke to a massive ache in his back. Sitting up from his blanket bed and glancing around, everyone looked awake. Wumba was still lying in his sleeping bag but was doing something on his phone, SB and Loony were having a quiet conversation, and Brock was leaning against the wall reading a book.

It was somewhat comforting to wake up with all of them nearby, that way he knew they were all alive.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek stood in front of everyone as he explained what he thought was happening with the case, “All of the murders happened following this list we found at Mog’s place, and ever since then people have been dying once a day.” Rek paused for a moment before he continued “Now from my observations from when I found Mini and Jaron, I think some sort of monster is hunting us, and that would also account for the bodies going missing.”

SB was tilting back in his chair, in a very familiar way, as Rek finished his presentation, “Wait, so you mean to tell us that you think an evil list monster is hunting us down and killing us?”

“Yeah?” Rek realized exactly how insane this probably sounded.

Wunba was staring at him, “Rek, are you okay? Like the past few days have been hard on all of us but you seem to be losing it a bit.”

He held his hands up, desperate to make them believe him, “Guys, I promise this is real.”

Loony stood up, and for a terrible moment Rek thought he was going to walk up and hurt him, but instead, he walked over to the board and looked at the photos up close, “I mean you’ve never lied to me before, even if this is a terrible way of processing grief.”

“Yeah, you haven’t led me astray before,” Brock said, crossing his legs in his chair.

SB glared at all of them, “You guys can’t be seriously considering this.”

“Do you have a better explanation?” Wumba shrugged.

SB stood up, “No, but Reks explanation is completely ridiculous!”

“SB.” Looney warned him.

“No! This is stupid, I’m leaving!’ He marched over to the door, ripping it open, and slammed it shut behind him.

Rek helplessly watched him go.

SB was going to die. Rek couldn’t convince him not to go and all of the others probably assumed he was crazy. They were all going to leave and then they would die. Mog, Clown, Mini, Jaron, SB, Brock, Loony, Wunba, and himself were all going to die, and as much as he tried, there was nothing he could do to stop it. This was a mystery Rekrap could not solve. Not right now, and maybe not ever.

They were all going to die, and it would be all his fault.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Three hours had passed since SB had left.

The sun had long set, and Rek had waited at the window the whole time the sun was up to see if SB would return. He was holding the evidence bag containing the list.

He watched in abject horror as it started to vanish, seemingly turning to dust in his hands and fading away. Rek stared at his hands for a while after the list was gone.

Slowly he got up and walked from his office to Jaron's.

Pushing open the door he was met with the sight of Wunba, Brock, and Loony playing some sort of card game, they all looked up when he entered.

“SB died.” Rek said, before closing the door and walking back over to his window as his vision became clouded with tears.

He had once again failed to keep someone he cared for safe.

At this rate, they would all be dead in a few days time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek had collected himself surprisingly quickly and had insisted on everyone piling into his car to go look for SB. It hadn’t taken long for Brock to point out a very human-shaped lump on the sidewalk of SB’s street.

As Rek parked the car and everyone rushed out, they all watched as the body was unceremoniously dragged into a nearby mass of shadow, before the darkness faded into the usual darkness of the city streets.

Wunba and Brock rushed over to where they had clearly watched the body go only to be met with nothing but the suspicious end of a bloody trail.

Rek walked forward and looked around the scene with the limited street light. After only a moment he saw the familiar gleem of a bag wedged between 2 of the concrete panels of the sidewalk.

He walked over and carefully wiggled it free. It was the very least he had watched disappear from his hands. SBs had now also been crossed off.

“This was a terrible way to find out you were right.” Wunba walked over to him.

Rek gazed out over the bloody patch on the ground and started walking over to his car. He knew the same clues would be scattered around, as always, but he hadn’t the energy to find them, “I guess you could say that.”

“Who’s next?” Loony said from the back, his voice tinted with a bit of fear.

Rek waited until everyone had entered the car and buckled up before responding, “Brock.”

The car ride back to the detective's office was completely silent. Everyone had been humoring Rekrap's crazy idea before and had now seen enough proof to be fully convinced of their coming fates.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek gazed to his side at the empty pile of blankets next to him. He was desperately attempting not to cry so his friends wouldn't hear him.

It was all so much. He had lost five of his friends in such short succession. He hadn’t had time to properly mourn Mog and now he had to handle dealing with the deaths of even more of his friends.

He knew being in the office was the safest thing right now because it wouldn’t risk anyone traveling between places come nightfall. But it was also a constant reminder of what he had lost.

He knew that Jaron would never again barge into this room or make some horribly inappropriate joke during an otherwise serious occasion.

He just wanted to wake up from this horrible dream and go back to his mostly carefree life of solving crimes that were unrelated to him.

Chapter Text

Rek woke to Loony shaking him. He looked to the window but only saw dark rain clouds. He glanced at the clock ticking away on the wall only to discover it was 7 pm.

He shot out of the pile of blankets that served as his bed. It wasn’t surprising that they had all overslept, staying out late the night before combined with not setting any alarms meant that this was kinda expected.

Still, they had agreed to do some grocery shopping today and that would still need to be done, even if it was risky. They would just need to stay together.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek heard Brock’s blood-curdling scream from just outside the now-closed store. It was chilling, the cry of a man facing the inevitability of the end and whatever horror was bringing it.

Wunba and Loony also heard it and they immediately ran to investigate, leaving him alone outside the store.

Rek knew it was far too late for help, he knew the creature was far too fast for them to save him.

Another one of his friends was dying and there was absolutely nothing he could do to help.

It was now his turn. His life was now on a timer. It was Rek’s turn to finally discover what was hunting them.

Brock had just gone to return the cart, and in an absentminded moment, Rek had waved him off.

He didn’t want to go yet.

Rek ducked into one of the nearby alleys and ran.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rounding the corner of the tall brick building, still damp from the light rain that steadily fell around Rek, he emerged on a dark abandoned street, lit only by a single flickering lamp and a few televisions that spontaneously switched between colorful menus and black and white TV static. Despite the dim light, the darkness completely swallowed any light he could have used to see.

When he emerged from the pitch darkness of the alleyway and started walking down the street, desperate to find even one of his friends, none of the regular city sounds greeted him. It was very quiet for a city, the only sounds Rek could hear were the dull electric buzzing of the lamp and distant televisions, the rhythmic raindrops hitting the street and buildings, and his own beating heart and footsteps.

As he walked down the street, unable to see anything beyond it, Rek would gaze down the void-like alleyways searching for anything hiding within them. He was only able to make things out of the morphing darkness by the time he was almost done passing, and Rek wasn’t sure if it was just his mind attempting to make shapes from nothing or if there really were ominous figures hiding from him.

Suddenly, Rek heard a strangely dry, crunching sound from under his shoe. Rek knew he had to look down. He had to know what it was. He couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran up his spine as he felt eyes on him. Watching to see what he would do.

As he looked down, the sounds around him faded away and were replaced by the steady beating of his heart.

Below him, he saw nothing more than a small piece of paper that he had knocked into a puddle, covered in smudged cursive writing. It calmed him for a brief moment before he recognized it.

It was Mog's guest list and most of the names had been crossed off, everyone who had died. He snatched it off the ground and tried to make out the next name.

It was his.

When he looked up from the list, a figure walked by across the street, and when it looked over at him, for a brief moment he saw Mog. He looked rotted and like he was decaying.

As a wind swept through the street he watched as Mog disintegrated into ash and was carried away by the wind.

Rek backed up, falling backward and rolling into the darkness of a nearby alleyway, the list still clenched tightly in his hand.

He couldn’t see anything, but worst of all, it was silent.

Completely and utterly silent, the faint buzzing of electricity of the TVs and lamps and the rain were all gone.

Rek could only hear his heartbeat, his ragged breath, and scuffling at the back of the alley.

He was completely frozen in place.

The shifting and scuffling seemed to surround him. The endless noises around him pressed closer, his brain could only attempt to form shapes from the nothingness around him.

A mockery of Jarons voice spoke to him from within the darkness “Why did you let me die Rek?”

It was almost immediately followed by SB, “Why didn’t you stop me, you killed me.”

Then a warped version of Clown, “Why didn’t you warn me?”

There was a pause for a brief moment and the impenetrable silence returned.

A raspy voice spoke in all of his friends' voices, “You’re all alone now, Rekrap2. No one is coming to help you, you're going to die here. All alone.”

He could almost feel whatever was talking pressing ever closer to him. He could faintly hear something shifting close to him.

Just as Rek was beginning to think all hope was lost the silence was disrupted by a loud ringing. As soon as it started whatever had been creeping around him dissipated.

Rek felt around his pocket with his free hand for his ringing phone when he found it he pulled it out and turned the flashlight on, intentionally keeping the call from Loony ringing.

As the light poured from the phone and broke into the darkness Rek watched as several pitch-black tendrils retreated from it.

Rek started to stand up when suddenly the creature screamed wildly.

He looked down at his hand to see if anything had triggered it and he saw the list, part of the top of the damp list had ripped from being pinned under him.

He picked it up and tore it a bit more, there was another near-deafening shout.

Rek figured that the creature was linked in some way to the list, seeing as it appeared at every crime and this thing seemed to be hurt by it.

Immediately after this revelation, Rek ripped the paper completely in half.

There was another louder yell as he was ripping it before it suddenly cut off when the paper was fully ripped.

As soon as the paper was ripped he ran.

He ran as far as he could, the world around him blurring.

He ran until his lungs burned and he collapsed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek wasn’t sure how much time had passed when his phone rang again. It was enough time for him to haul himself into a sitting position catch his breath, and figure out that he was in the same park he had found Mini and Jaron in earlier.

Glancing at his phone he saw that this time the call was from Wumba, “Hello?”

There was a small buffer before yelling came through the phone, Rek had to pull it away from his ear slightly, “Rek! Oh my gosh, we thought you were dead!”

Rek stared at the concrete in front of him, “Honestly so did I”

“Are you okay?”

Rek replayed the scene in his mind, he was pretty sure it was dead but he wasn’t quite sure. He definitely hoped it was dead, “I think, I killed it?”

“What?”

Rek sighed, he was going to sound crazy again, “You know that list I showed you?”

“Yeah?” Wunba’s voice crackled through the line, he sounded vaguely apprehensive.

“Well, I ripped it and the thing seemed to hurt so I just tore it up and it, like, vanished.”

“Huh, so it’s over then??”

Rek groaned, “I sure hope so,”

“Okay, Where are you? we’ll come get you and take you home.”

Rek looked around, to verify he was at the park, “I think I’m at Roseway Park, how are you getting here? I'm pretty far?”

“So umm.. We may have taken your car…”

Rek hung up the call before he said something he would regret.

They probably wouldn’t crash his car. Probably.

He lay back down on the cold concrete while waiting for Wunba and Loony to arrive. He hoped they would get him soon, the ground was uncomfortable and his entire body was sore.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rek lay in his bed still gazing at the constant and unchanging pattern of stars above him as he was finally able to drift off to sleep, secure in the fact that they were finally safe from being hunted.

He was still upset by the deaths of his friends, but for the brief time being, he was able to suppress his feelings of grief and regret. He knew he finally had the safety to properly grieve the loss of his friends, and perhaps see a therapist to help him with everything that had happened. But that was an issue for the morning, right now he could rest knowing that his remaining friends were safe.

He would still solve the case. He would still gather more information and figure out what caused this. But that was a problem for later, right now he could surrender himself to the land of dreams.