Where are the bodies?

There wasn't a rationale for Arata's feeling of dread. There were no lights and no noises on the other side of the door. It was an unnerving feeling.

It was very quiet as if the conspirators have hidden in their houses upon his arrival. He couldn't even hear any cars in the roads beyond this street. The windless weather seemed to have sucked out the last remaining sound from their environment.

The only sounds were Arata's lonely breathing which began to deepen. The next door was almost always quiet when they investigated other houses before this one. This was Arata's fifth confirmed crime scene in Izumi ward. The other 6 were elsewhere.

It was probably another coincidence that the next door felt empty but his intuition told him that the "darkness" from this house had jumped over to the next.

He tried the doorknob. It was locked. Arata stepped back and looked at the door. Hiromichi saw a look he never had seen on Arata's face. It was a kind of adrenaline-pumping look one had before jumping into action. It seemed that Arata was about to do something brazen.

"What are you-"

"I heard a scream"

"What? I didn't hear anyth-

Arata kicked the door open and upon seeing the inside of the house, he went in. Hiromichi was dazed for a moment before he jogged over but Arata ran back out and bumped into him. He didn't apologise for, much less register Hiromichi at all. Instead, he ran past him to the next door.

Hiromichi looked at Arata like he was a mad man. Indeed, Arata kicked down another door and after having a glimpse of what was inside, he ran over to the next house.

"Arata stop! It's illegal to break into people's homes!" Hiromichi shouted after him.

Entering into a house without a warrant and on the evidence of an unlocked door and an anonymous tip was already the stretch of the law. If it weren't for the backing of a gargantuan governmental department like the Security Bureau of the National Police Agency (NPA SB) and the prime minister himself, they would have lost their jobs by now.

For a rookie officer like Arata who joined the force a couple of weeks ago, there was no one backing him up, certainly not his rank.

While Hiromichi could just let Arata get himself fired so he could have a chance of dating Aina, he was actually a pure-hearted person that was simply competitive and envious of Arata whom Aina herself was making moves on. He did not have a grudge against Arata nor want to see a fellow officer and his partner get prosecuted in the court of law.

Hiromichi then realised that Arata's claim about hearing a scream was a lie to break into the house on reasonable suspicion that an offence is being committed. Was he going to risk his neck and back Arata up or let him cop the consequences of his actions? That all depended on what he saw.

Hiromichi decided to let Arata do what he wanted for a moment and peered inside the first house that was broken into.

His eyes were frozen open and beads of sweat formed on his face. Like Arata, he dashed out of the house and ran to the next one. It was the same. He kept running to the next door and the next after taking a snapshot with his eyes.

Hiromichi should be catching up to Arata because he wasn't kicking the door down and most of the time, he didn't need to enter the house to see the gruesome scene. Yet, Arata was moving further and further away from him until he disappeared around the corner. He didn't have time to ponder about the gulf between their speeds and stamina.

After the 10th house, he stopped and supported himself on the door frame while he slowly slumped onto the floor.

He couldn't believe it.

However, he was forced to accept it after looking into all the houses. No matter how hard he blinked. There was still red in his eyes. He never felt so sick at looking at one colour before. The scene before him was painted in red, literally.

There was blood everywhere. Puddles of blood were on the floor where bodies would have been. Some houses were mild or moderately soaked in blood. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was just one or two. But not a single house has been skipped in their search.

A few houses were a nightmare. There was blood sprayed all over the walls and furniture. Thick drying red blood stalactites were hanging from the ceiling and some blood decorated the overhead fans turning it into a modern piece of art. There were so many victims that pools of blood were littered on the floor like holes in the cheese.

The most frightening thing was...

Where were the bodies?

'WHAT DID THEY WITH THE BODIES!' Hiromichi thought before he threw up. His face was pale and his body was trembling. A rictus grin slowly appeared on his face.

The other scary thought that went through his mind was ' how could this happen?' With this much blood, someone had to have died yet there was no trace of them leaving the house. How could so many people die unnoticed by the world?

The fact that all these deaths happened behind walls and closed doors scared him. Entire families were wiped out. Could this happen to him and his loved ones too? Could some of his friends be dead and he not know about it?

It was so quiet that he could faintly hear Arata still kicking on the doors on the other side of the block. The man was not stopping.

'Is every house like this? Maybe... only a few. That's right. He's just checking all the houses. There can't be that many more. Yes, the first ten is just bad luck. It's all a coincidence. Yes, that has to be it. It's not like everyone is dead right?'

The cold silence seemed to answer his questions. He threw up again. The quiet was never the same to him after this day.