Someone's Missing

It's 3AM - the witching hour - when Barns and Osmond finally trudge through the castle gates. There's only one person around, sitting on the castle steps beside flickering and fading flame.

"Sup, bitch?" Osmond calls out to the one other person - Maria.

"Excuse me!?" she says, rising to her feet furiously. "After I waited up all night for you idiots!?"

"Bad timing, man," Barns murmurs under his breath. "Hey, I'm going to head up to bed. Good night!"

Barns leaves Maria and Osmond bickering at the entrance to the castle as he makes his way into the castle. He stops by Clancy's temporary room - the back of throne room - but finds his friend has already gone inert for the day. They'd have to catch up tomorrow. 

Wordless and expired, Barns climbs up the tall northern tower of Dimartino's Castle, the place where he called home. He rips off his adventuring gear and falls face down on the bed, falling asleep in seconds.

…

[Progress: 3903/1000000]

The window hovers over Barns' head as he sleeps, wrapped up in a mess of blankets and drooling. He'd gotten to sleep late, and as a result slept in. It's almost noon, and the window remains unseen.

He rolls over in the bed, the progress window whipping around and clipping visually through the mattress. Warm amber light fills the quiet bedroom in the tallest tower of Dimartino's castle. Being high up reminded him of his first life - he chose the room for nostalgia alone. Certainly not for its poor ventilation and vexing heat.

When Barns' eyes finally flick open, he's wide awake - that sinking feeling of sleeping in through something important propelling him upward. As he does, he sees the message.

"Progress…wait."

Barns feels a wave of panic set in. That number was lower than it should be. One lower, to be exact. Did someone die? There was no other way the number could go down.

He jumps to his feet, covered in sweat from another hot Dimartino night. He'd rather not go out in public like this, but it was an emergency. He dresses in a frenzy and hurries out the door to his castle bedroom. 

He makes his way quickly to the throne room, where he finds others have already gathered. As he throws open the doors, he sees Clancy, Quinn, and Maria standing in a tight circle, chatting about a private matter.

"Oh, Mr. Hero!" Quinn says with a half-hearted grin. "We were just about to send for you, sir. There's been a development."

Barns takes a deep breath before speaking. "Did someone die last night?" he asks.

Quinn fidgets. "Well, yes…though it would be more accurate to say they were murdered."

"What time?" Barns asks quickly. He didn't know how long his resurrection timer lasted - every second counts. They couldn't have died that long ago - otherwise he'd have gotten the system message when he was still awake the night prior.

Quinn shakes his head, while Maria looks down at the ground, pensive. 

"Take me to them," Barns says. 

They walk down the road, about halfway to town from the castle, to one of the manufactured homes. As they arrive, the scene is in obvious disarray. The front door appears to have been kicked or smashed in, and it hangs in the wind, unable to fully close. 

Clancy and Maria wait outside while Barns approaches the house with Quinn.

"It was reported like this," Quinn says quietly. "By the time a neighbor found it…"

Barns steps into the house - surprisingly, he'd only been in one of these homes. Yunie's, back on the first day of his adventure.

He shudders, remembering being showered in monster blood and guts. 

Other than the sign of forced entry, the rest of the house seems normal, until they creep into the master bedroom. There, the owner rests forever - a large knife is sunk into their chest and the sheets are soaked with blood.

Barns raises his sword into the air above the deceased.

"Resurrection!" he exclaims. Bright light flashes from his body, but nothing happens.

"I said Resurrection!" Barns bellows, but still the person does not come back to life. They've been dead for too long - their soul has vacated their body.

Barns puts his sword away and closes his eyes. He's trying not to overreact in front of Quinn.

"And we don't know anything?" Barns says, his whole body quivering just slightly in frustration. His eyes can't help but focus on the window in the bedroom - it's slightly ajar.

"No, sir."

"It had to be another human," Barns notes, looking away from the window and directly at Quinn. "Monsters can't approach these houses, and besides - we've cleared all the monsters from Dimartino."

Quinn clears his throat before speaking. "Well, Barns…there have been some concerns among the townsfolk that you have allowed a demon to live in the castle. Er - not that I have a problem with it!"

Barns pushes past the comment. He couldn't entertain that level of nonsense right now. There's no way Osmond was responsible for this.

'But the alert didn't come until after I fell asleep…so Osmond had already returned here, shortly before the murder…'

Barns slaps himself. If he starts doubting Osmond, he'll live in paranoia forever. 

"What do we do?" Barns says, defeated. He turns away from the corpse, sulking.

"In a stroke of good luck, work has already begun on establishing a police force," Quinn smiles. "And I'm sure the timing of this news will encourage folks to apply."

As Barns exits the house with Quinn, he makes his stance on Osmond clear. "If anyone raises these 'concerns' about the demon, you tell them to bring it up with me directly. Got it?"

"Y-yes, Mr. Hero…"

Barns struts across the road to where Maria and Clancy are waiting. Clancy must be telling an engrossing story because Maria is staring at him intently and his pincers are clicking with much gusto.

"No luck," Barns says, interrupting their animated conversation. Clancy clicks his pincers in surprise.

"Figures," Maria flips her hair. 

"FOAM!?" Clancy offers.

"Foam won't help them."

Barns gazes at the door of the house, still hanging ajar and rattling in the wind. Were it not for such a gruesome scene inside, this scene would be quite beautiful. 

"This can't happen again," Barns informs everyone. "Whoever's leading that police force, give them all the resources they need."