Chapter 5- Red is a good colour for closed curtains.
Without telling the rest of the team, professor Gort and Claus were doing a night investigation of the prime suspect inside the travelling circus tent, while hard to see at night, the tent stood stories tall with the fabric gently flapping and wavin due to the light wind, it was quiet, and nobody was around, the place felt almost abandoned.
"Before we go in, do you have any questions?" Gort turned his head to Claus, his eyes faintly glowing red which seems to indicate that he was using his semblance right now.
"Just, why didn't you bring the rest of the team?"
"It's because as I explained before, if we bring a large party to question someone, they will feel more on edge when conversing with us, while it may be more dangerous, it is easier to manage a person's emotional behaviour with two people than 5." Gort explained, turning his attention to the tent and put his hand through the split between the fabric, darting his eyes around to make sure no one else was around one last time.
"Anymore questions?"
"No professor."
"Then let's continue."
As Gort talked, he was the first to enter along with Claus closely behind, they both moved quietly in, it was dark, and no lights were on, only silhouettes and the faint light from the moon could be seen.
"Professor, can you see anything?" Claus whispered.
"Hold on."
Gort brought out a flashlight to light up small parts of the muddy floor as they searched around cautiously, Claus' heart began to speed up over how eerie and quiet the environment was, feeling like he was going to be spooked from behind at any moment.
"How long are we staying here for?" Claus whispered in a quickening panic.
"Until we find some or any evidence, I have a spare flash light, use it." Gort passed Claus a flashlight in which he took and began to creep in another direction, wanting to find something quickly so they could get out of there, truth be told, he hates haunted places and this place would properly be at the top bar for ghost hunters.
As Claus shone his flashlight around, he found the benches the crowd would sit on and then proceeded to walk around them and further into the circus, often checking around him so he wouldn't be spooked.
Now at presumably at the back of the tent, there were pieces of equipment like hoops, whips, shackles, props and sticks used for torches and various other items that look like they are to be used for torture than a circus although there was some more circus like materials and cloths but there was one weird item that caught Claus' attention.
He shone his light over it to illuminate the whole thing, it was a wooden box with some golden metal shining off the torches light… no more accurately looking at the shape, it was looked more like a coffin.
The student quickly covered his mouth to hide his instinctive yelling upon noticing it but calmed down to take a look at it.
The coffin had 4 brass handles on each side and a cross in the middle, the typical design, Claus looked back to see Gort coming close, he was about to say something till…
"It's rude to peep on someone who's sleeping you know?"
The voice of a young man echoed through the air like an echo that startled the two, Claus dropping his flashlight, sweating all over from fright as lights switched on, two at a time with a split second between them to light up the whole area until they formed a circle of lights that focused on the main stage, showing 4 rows of benches and the stage where the performers would be performing, revealing the tightropes and trapezes and all the equipment where Claus was standing where they were unusually out in the main part instead of being in the backstage.
But most importantly there was a figure that casted a large shadow floating, no more accurately hanging in the middle of the air on wires, the figure was of a boy who looked about 16 with an average build for someone his age, his hair was jet black with purple streaks, it was long and raised, there were bells located on some parts of his hair, his eyes were purple, almost like he had been possessed with black eyeliner making up the decorations on his face, he looked more like a marionette than an actual person.
He wore a dark sleeveless shirt with red ribbons on the front and wore black fingerless gloves with more red ribbons and a weird circular device on the top of his hands with wires stringing from him which indicates how he is keeping up there, he also worse black booty shorts and dark purple knee high socks along with some typical boys school shoes as he gave the two a creepy smile while looking down on them that threw Claus' mind into a panic and almost forgot how to speak, seeming like he was frozen.
"So, care to explain the coffin? Assuming you're the owner of this little circus of course." Gort turned off his flashlight and planted his cane down, unmoved by the terrifying appearance before him that managed to put Claus in an internal panic.
Gort stood strong, giving off a piercing gaze of the mysterious figure to further show he was not afraid of what's he's in front of him.
"Oh my, what mistake, I forgot to store my maiden, oh dear, not good." He spoke in broken words, his wicked smile changing into annoyance.
"Store? Never mind, do you know anything about the disappearances in this town or in fact the other towns this particular circus has visited?" Gort pressed on, he is sure he found the culprit but needed to know more to confirm.
"That is none of your concern, these lovely ladies chose to join my party, so they did, yes, you must be mistaken, leave." His voice growing more and more sinister as he spoke, he clearly didn't want the two wondering around his home but that gave concrete evidence that he was the one behind the kidnappings since he didn't deny it, more pleaded guilty.
"They didn't come with you, I know it." Gort took out the tea bags and sweets that Sky had from her investigation.
"You drugged them into coming to this place, I heard from the testimonies from the victim's families about their disappearances, now will you turn yourself over to the Vale security to be questioned or will I need to take you down there by force?" Gort growled, shooting a look at Claus and pointed him to the coffin.
Claus snapped out of his shock and nodded, running to the coffin lifting the lid open to show… a girl, about 18 or 20 in age, she had long blonde hair and was in a plain white dress, her arms were crossed over her body as she slept, that was exactly the evidence needed to prove this mysterious figure is the culprit but whether she was alive or not was another question.
Claus held onto the girls wrist to check her pulse but alas, there was nothing, before confirming she was dead he checked her neck for a pulse too but there wasn't one, the student stumbled back.
"Now, may I ask your name?" Gort continued.
The mysterious boy's expression changed even more so, he frowned and gritted his teeth.
He was angry.
"You've seen the precious maiden without paying for a ticket, you shall pay and including in your trespassing, one of your souls will suffice, now pay the price!" He yelled out, lowering himself to the ground, raising his hand and clenching his fists, frowning enough that his blood vessels could pop.
"Security! Dispose of them!"
As he said, creaks and cracks could be heard from around the tent, Gort and Claus realised this could be bad and quickly ran into the centre of the stage, weapons ready and looked at their surroundings, watching each other's backs, Gort keeping an eye on the mysterious boyo as he stood there and watched them like a curious bird.
Suddenly, figures started to emerge from the shadows, they walked limply into the light showing it several people walking like they were come kind of living corpse, it mostly compromised of women of all different features with one man being an exception.
"They are my workers, imitations of the ones I love, except the man of course, he was a fool who trespassed, just like you fools, he had strength so I kept him."
"Professor, what do we do? This is crazy, too crazy." Claus' voice slightly trembled, he was frightened but tried not to show it but wanted to get out as soon as he could.
"We need to escape somehow and alert the others, we may even need to call for back up and get out." Gort mumbled, he too was thinking hard at the situation at hand, the two were heavily outnumbered just like in the valley with the Grimm but this time it was with humans and they can't just simply kill a human, especially if they're innocent, Claus forgot to say they were dead.
"Professor?" Claus started to panic as he saw the figures edge closer and closer to them, closing off their escape route while but then he had a thought, a gamble at that but he had to try it.
"H-hey, ring leader how about we negotiate?"
"Must I listen?" The ring leader glared as wires retracted back into his devices.
"It's a good deal, trust me but first I need to ask something." Cold sweat ran down Claus' face.
"Claus! what are you thinking?" Gort snarled at him, holding his cane up from the bottom end in a defensive position.
"Kay, speak mortal." The ring leader held up his hand like he was in high school and just stared creepily at Claus, putting him under pressure though the way Claus a mortal perked up an interest in Gort, quickly going through the cases he has done in the past.
"May I ask? Who is this so-called Maiden you mentioned all these imitated and also we never got your name." Claus lowered his weapons to try not to draw suspicion although the gaze he was being given from this leader tore right through his soul and felt like his heart could get ripped out in an instant.
"Well, a name? Names are important for identifying an individual, I had many in past lives, but always one that stuck so I guess that will work, Identify me as Maven, now, now to answer why I seek my maiden, like me she lives and she lives in another body with another soul so I search to find her, I search to feel her love." Maven clutched his chest and made a pained expression remembering his past.
"I wanted… to feel her love again, I wanted to feel her touch once again, I want to be one with her again but alas, this world… THIS WORLD SEPERATED US!" He flipped his head up to stare at Claus with his eyes widened with grief, clawing at his face, seeming that his pain is something he cannot bear to handle.
"AND NOW, THE GODS! THE DAMN GODS HAVE CHALLENGED ME TO FIND MY MAIDEN MARY AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIIIIIIIN, EVEN IF I HAVE TO TURN THE WORLD INTO MY PUPPETS, I WILL KILL AND SLAUGHTER TILL I FIND HER, NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US AND COME BETWEEN OUR LOVE, WITH EVERY DEATH, WITH EVERY LIFE STOLEN SHE TELLS ME TO KEEP LOOKING, I TRY SO HARD BUT ONE SAY I SHALL SUCCEED!"
The two couldn't move, the performance given to them by the now insane ring leader Maven has sent a fresh new shockwave and insanity and fear through them as they learned about his reason but also just confirmed that everyone in this tent apart from these three are walking corpses, was this the work of his semblance?
"Now… does that answer the question proposed?"
The room went silent, but Claus slowly picked up the courage to speak again, now understanding Maven just that little bit more.
"If you… let us go…" Claus stuttered through his words while trying to hold back his fear but continued.
"I can show you… a girl that… might be who you're looking for, she could possibly be this Mary you are looking for."
Maven looked interested and curious and curled a small smiled, but…
"A nice offer, a truly nice offer but… tis not enough to forgive your sins for trespassing, sorry but one soul to pay the toll, enough to keep the other silent, yes?" Maven clicked his fingers and the now corpses started moving again with their quiet moans.
"Dammit!"
As Claus instinctively yelled out loud, then he got punched by Gort, his expression accurate for the term "a fiery rage"
"What did you think using your own team like bait like that was going to do?!"
"I thought if we both could get out without a fight, we could warn the others and fight together you know?"
"Well that clearly didn't work, now he's going to target the village to find her, possibly involving innocent civilians, the security here is too weak to handle this mess, do you understand?!"
Claus never considered how his actions might affect others as he had a quick think that Maven could very well target Ray and go to kill his teammates just for her and if the town resisted, they would be attacked too, not to mention the security is mainly meant to deal with Grimm which could be dealing with attacking Grimm drawn by the negativity created from the situation.
But nevertheless Claus never doubted his teammates, he knew their strength and felt like with everyone together they could capture Maven and settle this incident, he turned to his professor to speak.
"Professor I-"
"Save it, if you've understood what your actions might have done, and you regret it, take on that guilt, be a better person and learn from your mistakes." Gort said, passing his cane to Claus and brought up his fists with the leather gloves on.
"Go, warn the others and request extraction, you will need to be on the defensive and watch your backs, my cane uses fire dust, use it wisely." Gort took a step forward and gave first blood by delivering 3 fast blows to 3 corpses that got too close to comfort, aura exploding from each hit, knocking them back onto the floor.
"No aura, not to mention how they took the blow was strange, they didn't even react…" Gort muttered to himself with how it felt from that strike, the bodies were cold as he came to a conclusion that what he's fighting may not be alive, he clenched his fists tighter upon that thought.
"What about you?" Claus asked, for the first time, he properly felt concern for someone, even if he didn't know this professor for very long.
"It's my duty to keep the students safe, if it's just one soul he wants then let it be me that fights him, don't worry I don't plan on going down, just return with everyone as fast as you can, Go Claus, Run!" Gort says, delivering more powerful jabs and kicks to others around him with immense speed and power while keeping a strong and alert form with his fists raised, the corpses moving more to him.
Claus bit his lip and yelled.
"I'll come back for you!"
Claus began running, clutching onto the cane for dear life, knowing that further talking would distract him but as he ran past Maven, he spoke in his ear with a wild smile.
"I'll be coming."
But Claus didn't stop to listen, he kept running, knowing that he will regret this day for the rest of his days, now knowing that Maven will be coming for him and his team, mainly for Ray now but he can't think about himself and now has a fire lit in his heart to make sure everyone gets home safe and prays in his heart that Gort manages to escape somehow as he makes a mad dash out of the tent and back into the village as fast as he could.
Back in the tent, Gort was still beating down the corpses although they kept getting up, his blows being able to dislocate their limbs but that didn't stop them from moving as they still tried to attack him with whatever weapons they could find, from pipes to wooden planks to even a whip.
He concluded that what he was fighting were indeed corpses after seeing the bodied get up again from their heads being twisted and continued attacking.
The teacher could easily dodge between them thanks to his semblance and his fighting experience, gently weaving through the crowd while attacking at the same time.
"Your hatchling is gone, why do you still try to grasp at your life human?" Maven asks with a bored expression, taking a yawn for he has forgotten to sleep for weeks.
Gort got some distance between him and the corpses to give his answer.
"Unlike what you think, I don't plan on dying, as long as I live, I will keep struggling to survive, that's human nature don't you think? That's why we build walls and have defences to keep Grimm and people like you out." He said with a smirk, getting a measure for his escape.
"If that's your answer and willing to break your contract and defile my law…. Die." Maven bit his lip and flexed out his fingers, his eyes narrowing and widening as he quickly widened his stance and dashed forward.