Here we go the latest chapter where Mephiles and Blaze continue the investigation.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this.
The Dark Among Us Episode 2 Smoke and Mirrors Chapter 2
Examining the Body
Mephiles and Blaze walk into the business office and look around, it was just as it was when Mephiles was last her.
"Bowser Jr. is over there." Blaze said to Mephiles pointing to the kid and his father standing looking into the Magic Mirror. "I don't know if you want to talk to him first or after, but let me know when you're ready to see the body. I'd…I want to be there." They hear flapping wings and see Pit fly over and land nearby, Blaze goes to talk to him saying "Pit, you got a second?"
"Of course, Miss Blaze." Pit said with a nod.
Mephiles sees the tarot cards face down on the Crane's desk, he picks up one depecting a heart stabbed with three swords known as Three of Sword. "Well, that's appropriate." He said and flips the next one which had a black wolf and white wolf howling at the moon "The moon. Usually this is about deception or confusion, but for me…. well, who knows." He puts it down with the Three of sword.
"Shame these can't solve murders." Mephiles said flipping the last one which had a clocked man with a lantern known as The Hermit. "I hope you find what you're looking for." He puts it down and sees a pill bottle on Crane's desk "Antacids. Maybe this has been harder on him that I thought."
He looks around and sees a bottle on Blaze's desk and goes to get a closer look and sees it's perfume bottle known as Bursintrix, "Blaze's perfume" He then sees the book of fictions and goes to look into it.
He looks at the section showing him and Qrow in combat, Qrow's niece Ruby by his side "Seems like not much has changed between me and Qrow." He then looks at Blaze in the book "I meant what I said, Blaze." He looks at Belle and Adam "Belle and Adam…always putting on a show for each other." He next looks at Jade in the book and sighs saying "I will get to the bottom of this." He then was done and goes up to Blaze and Pit.
"So, check out anyone who fits that profile. You might start with Ganondorf." Blaze told Pit.
"Right away, Miss. Blaze" Pit said with a nod.
Blaze looks at Mephiles and asked, "Are you ready to examine the body now?"
"In a minute." Mephiles said thinking it best to talk to Bowser Jr. first.
"When you're ready." Blaze said nodding. Mephiles then moves and approaches Bowser and his son.
The two were looking in the mirror and then see Mephiles approach so Bowser said to the Magic Mirror "Ah, that's enough, mirror! Vanish! Cancel!"
"Bowser, what the heck are you doing?" Mephiles asked wondering what the Koopa was using the mirror for.
"What? I wasn't touching anything." Bowser said to him.
"What's going on?" Blaze asked approaching.
"Don't worry, no harm done." Bowser said and looks to Mephiles "Right, Mephiles?"
"We'll talk about this later." Mephiles just said through he couldn't help but feel some level of respect coming from Bowser when the Koopa was looking at him.
Blaze crouches down to Bowser Jr. and said softly "Bowser Jr…" The kid apporches scared and sniffing "It's alright. Are you ready to talk to Mr. Mephiles?"
Bowser Jr. still upset due to what he saw sniffs but nods. Mephiles crouches down and thinks on what to say first.
"It's okay." Blaze said trying to calm the young Koopa.
"Are you….okay?" Mephiles asked him.
"Go ahead, Junior." Blaze said to him.
"I go swimming at night sometimes with the Koopalings, in the river…we wasn't doing anything bad, I promise." Bowser Jr. began to explain.
"Of course you weren't." Bowser said softly to his son.
"We know you're a good kid, Junior." Blaze said with a nod. "You're okay."
"You're not in trouble." Mephiles reassured him. "Just tell me what happened."
"The Koopalings went further down river, but I remained there...under the big blocks. And I heard noisy feet." Bower Jr. recounted "And when I hear that, I'm supposed to go underwater and stay real still and quiet."
"That's right, son." Bowser said patting his back reassuringly.
"Then I saw…" Bowser Jr. continued but was getting upset and scared remembering "I saw the lady…"
Bowser pats his back and says "It's okay son."
Mephiles wanted to comfort him but felt that be too much so just said "Take your time."
"The lady…. fell in…but she didn't have her head on!" Bowser Jr. then said scared "I thought….I thought she was gonna pull me down too. Cause she had rocks on her feet. And she kept falling down in the dark parts." He cries.
"Cinderblocks. Tied to her ankles." Blaze tells Mephiles to what those rocks were. She then looks to Bowser Jr. "Is their more Junior?"
"Is it true…you know when people are lying?" Bowser Jr. asked Mephiles. "I heard you could do that. That's why you're the Sheriff.
Mephiles thinks and not wanting to be hard on the boy he decided to tell him like this saying with a gentle smile "Yeah, it's my special power. I always know when people aren't telling me the truth." Bowser Jr. nods to that "Is there something else you want to say?"
Bowser Jr. guilty looking turns to his father and said "Please don't be mad."
"What is it Junior?" Blaze asked him
"I…I didn't stay under the water." Bowser Jr. admits.
"What?" Bowser said in shock and anger looking at his son.
"I know I'm supposed to, but I was scared, and I went to the top again." Bowser Jr. explained. "I couldn't help it."
"I gave you and the Koopalings very specific rules! You have to stay quiet and out of sight or bad things can happen. I told you!" Bowser told his son angry Bowser jr. cries at this. "It's dangerous out there! If someone saw you!"
"You're not in trouble." Mephiles said to Bowser Jr.
"Like the abyss he's not." Bowser said to Mephiles.
"Not this time, Bowser." Mephiles told him. Bowser just folds his arms.
"So, you didn't stay underwater…" Blaze asked Bowser Jr.
"I don't know…if anyone saw me, but someone said, 'stop laughing'. And then I was scared, and I went under for as long as I could." Bowser Jr. explained.
"Wait, you heard someone?" Blaze asked him.
"Yes." Bowser Jr. said nodding.
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Bowser asked him.
"I didn't want to be in trouble." Bowser Jr. admits.
"Okay Bowser Jr." Mephiles said feeling that that was enough.
"I'm sorry. After I came up again there was no one there, I ran home, the Koopalings following concerned. That's all." Bowser Jr. said, during that Bowser looks and smiles at Mephiles thankful he ended the questioning. "I promise! I want to go home." He cries.
"Okay, you can go." Mephiles said with a nod.
"Thank you, Junior." Blaze said smiling.
"Okay, son." Bowser said placing a hand on his shoulder "Let's get you home."
"Yeah, thanks." Mephiles said with a smile and Bowser Jr. smiles a bit too.
"Come on, then." Bowser said as he and his son leave the business office.
"That went as well as I expected." Blaze said as she and Mephiles watch them leave. She then looks at him "You want to go look at the body now?"
Mephiles things and looks to the Magic Mirror and said "In a minute."
"When you're ready." Blaze said nodding and goes back to Pit.
Mephiles approaches the Magic Mirror and said "Hey, mirror."
"Hello, Mephiles. Nice to see you." The Magic Mirror said once his white face appeared.
"What were you showing Bowser and his son?" Mephiles asked curious.
"Rosalina, selling non magical wants, Pyrrha Nikos, Sash Lilac, and of course there's you." Magic Mirror explained. "And I can't help note you did not rhyme. Do try to stick to the rules next time."
"Yeah, I'll do that." Mephiles said annoyed. He then asked "Qrow Branwen and I were fighting, now I want to know where he's hiding." The Mirror shows the image Qrow drinking from a bottle in a street somewhere, where is not clear "Well, that's helpful." He said sarcastically. He then asked "Where can I find Dox…uh…. the son of an ox." The mirror shows Dox smiling a a car, again isn't clear where.
Having no more Mephiles walks away from the mirror and approaches Blaze and Pit. Blaze said to Pit "…Also, I'd like you to get me some information on this 'Neighbourhood Watch' program that the mundy's have."
"I believe I already have some pamphlets on file." Pit said smiling.
Blaze looks to Mephiles "You want to go look at the body now?"
"Yeah." Mephiles said sighing.
"Oh my gosh! I almost forgot!" Pit then said he then rushes to a box marked evidence, picks it up and then flies off and away.
"Come on." Blaze said sadly and leads the way and Mephiles follows.
They soon arrives in the Witching Well Chamber, Mephiles never liked it down here and he could see the reason why in the centre, the well in which the chamber gets its name. There were so many mysteries regarding the Witching Well, who made it, how it got into the Mundy world, does it have a bottom?
No one has any clue to these answers, but one thing was a fact to all, anything or anyone falls or gets thrown into it, is never heard from again. To this fact, the Witching Well serves as the maximum punishment for anyone who disrupts the harmony of the fictions, worse than a death sentence.
Mephiles follows Pit and Blaze to a nearby table where the body and head of the deceased 'Blaze' lay. All three of them look at the body.
"Wow." Blaze said walking up to it "I didn't realize…I've never seen her face before now."
"Are you going to be, okay?" Mephiles asked her. "You don't have to stay."
"I want to stay." Blaze told him. "I'll be fine, it's just…a little strange. The glamor is so effective, it's…invasive. But…Just do what you need to do." Mephiles nods and begins with the head. Blaze suggests "Check her mouth. There might be a ribbon in there…like before." Mephiles nods and looks "Anything?"
"Nothing." Mephiles said shaking his head.
"Can you…close her mouth?" Blaze asked a bit uncomfortable. Mephiles nods and does so "Thanks" Mephiles then sees and removes a broach resembling a spider from the bodies' coat and hands it to Blaze "That's weird. I don't wear a broach like that."
"Maybe it really belonged to her…not part of the glamour." Mephiles guessed thinking.
"Looks like something from the homelands." Blaze said looking at it. "Pit, do you recognize these symbols?"
"No, nothing I've seen before." Pit said shaking his head.
Mephiles looks at the neck and said, "Looks just like Jade's did."
"But there was nothing in her mouth this time. Do you think this was done by the same person?" Blaze asked.
"Hard to tell." Mephiles said thinking "Did Granny ever get back to you about Jade?"
"No. She said she wanted to run more tests." Blaze said shaking her head.
Mephiles sniffs and said, "She got your perfume right."
"How would she know…. how do YOU know what perfume I wear?" Blaze asked shocked.
"You can't fool this dark being's nose." Mephiles said but adds "Also I saw the bottle on your desk."
"Hey, do you see that?" Blaze said changing the subject as she notices a mark on the neck.
"Could be a bruise…" Mephiles said looking, he then looks down more and looks at her arm and sees her hand closed tight "Her fist is clenched."
"So, she fight back?" Blaze asked.
"No marks on her knuckles." Mephiles said looking.
"Oh." Blaze said nodding
"Maybe she was grabbing something." Pit said thinking.
"Maybe…" Blaze said with a nod
Mephiles tries to open the hand but it was tight due to the rigger mortis. He decides to hold off forcing it open for now and looks at the legs and see under the ripped white pants holes in her legs "Track marks."
"She used mundy drugs?" Blaze asked.
"Looks that way." Mephiles said nodding. "Pretty heavily too, I hear they only go for the legs if they've used up the veins in their arms…or if they're trying to hide the marks. Anyway, it means it's now a perfect match to your leg. Unless…"
"Don't be ridiculous." Blaze said annoyed.
"Maybe she was trying to compensate with that perfume." Mephiles said thinking.
"Wait." Blaze said stopping as she realizes something "If the glamour is supposed to make her look like me, shouldn't it be concealing things like track marks? That broach too. Why would it change everything else? I've never seen one this sloppy."
"It might be a cheap one…just to get the job done." Mephiles guesses after thinking.
"The magic users upstairs know what they're doing, that's why they cost so much." Blaze said arms folded. "Unless someone is making glamours illegally?"
"It's not technically illegal, miss." Pit points out "It's not encouraged for sure, but there aren't any laws specifically forbidding it."
"So, there's some sort of black market for glamours?" Mephiles asked.
"One would assume so." Pit said nodding. "I imagine anyone with proper access to the proper books and training could theoretically produce a glamour."
"Yet another thing to worry about." Blaze said concerned. "Black market or not, it's a pretty good match." She looks at her coat and then at her copies' mainly the hidden buttons on it "Look at that. The buttons aren't exact either. There is an extra one here looking like it's more to seat an additional thing added."
Mephiles first looks at the ankles which had marked bruising on it and said "Rope marks."
"She was tied up?" Pit asked.
"They tied cinderblocks to her ankles…so she would sink." Mephiles said recounting what they learned.
"Oh." Pit said sadly.
Mephiles then looks at the coat buttons "You're right. These buttons are wrong. I wonder…" He then awkwardly looks at Blaze.
"What?" Blaze said confused.
Mephiles thinks and the shakes his head "It's nothing. Forget it."
"Here." Blaze said knowing what Mephiles wanted and goes to undo the coat and opens it up, revealing the white undershirt the copy wore underneath, they also see slightly the kind of undergarments the Blaze copy was wearing under the white pants which were fancy pink.
"You still, okay?" Mephiles asked Blaze concerned, it can't easy looking at your own dead body.
"I…" Blaze began to speak.
"Sorry that, uh, took longer than expected." Johnathan Crane said walking into the area. "What have you found out?" Blaze walks to stand by Pit. "Well?"
"Her glamour is deferctive." Mephiles told him.
"Oh. Defective?" Crane asked curious.
"We're thinking it's black market." Blaze explained "We should really be regulating this kind of thing."
"Yes." Crane said with a nod. But the way he said it made it seem he wasn't concerned which Blaze and Mephiles picked up on.
"We should keep going." Blaze suggested.
Mephiles takes a look at the undergarments from what he could see they were silk lingerie and he asked Blaze "Are you wearing silk lingerie, Blaze?"
"Why do you want to know?" Blaze asked serious.
"I'm just trying to see if her clothes are exact." Mephiles said to her, right now he was focused on the job though inside he was embarrassed to ask this.
"They're not." Blaze just said.
Mephiles checks one of the coat inner pockets and pulls out a bottle of Burtinatrix perfume with a sticky note saying 'Use this' on it.
"What is that?" Crane asked.
"She had the perfume with her." Mephiles said "Looks like someone picked it out for her."
"So, someone gave her instructions?" Blaze asked concerned. Mephiles checks the other pocket and pulls out a wooden tube out "I've seen things like this before…It's definitely magic, though magic users don't usually craft objects these days."
"I don't think it's wise to fool around with that." Crane said concerned. "It's some kind of black-market magic, who knows what it could do? We should have it looked at. Just to make sure it isn't dangerous. Don't you think?"
"You may be right." Mephiles said to Crane but adds "One way to find out." He shakes to his ear and hears a rattle "Hmm."
"What?" Craine asked.
"There's something in here." Mephiles states
"How do we open it?" Blaze asked.
"I'm not sure yet." Mephiles said looking at it. "Something to do with these rings here." He begins turning the rings lining up the image till the dear was formed and a click was heard.
"A deer? What does that mean?" Blaze asked and sees the cap come off "Oh." Mephiles empties it on the table finding a lock of purple hair and a rolled up photo.
Mephiles picks up the photo and unfurls it seeing it was half a picture with it clearly showing Blaze smiling with another purple figure. He shows it to Blaze.
"Someone must have taken this from my apartment." Blaze said in shock. "I noticed it was missing, but I didn't think…This was the last picture of Lilac and me. My friend and I don't talk much anymore." Blaze hands it back to Mephiles who rolls it back up and places it on the table. He then picks up the purple hair. She asked "Let me guess, it's my fur hair."
Mephiles sniffs it and nods "Yeah." He puts it down.
Blaze walks away from the table and Mephiles goes to her. She then asked, "Who did this, Mephiles?" Before he can answer a green light from the table gets their attention and they look to see the body change and now resembled a purple skinned spider girl with six arms and four eyes, she also had black hair in pig tails "Oh my chaos!" Blaze said surprised.
"She's a spider girl monster?!" Pit said in shock.
"You've got to be kidding me." Crane said in shock.
"All right, you can calm down." Mephiles said sighing "It's not like you haven't seen an anthropomorphic spider monster before."
"Who is she?" Blaze asked she looks and sees on her leg what appeared to be a tattoo of what looked to be a web "That wasn't there before." She said and asked Mephiles "Who do you think she is? I don't know many spider people, I'm afraid."
"Should've least left them in the Homelands." Crane said annoyed.
"You don't mean that, do you?" Blaze asked shocked.
"Maybe Contessa knows." Mephiles said thinking.
"The owner of the Spider's Nest? No, she looks a little…" Blaze said then her eyes widen in realization "Oh no…"
"What?" Mephiles asked.
"It's not Contessa, it's her sister Muffet." Blaze said feeling guilt "She was reported missing, but I…I guess it just slipped through the cracks."
"We have to go and tell Contessa." Mephiles tells her.
"Right." Blaze said nodding "Who knows, she might know something about this. Who Muffet was seeing…"
"Certainly, another Spider." Crane speaks out arms folded.
Mephiles and Blaze look at the Deputy Mayor, for some reason he was very agitated about this, Blaze looks to Mephiles and said, "We should go."
"You can't go out there!" Crane said surprised.
"Why not?" Blaze asked annoyed.
"It's too dangerous. Someone tried to kill you." Crane told her. He then looks to Mephiles "Mephiles, you can't let her go out there with you. You'd be putting her life at risk."
"Mephiles is not in charge of me." Blaze told the human.
"He's in charge of this investigation." Crane told her.
"That's not the same thing." Blaze said.
"If Blaze wants to come with me, I'm not going to stop her." Mephiles simply said with a smile, Blaze looks back at him and smiles
"But…" Crane said in shock.
"We should leave now. You ready?" Mephiles asked Blaze.
"Yeah." Blaze said with a smile.
The two then head on out while Crane and Pit stay with the body, the next stop is back to the Spider's Nest Bar.
Well we identified the other Blaze and now we have to deliever some bad news to Contessa.
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