6 - A Sympathetic Corpse

Manolya’s POV

By the time I reached the station parking lot, I was soaked.

The downpour picked up heavier just as I stepped out of the car. My hair was drenched and I could not help but shiver as the cold rain seeped into my skin.

I made a beeline for the entrance and headed straight to the locker room.

After a hot shower, I dried and braided my hair. I slipped into a fresh, crisp uniform and made my way downstairs to the cellar. This was where the air always grew heavy and stale.

Kenan and Aylin were already waiting. Aylin, the forensic doctor and Kenan’s former partner, stood over the body. Her honey blonde hair was tied into a sleek bun, white plastic apron, latex gloves above her uniform.

The man was already laid out the cold examination table. As usual, the checkered black and white floor stung my eyes, and the sickly green tint of the walls made the room feel even more oppressive.

It seemed to resonate with the deathly stench lingering in the air.

The man on the table looked to be in his forties.

He had the tan, typical clothes and the features of a tourist. I squinted at his pale face, my thoughts clouding with suspicion. “Hey Kenan, do we have any missing tourists lately? Any reports we might have missed?”

“Not that I know of,” Kenan muttered, leaning against the green wall.

“I can check the system later,” I said, turning my attention to the doctor. “Aylin, we need your expertise. What was the cause of death?”

Aylin took a deep breath and scanned her preliminary report. “It is strange. It looks like he died from massive blood loss, but I cannot find a single wound. Where did all his bodily fluids go? This was not an accident, Manolya. We are looking at a homicide.”

Before Aylin could finish, the air in the room began to vibrate. The body flickered like a glitching screen. We all recognized the scent instantly. It was the unmistakable, sulfurous reek of black magic.

As the glamour on the corpse faded, its true condition became visible. The flesh had been gnawed away in jagged patches. I fought the urge to gag at the sight of the raw, chewed bone. Aylin covered her nose with her mask, and I could see Kenan’s jaw tighten as his stomach churned.

“Well, now we know where all his blood went,” Kenan said through clenched teeth. He was trying not to inhale the foul odor.

“The ghouls got him,” I whispered, my skin crawling. “I cannot believe he ended up as their dinner. But how? There are no ghouls in the Akyaka graveyard. How did we miss this? Did he even die there?”

Aylin shook her head firmly. “No. He did not die at the graveyard. The site was too clean, without a single drop of blood. He was dumped there after he was drained elsewhere. Kenan, you need to talk to Chief Serdar. This is officially a case for the Dark Affairs Unit. In the public report, we will call it a tragic slip and fall accident in case any family comes looking for him.”

“What about his social media?” I asked, looking at Kenan.

Kenan sighed and shook his head. “I could not find a single trace of him online. It is like he does not exist.”

Aylin tilted her head, scrutinizing the man’s features through her goggles. “How could someone like this go missing without a report? He has such a sympathetic face. He looks like a good man. Besides, he has been dead for a while. This did not happen tonight.”

I pretended to study the corpse, but I opened my telepathic link to Aziz. In my mind, I saw him stretch his angelic wings. He rattled them like pan-flutes, shaking off the lingering filth of the black magic. He looked disgusted aswell.

“Is this not freaky, Aziz?” I asked him silently. “I wonder what is actually hidden at that graveyard. You could not detect the presence before, and now we find a man fed to ghouls.”

“We need to be extra cautious,” Aziz replied, his voice a low rumble in my head. “Something out of the ordinary is happening. It is odd that his identity is so well hidden. There is a reason for that, and I think we are about to find out why.”

Kenan’s voice broke my concentration. “Manolya, please write up the report and leave it on Chief Serdar’s desk. I will see you tomorrow. I have a grumpy wife to appease tonight. Wish me luck.”

I managed an amused smile despite the gore in front of us. “Sure thing. Just do not forget the yacht, Kenan, or she will make you sleep on the couch again.”

Aylin shook her head at us, clearly unimpressed by our childish banter.

I left the cold basement and climbed the stairs to my office. After sitting down at my desk, I finished the final lines of the report, but an unsettling feeling began to gnaw at me.

The missing identification, the trace of sulfur, the way the body had been hidden by magic. None of it made sense.

I looked at the crime scene photographs of the dead man. Something about the way his features had been distorted felt oddly personal.

It was as though someone had been deliberately sending us a message.

It was such a cruel, hollow way to die.

It felt like a warning meant specifically for me.

Why had no one reported him missing?