BBDW 76 [Black Butterfly] - Nevereverland

Section 89, 90 & 91.1 (UNEDITED) 

It seemed like a long time has passed. Jude didn't budge, like how he was lying on the bathroom floor yesterday. He was sure he felt a little muddled, but he didn't want to fall to the floor and sob. Jude was just tired and exhausted, with a deep sense of loss. Jude, wrapped in the shape of a larva curled up in a cocoon, dozed off for a moment and fell asleep. The sunlight outside the window swirled around like water.

When he opened his eyes again, the air that brushed his neck was quite spine-chilling. Before he knew it, a mouse approached Jude's side and tried to poke his immobile body, but fled to the hole on the other side. Jude’s body cringed as the cell phone cried in his pocket. Jude opened the flip phone reflexively and answered.

"Yes."

[It's me.]

"Why?"

[I found out the name of the orphanage where Hender Hill went in and called them. They said he disappeared about a year after he came in. Although it took some time to dig up that information since they were hiding it in order not to be questioned for neglecting their surveillance. The orphanage at that time must have been pretty coercive since there were quite a few other children who tried to escape besides Hender Hill.]

"Among them..."

[You want to ask if Toby and Jenny were there or not?]

A voice with a faint smile beat him to it. Normally he'd feel a little petulant, but Jude just nodded mechanically.

"Well, how was it?"

[There's no sign of them. There were children named Toby and Jenny, but they had nothing to do with the escape, they were adopted and living a good life. No child disappeared on the same day as Hender Hill. If the children were related to Hender Hill, they would have met after the escape.]

Jude furrowed his eyebrows lightly. No, I don't think so. Toby's been asking me to leave this place since the orphanage. Didn't we come out together? Did I get out with a lag of a few days? It wasn't clear what the children's real names were either. Jenny and Toby could have been nicknames. Because your name didn't really matter at the orphanage. Affirming it a little inwardly, Jude broached the next question.

"What about the unsolved case at 146th Street?"

[There's a lot of stuff going on those days, so it took some time, but I finally found it. There have been a few shootouts and raids..... but there's only one thing that stands out among them, that is, a human bone has been found in a fireplace in a house over there.]

It wasn't much of a surprise. Alvin went on in a not-so-serious voice.

[One of the vagrants who lived there hasn't been seen for about a month, so someone must have gone into the house. But there's no sign of anyone, so he tried to go back, but the smell of ash was particularly strong. So when he walked up to the fireplace, he found the remains of a burnt human in the huge amount of ashes.]

"What about the identity?"

[Probably the vagrant, but he must have been buried without his exact details known. Part of the adult skeletons came out, but it wasn't enough to figure something out.]

Jude paused for a moment. He had something to ask, but he couldn't say anything right away. Only after closing his eyes and pressing his hand against the middle of his forehead did Jude opened his mouth again.

"From those skeletons…. are there children's bones? The little one."

[Children? Well, I didn't hear that. Because it was so charred. Since only a part of the adult's bones came out, it could have been hard to tell even if the children's bones were included. It's such an old case, and I'm not sure if the record is accurate or whether it was roughly dealt with or not at that time. That's all I've got, so what's the harvest there?]

I've earned so much unnecessarily that it's not even worth saying the word harvest. Jude swallowed his voice. He was a little dizzy from the lumpy sensation that he couldn't describe. The fireplace seemed to growl and fall apart. Jude, who was gritting his teeth and touching his forehead, soon shook his head at Alvin's voice ringing in his eardrum.

[Jude, are you there? Are you okay?]

"I'm a little sleepy. I'll go back and get some sleep. I'm tired."

[....Okay.]

Alvin didn't try to dig, though there was a hint of doubt. Jude hung up the phone and exhaled a long breath. It was a sigh as if he just comes out after being buried in the fallen leaves.

"...let's get going."

Jude, who muttered briefly, soon turned around. The sound of a sticky hand reaching out from the fireplace and screaming to touch his back was clearly an auditory hallucination, and the blond detective was able to shake it off without difficulty. Confusion and calmness, the two are plainly separated marvellously in one vessel and spun round and round and round. Jude regretted slightly as he took out the Marlboro Lights he had bought on the way.     

I should have bought Marlboro Red. The look of the Zippo lighter, which had been rolling indifferently in his pocket for years, feels a little new.

*        *        *

His body feels strangely heavy. A platinum-blond young man was sitting leisurely drinking coffee inside his apartment when he came back slowly from smoking. It's almost like this is his own house, to a T. I didn't think he would fit with such an old apartment. Jude closed the door thinking dazedly. As soon as he flopped down leaning on the sofa, Alvin asked.

"Did you smoke?"

"Why, can't I smoke?"

"I think I've never seen you smoke before."

"... I, seriously, was being watched for my privacy."  

Alvin laughed briefly. Jude stretched languidly and asked in a drowsy voice as well.

"You don't smoke?"

"I don't. I couldn't like the smell. It's not good for your health."

"It's so strange to hear that from your mouth. A serial killer who takes care of his health. Wow, what a sinful combination."

The quibble jokes flowed out in a low and indifferent voice, a little reflexively. He heard Alvin giggling. Jude slowly collapsed on the sofa like a heavy rock sinking on the riverbed. He felt stuffy on one side of his head. Maybe it's because he suddenly smoked something he didn't smoke often - and the reaction was negative. Unbuttoning his jacket with slothful hand movements, Jude nonchalantly said to him as he sips his coffee.

"Really, there was nobody with the names Jenny and Toby?"

"There was none. At least in the way it relates to Hender Hill. In fact, it might not have been recorded because the orphanage system itself was very lax back then. Anyway, it didn't come out from the investigation. Maybe you met them after you left the orphanage."

No. Jude denied it to the core. Obviously, the children were with him from the bleak orphanage. We talk about running away together, and we used to whisper even after lights out, avoiding the eyes of the hot-tempered orphanage teacher. However, his body was too heavy just like big wet cotton to raise such a question.

"Okay..."

"So I'm going to try to get in touch with the person who found the piece of bone. If he knew the dead man, he would've been living near him at the time, and he might know which kids were there. By the way, how was it over there?"

Jude didn't speak and raised his arm to cover his eyes. His consciousness was already getting a little blurry. His body drooped as if he had chewed a handful of sleeping pills. His body demanded sleep to the point of urgency. Alvin's voice sounded faint as if it had been filtered out at once.

"Something's out, isn't it?"

"...later...eh."

"Jude?"

Why am I so sleepy? He couldn't understand it himself. He dozed off enough at the house. He even had a crazy idea that he might've inhaled harmful fungi that caused sleepiness. Alvin got up from his seat and he felt the sign of him approaching, perhaps he realized something was off. The hand touching his forehead was still a little chilly.

"Later..... I'm sleepy."

"Are you okay? Your fever is a little higher than yesterday. Don't you think you should take some aspirin?"

"Enough….."

He was too lazy to answer. Like sinking into heated water, Jude rushed into sleep.

*        *        *

It was not until the next morning that Jude barely opened his eyes. The blond detective, tossing and turning, soon felt something unusual and narrowed his eyebrows. Jude, who yawned loudly, quickly noticed what was strange. The place where he lay down was not on the sofa, but on the bed where he couldn't remember when was the last time he used it. I don't remember coming up here. Jude slowly rose to his feet. The bones and muscles of his whole body screamed just by the simple movement. He couldn't even guess how long he slept. Jude, who stretched out then and there despite the pain, shook his head briefly. His head was still blank.

He could hear someone outside. There was something similar to the smell of food, with the sound of something being arranged on the table. What is it again, this situation, he hasn’t experienced it since he left the orphanage. Jude looked out of the door sleepily. It was a blue-grey-eyed man who soon popped out his head all of a sudden.

"You’re up. I was just baking."

"......I don't think there's anything to bake in this house."

"I went to get it. I don't see anything necessary for life in the fridge in this house. Take a shower. You should eat something. You barely ate anything yesterday."  

A serial killer was spouting lines like a housekeeper in his house. Jude stepped out of bed pressing his temples at this odd situation.

"Why am I sleeping here?"

Actually I’m itching to use the word househusband there huehuehue (blame my fujo brain) but… Let’s save it. I stopped here on purpose. You can imagine while it lasts. Hahah. See ya.