House of the Dead (open to all)

"Don't stay out too late okay honey?" A woman with light brown hair said leaning down kissing her daughters head that's hair color matched the woman's. The girl looked up from an arm she was holding and had been putting a glove on it and smiled up to the woman her deep blue eyes shimmering in happiness. "Okay mommy I won't me and the guys I found last night just have to finish putting up the bodies on the out side of the house now."

The mother chuckled and lightly hugged the girl "Okay just don't be out too late you still have homework to finish tomorrow, and great work the body looks just like that one kid uh what was his name?" The girl looked to the blonde haired boy in a hoodie "Kicker mom." she smiled "I couldn't figure out his eyes under his mask but he only wears a mask so it works." She said looking at the picture once more and gasped "oops he doesn't have gloves!" she took off the gloves then "Perfect!" She said smiling proudly as a burly man walked over

"need some help bringing that over to the house hun?" She smiled nodding "Yeah thanks daddy though I need to get my disguise on" she said with a smile. She took out her piercings as she walked over to a room full of costumes and fake faces smiling as she walked over to one that looked like an old woman costume. The next day it was all over the news... a house that was covered in dead bodies inside and out. Nailed into each chest of the ones in the front were signs written in a weird hand writing that spelt out "Welcome to the house of the dead! -Love, Your Birds Are Us~"

at first the house was just seen as a well done haunted house but when a body fell off the side groaning and coughing up blood a panic arose. Before anyone could ask the guy anything though a swarm of crows had flown in and finished him off. There was one other thing off about the house though... It was covered in bodies that were all dressed up to look just like very hero that had been around in the past year in stunning detail with each of their code names carved into them if they wore masks.

For ones that didn't wear a mask was cared all over their faces along with the words "found you". there were many duplicates of each hero on the inside and out. No one yet dared to enter the house though the police were on the scene holding off a crowd of people where the girl from before looked shockedly at the house with other girls all of which including her clung to each other in fear as they looked at the house with the rest of the crowd. detectives were on the case and were currently trying to figure out if they should take the bodies down yet.

Weislogia had heard of this "House of the Dead." Seeing as she was immortal the idea of something being able to kill her was...interesting. She decided to make a trip to the place and when she got there she was disturbed by what she saw. "Ew, it's kinda filthy." Is all she could think to say at first. Nonetheless she approached the house anyway. She walked up to the entrance, her godly pure skin shimmered in the starlight as she approached and knocked on the door.

She had no idea of horror culture. Spooky things, scary movies, gory murders, and such things alluded her. It was actually the reason she was here to understand and comprehend modern day fears. She put her finger in her mouth and looked around. The Young Goddess adorned her usual skin tight white dress today with sandals and her trademark pigtails.

Heather looked to the random girl that approached the house when the cops weren't looking and hide a smirk with her still shocked and scared expression. A cop glanced over the girl then back tracked to her as she got near the door. He started to run over to her shouting. "Hey! You can't go in there that is a crime scene!" His shouts got the attention of other cops who hurried over to stop her. "Mam you need to go back over by the others but that is as close as you can get.

You are not a detective nor cop so you may not be past those others. I'm going to have to ask you to either freely return to the crowd or do so by force." He warned her allowing her to leave of her own free will. As far as they knew she was just another girl who was curious of the house due to the lack of costume he also doubted her being a hero of any sort so once again he just assumed she was a well dressed civilian who of course had no place in a crime scene.

At this time, another police car would pull up, and a man in a trench coat would exit. A number of officers would salute and utter things like "Inspector Langford! Sir!" and "Thank you for coming Inspector Langford."

From the passanger seat of his car came a young man, who couldn't be older than 18. Unlike the girl, the police let him right in. After all, he was just as much on this case as his father. 

Walter Langford was on the scene

Before his dad could ask the obvious questions, Walter beat him to it. "So what do we know about the victim and cause of death?" He asked bending over the body.

"Ehh?" The girl was surrounded by police officers. One even threatened her. This seemed to annoy the female. She tapped her foot and folded her arms. "You would do better not to threaten a goddess. I will no longer give you my blessing." She peered at the other officers. "But if any of you will pay heed to me by vowing to serve me I will gift you with speed, power, knowledge. Whatever you desire."

She raised a hand to the sky as if to show them proof. The light struck her skin and in the luminescence her skin sparkled like a diamond.

Horrace sat comfortably and listened to the rattling of the wheels of his carriage. This was a long obsolete form of transportation, but he found it a much more pleasant means of getting from one place to the next then one of those metal death traps people drove these days. You could easily have lunch in your carriage- you couldn't do that AS easily in a car due to the lack of space. Then again, Horrace's was alittle more spacious to make room for his height.

On these eve, Horrace had enjoyed one of his late night outings. He was still deep in thought, clearly feeling quite himself. "Sir, what troubles you?" his Minotaur butler inquired. Maxwell was one of few living servants who chose to work for Horrace who had come to trust after so many years. He wasn't one to easily trust the living who he viewed as fickle, but Maxwell seemed to be the only exception. There was more to it but it wasn't important to dwell on.

"If I am being perfectly honest my friend... I am torn," Horrace replied grimly, looking into the palm of his hand as if it held some kind of clue to his turmoil. "After what I've learned I should be happy," Horrace continued leaning back in his seat for a moment. "How would you feel if you remembered something close and dear to yourself in a 'previous' life? Something so deeply buried in your soul that you had completely forgotten it to the point you didn't even know it was missing. And then to have it suddenly excavated by chance," Horrace went on anxiously.

Maxwell was quiet for a moment, Horrace could tell by the furrowing of his brow that he was giving it a good long think before answering. "If I may be so bold sir... it isn't the memory that troubles you," Maxwell began carefully. "It's more about facing your past is it not?" Maxwell asked hesitantly.

Horrace chuckled lightly. He forgot sometimes how perceptive Maxwell was despite his burly physique, which in a way was what made him more of an actual friend then a servant. "It's overwhelming to suddenly have no memory of your past, and then to suddenly be reminded of an important- nay THE most important thing to you when you were alive. She's out there Maxwell," Horrace said with nervous excitement. Maxwell looked at him in confusion. It had been a long time since he had seen his master so... alive.

"As I said, I am still trying to put the pieces together. But in life... there was this woman who I believe was to be my wife. Perhaps she was my wife, I can't be sure yet," Horrace explained. "Something happened... I believe something happened that caused my current state of affairs," Horrace added.

"And you're frightened in what it could be?" Maxwell guessed curiously.

"Heavens no. I'm frightened by what she'd think of me looking like this!" Horrace replied with embarrassment. Maxwell blinked and for an awkward moment they were silent before both burst out laughing. "Lighthearted joking aside- I believe she holds the answer to my being," Horrace continues on a more serious note, feeling the carriage stop.

"I take it this woman being alive today is similar to you, correct?" Maxwell commented.

"If I were to guess- I would say yes. Perhaps not like me, but an immortal all the same," Horrace replied thoughtfully. After a long moment of not moving, Horrace tapped the ceiling with his cane. "Antonius! What appears to be the delay?" Horrace demanded.

"There's police uphead slowing traffic down sir," The cyclops replied simply. As his appearance conveyed, the driver had only a single eye. Also judging by his pale appearance, he was also turned into a Wight. He had brandy back at his master's house with his name on it and this delay was a great irritation. Horrace poked his head out to have a look for himself. Because this was the residential district there wasn't too much traffic, but even a few cars driving slowly up ahead would be enough to delay them. From what he could make out, there appeared to be something going on before one of the houses. There was... something about it that made him hunger. Did someone die? As they drew closer, Horrace concluded that not just one person, but several judging by the number of bodies hanging on the house.

"Sir... the air is ripe with death. Would you like me to stop?" the driver asked, also feeling the hunger. He WAS a Wight afterall, so it was only natural for him to put aside his desire for booze for potential souls.

"Verily- a late night meal is exactly what I need to put my troubled souls at ease," Horrace replied as the carriage (which had been at the back of several other cars) broke free and picked up speed toward the house. Now a carriage wasn't too strange of a sight even in this day and age- but one being pulled by a centaur made it stick out in your mind. Based on the centaur's haggard appearance and empty eyes, it had been reduced to a mindless lesser Wight which made it stick out even more.

Horrace hopped out once the carriage came to a complete stop, scaring away anyone still brave enough to stick around at the sight of Horrace's carriage. "Good evening everyone! I hope that my timing has not been an inconvenience to you, but the subtle aroma of departed souls called out to me!" Horrace announced politely and sincerely, but his choice of words were poorly made.

"Brian! It's that Tall Man," an officer whispered to one of his fellow officers when Horrace walked up to them before 'Brian' could respond.

"Good day to you officers. I understand this isn't protocol, but I believe it would benefit us both for you to allow us passage. There are souls of the recently departed still lingering that I and my driver desire- thereby I have no reason to wish harm on you or your fellows. I may even be of service to you!" Horrace explained to the two officers before him, with Maxwell (who was about eight feet tall and built like a The Govenator) and Antonius (who was unremarkable but his single large eye was frightening enough) flanking him.

"D-do you really think we're just gonna let you eat their souls?" the officer who spoke before spoke up timidly.

"Yes. You have absolutely nothing to gain in denying my request. And leaving these tormented souls to linger, left to wander with the memory of their final moments forever burned into their souls. It is your duty as an officer to see to it that these souls be dealt with. By consuming them, they will be spared further torment," Horrace replied calmly. Perhaps because of his charm, his cohorts, or just because the officer was just completely frightened by Horrace, he meekly nodded and stepped aside for him.

And with that, Horrace and his crew continued on their way. Ignoring the present company, the Wights took a deep breath to pull in the lingering souls of the dead. When that was finished, Horrace sighed. Antonius flinched and seemed to be uncomfortable for a moment or two. "Oh... how amusing. These people did suffer," Horrace remarked before dusting himself off.[/color]

((ooc: Guys just so you are aware it is in fact morning time in this thread, i see it as important to point that out due to showing just how long everyone thought that the bodies were decoration before getting stunned by the fact that they weren't.))

Some started to look annoyed with her as the one the 'threatened' her looked at her with a twitching eye brow. "Mam I am not threatening you, now please if you do not remove yourself from the scene now I will have to, 'escort' you back to the crowd and if you gain any injuries I assure you they could only be brought on by you because I don't plan on hurting you only bringing you back to the crowd where you belong." He said calmly yet annoyingly, When she tried to claim that she was a goddess it only annoyed them all further.

"Yeah no, mam any meta human or alien can could did what you did easily. You are now getting in the way of police duties by distracting us from our jobs so please remove yourself from this location." another said that looked very annoyed by her. One looked back to see Walter and sighed in relief when he saw him and his father approaching and walked over to him and began to walk beside him as he went to the dead body. "We know that of 8:00 am today he fell off the side of the house shouting in pain and coughing up blood.

Before eye witnesses could help multiple birds came in and attacked vital points in his neck and under his jaw making him bleed out and die. Until this point the bodies had been assumed to be realistic decorations due to the date closing in on Halloween. We don't know who any of the victims are due to not wanting to mess with them nor remove what we hope are masks of old heroes but we can confirm that we now know that all the other bodies are people like this poor man. We don't have any real leads on who did it yet but that girl up front who is seeming to refuse to leave the area and claiming to be a goddess is starting to become a suspect among other things."

He said clearly being one of the cops that was annoyed by her. Many turned to look at the carriage and many ran away though some stayed taking pictures with their phones but as Horrace spoke most of those who remained ran off in fear leaving few still around one of those being Heather and her friends who coward in fear. Heath wasn't really scared, if anything she was curious of this being, in the world they lived in he would be not too much of an uncommon sight or at least too much of a scary one based on everything people tend to see in Jump city it being full of monsters, demons, aliens, and meta humans.

An officer who had seen his fair share of the worst parts of Jump and lived looked to him clearly unphased and spoke. "Sir do you know now of their past memories? If you do It would help us greatly if you could inform us of what they are."

"I see." Walter said taking notes of everything. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl the officers were eyeing as suspicious. There was another man who had made his way in, and he was most certainly bizarre. 

"He was still alive upon falling from the building. These claw marks were made premortem. That means he was the newest victim. But wasn't able to put up much of a fight, but he did try clawing at the killer." He said checking the victims hand. There was something under there that looked like skin. He motioned for a forensic to come over and take a sample.

"The presence of crows and their behavior however, are something of a conundrum." He said turning to another officer. "Can you make some inquiries into bird related attacks in the past few years. Bring me anything relevant." As much as Walter hated relying on it, he had to take into account any possible metahuman or magical explanations.

The officer saluted and ran off. "Sure thing Walter."

"But if we take into account that there's a reasonable explanation for the crows, then things start to fall into place." He said.


"From the sounds of eyewitness testimony-" He said peering over the shoulder of an officer and pointing at his notepad.  "-there weren't any marks on the victims neck before the birds attacked. I don't see any signs of poisoning, though I'll need the autopsy to confirm it. Then that means the wound was inflicted somewhere else."


He bent over the neck of the body. "Now what have we here?" He whispered. pulling a little material off the victims neck. "Latex." He said. "The victims face, neck, and chest are coated in it." He said moving to his chest.


"Now the neck and face I could understand. By the looks of things the killer wanted to make their victims look like props. But until the investigation, his chest was covered. But what does it cover?" He asked himself. Then all the pieces clicked. It all made sense now. "Of course! It could only be-"


He pulled the latex off to reveal a decent sized wound in his chest. "This is the initial wound." He explained.


"It's possible the victim lived for a few minutes judging by the severity of it, but we'll again need the official autopsy report to be sure. And that raises another question." Walter pointed out. "Why go to the trouble of hiding the wound. A chest wound like that would easily be found given a proper autopsy. So that begs the question. Why did the killer bother hiding it at all? I can only think of one reason." He said turning around to face everyone.


"The killer is still close by, and still has critical evidence pertaining to the chest wound that they haven't had the time to get rid of yet. Officers, you should make a barricade. Nobody gets out. We have a killer in this crowd."

"Ohh how exciting!" Weislogia said as the man declared there was a killer in the crowd. That meant she would be part of a murder investigation. She had seen enough television to understand that these were exciting times of entertainment for people in this era. She clapped her hands and jumped up and down.

Horrace murmured something to himself and seemed to enter a kind of trance, cliched yes but true. It wasn't over the top and cheesy, he was just perfectly still and silent as if mustering every bit of his concentration. Antonius followed suit but seemed to be having trouble keeping in that state. "Antonius, you will have to clear your mind to avoid breaking your concentration," Horrace instructed him, slipping out of his trance before addressing the officer that spoke to him before again.

"Nearly all of these victims met their demise to a murder of crows. None of them in the same place, or time of day. I confess that I am not an avian expert, but we can agree that these many bird attacks in a short time is no coincidence. Being that they are Crows, it is not completely absurd to consider them highly trained," Horrace began in a low tone of voice so as not to tip the killer off. "But I want to believe that the more likely scenario is that they are being controlled by some means of power," Horrace finished that train of thought.

"In one of the visions I saw, I saw a group of men before the victim passed out. It may have been the gentleman who fell off the side of the house," Horrace continued.

"In the vision I saw, he actually saw the one dressing him up. An old women with red eyes," Antonius chimed in, following Horrace's discretion by speaking low so the killer wouldn't hear them. But why not kill the last victim? Why wound him in such a way?

Harpy played the part perfectly, looking scared, afraid, and proved to be no more of a suspect than any other teen age girl or boy in the crowd. Though in her head held her true thoughts. She found Walter a very worthy adversary and to her was more of a threat than most since he was very good at finding information even if the last bit of it was false he was right that the killer was still there, he just got the reason as to why she was there wrong. This other guy though was also a problem with his not playing fair and bringing magic into things.

But based on his expressions he hadn't cheated his way to much info who she was rather proud of the fact that she even managed to cover it to the limit of not even this guy's cheatsy magic could pin this on her. One thing she was surprised about was the fact they hadn't even checked who she killed, she didn't really know who she killed either maybe one or two or 5 or 10 moderately rich people but most to all were 15 - 19 year olds, She wanted to see the face on their faces when they noticed where all those missing 'kids' went in the past week or so had gone. And she wanted it to be revealed to all the moderately high scoeity that their little 'babies' were dead, hmm....

She was really getting excited about traumatizing people with the death of their children that they raised for 15+ years that were possibly good people.... maybe she had a problem... maybe she shouldn't be-..... she mentally laughed. she should stop making jokes at a time like this it could make acting scared hard which she didn't want. Though lucky for her she still managed to keep the act up perfectly. A police officer glared at the girl as she ignored them and started to grab her to bring her over to the crowd as another looked to her then to Walter as if to tell him that he suspected the giggling happy bouncy girl who was excited about how close they were to the killer.

Harpy loved that they were so wrong and or confused on her motives, people always seemed so focused on motives that they always wanted one even if non existed. If they thought about the idea of there not being a motive maybe they would go faster or maybe they wanted one because the idea of someone just killing to kill made them scared that there was someone out there that was willing to kill to kill. What ever the matter there was nothing to link her to the crime that didn't also link anyone else who lived in the area to the murder aka 90% of the crowd.

She blended oh so perfectly in with the people in the scenery that all she merely appeared as which to her was one of the best places to hide since because she did so, if they pinned her they would have to pin 90% of the crowd since she had just as much evidence on her as they all did.

An officer began taking the details of the man reading the spirits of the victims. He was only half taking it seriously, but who knows. Maybe Walter could actually make some sort of sense of it. But given how... well... ludicrous it sounded, he wouldn't get it until much later.

Walter began flipping through his own notes. "Hmmm. Based on these witness reports, and the position of the body now, I'd have to say he fell from..." He said pointing to a spot on the side of the building.


"That part of the second story roofing. The part the juts out right there." He motioned, walking into the house and up the stairs. He would then climb out the window and onto the roof. The first thing he did was bend over the gutter and pluck up something. A small, slender, black something.


"A crow feather." He said with a grimace. "That fits. But what else is there." He pondered, looking around. There were other bodies pinned up. "What a twisted mind."


He put his hand to his chin. And began thinking. 'The killer wanted this body to be found. That means this was probably their last intended victim. So then why-'


"Walter! We got those results on related cases!" An officer that had just arrived yelled up. Walter looked at him and motioned for him to come up. A quick 20 seconds later he would poke his head out the window.


"Apparently this attack is similar to a rash of recent attacks performed in the last month. It is a metahuman, with the ability to control birds, and turn into a swarm of crows. Heck, even the Titans have a vested interest in this one. Something pertaining to the leaking of secret identities. We know little else about them though. We've placed their approximate age to that of a high school student, We can't even pin down a positive gender or facial features. It would appear our suspect is a-"


"Master of disguise. We know." Walter said standing up. "All of these bodies have had intensive makeup jobs to disguise their appearance, as well as give them the appearance of Halloween decorations. See if you can get in touch with the titans. If they have an interest in this, they may be willing to share notes."