Volume 7 - Clutching Coils, Chapter 47 - Night Ripper

As the girls were all settling down for their last night of vacation, Mara and Tsuen had gotten into another argument. Tsuen got emotional, Mara couldn't help but say something snarky, and it escalated until Tsuen literally tossed the little arachne out of the room.

Tsuen yelled, "I need to be alone right now!" and slammed the door.

In a daze, Mara wandered down the hallway, wondering where she'd sleep. Her normal energy was nowhere to be seen, replaced with a drab, dark mood. She started her search at Iormu's room. She's got a huge room, so she won't mind sharing with me, Mara thought as she knocked.

Iormu opened the door quickly, but looked disappointed when she saw Mara in the hall. "Oh, it's you. What's up, Mara?"

"Can I stay in your room? Tsuen kicked me out." Mara's voice was flat and expressionless and very unlike her.

A pained expression crossed Iormu's face and she said, "Sorry, Mara, but I'm expecting company tonight."

Mara's eyes flashed wide in realization. "Oh, really?" She wanted to say something witty about Iormu's mischievous midnight rendezvous, but she gave up. "Ah, nevermind. Thanks anyway," she mumbled as she slowly turned in place, then shuffled away.

She knocked on Quess's door next, half-expecting a similar story from the highly-sexual slime. Instead, Quess opened the door wide and welcomed Mara inside immediately.

"Come on in, Mara." She closed the door after Mara entered, then asked, "What's up?"

"Tsuen kicked me out."

"Thass what I figured," Quess said, slurring her words slightly. "What'd you do this time?"

Mara sat down next to the room's lone futon, then let her eyes wander as she spoke, "Nothing. I was just talking about Yuisu when Tsuen got all upset for no reason, then we got in bad fight." Her roaming gaze paused on a big bottle of plum wine sitting next to the bed.

Quess flopped gracelessly onto the futon. "Lemme guess… you said something about how Yuisu is such a good host, and how she could run a great inn, and she's pretty sexy?"

Mara scrunched up her face. "Kinda. How'd you know that?"

"Because those things are true. But that doesn't mean Tsuen wants to hear you say them. She doesn't want to hear you praise other women." Quess grabbed the bottle of plum wine, stuck it in her mouth and upended it, chugging several mouthfuls. "She's jealous. I know that feelin', you know?"

Mara eyed the wine bottle, wishing that it could affect her like it did everyone else. Alcohol doesn't get me drunk, but caffeine does. I wonder if I can find some coffee this late…

"What about you, Quess? Are you okay?" Mara asked, legitimately concerned about what would drive Quess to drink alone.

"Eh, I'm fine. Got plenty of sexy food thanks to the lovebirds down the hall, and thanks to Iormu and her…" Quess trailed off and shook her head quickly, sending ripples through her jelly body. "Nevermind. Point is I'm fine. Juss relaxing with some plum wine. That's what you're 'sposed to do on vacation." She hiccupped, then continued, "Relax that is. The wine just helps." She took another swig, as if to prove her point.

"That actually sounds nice," Mara said, then stood up. "I'm going to see if I can find a maid to get me some coffee, and I'll join—"

"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEEE!" A piercing and inhuman scream echoed through the inn.

"What the hell was that?" Mara stood in a daze for a second, then darted toward to door.

Quess jumped up from her futon, but she started to wobble and said, "Whoa, big Quess is sleepy," in a high, echoey voice. Quess's features softened and faded until she was just a simple slime with two round eyes, then she fell back onto the futon with a SPLAT.

Mara was torn between the scream in the hallway and her drunk friend, but she quickly turned back to check on Quess. Thankfully, the little slime was snoring softly, safe and sound.

"I guess I'll check out that terrifying scream by myself then. In the middle of the night, in a creepy old inn, alone," Mara muttered to herself. She swallowed hard, then stepped out into the hallway.

Iormu was already in the hallway when Mara arrived, her tail still trailing from her open bedroom door.

"Hey, Iormu," Mara whispered, "What was that scream?"

Iormu shook her head. "No idea. And no sense in whispering. Only the heaviest sleepers could have slept through that." She beckoned at Mara. "Come with me, I want to find out what happened."

Mara let out a very relieved breath. Oh thank god, I won't be alone out here… She caught up with Iormu and walked beside her as they crept down the dimly lit hallway.

Despite her size, Iormu moved very quietly, her smooth scales sliding silently across the ancient wooden floor. At the end of the straight section of hallway, she peeked around the corner and gasped. "Oh, shit."

"What? What is it?" Mara asked, climbing up onto Iormu's body to peek around the corner.

"Uh, you might not want to see this, Mara," Iormu warned.

Mara looked anyway. The golden light of the antique hall lamps revealed a large pool of crimson liquid in the middle of the hallway. The color, the consistency, and even the smell were unmistakable. It was blood.

"Oof. I'm not the queasy type like Tsuen, but damn… What happened here?" Mara whispered.

Iormu's face hardened into a determined grin and she said, "I mean to find out." She slid forward, until she was right up next to the pool of blood, then looked around and took in the full scene.

In addition to the wide pool in the center of the hall, streaks of vibrant red were splashed across the floor and up onto the walls.

Iormu leaned in close, eying the way the blood splattered on the wallpaper. "These aren't just chaotic splashes of blood," she thought aloud, then ran her long fingernails down the wall next to the blood splatter. "See how they always run parallel? …three, four, no, five lines." She cast her gaze back down to the stagnant crimson pool with its smooth rounded edge. "But look here: the blood hasn't been disturbed."

Mara was impatient as always. "Yeah, so? None of that tells us anything about where the blood came from, or who screamed. You know, the important things?"

"Oh, but it does tell us a lot about those things," Iormu lectured. "It tells us that whoever made this mess is either on this side, toward the stairs, or was agile enough to get through here without stepping in this huge pool. We can also tell that the blood on the walls didn't come from the pool. It came from the same source as the pool, from whatever was dripping down."

Iormu thought for a moment, then said, "Whoever screamed is probably still on the same side of the pool that they started on, unless they jumped over the pool too."

At that, Mara crouched down and tightened her eight legs, then leapt over the puddle of blood and landed on the other side. "Easy-peasy," she boasted.

"For you, yes. For others? Not so much."

"Hey, there's more blood over here!" Mara called, staring down at the floor beneath her feet.

"Oh?" Iormu lifted her upper body in the air and extended it over the pool, holding herself aloft with her powerful muscles and using her massive tail for leverage. Slowly, she lowered her front to the floor on the other side, then like a ripple moving through a cracking whip, she moved the rest of her body over the blood without touching it at all. Once across, she looped back to the crime scene.

Sure enough, there were splatters of blood on this side, but they looked like the result of droplets instead of slashes. Additionally, they seemed to form a trail leading down the hallway.

"We've got a trail, Mara. Let's go," Iormu said with an eager tone in her voice. She was getting really into this. Part of that was genuine worry for Lato, who never showed up for their planned rendezvous, but Iormu also found investigation and deduction incredibly interesting. Ever since she read the first Sherlock Holmes story, Iormu had secretly dreamed of being a great detective. It's a pity I lost that magazine. It'd be worth a fortune nowadays.

Iormu and Mara followed the trail of blood droplets, eventually finding themselves before a room near the end of the hall. It was normal in every way, except for a smear of blood on the door handle. The door was closed, and neither woman knew what could be on the other side.

"Alright, Mara. This is next to Haru and Yuisu's room, so we can assume it's another bedroom."

Iormu slid up close to listen for any signs of life, but Mara's patience was fully exhausted. Between the stressful argument with Tsuen and her lack of sleep, Mara had reason to be irritable. "Screw it. I know what to do now," she said, then took in a deep breath.

"HEY! We know you're in there, so come out with your hands up!" Mara yelled. More noise came from her tiny body than Iormu had thought possible.

Iormu sighed, but kept a watchful eye on the door, her body coiled and ready for anything. The bloody door stayed closed, but the next door down flung open suddenly. Yuisu and Haru ran out, buck naked with their arms raised over their heads and their bare breasts on display. They were flustered, sweaty, and looked very confused.

Yuisu blurted "I can explain! If you'll call my coordinator Agent Will, we can—" She cut off when she realized it was just Mara and Iormu in the hallway, rather than the authority figures she seemed to expect.

"Ha, ha!" Mara fell to the floor, rolling in laughter. "Your faces were perfect! Who'd you think we were? A SWAT team?!"

"No, I thought it was enforcers for the Interpecies Protection Act… You know, to catch humans coming here to sleep with liminals…" Yuisu trailed off, blushing, then glared at Mara. "Shut up. It could happen…" she mumbled.

Haru wrapped Yuisu in a hug, covering her naked body with her warm wings, then looked at Iormu. "Why'd Mara yell that, and what are you two doing here in the middle of the night?"

"The yelling wasn't meant for you, and we're here investigating the scream from earlier, as well as all the blood in the hallway," Iormu responded, still keeping an eye on the bloody door.

"Scream? I guess I did hear something a few minutes ago…" Yuisu said, then she went stiff and blurted, "Wait, blood?!"

Iormu nodded. "Yes, and you're just in time for the criminal to be revealed!" She reached out, grabbed the doorknob, and threw the door open.

The inside of the room was dark, but Iormu reached inside and flipped the lightswitch. The light revealed a fuzzy pink bed with a girl sprawled out across the top, wearing skimpy blue pajamas and sleeping on her stomach. She was facing away, but the women peering in could clearly see her bushy black tail and black furry ears.

"The wolf maid?" Haru whispered, "The maids' bedrooms are on this floor too?"

Iormu nodded. "Yep. Lato's is the one at the end of the hall."

Yuisu scowled at Iormu. "And what makes you think she's a criminal? She's fast asleep."

Just then, the wolf-girl rolled over and blinked against the bright light. "Huh, who'zat?" she mumbled. As her eyes adjusted, she saw the four women staring at her through the open door. Her eyes went wide in surprise and she blushed red.

However, it wasn't quite as red as the drying blood that was splattered across her face and chest and was smeared around her lips.

Yuisu and Mara both screamed at the sight, frozen in place. Haru stepped forward, feathers bristling as she prepared to defend her lover from the werewolf.

Iormu, however, wasn't surprised at all. She smiled and said, "Good evening, Lyca. Can we have a moment of your time?"