What would he do now? That was a very good question. Most people would probably call it a job well done at this point. People were now aware that there was a murderer, and the law was now involved. So an average person would probably just let them take it away from here, right? However, Emil couldn’t shake the feeling that there was still more that he needed to do. That he couldn’t simply walk away, not yet at least. For now though, there actually was something else that he could do.

“I think I’m going to stick close to the river for a little while. There are a lot of spirits trapped inside those waters. I want to try and pull them out, so they can be freed. I don’t know how many of them will be capable of moving on after that, but I at least want to try and help. How about you, Sarah? What do you think you’ll be doing next?” Emil asked. She glanced in the direction of the town, before turning towards the river.

“I don’t know? I want to stay here with mommy and Ben, but…” Her voice was hesitant. “Seeing them so sad, makes me sad too. But I don’t feel like I can leave yet. Like, I think something has to happen first? I’m not sure. I’m just going to go home now, and stay in my room.” She floated into the air, and flew back towards the town.

To him, it was reasonably clear what that ‘something’ could be. The same thing that was preventing the children in the cemetery from moving on as well. Which, now that he thought it, he should still visit tonight. They would likely want to know the identity of their killer, and that the town government was now aware of his existence. He would go over there and visit, as soon as he finished up his riverside business.

Taking off his things once more, Emil walked back into the water. He went down to the bottom, closing his eyes as he reached his hand into the mud. Even over in this section of the river, he could still feel the lost, trapped spirits. He swam around, trying to get a sense of which ones were the strongest and still had their personalities intact. Eventually, Emil was able to take hold of one soul whose essence seemed more stand out more.

He could feel its residual memories. Of who this person once was, how they lived, and how they died and ended up here. This soul was that of a fisherman, who lived off the river’s fish for his entire life. It was both his food and source of income. So even during a harsh winter and deep freeze, he still came out to the river for ice fishing. However, the part of the frozen river he picked to dig a hole in was thinner than the rest. As such, he fell through the ice and perished when he was unable to escape.

Emil focused on this soul, and brought it back up with him to the surface. Still carrying it, he then brought it over to the riverbank. Stretching his arm over the ground, he released the spirit. Emil watched it float away, before going back down. He repeated this process over and over again, going back and forth for some time. Continuing to grab and release one soul at a time, he worked.

Eventually, for the spirits that still had their identities, he had released all the ones within the immediate vicinity. However, there would still be more if he continued to move alongside the river to find them. Not to mention the souls that were too far gone for him to sense their memories. For each one that still had their personality, there were five more that didn’t.

He had already attempted to release one of them, but even when freed, it didn’t do anything. It simply hovered in place, not reacting at all to its freedom from the river. Truly, he had been right to assume that they were little more than blobs of spiritual energy now. By this point, that idea had only become more evident to him. Stepping out of the river, Emil let out a sigh.

“What to do about them, though? I don’t really like the thought of just leaving those spirits there. Even if they’ve been reduced to little more than energy now, they were once people. I still want to respect that fact. But if they can’t do anything on their own, what should I do for them?” Emil asked himself.

As he stood there, pondering the question, he felt a drop of water hit his head. He looked up at the sky, dark clouds had formed. On the horizon, Emil could see flashes of blue light in the distance. He couldn’t hear any thunder following the lightning strikes, so the storm was likely still a ways off. But at some point tonight, it would rain.

He was already soaking with water, so it was a tad too late to worry about getting wet. Emil took a deep breath, taking in the cool night air. He looked at the emotionless spirit, still floating in place. He reached over and grabbed it, holding it out by his chest. It resonated with him, and deep within his own soul, something stirred.

The sense of hunger he thought he had locked away in the graveyard, he could feel it now. That desire wished to be freed, to be let loose. He had imagined it as a swarm of locusts trapped with a locked metal chest, one wrapped in chains. But now, those chains rattled inside his being. As he stared down at the spirit, his mouth began to salivate. Emil swallowed back the built-up saliva, but more only continued to come. With each second that passed, his desire to use extract the spirit’s power for himself grew more difficult to ignore.

Emil pushed back against it. He had locked that hunger away for a reason, so that it wouldn’t be in control of him. And he wasn’t going to let it have its way now. In his mind, he visualized the ocean, while also imagining himself standing on the surface over its deepest point. Emil had the chest appear in front of him, and dropped it into the water. As it sunk deeper and deeper, the noise of the rattling chains became ever more distant. But even so, it had managed to leave a bad taste in his mouth.

He placed the spirit back down, and faced away from it. For now, Emil was done dealing with them and the rest that were still in the river. He needed a break, and could just come back in the morning to help free the other ghosts. Or he could start again at really any time of day, since it seemed like a task that would probably end up taking several days to complete.

Emil grabbed his things and began to make his way to the cemetery. After he stopped by there, he would return to the main part of the town. Whether that was to go to the inn and sleep, or something else, he’ll figure out when he gets there.

Later, the booms of thunder could now be heard as he arrived at the graveyard. The wind had also begun to pick. From all around, the sound of groaning tree branches and rustling leaves could be heard. When Emil stepped past the front gate, the ghost of Alice and the other children rose from their graves.

“Mr. Emil, you’re back. Are you here to visit us?” Alice asked. He approached the group of spirits, and looked at her tombstone. A little dirt was now on the stone, he wiped it off with his hand.

“I have an update for you, regarding the silver one. He killed another child today, a little girl. But I was able to uncover his identity.” As Emil said this, there seemed to be a change in the air. “It’s an older man, a cleric named Hadwin. He’s the one responsible for your deaths. There is some good news though. I managed to help convince the local government to launch an investigation. The town’s mayor even came out and promised that they will find and punish the killer.”

“Mayor Duran said that?” Alice asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. “For the rest of us, it was different. He was always the first one to make a speech about our deaths being accidents. If someone tried to say anything else, it was him that told them that they were wrong. No matter how much proof there was that we couldn’t have drowned on her one, he convinced people that they were just imagining things. That’s what he’s done every time.”

“Wait, really?” Emil felt like there was something he was missing. That there’s a critical piece of the puzzle he had never even considered. Why would a mayor go out of his way to dismiss and explain away the deaths of children within his community? Unless… no, that couldn’t be right.

“Alice, can I ask you and the other children for a favor? May I view your memories and see your last moments? All I need to do is make physical contact with your spirit, and then you just need to give me permission when you feel my soul’s presence. There’s just something I would like to check.”

She gave him her blessing, as well as the other kids. So one at a time, Emil looked through their minds and watched their deaths through their own eyes. To him, it took a painfully long time to experience that with each child. Though in reality, the entire process couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes.

Their memories were less concise. None of them had weapons to give themselves a chance to fight back like Sarah did. However, even with just the blurry flashes of seeing their killer’s face, Emil was still able to recognize him as the cleric. That now confirmed that he was the sole killer of all the murdered children.

But even so, Emil couldn’t shake the bad feeling he had gotten from what Alice just said. He needed to get back into town as quickly as possible. If the guards were still looking for people that matched the cleric’s injuries, he wanted to be there too.