Whether it was because there were so many Shades at the hospital, or because of the loss of two pelesits, it didn’t really matter. All Grey Team knew was that the culprit had given up trying to attack Vera Seow, and whoever it was did it in a very public manner.

“Is our serial killer buttoned up the back or something? This is a freaking hospital, my goodness,” Xiaoye complained as she, Farhan, Aiko and Lucas stared at the literally bloody message left on the exterior walls of the hospital’s second floor:

To the woke bitch, Vera Seow, after an agonizing internal debate, I’ve decided to spare your miserable, self-righteous life rather than face off with so many meddling pigs at once. Let those scars I left on you be a reminder of your pathetic decisions every time you look into a mirror.

“Well, on the bright side, we’ve finally established another link between the victims. Our killer is hunting social media personalities he or she considers ‘woke’,” Farhan replied.

“Aye, but calling us pigs? What country do they think they’re in, America? This is Singapore, arsehole, if you’re within hearing range!” Xiaoye called out, startling a few hospital staff and passers-by while amusing the others.

“Lucas, when did this message show up?” Farhan asked.

“Not sure. I came down three minutes ago to meet you both, then I saw this tanuki paramedic here staring at the wall, so I turned and then I saw it,” the Nobody replied as he gestured at Aiko.

“Where did you even come from just now? You gave me a fright,” Aiko said.

“Aye, he does that. He’s a Nobody,” Xiaoye explained.

“A… A Nobody? As in one of those mutated humans the bestiary calls Accursed?”

“Uh-huh. His presence is near zero to everyone except those who’re close to him.”

“We’re getting off track here, ladies. Lucas, did Ajibade see anything?”

“He’s on the other side of the scene, didn’t see anything.”

Farhan stroked his chin as he pondered their next move, then he does a fist-palm tap.

“Xiaoye, update Jason on the current situation. See what he, Roderick and Amirah can do on their end now that we know who the killer’s targets are. In the meantime, however, we’ll continue posting guards at Miss Seow’s ward, just in case the killer is trying to misdirect us away from her.”

“And what about the insect thing we caught?” Aiko asked.

“Ah, right, please, show it to us. Lucas, you wait here for forensics and investigators.”

“Yes, sir,” Lucas replied before Xiaoye and Farhan followed Aiko into the ambulance bay, where two other paramedics were putting their weight on an upside-down fish tank holding a very angry pelesit the size of a child’s head buzzing around trying to get out of its prison.

“I swear, it was the size of my thumb when we pulled it out of my colleague’s mouth, but then it started to grow, so my crew chief managed to trap it under that old fish tank of his,” Aiko said.

“I think I know why. We’re near the morgue, and the pelesit’s absorbing all the negative energy surrounding it, so it’s swelling in size. Luckily, it appears to have stopped growing. Problem is, how do we grab it?” Farhan inquired.

“Actually, what do they even eat when they’re not in use?” Xiaoye asked.

“What?”

“I was thinking that we could bring it back to the office and have one of the Counter-magic blokes like Vladimir, Hats or that abath Rosli have a go using it to track down its owner?” the cambion suggested.

“Oh, well, rice and eggs. We should give it a bit of blood too, though it might sever its connection with its former owner,” Farhan replied.

Five minutes later, the two Shades and the paramedics had lined up a piece of hard-boiled egg and some rice in front of the pelesit’s prison, and the pelesit appeared to be getting excited at the sight of the food.

“Your idea sounds dumb, but I’m hoping it actually works,” Farhan said as Aiko and her crew chief carefully tipped the tank, opening up a small gap on one side for Xiaoye to squeeze in the food.

Immediately, the pelesit lunged for the egg, devouring it in seconds, then it began to devour the rice. Interestingly, the pelesit also appeared to be reducing in size, eventually becoming the size of an average index finger.

“Looks like its satisfied,” Xiaoye declared.

“Does this fish tank have a cover?” Farhan asked.

“Oh, yes. I’ll bring it to you,” the ambulance crew chief replied before rushing off and returning with a metal cover.

Carefully sliding the cover in, Farhan gave the signal for the fish tank to be turned over and quickly snapped the cover onto the fish tank’s opening before the pelesit even realized it just missed an opportunity to escape.

“Thank you all for your assistance. We’ll be taking this back,” Farhan said to Aiko’s ambulance crew.

“Anytime, officers. Just keep any more of these insects from coming to our hospital. They’re creepy,” Aiko replied.

The journey back to the station was surprisingly quick: Farhan knew every shortcut he could legally take along the road. Corporal Tom and Sergeant Nora were busy moving a file cabinet to the front desk of the new headquarters’ reception lobby when Xiaoye walked in with the pelesit while Farhan went to park the vehicle. Immediately, Nora involuntarily assumed her true pontianak form, startling Tom as she turned to stare at Xiaoye.

“Apa kejadah yang awak bawa balik? There’s malice in that thing! Is that a pelesit?” she asked, her voice gravel-toned.

“Oh, evidence, and maybe a new pet?”

“You want to keep a pelesit as a pet? Have you forgotten the one you killed at Old Changi Hospital? Dr Marog had that bastard’s corpse preserved for studies because no one expected a pelesit to grow that large after being abandoned,” Tom reminded Xiaoye as she walked past them, with Nora having to exert some effort to turn back to her human form.

“Come on, it could be useful,” Xiaoye protested.

“You have to feed it blood, which is a problem since half your blood’s made of demon. Aren’t Rendal’s barghests scary enough, or is because you want to bring a mutated pelesit into the interrogation room and scare a confession out of our suspects- Oh, wait, that’s actually a good idea.”

“I like the suggestion.”

“Xiaoye ni comel, tapi kadang-kadang aku rasa dia gila,” Nora said to Tom who replied, “She is always gila, she just hide it well,” just before the elevator arrives and Xiaoye steps it, going up to her team’s office…

Roderick was busy sorting through the list of names he and Amirah had compiled based on the most recent information they’ve received from Xiaoye when the cambion suddenly entered their new office with a sealed fish tank containing an insect monster which Roderick recognized as the same one he saw Xiaoye fighting with back at Old Changi Hospital, the night before his official transfer to the Shades.

“Is that a pelesit? Why do you have one with you?” he asked as Xiaoye sets the pelesit on a shelf next to one of the window.

“Caught it at the hospital. Well, the paramedics were the ones who caught after it attacked one of their colleagues.”

“That is one ugly grasshopper,” Jason commented as he, Roderick and Amirah stared at the captured pelesit Xiaoye had brought back.

“Aye, but with this bugger, we might be able to track down our killer,” Xiaoye explained.

“True, and thanks to our serial killer’s message, we’ve managed to narrow down his targets. Roderick here managed to isolate the so-called requirements the serial killer needs to select his victims. Leaving such a big message in public suggests a certain level of egomania”

“Yeah, Of the four victims, I’ve discovered two similar traits among them. The first is, as you and Inspector Farhan had discovered, that all four victims possess extremely progressive ideals,” Roderick explained as he and Amirah brought up the holo-pictures of the four victims before continuing.

“Of the four, the most aggressive is Jonas Sim. He pushes heavily when it comes to cancel culture, preaching non-forgiveness on his livestreams and has been arrested quite a number of times for disorderly behaviour in public, illegal demonstrations and insulting religion.”

“Sounds like a self-righteous wanker,” Xiaoye commented.

“As for our sole survivor, Vera Seow, she is the least aggressive, not exactly ‘woke’, but since she’s an open bisexual, she has been one of the most prominent debaters for LGBT rights in Singapore. I’ve seen some of her videos, she’s real fiery when it comes to expressing her opinion on global society, though I think that may have caused her to end up in the killer’s crosshairs.

“I went to Dr Marog’s lab to take a look at the corpses of the victims. Mr Sim suffered the worse body damage, looking literally shredded, whereas Ms Seow only suffered three deep lacerations around her neck and collar area,” Amirah added.

“And she survived,” Xiaoye said.

“My point exactly. Roderick and I were discussing it among ourselves, and after looking at the corpses of the other two victims, we’ve established how the killer kills. It seems that the more ‘woke’ the social media personality is, the worse the damage done to them.”

“And what is the second trait that you discovered among the victims?” Jason asked.

“Well, all of them graduated from American universities. Specifically, the ones in California and Oregon…”

“Interesting, two of the most woke states in America,” Xiaoye commented.

“Here’s a list of potential victims. We’ve narrowed it down to the two traits Roderick ad I discovered. There’s quite a number, however…” Amirah explained as she displayed a list of names and pictures of local social media personalities.

“That should not be a problem. Our primary list of potential victims would be the most active progressives, the ones always talking about unnecessary social changes, big supporters of cancel culture, and always using their followers to launch bully tactics against anyone that doesn’t share the same opinions as themselves,” Jason suggested.

“Our killer don’t seem to like cops that much, so move all the anti-police ones to the secondary list,” Xiaoye added.

Roderick quietly went through the entire list with Amirah, hitting keywords and moving aside non-essential information before finally ending up with a priority list of five names.

“Here we are, three big names in Singapore. Two of them have gotten into quite a lot of trouble with the Singapore government over the last three years though,” he said as he showed Jason and Xiaoye the three individuals he and Amirah have predicted as potential victims of their unidentified serial killer.

“Lim Fu Chong, an online film critic known for his faux American accent, always bashing movies with no inclusions and big supporter of cancel culture. There’s also Henry Sarathkumar, he leads the youth group of a progressive Christian church south of Singapore, quite outspoken on the need for acceptance, stirring up a lot of controversies. Last is Vijay Rajeevan, self-proclaimed fighter against racial injustice in Singapore. All below the age of thirty,” Roderick continued.

“Vijay is anti-Chinese, I doubt our killer would target a racist,” Jason said.

“But he fits the category of being woke: He’s a hypocrite,” Xiaoye replied.

“So, should we put him as top priority?” Roderick asked.

“Well, if Xiaoye’s right, then maybe we should- Excuse me for a moment.”

Jason’s phone was ringing quite loudly, and Roderick noticed that the pelesit that Xiaoye had brought in appeared to have a reaction to Jason’s ringtone, for it suddenly stopped buzzing around and appeared to be peacefully listening to it until Jason answered the phone, at which point the pelesit started buzzing around again.

“Inspector Narayanan speaking- What? Where? Who? All right, understood, I’ll be there shortly.”

“Something happened, Inspector?” Amirah asked as Jason hung up.

“Xiaoye’s answer was on the ball. That was Rendal on the phone. Our killer has claimed another victim: Vijay Rajeevan.”

“Shit, he’s murdering one person a day,” Xiaoye muttered.

“No way our government is going to stand by and do nothing now that five people have been attacked in a week. I’ve heard from my brother Andrew rumours of a curfew being planned with increased police patrols and READ being on standby… Xiaoye, take that bug you brought back to Counter-Magic with Amirah. Roderick, with me to the scene.”

“What about-”

“Roderick, just go, I’ll talk to you after work,” Xiaoye said to Roderick before pushing him out the office.

Ten minutes later, Roderick was in a patrol vehicle with Jason, who was driving as fast as he could to the crime scene as it was about to rain and he didn’t want evidence being washed away since according to the information he received, the murder occurred near a forested area.

“Sir, is there a reason why you’re keeping Xiaoye away from me?” Roderick asked as Jason turned a corner.

“Look at the side view mirror and tell me what you see,” Jason replied.

Roderick, confused, took a look at the sideview mirror and noticed a white car with the unique plate number of a police vehicle behind them.

“I recognized that license plate. It’s from your father’s department. He’s having his men keep an eye on you and I intend to throw them off their tracks. Once they’re off our tails, you’ll be riding with Xiaoye again.”

“God damn my father, he’s really asking for a punch to the face. Does he think Xiaoye and I are going to fuck each other in bed or something? She’s forty-four years older than me, for crying out loud,” Roderick grumbled, causing Jason to snort as he tried to restrain an urge to laugh out loud.

“Roderick, I’m going over the speed limit, please don’t make me laugh and lose concentration. Anyways, we’re approaching the crime scene… And it seems they’ve decided to pull out,” the inspector commented as he glanced at the rear-view mirror.

“Good riddance,” Roderick muttered as Jason brought the car to a halt at the scene of the crime, where a Shades patrol SUV and two regular police cars had formed a road block to redirect traffic.

“Rendal, what’s the situation?” Jason asked as he and Roderick exited the vehicle and approached the half-elf officer, who along with a young Indian female officer had just finished setting up a tent to shelter the corpse of the victim.

“Hey, Inspector. Judging by the mess you see around you, I’ll wager that this poor sod got jumped while on his motorcycle,” Rendal replied as he gestured to a wrecked Fretta 808 laid out on its side on a grass patch with a wheel and half its handlebar missing.

“You’re sure it’s not an accident?”

“Well, I’ve never seen motorbike accidents resulting in claw marks all over the body, if that’s what you’re asking… The victim’s wallet was found about two metres away from the body, so we were able to identify him as Vijay Rajeevan. There’s one problem, though.”

“What is it?”

Rendal sighed, a look of discomfort forming on his face as he pointed at the tent which his partner was now guarding and replied, “We only found half of him.”