by Lissa Kasey
“Um, sure. I don’t spend much time online, but I can look at it.”
He held the stack out. They did appear to be stuff taken from both my group and the cosplay group. I glanced over the names first. One from my group was one of those random photos people took that could show something spooky or not, and this one did look like a section of woods. Nothing obvious about the photo screaming it was of some undiscovered cryptid, but when I read the comments I got clues where to look. In one of the distant corners there was something slightly paler than its surroundings. Humanoid with shoulders and a head, but lanky, proportions off. I frowned at it, trying to recall if I’d seen it before. Whatever was in the picture could be a Rake, or at least fit the description of one. The poster was one ‘CosplayGambler’ whose avatar picture seemed to be of Gambit from the old X-Men comics. Dozens of people responded. Neither Alex nor I had, as we both went by our normal names. And none of my admins had either, as the poster must have stayed with the rules to the group.
The stuff CosplayGambler shared to the cosplay group was pretty standard low-level cosplay stuff. Pictures of outfits he or she wanted to make, non-gender specific, questions about materials, comments on other people’s posts. Nothing set off red flags. Other than the odd Rake photo, which they claimed to have snapped themselves while out in the Texas woods.
The last few pages were messenger conversations. One a group chat with Byrony and Joe, both using their regular names. They were talking about the photo and what the location had been. It wasn’t until then that I realized Joe had been in my group. He’d responded to the original photo. So while Byrony was blocked, her boyfriend had stayed, to what? Spy on me? Because the spooky content was so great?
“Well obviously Byrony and Joe. Though Byrony was not allowed in my group. Apparently Joe was in it though I don’t know why. I don’t recall having him in a tour previously, and most in the group have attended one of my tours at some point. I don’t know who ‘CosplayGambler’ is either. I can send a message to my admins and see if they know,” I said, handing back the papers. “You think this person might be involved?”
“Let’s just say that they’ve been around a while. Had conversations with two other former members of your cosplay group that you’ve mentioned before, Sarah and Amanda,” Manning said. “Did you know both girls were reported missing some time ago?”
I blinked at him while those registered. “Like how long ago?”
“Like since they left the cosplay group. At this point we’re going over both of your groups with a fine-tooth comb.”
“The cosplay group isn’t mine. It’s Freya’s. She might know who that is.”
“I plan to ask her. We will be talking to everyone in the group today.”
“Did you find more than just Byrony out in those woods?” Alex asked. He must have picked up on something I hadn’t. But his brain worked that way.
“Why would you ask that?” Manning asked, seeming surprised, but also not answering the question.
“You said it’s not a case of Joe hurting his girlfriend. You’re looking for this third person who seemed to be chatting with all the missing girls. Though Byrony isn’t missing anymore. You said she’s dead. Something tied you back to the groups,” Alex glanced at the stack of papers, “and to narrow it to this one person, who happened to have trackable conversations with the other two missing girls. Did you find them as well?”
Manning said nothing and that was confirmation enough.
“Fuck,” Alex cursed. “Next vacation we get beaches and private cabins instead of cosplay fanatics,” Alex told me.
“There are fanatics everywhere,” Manning said.
“Serial killer ones?” Alex asked. “Because let’s be clear. What I’m getting from your questions and lack of specific answers is that multiple women from the cosplay group are confirmed dead by mysterious circumstances in some random Texas woods? That doesn’t happen every day, right?” He held up his hand then. “Okay if the statistics point to yes, I don’t need that in my head.”
“You’re far too observant,” Manning remarked.
“My brother is a police detective. Comes with the territory. What do we need to do? Should we head home? Is it safe here?”
“I can’t answer that for you. I don’t know. This could be one of the members of the small group. Or someone who follows them around,” Manning said. “Social media makes stalking people a lot easier these days. We have cops who specialize in the digital side trying to pull apart their profile, get a real name. Honestly, at first, I thought it was Richards,” he looked at me.
“Me?” I was shocked.
“You and Cartwright had a history. I thought you might have played a prank that went wrong. That was before everything else. The rest doesn’t fit. Sarah actually vanished while you were gone. Vanished yourself, or whatever,” Manning said.
“What sort of prank?” Alex asked.
“Mr. Thomas had a gun. This is Texas after all. We think he was shooting at something and accidentally hit Miss Cartwright. The initial shot wasn’t fatal, but the wound without care was.”
Alex frowned. “There’s only one member of the group who lives in Texas though.”
“Freya wouldn’t…” I said.
“We are certainly looking at her specifically. However, her alibi is pretty sound. Since she runs a hotel and does quite a few events each year, she’s got a lot of records. And again, we can’t find much for ties between her and the missing women. Has she said anything to either of you that might sound suspicious?” Manning wanted to know.
“No. She’s been very polite and accommodating. Though she did seem a little annoyed with Byrony that first night we were here,” Alex said.
“Because they spooked the group,” I added. “Woke everyone up because they scared people silly. I was annoyed too.” I looked at the detective, a thousand thoughts in my head. “Freya’s always been very approachable, and helpful to everyone. I don’t know why anyone would think she’d hurt anyone.”
“One of the others in the group mentioned she might be eliminating competition,” Manning said.
“That would sort of be all of us, wouldn’t it? Since we’re a cosplay group?” I thought about that. Not believing that Freya’s fame was at all dependent on everyone else’s failure.
“The same type of cosplay? Sounds like Miss Pejic is a big name.”
“She is,” I agreed. “One of the biggest in the world. But there are others. Some in the group, some not.”
“You used to be a big name yourself?” Manning asked.
“I guess? Had a few years of being invited to special events and offered product deals of stuff. But that was a long time ago.”
“Before you disappeared.”
Everything came back to that, didn’t it? “Technically, I was working in a different trade then as well.” Had been doing the porn videos for almost a year prior to that.
“What made you change trades?” Manning wanted to know.
“My boyfriend at the time, mostly. It sounded interesting. And I was growing bored of always trying to think of new videos, costumes, and pictures to take to keep people interested. It’s a never-ending need for content. Absolutely exhausting in my opinion. So I transitioned into something that was less work.” Having sex on camera, posting a video once a week and getting a couple million views, that had been easy. Thinking of new dirty ways for people to see me on my knees dressed up as a fem boy and acting out scenes, that became work. In the end it hadn’t been all that different from the influencer roll. New content brought added revenue, but people by nature were quickly bored and moved on.
“Some in the group were suggesting you would be returning to the influencer roll,” Manning said.
“And that would make me want to kill Byrony and some other girls a few years ago, why? What would I gain?”
“Their followers, perhaps? Is that how it works?”
“Not at all,” I said. “Influencing is a very visual persona cre
ated for a certain group. Everyone has different tastes. Even if someone follows sexy cosplay, which is what Freya and Byrony did, technically I did as well, though it’s not likely their fans would go from them to me. Because I’m male. There might be some crossover, but my target was mostly gay men. Their targets are straight men and women who are into lifestyle stuff, hair, make-up, etcetera.”
“Men don’t follow other men for lifestyle stuff?”
I laughed. “Men follow sex. The only thing I offered, other than pretty pictures, was the occasional tutorial on costume creation. And that stuff never got interest like my sexy cosplay videos did.” Or the porn. It was one of the reasons I didn’t want back into that market. I wanted my existence to be about more than just sex.
“Do the women ever see themselves as competition?” Alex said. “Since they are sort of in the same market?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve never seen it within the group. Everyone’s been pretty helpful to each other. I always thought we had the mindset that growing the community was better than narrowing it. Though I know Byrony butted heads with a lot of people for stealing ideas. I think if she’d asked and been more open about sharing, it probably wouldn’t have been an issue.”
“Did Sarah or Amanda take ideas?” Manning asked.
“Not that I know of, but again, I didn’t know them well.”
He sighed.
“I’m sorry. I wish I knew more. I’ve sort of been outside the group for a while.”
“We will find something,” Manning stated. “These people trip up eventually, miss a clue somewhere, a link they forget. Whether it’s your friend or not, I advise you both to be careful. You might not be the normal target, as the victims so far seem to be women, but sometimes when these people are cornered, their regular rational flies out the window for self-preservation.”
“We understand. We’ll keep an eye out. Thank you, Detective,” Alex said, offering the man his hand for a handshake. Manning took it and let Alex see him out.
I stood in the small living area of the cabin feeling a jumble of emotion and numb all at once. Alex wrapped his arms around me. “It’s gonna be okay,” he said.
“It’s not Freya,” I said.
“I know she’s your friend…”
“But not really. I’m not any closer to her than I am to the rest of them.” I stepped out of his embrace and threw my hands up in the air in frustration, even taking a moment to tug at my hair. “Because I’m broken and don’t let anyone close to me.”
“You’re not any more broken than the rest of us,” Alex said. “It’s okay to be upset when something you thought was right is wrong.”
“I’m not going to just accuse her. He said they didn’t have any proof and she has an alibi.” Why I needed Freya to be innocent, I didn’t really understand. Maybe it was because once upon a time she’d been the first to see potential in me? She hadn’t brushed me off as some annoying kid from a faraway land wanting to escape his strict parents. “I wouldn’t be who I am now without her,” I said finally.
“Maybe,” Alex agreed. “But she was only a point on the path. You’ve had a lot of other points, people, friends, events, that got you here.” He rubbed my back which helped me focus on my breathing. “You are who you are meant to be right now, and I think that’s pretty great. Regardless of how you got here.”
I turned to stare up into his face and had to sigh. He was that sort of male pretty I never knew I wanted until him, but those eyes were magnetic. Deep wells of emotion, drawing me in, seeing me, and still liking what he saw. I could list a hundred things about him that made me want him. Some stupid, small and silly, others intense and odd, like his ability to see things others didn’t, even if that meant the paranormal. The more I learned about him, the more I liked.
“More than a spark,” I said as I touched his cheek.
“Yes,” Alex agreed. “So stay with me, yeah?”
“Planning on it.”
“Good, let’s go get breakfast and try to pretend things are normal.”
“I’m not hungry,” I said, feeling almost sick at the thought of eating.
“We’ll just get some fruit or something.”
“Might be eating with a serial killer,” I grumbled.
“Maybe. Either way, stay close to me. If things get weird, we’ll find another hotel.”
“Weird how? We sort of thrive on weird.” I let Alex tug me out the door and toward the main house, hoping for a chance to get our instructions for the later show, a banana, and get the hell out of there.
“Good question. Weirder than usual.”
I sighed and clung to him. It was too early in the morning, and I hadn’t had nearly enough coffee to deal with this sort of drama.
Chapter 24
Unfortunately, drama was what greeted us at the backdoor in the form of raised voices.
“You all are a bunch of fucking psychos,” I heard Melissa shout. We entered the kitchen, finding the group scattered between the kitchen and the dining room filling plates of food and readying for the day. Melissa stood near the entryway, bags and things piled at her feet. “I hope you all know you’re staying here with a murderer.”
“The police said it was an accident,” Julie said.
“Shot by Joe. Nicked a vein or something,” Nicole added.
“Can we not talk about this during breakfast,” MaryAnn asked.
“Fucking psychos, all of you!” Melissa screamed. “Byrony is dead, and you’re all about fucking breakfast?” She pointed at Freya. “Don’t you realize how insane she probably is?”
“I’d prefer if you wait for your taxi outside,” Freya said.
“I’d prefer you go jump off a cliff,” Melissa snarled at her.
“Woah,” Alex said putting his hands up and crossing the room to Melissa. “Let me help you with your bags okay? Some air will be good for you. Breathe. I know you’re upset and you have reason to be.” And that easily he took over, leading Melissa outside to the front porch, carrying her things. He glanced back at me, but I nodded to him that I was fine.
Chad was the only one not in the kitchen. I realized a moment later it was because he’d been talking to the police because he appeared with Manning beside him while I was gathering up fruit for Alex. Manning headed toward MaryAnn next. She gave him a warm half-smile and nodded as he led her to the craft room.
Grace paced the kitchen. “You okay?” I asked her.
“It’s not Freya,” Grace said in a huff. “That man wants to pin this on her. But it’s not Freya. This whole thing is a mess that started with that Byrony girl.”
It sounded like this had begun a lot sooner since two other girls were found, but I didn’t point that out. “I think the police are looking for whoever did this.”
“The police are monsters,” Grace said.
“Some of them I’m sure. But Alex’s brother is a police detective. He’s a good guy. It sounds like Detective Manning is looking for the right person, asking questions and trying to get the facts straight. If he wanted simple, he could have arrested Freya already because she’s the only one of us that lives here in Texas. But he’s asking questions, talking to everyone, and researching. I don’t believe it’s her either,” I admitted. “But getting in the way will only make his job harder. Someone is out there hurting people. We can’t let that go on, right?”
Grace let out a long breath. “You’re right. You always were one of the smarter ones in the group.” She patted my hand. “Let me get you a portable bowl for all that fruit. I’m assuming you boys want to get on your way.” Since I had filled a small bowl with berries, topped it with a couple of bananas and was trying to figure out how to wrap it with paper napkins to keep everything in place while Alex calmed the masses, she must have read our intentions.
“Thank you,” I said. “Alex loves bananas.” Which actually sounded like more than affection for the food when I thought about it. Nicole, who stood nearby, snickered. “Nothing out of you,” I teased her.
“Didn’t say a word,” she said with her hand on her heart. She handed me the banana she’d taken too. “Give him this one too. Poor boy needs to eat.”
“I’m feeding him up,” I protested, like his malnourished state was somehow my fault.
“Mhmm,” Julie joined us. “Too busy feeding him your banana to give him real ones.”
I gaped at her.
“Girl,” Jonah said entering the kitchen to fill his plate with eggs. “Plenty of protein comes from that banana. Protein makes a fine strong man.”
Both girls laughed.
I groaned at the bad joke. “We just stopped in for breakfast to get the details on when and where we need to be for the costumes later.”
“The show is at two,” Freya said from the doorway to the dining room. “At the Haut Apparel booth. There’s a dressing room area behind it, but I’d say be there early enough to get changed. If you drop the costumes off here at the house before you go, I’ll bring them to the convention for you, so you don’t have to worry about going back out to your car to get them.”
“That would be great,” Julie said. “We always end up in the bus lot anyway and having to take the bus over. It would be such a hassle to get out to the car and back.”
“I have a vendor parking badge,” Freya said. “Since I’m doing classes all day. It’s easier to leave a lot of the supplies in the car when it’s parked right next to the building.”
“Thanks,” I said. “We’ll drop them off. I didn’t pay extra for the vendor parking.” I’d thought about it, but the extra cost when I knew I wouldn’t have to haul big boxes around hadn’t seemed worth it at the time. The separate bus lot would be fine as it was only a ten-minute ride over to the convention center.
Alex reappeared in the kitchen. I held up my stack of accumulated bananas for him. Grace returned to give me a big take-out type salad bowl for the fruit.
“Fill it up. Plenty of room,” Grace said.
“Thank you,” Alex told her, taking the container and my little bowl to combine them. “We were going to head out right away. There’s a class at nine I want to jump in.”