The sun was starting to set. A bit of late night rain was experienced. Me and Kim stood outside under the rainfall and questioned the previous interactions we just had. It was getting to that time of night where you start thinking of heading home. The lights of the decayed town illuminated itself as if to imply to the outside world that it still existed, ready for fresh faces to come and save it from itself. Today, well, it was an interesting day. I forgot my identity, and retraced the steps of a detective that supposedly had more competence, yet he was in fact me. I met many interesting faces, some weathered by life, others recognised me already, to which I had no recollection of. These faces, they made me feel something. Despite all the talk of how I needed to find alcohol and drugs, and how I needed to focus on myself over others. I felt empathy to those around me. I was certain that Kim hated my guts.
We stood by his car in the middle of the dead street. We discussed the ledger that I had managed to discover, it belonged to me. A book of me. Containing snippets of my prior life that I had no memory having lived. This ledger detailed previous cases. I talked to Kim about them, the person I once was. Cases I had solved, and to my surprise, people I had killed in the pursuit of justice. Perhaps it was this that had led to my drunken, drugged nature? A life of meeting everyone on their worst days of their lives, over and over again. The toll of it all building without an outlet. After all, my character is only human. So much pressure has to go somewhere. Am I really the mess I had told myself I was throughout the day? An old, miserable sack of shit? Or was it a result of hardships, to which I am a victim like those I attempt to bring answers to?
Kim began to open up. It was evident I didn't have enough money to pay for the hostel and the damages accumulated from the previous nights. I had held off from paying these debts, running off the moment they were mentioned with the bartender. The night swallowed up the town, of which everyone ran to the hostel to eat and drink away their sorrows. I wasn't allowed to enter my room until the debts had been paid. The lock had been changed, I tried. Kim had taken a not-bribe from a previous stop, holding hubcaps of some significant luxury. We suggested we pawned them off, and he would pay for our next night in the hostel. We tried to bargain with the bartender, that we were cops just trying to do our jobs, but the damage had been done.
We pawned them off and returned, paying the damages and then heading off to bed around ten. Before that, Kim offered to talk on the balcony before heading in for the night. We discussed the case, the faces we had seen, the potential happenings that had led to a citizen being lynched and murdered behind the hospital. We didn't have a whole lot to talk about regarding the case, we hadn't managed to get up to much on the first day of meeting. To my surprise, Kim lit up a cigarette for our talk, he began to open up. It was the first time since meeting Kim that he seemed like he considered me a colleague, a friend, even. I felt more at ease, that Kim finally saw some of my past, as did I. And that some respect had been gained. We headed off for the night. I was haunted by nightmares.
In the morning, I walked down the stops and paid the bartender sharply for the following night's stay, a little concerned that I might forget or miss a certaint timeframe in the event that my investigation went a bit haywire, I had been pulling at some strings already and things were destined to only grow more intense. I talked to the woman in the wheelchair, who told me about her husband's work hunting down mythical creatures and documenting them. Me and Kim shared how skepticism on the matter, not really believing anything. Ripe in the morning, with the hostel's restaurant open, a group of union workers sat at the tables, the gardener stood by the entrance, to which we soon discovered she actually wasn't a gardener. She had lied. This was odd, but the truth came about relatively quickly. The union workers themselves shared no interest in our detective presence. Generally unwelcoming, rather rude. Of course this immediately arose it suspicions, as me and Kim returned to the body to yet again try my chances at figuring out some clues.
We investigated the body, inspecting it in unfortunate detail. Noticing the rather expensive boots he wore, as well as the many bruises on his body. My ability to observe saw a number of unique footprints in the mud around the body. I counted them, inspecting their distance from the body and guessing when the time must've been. A coincidence that the number of different steps almost came to the number of people in the diner, that'd been highly dismissive of the case and our questions. But one pair of feet were missing. We went back to the diner, and talked to them yet again. Still the same treatment, but a few extra answers were made present. Finally, more progress. Though, the body remained at the back of the hostel. I just didn't yet have the tools to remove it, our prior attempts were gruesome, and would've easily resulted in far more damage being done to the crime scene.
Before leaving the crime scene, I noticed the hostel's trash by the body was locked. My curiosity piqued, I was certain that there could be something useful in it, while back at the hostel, we asked the annoying bartender for the key.
Somehow, it was here where I found my ledger. Someone had obtained it and thrown it out. But I had no idea who could've done it. This was the very ledger that led me to discovering who I am, and detailed my prior cases. Though, within the container were the victims clothes. The investigation continued. The day was still going, young and ready for me and Kim to roam the streets in search of more strange interactions with the locals. So many places yet to discover, so many faces yet to engage with. And still, the much of the world to see as I continue to discover my character.