• Published 1st Oct 2017
  • 351 Views, 5 Comments

Morning Meir Mysteries: Case 2: A Fright On Nightmare Night - XombieSlayr



Morning Meir is back on another case. This time journeying to the lively and historical city of Nawlans to investigate a mysterious series of murders surrounding Voodoo. And only a few days before Nightmare Night.

  • ...
 5
 351

Chapter 8: "Beating Drums."

Chapter 8: "Beating Drums."

"To truly fail, is to have never tried."

- The Goddess

"Follow The Drums."

Me and Gold Digger both blinked. "Come again?"

Carlsen straightened his tie as he repeated that odd phrase: "Follow, The Drums." he repeated, like it was an answer.

Gold Digger tilted her head. "Drums? Is he in a band?" she asked.

Carlsen rolled his eyes, making Gold Digger scoff in her defense. "It's a code. Its how the cult communicates with other members. Follow the sound of them to one of their drummers, and you'll find Crash."

My eyes widened. "So there is a voodoo cult!"

"Yes."

Gold Digger rounded on him. "And you're part of it!?" she asked in outrage.

"Good Celestia, No! I just keep an eye out for Crash's sake."

"Why?" Gold Digger asked.

"He's my brother."

We both looked surprised at that. "Oh." We said in unison.

So...that was it. There really was a voodoo cult at work in Nawlans. And drumming was how they talked to one another. We find a drummer. We find Crash. Somehow I didn't think it was going to be that easy.

"So, where can we find our drummer?" I asked simply.

"Try Jackson Square. I know of at least one drummer there that my brother talks to. Herry is a messenger for the cult. But...I fear he's gotten himself too deep. He wants out, but he thinks nopony can help him."

I narrowed my eyes. "I can."

At that Carlsen smiled. "I know. Good Luck to you Ms.Meir. It was an honor losing against you."

We thanked Carlsen and left McClophlin's with our newest lead under our belt. A short look at the tourism board on the street and we were heading for Jackson Square. Even though I knew I wouldn't be able to hear, I noticed my ears twitch at every sound. Listening for that steady, droning beat. Listening for the drums.

Jackson Square (Downtown Nawlans, 2:45 pm)

The joyful sound of a nearby band greeted our senses as we arrived in Jackson Square. It was a quaint and lovely park with ponies and zebras enjoying their day, and helping themselves to the many food stands that dotted the place.

At first we looked to the band, but as we watched and listened for the drums, we never heard a thing. It was a strange feeling, being in such a fun and happy place, and needing to keep an ear out for the beat of drums which signaled the presence of the voodoo cult. I would've loved to have just come here, taken a seat in the grass, and let the music take me. Maybe try the food while I was at It.

Gold Digger shared my sentiment. "What kind of drums are we looking for anyway? If it's just like any other kind of drumming, how will we know the difference?" She asked keeping her ears up.

"Because it wouldn't really be drumming: It's a code, remember?" I reminded her politely, while looking over at some more park goers.

"Oh, right. But....how would we know it's a code?"

I turned to her and smiled. "Trust me. I'll know."

She smiled back. "Fair enough."

We split up, each taking an area of the park to look for the drummer, all while keeping our ears up for its beat. After several minutes, I thought it would be best to look elsewhere. Maybe he wasn't here today. Or maybe he set up somewhere else....wait.

Somewhere else. McClophlin's! There had been a drummer standing outside McClophlin's bar! I payed it no mind till now, but if he was still there...

"Gold Digger!" I called over to her. She quickly ended her conversation with a young colt (Who looked quite disheartened afterwards) and trotted over to me. "Did you find him?" she asked quickly.

"Yes, but he's not here in Jackson Square. Follow me!"

With that we took off back to McClophlin's hoping that the drummer from before was indeed still there. It crossed my mind that it may have just been a normal drummer. But it made no sense. Why would he set up to play music for an empty street? Why not go into the actual bar and offer to play for the many cheery bar patrons? And now thinking of it, I had noticed there was indeed something...off about the music he played. And now I knew it was because it wasn't music at all.

As we rounded the corner to McClophlin's we both stopped dead in our tracks. Over on the far side of that sidewalk, right outside McClophlin's stood the same lone drummer, as he beat out a haunting rhythm on a large Zebrican drum. I heard it all so clearly.

One. Two. Two. Three. One. Two.

It was a slow, steady droning sound. Each beat matching a sequence. It was indeed a code. But what did it mean?

Gold Digger then had an idea. "Let me go talk to him. Maybe he can just tell us where Crash is."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Remember who this guy works for." I warned her.

But she only chuckled. "I know, but c'mon Meir, he's just a drummer! Plus, NO stallion can resist my charms." She said tossing her mane back with a flourish.

Then before I could stop her, she went over and struck up a conversation with the drummer. "Hello! so sorry for interrupting, but I just couldn't help but notice what a talented musician you are!" Gold Digger cooed, fluttering her eyes seductively.

Unfortunately this conversation was completely one sided, as the drummer completely ignored her and kept on drumming. Gold Digger looked both offended and outraged, as she narrowed her eyes at the drummer. "Excuse me? didn't you hear what I said? Aren't you going to say something?" she asked, getting more upset.

The drummer's everlasting silence was his only answer.

Before Gold Digger could say anything more, I spotted a very disheveled looking grey colt in the bar through the window, looking over his shoulder at the drummer, shaking and with a nervous twitch. He wore a beat up green coat and his mane was a tangle of thick black, same as his tail. He sat in the seat across from Carlsen, who was strangely absent from his chess game.

I knew instantly who he was. His nervous and scared expression, the rapid tapping of his hoof on the floor, the way he couldn't seem to stop looking behind him. This, was Crash. And he was very clearly scared of the drummer out front.

I said nothing as I pulled Gold Digger away from the drummer, and we entered McClophlin's once more.

"Miss Meir! Welcome back, what can I do for ya?" Ol' stonewall called cheerfully from behind the bar.

At the sound of my name, Crash sprang from his seat and looked right at me with wide, horrified eyes.

I raised my hooves to calm him down. "Easy now, Crash. Were not going to hurt you. I know what your going through and I think I can-

Then, without warning, Crash suddenly picked up a chair and chucked it at my head. As Gold Digger yelled out in shock, my instincts went off like a bolt of lightning, and I managed to push Gold Digger out of the way, as I rolled under the chair as it sailed through the air, and smashed against the wall.

At that, the bar was now full of the sound of patrons yelling out, getting out their seats, and mostly Stonewall, yelling at Crash. "Crash! What in the name of Celestia, do you think you're doing!?" He yelled out. But Crash ignored him as he suddenly charged at me.

Crash took a swing at me, but I caught him by his arm and swung him around me, causing him to run into the front edge of the bar.
I wasn't going to fight him, obviously. He was clearly lashing out because of fear. All we had to do was calm him down enough for us to take him back to the station.

Crash grabbed a bottle from the bar and smashed it's end off against the bar, then held it at me by its neck, his eyes wild. "Keep. Away." He warned, his voice shaking.

"I swear, we are not here to hurt you, Crash. I can help you. I know about the-

"DON'T SAY IT!" Crash screamed. "You can't say anything about them! They'll know! THEY HEAR EVERYTHING!"

The poor colt was at the end of his rope. He was nearly on the verge of mania at this point. I wanted to help him. But I had to work out a way to calm him down.

"I know about them, Crash. And I know things seem scary now. I know you think nopony can help you. But we can. All you have to do, is come with us back to the station. You'll be safe there." I said in a gentle soothing voice.

Crash laughed like I had told a joke. "SAFE!? Nowhere in this damned city is safe! It's all theirs! This city has always been theirs! They know everything, have spies everywhere. I can't...I CAN'T TRUST ANYONE ANYMORE!" he screamed, as he raised his arm to throw the bottle at me.

I prepared myself to dodge it, but stopped short, as Crash was suddenly smashed in the back of the head with a chair, and fell to the floor, out cold.

I looked over at his attacker in shock. "GOLDY! Why did you do that!?"

Gold Digger looked up at me with an innocent look. "What? You saw how he was reacting, he wasn't going to come with us, without a fight!" she explained simply.

"But I could've talked him down! Plus, I would've found a way to subdue him if I had to!" I protested, as bar patrons went over to look at Crash, still knocked out.

Gold Digger looked at me skeptically. "Would you have knocked him out?"

"No!"

"Then you're welcome." she said with a smile.

Unorthodox, yes. But we still managed to find Crash, and thanks to Gold Digger's um...quick thinking? We had no problems taking Crash back to the station, where he was interrogated by Chief Karosta. But...we did have some problems after that. I took quick note of the drummer that had set up outside of the station, as we went inside.

Karosta's Office

"So...Crash, right?"

Crash payed no attention to Karosta as he sat there in the chair, not saying a word.

Karosta closed her eyes as she sighed. "Let's not do this, Crash. We know you're working with this 'Voodoo cult', and we need to put a stop to them. And you're the only one who can tell us where to find them. So just tell us what we-

"You can't stop them! Ya gotta to let me go!" Crash exclaimed suddenly.

"Relax, Crash. Nopony knows your here. Its just you, me and Meir here."

"I'm here too!" Gold Digger said raising her hoof.

"Yes, but not officially." Karosta said looking back at Gold Digger, sitting in a comfy chair on the other side of the office. Gold Digger simply shrugged and continued to read her issue of Pony Vogue.

Turning her attention back to Crash, Karosta was surprised to see Crash laughing to himself. "Like you could get anything past them! They know everything that happens in this city. You can't hide me from them. They know I'm here!"

"Who is 'They'? Just tell us where they are, and you don't have to worry anymore!" Karosta explained.

Again Crash laughed. "It doesn't matter what you do. You can't stop them. They've been in control since the beginning. Things won't change. If I talk, I'm dead."

Karosta was losing her patience, so I offered to step in (Before she turned crash into her newest wall decoration, beside her desk.)

I sat across from Crash with a calm demeanor. Legs crossed, hooves folded in front of me, and a smile. "Listen, Herring-

Crash's eyes went wide. "How do you know my real name?" he asked, clearly even more suspicious.

"You're brother told us."

"You...you actually talked to Carlsen?"

"Yes, after I beat him at chess."

"You did what!? Nopony beats him at that game! It's impossible."

I shrugged. "Maybe the impossible isn't as impossible as you think."

For a moment, Crash was silent, as if thinking it over. Finally he said "I'm not saying anything else....here."

We all just looked at him. "Pardon?" I asked curiously.

Crash looked up at me. "You really think you can stop them?"

I didn't have to think of an answer. "Yes." I said with determination.

"Then we can't stay here. We need to go somewhere safe. Where that drummer can't hear us."

So my hunch had been right. The drummer outside had been listening in, seeing what he could report back to the cult.

"As long as he's out there, I can't say anything."

Karosta shrugged. "Fine, then I'll get rid of him. He's loitering anyway."

Crash looked scared again. "What?! NO!" He begged, but Karosta had already left to go get rid of the drummer.

We all watched from her office window to the outside, as she approached the drummer. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but she appeared to be asking him to leave. But the drummer ignored her and kept on drumming. a full minute went by as she waited for him to respond, but he just kept drumming. Like she wasn't even there.

Karosta narrowed her eyes at him as she was now ordering the drummer to leave, clearly losing her patience. But again the drummer paid her no mind, and continued to drum, but much louder, just to spite Karosta.

This was his mistake though. As Karosta, who had finally had enough of this, grabbed the drum from the drummers hooves, punched a hole clean through it's top, then chucked it clear across the street, where it landed in a dumpster.

The drummer just stood there for a moment, eyes wide. Then, like a child who had been scolded by their mother, went off solemnly to retrieve his drum. Karosta smirked as she watched him saunter off.

When Karosta returned nopony said a word. She just sat back down (at her makeshift desk of a tipped over filing cabinet) then looked up at Crash.

"So...feel like talking now?" she asked with a smile.

Crash only looked at her with a surprised and fearful expression as he nodded. "Y-yes ma'am."

Questioning (Herring aka Crash, Carlsen's brother, Works as a messenger for the Voodoo Cult)

I wasted no time asking my first question. "Who is this Voodoo Cult? What are they doing in Nawlans?"

Crash shook his head. "They've always been here, since the town was founded. They're an underground cartel of some kind. They control everything that happens on the street- everything that's bought or sold! They have their hooves in other stuff too: banks, foreign stuff, you name it."

Crash suddenly shuddered, as the blood drained from his face. He looked down at his feet as he spoke.

"They...they can do things. Things that magic can't. They have power, REAL power. T-They can write your name on a piece of paper, then burn it, and you suddenly burst into flames! Or get inside your head, make you forget your own name, or even how to breathe. They know when you lie- they can smell it!

Karosta looked skeptical. "That's impossible."

I wasn't so sure, having seen myself what dark power like that was capable of. But could voodoo really do all of that? I didn't think so. Not normal voodoo anyway.

I asked my next question. "Is this cult really behind the voodoo murders?"

"Yeah. It's them. But that's not the only way they kill, no...they can get you from miles away just by saying your name!"

Just by saying your name? If Crash was telling the truth....did we even have a chance here? It sounded ridiculous, but I made a mental note of it anyway, before asking my next question.

"Who's in charge of this cult? Who's behind all of this?"

Crash suddenly lurched in his seat. Once. Then twice, this time more violently. I went to his side and caught him by his shoulder. "She...She...eyes...the eyes!" he chocked out.

He wasn't looking good. I tried to calm him down. "Crash? Crash are you alright?" I asked in a worried voice, seeing his face turn pale as a sheet.

Crash lurched again, and I saw blood drip down from his nose. "The eyes...eyes of a snake..." Crash began coughing without stop, each time, more blood spewed from his mouth.

"Shit!" Karosta swore loudly, rushing to Crash's opposite side. "What the hell's happening to him!?" she asked me frantically.

"This isn't normal, he was perfectly fine only minutes ago!" I exclaimed. Crash began shuddering uncontrollably, as he fell from the seat completely.

"We have to do something!" I yelled. "He's going into cardiac arrest!"

Karosta and Gold Digger rushed to help me with Crash, but no matter what we did, he just got worse by the second. It was as if his heart itself had turned against him. It looked like we had no chance of saving him.

But as a doctor, I'll be damned if I was going to let a patient die on my watch. I calmed my nerves, and allowed my instinct to take over. At once the whole room faded away, leaving only me and crash there on the floor. Taking a breath, I began my analysis.

Doctor's Analysis

Patient: Herring aka Crash. 24 years old, male, lanky build, blood type B-, Earth Pony.

Affliction: Unexplained Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Pupils dilated, severe chest convulsions, muscle spasms, spitting up blood, extremely pale complexion, loss of ability to speak.

Treatment: Modern medicine and medical practice is useless here. Whatever happened to Crash was done deliberately and without use of any known magic or science. His heart has literally turned against him, spiking blood pressure throughout the body and causing sudden cardiac arrest. If his heart is the problem here...then I have to stop it. But in a way that won't endanger the patient's life.

Conclusion: I have to stop Crash's heart, before it literally kills him. And in a way that won't endanger the patient himself.

Now knowing what to do, I ripped open Crash's shirt and hit him with several pressure points around his solar plexus, abdomen and neck, that would relax his heart gradually until it temporarily stopped. After doing this, we watched as Crash stopped his convulsions, gradually getting less and less noticeable until finally they, along with his heart finally stopped completely.

After 10 seconds exactly, I hit the exact same points, restarting Crash's heart, who awoke with a sudden loud gasp, before collapsing back on the floor. Barely awake, but alive.

Analysis Complete

I sat back against the wall and took in several breaths to calm myself. Karosta and Gold Digger simply stared at me in awe, unable to find the words. I had none either.