Shaw looks intently at the piece of paper in front of him, on which he had written down these ‘clues’ that Corey Bull had broadcasted over the AW Network for him. He clicks the pen in his hand repeatedly, his legs bouncing on his feet below the chair. Riddled with anger, fear, anxiety...Shaw convinced himself over and over again to just focus and figure out how to get his half-sister Samantha to safety.
“I can’t fuckin’ believe this. Alright…” He talks softly to himself as he leans over his notes and tries to figure out the intent of the words…
“People knock on me to say hello...it’s a door.” He writes ‘
DOOR’ beside his scribbles. “You see me once in June, twice in November and not at all in May...day of the week? No...Moon? No...fuck.”
He skips over it, going to the following one that his eyes zoom over several times. “Had a bed that never sleeps...bed...river bed. A river, ok…” He writes ‘
RIVER’ beside it.
He sits in silence, reading through the others several times over, several times going to touch the pen to paper but withdraw, knowing that he needs to nail these. Various swear words whisper through his teeth, as a bead of sweat forms at his brow.
“
E! THE FUCKING LETTER E!” He yells several minutes later, finally feeling that he has solved the ‘once in June, twice in November’ riddle. He jumps up, looking over his paper. He reaches over and tosses on the hoodie resting against the wall, pulling it down and heading towards his front
door.
He takes one step out of his house and looks to the next hint. ‘
E’...Gotta be a direction, it’s the only thing that makes sense. Head
East. Shaw grabs his phone from his pocket quickly, finding a Compass app and looking up directly, looking to his right and slightly behind him. He starts off with a walk, but it quickly escalates to a jog as he expects to hit a
river. He knew there was one somewhere near his house but had never actually seen it.
~~~~Shaw makes it to the
river. About 2 miles out from his house, heading due
East did indeed bring him to an access spot, with a bit of a path going each way alongside it. He pulls back out the folded paper from his pocket, looking forward. “I have branches...but no fruit, trunk or leaves.” He looks around as he says it, relying on context to help him solve the last two riddles.
He looks up and down the river bank. “
Bank...a fuckin’
bank.” Carter connects the riddle, knowing now that he’s in the right place. He eyes dart around faster, wondering where to look. He looks back down at the final riddle.
The person who makes it has no need of it; the person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?Shaw heads upstream a bit, walking alongside the
riverbank, looking all over for anything unusual.
It doesn’t take long.
About 25 feet upstream, something very out of place lies in wait.
A
coffin. Resting angled into the water against the riverbank.
Carter freezes in fear. He wouldn’t put it past Corey Bull for one second to actually kill Samantha and put her here for him to find. All of his muscles tensed up as he slowly approached it.
“The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it…” He whispers to himself, now with the
coffin at his feet. Slowly reaching down, Shaw grips the thin end with both hands. He notices words, written small in marker on the wooden corner.
“No MoRe niCE tHiNGs”Shaw breathes deep as he tugs forward on the casket, relieved when it gives into his strength easier than if it had housed a body. He pulls it flat up onto the riverbank and swings it open quickly. Insects had just started to find a home within the fresh wood, but only one other thing sits in the coffin.
Sizeable, about 12x12, a picture of Samantha Shaw sits. It’s a posed picture, probably one taken for promotional material for one of her independent wrestling companies. His heart tugs on itself a little more when he reaches down again, another picture resting underneath. A hooded head, hands tied behind the back of a sturdy wooden chair. A small spotlight beside her. A plate inbetween her feet, several crumbs representing a very small taste of food that may have once been there.
He held up both pictures side by side. The before and after, Corey Bull Special. Carter fell to his knees, letting his jeans soak up the dirt and mud around him. He slowly flips both pictures around, holding them together…
Unveiling more written words from Corey Bull…
Carter should have known this wouldn’t be a simple trial. Bull had already wreaked havoc on Shaw’s life in the most minimalist of ways. Now he dragged Samantha into it, and Carter knew, more in this moment of ‘cat and mouse’ then ever before…
The Hatebringer was in fucking control. Carter lets out a yell in anger before getting up off of his knees and fully reading Bull’s note.