The False Icon

The False Idol.

Or 

“Saint Alexus of Rome Institute. 

Altar. 

Hand. 

It's not mine but it's for me.

I don't want it."

Tonight.”

Because there was a small package with that written on the wrapper in front of Vero's flat door. Inside some crumpled bills and what seemed to be a small bone.

Vero knew she had just been tired by someone or something.

Saint Alexus of Rome Institute was a boarding school on the outskirts of the city during the 60s until the 80s. It was then that the school management found itself in trouble when it was discovered that they had been covering up a good number of cases of abuse for years. 

They began a process of reform when the 87 earthquake struck. While almost none of the buildings on the school fell down. All of them were damaged and deemed by the government as unlivable. The owners of the school disappeared after that and the premises shut down.

With its history it almost instantly became the epicenter of many urban legends around the zone. “The kids buried under the premises” “The ghosts of the owners running around the place” “The diabolical labs on the basements” and many more bogus claims.

In the last decade or so though, there's been sightings around the school. People have claimed they saw a creature some others have even called the devil himself.

It's not weird to see offerings being put around the facilities. It is said the ones that would be considered the more mundane ones are the ones more probable to be taken by whatever is out there. Processed food, clothes, toys and even money for example. 

This has just given the plausible explanation of it being homeless people being the ones Picking up the offerings and probably being the ones behind the sightings themselves and not some cryptid.

That's why this place wasn't necessarily on the Whisperers’ radar until tonight when Vero found the Altar of the note in the middle of what used to be a running track. 

What was still left of the footprints on the ground suggested the altar had been placed there by a big group of people. And in the middle of the altar she found what used to be a hand. 

It was missing one of the fingertips, clearly it was the one that the package contained. The hand was completely dried so whatever crime provoked it to be a part of the rest of a body, it wasn't recent at all. And later this theory was possibly confirmed when after a further inspection they found a date engraved in one of the bones. “February 29th 1988” the bones had been glued together and the wrist had two holes where screws could be driven.

Vero to this moment doesn't know who or what hired her that night. But he was there. And they'll hear about him again.

…

I'm cheating because I'm totally not telling you everything that happened that night but that's just cause I wanna revisit this mystery later.

There's a whole story with this one but first I'd have to expand on the other mystery I've been teasing though to be fair, they're related.

Here's a clue though. Lucy

The Whispers are always running away from some spook so wanted to try a more quiet, yet still creepy detective like piece. 

One of the inspirations for this one is pretty silly though. An artist that goes by Bieito Casal made an animated trailer for the show True Detectives using the characters from “Mortadelo y Filemón”. A slapstick comic book series from Spain about two detectives/spies that get into all kinds of trouble. And I think that video is one of the coolest things I've seen all year.

I haven't actually seen True detective and that video made me both wish this Mortadelo y Filemón series was real, and never see the actual True detective show cause it's not animated like that and it'd just be disappointing.

We really need more shows and movies of silly looking cartoon characters doing deathly serious business in a brooding manner.

The building behind Vero is inspired by a couple of buildings from the highschool I went to. It wasn't a boarding school but it also was earthquake damaged. Though not like this. It was still considered safe by the authorities.

Damaged buildings have been a constant on my art but I think this is the first time it's actually relevant somehow to the plot.

Also, not often but I'm having fun with the Doll's different small outfits lol