Chapter 27: Talks With A Cultist

Inside the “Mortar and Pestle” was a standoff. On one side was Joe and Mike pointing their guns at Wren, who was holding his hands up shaking in fear.

Mike: “Dan. Whatever you do, don’t take your eyes off him.”

Wren: “P-please i-im not going to do anything,“ he said while shaking with fear.

Joe: “Did you lock the front door?” he said to Dan, without taking his eyes off the man in front of him.

Dan: “U-um, yeah.”

Joe: “Good. take these and cuff him for me,” he said, as he passed Dan a pair of Jinsil steel handcuffs he had in his jacket while continuing to point his gun at Wren.

Dan took the cuffs. With some trepidation, he started to walk around to Wren and prepared to put the cuffs on him.

Wren: “T-that’s really not necessary. I-i’m not a mage.”

Joe: “And yet, you can recognize these as cuffs specifically for mages.”

Jinsil cuffs were a unique tool that law enforcement, like Joe, carried around on their persons. They were specifically designed to restrain mages, as the jinsil in the cuffs would disrupt any aether in people's body, making it impossible to cast spells. It is not a tool that many non-mages would immediately recognize.

Wren: “I-i-im, gah!” he yelled out as his arms were forced behind his back by Dan.

Dan forced Wren's hands together behind his back and with a quick metallic click, he locked the cuffs onto his wrist.

Dan: “All secured Joe.”

Joe: “Good, now let's have a little talk. “

Mike: “Wait. Let's move this out of the store floor,” he said, while pointing to the door behind Wren at the very back of the store.

Joe: “Good idea Mikey.”

They then relocated to the back room of the store. Out of sight from anyone that might see what was going on from the display windows in the front of the store. Wren led the group into the back with Mike pushing him forward from behind with the muzzle of his gun.

Once inside, the three officers looked around. It was dimmer in this room and the shelves here were packed full of more dried herbs and curious tinctures. It was filthy and a mess in this room. There was also all kinds of alchemical equipment in an area of the room from beakers to test vials. That one corner of the room looked more like a laboratory than it did a storage room.

Joe: “Huh, so you're conducting your own twisted personal experimentation.”

Wren: “I-i make my own herbal remedies. That’s what this is all for.”

Joe: “Likely story, I’m sure you were brewing poisons to torture people.”

Joe looked around and found a chair. He grabbed Wren by the shoulder and guided towards the chair before forcing him to sit. Once he was seated, Joe and Mike put their guns back in their holsters.

Wren: “Ugh. We don’t torture or hurt people,” he said, trying to defend himself and his cult.

Joe: “Yeah, and how many cultists have said that before jamming a dagger into someone's eye socket. You freaks lie all the time,” he then turned toward Dan and Mike. “You guys search the area and see if you find anything strange. If you guys find a book with a red cover or a black book with weird writing in it, let me know. I’ll stay here and keep our cultist friend company.”

Both Mike and Dan nodded before walking off in opposite directions to examine anything of interest.

Wren: “If you're looking for the Blood Rite or the Rattle Scratching, you won’t find them here.”

Joe then turned back to Wren with a curious look in his eye. The Blood Rite and the Rattle Scratching were the two books he was asking his team to look out for. They were text that members of the Blood Callers or the Rattle Bone cult would often possess. If they were able to find one of those books, it would be very easy to identify what cult he belonged to.

Joe: “So, you know about those books. And, you're insisting that you don’t have them. Does that mean you're part of the Endless War Cult?”

Wren: “No! I’m not associated with any of those psychos from the big three.”

Joe: “Mhm hm. So what cult do you belong to then?” he said in a dismissive manner. Showing that he clearly didn’t entirely believe anything that Wren was saying.

Wren: “Ugh. It’s… the…” he then mumbled something inaudible,

Joe: “Huh, what are you saying?”

There was a painful silence between the two of them before Wren forced himself to speak.

Wren: “P-putrid Rot. I belong to the Putrid Rot clan.”

Joe reeled back from Wren slightly with a visible face of disgust at what he just heard. The names of these cult gave to themselves indicated some sense of what a cult's beliefs and practices are. Joe could only imagine how disgusting this cult and its members were, if they were calling themselves worshipers of something called Putrid Rot.

Dan: “Hey Joe. I think I found something you might wanna look at,” he called out.

Joe looked off to the side to see Dan near a door with stairs leading down. Dan was standing there with his lower face covered in a cloth.

Joe: “Hey Mike! Can you keep an eye on this guy for me,” he said while pointing his thumb to Wren.

Mike was looking through a nearby shelf before he turned his attention over where Joe and Wren were.

Mike: “Ok. I got it,” he said as he started to walk over to Wren.

Once he saw Mike walking over to Wren, he then turned his back and started to approach Dan.

Joe: “So what did you— ulgh!” he visibly gagged as he got closer to Dan.

There was an intense horrendous smell that stung Joe's nose. It was the worst thing he had ever smelled in his life. It smelled even worse than any fetid substance he had gotten the misfortune of being exposed to before. But, it was still familiar. Joe realized that it was the same scent from the alleyway where they had gathered before entering Wren's store. It was just way more intense here than it was then in the alley. Joe had to actively pinch his nostrils shut, or he would continue to gag.

Dan: “Yeah, I opened the door and the smell just hit me. It smells kinda like rotten meat, so I'm thinking a rotting corpse maybe somewhere down there. But, I didn't want to go down there alone to confirm,” he said, with his voice slightly muffled by the cloth he was holding to his face.

Joe: “That’s fine. We’ll go down together. And like you said, there might be a body down there. Turns out Wren is part of the Putrid Rot cult. So a rotting body down there seems likely,” he said while pinching his nose.

Dan: “Why in the Light would anyone willingly join such a group?”

Joe: “There is nothing normal when it comes to these cultists. So If I learn nothing else from this experience, know that cultists are all crazy like this,” He said as started to descend the stairs.

As he moved down the stairs with Dan at his back, he felt the air change around him. It was becoming more humid. He was sure that the smell from before was becoming more intense as he traveled down into the depths. He reached the bottom of the steps that open into a large pitch black room. He couldn't make much out in the darkness.

Looking around he saw a light switch nearby and quickly flipped it. The lights above activated and illuminated the space. Joe could now clearly see the rows of wooden crates with tops open, sitting in the room. He gingerly approached one of them and peered in, which he quickly regretted.

The crate he was looking at was full of thousands of slimy yellow wiggling worms. They constantly climbed and squirmed on top of each other aimlessly in a massive pile inside the crate.

Joe: “What the fuck,” he said as he moved away from the crate.

Joe then went on to examine the other open crates. He expected to find more of those disgusting wriggling creatures, but he found something else instead. Inside the other crate was a thick layer of white fuzzy mycelium cover dirt. It almost resembled snow. Countless colorful green mushrooms sprouted from it. The other crate Joe examined all seemed to contain different types of mold and fungi within them. While not pleasant, he found the fungus was less repulsive than the crate of worms.

Joe pondered to himself until Dan called out to him.

Dan: “Hey Joe. I think I found the source of the smell.”

Looking over where Dan was, Joe saw the new recruit holding a metal bucket. He went over to Dan and took a look inside the container he was holding. Inside was a mix of animal carcass of fish and some sort of bird. There was an unsettling bright lime green slime on the remains.

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Dan: “I found a ton of other buckets with this green slime in it. They all had some sort of organic material rotting in them. I even found a whole bucket with just the slime in it. The smell from it almost made me vomit.”

Joe: “Was there anything that seemed dubious in one of those buckets? Like human body parts?”

Dan: “No. Just plant material and animal carcass. Nothing that looked like it belonged to a human.”

Joe: “Hmm. Doesn't mean there couldn’t have been a human part in one of those buckets. Might be just too decomposed for us to recognize.”

Dan: “What do you think the deal with the buckets full of slime and biomass is about? Is it material for potion making?”

Joe: “More likely that slime is something that accelerates rotting. He did say he was part of a cult called the ‘Putrid Rot’. So something that can make things rot faster might be something his cult is into.”

Dan: “But why?” Searᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Joe: “Maybe he worships the rot and uses it in some disgusting ritual. Who knows. Like i said before, nothing those cults do ever make any sense. Did you find anything else?”

Dan: “I did. I found this on one of the shelves down here, he said as he pulled out a book with a drawn mushroom on the cover.”

Joe: “Hmm. This might be his cult book. Did you read anything out of it?”

Dan: “I just skimmed it, but the term ‘Putrid Rot’ did come up. Seems like pretty good confirmation that Wren really does belong to that cult.”

Joe: “That makes him a tiny bit easier to deal with, I guess. He doesn't have the backing of any of the big three cult, which are a lot more dangerous than a lesser cult. I assume you didn’t notice anything else?”

Dan shook his head, confirming Joe's assumption.

Joe: “In that case, let’s get out of this cesspit,” he said, eager to get out of this place and away from the horrendous smell.

Both officers rapidly ascended the stairs, closing the doors behind them, hoping that doing so would keep the smell from following them up the stairs. Once they were back in the storage room, they briefly let out a sigh. Glad to be away from that smell, but as soon as Joe un-pinched his nose, he gagged again. Some of the smell from the basement had rubbed off on their clothing. It wasn't as bad as downstairs, but the smell that clung to their clothing was still foul.

Joe: “Ugh, fuck me,” he said while still gagging.

Dan: “Fucking Light. I just bought these clothes.”

Mike, who was still standing near where Wren was forced to sit, turned his body and greeted them.

Mike: “Ugh, you guys stink. Find anything interesting down there?” he said, while covering his nose.

Joe: “Found out where this guy was growing his shrooms,” he said while pointing at Wren. “Also found a bunch of rotting animal carcass and the remains of a human body,” he said while lying about the part with the human body.

Joe wanted to see how Wren would react by the mention of a human body. He wanted to try and gauge him and get a sense of what he was like, as he tried to defend himself from the false accusation from Joe.

Wren: “There’s no humans remains down there! I don’t kill people or desecrate graves!”

Joe calmly approached Wren. Mike started to move away from Joe, trying to put a little distance between them so he didn’t have to smell Joe. Wren seemed unfazed by the smell clinging to Joe’s clothing.

Joe: “So, you’re telling me the finger I found in those buckets of green slime wasn't human,” he said, while continuing his lie about the human corpse.

Wren: “I don't know what you think you saw, but there are no human remains in that Rot slime. It should only be leftover food and herbs that went bad,” he said, adamant that there were no human remains in his basement.

Dan: “U-um, Joe. I didn’t see any human remains in those buckets.”

Joe: “Fuck me,” he said while rubbing his temples. “Take a hint Dan. I was lying to see how he would act, and you just ruined it.”

Dan: “OH! I’m sorry Joe,” he said apologetically.

Joe ignored Dan and put his focus back onto Wren.

Joe: “That green slime. I assume it’s used to accelerate decomposition, right?”

Wren: “Yeah, it’s rot slime. It does exactly as you say. It makes things rot quicker. A lot quicker.”

Joe: “I know I'm going to regret asking this, but why? Why are you decomposing stuff in those buckets down there?”

Wren: “It’s fertilizer.”

Joe: “For what?”

Wren: “You did see my shrooms down there?”

Joe: “So you're using it to fertilize your little mushroom farm you got going on down there.”

Wren: “Yeah, what did you think I was using it for?”

Joe: “I’m asking the questions here,” he said, glad that Wren wasn't using those buckets of slime for something disgusting like he was thinking. “So, what are those green mushrooms growing down there?”

Wren: “Those are dream shrooms. There… what i sell on the side for people that want to get high.”

Joe: “And the other stuff you were growing.”

Wren: “All various types of fungi to make medicine and herbal remedies.”

Joe: “Anything particularly poisonous you're growing.”

Wren: “I mean… only in the sense if you take too much. But, that’s like any medicine.”

Joe: “And what’s with the crate full of worms?”

At the mention of a crate full of worms, Mike's face had changed to a visible look of disgust.

Wren: “They’re carrion worms. I collect their mucus secretions to make the rot slime.”

Joe stared down Wren. He was looking for any signs of a lie. But, during the entire time he was questioning him, Wren had answered him confidently with no hesitation. If he was a liar, then he was a really good one. Good enough that Joe couldn’t tell. But, Joe also knew that nameless cultists weren’t right in the head, somewhat evident by what Wren was doing in his basement. It wouldn't be easy to tell if they were lying. They might very well believe what they're saying in the moment from their zealotry, only to change them a few minutes later. Trying to normally psychoanalyze a cultist is often pointless.

Joe turned and walked away from Wren, far enough that Joe believed he couldn’t hear him. He then made a gesture for Dan and Mike to come over where he was. Dan gathered around Joe, but Mike hesitated. He didn’t want to get close to them. Joe made another forceful gesture for Mike to come over to where he was. Mike groaned then pinched his nose and walked over to where Dan and Joe were.

Joe: “So what are you guys thinking so far.”

Dan: “I’m wondering if this guy really is a cultist. He doesn't behave like any cultist they taught at the academy. He’s acted very rational and been cooperative with questioning. Not mumbling nonsensical things, like they say cultists do.”

Joe: “The nonsensical kind of cultists are mostly from the Rattle Bone cult, but don’t let that fool you. The other cults like Blood caller, Endless war, and some lesser cults can act rational in the moment, even if their end goals are anything but that.”

Mike: “He also hasn't done anything particularly illegal if we are to believe what he says. Well, the exception being the shrooms.”

Joe: “Being a cultist is illegal.”

Mike: “Actually, being a cultist of the big three is what’s illegal. If his lesser cult is not on the list of prohibited cults, then we got nothing on him other than the shrooms.”

Joe & Dan: “What!?” They both said.

Mike: “Yeah I looked into it a while back. Just cause you're part of a cult doesn't automatically make it a crime. I know almost everyone on the force just assumes being part of a cult is illegal, but the laws are clear. The cult has to be on the prohibited list to make membership of that cult illegal. It just so happens that in the past, all the cultists the force has dealt with were on that list.”

Joe: “Shit. I don’t make it a habit of having our unit deal with cults, so I had no idea it was like that. Do you know if this Putrid Rot cult is on the list?”

Mike: “No idea. Didn’t memorize it. The list was really long. We’ll have to go back to headquarters and check to see if Wren’s cult is on it.”

Dan: “Then we can’t arrest him, and we are also now the ones breaking the law by restraining him like this.”

Mike: “We’ll be OK. Restraining someone with reasonable suspicion of cult activities means they won’t throw the book at us too hard. And remember, the shrooms. That shit is still illegal. We can arrest him for drug trafficking if need be.”

Dan: “You wanna bring him in on drug charges.”

Joe: “Not really. It’s not my prerogative to bring in small-time drug dealers.”

Dan: “But, aren’t we supposed to?”

Joe: “No. I’m not going to waste our time with that shit if he’s not selling to kids.”

Mike: “We are supposed to bring him in, but Joe doesn't believe in arresting people for petty crimes. And, I'm kinda with him on that.”

Dan: “Selling drugs is a petty crime to you guys?”

Joe: “In this case, yes. Now the question is what to do with him,” he said while briefly looking over at Wren sitting in the chair he forced him in.

Dan: “I don’t know. Cultists are supposed to be super dangerous. So, we can’t just leave him alone.”

Joe: “True, and just cause he says he’s not murdering anyone, doesn't mean he’s telling the truth. That rot slime in his basement would make it real easy to dispose of a body if he wanted to.”

Mike: “When I was talking to him while you guys were in the basement, he was pretty insistent that he’s a pacifist. Never hurt another soul in his life, he said. Actually that reminds me, did you guys see a book down there with a picture of a mushroom on it.”

Joe: “You mean this,” he said as he pulled out the book they found.

Mike: “That looks like what he was talking about, " he said, as took the book from Joe. Mike then started to quickly flip through the pages. “Let’s see. I think he said it was on page one twenty four. Ah, here it is. It says here: Hmm, interesting.”

Dan: “What’s that about?”

Mike: “Wren told me about this book when I was alone with him. It apparently contains the teaching of his cult. He told me to read the last paragraph on this page. Saying that it would prove him and his cult are not violent. And based on what I just read, his cult doesn't sound as particularly evil compared to other cults I've heard of.”

Joe: “So what’s your gut telling you Mikey?”

Mike: “I’m leaning towards him being harmless.”

Dan: “Really!?! But he’s a cultist.”

Mike: “Dan, there’s a reason why there's a list of which cult is illegal. They are rare, but there are nameless cults out there that don’t do anything particularly heinous. I learned about them when I learned about that list.”

Joe: “Hmm. So, what do you think we should do, Dan?”

Dan: “Y-you wanna hear my opinion?”

Joe: “If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked.”

Dan: “Oh, um,” he said while taking a moment to think about what he was going to say next. “I say if we can, we arrest him. Cultists have committed no end of atrocities throughout the world. We can’t trust him.”

Joe crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He started to ponder what his next action should be. Half of his team wanted to arrest him, while the other half was indicating that we could leave him alone. It was Joe's decision that would break the tie on how they should handle Wren.

Joe: “Hmm. We didn’t come here to arrest a cultist. So, we do nothing for now. We’ll do a little research about this guy later and if we find anything questionable about him or the cult he follows, we’ll throw him into a jail cell.”

Both Dan and Mike looked at each other before nodding, deferring to their leader's decision.

Joe: “Anyways, being a cultist might mean he’s got some useful info that can help us with the Rob murder case.”

Joe then turned away from his team and approached Wren. Mike and Dan followed behind him, with Mike keeping some distance between himself and his team members.

Joe: “So, you have two options. I can drag you over to headquarters and throw you in a jail cell, or you can provide us with your wide array of skills and knowledge relating to your cult, and I might look the other way.”

Wren just looked at Joe and gave a long defeated sigh. He had completely surrendered himself to the situation he had found himself in.

Wren: “It doesn't sound like I have much of a choice.”

Joe: “I take it that means you will cooperate with us.”

Wren: “Yeah, fine. I’ll do whatever you want, so can you uncuff me now?”

Joe: “I’ll un-cuff one of your hands, but the jinsil cuff will remain on you somewhere. I don’t want you casting spells.”

Wren: “Whatever, I can't cast spells anyways. As long as I don't have to keep my hands behind my back like this. It’s uncomfortable.”

Joe turned to Mike and made a simple gesture with his head. Mike then walked behind where Wren was sitting and undid one of the cuffs that was on. Once free, he brought his hands forward and started to rub his sore wrist.

Joe reached into his jacket and pulled out the photo of the wooden object they found on Rob's body. He then pushed the photo into Wren's face.

Joe: “Have you seen this before?”

Wren took the photo in hand and examined it for a few seconds. The inquisitive look on his face changed to that of surprise once he realized something about the photo.

Wren: “Where did you find this?”

Joe: “I’m asking the question here. Do you know what it is?”

Wren: “Yeah, of course I know what it is. Because I'm the one who made it. “