Death Cast

1.34 | Grecia Bella Theatre

The infirmary really existed.

Jaerim blinked his eyes as he read a hanging sign with the name ‘INFIRMARY’ with uppercase letters together with an arrow pointing to a double swing door on the corner. He had thought that Noel was only bluffing when he suggested this place a long time ago but it seems that he was telling the truth. Noel pushed the door open and waited for Jaerim to enter before closing it back with a soft click. 

The room is empty. 

The vast, white chamber is devoid of anyone or anything. They are not necessarily empty, but there are no people nearby. Jaerim took a glance around and discovered the typical layout of a modernized infirmary. White walls, white flooring, and white drapes strung from metal bars attached to the ceiling are typical features of infirmaries. Each of the beds had a curtain separating it from the others, resulting in cramped quarters.

Several of the drapes were draped down and a couple was fastened in the center, giving the impression that they had been recently used. The silhouettes of the draperies, which were covering the lights, partially obscured the vacant beds, producing an unsettling sense of desolation. Jaerim barely gave these beds a passing glance before proceeding to the other side of the room, where an office desk and a few cabinets had been set up previously.

Noel had pulled out a metal stool from under one of the beds very skillfully as if he had been there many times before. He put it near the doctor's desk. He gestured for Jaerim to have a seat on it as he headed over to the glass-door cabinets to grab a medicine kit or whatever else he would need to treat the wounds. Before seating down on the chair, Jaerim took a look around, as if looking for something. His gaze drifted to the desk, where a stack of papers, a picture frame, and other items was gathered.

Only a small amount of noise may be heard in the room. There is a clinking of glasses caused by Noel as he shuffles the objects. There is also the sound of the fluorescent lamps that were buzzing slightly from the small intensity of light. Jaerim felt bored by the eerie silence so he decided to check on the things around the table.

To begin, he sorted through the piles of papers atop the desk. An empty fountain pen and a resin paperweight were placed on top of the stack of papers. Once all the extraneous items had been removed, Jaerim started scanning the documents one by one. They were medical records of patients who had been admitted to the infirmary. He couldn't identify any of the individuals, but he surmised that their ailments and muscular strains were most likely the results of their excessive practicing and dancing.

Noel saw Jaerim scanning the documents and commented, “Those are the names of the resident troupe of the theatre.”

“Really? How did you know?” Jaerim flipped to another paper and saw the same reasons for getting admitted to the infirmary. This time, it is fatigue from too much dancing. 

“Ah, you were not at the breakfast table this morning so you didn’t know. Well, let’s talk about it while I’m treating your wounds.”

Noel carried over a red box and placed it on the table as he pulled out another stool from underneath the beds. Jaerim placed the documents down and let Noel handle the stab wound on his arms. Noel seems skillful in treating the wounds since his hands did not dawdle around as he took out cotton balls and alcohol from the kit. 

“Judith and some other people searched for clues yesterday. They found a small wooden chest in some of the compartments of the lockers in the locker room. They said, if not for accidentally opening a locker, they would have not found it.”

“I’m guessing, it’s Bella’s correspondence letters?”

Noel nodded. “It seems that the owner of the locker is the sender of the letters. The performer is a resident in the theatre and they don’t have any places to keep their things other than placing them on their lockers. It somehow worked since the are no signs that the wooden chest was opened.”

Bella’s letters were quite different from the unknown sender. One can easily see that the writer was educated since the words used were in beautiful prose that could be made into a book of poems or essays that everyone would surely love. It is in contrast to the lover boy’s letter that is filled with cheap romantic openings and crude words. 

“The letters are quite good, to be honest. Bella seems to like the sender very much. Well, the first few letters have wariness written on them but the next letters were filled with care and love. Everything is pure and cute. And I’m quite jealous.”

Noel complained. 

“Actually, all of us were jealous. It seems like ninety percent of us here are singles.”

Jaerim blinked from the underhanded comment. “Are there any important points in the letters?”

“Not really,” Noel thought about it. “Hmmm, I think there is one. The last letter we found in the study room is from the lover boy, right? Apparently, it is a correspondence to Bella’s letter. And there are two of them.”

“Two?”

“Yes, the first letter is about Bella telling the other person that her father discovered their exchange. There’s not much in this letter and the words were written quite hurriedly as if Bella is getting chased by something or whatever. The second letter, the last amongst them, is about Bella apologizing on her father’s behalf and that the lover does not need to leave.”

Noel has finished cleaning the wounds and is now cutting bandages to cover them up. Because the stab was shallow, the bleeding ceased as soon as the blood clogged on the surface. Noel shook his head and clicked his tongue. He carefully applied plaster to the wound's opening.

“You shouldn’t walk in the hallway alone, ah. There are many dangerous people in this world. You should be careful,” Noel said. 

Jaerim looked at his pale arm that is still red from the blood. Noel made a good job cleaning it up. The bandages were properly rounded up in his arms until everything has been closed up well. Jaerim looked at Noel who seems to be satisfied with his work. He lowered his head and thought of something.

“What’s wrong?” Noel noticed Jaerim’s abnormality. 

“There’s nothing,” Jaerim shook his head. “Anyways, from Bella’s letters, are there any statements or phrases talking about meeting up? Like wanting to see each other or some whining words of not being able to see each other?”

“How did you know? That’s the next thing I want to share with you.”

Noel retrieved the excess bandages and rolled them up. His hands were busy arranging the kit, putting them back to their former places. Jaerim silently watched his movements. 

“In some of the letters, Bella stated that she wished to see the lover boy so they could chat and become friends. Meeting people face to face is different and she wanted to see him personally. But as you can see, the letters from the lover boy are all rejections with reasons that are quite romantic-tragic but acceptable in this kind of era.”

Bella asked for the lover boy to meet her but the lover boy insisted that he is not worthy to meet such a person. Bella is a distinguished lady from a wealthy family whereas the performer, the lover boy, is probably an orphan with a sob story. Although them crossing each other is fate, they are not necessarily meant for each other. That is the case of having a different social standing. 

“Bella is quite happy upon knowing the sender since the lover boy expressed his courage through letters but this is not enough for her. Actually, there is much more interest coming from Bella than the ones sent by the lover boy.”

“Hmmm, that’s unexpected,” Jaerim commented. “But don’t you think it is strange.”

“Of course, it is strange. Everyone agreed that Bella’s action is very strange. Most of us thought that it would be the lover boy who would chase Bella but it seems the other way around. In her letters, she sounded desperate.”

Desperate. She sounded desperate. 

What could make people desperate? 

Jaerim pondered over the reason. Bella is a daughter of a rich man, educated, and probably pretty. He had not seen her face but from the way the lover boy described Bella, she should have a good-looking face. Money, beauty, and knowledge - what else could be lacking that made Belle lose hope? What made her desperate?

Noel stood up from the chair and returned the medicine kit to the cabinet. Jaerim also stood up but he headed towards the office desk. He looked at the picture frame on the table and found a black and white photograph of a person wearing doctor clothes. However, the person’s face is ripped, the same as the one they found from the study room. 

“You said that Bella’s father is a doctor right?” Jaerim asked. 

“Yeah, that’s what they said,” Noel nodded. 

“If that is true, then this place must be his office, right?” Jaerim pointed to the picture frame on the desk. “Don’t you think we could find some clues in here?”

“That’s true,” Noel muttered. “Let’s go search then.”

The two people started around looking for something. They don’t know what they were trying to seek but it must be in a form of newspaper clippings or envelopes since most of the clues they had gathered have this form. While searching, Jaerim briefly explained the hypothesis he mentioned to the grim reapers earlier in the morning. It made Noel stop as he looked at Jaerim with wide eyes. 

He exclaimed, “You’re telling me that the lover boy is Elias? That angry jester?”

Jaerim nodded nonchalantly. “That’s my guess.” But he is one hundred percent sure. 

“Fck,” disbelief is evident from Noel’s face. He have to stop working and sat on the nearby bed to calm himself. He placed his hand over his chest to create a more dramatic atmosphere that made Jaermi roll his eyes.

“Who would have thought that he will have a more harmonious love life? But with that face? That temper? No wonder he wouldn't show his face to Bella. He would scare the hell out of her.”

Although Noel had not seen the jester’s real face, he is sure that Bella would be scared upon seeing him. If that’s how it is, Bella and Elias never met. Or maybe they had known who is who along this time but could not meet without someone’s consent. The last letter, the ones found in the study, stated that the lover boy is excited to meet Bella. It indicated that they have probably seen each other. 

“It’s reasonable,” Noel thought as he read in between the lines. “The competition, the setting - everything makes sense from your deduction. The father giving out a task like that will surely make the lover boy leave the theatre since he knows he won’t be able to rise on the top easily if he stays as a resident performer.”

The jester has to go out, claim his talents, and practice like there’s no tomorrow. Only by that, he could show Bella’s father that he is serious about her. Recruiting people to create a dance troupe is not easy. It must have taken the jester a lot of time to complete them. 

“But what made you think it is missing something?” Noel asked. 

Jaerim also shared his conjecture that there is a missing factor within the events. They are linked to each other but not properly connected. There is a void in the middle that keeps him seeing blank. They needed this one piece of information to understand the premise better.

If the jester is drowned by his obsession for gaining the top, what is Bella’s desperation then?