EsTallinn: Part Two

By Carol B. Niskala

    Based on true events and public records, interviews and investigation files retrieved by an unnamed source from Tallinn PD. Crime locations were located in the city of Tallinn throughout the last weekend of November and Christmas Day 2025. Names are fictional in order to preserve the victims’ identities and their families.

Intro

    After the events of October 2024, Police found Renai in the well from the Secret Garden. They almost mistaken her for dead, but she had a faint pulse. She was taken to the Central Hospital and remains in a coma ever since. There have been alleged sightings of Josh throughout the town, but no concrete leads for Detectives Gloria Dulce and Milka Morcegos to investigate… until now.

Advent Sunday One: November 30th 

    Nurse Kiki Fischer is caring for an unconscious Renai in East Tallinn Central Hospital. Renai has been in a coma for over a year since she was found unresponsive, but alive, in a well that was a crime scene in the Old City Center. The other four women found were not so lucky and were declared dead at the scene. 

   Kiki has been taking care of Renai ever since, always making sure she is ok. Kiki reads for her everyday, picking books that go according to each season and festive moods. Now, she decides to start some Christmas classics. It is snowing outside, the white soft blanket of flakes gently covering trees and buildings, like a winter wonderland dream. Renai looks serene in bed, like she is having a nap. Kiki wonders if coma patients can dream, or maybe hear stories being read to them. The nurse picks up a seat and gets closer to the bed, reaching out for a book from a satchel bag that was slung over the back of the chair. It is “A Christmas Carol”, by Charles Dickens. It has been a favorite of Kiki ever since she was a little girl back in Germany. In her gentle and soft voice, she starts reading and gets lost in her own memories of her childhood. From the outside, it didn’t look like anything was happening to the patient, she still looks the same, but looks can be deceiving. Renai has been having very vivid and lucid dreams lately. Every time Kiki reads for her, she can follow her voice like a siren who is calling out to a sailor at sea. Renai can hear the nurse’s voice so clearly, and yet, she cannot make her comatose body move. She can hear that Kiki is reading a different book now, something that Renai recognizes this time: the story of Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas. Tired from trying to move her stiff muscles, Renai simply accepts that today is not the day that she will get out of the prison of her own body. When she gives in and pays attention to the story, she starts seeing it in her mind.

    What she sees is not the Victorian London described in the book but instead, the Secret Garden where she was last time when she was conscious. The changes don’t stop there, and where Jacob Marley was supposed to be, in order to warn Scrooge of the consequences of his wicked ways in the past, present and future… is her friend Carmen. The friend Renai betrayed and led to a violent death along with her other three friends in that damned well. Carmen is a ghost of her former self, now bound on the bloody remains of the senseless fate that was inflicted to her over a year ago. Her spirit comes to Renai as a warning, much like Marley, to tell her that she needs to find Josh before it is too late. Carmen also tells, in a low growl of a voice, that another violent and senseless death is kickstarting now the final events that will culminate in a mass assassination on Christmas Day in a place of love, joy and peace. Renai is able to speak back to Carmen, asking what she has to gain from helping the person who led her to her bitter end. Carmen tells her that she, Alison, Carrie and Giuliana are all stuck in a limbo, and none of them can ascend to the afterlife before they finish this task to help save innocent people. Renai stares at bloody Carmen and asks why she would help them against her own son. Carmen just laughs and says that Renai should expect her former friends to visit with more information regarding that, but this small bit she is about to share will be most effective if acquainted now. Carmen comes close enough, with her slit throat that still sips blood, points a bendy bony finger towards Renai and tells her… because her son pushed Renai to death, she never jumped and never had free will to do so! Renai feels a pain so big in her heart, that the whole Secret Garden starts vibrating and her sight gets blurry, Carmen then  disappearing in a puff of air. The pain gets worse and her whole being is buzzing, then, there’s nothing but a flash of light and a pull so strong that it feels like a kick in the stomach. 

    Back in the hospital, Kiki’s reading is interrupted when Renai violently snaps out of her coma. The nurse drops the book on the floor and calls for the doctors available, as well as other nurses to come in. As much as in her dream, Renai keeps shaking her whole body and is being restricted by Kiki, while the other medical people come in. Renai shouts that she was pushed into the well the year before and she wants answers. Kiki’s round turquoise eyes are wide with fear and all she can do is to hold on to her patient until a doctor comes in with a tranquilizer. After the shot, Renai is once again slipping into unconsciousness and the head doctor says they need to call the police back in.

    Detectives Gloria Dulce and Milka Morcegos are called back for questioning Renai once she is awake. The detective duo has been recording scattered sightings of Josh during the whole year, but eventually they always lead to the same end: nothing. Now, there is a big event in the city of Tallinn, the first advent Sunday of Christmas and the opening of the winter market. Of course, this is the moment their only surviving suspect decides to wake up, thinks clever Detective Milka. Her easy smile and friendly nature are deceiving, as she is a tenacious and hardcore officer, with a keen eye for detail and a bullshit detector that is the stuff of legend amongst her peers. Gloria laughs and has to agree with her partner, the timing is less than optimal, especially with one dead tourist already in their hands just today. Behind Gloria’s humorous response, is someone who is actually worried about all the paperwork she has ahead of her now that this case is going hot again. Gloria has been feeling overworked and was counting the days for a relaxing Christmas time with her fiancé Tom, but that is put on hold for January or maybe even February, if this gets as big as she is suspecting.  While she is lost in thought about the lists of things she is accumulating and procrastinating to do, Milka gets off her phone and says the pictures from the camera of the dead Argentinian tourist called Gastón Trucho, found dead nearby the Christmas market, came back. He had his throat slit and weirdly enough, all of his possessions were found with his person, including a semi professional camera. Apparently, his camera pictures were so bad, the police could not find any clues on them. Also, other people that were seen travelling with him from the Helsinki ferry did not have much to say when questioned, the man wasn’t really a friend, more like a tag along acquaintance who barged in on their trip to Tallinn. Milka made a request for the pictures anyways, so she should get an email anytime soon. Meanwhile, Gloria suggests they can go to the hospital and check on Renai. 

    At the hospital, Renai is slowly regaining consciousness and Kiki is right next to her. The nurse tells her an abridged version of the events from her accident and the rest of the year. Renai remembers her dream, or better, a vision, and tells the attentive nurse she remembered being pushed. Kiki says that her memory could be scrambled now and maybe it helps to talk to a therapist. For the time being, the best option is to rest a bit. Kiki asks if Renai wants to watch some tv to distract her mind while the police are on their way. When Kiki puts the tv on, it is a news report that says “Lonely Man Dies Mysteriously Around Tallinn Christmas Market”. Renai feels a cold going through, and her body starts shaking again, in sheer panic. This must be the place Carmen talked about! It will be the Christmas Market! Right after Renai screams that out loud, she feels herself slipping away in the arms of Kiki and everything disappears again.

Advent Sunday Two: December 7th

  Detectives Milka and Gloria have been busy during the week that followed the death of the tourist near the Christmas Market. His pictures indeed proved nothing, just a blurry mess of twinkling Christmas lights. There are sightings of a strange black smoke that comes from nowhere only to disappear, and those sightings keep growing. Detective Milka, pragmatic as she is, keeps telling Detective Gloria that people must be suffering from some sort of mass induced hysteria or in plain words, they are a bunch of wakadoodles. Gloria laughs it off, as usual, but reminds her partner that similar shadows of smoke were spotted in town last year before the multiple murder in the old city center. Gloria also reminds Milka that, since she brought up the wakadoodles, they still need to speak to Renai. Last time they tried a week ago, she was making no sense and coming in and out of consciousness, babbling about some next mass killing and the opening of a portal. That is indeed some crazy talk, but nevertheless, they still need to make a formal report and therefore, should move on to see the patient now. Milka agrees and says she will contact that nice nurse Fischer again, so maybe she can prepare the mad woman a bit before they come in. 

    In the hospital, Renai is asleep when Kiki gets a call from Detective Milka and the nurse tells her she will inform the police as soon as Renai is awake. Meanwhile, Renai can hear everything that has been said in the room, but again, she finds herself paralyzed in real life and yet alive and well in her visions. As before, she is in the Secret Garden and Carmen is not there anymore, but instead her other friend, Carrie, is. Renai remembers Carrie was the fast talker of the group, but she now is only a shadow of herself. In a throaty groan, the ghost of the once talkative woman gestures with her bloody arms for Renai to follow her. They walk through a maze of the medieval wall, until they find themselves at the kitchen of the restaurant they had lunch in the year before. Renai pays attention and then sees herself and Josh. She kisses her son goodbye and walks right through herself. Carrie laughs sarcastically, before she starts choking on her own bubbly blood, as she also had her throat cut. She then coughs it up a bit and whispers to Renai that this is just a parlor trick, much like in any classic horror movie they used to like. This is the past and now she can see this memory of things that happened after she left but cannot interact with anything nor anyone.

    Carrie does a curtsy, like a demented showwoman, and invites Renai to enjoy the show. Renai shudders to that display of madness and yet, she follows through the offer and stays in the shadows, listening to her son’s meeting with the members of the Dark Master Cult. He says now that Renai is gone, they can go over the real plan and it’s clear in the past how Josh plotted against his own mom. Renai was never a Conduit, as she was made to believe, she was just a vessel for bringing in Josh, The Chosen One, to life and then a lamb to the slaughter just like anyone else. The actual Conduit is Josh’s girlfriend. Much like Josh, she was also given power by The Dark Master and she uses the Black Smoke to paralyze and kill for him. A shocked Renai watches as tears fall from her eyes and she is caught off guard by the ghost of Carrie, snapping her fingers like a killer clown at the end of a nightmare performance. And boom, the patient was back in the hospital. On her side is the ever present Nurse Kiki, she then asks Renai if she is feeling ok and what she needs before the police visit her today. Having no one else to share her thoughts and experiences with, Renai asks Kiki if it’s normal for patients in her condition to suffer from hallucinations. The nurse said it is not unheard of and she shouldn’t worry too much about that, it should go away as she recovers. The nurse seems sympathetic and reasonable enough, so Renai feels she can keep sharing. She says that she remembers Kiki reading for her and that she could follow her voice and find hope that she still had an anchor in reality. Kiki says that she is glad, and she holds Renai’s hands and gives her a warm smile. That makes Renai trust the nurse even more and then, as there is no extra option, since it is either Kiki or the police. Renai tells the nurse about the dreams she had, what the spirits showed her from the past and that The Dark Lord and Josh are not done yet. Kiki listens to her inquisitively, until Renai tells everything that there is to tell, and then says that as a nurse, she feels Renai should report that to the police because it will influence on how they judge her fit or not to continue being part of their investigation, but as friend? She should keep that to herself, so it would not implicate her even more negatively than now. Renai has little time to go over that before the detectives finally arrive. 

    When detectives Milka and Gloria go over everything they have from the previous year up to now ,they seem particularly interested in the episode that she had last week, when she mentioned something about the dead tourist and a bigger assassination attempt in a public place. Renai remembers what the reasonable nurse told her just a while ago and decides to take back what she said. She says those were just confusion and her reaction to waking up from a coma, the stories the nurses have been reading to her and most likely the stress of knowing what happened to her last year. The detectives share a look and it is understood to both that none of them believe Renai, but they both decide to move on, just for the time being, and question the nurse as well. Kiki was, afterall, present on the occasion last Sunday and could have valuable insights. Only she did not have any. She repeated the same tune Renai played before, blaming it all on stress and the coma. Milka and Gloria left the hospital with a bad taste in their mouth and equally suspicious of Renai’s sudden change of heart. Milka suggests that they look into Kiki Fischer just to be sure and Gloria says she’s onto it. 

Advent Sunday Three: December 14th 

    Renai has been slowly but surely recovering, and between her physiotherapy sessions and mental health evaluations, things seem to be quiet in the realm of dreams. Kiki has been actively participating in her recovery and Renai has been following her advice in keeping the supernatural out of the investigation. She cannot afford to look crazy now and end up in jail if she needs to find and stop Josh. She had those dreams on the last two Sundays, so she is expecting that someone might show up today. So far, the ghostss have been following the same structure from the Christmas story Kiki was reading to her. Maybe today she will get a glimpse of the present, but Renai feels like the present is useless. She knows about the past and what Josh did and she needs to know about the future and what Josh will do next. There is no point knowing of something that is happening now and therefore cannot be changed. The day goes by like the usual, with her therapy sessions, eating the hospital tasteless food and the excruciating physical sessions for her legs. Those were badly damaged when she fell into the well and she might have difficulties walking for a long time. And you have to face it: once in your forties, things get better at a much slower pace. Her new found friendship with Kiki helps her understand the process she is going through more and also, it doesn’t hurt that her friend didn’t feel weirded out when Renai decided to tell her about her visions and Josh. Most people would, but Kiki seems to be different from most people and she tries to look at things, as unbelievable as they are, with fresh eyes and genuine interest. 

    After dinner and a shower, Renai feels like there is no other option than to sleep, but before that, she would like to continue reading a bit more of that book Kiki was reading to her. After a few pages, Renai feels her lids are heavy, like Morpheus is blowing sand on her eyes, as she tries to read. She eventually falls asleep in bed with the book on her lap. Kiki comes by to do the last round of her shift, and takes the book from Renai’s lap, then shutting down the lights next and closing the door quietly to wake Renai up. For reasons that only mean that she is having a dream vision, Renai is now following Kiki around the hospital as her body remains asleep in the bedroom. Suddenly, a bloody Giuliana ghoul is walking next to her, finally the useless ghost of the present decided to show herself. As they walk side by side and follow the sweet nurse, Renai acknowledges the existence of the ghost and mocks her. What kind of breakthrough is she going to have by looking at a nurse going on her rounds in a hospital? Giuliana whispers, not because they are in a hospital, but because she has a pretty bad throat cut, almost severing her head off her neck. Renai has trouble getting the whispers, and then Giuliana whispers again that sometimes a breakthrough comes from a walk through. Kiki then enters the pharmacy dispensary on the floor and Renai is still unsure of what kind of insight she can learn from this, until she sees a black smoke coming into the room. Josh is here and he is after Kiki? Why? He must be after her to get back for all the help she has been giving to his mom who should have died last year! Before she can do anything about it, she feels being pulled back to reality and to the hospital bed. 

    The telephone is ringing in her nightstand, the hospital telephonist is ringing her to ask if she can accept a call from Tallinn PD. Must be one of those nosy detectives, finally she can use their help to protect Kiki… but how can she convey that there is an evil entity hellbend in killing an innocent person, the only friend she has left? She decides to accept the call and as she predicted, it is one of the nosy detectives, Gloria, the one with the red hair who carries all the case folders. Gloria says she has some questions that came up from last week and maybe Renai can help. The detective then asks if Renai knows Kiki from before, to which she says no, she has never seen the nurse before the hospital. Gloria said it came up that three years ago Kiki came from Germany and worked in the restaurant by Renai’s house, before she got her license to practice as a nurse in Estonia. Renai is in shock once more but still manages to say to the detective it is just a coincidence, small town afterall. She claims to be tired and that detective Gloria should call again at better hours, so she has more energy to talk. They say quick goodbyes and agree to call again in a few days. 

    Now Renai sees Giuliana again in the room and she repeats the same thing from before: a walk through is a breakthrough. Renai now understands and accepts that she must see the present to understand the past and predict the future. Giuliana gives her mangled hand away and when Renai holds it, she is back to where she was before. In the pharmacy dispensary, Kiki is not being attacked by Josh and the black smoke. They are one, she is The Conduit and the jig is finally up. 

Advent Sunday Four: December 21st

    Ever since Renai found out about Kiki’s real identity and motivations, it has been really hard to keep a straight face and not blab what she knows. Josh must have planted Kiki here to watch Renai, just in case she woke back from the coma, to find out what she knew and what she remembered. Of course she gave Renai “friendly advice, not as a nurse” so she would just dismiss her visions for just post coma pathology, keeping her mouth shut. Even worse, Kiki pretended to be open minded and understanding to things that were beyond her comprehension, when in reality, she is one of the most intricate cogs that keeps the power of both Josh and The Dark Master going. Renai feels both stupid and furious at the same time, betrayed by a friend who was actually foe. 

   The whole week Renai has been trying to get better and stronger because she feels soon she will need to get out of this hospital. Today is the last Sunday before Christmas and something bad is coming. She knows it, as the visiting spirits haven’t been wrong yet. As she thought about the ghosts, the last one appeared to her. Now, knowing that Renai believes them, the ghosts don’t need the subterfuge of coming as a dream or vision. They can come as they are, all they have to do is to let Renai see what they need her to see. 

   The future is here, with Alison. It seems fit, as she was the one of the group who worried the most about being worried. And nothing is more worrying than the future. Renai takes Alison’s badly broken, twisted arm and looks through the window. Now she cannot see the hospital patio anymore, but the Old Town Christmas Market instead.  

   Josh took out The Dark Master from the well in the Secret Garden, once he became strong enough after the five killings. Then they went to the Christmas Market, and there was no joy, love nor peace. There is a blood river going through the stalls of the market and corpses on top of corpses. Once they killed all the tourists from the market on Christmas Day, the Master ascended along with The Chosen One and The Conduit, making an unholy trinity, finally bringing Hell on Earth. Renai has tears in her eyes and says to herself what did she do and how did she let herself be fooled by all this evil? But, this is the future and there is still a way to stop it all from happening. Alison takes her arm and walks her towards the nurse’s station, the shifts are changing and someone already left early and the next person is running late. Renai doesn’t need words to get what Alison means when she points to the stationary box behind the counter. Renai grabs a pair of small scissors and hides them in the pocket inside her fuzzy light brown hospital robe. As much as she can, Renai disguises her disgust with the future scenes she has seen, and basically walks slowly through the hallway, as any patient in recovery needs small movements to build back their strength. Once back in her room, she puts the scissors under the mattress and waits for Kiki to come say goodbye before her shift ends. Like clockwork, here comes phony Kiki pretending to be nice. She played the innocent likable girl part very well, batting her long lashes and smiling warmly to captivate Renai with her kindness. But not anymore. As Kiki bends over to check on a sleeping Renai, the patient swiftly reaches out for the scissors she had been hiding and stab the nurse’s neck. It goes deep and it doesn’t bleed as much as one would expect. As Kiki breathes her last breath, Renai changes clothes with her and gets the nurse’s pass and ID to exit the hospital.

   Once the next shift nurse comes in, she immediately calls the police and Detectives Milka and Gloria are on the scene as quickly as they can. In the hospital bedroom, they see a dead nurse Kiki and next to her, written in her dying last scribbles, lies one name in crimson red: Renai and on top of the corpse is a tourist board leaflet with a picture of the Old Town Secret Garden. A wild chase for Renai will begin now. 

Epilogue: Christmas Eve 

   Renai has disturbed the plans of Josh and The Dark Master when she killed their Conduit and third piece of the unholy trinity. Detectives Milka and Gloria have finally found the location of the garden pictured in the leaflet found in the hospital scene from some days ago. They are on route there, so Renai is waiting for them. Josh is also on his way there, leaving a tray of black smoke behind him. He wants Renai dead for what she has done. Renai wants Josh dead for what he has done. They both had this coming for a while now. If Josh kills Renai, she can still be used as food for The Dark Master to rise. Once the Master kills enough people in the Christmas Market, he can build up strength and a new search for a Conduit will start. Renai knows she needs to close the well so the Master cannot come out and the only way to do that, is to finish his enabler, Josh. 

   Renai sees the detectives coming, so she moves into the actual garden, forcing them to follow her inside the courtyard and being trapped in there. The same way that happened last year with Alison, Carmen, Carrie and Giuliana. Their ghosts are here too, now also trapped forever to their violent and senseless deaths that took place in that damned well.

    Both Milka and Gloria have no idea of how on earth they got into that place, like they were being pulled in all directions. As a deja vu of what happened to Renai’s friends the year before, they felt like there was a gravitational pull on a black hole, sucking everything that came near its center. Like someone kicked them in the stomach. Extremely confused, they tried to run back to the street, except they could not. Renai said it was easier to show it to them rather than telling, because the detectives would have never believed her. 

    Before Milka and Gloria have even a chance to say anything in return, a loud boom, like thunder and hail, comes in. It almost deafens everyone and has them covering their ears. Soon enough, a black smoke breaks through the portal, seconds later morphing into Josh. The detectives cannot believe their eyes and ears and then just realize that Renai keeps shouting that Josh is the one that needs to be stopped, not her. Gloria cannot find her gun, and she is shouting at a petrified Milka for her to do something, that there is no time to think on how to act properly in a situation this crazy. There is no study, practice or simulation that has ever prepared either of them to act correctly and make it safe for all.  

    Josh is now lounging at Renai, shouting in full fury that he is going to finish what he started and now he won’t fail. He is pushing her towards the well, but once she is inches away from being pushed again, a loud bang is heard. Detective Milka shot Josh on the shoulder. She shoots to kill, and Josh lies outside the well, bleeding profusely. The dark smoke pulsing in and out of his body, like an infestation that is losing its host. Milka is clearly in shock, and Gloria comes near her and gently removes the cocked gun from her partner’s hold and safely disables it before asking if everyone is ok. Renai now is holding Josh and she feels the last bit of the black smoke coming out of him and quickly wooshing back into the well, the lair of The Dark Master. Renai looks into Josh’s eyes and she knows that it is her son who is there. He is minutes away from his death, fatally wounded and bleeding profusely and tinting his mom’s clothes into a deep red color. Renai knows his soul will be released to a good place, he has always been innocent and his actions being the influence of The Dark Master instead. Josh touches Renai’s face and he thanks his mom for saving his soul before closing his eyes forever. There is a loud hum that comes from within the well and soon after, the opening from the top is closed like it never existed in the first place. Now the souls of her friends are restored to their former glory and they can move on to their eternal rest, leaving the Secret Garden hand in hand, hoping with joy a light energy around them until they disappear in a cloud.

    Detective Gloria takes charge now and arrests Renai on the spot. To everyone else, they all agree the story is a “mom who killed a nurse to escape hospital, killing son afterwards as revenge for her friends’ assassination” but between themselves, they know that what happened this day was something no one would ever believe could it happen and yet, it did. 

    Milka, now snapping out of her shock, ever so slightly, looks down to her watch and realizes that it is already Christmas Day. She laughs and tells Gloria that this whole thing was definitely not on her Christmas bingo card for this year, to which prompts a loud laugh from Gloria. 

THE END