Fantastopia: The New Life (Part 1)

Dun dun dun...

After running off from West, I had already forgotten where I was going. I really wished I had the map with me. Now I had no idea who far back West was, but all I needed to do was find someone I trust and show them the evidence. But as I kept running through random halls and hoping to find someone, I suddenly slammed right into someone hard as we both tumbled back while crying out in pain.

Like seriously, it hurt. I’m pretty sure I heard a bone c***k.

“What the hell man?!” the other guy winched when I noticed that the guy was none other than Dale.

“Dale,” I gasped in relief while rubbing my head “Oh thank goodness, I need your help.”

“So do I” he squinted his eyes at me “Why am I seeing 3 of you?”

“Nevermind that, where’s Aria?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Oh man,” I groaned as I helped him up.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t have time to explain, we need to hide.”

“What? Why?”

But before I could explain, I suddenly felt a strong force trying to pry the notebook out of my hands. And I kept my hands firming on them, I realized that West had found me and was using his magic to try to pull the book away.

“He’s why!” I screamed as I tried my best to prevent the young wizard from taking the book “Help me!”

“West, what are you doing?!” Dale demanded as he grabbed onto me and tried to pull me away.

“I don’t want to do this!” West responded, “But you left me no choice!”

“Don’t let him take the book!” I screamed as I could already feel the book slipping out of my hands.

You know, for a wizard in training, this guy has really strong magic. But just when I thought we were going to lose, I suddenly felt the magic weakening when I noticed that West had suddenly collapsed. Wondering what had happened, I looked up to see Wren who was behind West, she must have used her magic to stop him. Oh, thank goodness!

“Ameture,” she snickered while glaring down at the now unconscious wizard as she picked up the notebook “You two okay?”

“Yeah,” Dale and I breathed out “Thanks.”

“So, what’s going on?” Dale asked me “Why did West try to steal that notebook from you?”

“I’ll explain everything once I find Aria.”

“I know where she is,” Wren spoke, “Come on. Oh, and bring West along.”

“...Oy.”

Now that we had to bring West with us, Dale and I had to carry his sleeping body out of the hall and into the throne room where we spotted Aria talking with Hazel along with Lindel and Oswind.

“What the heck?!” Hazel remarked when she saw me and Dale carrying West’s body.

“Don’t worry, he’s not dead.” I assured them as I struggled to hold the body “I’ll explain everything in a moment, but first, I really need to put him down, he’s kinda heavy.”

Dale and I tried to carefully set West down on the floor, but as we tried to, I kinda lost my grip as the upper part of West’s body dropped to the floor with a thud.

Oh boy. My eyes widened and so were everyone else’s as they all stared at me.

“Um... I’m sure he’s fine” I guaranteed with a scared smile “I hope.”

“Um, okay then?” Aria said with an unsure look “Care to explain what’s going on?”

“Yes,” I pointed “Can we all go somewhere private to talk?”

She nodded before turning to Oswind, “You know what to do.”

He nodded as he went over to West’s sleeping body and grabbed him by his ankle and began to drag him across the floor and away from us with Lindel following him.

“Okay,” I spoke, “Can we all go to the lounge-”

But all of a sudden, I spotted someone walking past us and to the front entrance. And the moment I saw who it was, I knew I had to stop him.

“Hey, Theo!” I called out as he stopped “You’re just the guy I was looking for.”

“I am?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” I replied with a smile “I need to talk to you, I promise you it won’t take long.”

“Um... okay?”

As soon as we headed upstairs and into the lounge, I stood in front of everyone with the notebook in my hands as I made sure everyone was listening.

“Okay,” I spoke once we were ready “Now the reason I gathered all of you in here is that I found something that answers most of our questions about this case. This right here is Zed’s notebook.”

“What?” Aria remarked confused “Where did you get that?”

“I may or may not have snuck into his room earlier to search around some more. I’m sorry I didn’t ask first, I just couldn’t wait. Now I knew that yesterday when we were going through his room that there was something that needed to be found, and wouldn’t you know it, I was right. This notebook here is exactly what I was looking for.”

“So what’s in that notebook?” Hazel asked.

“Before I get to that, let’s discuss what we know about this case. We all know that during the times Zed and his family lived with the Unseelie clan, he was part of a d**g g**g, and so was Theo. Now Ryker had a feeling that his brother may have still been doing his d**g acts up here, and according to this notebook, he’s correct.”

“Really?” Aria gasped.

I flipped open to the most recent pages he had written in.

“According to this entry that was dated a few weeks ago-” I began, “Zed wrote down some equations involving money, but it didn’t show how many he had spent, it mainly showed how many he obtained, and surely enough, it’s a lot of money, and I’m not talking about how much he makes working here in the palace. And according to the labels he wrote for each equation, I believe that Zed wasn’t just part of the d**g g**g, I believe he was their leader.”

At that moment, everyone’s jaws dropped as they stared at me with their wide eyes.

“How can you tell?” Aria asked in shock.

“Have a look,” I handed her the notebook as she began to go through the pages.

“It’s filled with names and locations of where he would obtain the drugs and money” she noted, “He even wrote that he was going broke.”

“Exactly,” I nodded “That would explain why he took Flint’s money. Now as I was reading through his entries when I was in his room, I read that even when he and his brother decided to move up here, he still planned on running his d**g business. However, as he was going broke, he turned to the one person he could trust to help him out- Theo.”

Now everyone had their shocked eyes on Theo who was sitting on a sofa chair with fear in his eyes.

“Didn’t he, Theo?” I asked him with a small frown.

He let out a deep sigh while lowering his head.

“About a week ago-” he mumbled, “He came to me and told me about his money problems, he asked me if I could help him. I told him I couldn’t because I was done working for him, and even if I did want to help him I still couldn’t because I don’t live a very rich life.”

“Mmm,” I smirked while crossing my arms.

“What?”

“Here’s the thing, I believe you when you say that you were done working for him, but I can’t seem to believe you when you say that you don’t live a rich life.”

“What are you talking about?”

I turned to Aria who still had the notebook as I held my hand to her where she placed the book in as I flipped to one of the recent pages.

“This was dated sometime last week,” I announced as I began to read the entries out loud “I tried asking Theo if he could help me with my money problems, but he told me he couldn’t because he told me that he was done working for me and that even if he did want to help me, he still couldn’t because he doesn’t have that much money. However, I noticed something odd about him. He was wearing this really nice looking satchel that I’ve seen in a*****e before, a*****e that sells expensive clothing and accessories. I know that he works at a cafe where he doesn’t make that much money, so how could he afford such an expensive item?”

“That’s because I work my a*s off at the cafe,” Theo spoke up with a frown “What’s so wrong with that?”

I ignored him as I continued to read out loud, “I couldn’t believe my eyes on what I saw tonight. As I was getting ready to call it a night, I spotted Theo coming out of my room while sneaking something into his satchel. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I now believe that he was stealing something from my room. Although I can’t be certain, I have to catch him in the act. Thankfully, when I was in the modern world, I did buy my first modern Polaroid camera that should do the trick, now let’s just see if I’m correct.”

At that moment, all eyes were on Theo who just gave a scowl.

“So what?” he scoffed, “He had something of mine that I had to get.”

“Yeah, I doubt that” I smirked, “Listen to this- I knew it! Theo was stealing from my room! He was stealing money and sneaking them in his satchel, and I’ve caught him in the act, I’m surprised he didn’t even see me. I bet he’s the reason I was going broke, he’s been stealing my money. I wonder how long that’s been going on? But it doesn’t matter now, I’ve got proof.”

And with that, I held up the photos taken from the camera that showed Theo in Zed’s room and sneaking some of the money in his satchel. I showed them to everyone as they all sat there even more shocked as they turned to Theo who was too frozen to say anything.

“So,” I turned to Theo with the smirk still on my face “Zed caught you stealing his money from his room. And I bet you knew about it. So that’s why you wanted him dead, didn’t you Theo?”