Fantastopia: The New Life (Part 1)

I almost barfed

Because of me missing my classes yesterday, I had to use the free time I had the next day to catch up on everything by taking the courses online. I’m used to being busy, but now I gotta be twice as busy with this new life of mine.

Yippee...

Although, I was able to catch up with my classes online. And by the time I was done, I was on my way to Fantastopia again. When I arrived in the throne room, I saw Aria sitting on her throne with her chin resting in her palm like she was waiting for something.

“Aria?” I called out.

“Oh, hey Jesse” she greeted while getting up from her throne “How are you?”

“Well, I’m doing well. I was able to catch up on my classes online.”

“Good,” she nodded while keeping her attention to a nearby hallway.

“Um, are you waiting for something?”

“Yeah, Hazel and Dale were supposed to meet up with us right now, but I don’t know what’s taking them so long.”

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”

“They better. For all I know, Dale could be stuck in a hole and Hazel’s busy trying to get him out... it’s happened before.”

__________

In one of the upper classrooms, Hazel leaned against the doorframe as she dully watched as Dale searched through the classroom for his missing ax.

“Dale, are you sure you left it in here?” she muttered.

“Yes,” he sighed, “I remember after I sharpened my ax, it was time for me to get to class so I had to bring it with me.”

“And you couldn’t remember to bring it with you after class was over?”

“My brain works in mysterious ways, okay?” he grunted.

“Pfft, I didn’t even know your brain works” she smirked.

“Oh, shut up” he frowned as she just rolled her eyes.

“Did you check the closet?” she put in.

“Nope, I’m about to, actually.”

“Well, since it’s not anywhere else in the room, someone must have found it and placed it in the closet.”

But when she turned to Dale, she saw him standing in front of the opened closet, and he suddenly had terror in his eyes.

“Dale?” Hazel called out.

But he didn’t answer as he began to slowly back away from the closet while shaking in fear. At that moment, Hazel knew something was definitely wrong, but because the closet door was blocking the view, she couldn’t see what he was looking at.

“Hey, what is it?” she asked while walking it to him.

But when she saw what he was looking at in the closet, she too felt terror take over her as she let out a horrified gasp at the discovery.

__________

“So, did you have any more run-ins with Z?” Aria asked me as we kept waiting in the throne room.

“Not yet” I responded, “Although I had a feeling he was watching me last night.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could be wrong but, last night as I was sleeping, I had this dream that this shadowy figure was watching me through the window. And when I woke up this morning, I just had this gut feeling that I was still being watched.”

“I see,” she nodded “You could be right, Z does tend to lurk more at night. But it also just have been a bad dream.”

“Perhaps” I shrugged “But who knows?”

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, we heard this loud scream from upstairs that made us jump.

“ARIA!!!!!”

“What the hell?” I gasped with my hand on my chest.

“Oh my God,” Aria’s eyes widen “That was Hazel. Come on!”

Oh boy, this doesn’t sound good.

I followed Aria up the stairs to the second story where we hurried in the classroom and spotted Hazel and Dale feet away from the opened closet.

“What’s wrong?” Aria demanded.

They showed us the terrified looks on their faces as they stepped away from the closet and showed us what was inside. And what we saw made our hearts stop with shock. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, I thought I was imagining things. It looked like something right out of a horror movie, but this was real, I could even feel myself about to barf. In the closet was the slaughtered body was a young elf man, and right next to his body was a b****y ax... Dale’s ax.

___________

By the time we had some help in here, I still felt like I had to puke. Never in my life did I think I would ever see a dead body, especially a slaughtered one. It was so gruesome, there was blood all over the body and inside the closet. And as I watched as the... I’m gonna say the Fantastopia version of police officers pull out the body and laid him on the floor, I seriously felt myself getting ready to vomit as I quickly held it in. The last thing I want is to throw up at a crime scene, how embarrassing would that be?

“Jesse,” Aria suddenly whispered to be “You can leave if you want.”

“No,” I shook my head “I’ll be fine. I’ve been studying to join the CSI, this is actually what I need to practice. Besides, I know you guys are gonna need my help.”

“Well, I appreciate that. But if you wanna throw up, don’t do it in here.”

“I won’t... I hope.”

Come on, Jesse, hold it in. You’re fine, this is exactly what you’ve been studying for. Though, I never expected it to be so gruesome in real life.

“Good lord” King Hardwin entered the scene in complete shock “What happened?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Aria told him “It seems that someone used Dale’s ax to kill the victim.”

“This is your ax?” one of the officers asked Dale while holding the b****y ax.

“Yes,” Dale nodded, “But I didn’t kill him. I just came to the palace with Hazel when I realized I couldn’t find my ax. I remembered that I must have left it in here and that’s when I found the body.”

“He’s right” Hazel declared “I was with him the whole time.”

“Does anyone know who this guy is?” I asked while pointing to the body.

“Zedekiah Daeynore” Aria answered sadly, “He works as the gardener here. He was a friendly guy, everyone called him Zed. I don’t understand why anyone would want to brutally murder him.”

“And with my ax” Dale put in with a frown “Now everyone’s gonna think I did it.”

“If I could just have everyone leave the scene, please” the officer holding Dale’s ax spoke up “We can take it from here.”

“I don’t think so” Aria declared while pulling me towards them “Jesse here is going to help. He’s our new hero who happens to be studying Criminal Justice at his college, so he can really help.”

“Alright,” the guy shrugged when he turned to me “But I should warn you, crimes in this world are unlike anything in your world. Your world uses knowledge and logic to solve crimes but in this world, anything can happen, and most crimes are left unsolved.”

“Well,” I breathed “I don’t blame you. But I want to try at least.”

“Suit yourself” he nodded while leading me to the body “From your knowledge, what can you tell about the body?”

Okay, time to put my skills to the test... while trying to keep my guts in. Damn, that is a lot of blood. Poor guy.

“Well...” I began to examine the body when I carefully lifted up one of his arms “See those cuts on the side of his arms, those look like he was trying to shield himself from the attack, meaning he must have been awake when the killer began to use the ax on him. Also, do you see how spotless this classroom is? If the murder did take place in here, there must have been blood everywhere. Now, the killer could’ve cleaned up the blood, but if that’s the case, he or she must be very good at cleaning because I can’t see a single drop of blood anywhere. But if the killer happens to have some sort of cleaning magic, well... I think you get the idea. Is that even a thing here?”

“Possibly,” the officer shrugged “We’ll look into it.”

“Very well,” I responded while turning back to the body “Moving on, there’s a chance the killing could’ve taken place somewhere else, meaning that the killer would have less blood to clean up. But we’ll look into that later. Anyway, see how the blood on his clothes is dried up? He must have been in the closet for some time.”

I bent back down at the body and began to feel his arm.

“Aha,” I pointed out “His body is warm and stiff, meaning he’s been dead between 3-8 hours. Dale, what time did you and Hazel find the body?”

“I think it was a little after 3:30” he answered.

“So that must mean he was killed sometime between now and 7:30 this morning. But depending on how long the killer took to clean up the mess, it may have taken him or her a while to clean up everything without anyone watching. Unless he or she had cleaning magic then it took them a quicker time.”

“Very good, Jesse” the officer commented “Anything else?”

“Yep. Look at the wounds, you see how most of them go in the same direction? Since the wounds go from the top left to the bottom right, that must mean the killer was left-handed.”

At that moment, I saw everyone raising their eyebrows with amusement, and boy did that feel good.

“Left-handed?” Aria remarked, “You sure?”

“May I see the ax?”

The officer handed me Dale’s ax along with a cloth so that I wouldn’t get my fingerprints on the handle.

“I’m right-handed,” I told them “So if I was killer, watch how I would strike.”

I slowly brought the ax down to the body where I made sure everyone would see the difference.

“But if I was left-handed,” I put in while flipping the ax to my left side “Then the wounds would match.”

“Interesting” Hazel noted impressed, “Not even I noticed that.”

“All it takes is some good observation. So, we’re looking for a left-handed killer who was most likely here between 7 this morning and now. Someone who either has some cleaning magic of some kind or is very swift to clean up the blood. But most importantly, someone who wanted Zed dead. Hey, that’s rhymes.”