What the F?!
1575 Words
As soon as the body was taken out of the classroom, I began to examine the b****y closet for clues. This was actually quite interesting for me, a real murder mystery for me to solve. I’ve always loved mysteries and puzzles, and my smarts would always come in handy whenever I needed to solve a puzzle, and my answers were usually right. But since this murder took place in a fantasy world that has magic and monsters, I knew that this was going to be a hard case for me, but I gotta try at least.
“Do you see anything in there?” Aria asked me.
“Just blood and stuff” I replied as I kept searching for clues “It’s kind of hard to see anything with so much blood.”
I decided to use the flashlight on my phone to see if that would help as I turned it on. And that’s when I spotted something that caught my eye.
“Wait a minute,” I announced, “Hand me some tweezers.”
Dale handed me a pair of tweezers from the teacher’s desk and I used them to pick up something I had spotted with my flashlight. And as I lifted it and held it out for everyone to see, I noticed that it was a piece of hay with dried blood on it.
“Is that hay?” Aria questioned.
“It sure looks like it” I reported, “Did Zed ever work on the farm?”
“I don’t think so, whenever I see him, he was always working in the garden.”
“Was that even on his clothes?” Hazel asked.
“Possibly,” I responded, “I’m gonna have to take a look at his clothes and body when it’s ready. In the meantime, let’s bag up this piece of hay. Every little clue helps.”
After that was done, we kept on searching for clues in the closet and all over the classroom, but it seems that piece of hay was our only clue. With no luck for any other clues, we had to leave the crime scene so that the workers can clean it up.
“So what’s next?” Dale asked me.
“Now we interview anyone who might help” I declared, “Whoever knew the victim the most, whoever was near the scene of the crime, and most importantly, we need to find a motive. Now, does anyone know who Zed’s families are?”
“Well,” Aria began to think “I know his parents died at a young age, but he does have a brother and a niece who lives in a nearby city about an hour away.”
“What about friends and enemies?”
“Not that I know of. As I said earlier, he was a friendly guy, I can’t imagine anyone like him to have any enemies. But we will gather whoever we can find.”
“Excellent.”
“If you guys are looking for witnesses-” a voice suddenly caught our attention as we turned to see a young guy walking towards us “I’m one of them.”
He looked about 16 or 17, but he didn’t have elf ears. Perhaps he was a magic-user or something else.
“Um, may I ask who you are?” I asked him.
“Name’s West, I’m a wizard in training who actually saw the victim this morning.”
“Oh yeah?” I raised an eyebrow “Tell us everything you know.”
“I got here around 9 this morning to see some friends of mine who are students here. I waited for them near the garden where I saw Zed working. Everything appeared fine for a few minutes, but then this guy came up to him with a mad look on his face. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but their conversation sounded kind of rough. Anyway, that was the last time I saw Zed alive.”
“Okay. So we can conclude he was killed sometime after 9 this morning.”
“Do you know the guy he was talking to?” Aria asked West.
But before West could answer, Flint suddenly appeared while snacking on some bread when he stopped in front of us.
“That would be him” West suddenly pointed to Flint.
“What?” Flint muffled with his mouth full.
Oh boy... this just got interesting.
__________
The closest thing we had to an interview room was another empty classroom where we all stood in front of Flint who sat at one of the desks.
“What’s going on here?” he demanded, “Why have I been brought in here like I’ve been convicted of a crime?”
Well... My friends and I gave each other these looks that answered his question.
“Wait,” his eyes suddenly widen “I really am being convicted of a crime? Whatever it was, I didn’t do it!”
“Hold on, Flint” I held up my hands “We’re not pointing fingers just yet. We just need you to answer some questions.”
“Very well,” he quickly calmed down as he sat up straight “What do you need to be answered?”
“You know Zed, the gardener here?” Aria asked him.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Hazel and Dale found him dead in a classroom today.”
“Dead?” he gasped “What happened?”
“Someone used my ax to brutally kill him” Dale frowned.
“Whoa...” he remarked in shock “Well, I didn’t do it, just so you know.”
“Hold on,” I ordered with my hand raised “Once again, we’re not pointing fingers yet.”
“Then what do you need me for?” he demanded.
“A witness saw you talking to Zed this morning sometime around 9.”
“Yeah, so?”
“He noticed that your conversation with him sounded kind of rough. What were you two talking about?”
Instead of answering, he just gave us a snicker.
“Why is this important?” he smirked “I already told you I didn’t do it. I have nothing to do with Zed’s murder.”
“Just answer the damn question” I ordered a bit harshly “We need to know everything if we’re going to solve this case.”
Seriously, man. You’re really getting on my nerves, my ring actually turned red for a moment before going back to blue.
“Fine,” he grunted “My dad would always make me take care of the chores around my house whenever he wasn’t around. And yesterday, I kinda bribed Zed to do my chores for me. He did it, I paid him, and then he left. But this morning, I noticed that some of my money had gone missing. I knew I hadn’t used it so I assumed someone must have stolen it.”
“And you accused Zed of stealing it” I concluded.
“Exactly. That’s what I was doing this morning, I was confronting him. He told me he didn’t do it, but I didn’t know if I could believe him.”
“So what did you do?”
“I told him that I was going to prove that he did it, and then I walked off. That was the last I’ve seen of him.”
“And how did your proving go?”
He sighed, “Not well. I couldn’t find anything. I was going to try to look for him to see if he had it on his person, but it looks like I can’t do that now.”
“And you’re sure that was last you saw of him?”
“Yep. Are we done here?”
“Not yet. Are you right-handed or left-handed?”
“What?” he chuckled “Why are you asking me this?”
“Just answer the question” I ordered while gritting my teeth.
Once again, my ring turned red for a moment before going back to blue. I really, really, really don’t like this guy.
“Okay, Mr. Pushy Pants” he grunted, “I’m right-handed.”
“Thank you” I frowned “You may go.”
He kept his glare on me before heading out of the classroom.
“Well,” I breathed “Looks like he didn’t do it.”
“You sure about that?” Hazel asked, “Because what if our killer really is right-handed and he or she used their left side to commit the murder?”
“That’s highly unlikely. I saw how deep those wounds were on the body, they were done by someone with great strength. If the killer was right-handed and he used his left hand to commit the crime, then the wounds wouldn’t have been that deep, plus there would be more gashes to ensure his death. I know we’re dealing with a left-handed killer. Now, all we gotta do is find some more clues, especially a motive.”
All of a sudden, we heard a knock at the door as one of the elf officers stepped in.
“Pardon me,” he spoke, “But we found something you guys should take a look at.”
__________
The moment we were all in this operating room, we were shown the now n***d body of Zed who laid on the table with a sheet over his bottom haft, thank goodness. But damn, even with all the blood cleaned off of him, those gashes on his chest really made the hairs on my back stand up.
“Damn,” I breathed in shock “What a tragic faith for this guy.”
“Before we show you everything we’ve uncovered” the elf guy spoke, “You all need to see this.”
We went over to the left side of his body where the elf pointed to what looked like a tattoo of a black crescent moon on his waist.
“Is that what I think it is?” Aria gasped.
“What is it?” I questioned.
“Jesse,” her face suddenly showed fear “This is something you need to know. Have you ever heard of the Dark Elves and Light Elves?”
“No.”
“Well, you know how in Tolkien’s books, he has the High Elves and the Mirkwood Elves?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that’s actually a thing here in Fantastopia.”
“What?” my eyes widen “Really?”
“Yeah,” she nodded “We’re known as the Seelie Clan or the Light Elves who live above ground and can usually be trusted. But then there’s the Unseelie Clan or Dark Elves who live underground and are considered more dangerous than us, and every dark elf is born with a black crescent moon on their body.”
“Wait,” I gasped as he turned to Zed’s body “So you’re saying he’s...”
“It appears so,” she muttered, “Zed was born a dark elf.”
- Writer
