Chapter 1
When you were young there was a rumour of a deadly sign that killed you instantly after taking one look at it. People would end up with literal black eyes. Stolen, dark and blind. This couldn’t be true though. But the amount of death cases connected to this sign-rumour proved you wrong.
You scrunched your eyebrows in distress. You grew up to be one of the best detectives of Australia through rigorous training and years committed to the ADF workforce. Any cases you worked on instantly got solved in a matter of seconds, except for the sign-case–your childhood rumour. You put up your feet onto your paper-filled desk and raised your glasses to the bridge of your nose. Intensely squinting at the case file, while gripping it tightly.
“Hello!” A college of yours greeted you happily, contrasting your current mood. You didn’t reply back, grunting to be a bit nice.
“What’s wrong Det? Case too hard…?” They asked teasingly. What were they so jumpy for? You wondered internally. In the next second, you placed your feet down onto the floor and turned around to look at them.
“What do you want Jaques?” You interrogated them in a hushed voice as others around you were busy with their own work. “Aren’t you supposed to be working right now?” He grinned in a silly manner, he thought he was cool but he actually looked like a blobfish with cheeto dust on his thin lips. Jaques was a tall man with sulky shoulders. His clothing choice was all about layers, occasionally he’d wear 3 sweaters, 2 jackets and a pair of tights with 2 cargo pants on top (Even in Summer–you don’t know how this guy manages to wear all those layers without dripping a drop of sweat.)
“Well no…but, I think I’ve found an awesome lead to the sign-case!” He exclaimed joyously, slamming a pile of papers on your desk. You raised your left eyebrow and smirked slightly.
“Really now? How?” You questioned him, but really, you were excited and needed no explanation from him. You just wanted to end this case and add another victory into your long list of previous successes. His eyes piqued in excitement.
“Well I can’t explain it…You need to come with me, I’ll show you! And because we need to avoid the crowd.” He beckoned for you to follow you. You were about to grab your belongings until he stopped you saying that it’ll be deadweight and drag the both of you. You skeptically placed your stuff down and headed out of the building quickly. You ran to the car and drove off with him.
“So any information on what exactly can help us solve this case? Where are we going?” You asked the latter, fiddling with your hands. You stared at him in an unreadable manner.
“Well,” He started off, “Approximately 40 minutes ago, a dead body was spotted in the park of Eden near a shopping mall. The witness claimed that she was walking with her best friend–the victim, until her friend looked at something, claiming that her eyes were hurting by looking at it, weird right?” He informed you, turning to face you, and you agreed with him. “Not even a second later, her eyes were gone and were replaced with a black hollowness, she called our unit and now we’re here.” He concluded, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, turning his knuckles white.From your view, you could clearly see that he was sweating profusely, was it really that hot? You shrugged it off and looked out the window, waiting for the arrival of your destination.
Minutes passed, and he claimed that you both had arrived at your destination. The location was a place filled with greenery, there was a beautiful lake in the distance, and a few wooden benches in front of the lake. Footpaths crisscrossed the area, they spoke of encrypted messages. A murder that once occurred here–all because of a deadly sign. You scanned the area for any signs of a crowd but there was no one, the man beside you realised you noticed so he quickly rushed you over to where the event previously took place. The both of you rushed to an isolated place of the park and observed any sightings of a ‘deadly’ sign, but there was nothing. But then, from the corner of your eye you saw something that grasped your attention,
A bloody knife.
Sweat dribbled down your skin. You carefully picked up the knife by its black handle. When you were just to turn around to face Jaques once again, a gun click was heard. You froze in place.
“Put it down.” Jaques sternly said, his voice deepening 10 octaves deeper.
“Woah-woah..woah okay-dude calm down, it’s okay,” You stammered, panicking. You started to sweat even further. You quickly placed the knife down.
“Now, turn around and put your hands up.” He ordered you. You did as he said, not wanting to die.
“D-dude, Jaques what’s wrong? We’re colleagues aren’t we?” Your words shaken as you spoke.
“No.” He bluntly said,”We never were. You stole my title, you stole my life–YOU RUINED IT!” He yelled, pointing the gun at me, whilst walking further to me. “And now? You’re going to pay me back.” He smirked and clicked the gun once again.
“N-no! Please, please I beg you!” You begged him, falling to your knees with your tear brimmed eyes.
“Too late.” He shot you straight into your head, stumbling you over.
There was never a sign at the start, it was all a bunch of clever lies covered up by a stupid myth of a deadly sign
But, you should’ve seen the signs. Who goes to investigate a murder scene with only 2 people, including you? Who rushes to go to a ‘crowded’ crime scene when it’s a work day? Who follows someone into an isolated spot when a crime scene one occured? You. The best detective in Australia couldn’t even see the obvious signs, and you got unlucky.
How unfortunate.
