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Post by Isadora Is a Door on May 10, 2014 2:43:22 GMT -5
What does LITMUS stand for? Who is Aang? What is the wolf? Who is bowen? What happens next?
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on May 10, 2014 13:10:23 GMT -5
# 0 - The Past
The first thing he could see was the flashing blue light as it cut across the pitch black sky. The house was far away from the rest of the town, nestled on top of a secluded hill that overlooked the entire valley. Some people said that from the house the duchess could see everything that went on in town, and she remembered it. And she wrote it down. In particular, so they said, she wrote down the activities of the members of 667 Dark Avenue. Everything that she noted was put into her library, and every shelf and row and every floor of her library was protected, night and day, by 17 man servants. In short, the duchess was quite obsessive with a lot of time and money on her hand. Because of that, so very few people had ever seen a photograph of her, let alone seen her in person. When she occasionally ventured down into the town to buy groceries she concealed her face with a handkerchief, and went about her business as quickly as possible. But now Hermes was headed to her house for an important mission. When the car eventually pulled up, he stepped out, closed the door behind him, and turned to look at the house. It was smaller than he had imagined, and it had the distinct look of a castle. There were only a few lights on in the windows, and in the darkness' sight it was difficult to tell how may floors there were. It was also difficult to see just exactly how large it was because of all the people. Freebird came running up to him. 'Hermes,' he said 'hey, you're here. That's great, that's really good. Everybody's waiting for you, everyone wants to see you.' All of the words came out of Freedbird's mouth so fast it was nearly impossible to understand everything he was saying. But Hermes had a good ear. 'Okay, thanks,' he said as he began to walk up the long path leading to the house, and Freebird followed him. 'The police are here, but Dante said they shouldn't do anything until we have finished, and he said we couldn't finish until you were here.' 'Okay thanks, Freebird.' 'And he also said there is someone he wants you to meet who he thinks would be a great replacement for Antenora and he says she's the best detective he's ever met, and coming from Dante I think that's quite a compliment.' 'Okay, thanks, Freedbird' 'And I made you some coffee, and I know you said you didn't like coffee, and I should remember that, but it's 1am in the morning and I thought maybe you would need the caffeine, so I thought what the heck and just made it.' He handed Hermes the coffee. 'Okay, thanks, Freebird.' Hermes reached the front door and opened it. 'They're all in the dining room, It's through the door to the right, and then the first door on your left, down the corridor, the third door on the left. I love the pictures in that corridor and I wondered if maybe you could get me one. Okay, maybe that’s stupid, I mean, you're a detective, you’ve probably got much worse things to be worrying about than me wanting some paintings. But it was just a nice thought and-' 'Freebird,' aid Linda, and she walked out of the door to the right. 'Thanks, but we could really use Hermes.' 'Oh, sorry.' Freebird smiled. 'What am I like? my mother always sued to tell me off for talking, she said I used to send her sleep. I think that that was a bit mean and I that I always try to tell her interesting things and not bore her, but I find that so hard sometimes because there are always so many interesting things to talk about and that I'm sorry I bore her ad I'll try not to do so again in the future.' 'What did she say?' asked Linda. 'I don’t know, she'd fallen asleep.' Linda smiled. 'Hermes, come with me.' They walked through the door, and down the long corridor. 'Was the journey okay?' Linda asked Hermes. 'Yes, I suppose it was.' 'Why have you got coffee?' 'I really don’t know.' He handed it to Linda 'Here, take it.' 'I’m okay.' They stopped at the third door, and Linda waved her hand. 'Through here.' The dining room was impressively vast. And the long table stretched impossibly far down the length of the room that Hermes could barely see the end. The table was covered in fabulous meals that had hardly been touched. A butler and a maid were stood by the nearest wall, and both of them looked to be in deep shock. A woman Hermes had never seen before was leant against the open window ad looking curiously at Dante. He was knelt on the floor, and was looking over a body. The body of the duchess. 'Hermes,' said Dante 'good, you're here.' 'What happened?' Hermes asked. 'At approximately 1 o’clock this evening the duchess came for dinner. She wanted some wine, and sent the maid to go and fetch it. She wanted some more bread, so she sent the butler to go ad get it. When they came back she was like this.' Hermes peered over Dante's shoulder at the duchess. She was very pretty, with long blonde hair and brown eyes. 'How do you think she died?' 'I’m not sure. There's no sign of any physical trauma, and we can rule out poison - she hasn’t eaten any food or drunk anything since she came home. She'd been at a party out of town all evening.' 'Hmm, okay.' Hermes glanced at the woman standing by the window. 'Who is this?' Dante smiled. 'This is Sherry Ann. She's a private detective. I met her a few months ago. She’s very good.' 'Nice to meet you, Sherry Ann', Hermes said. Sherry Ann didn’t seem to even acknowledge he was there. 'She’s thinking,' Dante said. 'She does that when she'a thinking.' 'Dante,' Hermes said, 'it seems obvious to me that the, ah, butler could -' 'Be a suspect? Or the maid?' Dante smiled. 'Well, they have an alibi. The duchess' daughter. She had a nightmare, she screamed. The butler and the maid ran to her aid, ad calmed her down and put her back to sleep. When they came back, this is all they found.' 'Where is the girl now?' Hermes asked. 'Upstairs.' said Dante. 'Alone?' 'I expect so.' 'Linda,' Hermes turned to look at her 'Can you go and talk to her, to make sure she’s okay?' Linda nodded ad left the room. 'So do we have any other suspects?' Hermes asked. 'Not really, I'm afraid. Nobody really knows anything about the duchess. This is a tricky one.' Sherry Ann suddenly spoke. 'I know how she was murdered.' 'Oh,' said Hermes, 'How?' 'She wasn't,' Sherry Ann said. 'This isn’t a murder.' 'Then what is it?' 'It's a suicide' 'But how did she die then?' Sherry Ann smiled. 'I have no idea.' Hermes sighed. 'Okay.' 'There’s something else,' Dante said, and he picked up a piece of paper from the table. 'The duchess was holding this when she died.' It was a very large piece of paper, but there was only one word written on it. Hermes had never seen the word before, and he had no idea what it meant. In years to come, he would regret ever asking the question that came out of his mouth after reading it. 'Who is Bowen?'
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Post by Teleram on May 10, 2014 15:41:42 GMT -5
this... is... good...? I guess..?
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on May 10, 2014 15:52:10 GMT -5
why the ?
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Post by Hermes on May 10, 2014 16:03:00 GMT -5
Very interesting. (I do in fact drink coffee, though, whereas I think Linda doesn't.) But if we're meant to guess who Bowen is.....
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on May 10, 2014 17:49:19 GMT -5
Hermes is right, I don't drink coffee. I'm excited to see this story though! I've been waiting ever since you told me you were going to write it.
Who is Bowen? I started laughing when I read that.
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Post by The Duchess on May 11, 2014 8:55:01 GMT -5
HOW DO YOU KNOW MY EYE AND HAIR COLOR
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on May 11, 2014 9:29:54 GMT -5
OH MY WORD. But it was 'the duchess' not 'The Duchess'
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Post by Seymour Glass on May 13, 2014 17:14:55 GMT -5
My talking never made my mom sleepy. But it's funny, so I'm okay with it.
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Post by Lucas on May 14, 2014 1:27:03 GMT -5
This is the wolf EDIT: Also, cool story
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on May 14, 2014 2:48:43 GMT -5
That is not the wolf.
Also # 1 will be here soon. Look at those gravestones, there are so many...
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on May 24, 2014 13:37:12 GMT -5
# 1 - The Funeral
seven years later
There had been so many funerals lately, but Hermes' was one of the saddest. Pandora was sat in the church, listening to Willis' words. It was a beautiful day outside, bright and sunny, not at all reflecting the mood of the mourners. Pandora, Bandit, and Luke were all sat next to each other. They had taken a day off work for the funeral. After all, it's what Hermes would have done. Willis finished his sperch ad came and sat doen nexz to Pandora. They held hands throughout the rest of the service.
A few hours later, Pandora and Willis were sat on a bench on the graveyard eating ice cream. It had been the first really warm day of the year, but as the sun began to set there was a cool breeze in the air. 'So,' Pandora said, 'we should talk.' Pandora and Willis hadn't spoken much since the big christmas party, and especially since she taken over running LITMUS. 'About what?' Willis said simply. 'About everything. About your sister. About what you saw on the roof. About LITMUS. About us.' 'What is there to say? My sister did some bad things, and now she's gone.' Willis sighed. 'I... I miss her. especially today. But she tried to kill me, it kind of hurts.' 'I want you to join me at LITMUS.' Willis smiled 'Is this why we brought ice cream? So you could throw another speech my way? I'v already told you. I don't want to be any part of LITMUS.' 'But why?' 'Hermes, Dante, Sherry Ann, Terry, Linda. What did they all have in common?' 'That they worked at LITMUS?' 'Yes, that, and they are all either dead or incarcerated.' Willis stood up to leave, ad picked up his stick. He always walked with a stick now, ever since the party. 'I don't want you to be the next name on that list.' 'Willis, wait,' Pandora said. 'I'm sorry, Pandora, I'm going -' 'No,' she whispered, 'wait.' and she pointed to the far side of the cemetery. A large horse drawn carriage had pulled up on the road outside, and several man servants helped a young woman step out. She was wearing a long purple dress and matching hat, and she had long brown hair ad rather large teeth. 'Hide,' Pandora said to Willis, and they both scrambled behind the bench in their attempts to remain unnoticed. The woman walked past them, not even glancing in their direction until she reached Hermes' grave, just a few inches away from the bench. The woman reached into her bag and pulled out a blue flower. 'I'm so sorry,' she said, and she the placed the flower on the open grave. She paused for a few moments to look at the setting sun, before she turned and headed back the way she had come. 'Who is she?' Willis whispered. 'I have no idea, be quiet.' The woman was about to enter the carriage, but she gasped, and turned around and ran back into the cemetery as if she had forgotten something important. She stopped next to a rather large gravestone, and she seemed to place something inside her bag. She turned back around, and headed back to the carriage, and a few seconds later she was gone. Pandora and Willis stepped out from behind the bench. 'Who do you think that was?' Willis asked. 'I don't know' said Pandora, as she set off across the cemetery. 'Where are you going?' 'I want to see whose grave she was looking at,' said Pandora as she reached the large gravestone. It was very dark and almost caked with moss, so it was nearly impossible to read what was written on it. Pandora brushed the dirt aside with her hand and read the name on the gravestone. 'What does it say?' Willis asked. 'Willis,' Pandora asked, 'who is Bowen?'
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on May 24, 2014 22:04:51 GMT -5
Why is this so good?
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Post by Teleram on May 24, 2014 22:34:56 GMT -5
(i think bowen might be mr m)
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on May 24, 2014 23:04:14 GMT -5
Whatever gave you that idea?
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