Case Closed

18th April 2025, 10:27 p.m.

Somewhere in a remote town in America.

~~~

The murmurs from the neighbors filled the cold air of the night, the topic of their conversation was about one of their neighbor, Alvin, who are now arrested for multiple heinous crimes, the crimes included murders, rapes, destruction of properties, child molestation, illegal possession of weaponry and much more despicable acts.

The voices began to fade into the rhythmic sound of raindrops hammering down into objects, it was pretty calming, the scent of petrichor was noticeable, everyone were waiting for the cops to come out bringing the criminal with them.

'Tonight is colder than usual…'

Beside a black car parked near the sidewalk, a young man wearing a long light brown coat with a white suit underneath complemented by a dark gray pants, white socks and black leather shoes, on his head sit comfortably a classic fedora that cast a shadow that covered the young man's facial features, on his right hand an umbrella was present gripped tightly.

After a few minutes of patiently waiting, the cops managed to drag the criminal outside with force, despite the distance the young man could clearly hear the shouts from the criminal, he sighed before ignoring the meaningless screams of the monster.

After locking the criminal inside the car, one of the police officer approached the young man, his face was decorated with the expression of satisfaction and relief, "Thank you, detective, if it wasn't for your brilliance, we wouldn't be able to catch him."

Behind the shadow a friendly smile formed on the young man's face, he chuckled before responding to the police officer's thanks, "No problem, I was just doing my job, after all, I am the only one available at the time. In fact, if it was other detectives you might've solved the problem under three months."

It was a few seconds of silence before the young man asked, "I think everything is perfectly fine now, right? I'll get going first then."

The police officer was about to say something but hold himself back, "I see, be careful on the road then, detective."

"See you next time, officer." The young man said with a smile before entering the black car and driving off.

The police officer just stared at the car that slowly getting farther and farther until he couldn't even see it anymore, he repositioned his hat before walking back to the other police officers.

————

19th April 2025, 2:32 a.m.

Somewhere in a neighborhood in America.

~~~

'…' The young man mind was in a mess, he tried to distract himself and drive back to his home.

After parking his car in the garage, the young man locked the garage door before entering his house where he suddenly froze.

'Something's wrong…' The young man thought to himself as he observed his surroundings, it was uncannily vast and dark, the corridor that leads to the kitchen was not usually this poorly lit, this situation left him almost blind.

'I don't think wandering through this place while being this dark is a good idea, where is the light switch?' His eyes scanned through the usual place for the light switch and found it, he quickly approached it in attempt to flip it on.

The perfect silence accompanied by the random pattern of cricket noises was very unsettling, as time goes on, the young man's ear was slowly flooded by murmurs and whispers, the voices are low enough to not overwhelm the cricket noises and high enough to not be completely inaudible, the content of the voices are completely incoherent as if they were spewing ancient gibberish.

Slowly but surely, he arrived at the desired location, as his left hand reached out to the light switch suddenly something wet fall on the back of his hand, he turned his head behind him to see what it was but—he saw nothing.

His eyes—No, every single one of his senses believed there was nothing there but his instinct, his heart, his soul and body were screaming, there is definitely something there.

It was something that couldn't be perceived by a normal human.

7 foot tall, pale-skinned, unnaturally long slender limbs, malnourished physique and a head shaped like a flower bud that will open a path into its mouth filled with endless row of teeth that gives the impression that it being as sharp as a knife.

As the 'creature' was about to engulf the young man's whole body, something can be heard.

Two claps.

At the same time, the young man's left hand flipped the switch.

The light bulb illuminated the whole corridor, the whispers and murmurs disappeared with the darkness, the strangeness of the situation has already begun to tire him out as his legs gave out.

He fall on his back.

"What was that?" His breathing was heavy as he leaned against the wall, he covered his eyes with his arm before standing back up.

'I need to take a bath and clean this clothes…'

————

19th April 2025, 4:01 a.m.

At the detective's indoor library.

~~~

The young man were sitting down on a chair behind a wooden desk, the desk were a simple square-ish in design, placed on the desk near his right hand are a cup of black coffee on top of a plate, place of his left was a tower of six books, he was now reading a book on psychology.

He closed the book before drinking the rest of the coffee, 'My skills have been rusty recently, if it was me from years ago… would he be able to solve the case in much lesser time?' He thought to himself as he leaned back against the chair.

In his eyes was a near-bottomless wisdom and knowledge yet the man that possessed them was incapable of accessing his former glory, he was in the past a different man, some would accuse him to be a monster—a devil, some would see him as a key to a vault of wealth to satisfy their endless greed, some would look up to him as a role model or a rival to surpass… but now, he's nothing but a third-rate detective with a rusty blade that has been dulled by time compared to his coworkers who are each a genius befitting the title of world greatest detective.

The young man's mind was brought back to reality as he turned his head to the left and reached out to his smartphone to see who's calling, it turned out to be one of his coworkers.

"William speaking, what's the matter, Oliver?" The young man said calmly as he stood up to carry the cup and plate to the sink in the kitchen.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm not working for this next few month."

"I'm sorry, I cannot join you, I'm not much of an explorer type and I already have a plan next few months," William explained with a hint of guilt as he know that the plan of his was just to lay around at home and watching tv series and reading books all day, "Haha, I'm sorry for not being able to join you, be careful on your journey."

He hanged up the phone, William put his smartphone inside his pocket before walking up to the sink, it was piling up with bowls, plates and cups.

'I was very busy for the last weeks so I haven't got any time to wash the dishes,' He stretched his body for a moment before grabbing a new sponge after noticing the old sponge has gotten worse, 'Might as well clean them up now.'

William's morning are filled with the sound of plates, bowls, cups and other hitting one another, a rather peaceful life, with a smile on his face William finally finished washing the dishes.