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Moonlight illuminated the Skunk Grarrl as he was climbing
the brick building. He could hear sirens in the distance. This wasn’t a part of
Mystery you wanted to be in any time of the day. Arkados couldn’t wait; he had
to interrogate a suspect. He had a detective’s feeling that if he didn’t do it
now, he would never be able to do it again.
Arkados picked a suspect from the cold case called
Seremdra. There were three question marks where her last name was supposed to
be. The Eyrie was supposedly there that night and saw everything. Of course,
she was labeled for insanity and was currently out of the Neopian Mental Institution.
The ladder Arkados was climbing on would lead
him to the shack, as people around the area called it. Seremdra had been living
there since her release from the institution.
As Arkados neared the shack, he felt a strong
wind roll past him, rustling leaves. He knocked on the wooden door. It swung
outward and an Eyrie stepped out with a bow tie on.
Its green fur was
sticking up in many places and some was even black. The pet had a goofy smile
on and her eyes were crossed. Her tongue retracted and retreated from her mouth,
drool dropping onto the floor. It giggled. “Why hello, mister big tough Grarrl.
Gar!” It laughed again.
Arkados didn’t know what to think. The Eyrie
belonged back at the mental institution. Or maybe she just needed a bath… Her
odor was intoxicating. The Grarrl gagged.
“Mister toughie sick? Come in to my pad, dude!”
Its eyes bounced around as the pet hopped into the shack. Arkados followed and
shut the door, blocking the sirens out of earshot.
Arkados tried to find a place to sit. There was
nowhere. The room was a dump. A scratched up rug lay in the middle of the wooden
floor. A desk was off to the left, bitten beyond repair. There was no sign of
any bed or chair. The house was almost bare. The Grarrl decided to stand.
“So, Seremdra, how have you been?” Arkados took
out a pen and notebook from his pocket.
Seremdra was now sitting on the floor biting
her toenails and piling them up. She smiled and looked up, a mouth full of yellowed
nails. “Want them?”
Arkados coughed, covering up a gag. “Er… no thank
you.” He turned back to his notebook where he had written a few questions down.
“What do you know about the disappearance?”
The toenails dropped onto the floor, the saliva
spreading out onto the floor. The Eyrie got up off the floor, it’s wings up.
“The-the disappearance? I…I was there. I…” She started to cry. “I’m sorry!”
Arkados stared at her. “For what?”
Then, in an instant, she was back to biting her
toenails. It seemed as if she came out of her insanity state for a minute, then
returned to it. “Can you…tell me more?” Arkados asked.
Once again, she got into the same position, tears
streaming down her face. “I’m sorry for all I’ve done. I was a bad girl, but
I didn’t do anything to the pets that night. I swear.” Then, back to her toenails.
The Grarrl had figured it out. The Eyrie wasn’t
insane, just misunderstood. Maybe, just maybe, she was telling him everything
through strange actions. So, Arkados asked another question. “Can you tell me
about what happened that night? On the report, it says you were there.”
The Eyrie looked up. “Fine…”
***
Zor mumbled as she grabbed her bags. Arkados was up to something and even though
she had said she wouldn’t, she had to check it out. Knowing Arkados, he’d pick
the hardest person to do. She flipped through the files, looking at the three
suspects’ backgrounds.
The one that popped out most was Seremdra. She
had been put into a mental institution and was released two months ago, located
on Mystery Island. She had said during the case that she could be useful, but
there was no record of her saying anything about that night.
The Faerie Zafara was out of the building in
a hurry. She ran through the streets of Neopia Central, her bags waving around,
knocking into people. A storm had started, sending sheets of rain down on her.
She shivered and wrapped her black coat around herself.
As she reached the docks, what she dreaded happened.
All boats to and from Mystery Island were stopped. No one would be stupid enough
to ride out in this weather. Except her, of course.
She quietly walked past the security guard and
made her way to a boat. As she untied it, she dropped her bags in it. As she
got into the boat, she grabbed two oars and started to paddle out into the raging
waters.
Soon, Zor stopped and reached into her bag for
a light from the Space Station. She dropped one of the paddles into the boat
and held onto the other one as she fumbled around in her bag. Soon, she found
it and pulled out a rectangular box. Zor pressed a button and light came from
all corners of the box. She set it in front of her and, grabbing the other oar,
and continued to paddle.
Water splashed into the boat, drenching her bags
and her supposedly water-resistant coat. It seems like the manufacturer was
lying. The light still shined bright, but was annoying since it slid around
the boat. Still, the Zafara carried on, her wings sticking up in the air, starting
to mat down onto her fur from the cold rain.
It seemed as if Zor would never reach Mystery
Island. She started to doubt her navigation skills when she saw an iceberg.
Maybe, just maybe she went the wrong way and would end up somewhere other than
Mystery Island. It seemed that way. As she paddled on, the rain slowed to a
slight downpour, and then stopped. The air was now frigid and Zor was shivering,
even with her jacket. The sun was shining, but it gave no warmth.
***
Seremdra hadn’t said anything for over an hour. Still, Arkados waited patiently.
It was a part of his job. He cleared his voice as the Eyrie rolled its head
around, giggling.
Arkados sighed. This was going nowhere. “Ahem,
excuse me,” he said, hoping the Eyrie would come to.
Instead, she imitated him. “Ha, ha, you sound
like a tired mister,” she said and started to crack up.
“Please, answer my question!” Arkados said. He
was getting frustrated. “Can you tell me what you saw the night of the disappearances?”
She laughed again. There was no way that the
insane Neopet was to talk again. Seremdra would laugh for eternity, her eyes
rolling around in its sockets.
Arkados decided to give it one last try. If she
didn’t talk, he’d leave and forget about the case forever. “Please, Seremdra,
I’m begging you. Tell me what happened the night that the six Neopets disappeared.
Please?” The Grarrl smiled sweetly, showing his large pearly white teeth.
Seremdra chuckled. “Of course I will, mister.”
She cleared her voice and started…
The moon was the only thing that illuminated
the pitch-black night. Giggling could be heard around the corner of an alley.
A young, Green Eyrie walked around the corner whistling, a garbage bag in hand.
She dropped the bag, spilling all its contents on the pavement.
In front of her, a man was standing there, chanting.
Six small pets were standing there, smiling. A light gleamed from the mans hand.
“Show us another trick!” a small Kyrii exclaimed.
The six of the clapped.
A green light shone between his two upright hands.
It was in the shape of a rainbow. All the pets gasped, including the Green Eyrie.
Soon, after a few more tricks, it seemed the
six pets vanished as the man burst a yellow light out of his hand, covering
the Neopets. The Eyrie ran as he heard the man scream.
“Get back here!”
Seremdra shivered. It was, without a doubt, scary
to recall the story that brought so much horror to her eyes. “There it is… Want
more? I can…tell it.” She seemed to be out of her insanity, but maybe it was
just a short phase.
Arkados could see how worried the Eyrie was.
“No, I think that will do.” He put the pencil in his shirt pocket and his notebook
in his bag. “Thank you, Seremdra,” he said as he opened the door.
She whimpered. “Will he be caught?” Seremdra
asked, now biting her nails.
Arkados sighed. “I hope so,” he said and closed
the door to a wailing Eyrie.
The sun was now shining, warming up the Grarrls’
body. No sirens were to be heard, only the chirping of Airaxs as they awoke
from their slumber.
He started his way down the ladder, the wails
of the Eyrie getting lower until he couldn’t hear them. When he was down, he
rushed with his bags to the boats.
***
Zor was in no mood to be bothered. She had trusted her navigation skills and
ended up in Happy Valley. In her opinion, it wasn’t as jolly as the brochures
in Neopia Central Traveling said it was. Actually, people were crying and moaning
about some Snow Beast. The Zafara had no idea what they were talking about.
She wandered around the snow-ridden valley, looking
at the various candy stores. There was no Detective Agency in site. They were
supposed to be located on every major landmass, but they too lied (just like
Neopia Central Traveling).
Zor sighed and slowly slumped down with her back
against a plastic candy cane. It was freezing and she had the feeling ice was
inside the plastic coating. Shivering, she stood up. Her feet weren’t meant
for this terrain. Never in her life had her paws touched snow.
There was no one to talk to. She knew not one
single person on Terror Mountain. Neopets stared at her with strange looks.
Zor didn’t have on what the others were wearing, so she felt out of place. All
she had on was a shirt, a pair of pants, and a jacket. Other Neopets were layered
with every clothing item imaginable.
She wandered around, eventually coming to warning
signs and passing them. She was looking down as she went uphill. Zor was lost
and when she was lost, she was known to wander around doing nothing.
Soon, Zor ended up somewhere high in the mountains.
It was colder than before and she really didn’t know what she was doing. Lost
and afraid, she shriveled up near a rock. The newly started snowfall lashed
against her face.
Zor had never been really scared before, but
she now knew what it felt like. Alone, scared, lost, depressed. Too many emotions
stirring up in her head.
She cried.
To be continued...
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